Zen Grid Framework version 4 (zgf4) themes are built to be fast.
A large amount of the zgf4 rebuild was focussed on creating a flexible and fast framework that was able to yield powerful page speed results more or less out of the box. Being able to create a fast and optimised website has traditionally been a complicated process with factors including server configuration, content and template optimisation being the major factors in determining how fast your site loads in the browser.
Responsive yields high page speed results using the built in template defaults and optimisation tools. Without any additions to your server configuration and with optimised content (mainly in the form of appropriately sized images) Responsive2 is capable of producing page speed results in the mid 80s.
Example of a page speed report without htaccess changes
The speed test above was performed without any additions to the htaccess file using the default Joomla settings. The page tested features 3 images and an average amount of content.
Example of page speed report with changes to htaccess files.
The speed test above was performed on the same page using an enhanced htaccess file. As you can see with the addition of the htaccess rules it's possible to take your Joomla website to a close to perfect score in what amounts to a two part process. You can download the htaccess rules directly from our Guthub repo for the ZGF4 htaccess file.