Your site, 60% lighter.
Your servers, your rules.
Automatic image, CSS, and JS optimization at the reverse-proxy level. No code changes, no third-party proxy, no CDN dependency. Built by a mod_pagespeed maintainer, rebuilt from scratch in C++23.
ModPageSpeed 2.0 is developed by We-Amp B.V. and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google. mod_pagespeed is an open-source project originally developed at Google.
Three components. Zero complexity.
Deploy as a caching reverse proxy with a companion optimization worker. Put it in front of any web server with Docker Compose in minutes. Also available as ASP.NET Core middleware.
1
Deploy the proxy
Docker Compose or install the nginx interceptor directly. Works with any HTTP origin: Apache, Node.js, Caddy, or anything else.
2
Set your license key
One environment variable. Offline validation, no phone-home. Your key works forever.
3
Requests get faster
Images, CSS, and JS are automatically optimized. Zero-copy cache serving for repeat visitors. No code changes required.
Architecture
Three purpose-built components. Optimization outside the request path. Each does one thing well.
Request
Nginx
Classify + cache lookup
HIT
mmap zero-copy serve
MISS
Proxy to origin
Worker
Optimize + write variant
Try it in 60 seconds
$ curl -sO https://modpagespeed.com/docker-compose.yml
$ docker compose up -d
$ curl -I http://localhost/ | grep X-PageSpeed
X-PageSpeed: MISS
Built on the libraries mod_pagespeed proved at scale. New architecture.
One decode pass, up to 37 variants out
Automatic WebP and AVIF transcoding with viewport-aware resizing. ML-predicted quality curves and SSIMULACRA2 verification ensure visual fidelity. Eligible images are auto-vectorized to SVG. Content-aware compression adapts to photos, screenshots, and illustrations differently.
Render-blocking CSS eliminated
Heuristic-based critical CSS extraction and injection. CSS/JS minification. Early Hints (103) for preloading. No headless browser required. Optional browser pipeline for Lighthouse validation, waterfall capture, and visual comparison.
Sub-millisecond cache hits
Cyclone cache serves optimized content via mmap. No copies, no allocations, no middleware. A hash lookup and a pointer assignment.
No data leaves your infrastructure
Runs on your servers. No third-party proxy, no CDN dependency, no external service that can go down. GDPR-compliant by architecture.
Conservative, safe-by-construction
JS minification strips whitespace and comments only. No variable renaming, no AST transforms. If optimization fails, the original is always served.
Up to 194 cache variants per URL
A 32-bit capability bitmask encodes format, viewport, density, Save-Data, and transfer encoding. Up to 37 image variants, plus pre-compressed gzip and brotli alternates for text resources. Every visitor gets the optimal variant.
Proven at scale
modpagespeed.com runs on ModPageSpeed 2.0.
This website is optimized by the same nginx interceptor and worker we ship to customers. Check the response headers.
Built on the same optimization libraries trusted across millions of sites running mod_pagespeed 1.x.
Source-available — audit every line running on your servers.
Already running mod_pagespeed?
mod_pagespeed 1.1 is a drop-in upgrade from the open-source project. Same config, same filters, actively maintained with new features.
mod_pagespeed 1.1
Drop-in upgrade
- ✓ Same configuration directives
- ✓ Apache, nginx, IIS, Envoy
- ✓ Cyclone Cache (mmap, lock-free)
- ✓ Security patches
ModPageSpeed 2.0
Next-gen architecture
- ✓ Async out-of-process worker
- ✓ nginx reverse proxy (any origin)
- ✓ Zero-copy mmap serving
- ✓ Critical CSS extraction
- ✓ ML quality + SSIMULACRA2
- ✓ Web console + Prometheus
Skeptical? Good.
Questions a senior engineer would ask before putting this in front of production traffic.
- mod_pagespeed is free. Why should I pay?
- The original mod_pagespeed and ngx_pagespeed are no longer actively developed. ModPageSpeed 2.0 builds on their proven optimization libraries with a new architecture designed for today's infrastructure.
-
mod_pagespeed 1.x mod_pagespeed 1.1 ModPageSpeed 2.0 Maintenance No longer actively developed Actively maintained Actively maintained AVIF support No No Yes Container/K8s Predates container era Bazel-built binaries Docker + Helm chart Web servers Apache native (nginx via port) Apache, nginx, IIS, Envoy Any HTTP origin (nginx proxy) + ASP.NET Core (NuGet, Preview) Critical CSS No No Heuristic-based extraction Cache In-process file cache Cyclone (mmap, in-process) Cyclone (mmap, zero-copy) Variant-aware cache No No 32-bit capability mask Price Free (unsupported) $49/server/month $49/server/month - Does it add latency?
- No. On cache hit, serving is sub-millisecond: a hash lookup and an mmap pointer. On cache miss, the original content gets served while the worker optimizes in the background. Your users won't wait for perfection — neither should your infrastructure.
- Can it break my site?
- Conservative, safe-by-construction transforms. JS minification strips whitespace and comments only. CSS minification removes redundant syntax. Image transcoding preserves visual quality. If optimization fails, the original content is always served.
- Why not just use Cloudflare?
- CDN-based optimization routes your traffic through a third-party proxy. ModPageSpeed 2.0 runs on your servers. No data leaves your infrastructure, no third-party dependency, full GDPR compliance by architecture.
How it compares
CDN-based optimization and ModPageSpeed solve the same problem differently.
| ModPageSpeed 2.0 | CDN-based optimization | |
|---|---|---|
| Runs on | Your servers | Third-party proxy |
| Pricing | $49/server/month flat | Usage-based (scales with traffic) |
| Data sovereignty | GDPR-compliant by architecture | Requires DPA + configuration |
| Critical CSS | Heuristic extraction + injection | Rarely available |
| Image quality | ML-predicted + SSIMULACRA2 verified | Fixed quality settings |
| Vendor lock-in | Source-available (BSL, Apache 2.0 after 3 years) | Proprietary URLs and configuration |
| Availability risk | Runs locally, no external dependency | Third-party outage affects your site |
$49/server/month. No bandwidth fees. Cancel anytime.
14-day free trial. Same features, same performance. No credit card required.