Frontend and Backend Optimisation
Two different kinds of slowness — a browser doing too much work, or a server taking too long to respond — need different fixes. GullySystem diagnoses which side is the cause and optimises that side of your application.
Two Different Places Slowness Hides
A page can feel slow because the browser is doing too much — parsing scripts, laying out a heavy page, waiting for images — or because the server behind it is slow to answer in the first place. The fix looks completely different depending on which one it is, which is why the two are diagnosed separately before any code changes.
Signs the Problem Is on the Frontend
- The page keeps loading data long after it first appears usable
- Scrolling or tapping feels delayed even though the server responded quickly
- The site is noticeably worse on a phone than on a laptop
- Network tools show the server answered fast but the screen took far longer to settle
Signs the Problem Is on the Backend
- The page or app spends most of its time waiting, with almost nothing visible on screen
- The delay grows as more records or users are added, even though the page itself has not changed
- The same screen is fast for one user and slow for another working with more data
- Server logs show requests taking a long time before a response is even sent
What Frontend Work Involves
Script and Style Loading
Code is split so a page only downloads what it needs to become usable, deferring the rest until after the visitor can already interact.
Rendering and Layout
Work that forces the browser to recalculate layout repeatedly is found and reduced, particularly on pages with long lists or frequent updates.
State and Data Handling
How the page stores and re-fetches data in the browser is reviewed, so the same information is not requested or recalculated more than once.
What Backend Work Involves
Request and Business Logic
Code paths that do more work than a request needs — unnecessary lookups, duplicate calculations, sequential steps that could run together — are identified and rewritten.
Data Access
How the application talks to its database and other services is reviewed for the same request making several trips where one would do.
Background and Asynchronous Work
Tasks that do not need to finish before a response is sent are moved off the request path so the user is not made to wait for them.
Frequently asked questions
Is this the right engagement if we're not sure whether our problem is frontend or backend?
Yes — that uncertainty is exactly the starting point. The first step is measuring which side the delay is actually on, so you are not paying to optimise the wrong layer; if the real cause turns out to be the database or hosting instead, we say so and point you to the work that actually applies.
What decides the cost of this work?
How much code is involved on each side, and how many separate pages or screens are affected. A single frontend page with a heavy script is a smaller job than a backend issue shared across every screen in the application.
What determines how long this work takes?
How much code needs to change on each side, and whether the cause is isolated to one screen or repeated throughout the application. A single heavy page is quicker to fix than a data-handling pattern repeated across many screens.
Will this work with the framework our application is already built on?
In most cases, yes. Frontend and backend optimisation is done within your existing framework and language rather than by introducing a new one, since a framework change is a separate and much larger decision.
Who owns the code once this work is finished?
You do. Every change is made in your existing repository under your ownership, and documented so your own developers or another vendor can maintain it afterwards.
What do you need from our side during this work?
Read access to the relevant code and a staging environment where changes can be tested, plus someone who can confirm business logic behaves the same after a rewrite as it did before — speed should never come at the cost of a calculation changing.
Can both sides be slow at the same time?
Yes, and it is common on older applications. In that case the two are still fixed as separate pieces of work with their own measurements, because improving one does not require touching the other, and you can see which change produced which result.
Tell us what you need.
Send a short brief and one of our engineers will come back to you — usually the same day.
- No obligation
- We reply the same working day
- Your details stay private