Performance issues from matrix vs rich text?

Question

I'm finding myself using matrices a good deal on my site for a specific client. My client has little experience with any content management systems, and I liked the structure matrices could provide.

For example: Instead of having them use the rich text editor, each time of content they can use on a certain page is part of a matrix field. They can add an image, then add a paragraph below, then add a pull quote, then maybe another image or paragraph etc etc. I thought this gave me a great deal of control over the styling as well.

But I'm wondering if matrices have an effect on performance? I suppose I could use the rich text field, though I would have to hold my client's hand a bit more.

I'm noticing my initial time for anything to load onto the screen is pretty poor. I've followed some steps from Patrick Pohler on Craft performance optimization, and after the initial wait time my page loads fine, but I'm wondering if my use of matrices has something to do with my initial load time?

Answer 1

Matrix does have additional overhead, but it's unlikely that it is the sole reason for any slowdown.

If you enable devMode, you can see profiling information for SQL queries as well as code execution in your browser's console to try and track down where any slowness is occurring.

If it is ultimately coming from you template, you can look into the {% cache %} tag to help with initial load time.