orkaYour page starts loading
Your site serves its own content. The installation snippet sets your public Orka project ID and requests widget.orka.chat/app.js with async enabled. The external script download does not have to hold up HTML parsing.
ORKA & WEBSITE PERFORMANCEA place for support.
A place for support.
Room for your website.
How Orka’s async loader and iframe work, what they help with, and what to measure on your own site.
Does live chat affect page speed? It can. Here is an honest look at the integration, without a made-up speed score.
See how it loads ↓YOUR WEBSITEYour product.
Your own styles.
Orka iframeasync loader → separate document
Schematic · architectural separation, not a benchmarkYour own styles.
Orka iframeChat document
Chat styles
Conversation UI
Separate interface.
Shared browser resources.
Orka’s chat interface lives in its own iframe rather than inserting the entire conversation UI into your application’s component tree. Your customer can keep using your product while opening a conversation. The browser still has work to do: download the widget, execute scripts, render it and keep the conversation connected.
Follow the load.
The loader creates a home for chat
The current public loader adds its stylesheet and a widget container on the host page, then creates the chat iframe. It also handles integration behavior such as opening and resizing the widget. This host-page code has a real cost.
The chat runs in a separate document
The iframe loads from an Orka widget subdomain. Its main conversation UI has its own document and styles. That separation helps keep your application’s CSS and the chat’s internal CSS from accidentally restyling one another.
Implementation checked 21 September 2026: Orka’s public loader. Browser behavior: MDN’s script reference and iframe reference.
WHY THE SEPARATION HELPSYour app and your chat
Your app and your chat
can mind their own business.
Fewer style collisions
Your theme’s button or paragraph rules do not normally cascade into the iframe’s conversation UI. The outer launcher and container still live on your page and should be checked with your theme.
No chat component tree to maintain
You install the widget instead of rebuilding messages, the composer and the help tab inside every product. This is a maintenance benefit; it does not make downloaded widget code free.
A consistent support interface
The same hosted chat can be used across different site stacks. You keep each project’s branding and context while your team works from one inbox.
A clearer boundary for investigation
In browser developer tools, distinguish your own app requests from widget requests. Inspect both when diagnosing a slowdown; being in an iframe is not a reason to exclude the chat from the measurement.
A TEST WORTH TRUSTINGCompare the same page.
Compare the same page.
Change one thing.
Run this on a staging copy or during a controlled test. Keep the rest of the site unchanged so a new hero image or analytics tag does not get blamed on chat.
Google’s guide to measuring third-party JavaScript ↗- Record a baseline without the widget. Use representative landing, product and signed-in pages. Keep the same device profile, network conditions and browser extensions.
- Repeat with Orka installed once. Run several cold-cache tests and compare medians. Use the network waterfall and a performance trace, alongside a tool such as Lighthouse.
- Measure what your customers do. Look at content appearing, controls responding and unexpected movement. Check LCP and CLS; use field INP when available, and interaction traces or lab TBT as diagnostic signals.
- Open a conversation too. Test typing, sending, receiving, navigation and mobile placement. A good unopened-widget score does not tell you whether the real support experience works well.
Need control over when chat starts?
The documented ORKA_LOAD=false option lets you postpone widget initialization and call ORKA_API.load later. Follow the SDK loading sequence and initialize once. This can suit a signed-in app or a deliberate loading policy, but delays support availability and visitor activity collection until initialization.
Keep the installation tidy.
Install through one path, not a theme plus a plugin plus a component. Avoid reinstalling the loader on each route. Review the chat’s position on small screens. If your site has a content security policy or consent flow, integrate the widget with that setup rather than weakening it.
An iframe is a document boundary, not a promise of complete performance isolation. Orka’s hosted integration still depends on network availability and browser resources. The right question is whether the measured effect is acceptable for your site and the support it provides.
Choose your installation guide ↗YOUR BEARINGS, BEFORE YOU DIVE INFast pages.
Fast pages.
Clear answers.
Still wondering about something?
Ask a human at Orka ↗
Does Orka slow down a website?+
It adds network requests, JavaScript execution and browser memory usage, so an impact is possible. The standard snippet loads asynchronously and the main chat interface runs in an iframe. Those architectural choices help separate the chat from your page, but they do not guarantee a zero-cost integration. Measure your own pages before and after installation.
Is the Orka chat loaded in an iframe?+
Yes. The current public loader creates an iframe for the chat on an Orka widget subdomain. The host page still loads the bootstrap script, a stylesheet and the launcher/container. The iframe separates the main chat document and its styles; it does not move every part of the integration off your page.
Does async mean the widget never uses the main thread?+
No. Async allows the external script to download without making the HTML parser wait for that download. The browser still needs to execute JavaScript, create the interface and respond to events. It is not the same as running all code in a web worker.
Does the widget load only when a visitor clicks it?+
Not by default. The normal loader initializes the widget. If you need a controlled load, the documented SPA integration uses ORKA_LOAD=false and a later ORKA_API.load call. Delaying initialization also delays the chat and the visitor activity available to it.
Can Orka guarantee a Lighthouse score or zero impact on Core Web Vitals?+
No. Scores depend on your page, device, network, other scripts and test conditions. This page publishes no measured speed score or universal millisecond claim. Compare several runs and, when available, real-user measurements on your own site.
What should I test after changing my app or theme?+
Test initial load, interaction, layout stability and the opened chat on both mobile and desktop. Also check route changes, consent behavior, duplicate installation and whether the launcher overlaps a key control.