diff --git a/packages/@vuepress/core/lib/client/app.js b/packages/@vuepress/core/lib/client/app.js
index bcccec1797..a98c4afb71 100644
--- a/packages/@vuepress/core/lib/client/app.js
+++ b/packages/@vuepress/core/lib/client/app.js
@@ -9,14 +9,12 @@ import globalUIComponents from '@internal/global-ui'
 import ClientComputedMixin from '@transform/ClientComputedMixin'
 import VuePress from './plugins/VuePress'
 import { handleRedirectForCleanUrls } from './redirect.js'
-import { getLayoutAsyncComponent } from './util'
 
 // built-in components
 import Content from './components/Content.js'
 import ContentSlotsDistributor from './components/ContentSlotsDistributor'
 import OutboundLink from './components/OutboundLink.vue'
 import ClientOnly from './components/ClientOnly'
-import TOC from './components/TOC.vue'
 
 // suggest dev server restart on base change
 if (module.hot) {
@@ -44,11 +42,8 @@ Vue.component('ContentSlotsDistributor', ContentSlotsDistributor)
 Vue.component('OutboundLink', OutboundLink)
 // component for client-only content
 Vue.component('ClientOnly', ClientOnly)
-// core components
-Vue.component('Layout', getLayoutAsyncComponent('Layout'))
-Vue.component('NotFound', getLayoutAsyncComponent('NotFound'))
 // markdown components
-Vue.component('TOC', TOC)
+Vue.component('TOC', () => import('./components/TOC.vue'))
 
 // global helper for adding base path to absolute urls
 Vue.prototype.$withBase = function (path) {
diff --git a/packages/@vuepress/core/lib/client/components/Content.js b/packages/@vuepress/core/lib/client/components/Content.js
index c2ed88d487..b4811acf72 100644
--- a/packages/@vuepress/core/lib/client/components/Content.js
+++ b/packages/@vuepress/core/lib/client/components/Content.js
@@ -1,5 +1,3 @@
-import { isPageExists } from '../util'
-
 export default {
   props: {
     pageKey: String,
@@ -10,7 +8,7 @@ export default {
   },
   render (h) {
     const pageKey = this.pageKey || this.$parent.$page.key
-    if (isPageExists(pageKey)) {
+    if (this.$vuepress.isPageExists(pageKey)) {
       return h(pageKey)
     }
     return h('')
diff --git a/packages/@vuepress/core/lib/client/plugins/VuePress.d.ts b/packages/@vuepress/core/lib/client/plugins/VuePress.d.ts
index ef4cf3782f..48af0be18c 100644
--- a/packages/@vuepress/core/lib/client/plugins/VuePress.d.ts
+++ b/packages/@vuepress/core/lib/client/plugins/VuePress.d.ts
@@ -4,13 +4,7 @@ import { AsyncComponent } from 'vue'
 declare class VuePress extends Store {
   isPageExists (pageKey: string): boolean;
 
-  isPageLoaded (pageKey: string): boolean;
-
-  getPageAsyncComponent (pageKey: string): () => Promise<AsyncComponent>;
-
-  loadPageAsyncComponent (pageKey: string): Promise<AsyncComponent>;
-
-  registerPageAsyncComponent (pageKey: string): void;
+  isLayoutExists (pageKey: string): boolean;
 }
 
 declare module "vue/types/vue" {
diff --git a/packages/@vuepress/core/lib/client/plugins/VuePress.js b/packages/@vuepress/core/lib/client/plugins/VuePress.js
index bdb93e1b54..c5043b3138 100644
--- a/packages/@vuepress/core/lib/client/plugins/VuePress.js
+++ b/packages/@vuepress/core/lib/client/plugins/VuePress.js
@@ -1,23 +1,28 @@
+import Vue from 'vue'
 import Store from './Store'
-import {
-  isPageExists,
-  isPageLoaded,
-  getPageAsyncComponent,
-  isLayoutExists,
-  isLayoutLoaded,
-  getLayoutAsyncComponent
-} from '../util'
 
-class VuePress extends Store {}
+// TODO: reuse this function in shared-utils
+function cached (fn) {
+  const cache = Object.create(null)
+  return str => {
+    if (typeof cache[str] === 'undefined') {
+      cache[str] = fn(str)
+    }
+    return cache[str]
+  }
+}
 
-Object.assign(VuePress.prototype, {
-  isPageExists,
-  isPageLoaded,
-  getPageAsyncComponent,
-  isLayoutExists,
-  isLayoutLoaded,
-  getLayoutAsyncComponent
-})
+const pascalize = cached((str = '') => str.replace(/(^|-)\w/g, s => s.slice(-1).toUpperCase()))
+
+class VuePress extends Store {
+  isPageExists (pageKey) {
+    return Boolean(Vue.component(pascalize(pageKey)))
+  }
+
+  isLayoutExists (layout) {
+    return Boolean(Vue.component(pascalize(layout)))
+  }
+}
 
 export default {
   install (Vue) {
diff --git a/packages/@vuepress/core/lib/client/util.js b/packages/@vuepress/core/lib/client/util.js
index 8a8f552e98..5094b3dc9e 100644
--- a/packages/@vuepress/core/lib/client/util.js
+++ b/packages/@vuepress/core/lib/client/util.js
@@ -1,48 +1,3 @@
-import Vue from 'vue'
-import layoutComponents from '@internal/layout-components'
-import pageComponents from '@internal/page-components'
-
-const asyncComponents = Object.assign({}, layoutComponents, pageComponents)
-
-// TODO: reuse this function in shared-utils
-function pascalize (source = '') {
-  return source.replace(/(^|-)\w/g, s => s.slice(-1).toUpperCase())
-}
-
-export function isPageExists (pageKey) {
-  return Boolean(getPageAsyncComponent(pageKey))
-}
-
-export function isPageLoaded (pageKey) {
-  return Boolean(Vue.component(pageKey))
-}
-
-export function getPageAsyncComponent (pageKey) {
-  return pageComponents[pascalize(pageKey)]
-}
-
-export function isLayoutExists (layout) {
-  return Boolean(getLayoutAsyncComponent(layout))
-}
-
-export function isLayoutLoaded (layout) {
-  return Boolean(Vue.component(layout))
-}
-
-export function getLayoutAsyncComponent (pageKey) {
-  return layoutComponents[pascalize(pageKey)]
-}
-
-export function ensureAsyncComponentsLoaded (...names) {
-  return Promise.all(names.filter(v => v).map(async (name) => {
-    name = pascalize(name)
-    if (!Vue.component(name) && asyncComponents[name]) {
-      const comp = await asyncComponents[name]()
-      Vue.component(name, comp.default)
-    }
-  }))
-}
-
 /**
  * Inject option to Vue SFC
  * @param {object} options
diff --git a/packages/@vuepress/core/lib/node/internal-plugins/layoutComponents.js b/packages/@vuepress/core/lib/node/internal-plugins/layoutComponents.js
index a17c4daf21..60ad57bcd2 100644
--- a/packages/@vuepress/core/lib/node/internal-plugins/layoutComponents.js
+++ b/packages/@vuepress/core/lib/node/internal-plugins/layoutComponents.js
@@ -4,12 +4,15 @@ module.exports = (options, ctx) => {
   return {
     name: '@vuepress/internal-layout-components',
 
-    async clientDynamicModules () {
+    async enhanceAppFiles () {
       const componentNames = Object.keys(ctx.themeAPI.layoutComponentMap)
-      const code = `export default {\n${componentNames
-        .map(name => `  ${JSON.stringify(pascalize(name))}: () => import(${JSON.stringify(ctx.themeAPI.layoutComponentMap[name].path)})`)
-        .join(',\n')} \n}`
-      return { name: 'layout-components.js', content: code, dirname: 'internal' }
+      const code = `import Vue from 'vue'\n${componentNames
+        .map(name => `Vue.component(${JSON.stringify(pascalize(name))}, () => import(${JSON.stringify(ctx.themeAPI.layoutComponentMap[name].path)}))`)
+        .join(',\n')} \n`
+      return {
+        name: 'layout-components.js',
+        content: code
+      }
     }
   }
 }
diff --git a/packages/@vuepress/core/lib/node/internal-plugins/pageComponents.js b/packages/@vuepress/core/lib/node/internal-plugins/pageComponents.js
index ce190db599..022fc2fdc5 100644
--- a/packages/@vuepress/core/lib/node/internal-plugins/pageComponents.js
+++ b/packages/@vuepress/core/lib/node/internal-plugins/pageComponents.js
@@ -7,12 +7,15 @@ module.exports = (options, ctx) => {
   return {
     name: '@vuepress/internal-page-components',
 
-    async clientDynamicModules () {
-      const code = `export default {\n${pages
+    async enhanceAppFiles () {
+      const code = `import Vue from 'vue'\n${pages
         .filter(({ _filePath }) => _filePath)
-        .map(({ key, _filePath }) => `  ${JSON.stringify(pascalize(key))}: () => import(${JSON.stringify(_filePath)})`)
-        .join(',\n')} \n}`
-      return { name: 'page-components.js', content: code, dirname: 'internal' }
+        .map(({ key, _filePath }) => `Vue.component(${JSON.stringify(pascalize(key))}, () => import(${JSON.stringify(_filePath)}))`)
+        .join(',\n')} \n`
+      return {
+        name: 'page-components.js',
+        content: code
+      }
     }
   }
 }
diff --git a/packages/@vuepress/core/lib/node/internal-plugins/routes.js b/packages/@vuepress/core/lib/node/internal-plugins/routes.js
index d6cf90b9b1..8c91601c00 100644
--- a/packages/@vuepress/core/lib/node/internal-plugins/routes.js
+++ b/packages/@vuepress/core/lib/node/internal-plugins/routes.js
@@ -42,10 +42,7 @@ function routesCode (pages) {
   {
     name: ${JSON.stringify(componentName)},
     path: ${JSON.stringify(pagePath)},
-    component: GlobalLayout,
-    beforeEnter: (to, from, next) => {
-      ensureAsyncComponentsLoaded(${JSON.stringify(layout || 'Layout')}, ${JSON.stringify(componentName)}).then(next)
-    },${_meta ? `\n    meta: ${JSON.stringify(_meta)}` : ''}
+    component: GlobalLayout,${_meta ? `\n    meta: ${JSON.stringify(_meta)}` : ''}
   }`
 
     const dncodedPath = decodeURIComponent(pagePath)