The Companies and Products

LoadStorm Testing Results

The Load Storm test (in k6) is designed to simulate real users visiting the site, logging in and browsing. It tests uncached performance.

The key metrics are:

• Total Requests - Number of requests k6 made
• Total Errors - Number of error requests
• p95 - The 95th percentile response time
• Page Cum Avg - Cumulative average response time for Pages (html)
• Asset Cum Avg - Cumulative average response time for Assets (css, js, images)
• Login Cum Avg - Cumulative average response time for Login (wp-profile.php)
• WP-Login Avg Response Time - Average response time for login (301 redirect which validates credentials)

Results Table

Discussion

MechanicWeb, Pressable, Scaleforce, Servebolt and SiteGround all handled this test without issue.

Cloudways started to slow down and show signs of load around 1800 VUsers but handled it relatively ok.

Nexcess had one network spike that had a few errors and increased response times but did quite well overall.

Raidboxes started to show signs of load around 1100 VUsers and started erroring around 1700 VUsers.

Simplenet started showing signs of load around 1100 VUsers and erroring at around 1600 VUsers.

SaveInCloud had somewhat spikey average response times throughout the test, it handled it well for the most part though.

K6 Static Testing Results

K6 Static test is designed to test cached performance by repeatedly requesting the homepage.

Results Table

Discussion

Every company handled this test without issue.

Pressable, Scaleforce and SiteGround stood out with sub 20ms averages and clearly have CDN setup helping them excel in this test.

Uptime Testing Results

Uptime is monitored by two companies: HetrixTools and Uptime Robot. A self hosted monitor was also run in case there was a major discrepancy between the two third party monitors.

Results Table

Discussion

All the companies kept above 99.9% uptime with the exception of Cloudways on the Hetrix Tools monitor. This issue happened on every Cloudways server this year where one monitor showed near perfect and the other had a window of downtime.

WebPageTest Testing Results

WebPageTest fully loads the homepage and records how long it takes from 12 different locations around the world. Result are measured in seconds.

Results Table

Discussion

Scaleforce just barely edged Pressable by a miniscule 7ms for the fastest average LCP speed. They were neck and neck and showing off their global load speeds. Scaleforce took 5/12 fastest with 1 tie with Pressable. Pressable picked up 3 fastest plus the aforementioned tie. Cloudways picked up two of the fastest speeds in Virginia and Salt Lake City. SaveInCloud picked up fastest speed in their native Brazil. Raidboxes got the fastest speed in Dubai.

WPPerformanceTester Testing Results

WPPerformanceTester performs two benchmarks. One is a WordPress (WP Bench) and the other is a PHP Bench. WP Bench measures how many WP queries per second and higher tends to be better (varies considerably by architecture). PHP Bench performs a lot of computational and some database operations which are measured in seconds to complete. Lower PHP Bench is better.

Results Table

Discussion

MechanicWeb was certainly a stand out getting the fastest score in both PHP and WP Bench.

SSL Testing Results

The tool is available at https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/

Results Table

Discussion

Raidboxes, SaveInCloud and Simplenet earned A+ while everyone else earned A's.

Conclusion

There are two levels of recognition awarded to companies that participate in the tests. There is no ‘best’ declared, it’s simply tiered, it’s hard to come up with an objective ranking system because of the complex nature of hosting. These tests also don’t take into account outside factors such as reviews, support, and features. It is simply testing performance as described in the methodology.

Top Tier

This year's Top Tier WordPress Hosting Performance Award goes to the following companies who showed virtually no signs of struggle during the testing.

Honorable Mention

The following companies earned Honorable Mention status because they did very well and had a minor issue or two holding them back from earning Top Tier status.

Individual Host Analysis