Please read the Methodology to fully understand the scope of these tests.
Note: Please check company profiles for summary of performances across multiple tiers. Some companies also offer promotions or coupon codes for a discount as well.
A2Hosting, CloudJiffy, Cloudways, Infomaniak, Pressable, SaveInCloud, Scaleforce and Servebolt had no issues with this test.
SiteGround slowed down substantially as the test went on.
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
Company
Uptime Robot
Hetrix
Alt Uptime Monitor
A2Hosting
99.994
99.9835
CloudJiffy powered by Jelastic
85.06
100
100
Cloudways
100
99.9994
Infomaniak powered by Jelastic
85.058
100
100
Pressable
100
100
SaveInCloud powered by Jelastic
85.043
99.9908
99.854
Scaleforce powered by Jelastic
100
100
Servebolt
100
99.9988
SiteGround
100
100
Discussion
A2Hosting, Cloudways, Pressable, Scaleforce, Servebolt and SiteGround all had 99.9% uptime or higher.
CloudJiffy, Infomaniak and SaveInCloud all suffered the same SSL renewal error which caused 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
Company
Virginia
California
Salt Lake City
London
Frankfurt
Cape Town
Singapore
Mumbai
Tokyo
Sydney
Brazil
Dubai
Average
A2Hosting
0.773
0.811
0.977
0.868
0.843
1.403
1.428
1.44
1.152
1.27
1.023
1.244
1.102666667
CloudJiffy powered by Jelastic
1.23
1.202
1.43
0.718
0.573
0.937
1.226
1.444
1.654
1.784
1.456
1.721
1.28125
Cloudways
0.698
0.796
0.885
0.814
0.842
1.308
1.255
1.368
1.024
1.231
0.953
1.102
1.023
Infomaniak powered by Jelastic
0.857
0.844
1.57
0.666
0.649
1.062
1.267
1.219
1.625
1.852
1.527
1.715
1.23775
Pressable
1.005
1.131
1.269
1.132
1.085
2.794
1.715
1.908
1.495
1.737
1.312
1.755
1.528166667
SaveInCloud powered by Jelastic
0.842
1.349
0.931
0.79
0.994
1.766
1.945
3.337
1.795
0.974
0.672
2.414
1.484083333
Scaleforce powered by Jelastic
1.063
0.977
1.322
0.646
0.627
1.039
1.087
0.93
1.372
1.396
1.216
1.085
1.063333333
Servebolt
0.428
0.334
0.667
0.417
0.327
0.424
0.715
0.564
0.594
0.376
0.199
0.525
0.4641666667
SiteGround
0.877
0.876
0.908
1.088
1.19
1.672
1.677
1.975
1.193
1.514
1.237
1.566
1.314416667
Discussion
It's rare I say there was an obvious winner because I'm not sure it's happened before. Servebolt was the fastest in every single location tested.
This price tier's WPT result is perhaps the least chaotic I've seen to date with companies generally staying relative to one another in so many locations.
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
Company
PHP Bench
WP Bench
A2Hosting
4.297
1855.28757
CloudJiffy powered by Jelastic
9.523
914.9130833
Cloudways
8.209
981.3542689
Infomaniak powered by Jelastic
8.316
1666.666667
Pressable
4.123
1519.756839
SaveInCloud powered by Jelastic
10.283
630.1197227
Scaleforce powered by Jelastic
8.026
1062.699256
Servebolt
3.247
1862.197393
SiteGround
7.833
1367.989056
Discussion
Servebolt is the only company who has broken sub 4 seconds on PHP Bench. A2 and Pressable are close behind on the PHP Bench. Servebolt just slightly edged out A2 Hosting by 7 queries per second on having the fastest WP Bench in this price tier.
And the winner is... Servebolt with a D+ edging out every other company with F's.
I really don't know what to make of these results, when most companies are failing, I have to consider whether the test is useful, or are many companies not doing a good job securing the servers or are these measuring things which are beyond the hosting provider's scope and more on the user? Or is it something else? I don't have an answer, but I am publishing the results to add another data point to the discussion.
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.
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.
A2Hosting put on a good show with 99.9% uptime. It had very fast WP and PHP Bench scores. A2Hosting had the third fastest average response time on WPT. K6 test went smoothly. Sadly, we didn't get a clean Load Storm test and wp-login security measures prevented us from seeing how good the product might truly be. Potential for an award winning product limited by security measures.
CloudJiffy had good Load Tests with K6 being 15ms average response time. Unfortunately, along with two of its Jelastic powered peers, it suffered from an SSL bug which caused downtime dropping it below the 99.9% uptime level required to earn any recognition. One bug away from potentially earning Top Tier marks.
Cloudways had a pretty good run this year. 99.999% uptime. Cloudways had the second fastest average response time on the WPT results. The K6 test was smooth. The problem was Load Storm results held it back this year, while having no errors, the performance slowed down considerably with wp-login response times of 1226ms and average response time going over 1000ms for a while during the test. A little bit better on the Load Storm test and there would be awards being handed out.
Infomaniak was the second fastest response time on K6 (tie) and did well on Load Storm. Unfortunately, along with two of its Jelastic powered peers, it suffered from an SSL bug which caused downtime dropping it below the 99.9% uptime level required to earn any recognition. One bug away from potentially earning Top Tier marks.
Pressable delivered a Top Tier performance. 100% uptime. 1 error across all the load tests. It had the second (tie) fastest K6 average response time. It had the second fastest PHP Bench. Overall an excellent job.
SaveInCloud did well on the load tests with a remarkably fast 14ms average response time on K6. Unfortunately, along with two of its Jelastic powered peers, it suffered from an SSL bug which caused downtime dropping it below the 99.9% uptime level required to earn any recognition. One bug away from potentially earning Top Tier marks.
Scaleforce earned Top Tier award this year. Scaleforce had the fastest K6 response time (and at P95/P99 levels). They also managed the second fastest average response time on Load Storm. Throw in some perfect uptime and you've got yourself a Top Tier performance. Well done.
Servebolt earns a Top Tier mark again this year. 99.99% uptime. The fastest average response time on Load Storm (and second fastest wp-login). K6 was smooth. Servebolt had the best scores compared to others in this tier on the WPT test in all 12 locations and the fastest PHP and WP Bench scores. Overall, a very impressive showing at this tier.
SiteGround earned an Honorable Mention. The Uptime was a perfect 100%. The Load Storm test went smoothly and they had the fastest wp-login response time. However, the K6 test slowed the server down.
Please read the Methodology to fully understand the scope of these tests.
Note: Please check company profiles for summary of performances across multiple tiers. Some companies also offer promotions or coupon codes for a discount as well.
CloudJiffy, Infomaniak, IONOS, LightningBase, MDDHosting, Pressable, Presslabs, SaveInCloud, Scaleforce, Servebolt and WPX all handled this test without any issues.
Nexcess had some errors, slowed down a little and had a few spikes,
ICDSoft had some errors.
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
Company
Uptime Robot
Hetrix
Alt Uptime Monitor
CloudJiffy powered by Jelastic
85.045
100
99.904
ICDSoft
99.995
99.9964
Infomaniak powered by Jelastic
85.044
100
100
IONOS
99.822
99.9916
100
Lightning Base
99.992
99.9932
MDDHosting
99.999
99.9983
Nexcess
99.921
99.9345
Pressable
100
100
Presslabs
97.82
100
99.983
SaveInCloud powered by Jelastic
85.033
99.9914
99.989
Scaleforce powered by Jelastic
100
100
Servebolt
100
100
WPX
100
99.9983
Discussion
ICDSoft, LightningBase, MDDHosting, Nexcess, Pressable, Scaleforce, Servebolt and WPX all kept above 99.9% uptime.
CloudJiffy, Infomaniak, IONOS, Presslabs and SaveInCloud all had SSL issues which caused downtime to varying degrees.
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
Company
Virginia
California
Salt Lake City
London
Frankfurt
Cape Town
Singapore
Mumbai
Tokyo
Sydney
Brazil
Dubai
Average
CloudJiffy powered by Jelastic
0.836
1.299
1.448
0.676
0.626
1.066
1.235
1.436
1.632
1.765
1.435
1.594
1.254
ICDSoft
0.872
0.888
1.016
0.874
0.977
1.395
1.496
1.6
1.182
1.377
0.999
1.29
1.163833333
Infomaniak powered by Jelastic
0.807
0.797
1.397
0.649
0.659
1.008
1.247
0.969
1.726
1.833
1.328
1.635
1.17125
IONOS
0.859
0.876
1.028
1.034
1.102
1.529
1.458
1.441
1.341
1.379
1.194
1.419
1.221666667
Lightning Base
0.783
0.815
0.829
1.063
0.887
1.549
1.17
2.018
1.027
1.21
1.076
1.514
1.16175
MDDHosting
1.081
1.049
1.239
1.158
1.274
1.756
1.586
1.879
1.258
1.807
1.493
1.684
1.438666667
Nexcess
0.927
0.908
2.028
1.242
1.442
2.202
4.963
2.976
1.902
2.973
1.461
2.267
2.107583333
Pressable
1.005
0.956
1.243
1.068
1.203
2.688
1.7
1.905
1.491
1.672
1.25
1.826
1.500583333
Presslabs
0.708
0.636
0.897
0.7
0.644
1.971
0.566
1.288
0.912
0.872
1.22
0.989
0.95025
SaveInCloud powered by Jelastic
1.21
0.857
1.072
0.933
0.829
1.144
2.185
2.325
1.805
1.847
0.632
2.553
1.449333333
Scaleforce powered by Jelastic
1.049
1.001
1.179
0.683
0.73
1.047
1.019
0.929
1.335
1.478
1.134
1.202
1.0655
Servebolt
0.764
0.684
0.973
0.767
0.788
0.892
0.66
1.792
0.725
0.787
0.801
0.945
0.8815
WPX
0.683
0.663
0.802
0.664
0.67
1.224
0.564
0.684
0.603
0.625
0.954
0.714
0.7375
Discussion
WPX stands out being the fastest in 7/12 locations and having the lowest average response time at 0.738 seconds. They were followed by Servebolt (0.822 seconds) and Presslabs (0.95 seconds).
At the other end you have Nexcess with the slowest average response time at 2.108 seconds average and slowest performance in 7/12 locations.
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
Company
PHP Bench
WP Bench
CloudJiffy powered by Jelastic
9.495
794.9125596
ICDSoft
10.549
1153.402537
Infomaniak powered by Jelastic
8.498
1494.768311
IONOS
10.746
474.3833017
Lightning Base
6.625
717.3601148
MDDHosting
11.954
292.7400468
Nexcess
4.303
2016.129032
Pressable
4.164
1145.475372
Presslabs
5.048
905.7971014
SaveInCloud powered by Jelastic
11.298
639.7952655
Scaleforce powered by Jelastic
8.017
1047.120419
Servebolt
3.256
1745.200698
WPX
7.058
1706.484642
Discussion
Servebolt was the fastest PHP bench achieving the only sub 4 second performance across all the tests. Pressable and Nexcess achieved PHP bench scores in the 4 second range. Nexcess also had the fastest WP Bench just breaking 2,000 queries per second, followed by Servebolt at 1,745.
I really don't know what to make of these results, when most companies are failing, I have to consider whether the test is useful, or are many companies not doing a good job securing the servers or are these measuring things which are beyond the hosting provider's scope and more on the user? Or is it something else? I don't have an answer, but I am publishing the results to add another data point to the discussion.
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.
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.
CloudJiffy had good load testing results. Along with two other powered by Jelastic companies, they encountered the same SSL certificate renewal bug which caused uptime to drop below the 99.9% needed to earn any awards. One bug away from potential Top Tier status is a good first start.
ICDSoft had 99.99% uptime which was great. The K6 test had some error issues. But the biggest shortcoming was the Load Storm test which was bottlenecked by CPU/RAM consumption and started to slow down and error as the test scaled up.
Infomaniak's highlight was probably earning second fastest average response time (tie) on the K6 test. The Load Storm test was also fine. Like two of its other Jelastic powered companies, it experienced an SSL issue which brought the uptime below 99.9% which keeps it ineligible for earning any awards sadly. One bug away from possibly earning Top Tier status is a great place to be for a first time participant.
IONOS had a good K6 run. Load Storm slowed down a little too much but had almost no errors. The SSL issue which caused downtime was unfortunate. There's signs of a good product that hasn't put everything quite together yet.
LightningBase earns yet another Top Tier award. The consistent good performance is impressive and they continue their streak as the longest consecutive Top Tier earning company in these benchmarks. Uptime was above 99.99%. The load tests both were smooth.
MDDHosting is a new comer to these benchmarks and put on a decent showing for a first time performance. Their uptime was over 99.99%. Their K6 test went smoothly. The only issue was the Load Storm test overwhelmed their server and caused some errors. A solid first performance with room for improvement. I hope to see MDDHosting earn a Top Tier next year.
Nexcess earned an Honorable Mention because on all three impacting measurements it was close to the edge. The Load Storm test had a couple spikes. The K6 test had a couple spikes, slowed down slightly and had a few errors. The uptime while above the 99.9% threshold was closer to 99.9 than 99.99. Their WPT tests were slowest of any company which isn't an impacting measurement. Nexcess' highlight was probably WPPerformanceTester results where it's WP bench was the highest in the price tier and PHP bench was third fastest. The product looks like it's on the edge of Top Tier status and I'm sure with some small improvements will earn that status next year.
Pressable had perfect uptime, zero errors and showed no signs of stress during either load test. Pressable also was tied for second fastest K6 average response time and third for WP-login response time on Load Storm. A Top Tier performance.
Presslabs has been a regular for many years on these benchmarks and this is the first time they didn't earn Top Tier marks that I can recall. Presslabs had excellent load tests, they were third fastest in WPT response times. The only problem was SSL renewal didn't go smoothly and caused some downtime which dropped them below 99.9% which is required to earn any awards. Overall, a solid product that continues to handle the tests well with one costly mistake this year.
SaveInCloud was a new entrant this year and performed quite well for a first time participant. The K6 test was good. The Load Storm test had just a couple too many errors. But the downfall was the SSL problem causing the uptime monitor to fall below 99.9% uptime.
Scaleforce earned Top Tier status again this year. While being powered by Jelastic, they seem to do things slightly differently than the rest of their peers which pushed them ahead. Their uptime was perfect. Their load tests went smoothly. Scaleforce had the fastest average response time in the K6 test and at (95/P99 levels as well).
Servebolt had 100% uptime on both monitors. It easily handled the load tests including the second fastest K6 average response time (tie) and the fastest average response time and WP-login response time on Load Storm. It had the fastest PHP bench and second fastest WP bench. It had the second best WPT average response time. Servebolt definitely earned Top Tier status again.
Please read the Methodology to fully understand the scope of these tests.
Note: Please check company profiles for summary of performances across multiple tiers. Some companies also offer promotions or coupon codes for a discount as well.
CloudJiffy, Infomaniak, LightningBase, Pressable, Presslabs, Scaleforce, Servebolt and WPX all handled this test without issue.
Nexcess had couple small spikes in performance causing some errors but otherwise performed well. SaveInCloud had the most borderline performance in perhaps all of this years testing, the error rate was 0.12% where no company above 0.1% error rate gets Top Tier status on this test.
ICDSoft slowed down (CPU/RAM limit I believe) which causes the response time and error pattern we see. IONOS slowed down, we see average response time substantially increase and wp-login exceed 1500ms. MDDHosting's performance slowly degraded showing 500 errors as load increased.
K6 Static Testing Results
K6 Static test is designed to test cached performance by repeatedly requesting the homepage.
CloudJiffy, Infomaniak, IONOS, LightningBase, MDDHosting, Pressable, Presslabs, SaveInCloud, Scaleforce, Servebolt and WPX all handled this test without issue.
SiteGround took a little bit to warm up but ultimately handled the test well.
ICDSoft appeared to throttle but not degrade performance. Nexcess had a few errors and slowed down slightly.
Overall, everyone seems to have handled this test quiet well.
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
Company
Uptime Robot
Hetrix
Alt Uptime Monitor
A2Hosting
99.941
99.8928
99.81
Bluehost
97.582
98.2025
CloudJiffy powered by Jelastic
85.028
100
100
Infomaniak powered by Jelastic
85.036
100
99.989
IONOS
99.855
99.9782
99.975
Krystal Hosting
99.906
99.9302
Pressable
100
100
Rocket.net
100
99.9216
Seravo
100
100
SiteGround
99.996
99.9939
WordPress.com
100
100
WPX
84.075
99.9967
100
Discussion
ICDSoft, LightningBase, MDDHosting, Nexcess, Pressable, Scaleforce, and Servebolt all had 99.9%. Impressively all of these except Nexcess had over 99.99%.
WPX had a typo with a DNS record that I personally screwed up which caused one uptime monitor to not properly track uptime because one record had the wrong IP address. 2/3 uptime monitors were able to failover and track the correct uptime, the other reported a wildly inaccurate uptime because of my mistake, so I am not penalizing the low score seen and giving them full marks for their performance.
I didn't expect SSL renewal problems to impact so many companies, but CloudJiffy, Infomaniak, IONOS, Presslabs and SaveInCloud all suffered downtime from SSL issues.
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
Company
Virginia
California
Salt Lake City
London
Frankfurt
Cape Town
Singapore
Mumbai
Tokyo
Sydney
Brazil
Dubai
Average
A2Hosting
0.908
0.899
0.987
0.924
0.997
1.411
1.569
1.43
1.175
1.362
1.118
1.355
1.177916667
Bluehost
0.729
0.665
0.992
1.082
1.184
1.675
1.183
1.614
1.005
1.082
1.238
1.5
1.162416667
CloudJiffy powered by Jelastic
0.845
1.295
1.443
0.625
0.709
1.093
1.231
1.142
1.57
1.751
0.888
1.59
1.181833333
Infomaniak powered by Jelastic
1.289
0.807
1.469
0.763
0.678
1.066
1.31
1.272
1.518
0.858
1.481
1.767
1.189833333
IONOS
0.828
0.85
1.09
0.994
1.093
1.507
1.604
1.574
1.195
1.382
1.329
1.446
1.241
Krystal Hosting
1.063
1.02
1.187
0.615
0.7
1.034
1.613
1.721
1.499
1.796
1.334
0.862
1.203666667
Pressable
1.048
0.978
1.208
1.047
0.932
2.447
1.976
1.726
1.661
1.733
1.375
1.991
1.510166667
Rocket.net
0.78
0.612
0.898
0.654
0.652
0.609
0.623
0.699
0.538
0.646
0.635
0.49
0.653
Seravo
1.101
1.078
1.086
0.613
0.559
1.265
1.163
0.856
1.471
1.904
1.255
0.814
1.097083333
SiteGround
0.849
0.879
0.866
1.065
1.143
1.746
2.185
1.804
1.348
1.566
1.274
1.564
1.357416667
WordPress.com
0.802
0.754
1.028
0.787
0.745
1.557
0.757
1.03
0.876
0.765
0.806
0.862
0.8974166667
WPX
0.437
0.37
0.812
0.347
0.329
0.878
0.606
0.988
0.322
0.678
0.418
0.704
0.5740833333
Discussion
Rocket stands out being the fastest in 5/12 locations and second in 4/12 locations. WPX also was the fastest in 5/12 locations and second in 3/12 locations earning the second fastest average response time.
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
Company
PHP Bench
WP Bench
A2Hosting
4.331
819.6721311
Bluehost
8.762
366.9724771
CloudJiffy powered by Jelastic
9.5
1173.70892
Infomaniak powered by Jelastic
8.457
1485.884101
IONOS
10.781
491.1591356
Krystal Hosting
6.058
478.2400765
Pressable
4.224
1222.493888
Rocket.net
7.616
892.0606601
Seravo
5.346
305.9039462
SiteGround
7.468
1408.450704
WordPress.com
4.127
2450.980392
WPX
7.158
1526.717557
Discussion
A2, Pressable and WordPress.com stand out on the PHP Bench finishing in under 5 seconds. WordPress.com also has one of the highest WP bench of any company in any tier this year, one of the highest scores I've ever seen.
Rocket and Seravo scored the highest while CloudJiffy and Infomaniak scored the lowest. It's interesting to see no company is scoring very highly on this test. One possible explanation is that some of the settings are more user driven than host driven.
Similar to the Internet.nl test, we see results not very high including a lot of F grades (8/12) with the highest being a C for Seravo and C- for A2 Hosting.
I really don't know what to make of these results, when most companies are failing, I have to consider whether the test is useful, or are many companies not doing a good job securing the servers or are these measuring things which are beyond the hosting provider's scope and more on the user? Or is it something else? I don't have an answer, but I am publishing the results to add another data point to the discussion.
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.
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.
A2 Hosting has been a regular in these benchmarks. This year wasn't the best for them. The highlight was probably the K6 test which was smooth. The Load Storm was was ok with a single spike. The problem was the uptime, there were many timeouts which caused the uptime to drop below the 99.9% threshold unfortunately. It seems like a solid product with a few little things left to work out before it earns awards.
BlueHost has been a regular participant in these benchmarks for many years. This year they showed flashes of brilliance: the K6 test had BlueHost tied for fastest average response time and the fastest P95 and P99 by a decent margin. Unfortunately the Load Storm test slowed down substantially and had wp-login response time over 1700ms. The uptime results were also well below the 99.9% level required to earn any awards. There was an issue with the test account being accidentally deleted, but also some outages that brought it down. It looks like there is potentially a solid product there but it didn't live up to its potential in this years benchmark.
CloudJiffy powered by Jelastic came out very strong performance wise for their first time. Their results were nearly identical to Infomaniak. The load tests went relatively smoothly. They even tied for lowest average response time on K6. Unfortunately there was a problem with automatic SSL renewals which caused downtime putting them below the 99.9% threshold required to earn any awards. Without this bug it would have been winning some recognition.
Infomaniak powered by Jelastic came out very strong performance wise for their first time. The load tests went relatively smoothly. They even tied for lowest average response time on K6. Unfortunately there was a problem with automatic SSL renewals which caused downtime putting them below the 99.9% threshold required to earn any awards. One bug away from potentially earning Top Tier marks.
IONOS has been a regular under IONOS and its previous 1&1 branding. The SSL issue on the uptime monitoring hurt. The Load Storm test also slowed down too much, but it's good that it never really hit failure mode under all the stress. There's definitely room for improvement on the product but I hope the changes next year will fix these issues and have them do well.
Krystal's second year, this product was named Onyx last year and run under a separate brand which has been brought back into the parent company. Krystal earned Top Tier status. It was above 99.9% threshold for uptime. It handled the load tests without slowing down at all. It didn't stand out amongst its Top Tier peers but delivered a solid performance which may because of the UK focus, as the tests from outside European locations weren't as fast as some more globally focused brands.
Pressable has been a consistent presence in these benchmarks and earned Top Tier status again this year. The uptime was perfect at 100%. The load tests were relatively smooth with only 2 errors. Pressable had another solid year.
A new comer to the benchmarks and a welcome one. An outstanding performance earned Rocket Top Tier status this year. The load tests had a total of a single error and the K6 test had the second lowest P99 score. Rocket also stood out in the WebPageTest benchmark where it had the fastest global average response time.
Seravo earned Top Tier status again this year. Perfect uptime and smooth load tests. Seravo didn't stand out in any of the big tests, but just put up an overall solid performance. Seravo also had the highest Internetnl and Mozilla Observatory marks for what that is worth.
SiteGround earned Honorable Mention status this year. The Load Storm test was great and had the lowest wp-login response time. Uptime was above 99.99%. The only slight weakness was shown on the K6 test where it took a little while before the caches seemed to fully warm up and respond quickly.
WordPress.com earned Top Tier status again. There's really almost nothing to say since it had perfect 100% uptime on both monitors, zero errors across both load tests and the fastest WP bench of any company in any price tier this year. An overall flawless performance.
WPX earned Top Tier status again. They have been quite consistent earning Top Tier marks over the years. Beyond me screwing up a DNS record and a tiny spike in Load Storm it was a near flawless run. WPX even impressed on the WPT benchmark where their home rolled CDN seems to be paying off.
Please read the Methodology to fully understand the scope of these tests.
Note: Please check company profiles for summary of performances across multiple tiers. Some companies also offer promotions or coupon codes for a discount as well.
20i, CynderHost, EasyWP by Namecheap, Eco Web Hosting, GreenGeeks, ICDSoft, LightningBase, Nexcess, RAIDBOXES, SiteGround, TVC.net, and WPX all handled this test without issue.
34SP slowed down a little bit and had a few errors. InMotionHosting had some 508 loop detected errors .
AleForge hit security measures nearly right away and blocked the load test. Unfortunately we couldn't get a clean test so it's impossible to evaluate how the server would respond to this type of load under real world circumstances. ChemiCloud hit CPU/Memory limits from the appearances of the test and slowed down and had a few errors. GoDaddy had a consistent error rate through the whole test. IONOS hit some wp-login security problems causing errors. Krystal slowed down as the test went on. ManagedWPHosting slowed down and had some errors. MDDHosting slowed down and had errors. RSHosting slowed down.
K6 Static Testing Results
K6 Static test is designed to test cached performance by repeatedly requesting the homepage.
20i, 34SP, AleForge, ChemiCloud, CynderHost, EasyWP by Namecheap, Eco Web Hosting, GoDaddy, GreenGeeks, ICDSoft, InMotionHosting, LightningBase, ManagedWPHosting, MDDHosting, RAIDBOXES, RSHosting.com, and WPX all handled K6 test without issue.
Krystal had a bunch of spikes which caused a little slowness. Nexcess had a few errors and spikes. SiteGround took a little bit to warm up but ultimately handled the test well.
IONOS and TVC.net slowed down during the 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
Company
Uptime Robot
Hetrix
Alt Uptime Monitor
20i
99.999
100
34SP.com
100
100
AleForge
99.975
99.9422
ChemiCloud
100
100
CynderHost
100
100
EasyWP by Namecheap
99.9
99.9189
99.93
Eco Web Hosting
99.996
99.9967
GoDaddy
99.996
99.9971
GreenGeeks
99.998
99.9912
ICDSoft
99.998
99.9912
InMotion Hosting
99.914
99.9189
IONOS
99.976
99.9769
Krystal Hosting
99.984
99.9549
Lightning Base
99.992
99.9926
ManagedWPHosting
99.823
99.8648
MDDHosting
99.989
99.9832
Nexcess
99.736
99.7868
RAIDBOXES
99.999
99.9971
RSHosting.com
99.993
99.9735
SiteGround
100
99.9994
TVC.Net
99.992
99.9682
WPX
100
99.9972
Discussion
20i, 34SP, AleForge, ChemiCloud, CynderHost, EasyWP by Namecheap, Eco Web Hosting, GoDaddy, GreenGeeks, ICDSoft, InMotion Hosting, IONOS, Krystal Hosting, LightningBase, MDDHosting, RAIDBOXES, RSHosting.com, SiteGround, TVC.net, and WPX all stayed online more than 99.9% of the time.
ManagedWPHosting had longer than expected maintenance which caused uptime to drop below 99.9%. Nexcess had a caching problem which caused the site to stop displaying which caused 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
Company
Virginia
California
Salt Lake City
London
Frankfurt
Cape Town
Singapore
Mumbai
Tokyo
Sydney
Brazil
Dubai
Average
20i
1.767
1.714
1.636
1.022
0.962
1.478
2.794
4.415
2.237
13.68
2.554
1.317
2.964666667
34SP.com
1.114
1.148
1.242
0.65
0.652
1.146
1.263
1.581
1.59
1.954
1.44
0.962
1.2285
AleForge
0.757
0.752
0.984
0.848
0.872
1.303
1.309
1.257
1.012
1.301
0.927
1.299
1.05175
ChemiCloud
0.825
0.813
0.975
0.94
0.877
1.383
1.346
1.494
1.031
1.373
0.973
1.157
1.098916667
CynderHost
0.668
0.595
0.884
0.708
0.643
0.952
0.59
0.928
0.58
0.676
0.797
0.697
0.7265
EasyWP by Namecheap
0.78
0.769
1.025
1.12
1.117
2.071
1.297
1.571
1.03
1.498
1.234
2.163
1.30625
Eco Web Hosting
1.786
1.816
1.683
0.959
0.881
1.916
2.6
3.558
2.608
3.357
2.845
1.533
2.1285
GoDaddy
1.318
2.453
3.315
3.702
3.77
4.783
4.832
4.413
1.469
2.356
1.854
3.164
3.119083333
GreenGeeks
0.927
0.942
1.201
0.978
1.073
1.658
1.296
1.481
1.098
1.381
1.12
1.381
1.211333333
ICDSoft
0.81
0.856
1.047
0.892
0.945
1.428
1.525
1.346
1.136
1.334
1.005
1.214
1.128166667
InMotion Hosting
0.791
0.867
0.892
0.871
0.889
1.357
1.551
1.431
1.097
1.367
1.021
1.255
1.11575
IONOS
1.082
1.487
1.199
1.324
1.383
2.03
2.479
2.181
1.505
1.799
1.547
1.936
1.662666667
Krystal Hosting
1.49
1.151
1.35
0.675
0.684
1.067
1.582
1.114
1.493
1.819
1.362
0.911
1.224833333
Lightning Base
0.802
0.759
0.886
0.95
0.883
1.576
1.313
1.4
0.983
1.158
1.053
1.451
1.101166667
ManagedWPHosting
1.286
1.325
1.36
0.668
0.653
1.215
1.301
1.086
1.701
2.108
1.456
1.037
1.266333333
MDDHosting
0.948
0.995
1.121
1.202
1.229
1.867
1.654
1.88
1.164
1.444
1.428
1.658
1.3825
Nexcess
0.902
0.913
2.058
1.382
1.232
2.315
2.828
3.517
1.995
2.541
1.663
2.169
1.959583333
RAIDBOXES
1.118
1.084
1.117
0.547
0.546
1.247
1.063
0.871
1.46
1.894
1.32
0.798
1.08875
RSHosting.com
1.171
1.11
1.276
1.504
1.543
2.082
1.68
2.357
1.438
1.473
1.671
2.045
1.6125
SiteGround
0.815
0.916
1.042
1.117
1.197
1.905
2.257
2.027
1.257
1.436
1.295
1.664
1.410666667
TVC.Net
0.749
0.682
0.986
1.057
1.244
1.834
1.184
1.881
0.94
1.074
1.184
1.455
1.189166667
WPX
0.623
0.591
0.861
0.654
0.692
0.991
0.574
0.805
0.57
0.562
0.989
0.693
0.7170833333
Discussion
WPX and CynderHost stand out on this test serving pages the fastest globally (0.717 and 0.726 respectively, a miniscule 9ms difference between the two). The third fastest average was AleForge with 1.052 which is ~330ms slower than first and second place.
GoDaddy was a stand out, not in a good way, here being slowest in 7/12 locations. 20i, who are a UK focused company, also stand out especially because of their Sydney result (click on a company to hide their results and adjust the graph) being very slow.
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
Company
PHP Bench
WP Bench
20i
10.372
490.1960784
34SP.com
10.933
452.6935265
AleForge
12.236
399.2015968
ChemiCloud
8.771
1400.560224
CynderHost
5.836
1512.859304
EasyWP by Namecheap
6.402
907.4410163
Eco Web Hosting
10.468
435.9197908
GoDaddy
11.745
439.1743522
GreenGeeks
11.276
1071.811361
ICDSoft
8.232
1254.705144
InMotion Hosting
8.549
1869.158879
IONOS
9.912
168.0954782
Krystal Hosting
9.939
729.3946025
Lightning Base
6.615
718.3908046
ManagedWPHosting
12.249
121.2562144
MDDHosting
11.064
351.9887364
Nexcess
4.299
1697.792869
RAIDBOXES
9.235
430.8487721
RSHosting.com
7.321
713.7758744
SiteGround
7.493
1329.787234
TVC.Net
8.455
769.8229407
WPX
6.962
1589.825119
Discussion
Nexcess stands out on the PHP bench being the fastest by a whopping 1.5 seconds.
InMotionHosting had the highest WP bench at very quick 1869 queries per second with Nexcess, WPX and CynderHost all above 1500 QPS behind them.
This is a new and non-impacting benchmark ostensibly tests server security. IONOS stood out at 70 with EasyWP by Namecheap and RAIDBOXES following at 52. SiteGround had the lowest score at 30.
I'm not sure how much value there is in this metric, but the results are here for people to look at and evaluate for themselves.
The highest grade was a B from EasyWP by Namecheap and ManagedWPHosting. RAIDBOXES got a C. GreenGeeks earned a C-.
Everyone else failed. Including IONOS which had the highest score on the Internet.nl test.
I really don't know what to make of these results, when most companies are failing, I have to consider whether the test is useful, or are many companies not doing a good job securing the servers or are these measuring things which are beyond the hosting provider's scope and more on the user? Or is it something else? I don't have an answer, but I am publishing the results to add another data point to the discussion.
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.
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.
20i is a brand new entrant and showed off a solid product earning Top Tier status this year. 99.999% uptime. An excellent K6 test with no signs of load and no errors. A solid Load Storm test is nice debut. Congratulations and welcome to the benchmarks.
34SP earned another Honorable Mention this year. Perfect uptime. A flat errorless K6 performance. Load Storm unfortunately showed a little sign of load with average response times climbing during the tests. 34SP is on the cusp of being a Top Tier performer and continue to improve.
AleForge is another newcomer to the benchmarks. They handled the K6 test well. Their uptime stayed above 99.9%. The problem was the Load Storm test was interfered with by security measures and they were not comfortable bypassing them for the purposes of the benchmarks. AleForge certainly has the potential to be a top performer but without running a clear test it's impossible to say.
ChemiCloud had perfect uptime. The K6 test was excellent with flat response times. The problem was Load Storm maxed out the CPU/Memory limits and caused response times to increase as requests backed up. It's nice to see that it didn't really fail at all under the stress though, just slowed down.
CynderHost is a new comer who really stood out and earned Top Tier status this year. Perfect uptime is always a great start. Their K6 average response time was 14ms, beating the next fastest competitor by 27ms, and their P99 was 63ms beating the next fastest by 73ms. They had the fastest Load Storm average response time at 97ms and fastest wp-login time too. Throw in the second fastest WPT average response time and it was a clear Top Tier showing for CynderHost.
EasyWP by Namecheap earned itself a Top Tier award in it's second year participating. It's nice to see they went back and improved and it paid off. They had 99.9% uptime, their load tests were handled without issue. They didn't stand out in any particular test but did everything well.
Eco Web Hosting was a first time participant who showed up and did a great job and earned themselves Top Tier recognition. They maintained 99.99% uptime. Their K6 results were third fastest in terms of response time. Their Load Storm test went smooth. Welcome to the Top Tier club.
GoDaddy has a special place in these tests being an original member and the reason they were even started. This year GoDaddy had 99.99% uptime. A mere single error on the K6 test. Unfortunately, Load Storm had a small but consistent error rate that couldn't be resolved which kept it out of earning an award this year.
GreenGeeks has been a regular participant in these tests and has generally done quite well. They've earned another Top Tier award this year for a solid showing of 99.99% uptime and a whopping zero errors between both load tests combined.
ICDSoft is a first time participant who earned an Honorable Mention this year. Their Load Storm test went smooth with no errors. Their uptime was 99.99%. Their K6 test had some spikes and errors and was very borderline. It didn't stand out, but overall a solid showing for a first timer earned them an Honorable Mention.
InMotion Hosting earned itself an Honorable Mention this year. It had the fastest WP bench score. It had over 99.9% uptime. It handled the K6 test well. The only thing that made it fall slightly short is the errors on Load Storm. A pretty good showing but a little room for improvement.
IONOS didn't do so well at this price tier. The good was 99.9%+ uptime. The K6 test didn't fail but slowed down a lot. The Load Storm test had wp-login security that we couldn't bypass and gave a high error rate.
Krystal is back for it's second time. The positive was maintaining 99.9%+ uptime. The Load Tests both seemed to slow it down at this price tier though. There's definitely room for improvement and they've shown they can deliver it before.
LightningBase has been a model of consistency, earning Top Tier every year and our longest continuous participant. This year has been no exception. 99.99% uptime, both load tests were smooth. Another year, another Top Tier performance.
ManagedWPHosting was a new entrant this year. The highlight was the K6 test going through flawlessly. However, there were some uptime issues because of maintenance primarily. There was also the Load Storm test which overwhelmed the server a bit caused slowdowns and errors. There's definitely room for improvement and I hope to see them come back and show it.
MDDHosting is a first timer to these tests. Their uptime was above 99.9%. Their K6 test was great having no errors. What held them back this year was the Load Storm test overwhelming the server. It's definitely the most difficult test and it proved a bit much this year. I know they are already working on some improvements and hope to see them earn some recognition next year.
Nexcess is LiquidWeb's newly acquired brand which has competed in the past. This year Nexcess's highlight was having the fastest PHP Bench by 1.5 seconds over the next fastest competitor. Their Load Storm test was good as well. Their K6 test had a few errors and slowed down a bit. But ultimately their downfall was uptime. A caching bug caused the site to drop below the 99.9% threshold.
Raidboxes is a second time participant and earned Top Tier marks this year. Their uptime was above 99.99%. Their Load Tests both had nearly no errors and went very smoothly. It wasn't the flashiest with 4th fastest WPT average response time being it's best result, but it did very well in all the tests. A solid Top Tier performance.
RSHosting.com is a first time participant. Their K6 test was great with no errors. Their uptime was above 99.9%. Unfortunately the Load Storm test slowed down the server a bit too much to earn any recognition this year. I hope to see them come back and do better next year though.
SiteGround earned Honorable Mention status this year. The Load Storm test was great and had the second lowest wp-login response time. Uptime was above 99.99%. The only slight weakness was shown on the K6 test where it took a little while before the caches seemed to fully warm up and respond quickly.
TVC.Net is back again and had 99.9%+ uptime. They also had a great Load Storm test without a single error. Unfortunately the K6 test slowed down quite a bit and knocked it out of the running for earning any award. The product feels close, just a little bit better static caching and it will be a Top Tier performer.
WPX is back again with another Top Tier performance. 99.99% uptime. Error free load tests. The fastest average response time and third fastest wp-login response time on Load Storm. Also the fastest WPT average response time. WPX easily earned Top Tier status again this year.
