The Best WordPress Hosting 2025: 17 Tested, 5 Recommended
Let’s say you’re looking for a new WordPress Hosting Provider! You search for “Best WordPress Hosting” and Twenty tabs later, you’re drowning in a sea of “Expert” lists that all recommend different hosts as #1. But somehow… you’re still unsure about picking that “best host” for your business because you read the same generic information which you already aware.
Then you go search into forums like Reddit and read multiple threads, you’ll see each one of them recommends their favorite hosting company as the best. You’ll end up more confused. Ultimately, you will likely choose a WordPress hosting provider that is well-marketed rather than its performance outlook. This is the story of most business owners seeking their ideal WordPress hosting in 2025.
Enter Hostingstep, where we do something unique that no other site does. We use our own funds to buy hosting accounts, install identical WordPress sites and test them 24/7, 365 days a year. No random “best hosting” list is influenced by affiliate commissions. All our recommendations are based on real performance data obtained from our test sites, which you can fully verify.
To find the best WordPress hosting, we measure what actually matters: how fast the site loads, how often it stays online and goes down and how it handles traffic spikes.
Our Testing Methodology:
- Real-World Performance Testing: Identical WordPress sites deployed across all the 17 hosting providers.
- Testing Duration: Jan -June 2025 (6 months) and 2024 (12 months)
- Benchmarking Tools: Pingdom syntethic monitoring and Loader.io
- Test Site Setup: Twenty Twenty-Four theme, standardized plugins (Akismet, Contact Form 7 and Rank Math)
- Key Metrics Measured: TTFB (speed), uptime and load handling response time.
Best WordPress Hosting Providers of July 2025
Performance Data Q1-Q2 2025 | Independent Testing & Analysis
Hosting Provider | HostingStep Rating | TTFB (Speed) | Uptime | Load Test | Pricing | Learn More |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
WP EnginePremium WordPress Hosting On WP Engine’s Website
|
354ms | 99.99% | 19ms |
$23.00/mo
3 Months Free
|
Get Started | |
HostingerBudget-Friendly Hosting On Hostinger’s Website
|
491ms | 99.99% | 256ms |
$2.69/mo
10% Exclusive Off
|
Get Started | |
KinstaGoogle Cloud Hosting On Kinsta’s Website
|
446ms | 99.96% | 27ms |
$30.00/mo
1st Month Free
|
Get Started | |
CloudwaysCloud Hosting Platform On Cloudways’ Website
|
441ms | 99.99% | 128ms |
$11.00/mo
$30 Off 3 Months
|
Get Started | |
GreenGeeksEco-Friendly Hosting On GreenGeeks’ Website
|
417ms | 99.98% | 26ms |
$2.95/mo
70% Off
|
Get Started |
Our Weighted Scoring System
TTFB Performance
Server response time (TTFB) measured from 20+ North American regions every 60 seconds. A total of 525,600 checks done a year. (lower is better)
Uptime
Sites are checked at 60-second intervals with 30-second timeout. (higher is better)
Load Handling
0-100 concurrent users are sent to the site to calculate average response time (lower is better)
TTFB Scoring (40%)
Performance-based scoring with color coding:
- • 300-400ms: Elite (9-10 points)
- • 400-499ms: Strong (6-8 points)
- • 500-600ms: Average (4-6 points)
- • 600ms+: Poor (1-4 points)
Uptime Scoring (40%)
Perfect uptime = 10 points. Each 0.01% reduction = -0.5 points, with exponential penalties for poor performers below 99%.
Load Test Scoring (20%)
Updated scoring based on response times:
- • 0-100ms: Elite (9-10 points)
- • 100-200ms: Strong (7-8 points)
- • 200-250ms: Average (6 points)
- • 250-500ms: Below Average (3-5 points)
- • 500ms+ or errors: Poor (1-2 points)
Testing Methodology: All hosting providers tested using identical WordPress installations with Twenty Twenty-Four theme, PHP 8.1, and standardized plugins for fair comparisons.
Our Top Pick At a Glance
Elite Performance
Elite performance with Cloudflare Enterprise integration
Performance Metrics & Features
Exceptional Reliability
Exceptional reliability for a shared hosting provider with 25 websites support on starter plan
Performance Metrics & Features
Global Data Centers
Access to all 37 Google data center locations and premium tools like APM
Performance Metrics & Features
Multiple Cloud Providers
Managed Cloud hosting with choice to host among five different cloud providers with unlimited websites
Performance Metrics & Features
Consistently Fastest
Consistely rated as the fastest shared hosting since 2020. They outperform many of the premium and mid-range managed WordPress hosts
Performance Metrics & Features
Comprehensive Performance Data Comparison
TTFB Performance Comparison (Q1-Q2 2025)
Testing Protocol: 525,600 TTFB measurements per provider annually from 22 North American locations
Uptime Reliability Analysis
Q1-Q2 2025
Outage Context & Analysis
WP Engine – Scheduled Maintenance
WP Engine outage is due to Scheduled server update which touted to be their next-gen platform.
Kinsta – External Dependency Issue
Kinsta had its first ever longest outage in the last four years due to Cloudflare issues. This is not an server issue but more of a connectivity issue.
Regular Operations
Hostinger, Cloudways, and GreenGeeks experienced standard operational outages during the monitoring period.
Monitoring Method: 60-second interval checks with 30-second timeout threshold
Load Handling Performance Under Stress
Traffic Surge Response Testing
Elite Performance
WP Engine, GreenGeeks, and Kinsta demonstrated exceptional load handling with sub-30ms response times under maximum stress.
Stable Performance
Cloudways and Hostinger maintained stable response times without errors, suitable for most traffic scenarios.
Perfect Reliability
All providers achieved 0% error rates, indicating robust infrastructure capable of handling traffic surges.
Load Testing Protocol: 0-100 concurrent users over 60 seconds using Loader.io from Amazon US East
Detailed Analysis of Top Providers
Best WordPress Hosting – WP Engine
The best WordPress hosting overall is the WP Engine. It offers an elite TTFB performance of 354ms, the fastest among all the hosts we have tested. Their uptime also stands out, with 99.99% uptime as of the data collected from January to June 2025. The most impressive part of WP Engine is its load handling capacity. It handled our load test with a response time of just 19ms, outperforming all other hosts we’ve tested. In total, WP Engine surpassed all 17 other WordPress hosting providers in every performance metric.
Performance Metrics (Jan – Feb 2025):
- TTFB: 354ms (Elite tier)
- Uptime: 99.99%
- Load Test: 19ms (Elite handling)
- Hostingstep Performance Score: 9.8/10
Honestly, we haven’t recommended WP Engine in the last four years due to their slow performance. However, things changed in mid of 2024 with visible performance improvements across all the metrics. When they introduced Edge caching, it promptly improved the TTFB response time. But still, I was skeptical with uptime percentage and load handling which can’t be improved with edge caching alone. To my surprise, we saw massive improvements in uptime and load handling was the bestest we’ve experienced so far. This indicates WP Engine simply didn’t add edge caching but upgraded their whole infrastructure from the base to compete with their competitors.
Regarding features, WP Engine includes everything you expect from a managed WordPress host. They have automated backups stored for up to 30 days, as well as staging, development, and production environments, global data center locations, security fixes, and Layer 3+4 DDoS protection, among other features.
Pricing:
- Startup: $23/month (25,000 visits, 10GB storage, 75GB Bandwidth)
- Professional: $105/month (75,000 visits, 15GB storage, 150GB Bandwidth)
- Growth: $290/month (100,000 visits, 20GB storage, 240GB Bandwidth)
- Scale: $730/month (400,000 visits, 50GB storage, 550GB Bandwidth)
Best For: WP Engine is ideal for business sites, high-traffic blogs, WooCommerce stores, and critical WordPress applications where performance and reliability are more important than pricing.
Best WordPress Hosting [Shared] – Hostinger
Hostinger is the best shared WordPress hosting for beginners and small business to get started. Their performance is somewhat mixed, with TTFB of 491ms and load handling at 247ms, categorized as “Needs Improvement.” Their uptime has been 99.99% so far in 2025.
Performance Metrics:
- TTFB: 491ms
- Uptime: 99.99%
- Load Test: 247ms
- Performance Score: 7.0/10
Hostinger is not the fastest host in shared hosting category but their exceptional uptime reliability (only 2 minutes in last 6 months). Inodes issue is pretty common among shared host and they offer the highest 400,000 inodes on starter plan which makes them the solid choice under shared hosting options. . Both the introductory and renewal pricing is lowest in the industry, making them an ideal long term choice for most businesses on budget.
What makes Hostinger well suited for small business owners is its pricing. Small business owners are price-sensitive and expect the best value for money. Hostinger fits this category well with long-term introductory discounts and affordable renewal pricing. Their starter plan is priced at $2.99/month, which is similar to most shared hosts. However, Hostinger offers this pricing for a 48-month billing cycle, while most shared hosts limit these discounts to only 36 months.
Again, take the renewal pricing: The Hostinger plan renews at $7.99/month, while all other shared hosts can be renewed for only over $12/month. Hostinger makes the deal even better for small business owners as it allows hosting 25 websites on the starter plan, while most hosts limit only one site hosting on the starter plan. Thus, I believe Hostinger is a strong choice for small business owners starting in 2025.
Pricing:
- Premium: $2.99/month (25 websites, 25k visits, 25GB storage)
- Business: $3.99/month (50 websites, 100k visits, 50GB storage)
- Cloud startup: $7.99/month (100 websites, 200k visits, 100GB storage)
- Cloud Professional: $15.99/month (200 websites, 300k visits, 200GB storage)
Best For: Hostinger is best suited for small businesses looking for long-term savings on their hosting bills. It offers the complete requirements of a small business (free domain, email hosting, AI builder, customer support, etc) at an affordable price.
Best Managed WordPress Hosting – Kinsta
If you are looking for the best managed WordPress hosting, check out Kinsta. It has an excellent performance score of 9.3/10 in our testing. Their TTFB is 444ms in the “Strong” rather than the “Elite” category, but they excel in two critical tests: Uptime and load testing. It recorded an uptime of 100% in 2025 while it consistently got 99.99% uptime with around 1-2 minutes of downtimes in previous years. Their load handling score is 27ms, similar to WP Engine, landing them in the “Elite” category.
Performance Metrics (Jan – June 2025):
- TTFB: 446ms (Strong tier)
- Uptime: 99.96%
- Load Test: 27ms (Elite handling)
- Performance Score: 8.2/10 (Excellent)
The reason we rate Kinsta as the best managed WordPress hosting is due to its WordPress centric features. First, Kinsta uses Google Cloud as the infrastructure partner and allows you to host the sites across all 37 global locations. Second, for critical WordPress applications, APM (Application Performance Monitoring) tools are essential and Kinsta offers its APM tool for free on all its plans. Third, Kinsta uses the fastest Google Cloud servers. If you are new to this, Google offers different types of servers, each specializing in different use cases, and Kinsta uses top-tier C3D and C2 servers, which offer the fastest hardware performance based on our benchmarks.
WP Engine has this APM feature, but it is only limited to Enterprise plans. They don’t allow access to all Google Cloud locations, and they don’t use C3D and C2 servers on starter plans, which are only available on advanced plans. These are a few of the reasons we feel Kinsta deserves to be the best for managed WordPress hosting.
Pricing:
- Single 35K: First month free, then $30/month (35,000 visits, 10GB storage)
- WP 2: $59/month (70,000 visits, 20GB storage)
- WP 5: $96/month (125,000 visits, 30GB storage)
Best For: Kinsta is best suited for resource-intensive WordPress applications, online stores, membership sites, and even for blogs/small businesses where they need to choose managed WordPress hosting.
Best Fast WordPress Hosting – GreenGeeks
GreenGeeks is our top recommended best beginner-friendly WordPress hosting. Their performance is very similar to A2 Hosting and often goes neck to neck. It offers a strong TTFB of 418ms and elite load handling of 26ms, which is only short of WP Engine and better than every other 15 hosts we’ve tested. Their uptime in 2025 stays at 99.96% as of February 28, 2025.
Performance Metrics:
- TTFB: 417ms (Strong tier)
- Uptime: 99.98% (Strong)
- Load Test: 26ms (Elite handling)
- Performance Score: 8.8/10 (Very Good)
What makes us believe GreenGeeks is the best WordPress host for beginners is their simplified cPanel. Let’s accept the fact that cPanel is great, and at the same time, it feels bloated with too many options and steps to manage your sites. As a beginner, it involves a learning curve to understand cPanel and execute any changes. GreenGeek fixes this by offering a simplified dashboard where they bring most features of cPanel within one click.
Want to install WordPress or create a staging site, or need to create and manage new email accounts, or manage security features like installing SSL, managing DNS, etc.? Everything can be done in the GreenGeeks dashboard itself without logging into cPanel. With my 10 years of experience in the industry, I see no other host that has managed to bring out this kind of simplified setup of cPanel. With this approach, I strongly believe that GreenGeeks is the best WordPress hosting platform for beginners.
Pricing:
- Lite: $2.95/month (1 website, 25GB storage)
- Pro: $4.95/month (unlimited websites, 50GB storage)
- Premium: $8.95/month (unlimited websites, 100GB storage, 4X performance)
Best For: GreenGeek is best for beginners, first-time WordPress users, bloggers, and environment-conscious users* or anyone who is starting a WordPress site and wants a balanced performance, simplicity, and pricing. *GreenGeeks plants one tree for every new hosting account.
Best Mid-Range WordPress Hosting – Cloudways
If you are looking to upgrade from a shared host and are not willing to pay a premium price for a managed host, then check out Cloudways. It offers managed Cloud hosting services through five different cloud providers, and their pricing starts at $11/month. We tested their standard plan at $11/month and it recorded an average TTFB of 443 ms and 100% uptime in the first two months of 2025. Their load handling score is 128ms, which is good for WordPress sites.
Performance Metrics:
- TTFB: 441ms (Strong tier)
- Uptime: 99.99%
- Load Test: 128ms (Average handling)
- Performance Score: 7.7/10 (Very Good)
Cloudways gets picked in the mid-range category because of its pricing and plans. At $11/month, it allows you to host unlimited websites which is not a feature you see on shared or premium managed hosts. They have a custom control on par with WP Engine or Kinsta and it is better than cPanel. Additionally, they have their own caching plugin, Breeze, which works similarly to WP Rocket, giving you cost savings. They also have Cloudflare Enterprise offerings at just $4.99/site, which costs over $200/month when you get it from the official Cloudflare site. So, if you simply look at its outstanding pricing and its plan offerings, Cloudways is the clear sole winner in the Mid range WordPress category.
Pricing:
- DO 1GB Plan: $11/month (1 core, 1GB RAM, 25GB storage)
- DO 2GB Plan: $24/month (1 core, 2GB RAM, 50GB storage)
- DO 4GB Plan: $46/month (2 cores, 4GB RAM, 80GB storage)
- DO 8GB Plan: $88/month (4 cores, 8GB RAM, 160GB storage)
The starting prices mentioned above are for DigitalOcean. Other Cloud providers are available at different price points, like Vultr and Linode at $14/month, AWS at $20.56/month, and Google Cloud at $37.45/month.
Cloudways is also the best WordPress hosting platform, offering AWS and Google Cloud hosting options for its customers. We say this after testing all the Cloud providers offered by Cloudways, and the performance scores are almost identical. WP Engine is the only other best option for WordPress hosting to host on AWS and Google Cloud. However, they offer AWS only on custom plans.
Best For: Cloudways is best suited for website owners who need more power and flexibility over shared hosts and are not ready for the cost of premium managed WordPress hosts.
Best WordPress Hosting For Agencies – Nexcess
Nexcess is our recommended WordPress hosting provider for agencies. It not as fast as WP Engine, but they come with agency-specific features, making them a suitable and efficient option. It got an overall performance score of 6.6/10, with TTFB score of 480ms and 99.99% uptime. The load test score is 60ms, a good score to handle any number of traffic.
Performance Metrics:
- TTFB: 480ms
- Uptime: 99.99%
- Load Test: 60ms (Strong handling)
- Performance Score: 6.6/10
Some of the most common challenges faced by agencies are overage fees, limited resource limits, WordPress troubleshooting, plugin restrictions, etc. Take any managed host like WP Engine or Kinsta, they offer limited resources as they use external infrastructure providers like Google Cloud, which is not affordable.
In the case of Nexcess, they own their data centers, so they offer enormous server resources. Their starter “Spark” plan at $17/month comes with 2 TB bandwidth, whereas WP Engine offers only up to 550GB bandwidth, and that too on the $194/month scale plan. Nexcess offers up to 10TB bandwidth on top-tier plans, indicating you don’t need to look at bandwidth issues. Next, most managed hosts limit several plugin installations but Nexcess never imposes any such thing.
Agencies spend a crucial amount of time managing WordPress core, theme, and plugin updates. Nexcess automates this process with its visual comparison tool, which takes a screenshot before and after updating WordPress, and if the site is broken after the update, it will revert back to the update and keep you notified about the issues. They also offer a plugin performance monitor tool that monitors the site load times daily and detects performance changes if a plugin is installed or updated, saving massive time for agencies.
Let’s say you manage a bulk of sites, and this feature comes in handy, fixing the vast time-consuming tasks. Though Nexcess is not as speedy as WP Engine and Kinsta, it offers decent performance in TTFB, uptime, and load handling. So, combining them with its agency-specific features, Nexcess is a solid choice for agencies to get started.
Pricing:
- Spark: $17/month (1 site, 15 GB storage, 2TB bandwidth)
- Spark+: $35.83/month (3 sites, 25GB storage, 2.5TB bandwidth)
- Maker: $72.50/month (5 sites, 40GB storage, 3TB bandwidth)
- Designer: $100/month (10 sites, 60GB storage, 5TB bandwidth)
- Builder: $136.67/month (25 sites, 100GB storage, 5TB bandwidth)
Best WordPress Hosting UK
The best WordPress Hosting in the UK based on performance is WP Engine. While we haven’t extensively hosted companies with UK data centers, our recommendations are based on the tests done with US data centers. While we do have plans to test hosting services with sites hosted on UK data centers, our existing test benchmarks give you an idea to find your ideal WordPress hosting provider. We picked the following list of best WordPress hosting providers, which come with a UK data center location.
WP Engine
Uses Google Cloud’s London data center and Cloudflare CDN edge caching is our top recommendation for its faster TTFB, uptime and great load handling capabilities.
Visit WP EngineHostinger
You can avail of their services from their United Kingdom data centers. They are good to use with great speed and uptime, but slightly average at load handling. But considering the price factor, they offer the best value matched with performance.
Visit HostingerKinsta
Uses the most powerful Google Cloud Virtual machines, offering better and faster backend performance compared to WP Engine.
Visit KinstaCloudways
Choose between five different cloud providers to host your website in UK region. We have tested all their cloud providers for five years, and their TTFB and load handling scores are very similar despite different cloud provider brands behind them. The major reason for similar performance is due to Cloudways optimised WordPress setup. You can choose from London DC from DigitalOcean, Linode, Google Cloud and AWS, while Vultr offers two locations (London, Manchester)
Visit CloudwaysRecommendations based on extensive performance testing and data center availability in the UK region
WordPress Hosting Performance Comparison Table
Top Recommended WordPress Hosting Providers (2025)
Based on performance testing from January-June 2025
Host | Category | Performance | Starting Price | Best For |
---|---|---|---|---|
Best WordPress Hosting Overall WP Engine | Enterprise |
TTFB
354ms
Elite
Uptime
99.99%
Elite
Load Test
19ms
Elite
|
$20/month | Business sites, high-traffic blogs, WooCommerce stores, and critical WordPress applications where performance matters more than price |
Best Managed WordPress Hosting Kinsta | Enterprise |
TTFB
446ms
Strong
Uptime
99.96%
Strong
Load Test
27ms
Elite
|
$30/month | Resource-intensive WordPress applications, online stores, membership sites and businesses needing advanced Google Cloud infrastructure |
Best WordPress Hosting for Beginners GreenGeeks | Budget |
TTFB
417ms
Strong
Uptime
99.98%
Strong
Load Test
26ms
Elite
|
$2.95/month | Beginners, first-time WordPress users, bloggers, and environmentally-conscious users with a simplified dashboard experience |
Best Mid-Range WordPress Hosting Cloudways | Mid-Range |
TTFB
441ms
Strong
Uptime
99.99%
Elite
Load Test
128ms
Average
|
$11/month | Developers and website owners who need more power than shared hosting but aren’t ready for premium managed hosting costs |
Best WordPress Hosting for Small Business Hostinger | Budget |
TTFB
491ms
Average
Uptime
99.99%
Elite
Load Test
247ms
Average
|
$2.99/month | Small businesses looking for long-term savings with affordable pricing and multi-site hosting capabilities |
WordPress Hosting Performance Rankings
Q1-Q2 2025 | Weighted Performance Score: 40% TTFB + 40% Uptime + 20% Load Test
Complete Performance Rankings
Rank | Provider | Composite Score | TTFB Q1-Q2 (40% weight) |
Uptime Q1-Q2 (40% weight) |
Load Test (12mo) (20% weight) |
Starting Price |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | WP Engine |
9.8
|
354ms | 99.99% | 19ms | $23.00/mo |
2 | WPX |
9.4
|
375ms | 100% | 41ms | $20.83/mo |
3 | GreenGeeks |
8.8
|
417ms | 99.98% | 26ms | $2.95/mo |
4 | Templ.io |
8.6
|
387ms | 99.99% | 68ms | $14.00/mo |
5 | Kinsta |
8.2
|
446ms | 99.96% | 27ms | $30.00/mo |
6 | Cloudways |
7.7
|
441ms | 99.99% | 128ms | $11.00/mo |
7 | Hostinger |
7.0
|
491ms | 99.99% | 256ms | $2.69/mo |
8 | Nexcess |
6.6
|
480ms | 99.99% | 60ms | $17.60/mo |
9 | FastComet |
5.9
|
512ms | 99.96% | 79ms | $1.79/mo |
10 | Bluehost |
5.6
|
533ms | 99.99% | 131ms | $3.95/mo |
11 | NameHero |
4.7
|
471ms | 99.94% | 141ms | $2.24/mo |
12 | SiteGround |
3.8
|
658ms | 99.95% | 147ms | $3.99/mo |
13 | HostGator |
2.5
|
620ms | 99.83% | 152ms | $3.75/mo |
14 | ChemiCloud |
2.2
|
489ms | 99.55% | 1068ms | $2.49/mo |
15 | DreamPress |
2.0
|
653ms | 90.79% | 223ms | $16.95/mo |
🔬 Providers Under Evaluation
The following providers cannot be ranked due to incomplete or transitional data. Rankings require stable, complete performance metrics for fair comparison.
Provider | TTFB Q1-Q2 | Uptime Q1-Q2 | Load Test Status | Starting Price | Evaluation Status |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rocket.net | 368ms | 100% | Data Unavailable | $25.00/mo | Missing Load Data |
A2 Hosting / Hosting.com | 459ms | 99.99% | 44ms | $1.79/mo | Infrastructure Transition |
Rocket.net: Shows excellent TTFB and perfect uptime performance, but without load test data (20% of our weighted score), we cannot provide a fair composite ranking. Once complete data becomes available, this provider will be included in future rankings.
A2 Hosting / Hosting.com: Previously tracked using A2 data centers, but the company has transitioned to new hosting.com infrastructure. Our test site has been moved to the new data center setup. We require minimum 3 months of performance data from the new infrastructure before providing reliable rankings. Expected evaluation completion: Q4 2025.
💰 Shared Hosting: Performance + Value Analysis
Ordered by performance score – pricing represents advertised starting rates
Rank | Provider | Performance Score | TTFB | Uptime | Load Test | Starting Price | Value Rating |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | GreenGeeks | 8.8 | 417ms | 99.98% | 26ms | $2.95/mo | Excellent |
2 | Hostinger | 7.0 | 491ms | 99.99% | 256ms | $2.69/mo | Good |
3 | FastComet | 5.9 | 512ms | 99.96% | 79ms | $1.79/mo | Good |
4 | Bluehost | 5.6 | 533ms | 99.99% | 131ms | $3.95/mo | Average |
5 | NameHero | 4.7 | 471ms | 99.94% | 141ms | $2.24/mo | Below Average |
6 | SiteGround | 3.8 | 658ms | 99.95% | 147ms | $3.99/mo | Poor |
7 | HostGator | 2.5 | 620ms | 99.83% | 152ms | $3.75/mo | Poor |
8 | ChemiCloud | 2.2 | 489ms | 99.55% | 1068ms | $2.49/mo | Poor |
🏆 Shared Hosting Winner: GreenGeeks dominates with the highest performance score (8.8/10) and competitive pricing at $2.95/month. Hostinger offers excellent uptime reliability at just $2.69/month. FastComet provides the lowest starting price at $1.79/month but with average performance.
⚡ Mid-Range Hosting: Performance + Value Analysis
Ordered by performance score – pricing represents advertised starting rates
Rank | Provider | Performance Score | TTFB | Uptime | Load Test | Starting Price | Value Rating |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | WPX | 9.4 | 375ms | 100% | 41ms | $20.83/mo | Good |
2 | Templ.io | 8.6 | 387ms | 99.99% | 68ms | $14.00/mo | Excellent |
3 | Cloudways | 7.7 | 441ms | 99.99% | 128ms | $11.00/mo | Good |
4 | Nexcess | 6.6 | 480ms | 99.99% | 60ms | $17.60/mo | Average |
5 | DreamPress | 2.0 | 653ms | 90.79% | 223ms | $16.95/mo | Poor |
🏆 Mid-Range Winner: Templ.io offers exceptional performance (8.6/10) at a reasonable $14/month with transparent pricing. Cloudways provides excellent value with 7.7/10 performance at just $11/month. WPX scores highest (9.4/10) but at premium pricing of $20.83/month.
🚀 Premium Hosting: Performance + Value Analysis
Ordered by performance score – pricing represents advertised starting rates
Rank | Provider | Performance Score | TTFB | Uptime | Load Test | Starting Price | Value Rating |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | WP Engine | 9.8 | 354ms | 99.99% | 19ms | $23.00/mo | Excellent |
2 | Kinsta | 8.2 | 446ms | 99.96% | 27ms | $30.00/mo | Average |
– | Rocket.net | N/A | 368ms | 100% | No Data | $25.00/mo | Cannot Assess |
🏆 Premium Winner: WP Engine dominates with the highest performance score (9.8/10) and competitive intro pricing at $23/month for enterprise-grade hosting. Kinsta offers solid performance (8.2/10) but at premium pricing of $30/month. Rocket.net shows promise with excellent TTFB but lacks complete performance data.
📋 Updated Scoring Methodology
TTFB Scoring (40%)
Performance-based scoring with color coding:
- 300-400ms: Elite (9-10 points)
- 400-499ms: Strong (6-8 points)
- 500-600ms: Average (4-6 points)
- 600ms+: Poor (1-4 points)
Uptime Scoring (40%)
Perfect uptime = 10 points. Each 0.01% reduction = -0.5 points, with exponential penalties for poor performers below 99%.
Load Test Scoring (20%)
Updated scoring based on response times:
- 0-100ms: Elite (9-10 points)
- 100-200ms: Strong (7-8 points)
- 200-250ms: Average (6 points)
- 250-500ms: Below Average (3-5 points)
- 500ms+ or errors: Poor (1-2 points)
Key Updates: A2 Hosting moved to evaluation section due to infrastructure transition from A2 data centers to hosting.com. Pricing simplified to show advertised starting rates instead of complex billing comparisons. All rankings ordered by performance score for clarity. TTFB color coding implemented for visual clarity.
Data Transparency: All performance data independently collected through continuous monitoring Q1-Q2 2025. Rankings based purely on measurable performance metrics, not affiliate relationships or marketing partnerships.
Expert Validation
Our testing methodology has been reviewed by many WordPress experts.
Anton Aleksandrov, developer at WPBenchmark.io (https://wpbenchmark.io/) quoted
“Very interesting WordPress hosting comparison article – the author spent quite a bit of time looking through various speed and performance aspects. If you are doing your own research, check out what things have been tested; they all make sense.”
Notable Mentions
WPX: The company has a very good performance score of 9.6. However, based on our personal experience, we noticed that first-time visitors are often served with very high TTFB, even within the USA regions. We don’t see such varying discrepancies with other hosts that use CDN services. Despite being a shared hosting service, their prices are higher compared to managed WordPress hosts, but their control panel is not up to the mark.
Templ Hosting: It has an overall performance score of 9.6, similar to WPX. Templ Hosting is our primary hosting partner, where we host Hostingstep.com and other sites. They are very similar to Kinsta and WP Engine but are affordably priced at $15/month. They are the only hosting industry that offers Google Cloud, DNS, and CDN edge caching. I personally feel Google CDN edge caching is better than Cloudflare Enterprise, and that’s one of the reasons why I use Templ for my group of sites, including Hostingstep.com.
Rocket.net: One of the excellent hosting services focused on the performance front. However, we can’t do load testing on their servers because of a security block. Since we don’t have an absolute number in their load test, we can’t fit them into our best list.
How to Choose the Best WordPress Hosting?
What’s Your Primary Need For WordPress Hosting?
Quick WordPress Hosting Recommendations
If Your Priority Is: | And Your Budget Is: | We Recommend: |
---|---|---|
Maximum Performance | $20+ per month | WP Engine |
Performance on a Budget | Under $5 per month | Hostinger |
Beginner-Friendly Interface | Under $10 per month | GreenGeeks |
Agency Management | $25+ per month | Kinsta |
Small Business Value | $10-$15 per month | Cloudways |
WordPress-Specific Features | $25+ per month | Kinsta |
Understanding Performance Metrics
Our recommendations are based on comprehensive performance testing. Here’s how to interpret the metrics:
Metric | Excellent | Good | Average | Poor |
---|---|---|---|---|
TTFB (Time to First Byte) | <400ms | 400-450ms | 451-500ms | >500ms |
Uptime | 100% | 99.99% | 99.96-99.98% | <99.95% |
Load Handling | <30ms | 30-70ms | 71-150ms | >150ms |
Final Verdict: The Best WordPress Hosting of 2025
While No WordPress hosting is perfect, we picked the seven best WordPress hosting out of seventeen hosts we’ve tested so far. Our recommendations based on extensive testing:
Best Overall: WP Engine got a perfect 10/10 performance score. Their introductory discounted pricing is the highest among its competitors. So, easily the best combination of performance and pricing to get started.
Best Budget: Hostinger got a performance score of 8.4/10, the top host among shared hosting companies. Their prices are often less than $3/month, which is suitable for anyone looking for affordable hosting options.
Best Managed: Kinsta is the best and most powerful managed WordPress hosting. Their hardware offerings are second to none, a great host to run your resource-hungry WordPress sites.
Best Mid-Range: Cloudways is the best mid-range WordPress hosting with the affordability of shared hosting and the performance of managed WordPress hosting.
The WordPress hosting requirements often vary due to the specific needs of website owners. A simple WordPress blog can run well on A2 Hosting or GreenGeeks, while WooCommerce, membership sites, or critical WordPress applications require maximum performance, and premium hosts like WP Engine or Kinsta suit better.
Unlike many review sites, we don’t favor companies based on commissions. This is evident from the fact we don’t recommend most of the popular WordPress hosting providers which are recommended everywhere else.
Which is your existing WordPress hosting provider? Does our guide help you to learn something new related to choosing your hosting partner? Let us know in the comments.
Changelog:
July 5, 2025: A2 Hosting / Hosting.com: Previously tracked using A2 data centers, but the company has transitioned to new hosting.com infrastructure. Our test site has been moved to the new data center setup. We require minimum 3 months of performance data from the new infrastructure before providing reliable rankings. Expected evaluation completion: Q4 2025.
May 17, 2025: A2Hosting is rebranded as Hosting.com, as part of the acquisition. There have been changes in their plans, and it’s quite confusing to know the difference. There are three hosting plans named “web hosting”, “hosting for WordPress”, and “cPanel hosting”. The plans are downgraded from “Unlimited sites” to hosting only one site per plan. This is a significant downgrade, and although Hosting.com’s initial pricing is affordable, the price per site is substantially higher. So, we can’t fit them as an affordable hosting option for WordPress. We will take some time and find a better hosting service in this category.
June 13, 2025: We are redefining what it means to find the “Best WordPress Hosting.” Till now, we have been rating the companies based on three performance scores (TTFB, uptime, and load handling). Since premium managed WordPress hosting companies come with CDN edge caching, they consistently outperform shared hosting services.
Based on user feedback and our traffic data, we see people are not simply looking for speed when searching for the best WordPress hosting. They look for pricing as a major factor in choosing the host. So, we are reworking our rating system and will split the weightage among performance scores, introductory and renewal pricing. Additionally, we are creating a performance-to-price ratio score to compile a list that includes all types of hosts, including shared, mid-range, and premium hosts. We will be updating our post at the end of June 2025.
Excellent research. According to you which Hostinger plan is best for WordPress?
Hostinger’s Premium plan is good but Business plan is most recommended if you are running a high traffic site. Do remember, our tests are done using their starter Premium ($2.99/month) plan. We are also testing their Business plan which we will review in a separate post.