The Best WordPress Hosting 2025: 17 Tested, 5 Recommended
Our Best WordPress hosting recommendations are based on real performance data obtained from our test sites hosted across popular hosting providers. Our test sites are pinged every 60 seconds and we collect 525,600 test data points annually to evaluate the companies.
As of 2025, we have collected 5 years of historical performance data from any hosting provider, enabling us to provide the best long-term reviews and also making us the only reliable data source that you can trust to choose your next WordPress hosting provider.
To find the best WordPress hosting, we measure what actually matters: how fast the site loads (TTFB speed), how often it stays online and goes down (Uptime) and how it handles traffic spikes (load handling). Our rankings are based on an overall performance score (TTFB speed 40%, Uptime 40%, load handling 20%) and a unique selling proposition (USP).
Our Top WordPress Hosting Picks At a Glance
Hand-picked based on 12+ months of continuous performance testing across 17 hosting providers
Our Detailed Analysis of Our Top Recommended Hosting 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.
WP-Engine-TTFB-and-uptime-report-Q1-Q2-2025
Honestly, we haven’t recommended WP Engine in the last four years due to its slow performance. However, things changed in mid-2024 with visible performance improvements across all the metrics. When they introduced Edge caching, it promptly improved the TTFB response time. However, I remained skeptical about the 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 best we’ve experienced so far. This suggests that WP Engine simply didn’t add edge caching; instead, they upgraded their entire infrastructure 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 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 ideal for beginners, first-time WordPress users, bloggers, and environmentally conscious users, as well as anyone starting a WordPress site seeking a balanced performance, simplicity, and competitive pricing. GreenGeeks plants one tree for every new hosting account.
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 a strong TTFB of 491ms and average load handling at 247ms. Their uptime has been 99.99% so far in 2025, the best among any shared hosting providers.
Performance Metrics:
- TTFB: 491ms
- Uptime: 99.99%
- Load Test: 247ms
- Performance Score: 7.0/10
Hostinger is not the fastest host in the shared hosting category, but their exceptional uptime reliability (only 2 minutes in the last 6 months). Inodes issues are pretty common among shared hosts, and they offer the highest 400,000 inodes on the starter plan, which makes them a solid choice under shared hosting options. Both the introductory and renewal pricing are lowest in the industry, making them an ideal long-term choice for most businesses on a 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 downtime 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 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 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 – Kinsta
Kinsta is our recommended WordPress hosting for agencies. If you are an agency, Kinsta’s agency perks do not match any other host. First, agencies can get up to $10,000 credits based on factors like client volume, existing portfolio, and growth potential. These credits can be utilized while onboarding client sites. Second, agency sites can get a free hosting account to host their very own business websites, adding more savings options.
However, we don’t simply recommend them as the best host for agencies because of perks, but their performance is top-notch across all the tests with 446ms TTFB, 99.96% uptime, and 27ms load handling capacity.
My favourite part of using Kinsta is the option to host client closer to their visitors through their 37 global data centers. Their latest automatic WordPress update feature is going to save a lot of human work for agencies, where it will automatically run the theme and plugin updates, and if something breaks after the update, it will revert back to the previous version and notify you of the issues. If the site doesn’t break out, the update will be applied automatically. They also utilize the most powerful Google Cloud VMs, enabling Kinsta to offer the fastest hardware performance, as verified by our benchmarks.
WordPress Hosting Performance Comparison Table
WordPress Hosting Performance Comparison (August 2025)
Independent testing data from Q1-Q2 2025 (6 months) • 525,600 annual checks
| Rank | Web Host | Cost |
TTFB
(lower is better)
|
Uptime
(higher is better)
|
Load Test
(lower is better)
|
Key Features |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shared Hosting ($1-5/month) | ||||||
| 1 |
GreenGeeks
🏆 Best Shared Host
|
$2.95/mo | 417ms | 99.98% | 26ms | Best & Fastest shared hosting, outperforms all other shared hosting providers. Consistently top performing since we started testing them in 2021. |
| 2 | $2.69/mo | 491ms | 99.99% | 247ms | Best “Value for money” hosting with option to create up to 25 websites on starter plan. | |
| 3 | $1.99/mo | 533ms | 99.99% | 131ms | The only shared host to offer Premium Cloudflare CDN with Argo routing, best for sites with global traffic. Cheapest price to get started with option to host 10 sites on starter plan. | |
| 4 | $1.79/mo | 512ms | 99.96% | 79ms | 12 Global data center options (highest), good at load handling but frequent downtimes are concerning. | |
| 5 | $2.24/mo | 471ms | 99.94% | 141ms ⚠ | Decent TTFB performance, with uptime and load handling concerns | |
| 6 | $3.99/mo | 658ms | 99.95% | 147ms | Well-known brand, Slowest TTFB performance among all hosts, concerning downtimes, good at load handling. | |
| 7 | $3.75/mo | 620ms | 99.83% | 152ms ⚠ | Popular brand but poor at every performance front. | |
| 8 | $2.49/mo | 489ms | 99.55% | 1068ms ⚠ | Good TTFB, but severe load and uptime issues. | |
| Mid-Range Hosting ($10-20/month) | ||||||
| 1 |
Cloudways
🏆 Best Mid-Range Host
|
$11/mo | 441ms | 99.99% | 128ms | 5 cloud providers, unlimited sites, best option for businesses who have outgrown shared hosting. |
| 2 | $14/mo | 387ms | 99.99% | 68ms | Only host to offer Google Cloud + DNS + CDN Edge caching infrastructure. Google CDN Edge caching offers the industry leading cache hit ratio even compared to Cloudflare Enterprise. Lacks advanced features like on WP Engine and Kinsta. We are hosted here. | |
| 3 | $20.83/mo | 375ms | 100% | 41ms | Excellent results on testing tools but real-world performance is not quite satisfactory. Their CDN is inconsistent with low cache hit ratio for first time visitors. With a slow control panel, they are not so value for money. | |
| 4 | $17.60/mo | 480ms | 99.99% | 60ms | Best for sites that require higher bandwidth (Starts at 2TB). Support should be improved. | |
| 5 | $16.95/mo | 653ms | 90.79% | 223ms | Managed WordPress host, severe reliability issues, newly integrated BunnyCDN didn’t make any difference in speed. | |
| Premium Hosting ($20+/month) | ||||||
| 1 |
WP Engine
🏆 Best Overall Host
|
$23/mo | 354ms | 99.99% | 19ms | The overall best WordPress hosting for real business websites which requires best speed, reliability, and load handling capabilities. We are testing WP Engine since 2021 and this is first year (2025) we are recommending them, thanks to it’s massive tech stack upgrades in the last 12 months. |
| 2 |
Kinsta
🏆 Best Managed WP
|
$30/mo | 446ms | 99.96% | 27ms | Offers the fastest backend performance (benchmark tested!). They are also the solid option for agencies as the company offers up to $10,000 in hosting credits and free hosting for agency websites. |
| Providers Under Evaluation | ||||||
| – | $25/mo | 368ms | 100% | N/A | Excellent TTFB and uptime, but load test blocked. So, we can’t evaluate them fully. | |
| – | $1.99/mo | 459ms | 99.99% | 44ms | Infrastructure transition – evaluation expected Q4 2025 | |
Testing methodology: TTFB measured from 22 US locations • Load test: 0-100 concurrent users • ⚠ indicates 4xx/5xx errors during load testing • Rankings based on overall performance score (TTFB 40%, Uptime 40%, Load handling 20%) + unique selling proposition (USP)
Real-World Performance Testing: Identical WordPress sites deployed across all 17 hosting providers. Testing Duration: Jan -June 2025 (6 months) and 2024 (12 months) Benchmarking Tools: Pingdom synthetic 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.
A2 Hosting
If you think WP Engine is pricey and need an affordable WordPress host with similar performance scores, the A2 Hosting is an excellent choice. Our A2 Hosting test site recorded an average TTFB of 439ms, which is just 83ms slower than WP Engine, falling into our “strong” tier category. Their uptime is 99.99%, and the load handling speed is 44ms, which is not as great as WP Engine’s 19ms, but it still outperforms several premium-priced hosting services. Considering the fact that A2 Hosting costs just 1/12th the cost of WP Engine, its performance scores are highly laudable.
Performance Metrics (Jan – Feb 2025):
- TTFB: 439ms (Strong tier)
- Uptime: 99.99% (Elite)
- Load Test: 44ms (Strong handling)
- Global TTFB: 527ms (Strong)
- Hostinstep Performance Score: 8.4/10 (Very Good)
A2 Hosting has a strong history of offering the fastest performance for the last four years. Let it be the TTFB, uptime, or load handling, they performed consistently faster, making them a strong contender in the best shared hosting for WordPress. Even before speed was a thing in the WordPress community, A2 Hosting was the earliest to offer speed-optimized WordPress installations, meaning the sites are pre-optimized for speed right from the moment the site goes live.
Coming to features, A2 Hosting plans are mainly differentiated based on storage types. Their Ignite Starter plan comes with regular SSD drives and LiteSpeed Lite server, while the Turbo plan comes with NVMe storage and LiteSpeed Pro and Plus servers. The rest of the things are pretty common, like Cloud backups, free SSL, 24/7 customer support, etc.
Pricing:
- Ignite: $2.99/month (1 website, 10GB storage)
- Accel: $5.99/month (unlimited websites, unlimited SSD storage)
- Turbo Velocity: $7.99/month (unlimited websites and NVMe storage)
- Turbo Nitro: $14.99/month (Higher specs, Turbo servers)
Best For: A2 Hosting is best for bloggers, small businesses, and performance conscious site owners who want near-perfect performance at affordable prices.
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
Complete Performance Data Comparison (Q1 – Q2 2025) vs (Q1-Q4 2024)
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
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
Templ Hosting: It has an overall performance score of 9.6. 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. The downsides: they are not so popular, might not be convincing for many businesses.
Rocket.net: Offered the first of its kind Cloudflare Enterprise powered Managed WordPress hosting, but competitors are catching up. WP Engine now integrates CF Enterprise and managed to offer better TTFB performance than Rocket. This could be due to various reasons, but I see WP Engine’s Google Cloud platform makes the difference here. With similar pricing to WP Engine and not being able to load test, we didn’t include them in our top recommendations.
Nexcess: We recommended them as a solid option for agencies, but the performance is a little bit let down for the price. The inconsistent support is also a letdown and truly not a great fit for agencies. Their pricing seems affordable at the initial stage, but as renewal comes in, they are on par with WP Engine and Kinsta.
WPX: The company has a very good performance score of 9.6. However, we noticed that first-time visitors are often served with very high TTFB due to low cache-hit ratio. We didn’t see such varying discrepancies among other hosts with CDN services. This makes their CDN not worth the hype, but we acknowledge their CDN is faster for returning visitors.
Their control panel is one of the slowest we have experienced, where it shows a buggy loading screen for more than 10 seconds every time we crawl between options, making their hosting experience not so pleasant. The USP of WPX is to offer 5-site hosting for $25/month, but it’s not the only option now. You could consider Cloudways (DO 2GB RAM plan) or Hostinger Cloud Startup or Bluehost Pro as an alternative with much better server specs and similar performance.
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 the seventeen hosts we’ve tested so far. Our recommendations are based on extensive testing:
Best Overall: WP Engine got a perfect 10/10 performance score. Their introductory discounted pricing is the highest among their 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 them better.
Unlike many review sites, we don’t favor companies based on commissions. This is evident from the fact that 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:
August 4, 2025: We see a declining performance of A2 Hosting/ Hosting.com. There are many more outages after moving our test site to Hosting.com infrastructure. We will see if things will improve in the coming days.
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 a minimum of 3 months of performance data from the new infrastructure before providing reliable rankings. Expected evaluation completion: Q4 2025.
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, which is causing an imbalance in our top recommended list.
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.
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.
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.