We are back again for our 2024 edition of WordPress Hosting Benchmarks.
We have been testing popular WordPress hosting companies for over three years, and we took last whole year data (January 1, 2023 to December 31, 2023) to write up this 2024 Hosting benchmarks.
Contents
WordPress Hosting Benchmark Methodology:
Our WordPress Hosting benchmark is simple. We sign up as a customer to popular hosting service, buy hosting account, deploy a test site and put the site for testing.
All the test sites are installed with WordPress Twenty Twenty-Four Theme, Akismet, Contact Form 7 and Rank Math WordPress plugins. The caching is enabled by default on Managed WordPress hosting services. For shared hosting services, we added “WP Fastest Cache” plugin to enable caching.
I have included the hosting plan details, data center location, CDN usage and benchmark start date in the below table.
| Hosting | Type | Plan | Price (monthly) | Test Site Datacenter Location | CDN | Benchmark Start Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A2 Hosting | Shared | Startup | $2.99 | Michigan (US East Coast) | No | September 1, 2020 |
| Bluehost | Shared | WordPress Basic Hosting | $2.95 | Provo, Utah | No | November 16, 2022 |
| ChemiCloud | Shared | Starter | $2.95 | Dallas | No | August 25, 2020 |
| Cloudways | Managed Cloud | DigitalOcean Standard | $11 | New York | No | August 25, 2020 |
| DreamPress | Managed WordPress | DreamPress | $16.95 | Ashburn Virginia | No | January, 30, 2021 |
| FastComet | Shared | Starter | $2.95 | Newark, USA | No | August 25, 2020 |
| GreenGeeks | Shared | Lite | $2.95 | Chicago, US | No | September 1, 2020 |
| HostGator | Shared | Hatchling | $3.75 | Provo, Utah | No | November 16, 2022 |
| Hostinger | Shared | Single | $2.99 | North Carolina | No | November 30, 2020 |
| Kinsta | Managed WordPress | Starter | $35 | Iowa, Google Cloud | Cloudflare Enterprise | September 1, 2020 |
| Nexcess | Managed WordPress | Spark | $21 | Southfield, Michigan | Cloudflare | May 1, 2021 |
| Rocket | Managed WordPress | Starter | $30 | Ashburn | Cloudflare Enterprise | October 12, 2020 |
| SiteGround | Shared | Startup | $2.99 | Iowa | No | August 26, 2020 |
| Templ | Managed WordPress | Micro | $15 | North Virginia, Google Cloud | No | February 3, 2021 |
| WP Engine | Managed WordPress | Startup | $35 | North America | Cloudflare | September 1, 2020 |
| WPX Hosting | Managed WordPress | Business | $24.99 | Chicago | WPX XDN | March 26, 2021 |
Tests
TTFB and Uptime Monitoring using Pingdom:
Using Pingdom Synthetic Monitoring tool, the site is monitored from 20+ major cities in United States and Canada. Pingdom collects the TTFB score from all the locations and provides an overall average TTFB score. The uptime is also measured in the same way.
Load Test using Loader.io:
In this test, a 500 constant client load is sent to the site and the average response time is measured. The test are made from Amazon US East data center.
Hardware benchmark using WPBenchmark Plugin:
WPBenchmark is a WordPress plugin that does CPU, Memory, File system, database performance and network speed test. The plugin gives an overall score out of 10.
Core web Vitals using GTmetrix:
GTmetrix is used to measure the Core Web Vitals score of the sites. The test is done from Cheyenne, Wyoming using a simulated mobile device setup.
Global TTFB using SpeedVitals:
Speedvitals tool helps to measure the average TTFB from 40 global locations. This results are much useful for sites with global audience.
TTFB Benchmark Results:
Time to First Byte (TTFB) is the most important factor to choose any WordPress hosting service. Lowering the TTFB score is highly useful in making the site load faster, providing a better user experience and also helps to pass Core Web Vitals.
The Pingdom Sytenthic monitoring tool measures our test site TTFB for every 60 seconds once. A total of 43,800 tests are done in a month to calculate the average TTFB performance.
I took the last whole year data (January 1, 2023 – December 31, 2023) and listed out the hosts with better TTFB to poor TTFB score.
Results
Key takeaways:
Rocket.net has emerged as the fastest TTFB WordPress host in the second consecutive year. Their speed optimized hosting stack with Cloudflare Enterprise full page caching does the magic for them. Templ, my recommended VFM hosting came second in our list.
WPX is the third fastest TTFB hosting with 329 ms TTFB. Unlike first two hosts, WPX has an inconsistent TTFB month over month as seen from the graph.
Cloudways and GreenGeeks recorded 332 ms took the next two spots. GreenGeeks is most impressive considering it cost $2.99/month to get started. A2 Hosting comes close with 336 ms, a pretty decent consistent graph too.
FastComet, DreamHost, Hostinger, Kinsta recorded an average TTFB of 364 ms, 374 ms, 375 ms, 378 ms respectively.
While both Bluehost and SiteGround scored 409 ms TTFB, WP Engine recorded 414 ms response time which is pretty disappointing considering its price. ChemiCloud used to be at top 10 position in last year benchmark but now they dropped to 14th spot.
Nexcess, looks promising but their TTFB is a bit of disappointment.
HostGator is one of the slowest hosting service with a massive 620 ms TTFB.
Benchmark Test 2 – Uptime
Uptime is one of the crucial factor to benchmark WordPress hosting services. The Pingdom Syntentic monitoring tool pings the site 60 seconds once and if the site is not reachable within 30 seconds, then Pingdom records it as downtime.
The uptime is calculated based on 365 days of data (January 1, 2023 – December 31, 2023).
Results
| Hosting | Uptime | Total Downtime | Total Outages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rocket.net | 100% | 0 | 0 |
| Templ | 100% | 0 | 0 |
| WPX Hosting | 100% | 0 | 0 |
| Cloudways | 99.99% | 2 mins | 1 |
| A2 Hosting | 99.99% | 30 mins | 14 |
| Kinsta | 99.99% | 25 mins | 1 |
| SiteGround | 99.99% | 1 hour 3mins | 43 |
| FastComet | 99.98% | 2 hours 1 min | 26 |
| WP Engine | 99.98% | 1 hour 56 mins | 6 |
| Nexcess | 99.98% | 1 hour 30 mins | 9 |
| GreenGeeks | 99.97% | 2 hours 43 mins | 16 |
| Hostinger | 99.97% | 2 hours 11 mins | 58 |
| Bluehost | 99.95% | 4 hours 28 mins | 68 |
| HostGator | 99.94% | 5 hours 30 mins | 66 |
| ChemiCloud | 99.85% | 13 hours 25 mins | 40 |
| DreamPress | 99.82% | 15 hours 58 mins | 42 |
Uptime Benchmark Results:
Rocket.net, Templ and WPX recorded 100% uptime with zero downtimes. Kinsta’s 99.99% uptime is also impressive with just one outage.
Cloudways, A2 Hosting and SiteGround are other three hosts that recorded 99.99% uptime. However, SiteGround had frequent outages with total downtime of over 1 hour.
FastComet, WP Engine and Nexcess recorded 99.98% uptime. Again, WP Engine is a bit of disappoint as most other Managed WordPress host offered zero or lesser downtime.
GreenGeeks and Hostinger recorded 99.97% uptime. Bluehost and HostGator are nearly identical with 99.95% and 99.94% uptime respectively. ChemiCloud had unimpressive results.
DreamPress is a big disappointment because of its managed WordPress hosting tag, priced at $23.99/month yet merely delivered 99.82% uptime with nearly 16 hours downtime.
Benchmark Test 3 – Load Testing
The load testing is done to measure how well the server’s can handle the bulk traffic.
In this test, 500 Constant client load visitors are sent to the site, and the average response time is calculated. (lower the response time faster the servers)
Results
| Host | Avg. Response Time (lower is better) | Min. Response Time (lower is better) | Max. Response Time (lower is better) | Response Counts (Higher is better) | Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rocket | 19 ms | 9 ms | 2075 ms | 741879 | Check Data |
| Kinsta | 27 ms | 11 ms | 631 ms | 532636 | Check Data |
| WPX | 32 ms | 8 ms | 424 ms | 464964 | Check Data |
| SiteGround | 179 ms | 28 ms | 2132 ms | 83238 | Check Data |
| A2 Hosting | 185 ms | 22 ms | 1433 ms | 80447 | Check Data |
| FastComet | 190 ms | 31 ms | 2111 ms | 78547 | Check Data |
| GreenGeeks | 200 ms | 20 ms | 1774 ms | 74574 | Check Data |
| Cloudways | 266 ms | 8 ms | 874 ms | 56069 | Check Data |
| Templ | 294 ms | 30 ms | 4531 ms | 49348 | Check Data |
| Nexcess | 296 ms | 39 ms | 5115 ms | 49195 | Check Data |
| Bluehost | 438 ms | 60 ms | 10002 ms | 26966 | Check Data |
| DreamPress | 447 ms | 76 ms | 1217 ms | 33277 | Check Data |
| HostGator | 800 ms | 69 ms | 10002 ms | 15056 | Check Data |
| ChemiCloud | 963 ms | 29 ms | 11108 ms | 13592 | Check Data |
| Hostinger | 2412 ms | 20 ms | 6024 ms | 5776 | Check Data |
| WP Engine (Incomplete) | 71 ms | 47 ms | 489 ms | 1307 | Check Data |
Load Testing Benchmark results:
Rocket.net again notched the top spot with an average response time of 19ms. The graph is pleasing to watch with the response time remains consistent though the load is increasing.
Kinsta took the second spot with 27 ms, although I would like to rate them at the top spot as their maximum response time is 631 ms while Rocket’s maximum response time is 2075 ms.
WPX is again impressive with 32 ms response time. The graph looks good and it took lowest Maximum response time (424 ms) among all the hosts we’ve tested.
SiteGround comes fourth with 179 ms response time. A2 Hosting, FastComet and GreenGeeks recorded 185 ms, 190 ms and 200 ms, respectively. It’s good to these shared hosting services performed better than many managed WordPress hosting services in the list.
Cloudways, Templ, Nexcess comes next with 266 ms, 294 ms and 296 ms respectively. These hosts handled all the load with no timeout or network errors.
Bluehost recorded 438 ms response time which looks great but they have a bunch of Timeout and 400/500 errors. DreamPress, again recorded an average score of 447 ms.
Similar to Bluehost, HostGator also struggled to handle the load with timeout and 500 errors. ChemiCloud too sails in the same boat and scored an average time of 963 ms.
Hostinger, though passed all the load requests, came last with 2412 ms response time.
WP Engine have their security firewalls enabled, so the test gets failed within 10 seconds.
Benchmark Test 4 – WPBenchmark
WPBenchmark is our latest addition of test in 2024. WPBenchmark does CPU, Memory, File system, database performance and network speed test. The plugin gives an overall score out of 10.
Results:
| Hosting | Server Score |
|---|---|
| Kinsta | 8.6 |
| SiteGround | 8.5 |
| WPX | 8.2 |
| Rocket.net | 8 |
| Hostinger | 7.9 |
| Nexcess | 7.8 |
| Templ | 6.9 |
| HostGator | 6.9 |
| Cloudways | 6.9 |
| Bluehost | 6.6 |
| DreamPress | 6.1 |
| WP Engine | 5.8 |
| GreenGeeks | 5.7 |
| ChemiCloud | 5.2 |
| A2 Hosting | 5 |
| FastComet | 5 |
WPBenchmark Results:
We are getting some interesting results here.
A2 Hosting, FastComet and GreenGeeks became the top three fastest shared host in load testing results. However, these hosts have the least server score of 5, 5 and 5.7 respectively.
On the other hand, HostGator which had a poor in all the above test have got a decent 6.9 score. Hostinger, which had a poor load test result has got a server score of 7.9.
Kinsta, Rocket.net and WPX are the few hosts that performed better in all above tests and also in this WPBenchmark test.
Nexcess, Templ, Cloudways had a decent server score of 7.8, 6.9, 6.9, respectively. DreamPress, WP Engine and ChemiCloud results are disappointing.
Benchmark Test 5 – Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals is the Google’s new standard for Web Performance. The sites are tested using GTmetrix, and the Core Web Vitals metrics like Largest Contentful Paint, Total Blocking Time and Cumulative Layout Shift are calculated in this test.
Results
| Host | LCP | TBT | CLS |
|---|---|---|---|
| GreenGeeks | 389 ms | 0ms | 0.07 |
| Templ | 429 ms | 0 ms | 0.07 |
| A2 Hosting | 458 ms | 0 ms | 0.07 |
| Bluehost | 461 ms | 0 ms | 0.07 |
| Kinsta | 462 ms | 0 ms | 0.07 |
| Nexcess | 478 ms | 0 ms | 0.07 |
| WP Engine | 500 ms | 0 ms | 0.07 |
| WPX Hosting | 514 ms | 0 ms | 0.07 |
| Rocket.net | 550 ms | 7 ms | 0.05 |
| SiteGround | 572 ms | 0 ms | 0.07 |
| FastComet | 584 ms | 0 ms | 0.07 |
| NameHero | 589 ms | 0 ms | 0.07 |
| Cloudways | 595 ms | 0 ms | 0.07 |
| ChemiCloud | 619 ms | 0 ms | 0.07 |
| Hostinger | 621 ms | 0 ms | 0.07 |
| DreamPress | 629 ms | 0 ms | 0.07 |
| HostGator | 931 ms | 0 ms | 0 |
Results:
The Core Web Vitals test is done to give an rough idea of various hosting services. The Core Web Vitals is based on the field data, collected from the real users visiting your site.
As per Google, the Largest Contentful Paint LCP time should be less than 2.5 seconds to be called it as Good. With the logic, all the hosts have scored less than 2.5 seconds. However, these lab data wont correlate with field data from real users.
Benchmark Test 5 – Global TTFB Test
In the global TTFB test, the sites are pinged from 40 global locations to measure the Global TTFB. If your site audience are spread across globally, then watch out these results.
| Hosting | Global TTFB |
|---|---|
| Rocket.net | 191 ms |
| Templ.io | 243 ms |
| Cloudways | 445 ms |
| GreenGeeks | 528 ms |
| A2 Hosting | 552 ms |
| FastComet | 571 ms |
| ChemiCloud | 571 ms |
| Hostinger | 572 ms |
| Bluehost | 597 ms |
| WPX | 621 ms |
| WP Engine | 650 ms |
| Kinsta | 654 ms |
| DreamPress | 664 ms |
| Nexcess | 793 ms |
| HostGator | 809 ms |
| SiteGround | 870 ms |
Results
Rocket.net is on a different league with 191 ms global TTFB, all thanks to Cloudflare Enterprise full page caching.
The most interesting result comes from Templ, which was test with no CDN/full page caching, yet secured a global TTFB of 243 ms.
Cloudways came third with 445 ms. GreenGeeks is the first shared hosting company with fastest global TTFB of 528 ms, followed by A2 Hosting and FastComet.
ChemiCloud and Hostinger performed decently with 571 ms and 572 ms respectively. WPX which had a good run in all the tests, make a dent here with 621 ms. These could be one of the reason why their TTFB is not consistent as seen on the Pingdom graph.
SiteGround secured the slowest TTFB among all hosts even slower than HostGator. WP Engine and Kinsta for the first time have a similar score of 650 ms and 654 ms respectively.
Benchmark Review Of All Tested Hosting Companies:
A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting is easily one of the best shared hosting to get started. Let it be the TTFB or Uptime or load test, A2 Hosting beats most other shared as well as managed WordPress hosting services. The WPBenchmark hardware scores are average but that doesn’t going to make a big impact in its performance.
Bluehost
Compared to last year benchmark scores, Bluehost has improved a lot in its speed and uptime score. Their load test is not bad either. Their WPBenchmark score improved compared to lasy year, so I think they improved the server architecture. However, Bluehost can’t top at any tests.
Cloudways
Cloudways powered by DigitalOcean is a great managed Cloud hosting to get started. Their TTFB, Uptime, Load testing, WPBenchmark, etc are perfect and worth for the price.
ChemiCloud
ChemiCloud benchmark scores are slipped now compared to last year. Their uptime is below average and the load handling also got worser.
DreamPress
By data, DreamPress can be avoided at any cost. Their prices got increasing every year but their Speed, Uptime, load handling, etc got worser.
FastComet
FastComet improved their speed, uptime and load handling by 2x, compared to last year. The load testing score is the most impressive as the scores are below par in las year. Definitely, a worthy contender for best shared hosting service.
GreenGeeks
GreenGeeks is another great shared hosting service, consistently performing in our last two years of testing. They handle the load better, uptime and TTFB is great. Their Global TTFB is super impressive making them suitable for sites with global visitors.
Hostinger
Hostinger’s uptime has improved compared to previous year. Their load testing is still needs improvement. They upgraded their plans recently with upgraded server specs like more PHP workers, SQL connections etc which might a reason for their improved WPBenchmark hardware score.
HostGator
Easily, the only shared hosting service that can be avoided at any cost. Their peformance is below par on all the tests and nothing good to get discussed.
Kinsta
Kinsta’s load handling is one of the best among all the hosts tested. Even with increasing load, their response time reminded same. Their TTFB, uptime and WPBenchmark hardware scores are excellent making them, one of the greatest Managed WordPress hosting service.
Nexcess
Nexcess scores are above average in all the tests but they can’t perform better than its competitors. Considering the overall performance in all the test, I give a buy call to Nexcess.
Rocket.net
Rocket.net looked better at all the tests. Their Global TTFB is top notch with good WPBenchmark score. It has the best load testing score, so its good to trust them for high traffic sites. Easily, my recommended Managed WordPress host in 2024.
SiteGround:
SiteGround’s uptime and load testing scores are improved compared to last year. But their Global TTFB is slowest among all the hosts. Though their performance looks good on most other tests, there are better shared hosting alternatives to try out.
Templ
Templ’s load testing scores used to be best but slightly slipped this year. Yet, the scores are still impressive. Take TTFB, Uptime or global TTFB, Templ’s performance are good. Worthy considering for an affordable Google Cloud based WordPress hosting.
WP Engine
WP Engine performance is below par, just like last year. Though they introduced new Advanced Network for better performance, it does nothing ground breaking. I can’t test them for load test as the test gets blocked due to security.
WPX
WPX performance has improved a lot. They had frequent downtimes in 2021 and now in 2024, its 100%. Their load handling is great. The TTFB is great but the global TTFB is below par.
