WordPress Hosting Benchmarks 2023

Are you looking for the best WordPress hosting provider based on performance benchmarks? Look no further.

Our data-backed WordPress hosting benchmarks will provide you with all the information you need to make an informed decision.

In this latest article, I’ve compared the popular WordPress hosting services based on critical criteria such as TTFB, uptime, load testing, Core Web Vitals, and global TTFB.

By the end of this article, you will clearly understand which hosting provider is the best fit for your WordPress site.

WordPress Hosting Benchmark Methodology:

Our WordPress test sites are developed to simulate a production site. The setup consists of

• Default WordPress theme
• PHP 7.4
• Akismet, Contact Form 7 and Rank Math plugins.

Here is the list of hosting with its caching setup:

Criteria for Evaluating WordPress Hosting Performance:

Below is the list of tests I used to measure the performance.

• Test 1: TTFB test using Pingdom (tested from 20 USA locations)
• Test 2: Uptime (using Pingdom data from 20 locations)
• Test 3: Load Test using Loader.io (1000 users)
• Test 4: Core Web Vitals (using GTMetrix.com)
• Test 5: Global TTFB using KeyCDN Performance test tool (tested from 10 global locations)

Benchmark Test 1 – TTFB

Server Response Time (TTFB) is the most critical factor for any WordPress hosting service. (lower the TTFB, faster the servers)

The site should have the fastest TTFB to provide the fastest full load time to visitors.

Our Pingdom tool monitors all the test sites from 20 USA locations every 60 seconds. A total of 10,100 tests are made to determine the average TTFB for the month.

Results

Key takeaways:

Benchmark Test 2 – Uptime

This uptime test is done to ensure the fastest WordPress hosting is also reliable. There is no use in using the fastest host with poor uptime records.

I used Pingdom to track the uptime from 20 USA locations. Refer to the above images for uptime data.

Results

Key takeaways:

Out of all hosts, Rocket is the only host to secure 100% uptime in the last 12 months. There are seven companies that recorded 99.99% uptime.

Hostinger, HostGator, and Bluehost recorded the lowest uptime.

Benchmark Test 3 – Load Testing

WordPress load testing is a process to measure how much traffic the test sites can handle.

In this test, 500 simultaneous 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	19ms	9ms	2075ms	741879	Check Data
WPX	24ms	7ms	1485ms	610345	Check Data
Kinsta	47ms	25ms	3060ms	317688	Check Data
Templ	50ms	27ms	10207ms	276987	Check Data
ChemiCloud	62ms	32ms	691ms	240473	Check Data
GreenGeeks	77ms	23ms	437ms	193706	Check Data
A2 Hosting	102ms	22ms	1927ms	145364	Check Data
DreamPress	119ms	78ms	1426ms	125809	Check Data
SiteGround	173ms	33ms	1672ms	86451	Check Data
Cloudways	180ms	8ms	813ms	83540	Check Data
Nexcess	320ms	57ms	6948ms	45670	Check Data
Bluehost	309ms	60ms	10066ms	38919	Check Data
FastComet	323ms	27ms	10001ms	44787	Check Data
HostGator	762ms	73ms	10002ms	15918	Check Data
Hostinger	6210ms	21ms	19107ms	1882	Check Data
WP Engine (Incomplete)	60ms	44ms	312ms	1177	Check Data

Benchmark Test 4 – Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals is the new performance metric developed by Google.

The test sites are tested using GTmetrix, and the Core Web Vitals metrics like Largest Contentful Paint and Cumulative Layout Shift are calculated in this test.

The First Input Delay is field data; hence, it can't be measured in tools. However, Google recommends considering Total Blocking Time as a proxy measurement; therefore, I include Total Blocking Time in the report.

Results

Host	LCP	TBT	CLS
Templ	331ms	0ms	0
Nexcess	360ms	0ms	0
ChemiCloud	389ms	0ms	0
GreenGeeks	406ms	0ms	0
Bluehost	435ms	0ms	0
Cloudways	467ms	0ms	0
Rocket	480ms	0ms	0
A2 Hosting	495ms	0ms	0
DreamPress	533ms	0ms	0
SiteGround	546ms	0ms	0
FastComet	568ms	0ms	0
HostGator	607ms	0ms	0
WP Engine	635ms	0ms	0
WPX	657ms	0ms	0
Kinsta	677ms	0ms	0
Hostinger	731ms	0ms	0

Takeaway:

Templ, Nexcess, and ChemiCloud are the top performers in this test. However, our test is lab data, and one needs to focus on improving the field data to get a pass in “Core Web Vitals”.

Benchmark Test 5 – Global TTFB Test

The site is tested from 35 global locations to measure the server response time (TTFB). If your site has global visitors, watch these results.

Results

Based on the data, Rocket (227ms), Templ (405ms), Cloudways (437ms), Kinsta (449ms), and WPX (462ms) are the top WordPress hosts with the fastest global TTFB.

Hosting	Global TTFB
Rocket	227ms
Templ	405ms
Cloudways	437ms
Kinsta	449ms
WPX	462ms
GreenGeeks	530ms
Hostinger	541ms
Bluehost	586ms
FastComet	594ms
Nexcess	597ms
ChemiCloud	602ms
WP Engine	633ms
A2 Hosting	639ms
DreamPress	643ms
HostGator	816ms
SiteGround	890ms

Comparison of WordPress Hosting Industry Benchmarks and Standards:

Rocket.net

Rocket.net secured the top positions in most benchmark tests. It's the only company that utilized the Cloudflare Enterprise in a better way.

Templ

Templ harnesses the complete power of Google Cloud (Server + CDN + DNS). Their benchmark results are better than other Google Cloud based WordPress hosting providers.

Cloudways

Cloudways continually provides better benchmarking results in most tests but performs slower at load tests. Since I tested them only with the basic plan, their higher plan can provide better load handling.

GreenGeeks

GreenGeeks is the surprising performer because their shared hosting outperforms many premium-priced Managed WP hosting services. The best option to get started for an affordable price.

A2 Hosting

A2 Hosting got decent benchmark scores on most tests. However, their starter plan (which I tested) is limited by many factors. But still, they're better than many shared hosting providers.

WPX

WPX benchmarks have improved a lot compared to last year. In 2021 data, they have got frequent downtimes (apart from the 5 hours outage that happened in Aug. 2021). Since moving their tech stacks to LiteSpeed, there have been better improvements in the performance.

Kinsta

Kinsta Edge caching made big improvements in their load testing benchmarks which I ran in January 2023. Kinsta had the slowest TTFB for 12 months (Dec 21 – Dec 22), but after the introduction of Edge caching, their TTFB has improved a lot by 100-150ms this month. I expect Kinsta's performance will be better in our Q2 2023 benchmarks.

WP Engine

WP Engine secured a decent score in TTFB and uptime test. I can't able to run load testing as their security system blocks our test, considering it a DDOS attack. Apart from that, WP Engine is a solid contender, considering the number speed based features like Advanced Network, which got introduced last year.

ChemiCloud

ChemiCloud Load test benchmarks are impressive followed by a great show in the TTFB test. However, their uptime is poor with the starter plan. I bet their Mid and top-tier plans can have better uptime.

DreamPress

DreamPress recorded decent performance in all tests but didn't come in the top 5 on any tests. Good in most terms but not the best at any.

FastComet

FastComet surprisingly scored better in most benchmarks except Load testing. It happens probably due to the Apache Web Servers. Their mid and top-tier plans have LiteSpeed servers that can handle a better load.

SiteGround

SiteGround scored average on all the tests. Their Global TTFB is one the slowest of all hosts benchmarked. GreeGeeks, which costs 2x lesser than SiteGround, provides 2x faster TTFB and load handling.

Nexcess

Nexcess scored average on all the tests. However, they're feature packed with many speed features, which I don't find in other managed WordPress hosts.

Hostinger

Hostinger scored below average on most tests. Their load handling and uptime are poor in their starter plan, which is reasonably priced.

Bluehost

Bluehost has the worst uptime on the list. All other benchmarks prove their performance is below average.

HostGator

HostGator services can be avoided at any cost. All their benchmarks performance is 2x slower compared to all other hosts combined.

Wrapping up

Based on our WordPress hosting benchmark results, I've identified the top performing hosting providers in terms of TTFB, Uptime, load testing, Core Web Vitals, and Global TTFB.

However, no benchmarks are perfect, and our review might not show the real face of hosting companies. For example, we tested the companies using the starter plan, but companies put the maximum speed benefits on the top-tier popular plans only.

A host mentioned as Average might be a Good top-tier plan. I suggest users sign up with companies that they think are a good fit and perform their own benchmarks. All the hosting services are covered by money-back guarantee, so you've nothing to lose.