WordPress Hosting Performance Benchmarks (2016)

LoadStormLogo

Sponsored by LoadStorm. The easy and cost effective load testing tool for web and mobile applications.

2018 WordPress Hosting Performance Benchmarks is now live.

This is the fourth round of managed WordPress web hosting performance testing. You can see the original, 2014 version , and 2015 version.

Companies Tested

A2 Hosting [Reviews]
BlueHost [Reviews]
CloudWays [Reviews]
Conetix
DreamHost [Reviews]
FlyWheel [Reviews]
GoDaddy [Reviews]
Incendia Web Works
Kinsta
LightningBase
LiquidWeb [Reviews]
MediaTemple [Reviews]
Pagely [Reviews]
Pantheon [Reviews]
Pressable (Formerly ZippyKid)
Pressed.net
Pressidium
Pressjitsu
PressLabs
Hosting Agency (German)
SiteGround [Reviews]
Traffic Planet Hosting
WordPress.com VIP
WPEngine [Reviews]
WP.land
WPOven.com

Companies that didn't participate this round but did on previous rounds: WebHostingBuzzWPProntoNexcessA Small Orange [Reviews] and  WebSynthesis [Reviews].

Every plan was donated by the company for testing purposes with the strict stipulation that it would be the same as if any normal user signed up. There is a notes section at the bottom that details the minutiae of changes made to plans at the end of this post. Nearly every single company had security issues that I had to get around, so they worked to make sure my testing went through properly. Load testing often looks like an attack and it's the only way I can do these tests.

The Products

This year is a bit different than years past where every company and plan competed against one another. When I started the price gap was from $5/month to $29/month. Last year the gap was $5.95 to $299. I was only testing entry level plans but the market has dramatically changed since I first got started. Today, there is demand at many different price points and lots of companies have gone upscale with WordPress.com VIP at the top of the price bracket starting at $5,000/month. The only logical way to break things up was by price brackets. So below you will see the brackets and which companies participated. Specific details will be included on each bracket's write up.

 

<$25/m $25-50/m $51-100/m $101-200/m $201-500/m $500+/m
A2 Hosting A2 Hosting LiquidWeb A2 Hosting Kinsta Kinsta
Bluehost Conetix Bluehost Bluehost Media Temple Pagely
DreamHost LLC Lightning Base Cloudways (AWS ) Conetix Pagley Pantheon
Flywheel Pantheon Cloudways (Google) Kinsta Pantheon Pressable
GoDaddy Pressable Kinsta Liquid Web Pressable Pressidium
Incendia Web Works Pressjitsu Lightning Base Pressable Pressidium WordPress.com VIP
Lightning Base SiteGround Media Temple Pressidium Presslabs WP Engine
Media Temple WP Engine Pagely Pressjitsu SiteGround
Pressed WP.land Pantheon
Hosting Agency.de Cloudways (DigitalOcean) Pressable
SiteGround Cloudways (Vultr) Pressidium
Traffic Planet Hosting WPOven SiteGround
WP.land

 

Methodology

The question I tried to answer is how well do these WordPress hosting services perform? I tested each company on two distinct measures of performance: peak performance and consistency. I've also included a compute and database benchmark based on a WordPress plugin.

All tests were performed on an identical WordPress dummy website with the same plugins except in cases where hosts added extra plugins. Each site was monitored for approximately two months for consistency.

1. LoadStorm

LoadStorm was kind enough to give me resources to perform load testing on their platform and multiple staff members were involved in designing and testing these WordPress hosts. I created identical scripts for each host to load a site, login to the site and browse the site. Logged in users were designed to break some of the caching and better simulate real user load. The amount of users varies by cost.

2. Blitz.io

I used Blitz again to compare against previous results. This tests the static caching of the homepage. I increased the number of users based on monthly cost this time.

3. Uptime (UptimeRobot and StatusCake)

Consistency matters. I wanted to see how well these companies performed over a longer period of time. I used two separate uptime monitoring services over the course of a month to test consistency.

4. WebPageTest.org

WebPageTest with 9 runs, first view only, native connection. I tested from Dulles, Denver, Los Angeles, London, Frankfurt, South Africa, Singapore, Shanghai, Japan, Sydney, Brazil.

5. WPPerformanceTester (free plugin on WordPress.org)

I created a WordPress plugin to benchmark CPU, MySql and WordPress DB performance. The CPU/MySql benchmarks are testing the compute power. The WordPress component tests actually calling $wpdb and executing insert, select, update and delete queries.

 

Notes - Changes made to Hosting Plans

A2 - VPS Servers can't install WordPress out of the box without extra payment for Softaculous. Disabled recaptcha.

Conetix - disabled WordFence and Stream plugins.

SiteGround - fully enable SuperCacher plugin

GoDaddy - 24 database connection limit increased if you notify them of heavy load

CloudWays - disabled WordFence

The following two tabs change content below.
avatar
Kevin Ohashi is the geek-in-charge at Review Signal. He is passionate about making data meaningful for consumers. Kevin is based in Washington, DC.





41 thoughts on “WordPress Hosting Performance Benchmarks (2016)

  1. Pingback: $25-50/Month WordPress Hosting Performance Benchmarks (2016) | Review Signal Blog

  2. Pingback: $51-100/Month WordPress Hosting Performance Benchmarks (2016) | Review Signal Blog

  3. Pingback: $201-500/Month WordPress Hosting Performance Benchmarks (2016) | Review Signal Blog

  4. Pingback: <$25/Month WordPress Hosting Performance Benchmarks (2016) | Review Signal Blog

  5. Pingback: $500+/Month Enterprise WordPress Hosting Performance Benchmarks (2016) | Review Signal Blog

  6. Pingback: $101-200/Month WordPress Hosting Performance Benchmarks (2016) | Review Signal Blog

  7. avatarJesse

    Awesome breakdown Kevin, I admire your quest for transparency —

    If you’re ever interested in testing LittleBizzy, we’d be happy to provide you with a test account to benchmark the consistency of our plans — from $20 to $160, every site we host is on a dedicated VPS (and IP address).

    Cheers and best regards!

    Reply
  8. avatarDavid Innes Real Basics LLC

    I can’t say how much I appreciate not just the time and care you put into building your tests but also the very helpful way you’ve ranked them by pricing tier.

    It’s particularly helpful seeing where hosting companies rank in multiple tiers. Most of my clients are small to midsize, mostly local businesses who’s online presences may grow but probably won’t have to worry about scaling up multiple tiers. But for clients with more aggressive ambitions, and marketing budgets, it’s really nice being able to see at a glance which hosts are likely to be able to handle lots of growth.

    Genuinely impressive review, Kevin. Thank you!

    Reply
  9. Pingback: Podcast E134 – Listener Q/A | Kitchen Sink WordPress

  10. Pingback: 2016 WordPress Hosting Performance Benchmarks av Review Signal – Torgesta.se

  11. Pingback: Kinsta Named Top Tier Again in 2016 Performance Benchmarks

  12. Pingback: Kinsta Scores Top Tier For WordPress Hosting Performance | Web Design Tutorial

  13. avatarJames George

    Kevin,
    I am so glad I found your site! I have never seen anyone put the care you have into testing hosting companies. This is excellent work, and you’ve certainly done your homework. I have been a long time Bluehost customer, but as I grow I am considering other options. Thanks so much for this!

    Reply
  14. avatarJamaila Alan

    Good work Kevin. Appreciate your efforts in bringing these WordPress hosting benchmarks. Cloudways has released its public API. Would love to know your feedback

    Reply
  15. Pingback: Top 6 Advantages of Choosing Google Cloud Hosting

  16. Pingback: Top 8 Reasons To Choose Managed WordPress Hosting

  17. Pingback: Kinsta WordPress Hosting Review (2016) | Review Signal Blog

  18. Pingback: SiteGround WordPress Hosting Review | Review Signal Blog

  19. Pingback: LightningBase WordPress Hosting Review | Review Signal Blog

  20. Pingback: Pressidium WordPress Hosting Review (2016) | Review Signal Blog

  21. Pingback: Pressable WordPress Hosting Review (2016) | Review Signal Blog

  22. Pingback: LiquidWeb WordPress Hosting Review (2016) | Review Signal Blog

  23. Pingback: Pantheon WordPress Hosting Review (2016) | Review Signal Blog

  24. Pingback: DreamHost / DreamPress WordPress Hosting Review (2016) | Review Signal Blog

  25. Pingback: WPOven WordPress Hosting Review (2016) | Review Signal Blog

  26. Pingback: WordPress.com VIP Hosting Review (2016) | Review Signal Blog

  27. Pingback: 2016 Year in Review – Kinsta Insights

  28. Pingback: Las 8 Razones Principales A Escoger WordPress Hosting Gestionado

  29. Pingback: Review Signal’s Best Web Hosting Companies in 2016 | Review Signal Blog

  30. Pingback: WordPress Hosting Performance Benchmarks (2015) | Review Signal Blog

  31. Pingback: 40 Million hits a day on WordPress using a $10 VPS | Review Signal Blog

  32. avatarTessa Kawamura

    Good, information, but still I am confused about the best host, Dreamhost is Good, when I have hosted my sites on Dreamhost, rank of my websites in Google was really nice but when I moved to Hostgator, it fall badly… I need something like hetzner.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Current day month ye@r *

Loading...

Interested in seeing which web hosting companies people love (and hate!)? Click here and find out how your web host stacks up.