{"id":1948,"date":"2018-01-30T00:34:24","date_gmt":"2018-01-30T05:34:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reviewsignal.com\/blog\/?page_id=1948"},"modified":"2019-05-10T09:23:31","modified_gmt":"2019-05-10T13:23:31","slug":"wordpress-hosting-performance-benchmarks-2018","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/reviewsignal.com\/blog\/wordpress-hosting-performance-benchmarks-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"WordPress Hosting Performance Benchmarks (2018)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/reviewsignal.com\/blog\/wordpress-hosting-performance-benchmarks-2019\/\" style=\"color:red;\">2019 WordPress Hosting Performance Benchmarks<\/a> have been published.<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"toc_container\" class=\"toc_wrap_left no_bullets\"><p class=\"toc_title\">Contents<\/p><ul class=\"toc_list\"><li><a href=\"#Results\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_1\">1<\/span> Results<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#About\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_1\">2<\/span> About<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#Companies_Tested\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_1\">3<\/span> Companies Tested<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#The_Products\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_1\">4<\/span> The Products<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#Methodology\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_1\">5<\/span> Methodology<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#Test_Configurations\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_1\">6<\/span> Test Configurations<\/a><ul><li><a href=\"#LoadStorm\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_2\">6.1<\/span> LoadStorm<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#LoadImpact\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_2\">6.2<\/span> LoadImpact<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#WebPageTestorg\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_2\">6.3<\/span> WebPageTest.org<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#Uptime_Monitoring\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_2\">6.4<\/span> Uptime Monitoring<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#WPPerformanceTester\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_2\">6.5<\/span> WPPerformanceTester<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><a href=\"#Ratings\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_1\">7<\/span> Ratings<\/a><ul><li><a href=\"#Top_Tier_WordPress_Hosting\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_2\">7.1<\/span> Top Tier WordPress Hosting<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#Honorable_Mention\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_2\">7.2<\/span> Honorable Mention<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><a href=\"#Major_Changes\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_1\">8<\/span> Major Changes<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#Costs_and_Price_Tiers\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_1\">9<\/span> Costs and Price Tiers<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#Notes_-_Changes_made_to_Hosting_Plans\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_1\">10<\/span> Notes - Changes made to Hosting Plans<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#See_The_Results\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_1\">11<\/span> See The Results<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#Other_Price_Tier_Results\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_1\">12<\/span> Other Price Tier Results<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n<h2><span id=\"Results\">Results<\/span><\/h2>\n<div style=\"margin-left: 20px; display: inline-block;\"><a href=\"\/blog\/under-25-month-wordpress-hosting-performance-benchmarks-2018\/\" class=\"btn btn-success\" style=\"margin: 5px 5px 0 0; width: 300px; text-align: center;\">&lt;$25\/Month Tier<\/a><a href=\"\/blog\/25-50-month-wordpress-hosting-performance-benchmarks-2018\/\" class=\"btn btn-success\" style=\"margin: 5px 5px 0 0; width: 300px; text-align: center;\">$25-50\/Month Tier<\/a><a href=\"\/blog\/51-100-month-wordpress-hosting-performance-benchmarks-2018\/\" class=\"btn btn-success\" style=\"margin: 5px 5px 0 0; width: 300px; text-align: center;\">$51-100\/Month Tier<\/a><a href=\"\/blog\/101-200-month-wordpress-hosting-performance-benchmarks-2018\/\" class=\"btn btn-success\" style=\"margin: 5px 5px 0 0; width: 300px; text-align: center;\">$101-200\/Month Tier<\/a><a href=\"\/blog\/201-500-month-wordpress-hosting-performance-benchmarks-2018\/\" class=\"btn btn-success\" style=\"margin: 5px 5px 0 0; width: 300px; text-align: center;\">$201-500\/Month Tier<\/a><a href=\"\/blog\/enterprise-wordpress-hosting-performance-benchmarks-2018\/\" class=\"btn btn-success\" style=\"margin: 5px 5px 0 0; width: 300px; text-align: center;\">$500+\/Month (Enterprise) Tier<\/a><\/div>\n<h2><span id=\"About\">About<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>WordPress Hosting Performance Benchmarks is designed to create a consistent set of benchmarks showing which web hosting companies offer best in class performance. The focus of these tests is performance, not support, not features, not any other dimension. Review Signal's <a href=\"https:\/\/reviewsignal.com\">web hosting reviews<\/a> has insights for some of the companies with regards to these other aspects. These benchmarks should be looked at in combination with other sources of information when making any hosting decision. That said, for the performance conscious, these benchmarks should be a good guide.<\/p>\n<p>Previous years testing can be found at the following links:\u00a0<a title=\"Managed WordPress Hosting Showdown \u2013 Performance Benchmarks Comparison\" href=\"https:\/\/reviewsignal.com\/blog\/2014\/03\/26\/managed-wordpress-hosting-showdown-performance-benchmarks\/\">original<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/reviewsignal.com\/blog\/2014\/11\/03\/wordpress-hosting-performance-benchmarks-november-2014\/\">2014<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/reviewsignal.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/28\/wordpress-hosting-performance-benchmarks-2015\/\">2015<\/a>, and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/reviewsignal.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/14\/wordpress-hosting-performance-benchmarks-2016\/\">2016<\/a>. This was supposed to be 2017 but due to delays became 2018.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"Companies_Tested\"><strong>Companies Tested<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=26&amp;=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">1&amp;1<\/a> [<a href=\"https:\/\/reviewsignal.com\/webhosting\/company\/26\/1and1\">Reviews<\/a>]<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=203&amp;t=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">34SP.com<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=140&amp;=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">A2 Hosting<\/a>\u00a0[<a href=\"https:\/\/reviewsignal.com\/webhosting\/company\/140\/a2hosting\">Reviews<\/a>]<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/amimoto-ami.com\/\">AMIMOTO<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=4&amp;t=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">BlueHost<\/a>\u00a0[<a href=\"https:\/\/reviewsignal.com\/webhosting\/company\/4\/bluehost\/\">Reviews<\/a>]<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=167&amp;t=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">CloudWays<\/a>\u00a0[<a href=\"https:\/\/reviewsignal.com\/webhosting\/company\/167\/cloudways\">Reviews<\/a>]<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=10&amp;t=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">DreamHost<\/a>\u00a0[<a href=\"https:\/\/reviewsignal.com\/webhosting\/company\/10\/dreamhost\/\">Reviews<\/a>]<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=161&amp;t=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">FlyWheel<\/a>\u00a0[<a href=\"https:\/\/reviewsignal.com\/webhosting\/company\/161\/flywheel\/\">Reviews<\/a>]<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=114&amp;t=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">GreenGeeks<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=204&amp;t=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">Hosting.io<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=188&amp;t=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">Incendia Web Works<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=205&amp;t=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">IOZoom<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=192&amp;t=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">Kickassd<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=166&amp;t=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">Kinsta<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=128&amp;t=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">LightningBase<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=2&amp;t=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">LiquidWeb<\/a> [<a href=\"https:\/\/reviewsignal.com\/webhosting\/company\/2\/liquidweb\">Reviews<\/a>]<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=202&amp;t=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">Nestify<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=170&amp;t=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">Nexcess<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=116&amp;t=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">Pantheon<\/a>\u00a0[<a href=\"https:\/\/reviewsignal.com\/webhosting\/company\/116\/pantheon\">Reviews<\/a>]<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=157&amp;t=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">Pressable<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=190&amp;t=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">Pressed.net<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=162&amp;t=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">PressLabs<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=18&amp;t=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">SiteGround<\/a>\u00a0[<a href=\"https:\/\/reviewsignal.com\/webhosting\/company\/18\/siteground\/\">Reviews<\/a>]<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=191&amp;t=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">WordPress.com VIP<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=103&amp;t=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">WPEngine<\/a>\u00a0[<a href=\"https:\/\/reviewsignal.com\/webhosting\/company\/103\/wpengine\/\">Reviews<\/a>]<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=177&amp;t=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">WPOven.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Companies that didn't participate this round but did on previous rounds: <a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=100&amp;t=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">WebHostingBuzz<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=178&amp;t=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">WPPronto<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=33&amp;t=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">A Small Orange<\/a>\u00a0[<a href=\"https:\/\/reviewsignal.com\/webhosting\/company\/33\/asmallorange\/\">Reviews<\/a>],\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=127&amp;t=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">WebSynthesis<\/a>\u00a0[<a href=\"https:\/\/reviewsignal.com\/webhosting\/company\/127\/websynthesis\/\">Reviews<\/a>],\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hosting-agency.de\/\">Hosting Agency<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=186&amp;t=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">Conetix<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=34&amp;t=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">GoDaddy<\/a>\u00a0[<a href=\"https:\/\/reviewsignal.com\/webhosting\/company\/34\/godaddy\/\">Reviews<\/a>],\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=23&amp;t=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">MediaTemple<\/a>\u00a0[<a href=\"https:\/\/reviewsignal.com\/webhosting\/company\/23\/mediatemple\/\">Reviews<\/a>],\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=104&amp;t=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">Pagely<\/a>\u00a0[<a href=\"https:\/\/reviewsignal.com\/webhosting\/company\/104\/pagely\/\">Reviews<\/a>], <a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=174&amp;t=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">Pressidium,\u00a0<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=187&amp;t=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">Pressjitsu,\u00a0<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=189&amp;t=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">Traffic Planet Hosting<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=187&amp;t=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\"><\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/clicks.reviewsignal.com\/out.php?c=185&amp;t=wordpress-benchmarks-article-2018\">WP.land<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Why are some companies missing? If they aren't listed, they didn't opt in to participate. Chances are if it's a well known company they declined to participate, if it's a smaller one, they may not have known about this test and I may not have been aware of them to reach out. You can ask any company to participate and hopefully consumer interest pushes them towards it. Web hosting companies can signup for our <a href=\"https:\/\/reviewsignal.com\/blog\/web-hosting-company-mailing-list\/\">Web Hosting Company Mailing List<\/a>\u00a0to keep track.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"The_Products\"><strong>The Products<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Below you will see the price brackets and which companies participated. Specific details will be included on each bracket's write up.<\/p>\n<table dir=\"ltr\" border=\"1\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<colgroup>\n<col width=\"100\" \/>\n<col width=\"100\" \/>\n<col width=\"100\" \/>\n<col width=\"100\" \/>\n<col width=\"100\" \/>\n<col width=\"100\" \/><\/colgroup>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;&lt;$25&quot;}\">&lt;$25<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;$25-50&quot;}\">$25-50<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;$51-100&quot;}\">$51-100<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;$101-200&quot;}\">$101-200<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;$201-500&quot;}\">$201-500<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Enterprise ($500+)&quot;}\">\n<div>\n<div>Enterprise ($500+)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;1&amp;1 Internet&quot;}\">1&amp;1 Internet<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;AMIMOTO&quot;}\">AMIMOTO<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;CloudWays DO&quot;}\">CloudWays DO<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Kinsta&quot;}\">Kinsta<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;CloudWays AWS&quot;}\">CloudWays AWS<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Kinsta&quot;}\">Kinsta<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;34SP.com&quot;}\">34SP.com<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;CloudWays Vultr&quot;}\">CloudWays Vultr<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Kinsta&quot;}\">Kinsta<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Liquid Web, Inc&quot;}\">Liquid Web, Inc<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Kinsta&quot;}\">Kinsta<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Nexcess.net&quot;}\">Nexcess.net<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;A2 Hosting&quot;}\">A2 Hosting<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;DreamHost&quot;}\">DreamHost<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Nestify&quot;}\">Nestify<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Nestify&quot;}\">Nestify<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Nestify&quot;}\">Nestify<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Pantheon&quot;}\">Pantheon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Bluehost Cloud&quot;}\">Bluehost Cloud<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;hosting.io&quot;}\">hosting.io<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Pantheon&quot;}\">Pantheon<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Nexcess.net&quot;}\">Nexcess.net<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Pantheon&quot;}\">Pantheon<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Pressable&quot;}\">Pressable<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Bluehost Shared&quot;}\">Bluehost Shared<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;IO Zoom&quot;}\">IO Zoom<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Pressable&quot;}\">Pressable<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Pressable&quot;}\">Pressable<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Pressable&quot;}\">Pressable<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Presslabs&quot;}\">Presslabs<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Flywheel&quot;}\">Flywheel<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Kickassd&quot;}\">Kickassd<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;WPOven INC&quot;}\">WPOven INC<\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;SiteGround&quot;}\">SiteGround<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;GreenGeeks&quot;}\">GreenGeeks<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Kinsta&quot;}\">Kinsta<\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;WordPress.com VIP&quot;}\">\n<div>\n<div>WordPress.com VIP<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Incendia Web Works&quot;}\">Incendia Web Works<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Lightning Base&quot;}\">Lightning Base<\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;WP Engine&quot;}\">WP Engine<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;IO Zoom&quot;}\">IO Zoom<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Nestify&quot;}\">Nestify<\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Kickassd&quot;}\">Kickassd<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Pantheon&quot;}\">Pantheon<\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Lightning Base&quot;}\">Lightning Base<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Pressed.net&quot;}\">Pressed.net<\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Nestify&quot;}\">Nestify<\/td>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;SiteGround&quot;}\">SiteGround<\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Nexcess.net&quot;}\">Nexcess.net<\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Pressable&quot;}\">Pressable<\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;SiteGround&quot;}\">SiteGround<\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h2><span id=\"Methodology\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">Methodology<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The goal of this research is testing the performance of specialized WordPress hosting. The two measures to determine performance are peak-performance and consistency. Peak performance is measured using load testing services which emulate large numbers of users visiting a website and watching how well the hosting responds under these stressful conditions. Consistency is measured using uptime monitoring to make sure that the servers remain available for a longer duration of time.<\/p>\n<p>There are some non-impacting measurements taken as well that are recorded to help inform more advanced users and potentially be used to create a benchmark at a later time. Geographic response times from multiple locations using WebPageTest have fit in this category. The WPPerformanceTester tests also fit this category. There may be an SSL Test added to this category as well. These measures don\u2019t impact the Top-Tier WordPress Hosting status we give, nor the honorable mention status.<\/p>\n<p>Uptime monitoring lasts two months or longer.<\/p>\n<p>The hosting packages are as close to default as possible. In some circumstances where turning on performance enhancements is very simple, clicking an option to turn on caching for example, this will be done. Otherwise everything is as-is for new customers upon sign up to avoid as much as possible the extra benefit of companies knowing they are being tested.<\/p>\n<p>The exception to this rule is the Enterprise tier ($500\/month+). This exception for the Enterprise tier is because at a certain level, a higher degree of service is expected. Customers spending large sums of money are generally on-boarded and optimized by hosting companies. As such, all companies competing in the Enterprise tier are allowed to optimize the package as much as possible to maximize the performance of the site.<\/p>\n<p>This methodology isn\u2019t perfect. One of the most common complaints companies participating have is that it doesn\u2019t encapsulate their service well because they do \u2018something special\u2019 for every client. This may be true, but it\u2019s hard to allow this behavior because the difference between \u2018every\u2019 client and \u2018this specific test\u2019 isn\u2019t measureable. It also relies on good faith from the companies because load testing servers requires permission to do at a meaningful scale. These type of tests often trigger security measures and can impact existing clients. Working with the companies being tested is often a necessity to do these tests properly. Packages are compared to what was submitted and checking for cheating is done regularly. The comparison is designed to be as apples-to-apples as possible.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"Test_Configurations\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">Test Configurations<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>All tests were performed on an identical WordPress dummy website with the same plugins except in cases where hosts added extra plugins or code.<\/p>\n<h3><span id=\"LoadStorm\"><b>LoadStorm<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>The process for <a href=\"https:\/\/loadstorm.com\">LoadStorm<\/a> will be a scaling user test based on the pricing tier. The simulated users will hit the homepage, hit the login page, login, hit a few pages and posts.<\/p>\n<p>The scale of the load varies by price tier starting at 500 users and scaling to n,000 users.<\/p>\n<h3><span id=\"LoadImpact\"><b>LoadImpact<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>LoadImpact ran a simple Lua script that requested the frontpage of the test site. It scaled from 1 to n,000 users based on the price tier. It was designed to emulate the old Blitz.io test of simply hammering the cache.<\/p>\n<pre>http.page_start(\"Page 1 Blitz\")\r\n\r\nresponses = http.request_batch({\r\n\r\n{\"GET\", \"&lt;url&gt;\", auto_decompress=true, response_body_bytes=1024}\r\n\r\n})\r\n\r\nif responses[1].status_code == 200 then else log.debug(\"Status Code: \" .. responses[1].status_code) end\r\n\r\nresult.custom_metric(\"StatusCode\", responses[1].status_code)\r\n\r\nresult.custom_metric(\"TTFB-FirstRequest\", responses[1].time_to_first_byte)\r\n\r\nhttp.page_end(\"Page 1 Blitz\")\r\n\r\nclient.sleep(1)<\/pre>\n<h3><span id=\"WebPageTestorg\"><b>WebPageTest.org<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Tests will be run from 11 locations. Dulles, Denver, LA, London, Frankfurt, Rose Hill (Mauritius), Singapore, Mumbai, Japan, Sydney, Brazil. Last year had Shanghai and South Africa which were replaced by Mumbai and Mauritius because they are no longer available locations.<\/p>\n<h3><span id=\"Uptime_Monitoring\"><b>Uptime Monitoring<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Uptime will be monitored for at least two months for the homepage of the site. <a href=\"https:\/\/uptimerobot.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">UptimeRobot<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/statuscake.com\">StatusCake<\/a> were used to monitor uptime at 1 minute and 5 minute intervals respectively.<\/p>\n<h3><span id=\"WPPerformanceTester\"><b>WPPerformanceTester<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>This plugin will run its performance test. Plugin is available at <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wpperformancetester\/\">WordPress.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"Ratings\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">Ratings<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>There are two levels of recognition awarded to companies that participate in the tests. There is no \u2018best\u2019 declared, it\u2019s simply tiered, it\u2019s hard to come up with an objective ranking system because of the complex nature of hosting. These tests also don\u2019t take into account outside factors like reviews or support. It is simply testing performance as described in the methodology.<\/p>\n<h3><span id=\"Top_Tier_WordPress_Hosting\"><b>Top Tier WordPress Hosting<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>This is awarded to companies who maintain 99.9% uptime throughout the entire testing and show little to no performance degradation during load testing.<\/p>\n<h3><span id=\"Honorable_Mention\"><b>Honorable Mention<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Honorable mentions are given to companies that came close to Top Tier status but for one reason or another fell just slightly short. This could be struggling slightly on a load test or having some minor uptime issues.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"Major_Changes\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">Major Changes<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Blitz.io was replaced with LoadImpact. Blitz.io shut down so it was no longer an option.<\/li>\n<li>Participation no longer free.<\/li>\n<li>Shanghai and South Africa replaced with Mumbai and Mauritius for WebPageTest.<\/li>\n<li>SSL Required for Enterprise tier (not for anything below). SSL will be required for all plans next year.<\/li>\n<li>Adding SSL Test (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ssllabs.com\/ssltest\/\">https:\/\/www.ssllabs.com\/ssltest\/<\/a>) as non-impacting measurement for Enterprise tier.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span id=\"Costs_and_Price_Tiers\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">Costs and Price Tiers<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>A major change this year was the need to charge for testing because of a lack of sponsorship. Hosting companies or companies connected to hosting companies were not welcome to sponsor because of the potential for conflict of interest. Every company pays the same amount based on the price tier of the product.<\/p>\n<p>There is a re-testing fee if the load tests require more than two attempts for whatever reason. Load testing is the primary cost involved with testing, and if a company fails twice for a legitimate reason (almost exclusively security related), then re-testing is allowed to accommodate dealing with security measures with the associated fee based on tier.<\/p>\n<p>All fees paid will be documented publicly for posterity.<\/p>\n<p>The table below lists all six price tiers, the testing fee associated with each tier and the re-testing fee associated with failed load tests. All plans are listed in their retail price range, no first-month\/first-year\/first-billing period\/sale prices will be used in figuring out which tier a plan belongs in.<\/p>\n<table width=\"100%\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"5\">\n<colgroup>\n<col width=\"85*\" \/>\n<col width=\"85*\" \/>\n<col width=\"85*\" \/> <\/colgroup>\n<tbody>\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td width=\"33%\">Pricing Tier<\/td>\n<td width=\"33%\">Price<\/td>\n<td width=\"33%\">Re-Testing Fee<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td width=\"33%\">&lt;$25\/month<\/td>\n<td width=\"33%\">$100<\/td>\n<td width=\"33%\">$50<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td width=\"33%\">$25-50\/month<\/td>\n<td width=\"33%\">$100<\/td>\n<td width=\"33%\">$50<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td width=\"33%\">$51-100\/month<\/td>\n<td width=\"33%\">$150<\/td>\n<td width=\"33%\">$75<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td width=\"33%\">$101-200\/month<\/td>\n<td width=\"33%\">$200<\/td>\n<td width=\"33%\">$100<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td width=\"33%\">$201-500\/month<\/td>\n<td width=\"33%\">$250<\/td>\n<td width=\"33%\">$125<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td width=\"33%\">Enterprise ($500\/month)<\/td>\n<td width=\"33%\">$500<\/td>\n<td width=\"33%\">$250<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><strong style=\"font-size: 1.28571rem;\">Testing Fee Disclosures<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>All companies paid the same fee based on the pricing tier they competed in. The following companies used re-testing fee options, in the format: Company, Tier - Tests<\/p>\n<p>DreamHost, $25-50 - 2<br \/>\nIOZoom, &lt;$25 - 1<br \/>\nNexcess, Enterprise - 5<br \/>\nPressable, Enterprise - 1<br \/>\nSiteGround, &lt;$25 - 2<br \/>\nSiteGround, $25-50 - 1<br \/>\nSiteGround, Enterprise - 2<br \/>\nWPEngine, Enterprise - 1<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"Notes_-_Changes_made_to_Hosting_Plans\"><strong>Notes - Changes made to Hosting Plans<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Almost every company had to disable security measures of some sort.<\/p>\n<p>Kickassd, SiteGround had to turn on caching plugins (very simple).<\/p>\n<p>WordPress.com VIP needed a special version of <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wpperformancetester\/\">WPPerformanceTester<\/a> to work with <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/hyperdb\/\">HyperDB<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>LiquidWeb also needed a special version of WPPerformanceTester to work with sockets to MySql.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"See_The_Results\">See The Results<\/span><\/h2>\n<div style=\"margin-left: 20px; display: inline-block;\">\n<h2 style=\"margin-left: 100px;\"><span id=\"Other_Price_Tier_Results\">Other Price Tier Results<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"\/blog\/under-25-month-wordpress-hosting-performance-benchmarks-2018\/\" class=\"btn btn-success\" style=\"margin: 5px 5px 0 0; width: 300px; text-align: center;\">&lt;$25\/Month Tier<\/a><a href=\"\/blog\/25-50-month-wordpress-hosting-performance-benchmarks-2018\/\" class=\"btn btn-success\" style=\"margin: 5px 5px 0 0; width: 300px; text-align: center;\">$25-50\/Month Tier<\/a><a href=\"\/blog\/51-100-month-wordpress-hosting-performance-benchmarks-2018\/\" class=\"btn btn-success\" style=\"margin: 5px 5px 0 0; width: 300px; text-align: center;\">$51-100\/Month Tier<\/a><a href=\"\/blog\/101-200-month-wordpress-hosting-performance-benchmarks-2018\/\" class=\"btn btn-success\" style=\"margin: 5px 5px 0 0; width: 300px; text-align: center;\">$101-200\/Month Tier<\/a><a href=\"\/blog\/201-500-month-wordpress-hosting-performance-benchmarks-2018\/\" class=\"btn btn-success\" style=\"margin: 5px 5px 0 0; width: 300px; text-align: center;\">$201-500\/Month Tier<\/a><a href=\"\/blog\/enterprise-wordpress-hosting-performance-benchmarks-2018\/\" class=\"btn btn-success\" style=\"margin: 5px 5px 0 0; width: 300px; text-align: center;\">$500+\/Month (Enterprise) Tier<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2019 WordPress Hosting Performance Benchmarks have been published. Contents1 Results2 About3 Companies Tested4 The Products5 Methodology6 Test Configurations6.1 LoadStorm6.2 LoadImpact6.3 WebPageTest.org6.4 Uptime Monitoring6.5 WPPerformanceTester7 Ratings7.1 Top Tier WordPress Hosting7.2 Honorable Mention8 Major Changes9 Costs and Price Tiers10 Notes &#8211; Changes made to Hosting Plans11 See The Results12 Other Price Tier Results Results &lt;$25\/Month Tier$25-50\/Month Tier$51-100\/Month [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2009,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reviewsignal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1948"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reviewsignal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reviewsignal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reviewsignal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reviewsignal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1948"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/reviewsignal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2641,"href":"https:\/\/reviewsignal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1948\/revisions\/2641"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reviewsignal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reviewsignal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}