Are you looking for the fastest WordPress hosting?
Fast hosting can help your website load more quickly. Fast loading pages improve user experience, increase your pageviews, and help with your WordPress SEO.
In this article, we will share our performance test results to help you find the fastest WordPress hosting for your website.
Why Fast WordPress Hosting Is Important
Do you want a fast WordPress website? One way to do that is to choose a reputable WordPress hosting provider that is optimized for speed.
The most important performance indicator is your website’s speed. It not only affects user experience, but it can also hurt your site’s search engine optimization (SEO). Users may leave a slow website before it even loads.
According to a case study that involved Amazon, Google, and other larger sites, a 1-second delay in website speed can reduce your conversions by 7%. A delay of 3 seconds can cost you 50% of your traffic.
On top of that, Google and other search engines penalize slower websites by pushing them down in the search results.
This means slow sites get less traffic, while a fast WordPress website will help you get more traffic, subscribers, and revenue.
How We Tested Website Performance for the Fastest WordPress Hosting Providers
One reason that WPBeginner is the most trusted WordPress resource site is that our reviews are based on actual data and experience.
To find the fastest WordPress hosting providers, we actually signed up with each provider and thoroughly tested their services.
We wanted to accurately measure performance across all WordPress hosting companies, so we created the same sample WordPress site on each hosting provider and used the default WordPress theme.
Next, we imported dummy content for theme development, including images and media, so our test resembles an average user website.
Then, we used independent third-party tools to test the performance of our sample website on each hosting provider:
- We used Pingdom, an industry-leading website speed test service, to get a performance grade for each provider and measure how long it took a page to load.
- We used the Load Impact (k6) service to send virtual users (VU) to each website to see how the hosting server would handle multiple connections at once, like peak traffic times of up to 100 visitors at once.
- We used Bitcatcha to test server response times across many geographical locations, including the United States, London, Singapore, São Paulo, India, Sydney, and Japan. This helps us decide which hosting company is best for each geographical location.
Now that you know our testing process, let’s compare the performance of different hosting companies to see which is the fastest WordPress hosting company on the market.
1. Hostinger
Hostinger is a popular web hosting provider with a reliable and user-friendly platform to launch websites. They offer affordable shared hosting plans with great customer support, a free domain name, a free SSL certificate, and more.
You can learn more in our complete Hostinger review.
Pingdom Website Speed Test
Here are the Pingdom speed testing tool results for Hostinger.
Our test site loading speed was a fraction of a second at 181 milliseconds, which is great. But keep in mind that this test was performed when the website had no traffic. Let’s take a look at how that speed is affected by more visitors.
k6 Load Impact Test
Here are the k6 performance overview results for Hostinger. To see how more visitors would impact the site’s speed, we gradually built up to 100 unique visitors at once.
As you can see, Hostinger performed really well on this test. As we increased virtual users (purple line), the response time (blue line) remained steady, with an average of 460 milliseconds.
This means that if you have a small business website, an online store, or a growing blog, your Hostinger website will easily handle sudden traffic spikes.
Bitcatcha Server Response Time
The web server’s response time will vary depending on how far your visitors are from the server. The Bitcatcha test measures how fast the Hostinger server actually responds from different locations around the world without loading the web page.
You can see that the response times were great across the board. They were particularly fast in Europe and North America.
Hostinger Pros and Cons
Hostinger is a robust platform to host your website. Now that you have seen their performance test results, you might like to see some of their other pros and cons.
Pros:
- Most affordable hosting on the market
- Performance-optimized hosting
- Excellent customer support
- 1-click WordPress install
- Free domain and free SSL certificate
- Many datacenters across the world
Cons:
- Renewal prices are a bit higher
Why We Chose Hostinger
Hostinger is a great option for beginners who want to start a website without spending too much money. Their low-price shared hosting options offer good value for money with great performance and an extremely easy-to-use control panel.
Hostinger Pricing Plans
Hostinger offers many hosting plans with different features starting at $2.99/month. These plans include shared hosting, eCommerce hosting, VPS hosting, cloud hosting, a website builder, and more.
Pro Tip: WPBeginner users can get the best price using our Hostinger coupon code.
2. DreamHost
DreamHost is a popular, award-winning hosting company and one of WordPress.org’s officially recommended hosts. Their plans include automatic daily backups, a free SSL certificate, a free domain name, WordPress privacy features, and more.
Learn more in our complete DreamHost review.
Pingdom Website Speed Test
Here are the Pingdom speed testing tool results for DreamHost.
Our test site loaded in less than half a second with a total of 335 milliseconds, which is excellent. This test was done during low traffic, so let’s now see how DreamHost responds during peak traffic times.
k6 Load Impact Test
Here are the k6 performance overview results for DreamHost. We built up to 100 unique virtual visitors at once to see how the server would handle more requests and connections at the same time.
While our site remained available throughout the test, the response time went up as users increased. The average response time was 2,193 milliseconds.
This poor result happened because we turned off DreamHost’s pre-installed WordPress caching solution. So, we tried enabling a caching plugin, and the stress test result improved dramatically. Notice how much lower the light blue line is in the graph below.
This time, our test site handled 97 requests per second (16,000 requests total), and the average response time was a very fast 77 milliseconds.
This means that WordPress blogs, small business websites, and eCommerce stores hosted on Dreamhost can easily handle sudden traffic spikes.
Bitcatcha Server Response Time
Next, we used Bitcatcha to test our Dreamhost test site’s response time from different geographic locations.
DreamHost’s response times remained consistent around the world and were fastest in North America and Europe.
DreamHost Pros and Cons
DreamHost has been around for 18 years and is known for making web hosting easy. Now that you have seen their performance test results, you might like to see some other pros and cons.
Pros:
- Award-winning hosting
- Excellent customer support
- Officially recommended by WordPress
- 1-click WordPress install
- Free domain name, SSL certificate, and privacy
- Automatic daily WordPress backups
Cons:
- No free business email address
Why We Chose DreamHost
DreamHost is highly rated for their fast and reliable hosting, which is great for bloggers, online store owners, developers, and web designers. They have won many awards and get excellent reviews from their customers. But they may not be the right choice if you need a lot of help getting started.
DreamHost Pricing Plans
DreamHost’s shared hosting plans start at $2.59 per month (for a 3-year billing period). You can also pay monthly for the Shared Starter plan, which costs $4.59 per month.
WPBeginner users can get the best price on shared hosting using our DreamHost coupon code and shared hosting using our DreamPress coupon code.
3. WP Engine
WP Engine specializes in VIP managed WordPress hosting, which is an ideal choice for people looking for hassle-free, premium WordPress hosting. They provide automatic backups, security updates, caching, WordPress security, and more.
You can learn more in our complete WP Engine review.
Pingdom Website Speed Test
Here are the Pingdom speed testing tool results for WP Engine.
Our WP Engine test site loaded in less than half a second (337 milliseconds) without any performance optimizations on our end. This is a good result.
k6 Load Impact Test
Next, we tested how WP Engine servers respond under peak traffic using a tool called k6. Here are the results as we gradually built the test up to 100 unique visitors at once.
As you can see, our test WP Engine website maintained an incredible response rate throughout the test, with an average response time of 67.01 milliseconds. It performed really well with only minor spikes.
Bitcatcha Server Response Time
The Bitcatcha test measures how fast a server responds from different locations around the world. Here are the results for WP Engine:
WP Engine’s server response time was fastest on the east coast of the United States (30 milliseconds), and even its slowest speed of 235 milliseconds in Bangalore is very fast at less than one-quarter of a second.
WP Engine Pros and Cons
WP Engine offers fast servers, security, and peace of mind that users need from a managed WordPress host. Now that you have seen their performance test results, you might like to see some of their other pros and cons.
Pros:
- Fast loading times
- 24/7 expert WordPress support
- Advanced security tools to protect your website against DDoS attacks, SQL injections, brute force attacks, and more
- 1-click WordPress install
- Free SSL certificate, content delivery network (CDN), and site backups
- WordPress staging tools
- 36+ Premium Themes
Cons:
- No free domain
- WP Engine doesn’t allow you to install some WordPress plugins
Why We Chose WP Engine
WP Engine can be a great option if you are looking for a completely hassle-free web host for your WordPress site. Their advanced features will save you time, and there is plenty of room to scale as your traffic increases.
WP Engine Pricing Plans
WP Engine only offers managed WordPress hosting, and 5 different levels are available, starting at $20/month and going up to $194/month.
WPBeginner users can get the best price using our WP Engine coupon code.
4. SiteGround
SiteGround is one of the most recommended WordPress hosting companies, and we use them ourselves on WPBeginner. Among other features, they allow customers to choose between 6 different datacenters worldwide.
Learn more in our complete SiteGround review.
Pingdom Website Speed Test
Here are the Pingdom speed testing tool results for SiteGround.
Our SiteGround test site loaded in 491 milliseconds, which is less than half a second. This speed is incredible, but the website had no traffic during this test. Let’s see how more visitors will affect the speed.
k6 Load Impact Test
To test how SiteGround servers would respond to increased traffic, we used a tool called k6 to gradually send up to 100 users to our test website.
Here are the results:
This test shows that SiteGround is a good choice if you are looking for a really fast website. It performed consistently throughout the test without any hiccups, and an average response time of 249.71 milliseconds.
This is partly because of some of the innovations they use. For example, most of their servers are hosted on the Google Cloud Platform, and they have a custom plugin for optimization called SG Optimizer.
Bitcatcha Server Response Time
We also ran a Bitcatcha test to see the response time around the world. Here are the results:
The server responded in just a fraction of a second in the United States, making SiteGround a great choice if your target audience is mostly in North America.
It responded quickly in other locations as well. Plus, SiteGround lets you choose a data center closer to your target audience so you can get the best response times in a particular region.
SiteGround Pros and Cons
We found SiteGround to be fast and reliable. Here are some of their other pros and cons.
Pros:
- Speedy servers powered by Google Cloud
- Excellent customer support
- 1-click WordPress install
- Free domain name, SSL certificate, CDN, and website backups
- WordPress staging tools
- Free website migration
Cons:
- A bit more expensive than other hosting options
Why We Chose SiteGround
SiteGround offers fast and reliable web hosting with great customer support. They have hosting plans for every budget, and each plan comes with super fast servers and the option to pick your datacenter.
SiteGround Pricing Plans
SiteGround’s shared hosting packages are available in three levels to match different budgets. The Startup plan is limited to one website and costs $4.99/month. The GrowBig plan costs $7.99/month, and the GoGeek plan costs $14.99/month. These plans offer unlimited websites.
WPBeginner users get an exclusive 70% discount and free SSL with our SiteGround coupon code.
5. GreenGeeks
GreenGeeks is a web hosting provider whose goal is to be as environmentally friendly as possible. Their hosting plans also offer great performance, managed updates, a choice of 5 datacenters, and more.
You can learn more in our complete GreenGeeks review.
Pingdom Website Speed Test
Here are the Pingdom speed testing tool results for GreenGeeks.
Without additional traffic, our test site loaded in about half a second (527 milliseconds), which is great. Next, we ran a k6 stress test to see how extra traffic affects the site performance.
k6 Load Impact Test
We used the k6 tool to measure how GreenGeeks performs during peak traffic, gradually building up to 100 unique visitors.
Here are the results:
Unfortunately, GreenGeeks didn’t perform well during this test. Performance started to degrade after there were 30 users visiting the site. The response time became too slow, and the server started giving errors.
This means that GreenGeeks will work well on a small website but isn’t recommended for sites with lots of visitors. Traffic spikes will significantly degrade your website performance and may cause downtime.
Installing a WordPress caching plugin may help a little. But it won’t make a significant improvement on a slow web server.
Bitcatcha Server Response Time
We also tested GreenGeeks’ response time around the world using Bitcatcha. Here are the results:
Our test GreenGeeks site responded quickly for visitors in North America. It was slower in other parts of the world, such as India and the Asia Pacific region, but these times are still quite fast.
GreenGeeks Pros and Cons
GreenGeeks is affordable, and their plans include plenty of useful features. Now that you have seen their performance test results, you might like to see some pros and cons.
Pros:
- Environmentally-friendly hosting
- A free domain name
- Great customer support
- 1-click WordPress install
- Free SSL certificate, CDN, and website backups
- Built-in performance tools, including LiteSpeed caching
Cons:
- Their phone support isn’t available 24/7
Why We Chose GreenGeeks
GreenGeeks is the most eco-friendly web hosting. It is a good hosting solution for anyone who is just starting out. For higher traffic volumes, you may need to upgrade to a high-performance plan or move to a managed WordPress hosting provider.
GreenGeeks Pricing Plans
GreenGeeks has a wide range of hosting plans for customers of every size, starting at $2.95/month.
WPBeginner users can get the best price using our GreenGeeks coupon code.
6. Rocket.net
Rocket.net is a managed WordPress hosting company offering super-fast and fully managed WordPress hosting solutions. Their plans come with a custom, user-friendly hosting dashboard, a CDN, automated backups, and more.
You can learn more in our complete Rocket.net review.
Pingdom Website Speed Test
Here are the Pingdom speed testing tool results for Rocket.net.
Our test website loaded in 588 ms, which is just over half a second.
k6 Load Impact Test
We then used the k6 tool to test how Rocket.net would hold up under traffic spikes. We slowly increased the number of virtual users to 100, sending multiple page requests.
This is an excellent result. Our test site responded quickly, regardless of the number of users and page requests. It also had an average response time of 13.91 milliseconds.
Bitcatcha Server Response Time
Next, we used Bitcatcha to measure response times for Rocket.net from different geographic locations.
These results are incredibly fast. Our test site responded in just a couple of milliseconds for all locations.
That’s because Rocket.net uses a CDN and cloud edge network. Users are sent to the closest server for the fastest response time.
Rocket.net Pros and Cons
Rocket.net offers a fast and reliable platform to host your website. Now that you have seen their performance test results, here are some of their other pros and cons.
Pros:
- Very fast servers
- Excellent customer support
- 1-click WordPress install
- Free SSL certificate and CDN
- WordPress staging tools
- Integrated firewall and WordPress security features
Cons:
- No free domain
Why We Chose Rocket.net
Rocket.net’s servers are fast and highly optimized for WordPress websites. You also get peace of mind with enhanced security, automatic updates, and knowledgeable support. This is why we recommend Rocket.net as one of our best choices for a managed WordPress hosting provider.
Rocket.net Pricing Plans
Rocket.net offers 4 levels of managed WordPress hosting plans starting at $25/month (billed annually).
WPBeginner users can get the best pricing using our Rocket.net coupon.
7. HostGator
HostGator is one of the largest and most popular hosting companies in the world. They offer all kinds of hosting plans, including shared, managed, and VPS hosting.
You can learn more in our complete HostGator review.
Pingdom Website Speed Test
Here are the Pingdom speed testing tool results for HostGator.
Our test site loaded in just 1.03 seconds. This is a great result without traffic, so we also ran a k6 stress test to see how extra users affect our site’s performance.
k6 Load Impact Test
We sent up to 100 users at once to our test site using the k6 tool to see how HostGator performs under load. Here are the results:
The average response time of 234.99 milliseconds is particularly good for a shared hosting account.
Bitcatcha Server Response Time
Response time is also affected by how far your visitors are from the server. We ran a Bitcatcha test to measure response time from 10 locations around the world.
In the United States, our HostGator testing site responded in just 26 milliseconds. Times from other locations were also fast, and the slowest speed in India was still a respectable 262 milliseconds.
You can be confident that a HostGator website will load quickly around the world.
HostGator Pros and Cons
HostGator has grown quickly due to their great shared hosting plans, reliable web hosting, and quality customer service. Here are some of their pros and cons.
Pros:
- Reliable web hosting
- Free domain and SSL certificate
- Free business email address
- 1-click WordPress install
- 45-day money-back guarantee
Cons:
- Higher monthly pricing
- HostGator uses a lot of aggressive upselling tactics
Why We Chose HostGator
Over 2 million customers trust HostGator. They offer a variety of fast hosting plans that fit all budgets and requirements, as well as the user-friendly tools you will need to build a website.
HostGator Pricing Plans
HostGator plans include shared hosting, VPS hosting, cloud hosting, reseller hosting, and dedicated hosting. The Hatchling plan starts at $3.75/month and allows you to host only one website.
WPBeginner users get an exclusive 60% off with our HostGator coupon code.
8. Bluehost
Bluehost is one of the biggest web hosting companies in the world and an official WordPress-recommended hosting provider. They are a great option for beginners, and their budget-friendly plans are suitable for all kinds of websites.
Learn more in our complete Bluehost review.
Pingdom Website Speed Test
Here are the Pingdom speed testing tool results for Bluehost.
Our test site loaded in well under two seconds. However, this test was performed when the site had little traffic.
k6 Load Impact Test
We then used the k6 tool to test how Bluehost servers respond to increased traffic. We gradually sent up to 100 visitors to the site to see how it would handle increased requests from multiple connections at once.
You can see that the blue server load time line remained stable even though traffic and page requests increased. There was an average response time of 156.45 milliseconds.
Bitcatcha Server Response Time
We also used the Bitcatcha server response test to see how the server response time varies around the world.
The fastest response times were for users in the United States and Canada. In other parts of the world, the time was higher, but still acceptable.
Note that this test was performed with a Bluehost server in the United States. If your users come from other parts of the world, then you can change the server location to improve the response time.
Bluehost Pros and Cons
Bluehost is reliable, fast, and affordable, with friendly 24/7 customer support. Now that you have seen the Bluehost performance test results, you can check out their pros and cons.
Pros:
- Affordable hosting prices
- Free domain name
- Free CDN + SSL certificate
- Great customer support
- Officially recommended by WordPress
- 1-click WordPress install
Cons:
- Higher domain renewal price
Why We Chose Bluehost
Bluehost is often ranked the #1 web hosting provider by many websites. They offer a wide range of hosting options with tons of features that help you easily build your website. All their hosting plans include expert 24/7 customer support from knowledgeable staff. Most importantly, they offer affordable starter plans that fit any budget requirement.
Bluehost Pricing Plans
Bluehost offers a shared hosting package suitable for starter websites. Their shared plan is available at 4 different levels starting at just $2.75/month.
WPBeginner users can get the best price using our exclusive Bluehost coupon code.
Which Is the Fastest WordPress Hosting Provider?
Now that we’ve shared our performance test results for each hosting provider, let’s take a look at which services are the fastest.
Page Load Time
Pingdom assigned a performance grade to each service to give you an idea of how optimized the hosting is for speed. The grade is based on how well the service implemented its recommended performance optimization strategies.
Half the services in this review were given an A, and the rest a B.
| Hosting Provider | Performance Grade | Page Load Time |
|---|---|---|
| Hostinger | B 86 | 181 ms |
| Dreamhost | A 95 | 335 ms |
| WP Engine | A 94 | 337 ms |
| SiteGround | A 94 | 491 ms |
| GreenGeeks | B 89 | 527 ms |
| Rocket.net | B 87 | 588 ms |
| HostGator | B 85 | 1,030 ms |
| Bluehost | A 91 | 1,480 ms |
A more important metric is the page load time. Here, Hostinger was quickest, with the page loading in just 181 milliseconds.
Three other services, DreamHost, WP Engine, and SiteGround, had loading times of less than half a second.
However, all providers had loading times of well under 2 seconds, which is very good.
Response Time During Peak Times
The page load times above were tested during low-traffic periods. So, we also tested how each provider’s response time changed when we sent multiple users to the site.
Note that this test didn’t time how long it took the page to load, just how long it took until the server could respond. It also measured how that response time changed as we sent more and more users.
Here are the average response times for each provider during our stress test.
| Hosting Provider | Average Response Time |
|---|---|
| Rocket.net | 13 ms |
| WP Engine | 67 ms |
| Dreamhost | 77 ms |
| Bluehost | 156 ms |
| HostGator | 235 ms |
| SiteGround | 250 ms |
| Hostinger | 460 ms |
| GreenGeeks | 3450 ms |
Rocket.net performed especially well in the stress test, and most of the other services maintained a stable load during the test.
However, GreenGeeks did not perform well when encountering a lot of visitors at the same time. You can address this by installing a WordPress caching plugin. However, if your web server is slow, then caching alone won’t make much difference.
Response Time Around the World
We also tested each provider’s response times from different locations around the world. That’s because the response time will be slower the further your users are away from the company’s web servers.
Here are the response times (measured in milliseconds) for each provider from 8 locations around the world.
| Host | US (W) |
US (E) |
UK | Singapore | Brazil | India | AU | Japan | CA | Germany |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hostinger | 147 | 83 | 10 | 280 | 192 | 126 | 270 | 255 | 90 | 10 |
| Dreamhost | 18 | 81 | 153 | 182 | 190 | 283 | 158 | 112 | 83 | 168 |
| WP Engine | 56 | 30 | 95 | 189 | 140 | 23 | 190 | 128 | 30 | 109 |
| SiteGround | 60 | 34 | 104 | 254 | 157 | 257 | 200 | 161 | 29 | 114 |
| GreenGeeks | 50 | 27 | 89 | 214 | 147 | 212 | 185 | 152 | 20 | 101 |
| Rocket.net | 2 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| HostGator | 26 | 71 | 152 | 189 | 193 | 262 | 163 | 128 | 92 | 159 |
| Bluehost | 46 | 35 | 107 | 212 | 140 | 226 | 179 | 159 | 47 | 116 |
Rocket.net recorded blazing-fast speeds around the world.
SiteGround and Bluehost are good options anywhere in the world because you can choose a data center location where most of your users are.
Besides these hosting providers, if most of your visitors are in the United States, then your best options include DreamHost, HostGator, and WP Engine.
Your visitors in Europe will have the fastest experience with Rocket.net and Hostinger, and the Asia Pacific users will enjoy the fastest speeds with Rocket.net.
Fastest Overall WordPress Hosting Providers
Our top web hosting recommendations are:
- Bluehost for budget hosting
- SiteGround for premium hosting
- Hostinger for small businesses
- WP Engine for managed hosting.
Based on our performance tests, these are all good choices for fast hosting.
However, if website speed and performance are your highest priority, then you should also look carefully at Rocket.net. They have a better response time under load and around the world than any other provider.
FAQs About WordPress Hosting
Having helped over 400,000+ users start their websites, we have answered quite a lot of questions. Below are some of the answers to the most frequently asked questions about WordPress hosting.
Do I need WordPress hosting to start a website?
If you want to build a WordPress website, then you need web hosting. Your hosting server is where your website files are stored.
Every website that you see online uses a web hosting provider.
Are there any free WordPress hosting providers?
Yes, there are several free website hosting companies out there, but we highly recommend that you stay away from them.
In most cases, free WordPress hosting providers put advertisements on your website. They may even distribute malware to your users. Last but not least, they can shut down your website at any time without any notification.
Avoid anyone who offers to give you free WordPress hosting, especially if you are serious about your site. Here are reasons why having a ‘free website’ is a bad idea.
How much does it cost to build a WordPress site?
The cost of building a WordPress website varies based on your needs. It can range from $100 to as high as $30,000. We have created a detailed guide explaining how much it really costs to build a WordPress website.
How do I install WordPress on my WordPress hosting account?
Every WordPress hosting provider that we recommend comes with a 1-click WordPress install. You can follow our step-by-step guide on how to install WordPress on your host.
Can I switch my WordPress hosting provider later?
Yes, you can absolutely switch if you are unhappy with your WordPress hosting company.
Most WordPress hosting companies offer free migration services, which makes the process fairly smooth. However, if you want to do the migration yourself, then you can follow our step-by-step guide on how to move WordPress to a new host with no downtime.
Best WordPress Guides for Web Hosting
Want to learn more about WordPress hosting? Here are our best guides on the topic:
- What’s the Difference Between Domain Name and Web Hosting (Explained)
- How to Host a Website (Simple Guide for Beginners)
- When Do You Really Need Managed WordPress Hosting?
- How to Choose the Best WordPress Hosting (Compared)
- Ultimate Web Hosting Statistics and Market Share Report
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
The post 8 Fastest WordPress Hosting in 2023 (Performance Tests) first appeared on WPBeginner.
