⚡ Quick Answers
The fastest web hosting options currently available on the market are these (based on real-world testing):
👨💻 The fastest WordPress hosting is WPX.
🛍️ The fastest eCommerce hosting is Weebly.
☁️ The fastest cloud hosting is Cloudways.
👥 The fastest shared hosting is A2 Hosting.
Using the fastest web hosting available to you is crucial to your business’ success. This is true whether you’re a blog or an eCommerce store.
In this post, we’ve rounded up the fastest hosts in different sectors of the hosting industry:
- WordPress hosting
- eCommerce hosting
- Cloud hosting
- Shared hosting
Let’s dive in.
🏆 WPX Hosting: Fastest WordPress Hosting
Overview
WPX is a semi-managed WordPress host and the fastest web hosting for the WordPress industry. It was founded by Australian SEO and entrepreneur Terry Kyle who felt there were severe limitations in the WordPress hosting industry when the company was founded in 2013.
As such, WPX uses its own hosting infrastructure built on LiteSpeed rather than relying on the same third-party infrastructures other WordPress hosts use, such as Google Cloud Platform and Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Key Features
- Up to 35 websites on one plan
- Up to 40GB of storage
- Unlimited bandwidth available
- Data centers in the US, UK and Australia
- Automatic backups
- Site staging
- Free malware removal + DDoS protection
- Free site fixes
- Site speed optimization included
- Proprietary CDN included on all plans
- SSL certificates from Let’s Encrypt
- Free migrations
- Registers domains
Average Speed
Matthew Woodward tested 12 of the fastest hosting providers available for WordPress with WPX optimized with the host’s own CDN.
After testing each host from Pingdom’s seven server locations three times, WPX’s average score from all three tests came out to 357ms, the fastest of all hosts tested.
According to Online Media Masters’ test of the fastest web hosting providers for WordPress, WPX tested faster than any other WordPress-based host tested.
They scored an average speed of 436ms after 336 tests from Pingdom.
Pricing
Plans start at $24.99/month or $249.99/year ($20.83/month) for up to five websites.
🏆 Weebly: Fastest Ecommerce Hosting
Overview
Weebly provides the fastest eCommerce hosting with their all-in-one website builder and hosting platform. They were founded in 2007 as an all-in-one site/blog builder similar to WordPress.com.
The platform shifted its focus to eCommerce after it was acquired by payment processing giant Square in 2018.
Key Features
- Customizable themes with a drag-and-drop builder
- Email marketing built in
- Unlimited storage available
- Free SSL certificates
- SEO tools
- Shipping tools
- Inventory management included
- Reports for traffic analytics
- Key eCommerce functionalities
Average Speed
Backlinko analyzed 5.2 million web pages and found that Weebly-hosted pages had the fastest speeds on desktop, one of the fastest for mobile, and the fastest when you combine mobile and desktop.
Furthermore, Bitcatcha found that Weebly scored an average server response time of 129.2ms when tested from worldwide server locations.
Pricing
A limited free plan is available for online stores.
Premium plans start at $9/month or $72/year ($6/month).
Disclaimer: If you want to use Weebly as your hosting, keep in mind that it won’t work with WordPress. You would need to transfer your WordPress domain to Weebly and build the new website using the Weebly Page Builder.
🏆 Cloudways: Fastest Cloud Hosting
😎 This is where we currently host most of our websites.
Overview
Cloudways is the fastest web hosting service for cloud hosting. They’re a cloud hosting platform that allows you to set up servers with a number of different cloud providers, including DigitalOcean, Vultr, and Google Cloud Platform.
Your hosting setup is contained entirely within Cloudways’ proprietary control panel.
You’ll also receive your invoice directly from Cloudways rather than the cloud server provider you choose.
Key Features
- Managed cloud servers
- 5 cloud providers: DigitalOcean, Vultr, Google Cloud Platform, AWS and Linode
- Supports WordPress (+ WooCommerce), Magento, Laravel and PHP
- Customizable server specifications (depending on cloud provider)
- Up to 384GB of RAM
- Up to 96 virtual CPU cores
- Up to 3.8TB of storage
- Up to 20TB of bandwidth
- Optimized stack with multiple caching solutions
- Free WordPress cache plugin Breeze
- Dedicated Firewalls included
- Free SSL certificates
- Staging environment
- Automatic backups
- Free migration
- Cloudways CDN add-on
- Monthly invoices
Average Speed
Online Media Masters’ test, mentioned earlier, found two of Cloudways’ server setups to be the fastest of all hosts tested.
A quick round-up of each server type’s average speed (from Pingdom) after 336 tests:
| Server Type | Average Speed |
|---|---|
| Vultr High Frequency | 326ms |
| DigitalOcean | 340ms |
| Linode | 603ms |
| Vultr Standard | 618ms |
Blogging Wizard’s Cloudways review found the host had average server response times of 94ms with DigitalOcean Standard and 17ms with Vultr Standard.
Plus, when tested from Pingdom’s Washington D.C. server, Blogging Wizard, which is hosted with Cloudways according to the site’s footer, has a page speed of 244ms.
Siteefy which is also hosted on Cloudways is even faster with only 220 ms load time!
Pricing
Cloudways’ pricing is based on the cloud provider and server configuration you choose. There’s a base price, and you only pay for the resources you consume each month.
The cheapest cloud provider is DigitalOcean Standard. For $10/month, you get 1GB of RAM, 1 CPU core, 25GB of storage, and 1TB of bandwidth.
🏆 A2 Hosting: Fastest Shared Hosting
Overview
A2 Hosting is the fastest web hosting provider for shared hosting. They offer shared hosting, managed WordPress hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated hosting.
The host supports multiple content management systems and allows you to register domains and host email accounts.
Key Features
- Unlimited websites on one plan
- Unlimited storage available
- Some plans use NVMe storage solutions
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Litespeed server configurations are available
- Data center locations in Michigan, Arizona, Amsterdam, and Singapore
- Free migrations
- Automatic backups available
- Free SSL certificates
- Firewalls and virus scanning with 24/7 security monitoring
- DDoS protection
- Site staging
- Domains
- Free Email
Average Speed
According to Online Media Masters’ test, which used unoptimized test sites, A2 Hosting’s average page speed was 587ms. This was 3 and even 5x faster than other shared hosts tested.
Plus, Bitcatcha found that the Singapore data center of A2 Hosting had an average response time of 173.2ms and the Michigan data center of A2 Hosting had an average response time of 149.8ms when the host’s “Turbo” plan was tested.
Pricing
Plans start at $10.99/month when paid monthly, $6.99/month when paid yearly, and $2.99/month when payed for 3 years.
Final Thoughts: Fastest Web Hosting
Choosing a hosting provider with a positive reputation for speed and performance is important, but it’s not the only thing you need to worry about.
Cost, features, and server specifications/infrastructure should also be considered.
For instance, Weebly may be a fast option for eCommerce, but its eCommerce features are lacking when compared to more popular solutions, such as Shopify and WooCommerce. You may be better off setting up a WooCommerce server with Cloudways in this case.
Use this list as a baseline, but take other factors into consideration before you make a decision.
Sources
https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/blogging/fastest-wordpress-hosting/
https://onlinemediamasters.com/fastest-wordpress-hosting/
https://backlinko.com/page-speed-stats
https://www.bitcatcha.com/website-builder-reviews/weebly/
https://bloggingwizard.com/cloudways-review/
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