The web host you choose to power your WordPress site plays a key role in its speed and performance. However, with so many claiming to offer the fastest WordPress hosting out there, how do you decide which company to use?
In addition to performance, it’s also important to consider the costs and features included with each plan. Trying to research and compare them all can be tedious, so we’ve done a lot of the hard work upfront to make your job easier.
In a previous article we’ve analysed some of the best WordPress hosting companies, but in this post, we’ll look at six of the fastest WordPress hosting providers, based on real performance tests that we ran. We’ll review the plans offered by each one, including their features and pricing, to help narrow your decision. Let’s get started!
A summary of the fastest WordPress hosting companies
Before we get into our list, let’s take a quick look at the six fastest WordPress hosting companies we’ll be comparing. All of the performance data comes from our own speed tests, while the overall rating comes from our survey of hundreds WordPress hosting users.
| Host | Uptime | Speed US | Speed EU | Speed Asia |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kinsta | 100% | 1.7s | 3.98s | 4.99s |
| Flywheel | 100% | 0.13s | 0.14s | 0.14s |
| WP Engine | 100% | 1.44s | 2.37s | 3.13s |
| SiteGround | 100% | 2.13s | 1.17s | 3.01s |
| DreamHost | 99.88% | 1.3s | 2.32s | 2.89s |
| InMotion Hosting | 100% | 1.24s | 1.64s | 2.72s |
Six fastest WordPress hosting companies compared (in full)
1. Kinsta
Kinsta is a WordPress-specific hosting provider that offers a variety of fully-managed plans. Its cloud WordPress hosting is powered exclusively by Google Cloud, which is optimized for speed and performance.
Kinsta’s features include:
- Server-level caching with Nginx Fast_CGI cache
- Free CDN powered by KeyCDN
- A custom MyKinsta dashboard
- Automated daily backups
- Free SSL certificates
- One-click staging environments
- Free migrations
- SSH access
All of these features are included with every Kinsta hosting plan. Kinsta also doesn’t have tiered support levels, but offers premium 24/7 support to every customer.
Pricing and plan details
Pricing for Kinsta hosting plans starts at $25.00 per month and includes two months free with annual billing. The Starter Plan provides support for
- One WordPress install
- 10 GB of disk space
- 20,000 monthly visits
- Free CDN with a 50 GB limit
There are also Pro ($60 per month), Business (starting at $100 per month) and Enterprise (starting at $600 per month) plans, as well as plenty of tiers in between and above that.
Performance tests
When researching the fastest hosting providers for WordPress, it’s critical to consider performance and benchmark testing. In our performance testing of Kinsta for CodeInWP, we found:
- Average response time: 84 milliseconds (ms)
- Uptime: 99.99%
- New York: 0.55 seconds
- Stockholm: 0.86 seconds
- Melbourne: 1.76 seconds
We also performed Load Impact tests. The minimum response time was 0.12 seconds, while the maximum response time was just 0.13 seconds.
2. Flywheel
Flywheel is another popular, WordPress-specific web host that offers plans and features suitable for everyone from freelancers to agencies. Aside from being one of the fastest WordPress hosting companies, Flywheel shares a lot of similarities with Kinsta.
It’s powered by Google Cloud and includes a free CDN and custom dashboard built for WordPress site management. It also uses a custom caching engine, provides nightly backups, and has multiple data centers located across the globe.
Note: In 2019, Flywheel was acquired by WP Engine (the next host on our list). Both are still run separately, though.
Pricing and plan details
Flywheel offers an accessible Tiny plan for just $13.00 per month, though it only allows for 5,000 visits per month for a single website.
To raise that, you can move to the $30 per month Starter plan. This plan supports one website, 25,000 monthly visits, and 10 GB of disk space.
Flywheel offers two free months if you sign up for an annual plan. There are also Freelance ($115 per month) and Agency ($290 per month) plans.
Performance tests
To measure Flywheel’s performance as one of the fastest WordPress hosting providers, we used Pingdom to conduct page speed tests for three server locations. Here are the results:
- Melbourne: 2.20 seconds
- New York: 0.59 seconds
- Stockholm: 1.36 seconds
We also used Load Impact to test its response under stress. The minimum response time was 0.15 seconds, while the maximum was 1.19 seconds.
3. WP Engine
WP Engine is a WordPress-specific host that offers a variety of fully-managed plans, each powered by a reliable architecture built for speed and scalability.
Its managed WordPress plans offer:
- Built-in caching with Varnish and Memcached
- Free SSL certificates
- Built-in CDN
- Quick site installation
- Easy staging (two separate staging environments)
- Performance tracking and diagnostic options
- 24/7 support
Pricing and plan details
WP Engine’s Startup Plan is $20 per month. It supports one WordPress site, 25,000 monthly visits, and 10 GB of local storage.
There are also Growth ($115 per month), Scale ($290 per month), and Premium ($400 per month) plans. All plans come with a 60-day money-back guarantee.
You’ll get two months free if you pay for an annual plan.
Performance tests
We conducted page speed and Load Impact tests to assess how this provider measures up against some of the other fastest WordPress hosting providers.
Using Pingdom to perform the page speed tests, we found that WP Engine consistently stayed below the recommend two-second mark:
- New York: 1.61 seconds
- Melbourne: 1.67 seconds
- Stockholm: 1.60 seconds
More impressive was its ability to maintain quick response times even during spikes of traffic. On the Load Impact test, WP Engine had a minimum response time of 0.51 seconds and maximum of 0.59 seconds.
4. SiteGround
SiteGround has become an increasingly popular WordPress host. In addition to offering multiple managed WordPress plans that are ideal for those on a budget, SiteGround is also one of the few hosts that are officially recommended by WordPress.org.
This provider offers a healthy amount of WordPress-specific features. That includes free WordPress site transfers, one-click installations, and automatic updates.
SiteGround also provides a ‘WordPress SuperCacher’. This is a SiteGround-specific feature that implements caching for your WordPress site on multiple levels, in order to promote faster loading times.
Pricing and plan details
SiteGround’s StartUp Plan starts at just $4.99 per month. It’s suitable for up to 10,000 monthly visitors, and includes 10 GB of disk space for one WordPress site. You can also sign up for the GrowBig Plan ($7.99 per month) or the GoGeek Plan ($14.99 per month).
Keep in mind that those are promotional prices, so they only apply to your first billing cycle. Try to lock them in for three years if you can afford it.
Performance tests
In our SiteGround review, we conducted page speed and Load Impact testing. The results were as follows:
- Melbourne: 1.56 seconds
- New York: 0.65 seconds
- Stockholm: 1.39 seconds
For the Load Impact test, SiteGround had a minimum response time of 0.74 seconds and a maximum response time of 1.48 seconds. These results confirmed that, regardless of where your site is located, speed shouldn’t be an issue with this provider.
5. DreamHost
DreamHost is a reliable hosting provider that offers budget-friendly shared, VPS, and managed WordPress hosting plans. Plus, there are some notable features that make DreamHost a solid option, aside from its being one of the most affordable yet fastest WordPress hosting companies.
For example, in addition to coming with WordPress pre-installed, DreamHost’s managed WordPress plans include a free subscription to Jetpack premium. You’ll also benefit from enhanced security thanks to dual WordPress-optimized web application firewalls (WAF).
Pricing and plan details
The Basic Plan for DreamHost’s managed WordPress hosting, referred to as DreamPress, starts at $16.95 per month. This includes one site, up to 10,000 monthly visitors, and 5 GB of disk space. It also offers a Plus plan ($24.95 per month) and a Pro Plan ($71.95 per month).
DreamHost also offers affordable shared plans, though you’ll miss out on the performance of the WordPress-optimized DreamPress plans.
Performance tests
As part of our DreamHost review, we performed page speed and Load Impact testing that generated satisfying results:
- Stockholm: 1.66 seconds
- Melbourne: 1.32 seconds
- New York: 0.21 seconds
With a minimum response time of 0.26 seconds and a maximum of 1.26 seconds, the Load Impact tests further emphasized DreamHost’s ability to perform well under pressure without sacrificing speed.
6. InMotion Hosting
InMotion Hosting offers shared, VPS, dedicated, and managed WordPress hosting. Its operational infrastructure includes a WordPress-optimized Stack and free CDN, in order to deliver exceptional loading times.
Aside from being one of the most affordable yet fastest WordPress hosting providers, InMotion comes with a plethora of WordPress-specific tools and features. This includes pre-installed WordPress, a drag-and-drop WordPress page builder (BoldGrid), and automatic WordPress, plugin, and theme updates.
Pricing and plan details
InMotion managed WordPress plans start at just $2.49 per month. This entry-level plan includes one website, 50 GB of disk space, and up to 20,000 monthly visitors. The provider also offers Small Business ($7.99 per month) and Developer ($10.99 per month) plans.
Performance tests
As we detailed in our InMotion Hosting review, while this provider did better in some locations, it overall performed well during our Pingdom page speed tests:
- New York: 0.46 seconds
- Stockholm: 1.38 seconds
- Melbourne: 3.41 seconds
It also had a good showing on the Load Impact tests. The minimum response time was 0.27 seconds, and the maximum was 0.84 seconds.
👉 Full InMotion Hosting review
Recap of the fastest hosting providers for WordPress
As you saw in the data above, all of these hosts are capable of getting you a fast-loading WordPress site. To finish out, let’s recap the starting price and resources of each host so that you can choose the fastest WordPress hosting for your budget:
| Host | Starting price | Sites | Disk space | Monthly visitors | Overall score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kinsta | $30 | 1 | 10 GB | 20,000 | 9.6 |
| Flywheel | $15 | 1 | 10 GB | 25,000 | 9.5 |
| WP Engine | $30 | 1 | 10 GB | 25,000 | 9.4 |
| SiteGround | $3.95 | 1 | 10 GB | 10,000 | 9.3 |
| DreamHost | $16.95 | 1 | 5 GB | 10,000 | 9.2 |
| InMotion Hosting | $4.99 | 1 | 40 GB | 20,000 | 8.8 |
Of course, choosing fast WordPress hosting is only one part of the puzzle – you’ll also need to optimize the front-end of your WordPress site. To achieve that, you’ll want to learn about:
Do you have any questions about which host is best for you? Let us know in the comments!
Free guide
5 Essential Tips to Speed Up
Your WordPress Site
Reduce your loading time by even 50-80%
just by following simple tips.
Download free guide
* This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and then purchase the product, we’ll receive a commission. No worries though, you’ll still pay the standard amount so there’s no cost on your part.
Or start the conversation in our Facebook group for WordPress professionals. Find answers, share tips, and get help from other WordPress experts. Join now (it’s free)!