Searching for the fastest web hosting for your site?
Speed is a crucial factor for your website’s success and affects everything from conversion rates to SEO. A quality web host can help you shave seconds off your page loading times. However, it can be difficult to know which ones are the fastest web hosts on the market.
To help you make your decision, we set up an identical test site on 17 popular hosts and ran a battery of speed tests from around the globe. Then, we whittled that list down to your eight best options.
In this article, we’ll give you an overview of the eight fastest web hosting companies that will suit all budgets. We’ll also share the actual test data, which includes metrics like load times, time to first byte (TTFB), and first paint. Let’s go!
Fastest web hosting companies (based on real test data)
Now that we’ve discussed our testing process, let’s look at eight of the fastest web hosting options. Each of these options will provide you with reliable hosting, so the best fit for you will depend on your budget and your users’ location.
1. Namecheap
Namecheap has established itself as an affordable domain registrar. It also offers a range of shared, managed, and dedicated hosting services. Amongst the attractively priced plans, there are also WordPress-specific packages that promise lightning-fast speed and 99.9% uptime.
Here are our speed test results for Namecheap. You can see that it delivers impressive loading times of under one second in the U.S., and under two seconds in Europe, Asia, and Australia:
| Region | Loading Time (s) | TTFB (ms) | First Paint (s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| N. Virginia | 0.75 | 201 | 0.91 |
| California | 0.51 | 116 | 0.62 |
| London | 1.19 | 343 | 1.27 |
| Paris | 1.22 | 359 | 1.39 |
| Mumbai | – | – | – |
| Tokyo | 1.19 | 338 | 1.31 |
| Sydney | 1.89 | 523 | 1.85 |
Some of Namecheap’s shared hosting features include:
- One-click WordPress installation via Softaculous
- Free domain registration for your first year
- Free site migration
- Unmetered bandwidth
- Free content delivery network (CDN)
- Automatic SSL installation
- Website builder
Pricing starts at only $1.58 per month for the Stellar plan, with up to three websites and 20 GB of storage. If you prefer not to commit to a yearly contract, you can opt for a monthly plan instead starting at $2.88.
2. Cloudways
Cloudways is a unique provider, offering cloud hosting via companies including DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr, Amazon Web Services (AWS), or Google Cloud. You can choose your preferred service, server size, and even location.
For reference, we ran our speed tests using the cheapest DigitalOcean server.
Additionally, Cloudways enables you to configure every aspect of your hosting solution and set up content management systems such as WordPress or Drupal. Although quite advanced, it’s still a fairly user-friendly platform with impressive speeds:
| Region | Loading Time (s) | TTFB (ms) | First Paint (s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| N. Virginia | 0.92 | 339 | 0.72 |
| California | 0.52 | 164 | 0.44 |
| London | 1.49 | 543 | 1.05 |
| Paris | 1.54 | 580 | 1.09 |
| Mumbai | 2.32 | 860 | 1.57 |
| Tokyo | 1.26 | 450 | 0.91 |
| Sydney | 1.49 | 547 | 1.04 |
Regardless of which plan you choose, Cloudways grants access to these features and more:
- Free SSL certificates
- CDN add-on
- Unlimited application installs
- Advanced security
- Automatic backups
- Easy staging
- Free site migration
- Advanced caching
Cloudways operates a pay-as-you-go pricing model (you can even pay hourly if needed). The price depends on which cloud provider you choose. The cheapest option is the entry-level DigitalOcean plan for $10 per month. However, consider the $13 per month Vultr High-Frequency servers for even better performance.
👉 Read our full Cloudways review
3. Hostinger
Hostinger is amongst the cheapest hosting providers on the market. It offers a variety of solutions, including shared, cloud, and dedicated hosting. It also provides specialized WordPress packages and Minecraft plans.
With a 99.9% uptime guarantee and the blazing fast speeds listed below, Hostinger has something for everyone:
| Region | Loading Time (s) | TTFB (ms) | First Paint (s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| N. Virginia | 0.62 | 200 | 0.57 |
| California | 0.97 | 352 | 0.74 |
| London | 1.12 | 402 | 0.82 |
| Paris | 1.15 | 421 | 0.84 |
| Mumbai | 2.13 | 821 | 1.48 |
| Tokyo | 1.96 | 768 | 1.37 |
| Sydney | 2.28 | 993 | 1.65 |
Shared hosting features from Hostinger include:
- Free site migration
- Email hosting
- Cloudflare protected nameservers
- LiteSpeed Cache plugin for WordPress acceleration
- Free SSL certificates
- Free domain registration for the first year (except for the entry plan)
Pricing starts at just $1.99 per month for Single shared hosting, which includes 100 GB of bandwidth. The Premium shared hosting package gives you unlimited websites and bandwidth starting at $2.89 per month.
👉 Read our full Hostinger review
4. Liquid Web
Liquid Web provides high-quality, fully managed hosting services. You can choose from various specialized web and cloud hosting products, including support for WordPress, WooCommerce, and Magento.
You can also request a customized package to suit your unique needs, such as Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance. Liquid Web’s high-quality services come with performance to match:
| Region | Loading Time (s) | TTFB (ms) | First Paint (s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| N. Virginia | 1.03 | 369 | 0.92 |
| California | 0.61 | 174 | 0.62 |
| London | 1.6 | 664 | 1.31 |
| Paris | 1.54 | 576 | 1.24 |
| Mumbai | 2.46 | 1112 | 2.04 |
| Tokyo | 1.41 | 584 | 1.2 |
| Sydney | 1.95 | 969 | 1.62 |
Liquid Web’s managed WordPress plans boast features such as:
- Automatic updates
- Free site migration
- Unlimited traffic
- Easy staging
- Daily backups
- Free SSL certificates
- Developer tools including SSH access, Git, and WP-CLI
Pricing starts at $17.50 per month for the Spark plan, with 15 GB storage, 2 TB bandwidth, and unlimited email.
5. Pressable
Pressable is a managed WordPress hosting provider created by Automattic. This means you’ll get expert WordPress advice and useful tools such as Jetpack Premium and access to WP101 training courses.
However, unlike the previous options, you can only use Pressable for WordPress sites.
Pressable offers plans that are highly optimized for WordPress and WooCommerce, with guaranteed 99.9% uptime and impressive speed:
| Region | Loading Time (s) | TTFB (ms) | First Paint (s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| N. Virginia | 1.17 | 278 | 0.75 |
| California | 0.86 | 154 | 0.47 |
| London | 1.24 | 330 | 0.78 |
| Paris | 1.53 | 364 | 0.89 |
| Mumbai | 2.51 | 491 | 1.25 |
| Tokyo | 1.62 | 239 | 0.71 |
| Sydney | 1.86 | 283 | 0.81 |
Of course, you’ll also receive WordPress-friendly features such as:
- Free site migration
- CDN integration
- Advanced security
- Collaborator access
- Caching
- Easy staging
- Free SSL certificates
- One-click website cloning
Pricing starts at $25 for the Personal plan, which includes 20 GB storage, unlimited bandwidth, and up to 30,000 monthly visits.
6. IONOS
Ionos is another company that scored highly in our speed tests. It offers a range of shared, dedicated, and WordPress-optimized hosting. It’s one of the few providers that give customers a choice of Linux or Windows hosting.
Also, Ionos promises scalable performance management to keep up with sudden spikes in traffic. Our data backs this up:
| Region | Loading Time (s) | TTFB (ms) | First Paint (s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| N. Virginia | 0.95 | 456278 | 0.84 |
| California | 1.08 | 505 | 0.87 |
| London | 1.45 | 618 | 1.1 |
| Paris | 1.49 | 633 | 1.13 |
| Mumbai | 2.71 | 1143 | 1.93 |
| Tokyo | 2.85 | 1658 | 2.3 |
| Sydney | 2.74 | 1365 | 2.07 |
Shared hosting features include:
- One-click installation of popular CMS tools
- Free domain registration for your first year
- Free SSL certificates
- Email hosting
- Automatic backups
- CDN integration
Pricing starts at only $1.00 for the mid-tier Business package. This plan hosts unlimited websites at 200 visitors per minute and gives you unlimited storage. Note that the cost increases to $8 per month after the first month.
7. GreenGeeks
Our last two recommendations are excellent fast hosting options if your visitors are located in Europe. GreenGeeks is well known for being an eco-friendly hosting provider, offering shared, virtual private server (VPS), and WordPress-optimized plans.
It’s also a developer-friendly platform, giving you access to tools such as Git, WP-CLI, Drush, and more. Plus, GreenGeeks makes site migrations super easy, providing you with staging options before you decide to move.
In terms of speed, GreenGeeks delivers loading times at or under one second in Europe. Its U.S. test results aren’t too bad, either:
| Region | Loading Time (s) | TTFB (ms) | First Paint (s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| N. Virginia | 1.73 | 296 | 1.64 |
| California | 2.17 | 341 | 1.71 |
| London | 1 | 151 | 1.17 |
| Paris | 0.99 | 130 | 1.16 |
| Mumbai | 2.05 | 352 | 1.65 |
| Tokyo | 3.02 | 593 | 2.25 |
| Sydney | 3.57 | 658 | 2.44 |
GreenGeeks’ shared hosting plans come packed with features such as:
- Unlimited SSD storage
- Unlimited data transfer
- Free site migration
- Email hosting
- Website builder
- Advanced security
- Nightly backups
- Free SSL certificates and CDN
Pricing starts at $2.95 per month for the Lite plan. If you need more resources, you can double them for $5.95 per month.
👉 Read our full GreenGeeks review
8. SiteGround
Finally, we have SiteGround, which is a hosting provider officially recommended by WordPress. Despite the recent price increase, it continues to be an excellent choice for managed WordPress hosting with reliable performance and top-rated customer support.
It also partners with Google Cloud for ultra-fast service and a guaranteed 100% renewable energy match. Our test scores show respectable loading times in the USA, as well as more impressive speeds for European users:
| Region | Loading Time (s) | TTFB (ms) | First Paint (s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| N. Virginia | 1.97 | 862 | 2.04 |
| California | 2.49 | 1224 | 2.29 |
| London | 1.25 | 443 | 1.48 |
| Paris | 1.24 | 446 | 1.43 |
| Mumbai | 2.36 | 1085 | 2.2 |
| Tokyo | 3.2 | 1584 | 2.73 |
| Sydney | 3.23 | 1473 | 2.68 |
With SiteGround, you gain access to features such as:
- Unmetered traffic
- Free SSL certificates
- Daily backups
- Email hosting
- CDN integration
- Website builder powered by Weebly
- Advanced security
The entry StartUp plan starts at $2.99 per month and includes 10 GB of storage space and up to 10,000 monthly visits. If you want to supercharge your performance, you can access the speed-boosting caching feature for $9.99 per month.
👉 Read our full SiteGround review
Get started with faster web hosting today
According to Google, more than half of your visitors will leave if your page takes longer than three seconds to load. Even if you follow all our speed-optimization tips, your efforts may be counterproductive without a fast web host.
In this article, we’ve discussed eight of the fastest web hosting companies on the market. For budget-conscious users, providers such as Hostinger or Namecheap are excellent choices. However, if you require more resources, other options on our list might be more suitable.
Do you have any questions about finding a fast hosting provider? Let us know in the comments section below!
* 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 additional cost on your part.
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