WordPress Hosting Performance Benchmarks 2025

Key Findings

After testing 43,800 individual requests monthly, WP Engine leads with 298ms TTFB and 100% uptime, while Hostinger offers the best shared hosting performance at 99.99% uptime with 611ms response time.

Our Testing Methodology

To ensure accurate and reliable results, we conducted comprehensive performance testing using industry-standard tools and methodologies throughout 2025.

Testing Scale

525,600

Total tests per year

43,800

Tests per month

Global test locations

Testing Tools Used

GTmetrix

Real browser testing with Lighthouse engine for comprehensive performance analysis

Pingdom

60-second interval monitoring from 22 geographically distributed locations

WebPageTest

Real browser testing with customizable configurations for detailed insights

Performance Metrics Explained

Understanding key performance metrics is crucial for making informed hosting decisions. Here's what each metric means for your WordPress site:

Time to First Byte (TTFB)

The time it takes for your server to respond to a request. Lower is better. Excellent: <200ms, Good: <500ms, Poor: >800ms

Load Time

Total time for a page to fully load. Target: <2 seconds for optimal user experience

Uptime

Percentage of time your site is accessible. Industry standard: 99.9% minimum, Premium: 99.99%+

2025 Performance Benchmark Results

Time to First Byte (TTFB) Leaders

Rank	Provider	TTFB	Grade
1	WP Engine	298ms	Excellent
2	Rocket Hosting	335ms	Excellent
3	WPX	365ms	Excellent
4	GreenGeeks	395ms	Good
5	Kinsta	444ms	Good
6	Hostinger	612ms	Average

Load Time Performance

Fastest Load Times

SiteGround 0.417s

WP Engine 1.1s

Bluehost 1.29s

Hostinger 1.53s

Response Under Load

WP Engine 19ms

Dreamhost 255ms

Hostinger 400ms

SiteGround 600ms

Uptime Champions

100%

Kinsta & WP Engine

Perfect uptime record

99.99%

Hostinger

Only 2 min downtime/6 months

99.95%

SiteGround

Consistent reliability

Technology Impact on Performance

Server Technology Comparison

Technology	Performance	Providers
LiteSpeed	6x faster than Apache	Hostinger, A2 Hosting
NVMe SSD	10,000 MBps	WP Engine, Kinsta
PHP 8.3	20-30% faster	Most premium hosts
HTTP/3	Improved connection	WP Engine, Cloudflare

CDN Impact Analysis

Without CDN

Local users: 300ms

Global users: 1200ms

With CDN

Local users: 280ms

Global users: 450ms

WordPress-Specific Performance

Core Web Vitals Performance

WordPress sites showed significant improvement in Core Web Vitals during 2025, with mobile performance becoming increasingly important.

Mobile Performance

+8.13%

Improvement from 28.31% to 36.44%

Desktop Performance

+8.25%

Improvement from 32.55% to 40.80%

Caching Plugin Performance

WP Rocket

Best Overall

1.71s average load time, best out-of-box performance

LiteSpeed Cache

Best Core Web Vitals

Superior Core Web Vitals optimization with server-level caching

W3 Total Cache

Most Powerful

Up to 80% bandwidth savings when properly configured

Performance Recommendations

For Maximum Performance

• Choose WP Engine or Kinsta for managed hosting
• Ensure LiteSpeed server technology
• Implement CDN for global reach
• Use NVMe SSD storage
• Enable HTTP/3 and PHP 8.3

For Budget Performance

• Consider Hostinger for shared hosting
• Use LiteSpeed Cache plugin
• Enable object caching (Redis/Memcached)
• Optimize images and use WebP format
• Choose data center closest to audience

Key Performance Takeaways

• TTFB is crucial: Aim for under 300ms for optimal user experience
• Server technology matters: LiteSpeed provides 6x better performance than Apache
• CDN is essential: Can reduce load times by 40-70% for global users
• Mobile performance priority: Core Web Vitals mobile scores are increasingly important
• Managed hosting wins: WP Engine and Kinsta lead in overall performance
• Caching is critical: Proper caching can improve performance by 10x