When collating the data of our performance compared to other web hosts, we found that most of the web hosts which offer a WordPress test site for you to browse and check loading times would hide the website behind a CDN such as CloudFlare. This means that you are being shown a artificial experience and will not reflect the experience you will receive once you have paid for your service. CloudFlare will cache and speed up the website, which isn’t a true representation of the web host and your actual performance may be worse without CloudFlare.
We believe our test site should be a true representation of what to expect from our web hosting service, therefore the website you visit is without any CDN or third-party service to artificially speed up the website.
Of course, we will also advocate a CDN as it allows your website to load quicker no matter where you are in the world but this hides the true performance of the servers serving the website. We offer CloudFlare integration for free within our control panel.
We have currently offer 2 web hosting server locations, and we have setup a test WordPress installation in all sites for you to test the performance:
UK (Coventry): https://uk-cov-wp.sharedgrid.dev/
USA (New Jersey): https://usa-nj-wp.sharedgrid.dev/
Asia (Singapore): https://asia-sg-wp.sharedgrid.dev/
Our WordPress test website is setup with the following:
- Hosted with other customers on the same server and uses our smallest ‘Lite Plan’, to show the minimum performance you can expect.
- Utilises our WordPress Toolkit, included for free on every plan to automatically keep WordPress and Plugins up to date.
- Utilises our super-fast, fully optimised, LiteSpeed web server with LSCache WordPress plugin to cache your page within OUR server memory for faster loading.
- Redis Cache, which is included free on every plan, is switched on to cache MariaDB database queries which decreases database latency for queries and increase throughput to ensure your website is fast.
- Utilises our fully optimised MariaDB instance.
- The latest version of PHP, 8.3 and OPCache Enabled.
- Hosted on a server with a Ryzen 9 7900 CPU which offers the one of the fastest single core clock speed, blazing fast DDR5 memory and NVMe drives.
Time to First Byte (TTFB)
Time to First Byte (TTFB) is the duration it takes for a browser to receive the first byte of data from a web server after making a request. It includes the server’s processing time, network latency, and the time it takes to send the initial data. A lower TTFB indicates faster server response and can contribute to quicker website loading times.
A recommended Time to First Byte (TTFB) is typically under 200 milliseconds for optimal website performance. A slow Time to First Byte (TTFB) can negatively impact search engine rankings. Search engines, including Google, consider TTFB as a factor in their algorithms. Alongside this, visitors may become frustrated browsing your website and leave.
The screenshot provided uses the Performance Tool provided by KeyCDN, as you can see the TTFB to reach our WordPress site is under 34 milliseconds! We are way faster than the recommended TTFB, this ensures that you and your visitors have the fastest experience possible.
WPPerformanceTester Plugin Tests
The WPPerformanceTester plugin is a valuable tool for WordPress users looking to see our their web host performs. This plugin facilitates comprehensive performance testing by evaluating various aspects such as server response times, database query speeds, and overall page generation efficiency.
The lower the graph bars, and values the faster the service. As you can see, we are much faster than the industry average.
Loader.io Test
Leveraging loader.io to conduct performance tests on a WordPress website offers a robust solution for evaluating its scalability and responsiveness under varying levels of traffic. By simulating up to 10,000 clients per second, this stress testing tool provides valuable insights into the site’s ability to handle concurrent user loads.
As you can see from the test results, a WordPress website on our platform can sustain a substantial visitor base of 10,000 users PER SECOND clicking and loading your website with seamless functionality, which shows our capacity to deliver a consistent user experience even during peak demand periods. There were 0 errors or timeouts during the test.
This gives you the confidence that we can handle your peak load with no issues.