7 Fastest WordPress Hosting Providers in 2023 (Ranked & Compared)

WRITTEN BY

Timothy Shim

UPDATED

September 26, 2023

In our many years of web host testing, we’ve yet to see another all-around top dog like Hostinger for WordPress. Many hosting brands fall into the trap of over-focusing on specific service areas. DreamHost is one of the few that offers a highly balanced range of products.

7 Most-Rapidly WordPress Hosting Services

 

#1

Overall fastest WordPress hosting

Hostinger

5.0

  /5

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#2

Best WordPress-endorsed hosting

DreamHost

5.0

  /5

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#3

Fastest premium WordPress hosting

Kinsta

5.0

  /5

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#4

Fastest hosting for small business

HostPapa

5.0

  /5

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#5

Fastest cloud-based WordPress hosting

Cloudways

4.0

  /5

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#6

Fastest optimised WordPress hosting

WP Engine

4.0

  /5

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#7

Best hosting for ecommerce

SiteGround

4.0

  /5

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1. Hostinger — Overall Fastest WordPress Hosting

https://www.hostinger.com/

Overall score

Overall Rating

Speed

Price

Price (USD)

$2.99 / mo

Key Features

• LiteSpeed Cache
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Unlimited Cronjobs
• hPanel
• Localised support

"Hostinger outprices most of the industry while offering impressive speeds."

Try Hostinger

Hostinger has been around since 2004 and operates its global business from Kaunas, Lithuania. It’s a full-service web host that covers almost all hosting plans. That includes shared hosting, cloud hosting, and VPS.

Whether you’re running a personal blog, small business website, or eCommerce site, Hostinger has you covered. The company is known for its affordable pricing and 24/7 customer support. However, it may surprise you that it ranks well in speed performance.

Pros and cons of Hostinger

Hostinger performance

Hostinger offers WordPress plans that run on shared hosting. If you want to use VPS, they have the option available, but you’ll need to self-install WordPress. However, what amazes me is that even their shared hosting WordPress plans boast impressive speeds.

Our test website for Hostinger runs off their US server. While it doesn’t outperform Dreamhost or Kinsta, it gives both top dogs a good run for the money. Bitcatcha’s server speed checker rates Hostiger speeds an overall A+ at a global average of 136ms.

Why Hostinger works so great with WordPress

Hostinger makes it easy to install WordPress with just a few clicks, saving you time and effort. The company provides a customized, user-friendly control panel that allows you to install WordPress quickly and easily.

The exceptional Hostinger performance I described above is partly thanks to servers optimized for WordPress. That, accompanied by tools like LiteSpeed cache for WordPress and a powerful cache manager, allows WordPress sites to run like greyhounds.

Hostinger’s WordPress plans get auto-updates, which helps reduce the risk profile from unpatched WordPress installations. They also have security features like daily backups, firewalls, and malware scanning to protect your WordPress website.

Hostinger pricing

Hostiger’s entire WordPress hosting line-up presents as the cheapest shared WordPress hosting available. Special sign-up prices range from $1.99 /mo at the low end to $3.99 /mo for Business WordPress.

Prices more than double once the initial sign-on contract comes due for renewal. However, the performance you get from Hostinger makes it one of the best budget-friendly WordPress hosts.

Learn more about Hostinger

2. DreamHost

https://dreamhost.com/

Speed

Excellent

Overall Rating

Price (USD)

$24.95 /mo

Key Features

• 100% uptime guar.
• 1-Click Staging
• Built-in caching
• Custom control panel
• On-demand backup

"DreamHost takes WordPress to the next level at an excellent price-to-performance ratio."

VISIT DREAMHOST

DreamHost is a California-based company that started in 1997. It provides one of the most comprehensive ranges of hosting services available today. Beyond that, the brand has put its experience in the field towards optimizing WordPress hosting into a high-performance segment that caters to the most demanding.

DreamPress is the crown jewel in DreamHost’s WordPress hosting solutions. It’s a fully managed solution that ensures everyone can remain focused on web traffic and business. As for technical detail, leave that to the experts at DreamHost.

Pros and cons of DreamHost

DreamHost performance

Among the many hosts we test, DreamPress consistently offers best-in-class speeds. Bitcatcha maintains a test website on a DreamPress Plus plan with an average worldwide speed of 118.4ms. That combination results in a solid A+ rating for DreamPress.

Its US-centric data centers make DreamPress an especially excellent choice for WordPress sites serving an audience in the region. Tests from the US East coast region show a stunning response speed of 2ms. That’s something not many can beat.

While DreamPress only offers US data centers, it also performs reasonably quickly in other locations. Once you factor a good CDN into the mix, DreamPress can likely compete with hosts that offer a broader range of data center locations.

DreamPress also provides performance enhancements and security measures to ensure that WordPress websites run smoothly and are safe from malicious attacks. Examples include server-level caching as well as automated core WordPress updates.

It is a good option for WordPress users who want a hassle-free hosting experience and don’t want to worry about the technical aspects of maintaining their website.

Why DreamHost works so great with WordPress

The most notable aspect of DreamHost and WordPress is its endorsement by the CMS provider. Out of thousands of companies, it was selected as one of only three recommended by WordPress. That’s an accolade worth shouting about.

The company moves far ahead of the typical “generic host” spectrum and has placed its years of experience into building the best WordPress hosting imaginable. These address critical customer pain-points including speed, reliability, manageability, and security.

Examples of it going the extra mile are its easy WordPress site creation wizard, 1-Click staging, plus on-demand backups and restore feature. Each of these takes something essential and makes it better by adding more value. It’s the same all round with their entire DreamPress lineup.

DreamHost pricing

Like many other hosts, DreamHost offers shared WordPress hosting at highly competitive prices. DreamPress plans may seem pricey at first glance, but they offer incredible value for money. You are getting excellent service quality and attractive renewal rates.

Learn more about DreamHost

3. Kinsta

https://kinsta.com/

Speed

Excellent

Overall Rating

Price (USD)

$35 /mo

Key Features

• Runs on Google Cloud
• KinstaCDN global caching
• WP expert support
• Cloudflare & SSL
• 24/7 monitoring

"Kinsta is a premium choice where performance comes with generous doses of usability."

VISIT KINSTA

Kinsta is one of several newer breeds of web hosting companies that focus exclusively on the WordPress segment. This brand, in particular, aims at the higher end of the service spectrum, providing managed WordPress hosting services.

Despite the focus on WordPress performance, Kinsta doesn’t exclusively serve businesses. It offers a range of hosting plans designed to support the needs of different WordPress websites, from small personal blogs to large eCommerce stores.

Pros and cons of Kinsta

Kinsta performance

Kinsta’s hosting services run on the Premium Cloud infrastructure provided by Google. Because of this, they allow you to choose from several modification options, such as memory-optimized or CPU-optimized servers. That gives WordPress websites the processing power that many hosting solutions tend to lack.

With an average global speed of 117ms, Kinsta more than meets Google speed requirements. It’s also the only host we know of that can match DreamHost WordPress hosting speeds, even on the excellent DreamPress platform.

Access to the extensive Google Cloud network also means you can bump up performance more by carefully choosing the server location closest to your audience.

Why Kinsta works so great with WordPress

Raw performance is one of many advantages of running your website on Kinsta. However, it also provides a range of features and tools to help WordPress users manage their websites, including one-demand backups, 1-Click restoration, easy WordPress site staging, and a customizable dashboard for managing your hosting account.

Since Kinsta only offers WordPress accounts, it can also provide support and assistance to its customers through a team of WordPress experts. These folks will know what you’re talking about without having to escalate queries through several tiers of support staff.

Kinsta pricing

Prices at Kinsta aren’t for the faint of heart. They also follow a unique account limitation format that sees plans capped at specific volumes of unique visits per month. While its performance is undisputed, be prepared for operational costs to balloon quickly for growing websites.

The one bright spark in Kinsta prices is that they don’t make you suffer through heartbreaking price hikes on renewal. What you see is what you get – a level of pricing transparency that’s sorely lacking in the web hosting industry.

Learn more about Kinsta

4. HostPapa

http://www.hostpapa.com/

Speed

Excellent

Overall Rating

Price (USD)

$39.95 /mo

Key Features

• On-demand backup
• 1-Click recovery
• Full-page caching
• WordPress-centric knowledgebase
• Website security suite

"HostPapa is a trusted brand that offers many WordPress-centric advantages."

VISIT HOSTPAPA

HostPapa hails from the land of Maple syrup and has been around since 2006. Like most other global brands in this industry, it offers an extensive range of hosting services. HostPapa is known for its affordable pricing, excellent PapaSquad customer support team, and commitment to sustainability.

Pros and cons of HostPapa

HostPapa performance

HostPapa is by no means the fastest WordPress host on this list. Still, it clocks an overall average speed of 144ms, which is still good by Google standards. Its performance will notably be better for websites targeting US or EU customers since that’s where their data center options dominate.

Why HostPapa works so great with WordPress

HostPapa’s WordPress plans are all top-of-the-line. They offer state-of-the-art equipment and a long list of enhancements to handle the most demanding websites. The cheapest HostPapa WordPress plan can accommodate up to 100,000 monthly visitors.

Most notably, HostPapa WordPress plans come with extensive security features. For the security conscious, you can look forward to a complete website security suite, firewalls, threat detection and blocking, and more.

Mitigation is also a big deal here since HostPapa provides on-demand backups with 14-day retention. You don’t even need to contact their PapaSquad to recover data since there’s a 1-Click restore and recovery option.

HostPapa pricing

HostPapa’s WordPress plans are not cheap. However, given the many tools, security upgrades, and performance tweaks available, you will not likely get it cheaper elsewhere. What’s impressive about the prices is that there’s no massive increase when it’s time to renew your plan.

Learn more about HostPapa

5. Cloudways

https://www.cloudways.com/

Speed

Excellent

Overall Rating

Price (USD)

$13 /mo

Key Features

• 24/7 monitoring
• 60+ data centers
• CloudwaysBot
• Scalability
• Easy site staging and cloning

"Cloudways brings easy server management to incredibly powerful Cloud hosting."

VISIT CLOUDWAYS

Cloudways is a Malta-based Cloud server management company. It offers a convenient yet powerful dashboard that simplifies the technicalities of managing Cloud virtual servers. Using Cloudways, even those with limited technical expertise can leverage powerful virtual servers.

Pros and cons of Cloudways

Cloudways performance (Vultr)

The performance advantage that Cloudways offers is twofold. Its Cloud servers are incredibly fast, and the broad spectrum of data center location choices makes it easy for better visitor geo-targeting. Cloudways offer access to over 60 data centers around the world.

What makes it even better are the real-time monitoring tools you can use to see the performance statistics of your servers. For example, you can fire up a running graph showing the exact percentage of idle CPU, free memory, or data transfer rates.

Why Cloudways works so great with WordPress

Cloudways’ main advantage for WordPress websites lies in sheer performance power. It also includes various tools that make building and deploying WordPress websites easier. You can stage, clone, and deploy your sites with just a few clicks.

Thanks to the use of Cloud infrastructure, security is also naturally high at Cloudways. Also included are daily backups, a firewall, and malware scanning. The system can also help you keep WordPress updated at all times.

Cloudways pricing

Cloudways offers access to several Cloud service providers. These fall into the “cheap” and “expensive” categories. The prices on both sides are remarkably similar, but the gap between them is immense. For example, the cheapest plans on Digital Ocean, Linode, and Vultr hover around the $12 mark. Comparatively, AWS and Google start from at least $33.

The best part about Cloudways pricing is that it’s pay-as-you-go. No lengthy subscriptions that you need to pre-pay. Set a payment method like a credit card or PayPal, and Cloudways automatically deducts funds at the end of each month and then sends you an invoice.

Learn more about Cloudways

6. WP Engine

https://wpengine.com/

Speed

Excellent

Overall Rating

Price (USD)

$39 /mo

Key Features

• Cloudflare CDN
• GeoTargeting
• Free Premium Themes
• Malware scan
• 1-Click Staging

"WP Engine is for those who demand the best without technical complications."

VISIT WP ENGINE

Like Kinsta, WP Engine is a managed WordPress hosting provider. However, this service provider broadens the scope of plans to segregate individuals and business users more clearly. Regardless, everything here aims to provide users with the fastest WordPress website hosting possible.

Pros and cons of WP Engine

WP Engine performance

WP Engine’s close partnership with several big-name Cloud infrastructure providers is legendary. It brings the advanced features of Google and AWS to the table while simplifying the command and management to suit average consumers. The result is a choice of over 20 server locations that you can use to target visitor traffic surgically.

Beyond that, WP Engine also works with Cloudflare to bring your data to its massive range of Edge server locations. That extends your website performance beyond your server’s zone. It’s an all-around dream scenario where WordPress speed is concerned.

Why WP Engine works so great with WordPress

WP Engine’s most significant advantage is offering easily managed Cloud hosting. Aside from bringing excellent performance to the table, you can reduce your technical management costs within the organization.

The company uses various technologies and techniques to ensure that WordPress websites hosted on its platform load quickly and perform well. This advantage can be significant for websites that receive a lot of traffic or that need to be highly responsive.

Like Kinsta, the support team at WP Engine has high WordPress management skills. The result is faster and more efficient problem resolution on this platform.

WP Engine pricing

WP Engine offers various plan categories. These cover general WordPress websites, eCommerce websites, and more advanced solutions for the most demanding use. Prices at the low end start from $20 /mo and easily stretch upward beyond $600 /mo.

While some consider the plans expensive, you need to consider the many features that WP Engine includes. At fair valuations, it’s a decent deal for the performance and support you can expect from this host.

Learn more about WP Engine

7. SiteGround

https://www.siteground.com/

Speed

Excellent

Overall Rating

Price (USD)

$6.69 /mo

Key Features

• AI Anti-bot System
• Daily backups
• 10 data centers
• Google Cloud
• Full renewal energy matching

"SiteGround is a reputable brand that constantly upgrades its service quality."

VISIT SITEGROUND

One of the top web hosting brands, SiteGround brings specialist-level services to a broad market. It aims for all-around excellence, be it in performance, security, or support. Unlike WP Engine or Kinsta, you can sign up for various hosting types, not just WordPress.

Pros and cons of SiteGround

SiteGround speed performance

SiteGround servers run on Google Cloud infrastructure. The result is strong performance regardless of which data center location you choose. Even better is that it adopts the reliability that Cloud offers.

While speed test results cannot match DreamHost’s, SiteGround still manages a glocal average of 136.9ms. That result is also within Google’s speed expectations and will boost your SEO efforts.

Why SiteGround works so great with WordPress

Siteground boasts several WordPress-specific enhancements that can boost website performance. For example, they offer a specially optimized PHP version that uses HHVM to boost PHP execution speeds by as much as 30%.

Beyond that, Siteground also pays great attention to security. Most impressive is its AI bot that constantly works to prevent site intrusions. It’s developed in-house and has been undergoing constant upgrades since 2017.

SiteGround pricing

SiteGround’s base WordPress hosting plans run mainly on shared hosting. However, it offers an excellent range of advanced Cloud hosting plans for more demanding websites. You gain access to all of SiteGround’s powerful hosting advantages regardless of choice.

WordPress hosting prices at SiteGround start at a mere $3.99 /mo, which is cheap for a service of this caliber. Be aware, though, that prices here hike steeply once the initial contract expires.

Learn more about SiteGround

How We Choose The Fastest WordPress Hosting Providers

We understand that every individual has specific hosting needs. However, our choice of the fastest WordPress providers includes an in-depth assessment of other vital areas. For example, there’s little point in having the fastest hosting if it suffers daily service outages.

Because of that, we’ve identified several key factors that these hosts must meet. That includes;

Why You Should Trust Us

Bitcatcha has spent years reviewing, testing, and re-testing web hosts. Our industry experience has helped thousands of hosting seekers save time and money.

While we accept test accounts from some companies, our guides and reviews are 100% impartial. Our test accounts are paid for by ourselves and retained to ensure that we can re-test these web hosting services over extended periods. To learn more on this, read our guide on how we review web hosts.

Why Is Speed So Important For WordPress Sites?

Website speed is essential to a visitor’s experience and interaction with a WordPress site. If a website takes too long to load, visitors may become frustrated and leave it before it can fully load, increasing your bounce rate.

Google research indicates that as website load speeds increase, there is a much higher chance of bounce rate increase. The average bounce rate for sites that load within 3 seconds is 32%. WordPress sites that take 10 seconds to load can experience bounce rates as high as 123%.

The impact of a high bounce rate is especially detrimental for eCommerce websites. Visitors that leave after viewing a single page means it’s likely you’re losing potential sales.

Fast-loading websites can provide a better user experience and encourage visitors to stay on the site longer, leading to increased engagement and conversions. It can also help to improve the site’s search rankings, as search engines tend to favor fast-loading websites.

Page speed directly affects SEO since Google’s Core Web Vitals update in 2019.

Factors To Consider When Looking For A Fast WordPress Host

1. How well can the host help you geo-target visitors?

It’s essential to choose a host with servers located close to your target audience, as this can help reduce the time it takes for your website to load for visitors. As a rule of thumb, the more data center locations a host offers, the higher the chance it provides one near your primary source of visitors.

Aside from speed, you may also need servers in specific locations to comply with data processing regulations.

2. Can the host help you serve pages more quickly?

Several types of cache are available to speed up a WordPress website. Focus on the server-side caching options available when choosing your WordPress host. Keep in mind that WordPress does not offer advanced caching tools.

Ideally, look for a web host with a good Content Delivery Network (CDN). These tools can help reduce server load and bring your data closer to visitors who are further from your server location.

3. Can you easily get the right assistance?

In addition to helping you resolve performance issues, a good customer support team can also provide guidance and support for other technical problems you may encounter with your website.

Expert WordPress support teams may also help you install and set up WordPress, troubleshoot plugin or theme issues, and provide advice on optimizing your website for search engines.

4. Do you need to worry about service reliability?

If a hosting provider is unreliable, it can result in extended downtime, frustrating visitors, and damaging your business. Alternatively, a reliable hosting provider will have systems in place to ensure that your website remains available and accessible to visitors.

These can be redundant servers, automatic backups, and monitoring systems to detect and resolve issues quickly.

5. How affordable is it within the scope of your budget?

Many hosting providers offer a range of pricing options, so it’s essential to consider your needs and budget when choosing a plan. For example, if you have a small personal blog, you may need fewer resources or less support than a large eCommerce website.

It’s also important to consider any additional features or resources the host may provide. Some hosting providers may offer extra features that help improve the performance and security of your website. However, you should consider whether they are worth the additional cost.

6. How quickly can you scale to meet increased traffic?

By choosing a hosting provider that offers scalable resources, you can ensure that your website can handle an increase in traffic without experiencing any performance issues. This can include features such as the ability to upgrade your hosting plan easily, access to additional resources such as CPU, memory, disk space, and scale your website across multiple servers.

In addition to helping to handle spikes in traffic, scalability can also be necessary for the long-term growth of your website. As your website grows and adds more features and content, it may require additional resources to maintain good performance.

Wrap-Up – Which Fast WordPress Host Should You Choose?

Hostinger, DreamHost, and Kinsta each bring unique advantages to those seeking WordPress hosting. Any of these will make a good choice regarding WordPress speed, features, and price.

Here is a recap of our top fastest WordPress hosting provider:

Hostinger is one of the most potent all-around choices you can make for any website, and lays the competition flat where pricing is concerned. DreamHost, meanwhile, has a special love for WordPress. Kinsta is a good choice if you are confident that you will stick with WordPress.

Don’t worry if you aren’t fond of “top three” choices and want to buck the crowd. Any other hosts on this list are also excellent in their ways. As always, we’ve done extensive testing so you can buy with peace of mind