Fastest web hosting: at the speed of light

Speedy and fast web hosting is critical to your website’s success, as it will attract more visitors, improve SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and enhance overall user experience. A fast website is more likely to attract and retain more visitors than a sluggish one.

But what does it depend on? Mainly your hosting provider. However, not all providers can offer the desired speed and generally fast service. That’s why we’ve done in-depth research and testing of the fastest web hosting providers. Testing majorly included conducting website loading speed and stress tests.

In this article, we’ll delve into the top 6 fastest hosting providers that proved to be the speediest ones on the market. We’ll look more into their features and prices and compare them to other rivals.

6 fastest web hosting providers: ranked

1. Hostinger – best budget and speed-oriented web hosting
2. SiteGround – performance-focused web hosting
3. InMotion Hosting – the fastest web hosting for small businesses
4. Liquid Web – fast and reliable managed VPS hosting
5. WP Engine – speedy web hosting
6. Cloudways – fastest VPS hosting for businesses

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Fast web hosting services – our detailed list:

We’ve tested dozens of web hosting providers to narrow down the list and provide only the ones that proved to be fast enough. Below, we’ll dissect their features, speed optimization tools, plans and pricing, and offer our hands-on experience with the service.

1. Hostinger – best affordable and speed-oriented web hosting overall

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Hostinger is the best and fastest web hosting provider. It has many optimizations to speed up your website and provide impressive speeds by using the LiteSpeed servers, which allows Hostinger to deploy its custom hosting panel. This combo provides overall better speeds and performance.

Interface. Hostinger is very easy to set up, navigate, and use. Its intuitive custom control panel (hPanel) lets you manage everything from billing to all functionalities related to your website.

Features. This provider has numerous speed-boosting features, such as LiteSpeed Web Server (with this technology, Hostinger can handle more visitors with minimum resources), LiteSpeed Cache (adds up to better page load times), multiple Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) version (can also speed up your website). Besides, Hostinger has Page speed and Analytics panel integrations, which helps user to track site’s speed performance, requests to website, bandwidth usage, and other data.

Performance. In terms of performance, Hostinger makes it very easy to battle latency by offering 8 server locations to decrease loading time (you can choose from Brazil, India, the UK, France, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Singapore, or the US). We used tools like Pingdom, GTMetrix to evaluate and monitor the site’s data. Overall, it takes just 849ms for Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) to load, which is an excellent result:

Customer support. Hostinger has really exceptional support team – there are options for 24/7 live chat, a ticket system, emails, and a knowledge base. We were really satisfied with how professional and speedy the agents were – ready to help solve your hosting issues.

Pricing. The starting Hostinger price is $2.69/month (Premium plan). It includes a free domain, an SSL, weekly backups, at least 1 email account, 100 websites, 100GB SSD storage, and bandwidth for 25k monthly visits.

Cheap, fast, and packed with performance boosters, Hostinger is truly one of the top options for those looking for the fastest web hosting.

Visit our Hostinger review to learn more about the features.

2. SiteGround – best in-house performance-optimizing tools

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SiteGround is another speedy web hosting service. It’s known for its performance-centric approach to hosting, thanks to its effective speed-boosting features like an Optimizer plugin for small business websites. Our stress tests proved the speeds to be very reliable and consistent even with the increased number of visiting users.

Interface. SiteGround’s design is very intuitive yet feature-rich and effective. Even if you’re a beginner, setting everything up is simple. It implements the in-house control panel – a modern and functional option even if you’re a first-time user.

Features. There are multiple speed-oriented features that make SiteGround stand out from the crowd. First off, ultrafast PHP decreases the server’s response time (TTFB), SuperCacher helps to increase the number of hits your site can handle, as well as boost your site’s loading speed. Moreover, there’s a SiteGround Optimizer plugin to improve the site’s performance by allowing users to manage their cache settings.

Performance. SiteGround has 7 server locations to battle the latency (US, UK, Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and Singapore). Performance-wise, the results are well below Google’s recommended limit – LCP took only 872ms and the fully loaded time was 1.1s. We evaluated this with Pingdom and GTMetrix tools.

Customer support. The provider has nearly all possible customer support options – smart knowledge base, live chat, email, and ticket system. The support we got while testing was professional, speedy, and in friendly manner.

Pricing. SiteGround’s prices start at $2.99/month (StartUp plan) – it includes 1 website, 10GB SSD storage, and can support 10k monthly visits. Other plans also offer really good value for money.

Overall, with its various speed-boosting features that return remarkable results, it’s no wonder that SiteGround lands among the fastest web hosting providers.

Visit our SiteGround review to learn more about the features.

3. InMotion Hosting – the fastest web hosting for small businesses

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A veteran in the industry, InMotion Hosting is a popular choice for fastest web hosting, especially for those with small businesses. While the provider’s pricing is on the premium side, its features like UltraStack guarantee speedy hosting that can smoothly handle the traffic.

Interface. InMotion has the well-regarded cPanel for all hosting management-related tasks. The panel is easy to navigate and get used to. You can also use BoldGrid – a WordPress website builder which allows you to create a professional-looking site in no time.

Features. InMotion Hosting’s enhanced performance and speed are highly related to its UlstraStack feature, which includes NGINX proxy caching, PHP FastCGI Process manager, and Brolti Compression. All of this technical-sounding hardware and software speeds your website up by caching the web content into memory to prevent loading source code for every new visitor.

Performance. To prove all of those features really add up to the site’s speed, we put InMotion Hosting to the test using Pingdom and GTMetrix. Its fully loaded time took barely 825ms, and at the same time – its server responsiveness was very good – 140ms. Overall, InMotion handled the traffic smoothly. However, it only has data centers in the US and Amsterdam.

Customer support. InMotion has a very large number of support options – a community forum, knowledge base, blog, 24/7 live chat, email, ticket system, and even a phone line. You can rest assured that you’ll get any technical support needed.

Pricing. This provider’s plans are very affordable, starting from $2.29/month (Core plan) – it includes 2 websites, 100GB SSD storage, and 10 email accounts. Other plans also offer generous resources.

Finally, InMotion has impressed us with its speed and ability to handle some heavy traffic. Fast and reliable, we have no complaints.

Visit the InMotion Hosting review to learn more about the features.

4. Liquid Web – fast and reliable managed VPS hosting

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Liquid Web is a premium managed VPS provider that’s also very speedy and can handle mission-critical projects. It’s generally known for powerful servers and during our in-house testing, it only experienced a few jumps.

Interface. Even though Liquid Web is more of an advanced solution, the plans come fully managed with multiple control panels (for instance, cPanel). You can take care of the general setting, but Liquid Web will do the rest and take care of the maintenance. In just a couple of minutes, you’ll have your dashboard set and ready to go.

Features. Liquid Web has powerful servers, which are extra fast and responsive. For a faster loading time, the provider includes a free Cloudflare CDN. The host is also very reliable, as it comes with a 100% uptime guarantee backed by SLA. It means you can expect your site to be live at all times.

Performance. As for our testing, Liquid Web’s LCP took 1.2s – below Google’s recommended limit. The server’s responsiveness was also very good – just 186ms. To battle latency, Liquid Web offers 4 data center options (3 in the US and 1 in Europe). We determined the following results using Pingdom and GTMetric tools.

Customer support. Liquid Web has a few customer support options: live chat, phone, or tickets 24/7. Additionally, you can check out their tutorials and documentation available in the knowledge base. We also liked that it was quick and efficient during our tests.

Pricing. Regardless of the plan, you get a control panel of your choice, SSL certificates, automated backups, and strong security. The prices start from $15.00/month (2GB RAM). Overall, it’s pricier on the spectrum.

As a whole, Liquid Web is speedy and reliable. The provider’s servers are also cluster-free, and even without many speed-optimizing features, it’s well-suited for larger projects or sites.

Visit our Liquid Web review to learn more about the features.

5. WP Engine – speedy web hosting

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If you’re looking for blazing-fast managed WordPress hosting, WP Engine should be on your list. With the implementation of Google Cloud and AWS servers, this provider ensures you get the newest hardware for your site. Besides, it’s well-equipped with speed-optimizing features.

Interface. WP Engine is a bit more advanced than other shared hosting options on this list. Even so, the dashboard is very organized and clean. Most of the tasks are done manually, but there are useful explainers provided.

Features. To speed up the site, WP Engine uses a unique approach – Google Cloud and AWS servers, 20 data center options all around the world to battle latency, and a free CDN to enhance the site’s performance. Since the provider specializes in managed WordPress hosting, it offers various customizations and automatic updates for your WordPress site to guarantee the fastest web hosting possible.

Performance. WP Engine showed us really good test results with Pingdom and GTMetrix tools. The site’s TTFB and fully loaded time came in at 140ms and 1.1s. However, WP Engine’s cheapest plan isn’t powerful enough to tackle 50 VUs. The test itself proved that WP Engine is capable of handling 30 VUs (around 30,000 monthly visits) perfectly fine.

Customer support. This provider offers a great range of customer support options – 24/7 live chat, email, and phone line. On top, there’s also an extensive resource center. We reached out to the agents via the live chat a couple of times. Each time, we got a quick and professional answer.

Pricing. Although WP Engine prices are considerably higher than its contenders, the cheapest plan starts at $20.00/month (Startup plan). It includes 1 site, comes with 10GB storage, 50GB bandwidth, and supports up to 25k monthly visitors.

Ultimately, WP Engine ticks all the right boxes when it comes to delivering fast web hosting. Fast and capable of handling traffic, this is one of the winners.

Visit our WP Engine review to learn more about the features.

6. Cloudways – fastest VPS hosting for businesses

Visit Cloudways

Cloudways isn’t a mainstream name, but rather a unique provider, which also made it to our list as one of the speediest web hosting providers. It sets up and manages servers from top VPS hosting providers. Cloudways brings lots of performance-accelerating features to the table, too.

Interface. Cloudways hosting uses its in-house developed panel to manage the servers and apps. The panel itself is clean and comprehensive. Plus, the setting up of the website and installation of SSL certificates is beyond easy. The only thing that may be a little tricky is pointing your domain to the server.

Features. Cloudways is no slacker when it comes to its features. All servers have dedicated resources, there are also SSD drives and PHP-FPM to reduce page load times. Built-in caches will also help to speed things up. Cloudways has numerous data center locations. You can choose from up to 20 locations, which is also what will help speed up the site.

Performance. Pingdom and GTMetrix tests revealed that these features are working hard and aren’t just there for decoration. For LCP, our test site took 759ms. Not the best on this list but still in the top 3, which is quite a feat considering the caliber of the providers on the list. Cloudways’ final hurdle is a stress test (using K6.io tool) to see how well it handles increased traffic of 50VUs:

Customer support. Cloudways offer several customer support choices: 24/7 live chat and online ticketing. The provider also has a community forum and a knowledge base. The interactions we had during our in-house tests were efficient and helpful.

Pricing. This web hosting provider has many plans, the cheapest being DigitalOcean – it starts at $8.25/month and provides 1 core processor, 1GB RAM, 25GB SSD, and 8 server locations. Considering the complexity of the provider, it’s a good value for money.

Overall, Cloudways is fast, stable, and has exceptional handling of traffic – we’d give the provider an A+.

Visit our Cloudways review to learn more about the features.

How did we test the fastest web hosting providers?

In our rigorous evaluation of the fastest web hosting providers, we employed a comprehensive testing methodology to identify the top performers of the fastest web hosting. The following points outline the key aspects of our testing process:

• Load time. We conducted extensive load time tests using industry-standard tools. We measured the time it took for websites hosted by each provider to load with GTMetrix, WordPress site with Astra theme and TechSartUp template in different locales, assessing their overall speed and performance fully.
• Server response time. This helped us determine how quickly the hosting providers' servers responded to requests, indicating their efficiency in delivering content to visitors. We used PIngdom tool to conduct the tests.
• Uptime monitoring. We used uptime monitoring service (Pingdom) to track the hosting providers' reliability. We continuously monitored the uptime of websites hosted by each provider to ensure they maintained excellent availability and minimal downtime.
• Speed optimization features. We extensively reviewed the speed optimization tools offered by each hosting provider. We analyzed the presence and effectiveness of features like server caching, content delivery networks (CDNs), HTTP/2 support, and advanced caching plugins.
• Real-world performance. In addition to automated testing, we also conducted hands-on experience by hosting sample websites with the providers under evaluation. This allowed us to assess the actual performance of the hosts in real-world scenarios, including page loading speed, stability, and overall user experience.

What does hosting speed rely on?

The speed of a web host relies on several key features that contribute to its overall performance. These include:

• Server locations. The proximity of the server to website visitors affects response times and latency.
• Content Delivery Network (CDN). CDNs distribute content across multiple servers globally, reducing latency and improving load times.
• Server hardware and configuration. High-performance servers with modern hardware and optimized configurations enhance data processing and retrieval.
• Network connectivity. Fast and reliable network connections with ample bandwidth ensure smooth data transmission.
• Caching. Effective caching, such as server-side and browser caching, reduces the need for repeated resource-intensive processing.
• Optimized software. Well-optimized web servers, scripting languages, and database systems contribute to faster website performance.

By focusing on these features, web hosting providers can optimize their infrastructure, reduce latency, and deliver faster loading times for websites.

Fastest web hosting providers compared

Winner

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Why web hosting speed matter?

Now, there’s a reason why so many providers are so quick to claim that they’re the fastest in the market. This is because they’re well aware that speed has far-reaching effects when it comes to the success of a website. Among the most affected ones are search engine ranking and user experience.

Search engine ranking

Search engines have long made it clear the importance of speed. In fact, in mid-June 2021, Google started using page experience as part of its ranking systems. And, speed plays an important role in page experience.

Additionally, even back in 2010, Google said that it considers website load speed when ranking a website. Plus, in 2018, the search engine launched its speed update, which makes page speed a ranking factor for mobile searches, too.

Additionally, if you rely on advertising to generate revenue on your website, hosting speed becomes even more critical. Adverts often introduce additional code and content that can slow down your site. A fast hosting infrastructure ensures that your website can handle the added load of advertisements without compromising the overall performance, ensuring that ads are delivered quickly and seamlessly to visitors.

Here’s what you can take away: you might have a killer website with killer content, but there’s a huge possibility it isn’t going to get any eyeballs if it’s slow.

User experience

User experience (UX) is basically how a user interacts with and experiences your website. It takes into consideration several elements, including speed.

To put it simply, a website with good UX will provide visitors with what they’re looking for quickly. As for the definition of “quickly,” well, it’s quite literally in the blink of an eye. Anything longer, and your site will see a high bounce rate.

This is the percentage of visitors that left (or bounced) without taking any action. Obviously, this is no good as you want your visitors to click on a link, fill out a contact form, view other pages, and more.

Now that it’s crystal clear why speed matters, let’s talk about what to look out for when it comes to speed and what exactly is considered fast.

Our top pick – Hostinger

Which factors indicate your website’s speed?

When you’re searching for the fastest website hosting provider, there are a few things you want to keep your eyes peeled for. Among the most important ones are Large Contentful Paint (LCP), time to first byte (TTFB), and fully loaded time.

Let’s dive a little deeper and take a closer look at each of them:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). LCP is a measure of how long it takes to load and display the largest chunk of content to visitors. Thresholds for LCP are measured by the render time (in seconds) of the largest image or text block visible within the visitor's viewport. The largest chunk is usually text blocks or images, such as a hero image or even a video. Google is using page experience as part of its ranking system, so LCP is one of the 3 Core Web Vitals that affects page experience. Simply put, if you keep your files on the light end, you should have no problems with a large LCP.
• Time to first byte (TTFB). TTFB measures the provider’s server’s responsiveness. In simple words, fast TTFB means that the user’s request to open a website has been delivered and recognized by the server in a speedy manner. Ideally, you want your TTFB to be below 200ms. Anything between that and 600ms is still solid.
• Fully Loaded Time (FLT). At the risk of pointing out the obvious, this is how long it takes for your site to load fully. Once the little circle at the top of the search engine stops spinning, that’s it. Your whole content is ready to be consumed. Anything that fits within 3 seconds is considered a very good result. Google has stated that websites that load faster than in 3s have better chances of ranking higher on its search engine’s result page.

All in all, even if you have a great website full of entertaining animations and amazing content, if it fails to load fast, visitors will bounce. So make sure that you keep your content light and close to your target audience, and you should be just fine.

Final word

Having a fast website is imperative for success. Several factors contribute to the speed of web hosting, including server response time, efficient caching mechanisms, and optimized content delivery networks. Among the many tested web hosting providers, only a few made it to our best list and one stood out as the best fast web host – Hostinger.

With its cutting-edge infrastructure, Hostinger offers impressive server response times, robust caching solutions, and an extensive network of content delivery servers. These qualities ensure that websites hosted on Hostinger's platform load swiftly and deliver a seamless user experience.

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