The Fastest Web Hosting Provider According to Digital Experts
With thousands of web hosting providers today, selecting the fastest one can be quite challenging, notably because all of them claim to be the fastest. If you're building your website or planning to start one, you would want to get the fastest web hosting provider to supercharge your website.
Your web host provider plays a significant role in the effectiveness of your website--really, it can break or make your site and business. The fact is, it only takes 0.5 seconds for users to make an opinion about your website and determine whether they will stay or leave.
Yes, in the digital world, speed is king.
A fast and responsive website is likely to attract customers and convert leads into sales than a slow, unsteady, and non-responsive website. Getting low traffic, high bounce rate, and decline in sales due to slow page load are the last things you want to happen.
So, we've worked hard to handpick the fastest web hosting provider we can find according to webmasters.
Related: Affordable Web Hosting Prices for Beginners
Our Criteria for the Fastest Web Hosting Providers
There are many web host companies out there, and selecting the quickest can sometimes prove difficult, mainly because these companies have unique features, promising web hosting services, and competitive hosting plans and price tags.
But how can we truly say that a web hosting provider can make your site the fastest web?
First, the web host company must have an excellent and guaranteed uptime. By definition, uptime refers to the amount of time your hosting provider is up and running.
The uptime rate is typically listed as a percentage, 99.95%, for example.
An impressive uptime percentage basically means your web host provider performs well.
On the other hand, downtime can result in loss of sales, a dramatic turndown of lead generation, and a negative impression.
Your page load time is another factor that affects your user's decision whether your site is a go or no go.
Let's state the obvious: nobody wants to wait in line, especially when other stores don't keep their customers waiting. In a digital sense, your website must not make your customers wait.
According to SEMrush, as page load time goes from 1 to 3 seconds, your bounce rate increases to 32%. While page load time that goes from 1 to 5 seconds can make the bounce rate to 90%.
BlueHost
We can't deny it — BlueHost is one of the best and fastest web hosting providers in the market today. And while that is quite a bold statement, we have proof to convince you. First, let's talk about BlueHost's uptime.
The average uptime is 99.59%, which means a website can experience 35 hours and 32 minutes of downtime every year. With BlueHost, however, you might not experience downtime at all!
In 2018, BlueHost's uptime was at blazing 99.991%, with 7 outages and 52 minutes of downtime. From February 2019 to January 2020, the average uptime of BlueHost is 99.9925%.
Plus, BlueHost has a blazing page load time of 405ms (that's 0.4 seconds!).
BlueHost also offers WordPress hosting and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
While BlueHost has many things to boast, it's far from perfect. Much like everything else in this world, BlueHost has some things to improve.
For example, BlueHost is adequately transparent about the hardware they use on their shared servers, but you won't find exactly what level resources they run on each server.
Although they use the latest PHP and MySQL versions, they limit the default amount of memory on Basic plans.
Check out BlueHost's hosting plan:
- Shared hosting - $3.95/mo.
- Virtual Private Server - $19.99/mo.
- Dedicated hosting - $79.99/mo.
Nate Shivar, a marketing director, consultant, and SEO specialist said that BlueHost is one of the most well-known brands in the hosting industry. Although it is not the highest-performing or the cheapest, BlueHost is a solid all-around hosting solution for all websites--be it large or small.
We couldn't agree more!
SiteGround
Is SiteGround the fastest? Yes. At least according to real users who used SiteGround as their web hosting provider. They provide competitive and feature-rich hosting plans, but they are more prominent in terms of their speed and performance.
We can't emphasize enough how crucial speed is when it comes to loading your page or website.
You need a server that performs very well, having excellent uptime percentage to keep your site always up and running.
SiteGround starts strong with 99.99% uptime with a super-fast server. This web hosting company really takes speed and performance very seriously.
The average page load speed of SiteGround is around 673ms or 0.67 seconds!
Like most web hosting companies, SiteGround offers various hosting plans and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
SiteGround has some downsides, too. The good news is that they do not have anything to do with speed and performance.
You will find most users complaining about the high renewal rate and the limited storage in their shared hosting.
They offer three hosting plans:
- StartUp - $6.99/mo.
- GrowBig - $9.99/mo.
- GoGeek - $14.99/mo.
Idan Cohen from HostAdvice said that SiteGround is one of the major players in the web hosting industry. They have one of the most reliable and feature-rich WP hosting platforms, too!
InMotion Hosting
When you have the fastest web server, your site is more likely to perform well. You must consider web hosts such as InMotion if you're looking for the fastest hosting companies.
InMotion puts heavy emphasis when it comes to their speed. That's probably because they know how speed can supercharge not only your site but also your business.
Regarding the uptime rate, you will want to consider web hosting companies with 99.9% uptime, and that's exactly what InMoting offers. They have a reliable 99.9% uptime, according to their official website.
Now, let's talk about... yes, you guessed it... speed.
Their server is very fast, they can guarantee a page load speed of only 171.9ms, that is, 0.17 seconds! This is almost the same speed as the blink of our eyes. If that didn't blow your mind, we don't know what will.
If you want your site to be lightning-fast, then InMotion is the best way to go.
InMotion, however, has many drawbacks. They do not offer free backups and miss some advantageous features. Nevertheless, the speed they offer is the most impressive so far.
Here are InMotion's plans:
- Lite - $2.49/mo.
- Launch - $4.99/mo.
- Power - $4.99/mo.
- Pro - $12.99/mo.
InMotion really has the upper hand compared to other web hosts. Don't just take it from us.
Yuriy Gandyak from HostAdvice said that InMotion stands tall as a high-performing hosting service. He also emphasized how affordable the service is. It has won many people over with its features and tools perfect for beginners and webmasters.
WP Engine
WP Engine is another company that offers high-quality and fast hostings. It boasts many features that can speed up your site, the kind of speed that wins customers, gains good impressions, and converts lead into sales.
The same with the web hosts we have listed above, WP Engine has an impressive uptime rate and page load speed.
WP Engine has a solid 100% uptime server performance and a whooping 250ms (0.25 secs) page load time based on time-to-first-byte (TTFB). Impressive much? Yes, we think so.
Note, though, that WP Engine, despite the outstanding performance, has some room for improvements (after all, everything in life really does need development, don't you think?)
The add-ons they offer are quite pricey. Plus, they do not have email hosting, and their plans are slightly expensive compared to other web hosts. Speed-wise, WP Engine can do its job!
Check out WP Engine's plans:
- Startup - $25/mo.
- Growth - $95.83/mo.
- Scale - $241.67/mo.
Here's a web expert's take on WP Engine:
"WP Engine plans don’t come cheap – there’s no sugar-coating that fact. However, you’ll get quality managed hosting service in exchange for your investment. This provider offers lots of vital WordPress-specific features, solid performance, and reliable support. If WP Engine does fit your budget, it’s worth serious consideration." -- John Hughes, Themeisle
GoDaddy
GoDaddy doesn't fall short when it comes to performance. Thanks to its high-caliber server, it can accelerate your site. Isn't that what you always wanted?
It guarantees a stable 99.97% uptime rate and a glittering 554ms (0.55 secs) page load time. Could GoDaddy be any faster? For sure. But GoDaddy is definitely faster than most companies out there.
Some GoDaddy users have some complaints regarding their pricing, upsells, and lack of important features in the Basic plans.
For example, they offer several upsells, which can increase the price you're going to pay. The renewal price is also pricey, and the base plans lack features, such as SSL certificate, backups, security, and more.
But when it comes to speed, it does a pretty impressive job.
Check out GoDaddy's plans:
- Basic - $10/mo.
- Standard - $15/mo.
- Premium - $20/mo.
- Commerce - $25/mo.
They also offer a shared hosting plan for only $3.99/mo.
Brad Smith from HostingFacts said that GoDaddy has strong uptime and fast page loading speeds. With conviction, he said that GoDaddy works well with the most popular web apps. He also added that the initial pricing for base features is a good value.
Our Comprehensive Comparison
We've made a table for you to compare these hosting providers easier:
Web Host Provider |
Uptime Rate |
Fastest Page Load (secs) |
Slowest Page Load (secs) |
---|---|---|---|
BlueHost |
99.9925% |
0.45 secs |
8.92 secs |
SiteGround |
99.99% |
0.67 secs |
7.64 secs |
InMotion |
99.95% |
0.17 secs |
15.52 secs |
WP Engine |
100% |
0.25 secs |
6.98 secs |
GoDaddy |
99.97% |
0.55 secs |
10.94 secs |
* Sources: HostAdvice; Instructify
Also, take a look at our Complete Guide to HIPAA Compliant Web Hosting.
Quick fact: Who has the fastest loading website?
A quick Google search gives us this answer: Bing is the fastest loading website, but we're pretty sure you agree that that is debatable, especially when you get to access this site, which is super fast (and perhaps the fastest web we have found so far).
Closing
That's it!
Remember, a slow website is a bad website. And bad websites can only result in loss of sales, leads, and customers. If you're planning to build a site or already have a poor-performing and slow one, you might need to change your server. Select a web host company that is equipped with the best and fast-performing server.
One more thing... not because a web host plan is expensive doesn't automatically make them fast. Some companies offer budget-friendly plans with an uncompromising server speed.
Which do you think is the fastest web hosting in this list? Let us know in the comments below!