Most Reliable & Fastest Web Host
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When it is to web hosting speed and reliability are inextricably linked.
A reliable web host has been able to speed up, and it must be reliable.
Why is this happening?
If your website pages don’t load quickly, or your website is unavailable when people try to visit it, then those people won’t hang around to discover the reason!
Google found that 53% of mobile users quit a website that takes longer than three seconds to load.
A slow, insecure website will not please your visitors!
Research conducted by Gartner indicates that downtime on websites (when websites are not accessible), costs US companies on average $5,600 per hour!!
Speed and reliability are vital for user experience, and conversions. They also affect your ranking in search engines. Since 2010, Google has used page speed to rank.
A study revealed that websites that have up to six hours of downtime will rank lower in search engines. It can take as long as two months for the site to return online.
This, as well as numerous other figures, indicate that a reliable web host is vital to your business’ success.
Where can you find one?
We’ve been testing the quality and speed of the most affordable web hosts since the year 2019. Therefore, we are able to tell you with certainty which ones are the fastest and most reliable web hosting firms that are available today.
We determine the reliability and speed of our website using uptime and page loading time.
What is the uptime of a website and how does it impact the reliability of your web host?
The term “uptime” refers to a measurement used to gauge the accessibility of websites. If a website is available and accessible to web users It is “up” and the percentage of time it is”up” is known as “uptime”.
A website that is not accessible or unavailable to users is termed “down” and the proportion of time that is down is termed “downtime”.
Verify the uptime of your web host
Your website has been unavailable to users for a certain time. This could be a matter of seconds or minutes or even hours. This could be due to glitches, maintenance and fixes or even the sudden increase in traffic that can eat up your bandwidth.
A reliable web host will have a lot of uptime. This is an indication that they are reliable. A lot of downtimes is clearly unfavourable and a sign of a host that is not reliable!
What is the most reliable level of uptime?
A lot of people are confused as to the distinction between what is considered good and bad reliability.
For instance, 99.99% uptime is a high level of reliability. To be sufficient we must lower the downtime by 0.04 percent to 99.95 percent.
And when we get to 99.8% and less than a quarter of the time we’re already entering the realms of poor levels of reliability!
Because these small percentage differences can result in long periods of inaccessibility for websites when compared across an entire calendar year.
So, a website which has 99.99 percent uptime, will suffer less than an hour of downtime in a year.
A website with 99.8 percent uptime could be inaccessible to users for more than 17 hours over a one-year. This could result in significant losses for businesses!
Use this uptime calculator to see how different time periods translate into actual time periods!
Keep in mind that even minor variations in uptime can make a huge difference in the reliability of web hosts.
Website Hosting and Uptime Garanties
Many web hosts provide time-warranties for uptime. They promise to provide 99.9 percent uptime per month. This is commonly referred to as Service Level Agreement (SLA).
A2 Hosting provides a 99.9 100% Uptime Guarantee
They’ll reimburse you in the event that they don’t fulfill their promise. But, it’s up to you to inform them that it’s not been met, and they will determine whether they are in agreement based on their own metrics.
Although I’m a bit skeptical about how often these guarantees result in payments when their commitments are not being met, we once got an amount of money back from WP Engine once when they failed to fulfill their SLA.
What is Page Load Time (and how does it have to do with the speed of web hosting)?
Page load time is an indicator of how long it takes to load into the browser in seconds.
The length of time needed to create a webpage will be determined by the size and arrangement of the files. It is not dependent on the speed at which a web host sends the files.
Page load times may also be affected by file size
The only way to measure the speed of two web hosts is to use exactly the same website on each account (more about this later).
After page size variability is removed, page load times are in large part the responsibility of web host servers. More server resources will allow data to be moved more quickly.
But there’s still a lot of other variabilities here, in relation to where the visitors are coming from, at what time of the day, and on what device. Speeds that are faster are preferred by desktop devices, quiet hours and access to servers.
What is a Fast Page Load Time?
Google recommends that a web page should load in less than 2 seconds. In my opinion, anything longer than 3 seconds could be getting into the slow zone.
However, page speed is not as easy to measure as you might think, and simply looking at the average page loading time on Google Analytics might show some alarmingly high, but not necessarily useful figures.
Another reason to take into consideration ways to measure the speeds of various web host service providers is that it could be very difficult to discern which is the fastest. This brings us to:
How we conducted our web speed and reliability tests on our host
Then, I created new accounts with each of the hosting companies we regularly look at:
- A2 Hosting
- Bluehost
- DreamHost
- GoDaddy
- HostGator
- InMotion
- iPage
- Hostinger
- GreenGeeks
- Kinsta
- Cloudways
- WP Engine
- IONOS
- Namecheap
- SiteGround
On each account, I then created identical WordPress websites that contained a mixture of text, images and videos.
Although I didn’t install any page speed optimization plugins to my account, I did leave them activated when they came preloaded.
This gives companies an edge in terms of speed. The reason is that we’re measuring the speed of default setups.
Page Load Time Testing
A single speed test isn’t enough. So I put in the effort and completed 5 rounds of tests with 4 different tools over a 6 week time period. The tools I employed.
- GTMetrix
- Pingdom
- WebPageTest.org
- Google PageSpeed Tool
The tests were conducted from diverse locations across the globe (including Vancouver, Sao Paulo and San Francisco, Tokyo, and New York), at various times and on various days.
For the first time in this year, I used the Page Speed Monitoring tool within StatCake to test the page load times for each site every 15 minutes, 7 every day of the week.
Uptime Tests
To monitor website uptime in the last 12 months, I also use StatusCake
In the end, I combined all the results and discovered the medians for each service.
If you’d like to go through the data yourself, here’s the Google Sheet where I logged all the info. For the conclusions, just read below.
Which is the Fastest Web Host?
In the year we tested, GreenGeeks was the fastest web host we’ve tested, with an average page load speed of 1.29 seconds. A2 Hosting was able to load pages within 1.3 seconds, while GoDaddy took 1.44 seconds.
The winner of last year’s contest, SiteGround, came in fourth in 1.56 seconds, which is a fair way behind Cloudways in 1.46 seconds.
HostGator was the slowest host we tested and had an average loading time of 2.72 seconds. HostGator’s performance issues are not unusual; they were second behind BlueHost last year.
How fast web hosts have changed in the past 3 years? We’ve tested this for 3
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Page Loading Time in Seconds | |||
| GreenGeeks | 2.39 | 1.56 | 1.29 |
| A2 Hosting | 3.15 | 2.01 | 1.30 |
| GoDaddy | 3.40 | 1.94 | 1.44 |
| Cloudways | 2.32 | 1.73 | 1.46 |
| SiteGround | 2.14 | 1.54 | 1.56 |
| Hostinger | 4.19 | 1.61 | 1.63 |
| WP Engine | 2.21 | 1.65 | 1.66 |
| Namecheap | – | 1.60 | 1.69 |
| Dreamhost | 3.28 | 1.84 | 1.75 |
| Kinsta | 2.98 | 1.77 | 1.82 |
| Bluehost | 3.07 | 2.87 | 2.07 |
| IONOS | – | 1.95 | 2.32 |
| InMotion | 4.36 | 2.75 | 2.58 |
| iPage | 4.19 | 2.76 | 2.60 |
| HostGator | 3.77 | 2.78 | 2.72 |
Which is the Most Reliable Web Hosting Provider?
Our tests revealed 5 web hosts that were 100% uptime and perfectly reliable.
- SiteGround
- WP Engine
- Namecheap
- Kinsta
- InMotion
Cloudways and A2 Hosting both were able to provide 99.99% uptime. HostGator was not far behind with 99.98 percent. Many other web hosts had acceptable uptime scores.
IONOS was the most reliable web host with a mediocre 99.71 percent uptime. Dreamhost were not that great with 99.83 percent.
In the last 3 years, our tests have shown that the speed of service for web hosts has increased.
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Uptime percent | |||
| SiteGround | 99.97 | 100 | 100 |
| WP Engine | 99.99 | 99.99 | 100 |
| Namecheap | – | 100 | 100 |
| Kinsta | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| InMotion | 99.73 | 99.95 | 100 |
| A2 Hosting | 99.99 | 99.98 | 99.99 |
| Cloudways | 100 | 100 | 99.99 |
| HostGator | 99.91 | 99.99 | 99.98 |
| GreenGeeks | 99.98 | 99.98 | 99.97 |
| GoDaddy | 99.90 | 99.96 | 99.95 |
| Hostinger | 99.48 | 99.92 | 99.95 |
| Bluehost | 99.96 | 99.99 | 99.95 |
| iPage | 98.45 | 99.85 | 99.95 |
| Dreamhost | 99.99 | 99.96 | 99.83 |
| IONOS | – | 99.93 | 99.71 |
Price Considerations
You pay for what you pay for, right? This is what everybody says regardless. I’d expect better performance and security if I spent more on web hosting.
Web Host Speed and Price
But, when I looked at the relationship between the load time and the renewal price of the different web hosting providers It wasn’t as straightforward as that, as you will see in the graph below.
When choosing between web hosting providers It is crucial to be aware of the renewal costs. This is the cost that you pay once the initial price expires.
This is because the initial price is often too low and thus limited in time. If you decide to stay with your host, the renewal price will be what you pay afterward.
The graph shows the fact that WP Engine and Kinsta are the most expensive web hosts however they aren’t the fastest. There’s an array of web hosts that offer the same or better speeds that are also significantly faster!
Web Host Prices vs. Uptime
If we take a look at the uptime, there is a closer relationship between price and reliability. The three highest-priced web hosts (Kinsta, WP Engine and SiteGround) all have 100 100% uptime.
Namecheap was the only web hosting provider that guaranteed 100% uptime, and they were also among the least expensive (on renewal cost). This means that a lower price does not necessarily mean low reliability.
When choosing the web hosting provider you choose speed and reliability should not be the only things you take into consideration. These aren’t the only factors that will impact the cost of your web hosting.
Let’s look at some other things to consider when choosing a web host.
Other considerations (aside from Page Load Time & Uptime)
Customer Service
I’d suggest that the level of customer service you receive is a crucial determinant of a host’s reliability. Web hosts must be able to address any issues quickly and also be reliable.
You can be sure that you will encounter problems with any hosting service. These issues will need to be resolved through interaction with the support staff of the customer.
We have tested each web hosting service’s customer support, which you can see in the table below.
| PROVIDER | LIVE CHAT | EMAIL & the TICKET | Telephone Support | SUPPORT SCORE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kinsta | 24/7 | 24/7 | 24/7 | |
| A2 Hosting | 24/7 | 24/7 | 24/7 | |
| WP Engine | 24/7 | 24/7 | 24/7 | |
| InMotion | 24/7 | 24/7 | 24/7 | |
| SiteGround | 24/7 | 24/7 | 24/7 | |
| GreenGeeks | 24/7 | 24/7 | 9am – 12am EST | |
| NameCheap | 24/7 | 24/7 | No | |
| DreamHost | 3am – 9:45pm (PT). | 24/7 | No | |
| Bluehost | 24/7 | 24/7 | 24/7 | |
| GoDaddy | 24/7 | 24/7 | 24/7 | |
| Hostinger | No | 24/7 | No | |
| CloudWays | 24/7 (15 min limit) |
24/7 | No | |
| IONOS | 24/7 | 24/7 | 24/7 | |
| HostGator | 24/7 | 24/7 | 24/7 | |
| iPage | 24/7 | 24/7 | 24/7 |
This is due to a strong correlation between price and service to customers. The higher the price the better service you receive. It will resolve the issue quicker and more effectively.
Kinsta, WP Engine and SiteGround are the three most expensive web hosts and in my tests, they also offered excellent customer support. They were quick to respond and made complete sense.
GreenGeeks and A2 Hosting were both priced at mid-price however, they both performed admirably.
However, the hosting providers that were cheaper had restrictions on when and how I could get in touch with customer support. I also had to wait longer for my connection, and sometimes it took longer to solve issues.
Support for customers varies widely!
I was particularly dissatisfied with the support teams at HostGator Bluehost, GoDaddy and iPage. They frequently did not respond to my inquiries unanswered or took way too long to get back to me.
There were exceptions, however! While InMotion and DreamHost are both reasonably priced I found their customer service to be very responsive and reliable. They also were very helpful.
Web Hosting Features
It is important to consider other factors when selecting a web host. They’re more focused on the features they offer than speed and reliability. This includes:
- Make use of it immediately
- Domain name availability
- WordPress or any other CMS features
- Email services
- The provision of databases
- Storage restrictions
- Data transfer limits are set each month
- Security features
- Website backup features
- Guarantees and refunds
Depending on your specific needs, some of these may be as crucial as speed and reliability.
Make sure you read our guide on the most affordable web host, best web host, best overall hosting, and our comparator tool. We consider all of these aspects into account.
It’s important to keep in mind that despite the many steps you can take to speed up a slow website, or increase the speed of WordPress however, it will not assist you when your website host becomes slow!
The most reliable and fastest Web Hosts: The Important Takeaways
Which is the best web hosting service? most reliable and fastest?
Let’s make a distinction between the speeds of pages and uptime. Webhosters are responsible for the uptime. If the uptime is not good, there is no way to correct it.
Since web page speed is influenced by lots of different factors, there are many options you can take to make sure you don’t have a negative impact on your website host performance.
Does this mean that we should prioritize reliability over speed? That’s not the case. Although there are many optimizations you can make to speed up your website, none is going to make much difference if you have the slowest hosting provider!
This simply means that we need to eliminate all hosting providers with low uptime as soon as it is feasible.
Due to their poor availability, I would avoid IONOS or DreamHost.
GoDaddy, Hostinger, Bluehost and iPage were all able to provide acceptable levels of uptime. I wouldn’t recommend iPage due to the poor customer support.
If we evaluate these providers in terms of speed as well, Bluehost seems quite slow and costly compared to other providers, and I would steer clear of it.
GoDaddy and Hostinger may be okay in spite of their poor uptime, they’re fairly fast (especially GoDaddy) and the renewal rates are affordable (especially Hostinger).
Namecheap: The best option for a tight budget
Namecheap: the best budget option
Namecheap could be a better option if you are seeking a cheap web hosting service. It was up and running 100% during our tests, had an acceptable speed and offered the lowest rates for renewal of all hosting companies.
A2 Hosting: A moderately priced and a good choice
The fastest web hosts were GreenGeeks and A2 Hosting which both also had high uptime. Either of these web hosting providers would be a fantastic, affordable choice, with A2 Hosting perhaps having a slight edge due to the addition of more features and better support for customers (see the individual reviews and the complete round-up).
A2 Hosting is a great alternative that is priced mid-priced.
On the higher end, I believe that the higher costs of WP Engine and Kinstadon’t truly justify the value you’ll get. While both offered 100 percent uptime, neither was especially fast during our tests.
Siteground: More premium options
Siteground is my suggestion if you are looking for a premium web hosting provider. While it’s significantly less expensive than WP Engine and Kinsta, it is superior to them both in speed. It also boasted a 100% uptime in our tests, with excellent support for customers and its hosting is full of useful features.
Siteground is a premium option
Don’t forget: it’s not all about speed and reliability! Also, pay careful attention to the feature set that comes with every web hosting provider, as there’s an enormous amount of variation.
With this in mind, you should check out guides to the best cheap web hosts and the top cheap WordPress hosts and our handy web hosting comparison tool.
Let us know your experiences with these web hosts in the comments section below.
