This post summarizes all monthly reports about how 15 hosts performed in 2016. This outlines more than 11 millions of measurements. Also, in this post I will name the most reliable and the fastest hosting in 2016 according to the tests among the hosts I’ve been monitoring.
Intro
I’ve been monitoring the performance (uptime, full page load time and application performance index) of different hosts. During 2016 I’ve collected a huge amount of data. There were more than 11 millions of measurements done to determine the most reliable and the fastest hosting in 2016.
I’d like to summarize and share the data with you. The data is calculated as average for year 2016 based on monthly values.
My idea is to make a record on my blog about the best performing hosting of 2016 among the hosts that I’ve been watching closely. It will help you to see a big scale of how well these hosts performed.
If you are looking for the most reliable and the fastest hosting, then you are welcome to read this post, and also check out my monthly hosting performance reports for some more details.
Please note that although all hosts mentioned in this post are well-established and considered to be very good, I highly recommend not all of them. My recommended hosts are here.
Methodology of hosting performance testing and measurements
In short, I bought anonymously the cheapest hosting package of each of the tested host, installed a WordPress (with no caching plugins) and used third-party web application performance monitoring service to measure hosting performance from two US locations (East and West Coast). Uptime is checked every minute, fullpage load time (as well as application performance index) is checked every 15 minutes non-stop during the months in 2016. More details on the methodology is here.
Table view to compare the hosting performance in 2016
Table column notes:
Place: The place a hosting has taken in this comparison (the less the better).
Load Time: Average Full Page Load Time (the less the better). Checked every 15 minutes.
Uptime: Uptime (the more the better). Checked every minute.
Superb Uptime: If Uptime Benchmark (99.9%) passed (YES is very good).
Apdex-S: Satisfactory Apdex, i.e. how often a test website on a tested hosting was loading faster than 2.5 sec (the more the Apdex-S the better). Checked every 15 minutes.
Superb Apdex-S: If Satisfactory Apdex benchmark (99%) passed (YES is very good).
Color areas: The greener, the better. Yellow is below the highest standards. Orange is worse. Red is the worst.
Table with the hosting prices in 2016 (the tested cheapest plans)
Table column notes:
1 year: Regular prices (after the first invoice) for 1-year plan.
2 years: Regular prices (after the first invoice) for 2-year plan.
3 years: Regular prices (after the first invoice) for 3-year plan.
Min Price: The minimum price officially available for the first invoice (can be for 1-year, 2-year or 3-year plan).
*StableHost discount code is given in my review.
Limited-time offers with more discounts are not included in these prices. Check out if there are special offers currently available by visiting the hosting websites.
Worthy: This column contains my recommended hosts. (Under review label means that the host performs well, but I want to have more proved records of its technical and support performance.)
Table with places the hosting took in 2016 within pricing categories:
Since it’s not always correct to compare hosts from different price categories together, I’ve broken down the monitored hosts into three categories to compete within as you can see above in the table.
The prices presented in this table are regular prices (i.e. applied after the first invoice). Note that prices for the first invoice (1-,2- or 3-year plan) are usually less (see them in the previous table). And special promo prices are not included (check them out on the hosting websites).
Full page load time (website speed) history table for 2016, monthly averages and all-year average values
(The less value, the better. Very fast host is below 2.5 seconds)
Table column notes:
Color areas: The greener, the better. Yellow is below the highest standards. Orange is worse. Red is the worst.
Full Page Load Time is checked every 15 minutes.
Uptime history table for 2016, monthly averages and all-year average values
(The more value, the better. Max 100%. Very good host benchmark – 99.9%)
Table column notes:
Color areas: The greener, the better. Yellow is below the highest standards. Orange is worse. Red is the worst.
Uptime is checked every 1 minute.
Satisfactory Apdex history table for 2016, monthly averages and and all-year average values
(The value means how much time speed was faster than 2.5 seconds. The more Apdex value, the better. Max 100%. Very good host benchmark – 99%)
Table column notes:
Color areas: The greener, the better. Yellow is below the highest standards. Orange is worse. Red is the worst.
Satisfactory Apdex is checked every 15 minutes.
Charts with the hosting performance in 2016 (year averages)
1. The golden medalist: GeekStorage (it’s in my list of the recommended hosts; see my review).
2. The silver medalist: A2Hosting (it’s in my list of the recommended hosts; see my review).
3. The bronze medalist: InMotionHosting.
Hosting speed and price relationship (2016 year averages)
There’s a chart On the image above which shows how fast the hosts are in relationship with its hosting prices.
As you an see, in general the price correlates with hosting speed. In other words, the more expensive hosts tend to perform faster, but this is true not for all cases (not for all hosts).
Hosting speed and uptime relationship (2016 year averages)
The chart above shows if fast hosts are reliable from uptime point of view. The chart clearly shows that the faster hosts have also good uptime. It means that the most hosts I monitor are of a high quality from a technical performance point of view.
Note that uptime above 99.9% is considered to be very high quality.
Now let’s have a closer look at the part of the chart. I put away the outsider with the worst uptime to see more details on remaining hosts displayed on the chart:
And now I zoom in into the same chart once again and leave only the best performing hosts from both uptime and speed point of view:
From both uptime and speed perspective, any host from the displayed on this chart above is brilliant. And the hosts closer to right-lower corner are better (lower is faster and more reliable are closer to the right). Anyway, the reliability (uptime) of any host on this last hart are top-notch (much above 99.9%).
Conclusion
This post summarizes hosting performance data I’ve gathered during more than 11 millions of uptime tests and more than 700 thousands of speed (full page load time) tests in year 2016. The tests were done automatically in 1- and 15-minute intervals correspondingly. This is a huge amount of data which is more than enough to draw the following conclusions.
People love the winners. And although many hosts among those I’ve been monitoring are great (see them analyzed above), there are the following hosting winners in 2016:
1. The golden medalist: GeekStorage (it’s in my list of the recommended hosts; see my review).
2. The silver medalist: A2Hosting (it’s in my list of the recommended hosts; see my review).
3. The bronze medalist: InMotionHosting.
But such technical aspects as hosting uptime, speed and Satisfactory Apdex are not the only factors you need to take into consideration when choosing the greatest hosting for your needs. There are other aspects to be considered: additional security, backups, developer tools, and of course support. Mix it all and consider the value for the price. Also don’t forget about company ethics.
That’s why my hosting recommendations (which you can find here) are not based just on hosting performance, but on all factors.
BTW, I respect your privacy, and of course I don't send spam, affiliate offers or trade your emails. What I send is information that I consider useful.
