Here’s the 48th Monthly Hosting Performance Contest Roundup for January 2020!
I’ve been testing 15 hosts in a non-stop manner the whole month and I’ll show you the results below. It’s interesting that this month most hosts showed unusually fast performance.
By the way, you can find the latest roundups here and the performance tables and charts here.
All monitored hosts are presented in the pricing categories according to the most affordable plan they have. Also, I bought the most affordable plans available at each hosting company to test hosting performance.
Let’s see how the hosts performed in January 2020!
Common Information
As you may already know, I’ve been monitoring the performance of some of the best hosting providers I know as well as some other well-known hosts.
In short, since 2013 I’ve been picking out great hosts judging by real users reviews, professional hosting community opinion, long honorable business experience and other factors which make a great hosting.
And I buy anonymously hosting accounts with different hosts in order to closely monitor their performance (basically, uptime checked every minute and full page load time checked every 20 minutes) using a professional monitoring service monitis.com. I buy the most basic and the cheapest plan of each hosting. You can read about my monitoring methodology here.
And I’m happy to share these statistics with you so that you could see how these hosts perform and who is the best from the best!
You can find some real-time performance charts on my recommended hosts page for the hosting which I’ve been recommending and monitoring.
Also, you can see real-time monitoring charts for all hosts that I am monitoring on this page. In addition, the page contains monthly historical data on hosting performance (speed, uptime, satisfactory apdex) – very interesting and useful.
Besides, you may read more information about this Hosting Performance Contest on this page. I will be adding monthly and yearly Contest results on the page too.
And other monthly Hosting Performance Contest roundups are available from here.
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.
January 2020 Hosting Performance Contest – Results
Here are the fifteen hosts that you can compare this month. I’ve broken down them in three groups: very affordable (below $5/mo), middle class (upto $8/mo) and more expensive ($8+/mo).
- SiteGround (I recommend it, here’s my review)
- GeekStorage (I recommend it, here’s my review)
- A2Hosting (I recommend it, here’s my review)
- VeeroTech (I recommend it, here’s my review)
- MDDHosting (I recommend it, here’s my review)
- HawkHost (I recommend it, here’s my review)
- Squidix (I recommend it, here’s my review)
- InMotionHosting
- StableHost
- HostWinds
- LunarPages
- MochaHost
- Eleven2
- GreenGeeks
- GlowHost
You’ll see a breakdown of hosting performance by prices in the sections below.
Let’s start from an overview of the hosting performance in the order of how the hosts performed in general regardless of how affordable or expensive the hosts are.
The winner of this month’s contest is GreenGeeks!
In the Top-3 also go VeeroTech and StableHost.
What’s remarkable about the winners this month is that all hosts are from different pricing categories.
GreenGeeks took the 1st place. Its full page load time (0.68) seconds was unusually fast. Its uptime (99.99%) was almost perfect and much above the highest standards set for the greatest hosts (99.9%). My site was not available this month for just 4.5 minutes. As regards Satisfactory Apdex, it was simply perfect 100% which of course is above the benchmark level (99%) determined for the greatest hosts. The host surpassed the benchmark tests and thanks to the best speed it got the gold this month!
The silver medalist is VeeroTech.
VeeroTech performed wonderfully well and satisfied both benchmarks set for the greatest hosts. Its average speed was 0.72 seconds which is unbelievably fast. It was slower than the leader by just 0.04 seconds. And its uptime (99.98%) was brilliant and much above the benchmark level (99.9%) set for the greatest hosts. My site hosted with this hosting was available all the time this month except 8.9 minutes. The host’s Satisfactory Apdex (100%) was simply perfect and of course much above the highest standards (99%). And since this hosting was the second fastest host among the hosts which exceeded all the benchmarks determined for the greatest hosts VeeroTech wins the silver medal.
The bronze medal goes to StableHost.
Average full page load time of StableHost was 0.77 seconds (it’s astonishingly fast). It was slower than the leader by just 0.09 seconds. Its Uptime was simply perfect 100%. It’s very much above the benchmark level set for the greatest hosts (99.9%). My site hosted with this host was available all the time during the whole month. And the host’s Satisfactory Apdex was also perfect 100% (i.e. all the time during this month the full page load time was less than 2.5 seconds). It’s much above the benchmark level (99%) set for the greatest hosts. Since all these parameters are above the benchmarks specified for the greatest hosting performance and this hosting was the third fastest host among the hosts which exceeded all the benchmarks determined for the greatest hosts StableHost wins the bronze medal.
A2 Hosting took the 4th place. The host performed in this month as fast as 0.79 seconds which is impressively fast. Its uptime was brilliant 99.98%. It’s very much above the benchmark level (99.9%). My site hosted with this host was available all the time during the whole month except 8.9 minutes. And the Satisfactory Apdex was awesome – 99.77% (99.77% of the time the speed was faster than 2.5 seconds, and it’s much above the highest standards set for great hosting which is 99%). Great performance!
SiteGround took the 5th place. Its average speed was awesome (0.81 seconds full page load time). The uptime was very high 99.98%, which is very much above the benchmark level (99.9%). My site was not available for 8.9 minutes this month. And the host’s Satisfactory Apdex (99.95%) was also superb and very much above the highest standards (99%). Brilliant performance!
In this month HawkHost took the 6th-7th place in the Contest. This month my site was on average as fast as 0.84 seconds that is great. And its uptime was almost perfect 99.99% which is much above the highest standards set for the best hosts (99.9%). My site hosted with this host was available all the time during this month except 4.7 minutes. And its Satisfactory Apdex was simply perfect 100% (i.e. all the time the full page load time of my website hosted with this host was less than 2.5 seconds). It was much above the highest standards set for the best hosts (99%). Great!
In this month MDDHosting took the 6-7th place in the Contest. This hosting’s performance was equal to HawkHost’s. This month my site was on average as fast as 0.84 seconds that is great. And its uptime was almost perfect 99.99% which is much above the highest standards set for the best hosts (99.9%). My site hosted with this host was available all the time during this month except 4.7 minutes. And its Satisfactory Apdex was simply perfect 100% (i.e. all the time the full page load time of my website hosted with this host was less than 2.5 seconds). It was much above the highest standards set for the best hosts (99%). Equally great!
HostWinds goes to the 8th place. Its 1.13 seconds full page load time was very good. Its uptime (100%) was simply perfect and of course much above the benchmark level which is set for great hosts (99.9%). My site was available all the time during this month. This host had also perfect Satisfactory Apdex (100% of the time my website hosted with this host was faster than 2.5 seconds). It was much above the benchmark set for the greatest hosts (99%). Impressive results this month!
GeekStorage has got the 9th place this month. It performed as fast as 1.37 seconds which is pretty fast. Its uptime (99.93%) was very high and above the highest standards level set for the greatest hosts (99.9%). My site hosted with this host was available all the time during this month except 31.3 minutes. And the Satisfactory Apdex was quite above the highest standards as well – 99.19% (99.19% of the time this month the speed was faster than 2.5 seconds). It’s above the highest standards (99%) too. Great.
Squidix this month took the 10th place. The average speed was 1.38 seconds which is really great. And its Satisfactory Apdex (99.95%) was superb and very much above the highest standards (99%). Uptime (99.97%) was very good and much above the highest standards set for the greatest hosts (99.9%). My site hosted with this hosting was available all the time during this month except 13.4 minutes. Really good performance!
Other hosts could not meet at least one of the benchmarks set for the best hosting. However, the results of some hosts were very close to the benchmarks and pretty good in general.
LunarPages took the 11th place with 0.73 seconds speed, which is brilliant. But it had uptime (99.88%) which is a little bit below the highest standards (99.9%) set for the greatest hosts. My site hosted with this host was not available this month for 53.6 minutes. Also, it had a very high Satisfactory Apdex – 99.86%. It means that 99.86% of the time in this month my testing site was faster than 2.5 seconds in this month. This is very well above the highest benchmark (99%) which is set for great hosts. Failed uptime did not let this host get higher in the rankings.
MochaHost took the 12th place this month.. Its speed was awesome (0.91 seconds). But its uptime (99.63%) was below the benchmark (99.9%) set for the greatest hosts. My site was not available for 2.75 hours this month. This host’s Satisfactory Apdex (99.91%) was great and above the benchmark level (99%). Because of the failed uptime benchmark test this host did not get higher in the rankings.
InMotionHosting took the 13th place. The host had generally great speed (0.97 seconds on average). But it had uptime (99.88%) which is a little bit below the highest standards (99.9%). My site hosted with this hosting was 53.6 minutes offline. Also, its Satisfactory Apdex (98.74%) was also a little bit below the benchmark (99%) set for the greatest hosts. 98.74% of the time the site was faster than 2.5 seconds.
Eleven2 got the 14th place. Its average speed (1.33 secs) was generally very fast. Its uptime was 99.96%, which is great and well above the benchmark level (99.9%). My site was not available for just 17.9 minutes this month. The host’s Satisfactory Apdex (96%) was below the highest standards (99%) though.
GlowHost went to the last 15th place. This host could not get higher because of its relative slowness. Its uptime (99.96%) was great, and above the benchmark level (99.9%) which is set to determine the greatest hosts. My site was not available for 17.9 minutes this month. And the host’s speed was slow (3.1 seconds). And as expected, its Satisfactory Apdex (0.08%) was the lowest possible value; and it was far from reaching the benchmark level (99%). The loading time of my test website was worse than 2.5 seconds during the whole month except 0.08% of the time.
Generally, the competition of the monitored hosts this month was very tight, regardless of that most hosts have improved their speed significantly.
By the way, keep in mind, that for this Contest I pick out the hosts which are considered to be good, great and superb. These hosts are established businesses for many years and some of them are widely recommended in the Internet. So, the idea of this Contest is to determine the best performing hosts from a technical point of view, giving you objective information for making your own decision regarding hosts.
Let’s see now the results in tables and charts for more convenience, more information and more insight.
Here’s a table view to compare the Hosting Performance Contest results in January 2020:
Table column notes:
Place: The place a hosting has won in this Contest (the less the better).
Load Time: Average Full Page Load Time (the less the better). Checked every 20 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 20 minutes.
Superb Apdex-S: If Satisfactory Apdex benchmark (99%) passed (YES is very good).
Color areas: Green is superb and above the highest standards. The greener, the better. Yellow is good, but below the highest standards. Orange is not very good; worse than yellow. Red is comparatively the worst.
Here’s a table with hosting prices:
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).
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 or/and has a good potential in winning prizes in the Contest, but I want to have more proved records of its technical and support performance.)
Here’s a table with places 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).
And here are the charts with the Hosting Performance Contest results in January 2020:
1. The golden medalist: GreenGeeks.
2. The silver medalist: Veerotech (it’s in my list of the recommended hosts; see my review).
3. The bronze medalist: StableHost.
January 2020 Hosting Performance Contest Results – Notes
I use monitis.com services for uptime and full page load monitoring. The monitoring is performed from two locations in order to decrease chances of false alerts and make monitoring results more objective. You can read more about my methodology of monitoring here.
Here are the monthly monitoring reports screenshots:
These monitor checks are performed with 1-minute interval, which makes it great for detecting website uptime and downtime.
So, we need Uptime values from this table for finding the winner of our Contest.
By the way, downtime is detected if server response time (time-to-first-byte) is more than 10 seconds.
Other values (just for information):
– Response time is not that important for this Contest, because I’ve got a better indicator monitored, which is Full page load time (see below).
– Number of failures may be interesting to look at, but this is just an additional information to Uptime, which is more important for the overall hosting evaluation.
Just three hosts on the screenshot have not passed the uptime benchmark test (99.9%) for the greatest hosting. The other hosts I’m monitoring were up more than 99.9% in January. The websites on the uptime-failed hosting were not available for more than 44.6 minutes in total this month.
These tests are performed with 20-minute interval from two locations. It makes it a perfect real-user performance monitor. This monitor’s activity is equal to 144 unique visitors per day (about 4,320 unique visitors per month).
Avg Test Duration is the Full page load time, which is very clear and important factor for the Hosting Performance Contest.
We don’t need Uptime from this table because we have got a better (more precise) Uptime indicator from the previous table.
Also, we don’t need Failures from this table, because it’s less precise than the same indicator from the previous table.
But we will need Apdex, particularly its S (Satisfactory) part. This shows how much time (in %) the website loaded faster than 2.5 seconds.
Conclusion
The best hosts which have demonstrated the best performance in January 2020 are the medalists: GreenGeeks, Veerotech and StableHost.
By the way, all the top winners have passed the strict benchmarks determined for great hosting!
As regards the winners in different pricing categories, here they are:
The best hosts in the higher pricing category ($8+/mo) in this month go in the following order: GreenGeeks, A2Hosting and SiteGround.
The best three hosts in the middle pricing category ($5.01-8/mo) in this month are Veerotech, HostWinds and Squidix.
The best three hosts in the most affordable pricing category (up to $5/mo) in this month are StableHost, HawkHost and MDDHosting.
Please note, that I’m using the cheapest plans available on each of the monitored hosts.
It’s noticeable as usual that some of the less expensive hosts outperformed hosts from more expensive categories.
And the hero of the Contest this month is StableHost. This is the fastest hosting which got perfect (100%) performance of Uptime and Satisfactory Apdex!
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Thank you for your article!
My Question: Is it the hosting performance affect my website’s seo result?
Hey Olive,
Yes it does, but in a different way that it’s talked about.
If you site loads tens of seconds all the time, then this can be a concern in terms of SEO signals. But if your site loads normal then I’d say it does not affect SEO directly at all.
However, much more effect a slow speed has on SEO indirectly. It’s connected with your visitors metrics. I.e. if you site is slow, then your visitors may prefer just quit. And this will tell the search engines that your site is sort of low quality for people. And this may affect your SEO significantly.
Thus, it’s not the speed that matters, but the visitors’ metrics. But the bad speed affects visitor’s metrics which is a strong SEO signal. So, indirectly speed does affect SEO.