This post summarizes all monthly reports about how 15 hosts performed in 2020. This outlines more than 15 millions of measurements. Also, in this post I will name the most reliable and the fastest hosting in 2020 according to the non-stop tests done throughout the whole year.
Intro
I’ve been monitoring the performance (uptime, full page load time and application performance index) of different hosts. During 2020 I’ve collected a huge amount of data.
I’d like to summarize and share the data with you. The presented data is calculated as average for year 2020 based on monthly values.
My idea is to make a record on my blog about the best performing hosting of 2020 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 20 minutes non-stop during the months in 2020. More details on the methodology is here.
BTW: In December 2020 I monitored only three hosts. Starting from 2021 I change the way I monitor the hosts, so I did not renew services to continue getting the hosting perforamnce data. The year averages are calculated correclty.
Table view to compare the hosting performance in 2020
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 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: The greener, the better. Yellow is close to the highest standards. Orange is worse. Red is the worst.
Table with the hosting prices in 2020 (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).
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 and my section with current discounts.
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 2020 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 2020, monthly averages and all-year average values
(The less value, the better. A fast host is below 2.5 seconds)
Table column notes:
Color areas: The greener, the better. Yellow is close to the highest standards. Orange is worse. Red is the worst.
Full Page Load Time is checked every 20 minutes from two US locations and calculated as the average.
Uptime history table for 2019, monthly averages and all-year average values
(The more value, the better. Max 100%. Excellent host benchmark – 99.9%)
Table column notes:
Color areas: The greener, the better. Yellow is close to the highest standards. Orange is worse. Red is the worst.
Uptime is checked every 1 minute from two locations and it’s considered a downtime if the tests both locations fail.
Satisfactory Apdex history table for 2020, 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 close to the highest standards. Orange is worse. Red is the worst.
Satisfactory Apdex is checked every 20 minutes and based on the Full Page Load tests.
Charts with the hosting performance in 2020 (year averages)
1. The golden medalist: HostPapa.
2. The silver medalist: GreenGeeks.
3. The bronze medalist: VeeroTech.
Hosting speed and price relationship (2020 year averages)
There’s a chart on the image above which shows how fast the hosts are in relationship with their prices.
As you an see, there is no strong correlation between hosting speed and the hosting price. In other words, more expensive hosts does not guarantee that your website will perform significantly faster. At least if you have a not heavy website hosted on an affordable plan like my testing websites on the monitored hosts.
Hosting speed and uptime relationship (2020 year averages)
The chart above shows whether fast hosts are reliable from uptime point of view. The chart shows that there is a slight tendency that the faster hosts the faster uptime. But it’s not the rulethat works with all hosts.
By the way, note that uptime above 99.9% is considered to be of a very high quality.
Now let’s have a closer look at the following part of the chart. I focused on the hosts with comparatively high uptime to see more details about the well-performing hosts:
The chart above shows again slghtly emhasizes the observation that faster hosts generally have better uptime. But the difference in uptime performance is not very significant, because everything above 99.9% uptime for shared hosting is really brilliant.
And now I zoom in into the same chart once again and leave only the very 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 outstanding. The closer to the bottom of the chart a hosting is, the faster hosting; and the super reliable hosts are closer to the right). After all, the reliability (uptime) of any host on this chart are top-notch (above 99.9%).
Conclusion
This article summarizes hosting performance data I’ve gathered during more than 14.7 millions of uptime tests and more than 730 thousands of speed (full page load time) tests in year 2020. The tests were done automatically in 1- and 20-minute intervals correspondingly. This is a huge amount of data which is more than enough to draw the following conclusions.
The three best hosts have shown outstanding performance this year:
1. The golden medalist: HostPapa.
2. The silver medalist: GreenGeeks.
3. The bronze medalist: VeeroTech.
These are the three hosts which have been the best in 2020 among the most affordable hosts:
1. The first place: HawkHost.
2. The second place: MDD Hosting.
3. The third place: GeekStorage.
These three hosts have been the best in 2020 among the middle-priced category of the hosts:
1. The first place: Veerotech.
2. The second place: HostWinds.
3. The third place: Squidix.
Here are the three hosts which have been the best in 2020 among the most expensive category of the hosts:
1. The first place: HostPapa.
2. The second place: GreenGeeks.
3. The third place: A2 Hosting.
By the way, 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.
Update: I’ve found an error in yearly average data. The most important fixes are: A2’s yearly average speed is 0.74 sec, HawkHost’s is 0.7 sec, GeekStorage’s is 1.06 sec. The changes are insignificant and do not change the presentation of the yearly performance by and large.
You can download a PDF version of this article (899 KB):
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.
Nice tips, help in selecting best hosting.
Yes, I hope it’s a great help 🙂
which is the best hosting for india.. top page and site speed i have godaddy hosting but this is not a speed and how to transfer may site data in other hosting….
Among well-known and affordable, my universal advice is to have a look at A2. It has server location in Singapore. Should be fine. You also can request a free site migration.
Michael,
Being a regular visitor to your blog, expected this kind of yearly roundup post. You made it!
Yeah, the show must go on 🙂