This post summarizes all monthly reports about how 4 selected hosts performed in 2021. This outlines more than 7.5 millions of measurements (including speed and uptime tests). Also, in this post I will name the most reliable and the fastest hosting in 2021 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 2021 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 2021 based on monthly values.
My idea is to make a record on my blog about the best performing hosting of 2021 among the hosts that I’ve been watching closely. It will help you to see a big scale of how well these hosts performed.
The hosts that I selected for monitoring in 2021 are the three hosts that I recommend and one host (which is widely known and well-established host) that I took as a benchmark for a comparison. The number of the hosts is not large. The reason why I worked with a limited number of hosts I describedin my post from January 2021.
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.
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 which allow hosting at least 2 sites (A2, GeekStorage and HawkHost) or 1 site (GlowHost), installed two versions of WordPress (“Lite” Default WP theme with a dozen of articles with with no caching plugins and “Heavy” WP built with page builders using lots of plugins). And I used third-party web application performance monitoring service to measure hosting performance from US locations. Uptime is checked every minute, fullpage load time is checked every 30 minutes non-stop during the months in 2021. More details on the methodology is here.
Table view to compare the hosting performance in 2021
Lite installations:
Heavy installations:
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 30 minutes.
Uptime: Uptime (the more the better). Checked every minute.
Superb Uptime: If Uptime Benchmark (99.9%) 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 2021 (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 2021 within pricing categories:
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 2021, monthly averages and all-year average values
(The less value, the better. A fast host is below 2.5 seconds)
Lite installations:
Heavy installations:
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 30 minutes from US location.
Uptime history table for 2021, 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.
Charts with the hosting performance in 2021 (year averages)
Lite installations:
Heavy installations:
1. The golden medalist: A2 Hosting.
2. The silver medalist: GeekStorage.
3. The bronze medalist: HawkHost.
Lite installations:
Heavy installations:
Hosting speed and price relationship (2021 year averages)
There are charts on the images above which show how fast the hosts are in relationship with their prices.
As you can 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. Although more expensive hosts are at least expected to perform better.
Hosting speed and uptime relationship (2021 year averages)
Since there are not lots of hosts to analzye, it‘s not correct to drive any conclusions. Anyway, all presented hosts are good from performance point of view.
By the way, note that uptime above 99.9% is considered to be of a very high quality.
Conclusion
This article summarizes hosting performance data I’ve gathered during about 7.4 millions of uptime tests and more than 123 thousands of speed (full page load time) tests in year 2021. The tests were done automatically in 1- and 30-minute intervals correspondingly.
Although this is a huge amount of data, it’s not enough to draw conclusions saying this or that host is the best. In 2021 I picked up the most popular hosts among my readers which I recommend (A2, GeekStorage and HawkHost) and compared to a well-established but a less fast hostingGlowHost. This limited data shows the following.
The three best hosts have shown outstanding performance in 2021:
1. The golden medalist: A2 Hosting.
2. The silver medalist: GeekStorage.
3. The bronze medalist: HawkHost.
By the way, such technical aspects as hosting uptime and speed 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.
You can download a PDF version of this article (680 KB):
I like your analysis
Thanks for sharing
My pleasure, Harrison!
I think A2 hosting is best and affordable than other hosting companies. Now I am changing my blogs hosting namecheap to A2 hosting. Thanks for giving good information
A2 is indeed very affordable for what you get, but this is so just for the first billing period (although it can be up to a couple of years). Then the price becomes not so attractive.
Well done! Thanks for splitting this useful information here. A2 plan is really good.
Glad you found the post useful!
Hi Michael,
You said that you bought “the cheapest hosting package of each of the tested host which allow hosting at least 2 sites” – Can you be more specific? Exactly which package did you get to perform the tasks on A2 and GeekStorage? And does it actually matter on the package too?
Thanks for your report!
Hi Andrew,
With A2 I used Drive Plan. And with GS it was Unlimited Economy Plan.
Different plans differ not only with allowed website to host, but also with more server resources which affect your website speed and how much storage/fines you can have.
If you have just starting out and have only website, then A2’s Startup will be fine to you. I used to monitor the cheapest A2’s plan (Startup plan currently) in the previous years (you can see it for example on this page), and it performed just as well.