I created four demonstration WordPress sites on four managed hosts:
My goal was to test their page loading speeds around the world. I created demonstration sites for the tests. The sites use the Astra WordPress Theme and have a Web Agency demonstration site installed.
The tests were performed on December 3rd, 2022, at 9 pm EST (U.S. Eastern Standard Time).
Here is an explanation of the terms used in the test:
Time To First Byte
Time to First Byte (TTFB) measures the connection setup time and web server responsiveness
A good TTFB score is 0.8 seconds or less.
Largest Contentful Paint
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) measures perceived load speed. It is the point where the main content of a web page has been loaded.
A good LCP score is 2.5 seconds or less.
Total Blocking Time
Total Blocking Time (TBT) is a measurement of the time it takes for a web page it becomes reliably interactive.
A good TBT score is less than 200 milliseconds when tested on average mobile hardware.
Cumulative Layout Shift
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) measures web page visual stability. A “layout shift” occurs when a visible element changes its position from one rendered frame to the next.
A good CLS score is 0.1 or less.
Sample Site Speed Test Results
Here are the results so far:
Rocket.Net — Managed WordPress Host
- WordPress host: Rocket.Net
- Account type: Starter
- CDN Used: Cloudflare Enterprise
Loader.IO test Of 1000 clients in 1 minute (Eastern U.S.): 24 ms average response time. This was the fastest score of the four hosts tested.
Here are Rocket’s best and worst worldwide results from the KeyCDN Performance Test:
- Best Time to First Byte: 13.1ms (fast)
- Worst Time to First Byte: 39.12ms (fast)
Results from SpeedVitals — average score from 15 locations around the world (mobile browser)::
- Time to First Byte: 244ms (good)
- Largest Contentful Paint: 3.1s (adequate)
- Total Blocking Time: 8ms (good)
- Cumulative Layout Shift: 0.01 (good)
Results from GMetrix (tested with a Chrome Desktop browser in Syndey, Australia):
- Largest Contentful Paint: 892ms (good)
- Total Blocking Time: 43ms (adequate)
According to WebPageTest by Catchpoint (using a mobile browser in India):
- Largest Contentful Paint: 3.292s (ok)
Results from WebSiteSpeedTest by DotcomTools (using a mobile browser):
- Full Page Load Montreal: 0.61s (fast)
- Full Page Load Bogota (Columbia): 1.67s (fast)
- Full Page Load Warsaw: 0.97s (fast)
Results from WPPerformanceTester — testing how fast the server can perform queries:
- Total Time score: 8.96s
- Queries per second: 1522
- Execution time: 0.65s
WPX.NET — Managed, Shared WordPress Host
Loader.IO test Of 1000 clients in 1 minute (Eastern U.S.): 67 ms average response time. This is a good score.
Here are WPX‘s best and worst worldwide results from the KeyCDN Performance Test:
- Fastest Time to First Byte: 36ms (fast)
- Slowest Time to First Byte: 1.42s (slow)
Results from SpeedVitals — average score from 15 locations around the world (mobile browser)::
- Time to First Byte: 203ms (fastest)
- Largest Contentful Paint: 3.6s (adequate)
- Total Blocking Time: 1ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift: 0.01
Results from GMetrix (tested with a Chrome Desktop browser in Syndey, Australia):
- Largest Contentful Paint: 393ms (fastest of four tested)
- Total Blocking Time: 0ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift: 0.02
Results from WebPageTest by Catchpoint (mobile browser in India):
- Largest Contentful Paint: 2.998s (good)
According to WebSiteSpeedTest by DotcomTools (using a mobile browser):
- Full Page Load Montreal: 0.97s (good)
- Full Page Load Bogota (Columbia): 1.73s (good)
- Full Page Load Warsaw: 1.46s (good)
Results from WPPerformanceTester — testing how fast the server can perform queries:
- Total Time score: 9.08s
- Queries per second: 1381
- Execution time: 0.72s
ChemiCloud — Managed WordPress Host
- WordPress host: ChemiCloud
- Account type: Starter
- CDN Used: Quic
Loader.IO test Of 1000 clients in 1 minute (Eastern U.S.): 58 ms average response time.
Here are ChemiCloud‘s best and worst worldwide results from the KeyCDN Performance Test:
- Best Time to First Byte: 136ms (adequate)
- Worst Time to First Byte: 1.49s (slow)
Results from SpeedVitals — average scores from 15 locations around the world (mobile browser):
- Time to First Byte: 304 ms (good)
- Largest Contentful Paint: 3.7s (adequate)
- Total Blocking Time: 120 ms (room for improvement)
- Cumulative Layout Shift: 0.02
Results from GMetrix (tested with a Chrome Desktop browser in Syndey, Australia):
- Largest Contentful Paint: 1.6s (good)
- Total Blocking Time: 43ms (ok)
- Cumulative Layout Shift: 0ms (good)
According to WebPageTest by Catchpoint (mobile in India):
- Largest Contentful Paint: 1.51s (fast)
According to WebSiteSpeedTest by DotcomTools (using a mobile browser):
- Full Page Load Bogota Columbia: 3.04s (adequate for location)
- Full Page Load Warsaw: 4.04s (slow)
- Full Page Load Montreal: 2.59s (adequate)
Results from WPPerformanceTester — testing how fast the server can perform queries:
- Total Time score: 10.9s
- Queries per second: 686
- Execution time: 1.45s
Nexcess — WordPress Host
Loader.IO test Of 1000 clients in 1 minute (Eastern U.S.): 483 ms average response time. This was the slowest result of the four hosts.
Here are Nexcess‘s best and worst worldwide results from the KeyCDN Performance Test:
- Best Time to First Byte: 134ms (ok)
- Worst Time to First Byte: 1.02 s (slow)
Results from SpeedVitals — average scores from 15 sites around the world (mobile browser):
- Time to First Byte: 49ms (fast)
- Largest Contentful Paint: 3.4s (slow)
- Total Blocking Time: 0
- Cumulative Layout Shift: 0
Results from GMetrix (tested with a Chrome Desktop browser in Syndey, Australia):
- Largest Contentful Paint: 2.6s (adequate)
- Total Blocking Time: 83ms (ok)
- Cumulative Layout Shift: 0
According to WebPageTest by Catchpoint (mobile in India):
- Largest Contentful Paint: 4.16s
According to WebSiteSpeedTest by DotcomTools (using a mobile browser):
- Full Page Load Montreal: 1.01s (fast)
- Full Page Load Bogota (Columbia): 2.2s (average)
- Full Page Load Warsaw: 2.6s (average)
Results from WPPerformanceTester — testing how fast the server can perform queries:
- Total Time score: 8.8s (best overall)
- Queries per second: 1069
- Execution time: 0.935s
