Review Signal just released their annual 2016 WordPress hosting performance benchmarks and we are excited that Kinsta once again proved to be one of the best companies across all tiers! When it comes to managed WordPress hosting, things like customer support, reliability, and up-time are all very important. But another very important factor is performance, how consistent are they, and how do they handle under heavy loads? This year we definitely saw more enterprise options entering the market as WordPress is now being used by more large businesses around the globe. Check out how Kinsta performed below!

For those of you who may not be familiar with Review Signal, it is an independent web hosting review site run by Kevin Ohashi. Thanks to Kevin’s attention to detail and in-depth analysis, Review Signal has become one of the leading authorities when it comes to benchmarking WordPress hosting providers. In fact, this is their 3rd consecutive year publishing these benchmarks. Make sure to check out the 2014 and 2015 benchmark reports, both of which Kinsta was also top tier.

2016 Perf Benchmarks: ‘I’m at a loss for words to praise their performance.’ — Kevin Click to Tweet

We actually had the pleasure of doing an interview with Kevin Ohashi last year, in which one of the questions we asked was, “Is there anything you find surprising about the hosting industry?”

How generally terrible it is. I started my business because after a decade in the web hosting industry, there still wasn’t an honest web hosting review site that I would be comfortable recommending to people. And after operating my site for 4 years now, it’s very easy to understand why.

I get web hosting companies emailing me regularly trying to bribe their way into being rated the best. The worst part is, most of them aren’t even hiding it. This behavior is business as usual to them. So the most surprising thing to me is how regularly I am disgusted by the behavior of a lot of the companies in the space. That isn’t to say there aren’t some awesome companies out there, but it seems like they are the minority. The worst part about that is that these scammy/disgusting tactics are seemingly very effective and the real good guys are fighting an even worse uphill battle because of it. — Kevin Ohashi

2016 WordPress Hosting Performance Benchmarks

This year due to more enterprise plans and companies entering into the equation, the benchmark reports were split up into 6 different tiers based on price range. Kevin tested two distinct performance attributes: peak performance and consistency over the course of two months using the following 5 tools:

• LoadStorm: Used to help simulate real user load.
• Blitz.io: Used to test the static caching of the homepage with users.
• Uptime + StatusCake: Two uptime monitoring services were used to measure consistency.
• WebPageTest.org: Used to test overall speed from different locations (first view only).
• WPPerformanceTester: Used to benchmark CPU, MySQL, and WP database performance.

The tests were run on an identical WordPress dummy site with the exact same plugins, unless one was needed for that particular provider’s caching mechanisms, etc. See how Kinsta stacked up against the competition in each of the tiers below.

Since our managed hosting plans start out at $100/month we will only be diving into the last four tiers. The third tier is the $51-100/month tier in which you have a lot of companies competing. This is definitely one of the most crowded tiers. One thing to note on the Load Storm test is that both MediaTemple and Pagely had issues with spikes. Even Kevin mentioned that Pagely had some struggles here trying to keep up. Kinsta was one that handled this test without any serious issues and earned top tier.

Kinsta’s entry level plan put on a fantastic performance. The higher end providers are starting to show up in this price tier and really showing why they charge their premium prices. Kinsta easily earned top tier status. – Review Signal

$101-200/Month Tier (Kinsta Earned Top Tier )

The fourth tier is the $101-200/month tier in which 8 different hosts were compared, as opposed to 12 in the previous tier. One thing to note on the Load Storm test is that A2 Hosting, BlueHost, Conetix, and Pressjitsu all struggled with it. Pressjitsu made it about 12 minutes in before it started erroring, but it had increasing load times starting around 6 minutes in. Kinsta ran flawlessly with 0 total errors.

Kinsta continues to earn top tier status. I can’t find anything to say beyond the fact they performed near perfectly, again. – Review Signal

$200-500/Month Tier (Kinsta Earned Top Tier )

The fifth tier is the $200-500/month tier in which 8 different hosts were again compared. As Kevin noted for the Load Storm test, both Kinsta and Pressidum were clearly the two best performers. MediaTemple, Pantheon, SiteGround, and Pagely all ran into issues.

Overall, a splendid performance that earned them top tier WordPress hosting in the $201-500/month range. No faults in their performance at any point. – Review Signal

Kinsta also passed the Blitz Test with flying colors.

$500+/Month Tier (Kinsta Earned Top Tier )

The sixth and final tier is the $500+/month tier which you have the 7 top enterprise WordPress hosts battling it out. This time Kevin threw a whopping 10,000 concurrent users against the servers! As he noted for the Load Storm test, Kinsta had basically flawless performance with flat average response times, minimal errors and no spikes. WPEngine was the only company in this tier not to do well and struggled in both load tests.

Kinsta had essentially perfect LoadStorm and Blitz tests. They also had no flaws in any other tests. I’m at a loss for words to praise their performance. – Review Signal

Summary

Kinsta is proud once again to be one of the only companies that consistently achieved top tier across all tests. We are the only enterprise managed WordPress host that is utilizing the Google Cloud Platform and we feel that our tests reveal just how important that decision was.  We are committed to providing you with the best possible environment to grow your business and stay ahead of your competition. Kinsta has some great things planned for the rest of 2016, stay tuned!