WordPress Hosting + Performance Reviews

o! I’m Tom. Most people come here for my blunt reviews of hosting companies where I emphasize fast hardware, less limits, and to avoid private equity. I also write tutorials on optimization plugins and CDNs.

Big Hosts, More Problems

  • Outdated Hardware
  • Shared Resources
  • CPU Limits
  • More Limits
  • Add-Ons
  • Sneaky Renewals
  • Suspensions & Data Loss

Fast hosting = fast CPUs/RAM/storage and plenty of resources. Yet many of these hosts don’t tell you their hardware and throttle sites with low limits to make you upgrade. Combined with poor Cloudflare integrations, overcrowded servers, and cPanel (a resource-hog).

Even “premium” hosts like Rocket.net, WP Engine, Kinsta, and SiteGround’s VPS share resources (instead of getting your own dedicated resources). Whatever resource limit that is, it’s probably why you’re having to constantly upgrade to higher plans.

Low CPU limits cause 503 errors and high CPU usage to make you upgrade. This can be from HostGator’s slow 2012 CPUs, low cores/RAM (like Hostinger and GoDaddy), or CPU limits like Hostinger’s VPS CPU limits or SiteGround’s CPU seconds and disk I/O.

Watch for other limits like Kinsta’s PHP threads, Kinsta’s and WP Engine’s low monthly visits, staging sites with 1 CPU core, disk space/inode limits which disable backups, 1GB email storage, 1 MB/s disk IO, low PHP memory, and low MySQL/database limits.

Add-ons and product catalogs are red flags. Open source software like SSL certificates, Redis, and Nginx reverse proxy should not be sold as paid add-ons. “Managed” hosting should also include free migrations, CDN, and malware scans. And please, avoid SiteLock.

Beware of 600% higher renewals, getting charged 14 – 15 days prior to your renewal date, impossible cancellations, high renewals for other add-ons/upsells, and hosts not honoring money-back guarantees. “Billing problems” are usually bigger host’s #1 complaint!

Hostinger has pattern of suspending accounts claiming phishing/abuse, deleting data (including backups), and denying refunds. Search “suspension” or “scam” in your host’s 1-2 star reviews. SiteGround also suspends account for exceeding their resource limits.

  • Rocket.net

    Claims to be the fastest hosting but uses 2013 CPUs and shared resources with pricey bandwidth limits. Claims to be independent, but was acquired by hosting.com.

    Review

ScalaHosting’s VPS + FlyingCDN (My Setup)

  • Top 3% Fastest CPUs
  • High Concurrency
  • Dedicated CPU/RAM

Scala’s AMD EPYC 9474F CPUs are ranked top 3% (33rd/1189 fastest) with DDR5 RAM + PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSDs. Compared to my old host (Rocket.net) who uses CPUs from 2013 ranked 432nd. No wonder why benchmark improved and my frontend/admin load ~2x faster.

AMD EPYC 9474F CPUs have a 102255 multithread rating (~5x higher than Rocket.net’s CPUs) and are the highest I’ve seen of any host. Meaning concurrent tasks (like wp-admin speed, resource-hungry plugins, and WooCommerce checkouts) all load significantly faster.

With dedicated CPU/RAM, you’re not sharing resources like even most premium hosts do (e.g. Rocket.net, Kinsta, WP Engine). After replacing Rocket’s $100/mo Business plan with Scala’s $27/mo Build #1 VPS (with just 2 CPU cores + 4GB RAM), resource usage is 10%.

  • Cloudflare

    Massive network of 330 PoPs + 388 Tbps data transfer rates. Set up manually (not through your hosting) to ensure you have full access your dashboard/features.

    Settings