Pressable is where WordPress works best. Don’t believe us? Just check out this year’s Review Signal WordPress Hosting Benchmarks for proof.
Pressable ranks in the top tier in the latest rankings from the hosting review and testing service. In this post, we’ll look at what the Review Signal WordPress Hosting Benchmarks are and how you can use them to select the best WordPress host.
What is Review Signal?
Review Signal started as a service that collects and analyzes social media opinions about web hosting companies.
In 2014, Review Signal launched WordPress Hosting Benchmarks. These annual reports are the results of performance testing of how specialized WordPress hosts handle large influxes of traffic. Hosts are invited to participate and must pay a flat fee to cover the cost of the testing. It’s understood that the results will be published whether the host performed well or not, keeping the annual reviews as unbiased and fair as possible.
In 2020, Review Signal added a special category for WooCommerce hosting.
Overview of Review Signal’s WordPress Hosting Benchmarks
Review Signal uses various tests to determine the ratings for each service.
Review Signal tests are:
- K6 Load Storm. Load storm is a stress test for your website. It tests uncached performance by simulating real users visiting the site and browsing.
- K6 Static. K6 Static tests the host’s caching performance by making repeat requests for the homepage.
- WebPageTest. WebPageTest fully loads the homepage from a dozen different locations around the world. It measures how long it takes the page to load. The number displayed for this test is the Largest Contentful Paint.
- Uptime. To measure uptime, Review Signal uses HetrixTools and Uptime Robot. They also utilize a self-hosted monitor in case of a big difference between the two monitoring companies.
- WPPerformanceTester. This plugin runs two tests to measure a server’s performance. The first, PHP Bench, performs some database and several computational operations. The results show how many seconds it took to complete. Lower PHP Bench scores are better. The second test, WP Bench, measures WordPress queries per second. Higher scores typically indicate better performance, but that could vary based on the architecture.
- Qualsys SSL Report Grade. Finally, the WordPress Hosting Benchmarks use the Qualsys SSL Report tool. This test analyzes the server’s SSL configuration. The test verifies the SSL certificate and then inspects the server configuration for protocol support, key exchange support, and cipher support. The results are displayed as a letter grade from A to F. Much like in school, you want an A+.
Explaining the Review Signal WordPress Hosting Benchmark Ratings
Review Signal awards two levels of recognition for the hosting companies in the tests. They don’t declare a winner or best overall, but they often note if a company’s test results were in the Top 3 for an individual test. Overall, companies can earn a full star for top tier WordPress Hosting or a half star for honorable mention.
Top Tier WordPress Hosting
To earn this recognition, companies must maintain 99.9% uptime through the tests and show little or no performance degradation during the load testing. This distinction is for hosts with low error rates and consistent response times. Response times greater than 1000ms or error rates above 0.1% will prevent a host from achieving top tier status.
Honorable Mention
Review Signal awards honorable mentions to companies that fell just short of top tier status. Examples of things that could cause a company to earn honorable mention instead of top tier include slight struggles with a load test, a small number of errors, or increased response times.
How Did Pressable Perform?
Review Signal WordPress Hosting Benchmarks are awarded based on pricing tiers. Higher-priced tiers use tests with more simulated users. Pressable ranked as top tier and awarded a full star.
Pressable ranks top tier for:
- >$25 per month
- $25-50 per month
- $51-100 per month
- $101-200 per month
- $201-500 per month
- WooCommerce
>$25 per month
Not only did Pressable have the fastest average time and static p95 time, but also the second fastest WPT average response time, earning top tier accolades.
$25-50 per month
Pressable again earned top tier honors with the second fastest login cumulative average and the third fastest Load Storm results.
$51-100 per month
Pressable led this category as well, with the fastest average (5.9ms) and p95 (19ms) in the Static test. The p95 results are the 95th percentile latency, meaning that only 5% of transactions would take longer than 19ms in this case.
$101-200 per month
The testers praised Pressable’s “lightning fast” speeds for the first place finish in average and p95 in the Static test.
$201-500 per month
Pressable also dominated this price tier with the fastest average and p95 load times on the static test.
WooCommerce
For the WooCommerce-specific rankings, the testers lauded Pressable’s “consistent excellence.” It’s the third consecutive top tier performance in the WooCommerce benchmarks.
For all the price tiers, Pressable had perfect or near-perfect uptime.
Using Review Signal WordPress Hosting Benchmarks to Pick a Host
The WordPress Hosting Benchmarks are useful for picking a web host because they’re an unbiased assessment of the host’s performance. They’re also useful because they break out by tier. You might have to pay for an expensive enterprise plan with some hosts before you get blazing-fast results. Pressable’s consistent performance across every price tier demonstrates our commitment to delivering top quality and lightning-fast results for our customers at every price point.
In addition to checking out a company’s performance on the WordPress hosting benchmarks, be sure to check out their G2 reviews as well. G2 provides great insight into what customers think of the service. Does their customer service match their technical performance? Do customers find it easy to use? Pressable consistently ranks as a leader in managed WordPress hosting on G2.
Benefits of Using Pressable
The Review Signal WordPress Hosting Benchmarks clearly demonstrate Pressable’s top speed and performance, but there’s so much more to hosting with us. You also get top-notch security, expert support, and an easy-to-use dashboard to manage all your sites.
Alfred Bassetti
With over a decade of invaluable experience. Alfred is not just about numbers; he's dedicated to bringing customers closer to their hosting needs through his expertise in Inbound sales, WordPress support, and Google Data Analytics Certifications. His skills in project planning, web design, and development make him a well-rounded contributor to the Pressable team. He focuses in helping people get the best possible experience with hosting by bringing customers closer to their needs!
