It is imperative for WordPress site owners to prioritize visitor speed and performance by selecting the most efficient WordPress hosting provider. However, determining the provider that offers optimal speeds can be a daunting task. Conducting tests on every hosting service to identify the fastest one that fits the budget may not be feasible for most individuals due to time and monetary constraints. As such, it is crucial to select the right provider from the onset.
Cloudways is a renowned name in the industry for its exceptional combination of speed, performance, uptime, and affordability. While this may be common knowledge, it is crucial to verify whether Cloudways is, in fact, the fastest WordPress hosting provider. To dispel any unfounded claims, we conducted multiple tests and gathered comprehensive data to differentiate Cloudways from its competitors, thereby cementing our position as the best performance-based hosting provider.
Why Do You Need the Fastest WordPress Hosting?
Fast WordPress hosting is essential for any website owner who wants to create a positive user experience for their visitors. A fast website can improve your revenue by increasing engagement, reducing bounce rates, and improving search engine rankings.
One of the main benefits of fast WordPress hosting is that it improves the load time of your website. When your website loads quickly, visitors are more likely to stay and engage with your content. According to a study by Google, the probability of a mobile user bouncing from a site increases by 32% as page load time goes from 1 second to 3 seconds. This means that even a small improvement in page load time can have a big impact on your website's performance.
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Start NowAnother way that fast WordPress hosting can improve your revenue is by reducing your bounce rate. A high bounce rate means that visitors are leaving your website quickly, without engaging with your content. This can be caused by slow loading times, poor design, or irrelevant content. When your website loads quickly, visitors are more likely to stay and explore your website, reducing your bounce rate and increasing the chances of converting them into customers.
Finally, fast WordPress hosting can improve your search engine rankings, which can have a big impact on your revenue. Google uses page speed as a ranking factor, so a fast website is more likely to appear higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). This means that more people are likely to find your website, increasing your traffic and potential revenue.
Initiate Performace Benchmark
I conducted speed testing on the Cloudways platform by deploying a WordPress website on a Cloudways-managed DigitalOcean (Premium) server.
To be specific, I utilized a 4GB DigitalOcean server located in Toronto, Canada, which was launched via the 1-click server launch process. This pre-configured server came with Cloudways Server Configurations such as a Vultr – High-Frequency Cloudways Server, 4GB RAM, 80GB SSD Disk, and 4TB Bandwidth Transfer.
The installed WordPress application was then examined by accessing the Cloudways Platform and navigating to the Applications tab from the top menu bar. For existing Cloudways customers with multiple applications on their server, a list of installed applications will be displayed. However, in this case, only a single application was visible. The following screen was presented:
To proceed, I visited the WordPress staging URL under the Admin Panel and entered the Admin Panel credentials. Afterward, I navigated to the WordPress Dashboard, proceeded to the Plugins > Installed Plugins tab, and found Breeze, a pre-installed cache plugin.
Breeze is a free WordPress cache plugin by Cloudways that comes pre-installed on all WordPress-based applications (except default WordPress) launched on Cloudways.
Benchmark Performing
To measure website performance, we used several benchmarking tools, including GTMetrix, PageSpeed Insight, Loader.io, and K6.io. We analyzed the overall performance score and Core Web Vital scores, such as LCP, TBT, and CLS, using GTMetrix. For PageSpeed Insight, we tested six parameters, including FCP, SI, LCP, TTI, TBT, and CLS, for both desktop and mobile.
Additionally, we used Loader.io to conduct the Maintain Client Load test by sending 100 users for one minute and analyzing the Average Response Time and Success Response Counts. Finally, using K6.io, we recorded a session and performed backend testing. The scenario included 50 concurrent users for 3.30 minutes and 2 load zones in Ashburn US and Montreal CA.
Speedtest On Fresh WordPress
Now it is time to implement our plan. We will be conducting a test on a WordPress site without any optimization efforts. The testing environment will consist of DigitalOcean as the cloud infrastructure, with a server size of 4 GB RAM, and the data center located in Toronto, CA. The WordPress version used for testing will be 6.0, with the Twenty Twenty-One theme pre-configured with Varnish, NGINX, Object Cache Pro (Redis), and Breeze installed. To carry out this test, we will be using a variety of tools, including GTMetrix, Pingdom, PageSpeed Insights.
The GTMetrix report shows that the website's performance and structure score 99%. In addition, the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) metric measures the loading performance of the website and reports it at 592 milliseconds. The Total Blocking Time (TBT), which measures the amount of time a user has to wait before they can interact with the website, is reported at 0 milliseconds. Finally, the Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), which measures the visual stability of the website, is reported at 0.07. These metrics suggest that the website has a fast loading time and is user-friendly, providing a positive user experience.
According to the Pingdom report, the website's performance grade is 97 out of 100. The total page size is 562.9 kilobytes, and it takes 623 milliseconds for the page to load. Additionally, there were only 9 requests made by the website during the loading process.
The website's performance has been analyzed and received a score of 99. The First Contentful Paint (FCP) took 0.3 seconds, while the Speed Index was 0.6 seconds. The Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) was measured at 0.4 seconds, and the Time to Interactive (TTI) was 0.3 seconds. Total Blocking Time (TBT) was measured at 0ms, indicating that the page did not have any unresponsive time. The Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) was measured at 0.087, indicating that there was very little unexpected layout movement on the page.
Speedtest On Live WordPress
The default settings of Cloudways facilitating environment and Breeze are optimized, but there's continuous room for change, of course.
Plan Your Website
We are going to alter our WordPress subject and include four landing pages; Home, About, Contact, and Web Journal.
Here, you'll see how I outlined my WordPress location. I included different folds, images, text sections, and more, to form it seem like a live site. In the event that you're seeking a lightweight subject, perused this article to discover which one is the quickest WordPress theme. Now, let's purport information to check the genuine effect of any lightweight topic. Let's put this claim to the test as well!
Consequence Web Journal Posts From FakerPress
The FakerPress plugin permits you to moment formats. So, I introduced the plugin from the WordPress store and produced various posts.
I've created more than 100 web journal posts on my WordPress site.
Overhaul Your PHP Form
We have taken note that the most recent PHP adaptation performs way better in terms of speed, so let's go for PHP 8.0 (a steady and higher form). Update your PHP adaptation for superior speed, but to begin with, make a reinforcement of your whole WordPress location. If something goes off-base, you ought to continuously be able to roll back.
Cloudways offers a one-click PHP overhaul choice. Go to Cloudways Server Administration board > Settings & Bundles > Bundles and upgrade your PHP form.
Point Your Space and Introduce SSL
For full optimization, point to your domain sometime recently coordinated Cloudflare. Go to Cloudways Application panel > Domain Management and include your essential & extra spaces.
As you can see in the picture below, I've added two A Records. Add your server IP as an A Record.
the following step is to access the Cloudways Platform > Application Management interface > SSL Certificate. Include your email and domain. The Let's Encrypt SSL certificate is installed using this.
Integrate WIth Cloudways
Go to the Application Management tab in the Cloudways Platform and turn on Cloudflare. Add Cloudflare TXT records to your domain registrar to verify your domain. Add Cloudflare's IP address to your name registrar after verification.
Optimizing Breeze
Let's configure and optimize Breeze settings to see how it performs on a WordPress website. Navigate to WP Dashboard > Settings and select Breeze.
Now, in Breeze, go to the File Optimization option and enable HTML, CSS, and JavaScript minification, as well as other settings.
Breeze is simple to set up. As you can see, I selected minification, grouping, and browser caching. It will aid in our performance results for GTMetrix, Pingdom, PageSpeed Insight, K6.io, and Loader.io.
Performance Analysis
The GTMetrix test has awarded the website with a 100% performance and structure rating, indicating that it is efficient and easy to navigate. The LCP, which measures loading speed, is at 585ms, while the TBT is rated at 0ms, showing that the website is very responsive. Furthermore, the website's layout remains stable during loading, with a CLS score of 0, which ensures a seamless user experience. Overall, these results demonstrate that the website is well-optimized and user-friendly, providing a fast and efficient browsing experience.
According to the Pingdom performance test, the website in question has received an impressive performance grade of 97 out of 100. The website's page size is 562.9 KB, which is considered to be relatively large. Despite the size of the page, the website loads quickly, taking only 623 milliseconds to load. Additionally, the website only requires nine requests to load, which is an excellent indicator of efficient page design. Overall, these metrics suggest that the website has been well-optimized for performance and should provide users with a fast and reliable browsing experience.
The website being tested on PageSpeed Insight has an excellent performance score of 99 out of 100. The First Contentful Paint (FCP), which is the time it takes for the first piece of content to be displayed on the screen, is only 0.6 seconds. This means that users will see something on the page almost immediately upon loading it. The Speed Index, which measures how quickly the page displays its content, is also very impressive at only 0.7 seconds.
The Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), which measures the loading performance of the largest element on the page, is a bit slower than the other metrics at 1.0 seconds. However, this is still within the acceptable range for a fast-loading website. The Time to Interactive (TTI), which measures how quickly the website becomes interactive, is also very fast at only 0.6 seconds.
The Total Blocking Time (TBT), which measures how long the page is unresponsive to user input, is a remarkable 0 milliseconds, meaning the website is extremely responsive to user actions. Finally, the Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), which measures how much the content on the page moves around as it loads, is very low at only 0.001. This indicates that the website provides a stable and smooth browsing experience to its users.
What Makes Cloudways Fast
Cloudways Stack
WordPress recommends using Apache and/or Nginx, as well as the most recent stable PHP versions (7.4 or above), MySQL (version 5.7 or higher), OR MariaDB (version 10.3 or greater). On the Cloudways stack, you will have all of the recommended software and versions.
The Cloudways stack includes technologies and software such as Debian 10 (Linux OS), Apache, NGINX, MySQL/MariaDB, and PHP, all of which contribute to a quicker WordPress hosting environment.
Cloudways' optimized "LAMP with NGINX" hybrid stack is specially designed to boost site performance and server load time, allowing you to serve a larger audience more quickly.
Other performance-oriented software includes Varnish, Memcached, Object Cache Pro (Redis), and others.
Faster Response Time
The server response time is the amount of time it takes the web hosting server to react to a visitor's request. Server response time is an important parameter to consider when seeking for the quickest WordPress web hosting. The shorter the server response time, the faster a webpage will load.
To determine the server response time of your website, use K6.io, Loader.io, or any other tool.
Less Gap Between The Server & Visitors
Check if your WordPress hosting provider has a data center close to your target audience. This will aid in lowering latency and improving server response time. As a result, your website's page load time will be reduced.
The majority of shared web hosting services only have data centers in the United States and Europe. Cloudways, on the other hand, gives you the option of 65+ data centers located across the world.
Cloudharmony is a cloud comparison analysis tool that lists various leading hosting providers and tracks their uptime in relation to each cloud provider's area. You can see which cloud provider has the highest uptime in the region of your choice.
Scale Up Hosting Resources Easily
A rise in traffic is an expected (and desirable) result of your company's continued growth.
For example, if you run an online store and make a special promotion, the number of visits can skyrocket. The server will then have to reply to a greater number of requests from visitors. But, if the web hosting server is unable to handle all of these requests, your visitors may encounter a "500 internal server error." As a result, both your predicted revenue and the store's reputation will suffer.
At the stroke of a button, Cloudways allows you to scale server capacity and resources to meet the growth of your store. If you are experiencing high traffic/audience due to an event such as Black Friday, a giveaway, or discount sales, you can scale to meet the demand.
If you are unsure whether your current WordPress hosting service can meet all of your needs, call them as soon as possible and explain your situation so they can advise you properly. Before you invest in Cloudways, you may try out its services for free for three days.
Multiple PHP Versions
WordPress officially recommends PHP 7.4 or above. Cloudways provides a number of PHP versions (5.6, 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, and 8.0), and you may quickly upgrade or downgrade PHP versions with a few clicks.
Cloudflare Enterprise Add-on
When you activate Cloudflare Enterprise on Cloudways, it significantly enhances the performance of your site. The tiered cache speeds up the delivery of your site's content and minimizes latency and loading times.
Furthermore, advanced tools like as image optimization with Polish, Brotli compressions, and mobile optimization with Mirage optimize your site's images and content to increase speed and user experience.
Cloudflare's standard plans can be prohibitively pricey for some SMEs. However, Cloudways addresses this by selling the Enterprise version for $5 for a single domain, which includes all of the capabilities of the premium version. This package includes the Enterprise CDN, an intelligent firewall, HTTP/3 support, priority DDoS safeguards, and more. That's a great deal.
Advanced Caching Mechanism
Caching should never be overlooked when it comes to optimizing your WordPress website.
Caching generates static versions of your website's content, eliminating the need to run time-consuming PHP scripts each time a visitor views your site. Because caching solutions cause pages to load rapidly, they increase the speed and performance of your website.
There is no need for manual website optimization with Cloudways' built-in caching technologies. Among these solutions is Varnish server caching, which speeds up webpages and reduces load times significantly.
It also contains Object Cache Pro (Redis), a caching solution that improves back-end performance and overall site speed by leveraging its compression capabilities. It is strongly advised for high-traffic websites and eCommerce companies.
Normally, OCP costs $95 per month, but Cloudways offers it for free on all 2GB and greater servers.
Cloudways' free cache optimization doesn't stop there; Breeze, another built-in caching optimization plugin, is a suitable replacement for complex caching plugins, with a simple user interface that allows nearly any non-technical user to get started without dealing with any coding lines.
All of these caching solutions work together to provide a comprehensive, non-manual solution for caching optimization and website optimization.
Wrapping Up
In conclusion, it is evident that Cloudways is one of the fastest WordPress hosting providers available in the market. With its innovative and user-friendly platform, Cloudways has managed to deliver exceptional speed and performance to WordPress users across the globe. Their state-of-the-art infrastructure and robust server setup are designed to provide lightning-fast page loading times, impressive uptime, and reliable performance.
Furthermore, their comprehensive suite of features, including automatic backups, easy scaling, and hassle-free migration, makes it an ideal hosting platform for WordPress websites of all sizes. With Cloudways, users can also benefit from dedicated 24/7 support, ensuring their website is always up and running without any issues.
Overall, Cloudways' commitment to speed, performance, and user satisfaction makes it a top choice for anyone looking for a reliable and fast WordPress hosting solution. So, whether you are a small business owner, a blogger, or a large enterprise, we highly recommend Cloudways for your WordPress hosting needs. Try Cloudways today and experience the difference for yourself!
