The HostingDive Speed Index measures entry-tier WordPress hosts twice daily from a fixed US vantage and ranks them on measured speed and reliability. Over the trailing 30 days, Kinsta scores highest (9.1 out of 10); Hostinger has the single fastest median response (64.9 ms) but ranks second once reliability is weighed. This ranking covers measured speed and reliability; price and managed-support are not in it yet.
Disclosure: some links on this page are affiliate links. HostingDive earns a commission if you buy through them. Commissions never change a score. The ranking is the published Speed Index formula applied to the measured data, and both are shown.
Re-measurement in progress (2026-07-31). A rig-conformance check on 2026-07-31 found two probe sites were not running the standard bare-WordPress configuration this method requires: the Bluehost node was serving a host coming-soon page, and the WP Engine node was running a non-default theme plus a plugin. Their figures are withheld from this table until both nodes are rebuilt and re-measured. The Scala Hosting node has not answered since 2026-07-22, so its figure is withheld as stale. Nothing has been estimated in their place and no run history has been deleted. Withheld hosts keep their row and lose their rank.
How this is measured
We run the HostingDive Speed Index: identical bare WordPress installs on the entry plan of each host, measured twice daily from a fixed US vantage, and the median is refreshed monthly. We aggregate the trailing 30 days: the median time to first byte (TTFB) over the runs a host actually served, plus the 95th percentile, the median full-load time, and the probe success rate.
Current ranking (trailing 30 days)
| Rank | Host | Plan class | TTFB median | TTFB p95 | Full load | Probe success | Speed score | Get it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kinsta | Managed WP | 67.2 ms | 104.2 ms | 69.2 ms | 100% | 9.1 | Check price |
| 2 | Hostinger | Shared | 64.9 ms | 97.0 ms | 103.3 ms | 82%* | 8.2 | |
| -- | WP Engine | Managed WP | Re-measurement in progress -- figures withheld 2026-07-31 (rig non-conformance) | Check price | ||||
| 4 | Cloudways (Vultr) | VPS (1GB)+ | 134.6 ms | 179.5 ms | 194.6 ms | 91% | 7.8 | Check price |
| 5 | EasyWP (Namecheap) | Managed WP | 184.6 ms | 223.9 ms | 268.1 ms | 100% | 7.6 | Check price |
| -- | Bluehost | Shared | Re-measurement in progress -- figures withheld 2026-07-31 (rig non-conformance) | Check price | ||||
| -- | Scala Hosting | Shared | Node unavailable since 2026-07-22 -- figures withheld | Check price | ||||
Speed score 0 to 10, projected from the stored per-host measurements by the published formula (TTFB weighted most, then tail, full load, reliability), recalibrated to the measured 65 to 340 ms range. Aggregated over 56 twice-daily runs, 2026-06-06 to 2026-07-01. Price and managed-support are not in this score yet.
*Hostinger footnote: Hostinger blocked the probe on about 1 in 6 runs (HTTP 403); the 64.9 ms median reflects the 46 of 56 runs it served. On those runs it is the fastest host measured; the reliability weighting is why it ranks second, not first.
Plan-class caveat: these are not all the same product. Cloudways is an unmanaged 1GB VPS (Vultr), not a shared or managed-WordPress entry plan, so it is not a like-for-like comparison with the managed-WP and shared rows; it is included for reference, not ranked as an entry-tier equivalent.
Could every host be measured reliably?
Bluehost and WP Engine: withheld, rig non-conformance. On 2026-07-31 we checked every probe site against the configuration this method promises. The Bluehost node was serving the host's coming-soon page rather than WordPress, and the WP Engine node was running the host's default onboarding theme and a plugin instead of the standard bare install. Both were therefore not measuring what the other nodes measure. Their published figures are withheld, both nodes are being rebuilt to the standard rig, and they re-enter with freshly measured data. We are not back-filling or estimating anything for them in the meantime.
Scala Hosting: withheld, node unavailable. The Scala node has not answered a probe since 2026-07-22. We do not publish a score behind a node that has been down that long.
SiteGround: held, not ranked this window. SiteGround answered only 36 of 56 probes (64 percent); on the other runs it returned a challenge or interstitial (HTTP 202) instead of the page. A median computed off the surviving portion is not representative, so we do not publish a rank for it this window. When it measures cleanly, it returns.
See the buyer comparison
For the plain-English pick-one guidance, see Managed WordPress Hosting, Ranked by Measured Speed and Reliability.