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Independent hosting lab · tested 2026

Web hosting reviews tested on real websites

We buy hosting plans, build working sites on them and leave them running for at least thirty days before we write a word. What you read here is measured — time to first byte, uptime, recovery after failure, the quality of a support reply at 2 a.m. — not copied from a sales page.
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See how we test

Scorecard weighting

What decides every verdict

Performance
35% of score
Reliability & uptime
25%
Support quality
15%
Value at renewal
15%
Ease of use
10%
Weights are fixed and published. A host cannot buy a higher one.
Scoring categories
0
Day minimum test window
0 +
Live site built per plan
0
Paid placements accepted
0

§01 — Start with what you are building

Find hosting by the job it has to do

A portfolio, an online shop and a client agency need very different servers. Pick the closest match and go straight to the plans we have tested in that category.
All review categories

Shared hosting

The lowest monthly price, with neighbours on the same server. We check how much a busy neighbour can slow you down.

Managed WordPress

Updates, caching and backups handled for you. We test whether the caching actually helps and what the plan blocks.

VPS hosting

Your own slice of CPU and memory. We load-test it and time how long a fresh server takes to become usable.

Cloud hosting

Resources you can scale up and down. We measure scaling speed and look hard at how billing behaves.

Reseller hosting

Host client sites under your own brand. We test account isolation and how much the control panel really allows.

Domains & email

Registrar pricing, renewal surprises, DNS speed and whether business email lands in the inbox or in spam.

Rows of server cabinets in a data center aisle

§02 — The mill

How a host goes through the mill

Our method is simple to describe and slow to carry out. That is the point: a hosting review written in an afternoon tells you about the sales page, not the server.

01

We pay for the plan

No free review accounts, no press logins. We sign up at the public price on the public checkout, so we see the same upsells, renewal terms and onboarding you will.

02

We build a real site

A standard WordPress test site with images, a contact form, a small shop and a blog — the same build on every host, so the numbers are comparable.

03

We measure for 30+ days

Uptime checks every minute from several regions, scheduled speed tests, a load test, a backup-and-restore drill and at least three support conversations.

04

We publish, then revisit

Scores go live with the raw notes behind them. We re-test whenever a host changes its plans and record every change in a dated log.
Read the full test method

§03 — Quick comparison

Shared, VPS, cloud or managed? The short version

Before you compare brands, compare types. Most bad hosting decisions happen one step earlier than people think — picking the wrong kind of hosting, then wondering why the cheapest plan of it feels slow.
Hosting typeTypical monthly costBest forTechnical effortMain trade-off
SharedLowest tierFirst sites, portfolios, small blogsVery lowResources shared with other customers
Managed WordPressLow to midBusiness sites and blogs on WordPressLowPlugin restrictions and visit-based limits
VPSMidGrowing shops, custom apps, developersMedium to highYou or your host must manage the server
CloudUsage-basedTraffic that spikes or grows fastMediumBills can be harder to predict
ResellerMidAgencies hosting client websitesMediumYou become the first line of support
Open the full comparison
Prices change often, so we compare price bands here and quote exact figures only inside dated reviews.

§04 — Hosting guides

Learn the parts sales pages skip

Short, practical guides written from what we see on the test bench every week.
Laptop showing website traffic analytics charts

Guide

Reading uptime numbers without being fooled

Why 99.9% sounds perfect but allows almost nine hours of downtime a year, and which kind of downtime actually costs you visitors.
Read the guide
Laptop displaying website code beside a coffee mug

Guide

What a fast WordPress host really changes

Time to first byte, caching layers and PHP workers explained with plain examples instead of benchmark charts.
Read the guide
Developer working on a laptop configuring a website

Guide

Moving a website without losing a day

A tested checklist for migrating files, databases, email and DNS so visitors never notice the switch.
Read the guide

“

We earn commission when some readers buy through our links. That money pays for the test plans. It never buys a score, a ranking position or a softer sentence.

Every review states who paid for the plan, the dates it was tested and whether we have an affiliate relationship with the host. If a host we earn from performs badly, the review says so.
How we make money

§05 — Questions

Before you pick a host

The questions readers send us most often. If yours is missing, write to us — real questions often become new guides.
Ask the team
Often, yes — for a small site with modest traffic. The catch is usually the renewal price and the limits hidden in the fair-use policy, not the speed on day one. Look at the price you will pay in year two and the number of sites, inodes and email accounts allowed.
Every host gets the same WordPress build, the same theme, the same plugins and the same content. We run scheduled tests from several regions at different times of day and report the median, not the single best run.
No. We do not accept payment for reviews, placements or score changes. We buy every plan ourselves. Some links are affiliate links, which is disclosed on every page that contains them.
We re-test each reviewed plan at least every six months, and sooner when a host changes its pricing, hardware or control panel. Each review carries a dated change log.
Server location matters most for dynamic pages that cannot be cached. A good CDN reduces the gap for images and static files. Our reviews list each host’s data-centre options and how much a CDN changed our results.
We cannot give a personal guarantee, but our Compare page walks you through the decision in a few steps, and you can contact us with your requirements for general guidance.

Not sure which kind of hosting you need?

Answer a few questions about your site and we will point you to the hosting type — and the tested plans — that fit.
Start the comparison