[HELP!] What's the fastest Wordpress Blog Host?

[HealeyV3]

I am currently on Network Solutions with the website http://www.totallawncareinc.com/

The blog has consistently gotten slow, to the point where it takes 10-15 seconds to load sometimes. By "Load", I do not mean load pictures etc. I'm talking about the DNS physically connecting to the host. As soon as the "Page" starts to appear, it loads INSTANTLY. I'm talking all the pictures load VERY fast. But it's the initial "connection" that it just sits at and doesnt even load anything.

Here's the question: What hosting company should I use to get the fastest blog available?

(PS. For those that are wondering, I have tried turning off ALL plugins and it is still slow. I have also tried WP Total Cache and had no difference. I have searched around google and tons of other people are having the same problem as me but so far no solution)

Thanks for the help !!

 

[fiesta]

A dedicated host would solve many of the issues you are experiencing.

 

[HealeyV3]

A dedicated host would solve many of the issues you are experiencing.

Do you have any recommendations?

I have had a dedicated server in the past for other projects and I could not figure out PLESK at all. It was constantly giving me errors and was a giant headache.

If I am going to get a dedicated, do they automatically come with CPANEL etc? What about the A Records etc, do I need to set that up myself or do they do that for me? Do you have any recommended specs for the server? What host do you recommend?

Thanks!

 

[marks7100]

HostGator gets my vote! Hands down! Though, I've heard LiquidWeb is great, you might consider that as an alternative.

Goodluck!

 

[Dumper]

Dedicated is a little extreme in my opinion for this site. I really think hostgator would do the trick as well but maybe try a vps from phat servers, it's about the same price as hostgator.

 

[wpbacklinks]

Try HOSTING24, fast servers and great support!

 

[HealeyV3]

Guys, take a look at this:

http://www.webpagetest.org/result/110106_YW_7TTA/1/details/

Look at the "Time to first byte".

This is the issue. Is this for sure my hosting's fault? If you look at the "render" time, it's pretty fast. It's that FIRST connection that really takes the longest.

Are you all convinced that it IS the hosting, and not just something I'm doing wrong with wordpress? Any idea's i'm open to.

 

[Dumper]

I'm sure you've done this but if not, put in a ticket with your current host and tell them you are not happy and to look into it. If you tell them you are about to go elsewhere because of this, they will fix it or tell you what to fix guaranteed. If they don't then move on anyways because they don't deserve your money.

 

[bigbooby]

bluehost is best for shared hosting

 

[HealeyV3]

I'm sure you've done this but if not, put in a ticket with your current host and tell them you are not happy and to look into it. If you tell them you are about to go elsewhere because of this, they will fix it or tell you what to fix guaranteed. If they don't then move on anyways because they don't deserve your money.

I've already contacted them via Phone Support. They said that I should move to a Dedicated Server for like $200 a month or something like that if I wanted a faster site, thats it.

 

[RedWolf]

shared hosting and vps - hostgator

dedicated server - dedicatednow

 

[surftrish]

is this just a blog or an autoblog? how big? traffic?

No one's asked these questions. Looks like just a blog. No way I'd pay for vps or dedicated for that.

I would move it though. Wherever you are, set up Basicstate.com. it's free and will track your uptime and response time for you.

 

[HealeyV3]

is this just a blog or an autoblog? how big? traffic?

No one's asked these questions. Looks like just a blog. No way I'd pay for vps or dedicated for that.

I would move it though. Wherever you are, set up Basicstate.com. it's free and will track your uptime and response time for you.

It is just a NORMAL business website, using wordpress + a theme, and a few basic plugins.

I did just set up a https://www.pingdom.com account, which i believe is just like Basicstate.com .

Do you have any recommendation for shared hosting that will be FAST with Wordpress?

 

[surftrish]

sure. Bluehost is a favorite of many and very good. another one that I really like (speed and service) is EZPZ hosting. they are uk-based but have servers in the US also.

Hostgator is fine (I do have accounts here) but they are not the fastest in my opinion.

Maybe also take a look at Arvixe shared hosting.

 

[HealeyV3]

sure. Bluehost is a favorite of many and very good. another one that I really like (speed and service) is EZPZ hosting. they are uk-based but have servers in the US also.

Hostgator is fine (I do have accounts here) but they are not the fastest in my opinion.

Maybe also take a look at Arvixe shared hosting.

Do you use Bluehost for Wordpress Blogs? Or just static pages?

UPDATE:

Here is some split testing I did.

"Troy" is hosted on dollar2host.com
"Total" is hosted on NetworkSolutions.com
Google is google. All numbers are listed "seconds" load time based on http://www.webpagetest.org/

I tested WITH plugins and WITHOUT plugins.
The plugs I was using are:

All in One SEO Pack
Google Analyticator
Google XML Sitemaps

Test1 Test2 Test3
Troy( NO PLUGINS) 2.8 2.3 2.3
Total( PLUGINS) 8.6 5.6 6.2
Google 0.4 0.6 0.4
Troy( PLUGINS) 3.1 3.3 2.8
Total( NO PLUGINS) 8.1 6.0 7.1
Google 0.6 0.5 0.6


Any thoughts?

 

[chakde]

You most certainly DO NOT need a dedicated server.

Go with Bluehost, I've hosted many sites & blogs there without experiencing any problems, their support is great too.

 

[shaundunne]

Amazon:

Elastic IP
Loadbalancing
Dedicated storage

 

[Anger66]

I recommend you http://www.hetzner.de/
Read some reviews and decide.

 

[bhatsuccess]

I have only used GoDaddy, Hostgator, Ipower, Bluehost and few other random web hosts.

Hostgator by far for Wordpress support and uptime, Bluehost is a close second but they recently patched a server exploit and it caused their uptime to decrease. The other's forget about it...

 

[KD103]

I going with Hostgator on this one.