Cloudspectator.Com 02

HOSTING MARKET

ANALYSIS WORLDWIDE

MANAGED VS UNMANAGED WORDPRESS HOSTING

www.cloudspectator.com 02

1.0 www.cloudspectator.com 1.0 INTRODUCTION HOSTING MARKETANALYSIS WORLDWIDE INTRODUCTION unmanaged hostingplans.But services, inadditiontoexisting various typesofmanagedhosting address thisproblembyoffering Hosting providershavestartedto securing infrastructure. nor interestinmanagingand simply doneitherhavethetime complexity. Manywebsiteowners website addsevenmore infrastructure thatpowersthe easy taskandtheunderlying professional websitealoneisno Building andmaintaininga engaged withyourbusiness. customers, sotheyremain presence resonateswithyour it’s criticalthatyouronline agency orfull-blownenterprise freelance developer,sysadmin, startup, smallbusinessowner, Regardless ofwhetheryou’rea First impressionsareeverything. online businesstorun? You’ve gotaserious businesses. perfect hostingplanfortheir and decisionmakerscanfindthe provide guidancehowowners WordPress andismeantto focusing onwebsitespoweredby This hostingmarketanalysisis can bedizzying. overwhelming amountofchoices unmanaged optionsandthe wide rangeofmanagedand Search engineresultsprovidea business isnotalwayseasy. that bestmeetstheneedsofyour However, findingahostingplan increasing profitsandmargins. growing thebusinessand that reallymatter,whichis owners canfocusonthethings service providersobusiness variety oftechnicaltaskstothe said, managedhostingoffloadsa what’s thedifference?Simply WORLDWIDE

WordPress

Catering for all sorts of industries, WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS) 33% in the world and has become a powered by major part of the internet since its WordPress. launch in 2003. According to BuiltWith, 33% of the top 1 million websites are powered by WordPress.

Driving business growth is already a time-consuming task and using WordPress to build, secure and run a professional website requires a lot of additional expertise to avoid a website getting hacked and then blacklisted by Google. Or, what you need to do if a plug-in breaks your WordPress site. What if sluggish performance results in massive SEO penalties and your business can no longer be found through search engines? www.cloudspectator.com

03 HOSTING MARKET ANALYSIS HOSTING MARKET ANALYSIS TABLE OF CONTENTS ww w . c lo u d s p ectator.c o m

04 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.0 2.0 3.0 Introduction Hosting Global Market Page 02 Dictionary Analysis

Page 05 Page 12

4.0 The Spectrum of Managed Features and Methodology

Page 14

4.1 Onboarding & UX ...... 16 4.2. Specialized WordPress Support ...... 18 5.0 4.3. General Support...... 20 Top 4.4. Backup & Recovery ...... 22 PERFORMER 4.5. 1-Click Staging & Cloning...... 24 TOP 2019 Performers 4.6. WordPress Developer Features ...... 26 SPRING 2019 4.7. Security...... 28 Page 37 4.8. Global Reach ...... 32 4.9. Performance...... 34

6.0 Detailed Performance 7.0 Benchmarks Summary

Page 38 Page 43

WORLDW I D E 2.0

W O RLDWID E

HOSTING DICTIONARY

Hosting

Selecting the right hosting to compare a range of managed provider is crucial for any and unmanaged hosting plans. By internet-based business. Many highlighting the basic features hosting providers can give your that a managed WordPress website a solid foundation to offering should include (in a grow on by withstanding trafﬁc perfect world) and benchmarking surges, securing the servers existing WordPress hosting plans hosting the site, and helping you from 17 service providers around troubleshoot plugin issue. These the globe we hope to make it are just a few of the many easier to ﬁnd the best host for reasons why it’s important to your website! choose the right service provider.

Many providers call their WordPress plans ‘Managed’, but what does that really mean to you? Some refer to server or infrastructure management only. Others consider managed hosting to include 24/7/365 support even at the application level.

This analysis will bring objective data into the mix and shed light on what a truly ‘Managed’ WordPress offering might look like, which we use as a reference

Apr 2019 WordPress 33 squarespace 3 wix 12 Joomla 2 Drupal 3 spectator.co m Values for this point have partial (incomplete) data available www.clou d Figure 1 Source: Google Trends

2.0 HOSTING DICTIONARY 05 HOSTING MARKET ANALYSIS HOSTING MARKET ANALYSIS 2.0 HOSTING DICTIONARY www.cloudspectator.com

Shared Hosting Shared hosting is a good option Shared hosting is a type of as long as website trafﬁc and hosting plan where your your end user base do not Not every WordPress site requires site ‘shares’ resources with outgrow the server resources as dedicated resources or has a other accounts on the same the website will not be able to use massive budget behind it so you server. This lets service resources beyond the maximum may choose a low-cost shared providers cut costs, which allowed. Additionally, noisy hosting plan to start with. is why shared hosting is neighbors will impact other sites typically the cheapest as all websites are sharing space option. Many service on the same server. Shared providers accomplish this hosting is quite limited in terms of by ‘overselling’ the scalability and security compared infrastructure, betting that to VPS, Cloud or even Dedicated not all users will require all Servers. resources at the same time.

WORLDWIDE HOSTING MARKETANALYSIS 2.0 HOSTINGDICTIONARY as well. access orlimitedoptions offerings generallycomein full stability. Thesededicated or inconsistentperformanceand be impactedby‘noisyneighbors’ businesses thatcannotaffordto between multipletenants)for sharing ofphysicalresources resources (meaningthere’sno Cloud Serverswithdedicated service providersofferVPSor It’s worthnotingthatsome are infullcontrolandtherefore Root Serversmeaningthatyou VPS familythereareso-called RAM oranyotherdata.Withinthe own resourcessuchasCPU, of anoperatingsystem(OS),and physical serverwithit’sowncopy VPS isavirtualinstanceon which istechnicallyincorrect.A also oftencalledCloudServers Virtual PrivateServers(VPS)are VPS orCloudServers audience. No dependencyontrafficor you wantandneed. and caninstallanysoftware have accesstoeverything Complete freedomasyou shared costofservices. dedicated serverbutwith and benefitsaswitha Similar levelofflexibility all levels. Security canbeappliedat to migrateyourwebsite. resources withouttheneed you canalwaysaddmore VPS providesscalabilityas administration tasksyouare because ofthesystem choose aVPShostingplan server. Youmightbehesitantto applications onthatparticular level whileyoumanageall meaning thattheycontroltheOS offer VPSwithoutrootaccess the OSlevel.Alotofproviders server secureandup-to-dateat also inchargeofkeepingthe with justafewclicks. and toaddadditionalsecurity intuitive graphicaluserinterface administration tasksthroughan automate mundaneserver software toolsenablingyouto service providersofferspecial administration easier,many responsible for.Tomakeserver WORLDWIDE 07 www.cloudspectator.com HOSTING MARKET ANALYSIS HOSTING DICTIONARY www.cloudspectator.com

Dedicated Server Hosting or Bare Metal Server

08 Dedicated Servers are a good option for all businesses that need to max out on RAM, support tons of visitors, server up a resource-heavy website with lots of videos and high-resolution images or peak trafﬁc in an online store. It's also the most secure option and provides the highest level of system control.

Unless you choose a fully managed dedicated server, or purchase an advanced support / management plan, you will be responsible for managing the server which requires high tech knowledge. Server management tasks include updating all software (including OS), installing new software (if needed), applying security patches on all levels, implementing a back-up strategy, monitoring performance, and more.

On a dedicated server it’s quite unlikely that your website and IP will get blacklisted if you comply with legal and ethical internet practices. As the sole owner you’re in full control and do not suffer from bad neighbours that make your website practically invisible.

Dedicated servers usually come with monthly pricing or some kind of long-term commitment. You need to think carefully in advance how many resources you need as you might end up paying a lot for unused resources.

WORLDWIDE physical serversthatwork cloud isbasedonmultiple one singlephysicalmachinethe reasons. WhereasaVPSrelieson a bitmorespecificforobvious industry thedefinitionneedstobe else’s computer’.Inthehosting form thecloudis‘justsomeone different people,atitsmostbasic of differentthingstoalot The term‘Cloud’canmeanalot Cloud Hosting HOSTING MARKETANALYSIS HOSTING DICTIONARY Hosting givesyouahighdegree on theflyandasneeded.Cloud you toaddorremoveresources pay-as-you-go modelallowing Servers usuallyprovidea behaves redundantly.Cloud exceptionally resilientand Cloud. Cloudhostingis network whichiscalledthe are sharedacrossthatvirtual together andthevirtualresources offerings. private andhybridcloudhosting You canchoosebetweenpublic, expensive andbustyourbudget. can rapidlybecomewildly skillful cloudmanagementasit requires properplanningand initial investmentcostbutalso of flexibilityandagilitywithzero integration. strong compatibilityand deployment andrequire public andprivatecloud share resourcesbetween Apps andworkloadscan private cloudenvironments. complex mixofpublicand Hybrid Cloudisquitea agencies. industries andgovernment or servehighlyregulated the underlyinginfrastructure over yourITworkloadsand strong controlandsecurity the idealchoiceifyourequire customers. APrivateCloudis are notsharedwithother secure privatenetworkand computing resourcesviaa Private Clouddelivers is addingcomplexity. via theirmarketplaceswhich range ofadditionalservices provide accesstoabroad a lotofinnovationand public cloudprovidersdrive the ITinfrastructure.Leading deploying andmaintaining vendor isresponsiblefor the internet.TheCloud computing resourcesacross Public clouddelivers WORLDWIDE 09 www.cloudspectator.com HOSTING MARKET ANALYSIS HOSTING DICTIONARY ww w . c lo u d s p ectator.c o Unmanaged Hosting m

Unmanaged hosting can be a 10 great option for those who love being in the ‘techy weeds’ and having full control over their website(s) and server. If you have the time and the knowledge to conﬁgure, maintain and secure your server while also ensuring that your website is up and performing well, you are the perfect candidate for an unmanaged hosting plan.

Unmanaged Hosting plans usually provide a server with only an Operating System (OS) installed. Any additional software such as WordPress, Apache, PHP or MySQL will need to be installed It’s easy to lean toward the lowest priced hosting option in order to save and configured. Defining and money. Instead of focusing on saving money now, consider the following configuring a back-up and scenarios happening: recovery strategy, monitoring performance, scanning for malware, upgrading your OS and protecting both your server and website(s) against malicious cyber Your site has always been a bit slow to load, especially from attacks are also your mobile devices. You’d like to improve performance but aren’t responsibility. sure how to do this. Over the course of 2 years your growth is slower than you expected. While you do have the technical skills to do it yourself and you can You go on vacation for a week and decide to disconnect automate mundane tasks using a from the internet entirely (good for you!). When you come basic control panel or advanced back you notice that your site has been compromised and server and website management filled with spam links to random websites. tool it's up to you to decide where your valuable time is best spent: You do your best to secure your online presence and always managing your server or focus on keep your WordPress up to date. Unfortunately, something your business. went wrong with the latest update and now your website is down.

The scenarios above could cripple or kill a business, at the very least generate a large amount of stress. With an unmanaged hosting plan, it’s almost entirely on you to monitor your site and also implement performance and security optimizations on a regular basis.

WORLDW I D E HOSTING MARKETANALYSIS HOSTING DICTIONAR complexity tohostingservices. services asthecloudaddsmore paying apremiumformanaged (SLA) inplaceandit'softenworth proper servicelevelagreement needs. It'simportanttohavea that bestfitsyourbusiness they're offeringandfindtheone define the'managedservices' carefully readhowproviders etc. Withthatsaid,youneedto optimization, SEOimprovements, performance monitoringand back-up andrecoverystrategy, application level,asuitable even attheWordPress apps, security,24x7x365support environment thatincludesOS, managed infrastructure WordPress onlytoafully providing a1-clickinstallerfor span fromupdatingOSand Managed Hostingservicescan Hosting Managed Y key toarandomstranger. prevent someonefromrobbingyouifforgettolock ituporgivethe security bestpracticesbutthemostexpensivelock on earthwillnot protect yourbusinessagainstcybercrimedamagesand alwaysimplement or providingaccesstousers.Managedproviderswill dotheirverybestto to yourwebsiteandusegoodjudgementwheninstalling themes,plugins hosting plansaren’tbulletproof,andyoustillneedto paysomeattention It’s importanttokeepinmindthateventhemostadvanced managed or payingforanITadministrator. rather thanspendingnonbillablesystemadministrationtime concentrate onyourcorebusinessgoalsandcompetencies services thesecostoffsetquiteeasilybecauseyoucan Although youhavetopayapremiumforManagedHosting performance, manageyourpubliccloudinstances,andmore. recovery strategy,driveseamlessmigrations,improve maintenance events,defineandimplementyourback-up consultant whowillhelptoapplytopnotchsecurity,schedule Some SLAsincludeadedicatedaccountmanagerorcloud the highesttierplansorsoldasanadd-on. environments. Managedservicesaresometimesbundledwith Managed hostingplanscanbefoundinallinfrastructure W O RLDWID E 11 www.cloudspectator.com 3.0

HOSTING MARKET ANALYSIS 3.0 GLOBAL MARKET ANALYSIS www.cloudspectator.com

GLOBAL Company Price / mo. / Plan MARKET $17.00 Managed WP Pro

WordPress Hosting 10 $47.31 12 ANALYSIS Site Container 1 Unit

Managed WordPress $83.61 We have compiled a list across multiple Unlimited Domains geographies (North America, Europe, Asia Paciﬁc and Australia), that represents a $113.85 WP Pro Hosting Grow solid balance of specialized and innovative WordPress hosters as well as traditional hosting companies who offer dedicated Managed WordPress $34.85 WordPress hosting plans. Single Domain

$79.95 DreamPress Pro

$75.00 Professional Plan

Managed Wordpress $69.99 Pro 10

Business Shared $9.95 Hosting

$136.39 HostPress Business

$60.00 Pro

Managed Wordpress $60.00 Pro

This analysis benchmarks seventeen $50.00 Basic publicly available WordPress plans as described in the table to the left against a pre-deﬁned feature set: $90.00 20 Sites

Nine feature categories that will be $36.90 GoGeek Hosting detailed in the following sections.

Real time Apache Benchmark $115.00 Growth plan performance tests based on a content rich WordPress site and concurrent requests from WordPress Hosting $12.63 simulated users. WP-Professional

WORLDWIDE 1,14 EUR. fixed conversionrateof1USD= converted toUSDbasedona monthly subscriptionfeewas was onlyavailableinEURthe taken intoconsideration.Ifpricing offerings orpromotionswerenot (Feb andMarch).Special was collectedduringQ12019 All pricingisexcludingVATand HOSTING MARKETANALYSIS 3.0 GLOBALMARKET ANAL chosen. $150 (USDpermonth)were within thepricerangeof$50- Only WordPresshostingplans dedicated, etc.). consideration (shared,cloud,vps, lines weretakeninto All WordPressrelatedproduct The selectionprocessforeachproviderisasfollows: MEDIATEMPLE SITEGROUND DREAMHOST HOSTPRESS A2 HOSTING PRESSABLE HOSTINGER WP ENGINE PANTHEON BLUEHOST FLYWHEEL 1&1 IONOS GODADDY ZNETLIVE CONETIX KINSTA Price permonth 34SP $0.00 YSIS $9.95 $12.63 $17.00 $20.00 $34.85 $36.90 $40.00 $47.31 and clearlyshowsthehuge plan foramonthlysubscription price ofeachselectedWordPress The followingchartdisplaysthe number ofmonths. dividing thecontractpriceby monthly pricewascalculatedby months orlongercontracts,the For providerswhoonlyoffer3 taken intoconsideration. pre-defined pricerangewas $50 theclosestplanto WordPress plansforlessthan If aprovideronlyoffers chosen. from thisproductlinewere specific hostingplans,onlyplans If aprovideroffersWordPress $50.00 Price (permonthasinvoiced) $60.00 $60.00 $60.00 $69.99 $75.00 $79.95 $80.00 $83.61 $90.00 $100.00 $113.85 $115.00 WordPress offerings. important onesforManaged which wefeelarethemost pre-defined featurecategories compares allplansagainstnine digs deeperintothedetailsand hosting offerings.Thisanalysis differences inpriceforWordPress arithmetical averagewaschosen. - $150,theplanclosestto the pre-definedpricerangeof$50 WordPress hostingplanswithin If aprovideroffersmultiple consideration. WordPress plansweretakeninto Both managedandunmanaged $120.00 $136.39 $140.00 W O RLDWID $160.00 E 13 www.cloudspectator.com 4.0

HOSTING MARKET ANALYSIS 4.0 THE SPECTRUM OF MANAGED FEATURES ww w . c lo u d s p ectator.c o THE SPECTRUM OF

m MANAGED FEATURES

14 The spectrum of managed hosting is broad. This analysis focuses on the most important features for managed WordPress and has selected the following 9 categories for the benchmark.

Onboarding Support Security & UX General / Superior By 2020 customer Speciﬁcally Rock-solid experience will optimized for server-to-site-security overtake price and WordPress to protect your data product as the key from malicious brand differentiator attacks

Data Centers Backup & Staging & Global Reach Recovery Cloning Unbeatable page Rest easy knowing Don't break your live speeds around the that your sites are site! Use a staging globe backed up every site for WordPress single night updates and content changes

Developer CDN Performance Features Developer friendly Speeds up your Make your tools, like SSH + website by serving websites ﬂy and GIT + WP-CLI cached static get better search content from servers rankings leading to located near your happy customers user’s geographic location

WORLDW I D E HOSTING MARKETANALYSIS 4.0 THESPECTRUMOF MANAGEDFEA TURES they wouldreceive0.75points. features inanyonegivencategory, If aprovideroffers3outof4 receive aperfectscoreof1point. speciﬁc category,thenthey If aprovideroffersallfeaturesfor sections. covered indetailthefollowing more relatedfeaturesthatwillbe Each categoryconsistsofoneor for atotalof100%. WordPress providercanreceive9pointsintotal,oneforeachcategory, WordPress featurescoringportionofthisanalysis.A‘perfect’managed The tablebelowdescribesthehigh-levelcategoriesusedformanaged NO =0 0.5 -0.25 PARTIAL = YES =1 System Legend Scoring Point Category Total Global Reach(1feature) Performance (7features) Security (10features) WordPress DeveloperFeatures(6features) 1-Click Staging&Cloning(4features) Backup &Recovery(5features) General Support(7features) Specialized WordPressSupport(1feature) Onboarding /UX(4features) Methodology If aproviderdoesnotoffer thisfeatureadd0points other providersadd0.25points If aproviderofferslimitedquotascomparedtothe points If aprovideroffersfeaturevia3rdpartylink,add0.5 upgrade service,add0.5points If aprovideroffersthisfeatureasanadd-onor and thisfeatureisincludedintheplan,add1point service orascontrolpanel/customerportalfeature, If aprovideroffersthisfeatureviasupport/customer Scoring Notes below. awarded asperthescoring quotas, onlypartialpointswillbe a 3rdpartylink,orofferslimited add-on, orupgradeservice,via If aprovideroffersfeatureasan ﬁnal score. will haveagreaterimpactonthe that categorieswithlessfeatures number offeatures,whichmeans Not allcategorieshavethesame Total Score Percent of 100.0% 11.1% 11.1% 11.1% 11.1% 11.1% 11.1% 11.1% 11.1% 11.1% W O RLD Score Point 9 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 W I D E 15 www.cloudspectator.com HOSTING MARKET ANALYSIS 4.0 THE SPECTRUM OF MANAGED FEATURES www.cloudspectator.com

4.1 Onboarding and UX

Onboarding 1-Click Theme & Plugin Category/ Company Migration Set-up Wizard Installation Recommendation Percentage 16

YES YES YES YES 100%

YES NO YES YES 75%

YES YES YES YES 100%

YES NO YES NO 50%

YES YES YES YES 100%

YES YES YES NO 75%

YES YES YES YES 100%

YES YES YES NO 75%

YES YES YES YES 100%

YES YES YES NO 75%

YES YES YES YES 100%

NO NO YES YES 50%

WORLDWIDE 3. 2. 1. HOSTING MARKETANALYSIS 4.0 THESPECTRUMOF MANAGEDFEA plan receivea‘no’. all, ordonotincludethemintheselectedWordPress ‘yes’. Providerswhodonotoffermigrationservicesat standard intheselectedWordPressplanreceivea Providers whoincludefreemigrationservicesasa following elements. onboarding wizardsshouldincludeatleastoneofthe what todonextreceivea‘no’.Setupwizards/ customer portalwithnosenseofdirectionorsign who simplydroptheclientintoWHMCS,ortheir control panelsetupwizardreceivea‘yes’.Providers Providers whoofferpost-purchaseonboardingvia B A MEDIATEMPLE SITEGROUND portal orcontrolpanel. Interactive and/orguidedtourofthecustomer with thenewsite. Suggest themes,pluginsorexternalservicestouse name andgeneralname. Create andconﬁgureinitialWordPresssitedomain DREAMHOST HOSTPRESS A2 HOSTING Onboarding Support/SetupWizard Migration PRESSABLE HOSTINGER WP ENGINE PANTHEON BLUEHOST FLYWHEEL 1&1 IONOS GODADDY ZNETLIVE CONETIX KINSTA Features 34SP 0% 10% TURES 20% 30% Onboarding andUX 40% a 1-Clickinstallerreceive'no'. WordPress receivea‘yes’.Providerswhodonotoffer offer amechanismtoquicklyandeasilyinstall way, viaSSHandbashcommands.Providerswho versus havingtoinstallWordPresstheold-fashioned click ofabutton(technicallymorethanoneclick) This referstotheabilityinstallWordPressvia the above,receivea‘no’. also receivea‘yes’.Providerswhodonotofferanyof plugins, oroffer‘exclusive’themespluginswould actively promotingtheuseoffreeorpaidthemes (Akismet Anti-Spamdoesn'tcount).Providerswhoare come withWordPressbydefault,theyreceivea‘yes’ Providers whopre-installpluginsorthemesthatdonot 50% 50% D C 50% Theme andPluginrecommendations 1-Click Installation 60% 70% 75% 75% 75% 75% 80% 90% W O RLDWID 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% E 17 www.cloudspectator.com HOSTING MARKET ANALYSIS 4.0 THE SPECTRUM OF MANAGED FEATURES www.cloudspectator.com

4.2 Specialized WordPress Support

Category/ Company WordPress Support Percentage 18

NO 0%

YES 100%

NO 0%

YES 100%

NO 0%

YES 100%

PARTIAL 50%

NO 0%

YES 100%

NO 0%

YES 100%

NO 0%

WORLDWIDE HOSTING MARKETANALYSIS 4.0 THESPECTRUMOF MANAGEDFEA criteria mentionedabove. Providers whoreceivea‘yes’offeratleastoneofthe via phone,orchat,ticket. There’s aspecificavenuetoreachthisteamdirectly and/or developWordPress. support andhavededicatedteamswhoonly Providers whoofferspecializedWordPressonly For thisanalysiswelookedatthefollowing; specialized supportteams. this sectionistohighlightproviderswhohavegonetheextrastepofferWordPressspecificsupportvia ‘Specialized WordPressSupport’canmeanalotofdifferentthingstopeople.Thepoint MEDIATEMPLE SITEGROUND DREAMHOST HOSTPRESS A2 HOSTING PRESSABLE HOSTINGER WP ENGINE PANTHEON BLUEHOST FLYWHEEL 1&1 IONOS GODADDY ZNETLIVE CONETIX KINSTA 34SP 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 10% TURES 20% Specialized WordPressSupport 30% 40% support. deal withaWordPressexpertwhencontactinggeneral Additionally, customerswillnotnecessarilydirectly deal withmanydifferentCMSandserverissues. support teamandageneralwhohasto a differencebetweenworkingwithWordPressonly through generalsupportteamsreceivea‘no’.There’s only supportteamsbutcoverWordPress Providers whodonothavespecializedWordPress plan webenchmarkedreceivepartialpointscores. this levelofsupportinthespecificWordPresshosting packages thatcoverWordPress,butdonotinclude Providers whooffer‘premium’oradd-onsupport 50% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% W O RLDWID 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% E 19 www.cloudspectator.com HOSTING MARKET ANALYSIS 4.0 THE SPECTRUM OF MANAGED FEATURES www.cloudspectator.com

4.3 General Support

24/7/365 Free Mail Free Phone Free Live Ticket Knowledge Support Category/ Company Support Support Support Chat Support Base SLAs Percentage 20

YES NO YES NO NO YES NO 43%

NO YES YES NO YES YES NO 57%

YES YES YES YES YES YES NO 86%

NO YES YES YES YES YES NO 71%

YES YES YES YES YES YES NO 86%

YES YES NO YES YES YES NO 71%

YES YES YES YES YES YES NO 86%

YES NO NO YES NO YES PARTIAL 50%

NO YES YES YES YES YES NO 71%

YES NO NO YES NO YES NO 43%

YES YES YES YES YES YES NO 86%

NO NO NO YES NO YES YES 43%

YES NO NO YES YES YES NO 57%

YES YES YES YES YES YES NO 86%

YES YES YES YES YES YES YES 100%

WORLDWIDE e offer livechatatallreceivea'no'. support, receiveapartialscore.Providerswhodonot 'yes'. Providerswhoonlyofferpaidchat-based Providers offeringfreesupportvialivechatreceivea telephone supportatallreceivea'no'. support receivea'yes'.Providerswhodonotoffer you' option.Allprovidersofferingfreetelephone customers tocallasupportagentorprovide'we Providers offeringtelephonesupporteitherallow n support r e comm I o described below.P days t HOSTING MARKETANALYSIS 4.0 THESPECTRUMOF MANAGEDFEA WordPres P m h D C B A m m ot u MEDIATEMPLE r at's available o portan t SITEGROUND DREAMHOST ail su ail ser s v HOSTPRESS A2 HOSTING offer Live Chat Free PhoneSupport Free MailSupport 24/7/365 Support PRESSABLE HOSTINGER WP ENGINE ide PANTHEON ider ay BLUEHOST FLYWHEEL 1&1 IONOS GODADDY ZNETLIVE unication CONETIX of n KINSTA pport, email-bas ear s Features vers t note: eceive a s or who offer 34SP orm receive .

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od do tin h 40% e 43% 43% 43% g

receive a'no'. infrastructure only,ordonotprovideanSLAatall either offerstandardSLAsfornetworkand response timesandtimetoresolution.Providerswho the WordPresssupportrelatedtasksaswell plans receivea'yes'.ThoseSLAsshouldclearlydeﬁne Providers offeringadetailedSLAfortheirWordPress online documentationavailablereceivea'no'. Providers whoarenotmakinganykindofself-service keywords tosearchforspeciﬁctopicsreceivea'yes'. center, etc.)whereuserscanself-serviceanduse documentation (i.e.knowledgebase,onlinehelp Providers givingaccesstoanyformofonline method, theyreceivea‘no’. offer anyformofsupportbasedonthiscontact they receivea‘partial’.Ifprovidersimplydoesnot ‘yes’. Ifaprovideronlyofferspaidchat-basedsupport, offers thiscontactmethodforfree,theyreceivea client) forfreeorincludedintheplan.Ifaprovider This referstoofferingsupportvialivechat(any 50% G F E 50% Support SLAs Knowledge Base Ticket Support 57% 57% 60% 71% 71% 71% 70% 80% 86% 86% 86% 86% 86% 86% 86% 90% W O RLDWID 100% 100% E 21 www.cloudspectator.com HOSTING MARKET ANALYSIS 4.0 THE SPECTRUM OF MANAGED FEATURES www.cloudspectator.com

4.4 Back-up & Recovery

Onboarding Restore to Restore from Category/ Company Daily Backups Daily Backups Set-up Wizard Live Stage Percentage 22

YES YES PARTIAL YES NO 60%

YES YES PARTIAL YES NO 70%

PARTIAL YES YES YES YES 90%

YES NO YES YES NO 60%

PARTIAL YES YES YES YES 90%

YES YES YES YES NO 80%

YES YES NO YES NO 80%

YES NO YES YES NO 60%

YES YES YES YES NO 80%

PARTIAL YES PARTIAL YES YES 80%

YES YES PARTIAL YES NO 70%

YES NO YES YES NO 60%

YES YES YES YES YES 100%

PARTIAL NO PARTIAL YES NO 40%

PARTIAL YES PARTIAL YES YES 80%

YES YES YES YES YES 100%

PARTIAL YES YES YES YES 90%

WORLDWIDE HOSTING MARKETANALYSIS 4.0 THESPECTRUMOF MANAGEDFEATURES Provider receivesa‘no’ifback-upisn’tofferedatall. time isgreaterthan0daysbutless7days. Provider receivespartialscoreof0.25pointsifretention time isgreaterthan7daysbutless14days. Provider receivespartialscoreof0.50pointsifretention time isgreaterthan14daysbutless30days. Provider receivespartialscoreof0.75pointsifretention greater 30Days. Provider receivesa‘yes’ifbackupretentiontimeis back-up receiveapartialscore. pay forandconﬁgure3rdpartystoragethe ‘no’. Providerswhooffer1-clickbackupbutonlyifyou easy toinitiateback-upforWordPresssitesreceivea Providers whodonotofferanyformof‘1-click’or initiate back-upforWordPresssitesreceivea‘yes’. Providers whoofferanyformof‘1-click’oreasyto offer noobvioussignofdailyback-upreceivea‘no’. sites/customers receiveapartialscore.Providerswho offer dailybackupsbutdonotenableback-upfornew backups bydefaultreceivea‘yes’.Providerswhodo Providers whooffer(andenable)automateddaily C B A MEDIATEMPLE SITEGROUND DREAMHOST HOSTPRESS A2 HOSTING Retention Time 1-Click Back-up Daily Back-up PRESSABLE HOSTINGER WP ENGINE PANTHEON BLUEHOST FLYWHEEL 1&1 IONOS GODADDY ZNETLIVE CONETIX KINSTA Features 34SP 0% 10% 20% 30% Backup &Recovery 40% 40% partial score. staging environmentsfromback-upreceivea receive a‘no’.Providerswhoonlyletyourestore as a‘yes’.Providerswhodonotofferthisability Cloning asitefromstagingtoproductionalsocounts environment (oraback-upofstaging)receive‘yes’. or stagingenvironmentfromanactive Providers whooffertheabilitytorestoreaproduction this abilityreceivea‘no’. production) receivea‘yes’.Providerswhodonotoffer a liveenvironment(akarestoringback-upto Providers whooffertheabilitytorestoreaback-up E D 50% Restore fromStage Restore toLive 60% 60% 60% 60% 60% 70% 70% 70% 80% 80% 80% 80% 80% 80% 90% 90% 90% 90% WORLDWIDE 100% 100% 100% 23 www.cloudspectator.com HOSTING MARKET ANALYSIS 4.0 THE SPECTRUM OF MANAGED FEATURES www.cloudspectator.com

4.5 1-Click Staging and Cloning

Create Delete and Push staging Restore Category/ Company WordPress staging refresh staging WordPress backup Cloning environment environment to live to staging Percentage 24

NO NO NO NO NO 0%

YES YES YES NO NO 60%

YES YES YES PARTIAL YES 90%

NO NO NO NO NO 0%

YES YES YES PARTIAL YES 90%

NO NO NO NO NO 0%

YES YES YES NO YES 80%

NO NO NO NO NO 0%

YES YES YES PARTIAL YES 90%

YES YES YES YES YES 100%

YES YES YES NO YES 80%

YES YES YES YES YES 100%

NO NO NO NO YES 20%

YES YES YES NO YES 80%

YES YES YES YES YES 100%

YES YES YES PARTIAL YES 90%

WORLDWIDE HOSTING MARKETANALYSIS 4.0 THESPECTRUMOF MANAGEDFEATURES offer thisabilityreceivea‘no’. environment receivea‘yes’.Providerswhodonot Providers whooffertheabilitytodeleteastaging staging atallreceivea‘no’. solution toreceivea‘yes’.Providersthatdon'toffer ‘auto updateURLs’orofferaseamlessandeasytodo counts asa‘yes’.Providersmustincludesometypeof environment (whethercalledstagingornot)also receive a‘yes’.Cloningsiteintoitsownnew environment basedonaproduction Providers whooffertheabilitytocreateastaging production receivea‘no’. URL updatesormakeiteasytopushstaging staging atallorsimplycopysitesbutdon'tdoany solution toreceivea‘yes’.Providersthatdon'toffer update URLs’orofferaseamlessandeasytodo a ‘yes’.Providersmustincludesometypeof‘auto a liveenvironmentfromstagingreceive Providers whooffertheabilityto‘pushto’or‘update’ C B A MEDIATEMPLE SITEGROUND DREAMHOST HOSTPRESS A2 HOSTING Push stagingtolive Delete andrefreshstagingenvironment Create WordPressstagingenvironment PRESSABLE HOSTINGER WP ENGINE PANTHEON BLUEHOST FLYWHEEL 1&1 IONOS GODADDY ZNETLIVE CONETIX KINSTA Features 34SP 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 10% 20% 20% 30% 1-Click StagingandCloning 40% Providers whodonotofferthisabilityreceivea‘no’. site usingacloneofanexistingsite)receive‘yes’. new sitefromaback-uporsnapshot,create modiﬁcations). Providerswhoofferthisability(create this cloneismeantforproduction(withsome on anexistingwebsite.Unlikeastagingenvironment Cloning referstotheabilitycreateanewsitebased who donotofferthisabilityatallreceivea‘no’. environment ofproductionreceivea‘no’.Providers that onlyallowyoutocreateafreshstaging active stagingenvironmentreceivea‘yes’.Providers from anyenvironment(productionorstaging)toan Providers whooffertheabilitytorestoreabackup E D 50% Cloning Restore WordPressbackuptostaging 70% 60% 70% 80% 80% 80% 80% 80% 90% 90% 90% 90% 90% WORLDWIDE 100% 100% 100% 100% 25 www.cloudspectator.com HOSTING MARKET ANALYSIS 4.0 THE SPECTRUM OF MANAGED FEATURES www.cloudspectator.com

4.6 WordPress Developer Features

PHP Mass Category/ Company Management WP-CLI Management Auto Updates SSH Access Git Percentage 26

PARTIAL NO NO YES YES YES 58%

NO NO NO YES YES NO 33%

YES YES YES YES YES NO 83%

YES YES NO YES YES YES 83%

PARTIAL YES YES YES YES YES 92%

NO YES NO YES YES NO 50%

NO YES NO YES NO NO 33%

PARTIAL YES NO YES YES YES 75%

YES YES NO YES YES YES 83%

PARTIAL YES YES YES YES YES 92%

PARTIAL YES NO YES YES NO 58%

NO YES NO YES YES NO 50%

PARTIAL YES NO YES YES YES 75%

NO NO NO YES YES NO 33%

PARTIAL YES NO YES YES YES 75%

NO YES NO YES NO YES 50%

PARTIAL YES YES YES YES YES 92%

WORLDWIDE HOSTING MARKETANALYSIS 4.0 THESPECTRUMOF MANAGEDFEATURES Modifying PHPvariablesonlyalsocountsasa‘no’. management isofferedtheproviderreceivesa‘no’. receive apartialscore.IfnoPHPversionormodule of PHPusedforWordPressbutnotmodules Providers whoonlyoffertheabilitytochangeversion deactivate variousPHPmodulesreceivea‘yes’. PHP usedforWordPressandalsoletyouactivate/ Providers whooffertheabilitytochangeversionof or impossibletouseWP-CLIreceivea‘no’. remote) receivea‘yes’.Providerswhomakeitdifficult allowing /notblockingtheuseofWP-CLIfromlocalor WP-CLI viaanyavenue(builtinfeatureorsimply Providers whooffertheabilitytoutilizeWordPress 4. Performanysortofanalysisorcheck-up 3. Performsecuritychecksorhardening 2. Updatepluginsand/orthemes 1. ApplyWordPresscoreupdate,securityupdate performed onmultiplesitessimultaneously. following actionscountasa‘yes’iftheycanbe all pluginsonthemisoneexample).Anyofthe WordPress sitesviasingleclick(selectallsites,update This referstotheabilityperformactionsonmultiple C B A MEDIATEMPLE SITEGROUND DREAMHOST HOSTPRESS A2 HOSTING WordPress MassManagement WP-CLI PHP Management(version/moduleselection) PRESSABLE HOSTINGER WP ENGINE PANTHEON BLUEHOST FLYWHEEL 1&1 IONOS GODADDY ZNETLIVE CONETIX KINSTA Features 34SP 0% 10% 20% WordPress DeveloperFeatures 30% 33% 33% 33% 40% around updatesreceivea‘no’. no formofassistancewithupdatesormanagement described abovereceivea‘yes’.Providerswhooffer control panel.Providerswhoofferautoupdatesas but shouldbeconfigurableviasetupwizardora actions. Autoupdatesdonothavetobeonbydefault update itselfautomatically,withouthavingtotakeany This referstoprovidingawayforWordPresscore integration orservicesreceivea‘no’. services receivea‘yes’.Providerswhooffernogit Providers whooffersometypeofgitintegrationor only countsasa‘no’well. difficult orimpossibletouseSSHreceivea‘no’.SFTP should SSHberequired.Providerswhomakeit available bydefault,butitmustbeeasytoenable via SSHreceivea‘yes’.doesnotneedtobe Providers whooffertheabilitytoaccessWordPress 50% 50% 50% F E D 50% Git Secure Shell(SSH)Access Auto Updates 58% 58% 60% 70% 75% 75% 75% 80% 83% 83% 83% 90% 92% 92% 92% WORLDWIDE 100% 27 www.cloudspectator.com HOSTING MARKET ANALYSIS 4.0 THE SPECTRUM OF MANAGED FEATURES www.cloudspectator.com

4.7 Security

Vulnerability DDoS Web Application IP Block MFA Company Scanning Protection Firewall Firewall (Google Auth) SSL 28

PARTIAL YES PARTIAL NO YES YES

NO NO PARTIAL NO NO YES

PARTIAL YES YES YES YES YES

YES NO NO YES YES YES

YES PARTIAL NO YES NO YES

YES YES YES NO NO YES

NO NO NO NO YES YES

YES PARTIAL PARTIAL YES YES YES

NO PARTIAL NO YES NO PARTIAL

YES YES YES YES NO YES

NO NO NO YES YES YES

YES YES YES NO NO PARTIAL

NO YES NO NO YES YES

NO YES NO NO NO YES

PARTIAL YES NO YES YES YES

NO PARTIAL PARTIAL NO YES YES

YES PARTIAL YES YES YES YES

WORLDWIDE HOSTING MARKETANALYSIS 4.0 THESPECTRUMOF MANAGEDFEATURES Continue Company 1-Click Hardening YES YES YES YES YES YES NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO .htaccess protection for wp-admin YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES NO NO NO NO NO NO WP Version Offer latest YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES Using thelatest PHP Version YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES NO Percentage Category/ WORLDWIDE 40% 80% 60% 70% 70% 95% 70% 40% 55% 50% 40% 35% 90% 75% 95% 85% 70% 29 www.cloudspectator.com HOSTING MARKET ANALYSIS 4.0 THE SPECTRUM OF MANAGED FEATURES ww w . c lo u d s

p Features ectator.c o

A Vulnerability Scanning F Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) m Providers who offer free WordPress vulnerability Providers who provide free and integrated SSL scanning when a new site is created receive a 'yes'. management receive a ‘yes’. Providers who only offer 30 Providers who offer vulnerability scanning that is not SSL management via paid add-on or 3rd party link to integrated but only available via a 3rd party link to the the respective ISV receive a partial score. Providers respective ISV website receive a partial score. who do not offer any kind of SSL management receive Providers who do not offer any type of WordPress a ‘no’. vulnerability scanning receive a ‘no’.

G 1-Click WordPress hardening B Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Protection This refers to the ability to increase the security of a Providers who offer free and fully integrated DDoS WordPress site via the click of a button. Providers protection whenever a new site is enabled receive a must offer the ability to apply security improvements 'yes'. Providers who offer DDoS protection that is not to receive a ‘yes’. Examples of this include; integrated but only available via a 3rd party link to the Detecting outdated plugins and updating them respective ISV website receive a partial score. 1. Modifying directory and ﬁle permissions so they Providers who do not offer any type of DDoS 2. become harder to ‘hack’ protection receive a ‘no’. 3. Applying password protected directories or generating strong user names

C Web Application Firewall (WAF) Simply detecting security weak spots does not count Providers who offer free and fully integrated Web and receives a ‘no’. Application Firewall (WAF) protection whenever a new site is enabled receive a 'yes'. Providers who offer WAF protection that is not integrated but only available H .htaccess protection for wp-admin via a 3rd party link to the respective ISV website This refers to the ability to password protect the receive a partial score. Providers who do not offer any WordPress Admin section via the click of a button. type of WAF protection receive a ‘no’. Providers must offer the ability to do this via control panel (versus command line) to receive a ‘yes’. Providers who do not offer any sort of password D IP Block Firewall protection of directories via control panel receive a Providers who offer an easy to locate and use IP block ‘no’. feature via control panel receive a ‘yes’. IP block / unblock functionality must be in place to receive a ‘yes’. Providers who do not offer the ability to block or I Offer latest WordPress Version unblock IPs receive a ‘no’. Providers who install the latest stable WordPress version receive a 'yes'. Providers who are making outdated WordPress versions available receive a 'no'.

E Multi Factor Authentication (MFA) Providers who offer at least one out of three MFA J Using the latest PHP Version methods for account access, control panel access, or WordPress admin access receive a ‘yes’. Providers Providers who used PHP 7.1 or newer receive a ‘yes’. who do not offer at least one MFA method receive a Providers who offer PHP 7.0 or older receive a ‘no’. ‘no’.

WORLDW I D E HOSTING MARKETANALYSIS 4.0 THESPECTRUMOF MANAGEDFEATURES MEDIATEMPLE SITEGROUND DREAMHOST HOSTPRESS A2 HOSTING PRESSABLE HOSTINGER WP ENGINE PANTHEON BLUEHOST FLYWHEEL 1&1 IONOS GODADDY ZNETLIVE CONETIX KINSTA 34SP 0% 10% 20% 30% 35% Security Features 40% 40% 40% 40% 50% 50% 55% 60% 60% 70% 70% 70% 70% 70% 75% 80% 80% 85% 90% 90% WORLDWIDE 95% 95% 100% 31 www.cloudspectator.com HOSTING MARKET ANALYSIS 4.0 THE SPECTRUM OF MANAGED FEATURES w w w . c l o u d s p ectat o 4.8 Global Reach - Data Center (DC) Locations r . c o m DC in North DC in South DC in Category/ Company DC in EU America America DC in Africa DC in Asia Australia DC in India Percentage 32

YES YES NO NO NO NO NO 100%

YES NO NO NO NO NO NO 50%

NO YES NO NO NO NO NO 50%

NO NO NO NO NO YES NO 50%

NO YES NO NO NO NO NO 50%

YES YES NO NO YES NO NO 100%

YES YES YES NO YES YES YES 100%

NO YES NO NO NO NO NO 50%

YES NO NO NO NO NO NO 50%

YES YES YES YES YES YES YES 100%

NO YES NO NO NO NO NO 50%

NO YES NO NO NO NO NO 100%

YES YES NO NO YES NO NO 100%

YES YES NO NO YES YES NO 100%

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO 50%

WORLD W I D E HOSTING MARKETANALYSIS 4.0 THESPECTRUMOF MANAGEDFEA content dynamically,whichcan’tbecachedeasily)but when deliveringdynamiccontent(PHPgenerated your audienceisimportantforminimizingthelatency To summarize,choosingtheclosestdatacenterto regardless ofwhereyouraudienceis. utilize aCDNtoprovidethebestpossibleperformance area asyoursite’sdatacenteryouwillstillwantto Even if100%ofyourusersarelocatedinthesame America. lower latencythanchoosingaDClocatedinNorth then pickingaDCinFrankfurtwouldprovidemuch 75% ofyouraudienceislocatedinFrankfurtGermany closest tomostofyouraudienceis.Forexample,if selecting adatacenterlocation,pickonethatis website aswellthelocationofyouraudience.When affected bythelocationofDCthathostsyour The performanceofyourwebsitecanbegreatly

previous pagehighlightsthelocationsofferedbyeachprovider. easily cachable,thelocationofyourservercanmakeabigdifferentinperformance.Thetableon CDNs helptodeliverexcellentresponsetimesusersworldwide,howeverforsomecontentthat’snot TURES 2 datacentrelocationsinuniqueregionsreceive50%. unique regionsreceive100%.Providerswithlessthan Providers withatleast2datacentrelocationsin in theupcomingperformancefeaturessection. reach. MoredetailsonCDNofferingswillbecovered offer additionalCDNservicestofurtherenhanceglobal each provideroffers(seepage32),manyproviders With referencetotheoverviewofdatacenterlocations content foryoursite. want tominimizethelatencyofdynamicandstatic CDN inadditiontoawellselectedDClocationifyou performance acrosstheglobeyou’llalsowanttousea to usersallovertheglobe.Toofferexcellent is notaﬁnalsolutionforofferingthebestperformance W O R L D W I D E 33 www.cloudspectator.com HOSTING MARKET ANALYSIS 4.0 THE SPECTRUM OF MANAGED FEATURES www.cloudspectator.com

4.9 Performance

Server Level gzip Premium First Byte at or CDN CDN Category/ Company HTTP/2 under 300ms in at Caching Compression DNS leaset 1 location? Available Management Percentage 34

YES YES YES YES NO YES YES 86%

YES YES YES YES NO NO NO 57%

YES YES YES YES NO YES YES 86%

YES YES YES YES NO PARTIAL NO 64%

NO YES YES YES NO YES NO 57%

YES YES YES YES YES YES YES 100%

YES NO YES YES NO YES YES 71%

YES YES YES YES NO YES YES 86%

YES YES YES YES YES NO NO 71%

YES YES YES YES YES YES YES 100%

NO NO YES YES NO YES NO 43%

YES YES YES YES YES YES YES 100%

YES YES YES NO NO YES YES 71%

YES YES YES YES NO YES YES 86%

NO YES NO YES NO YES PARTIAL 50%

WORLDWIDE HOSTING MARKETANALYSIS 4.0 THESPECTRUMOF MANAGEDFEA offer sometypeofserverlevelcachingreceivea‘no’. receive a‘yes’.Providerswhoneitherimplementnor who receiveda‘B’orhigherfor‘cachestaticcontent’ content wasenabledforeachprovider.Anyprovider used todetermineifanytypeofcachingstatic server levelcachingbydefault.WebPageTestwas While CDNsalsoperformcaching,it’snicetohave contain alotofstaticcontent(images,css,html). signiﬁcant performanceboosttomostwebsitesthat Server levelcachingisagreatwaytoprovide or subdomain)theyreceivea‘no’. features (likeaddingaparkeddomain,add-ondomain support oroffersveryrestrictedDNS/domain DNS totheirinfrastructurewithoutreachingout receive a‘yes’.Iftheprovidermakesithardtopoint Providers whoofferafullyfeaturedDNSservice while providerswhodonotenablethisreceivea‘no’. providers whoimplementthisbydefaultreceivea‘yes’ was usedtocheckfortheuseofcompression, possible performanceforyourusers.WebPageTest user’s browseriscriticalforprovidingthebest Compressing contentbeforeitgetssenttotheend receive a‘no’. receive a‘yes’whileproviderswhodonotenablethis of HTTP/2,providerswhoimplementthisbydefault provider. WebPageTestwasusedtocheckfortheuse hosting provider(forserverlevelHTTP/2)ortheCDN protocol. HTTP/2mustbeenabledeitherbythe HTTP/2 IsthelatestmajorrevisionofHTTP D C B A Premium DomainNameSystem(DNS) Gzip Compression HTTP/2 Server LevelCaching Features TURES brows S tim s m w n Fir page 34formoredetailedperformanceresults. Please seetheperformancebenchmarksectionon time thatwasunder300millisecondsreceivea‘no’. receive a‘yes’.ProviderswhodidnotofferFirstByte milliseconds fromanyoneofthefourlocations,they If aprovider’ssitehadFirstBytetimeofunder300 and welookedatthemeanresponsetimes. receive a‘no’. partial score.ProviderswhodonotofferaCDNatall other thanalinktothe3rdpartyservicereceive partner withaCDNproviderbutoffernointegration control panelreceivea‘yes’.Providerswhosimply Providers whoofferaCDNthat’sintegratedinto simply pointingtoa3rdpartyISVreceive‘no’. WordPress planreceivea‘yes’.Providerswhoare Providers whoofferaCDNwiththeselected F E G t u i ebser u n illis st m dies). e gapor Content DeliveryNetwork(CDN)Available First CDN Management

ber b from econ er y ver. te of m to WebPageTes e B time, d fou , y s receiv a A te ato n illis (accordin n r d

idealw different A als econ e u o

s r the ﬁrs

t kno und r d alia). E ebs s g t w locations (Nor

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s E e

35 www.cloudspectator.com HOSTING MARKET ANALYSIS 4.0 THE SPECTRUM OF MANAGED FEATURES www.cloudspectator.com

Performance Features

1&1 IONOS 86% 34SP 57% 36 A2 HOSTING 86% BLUEHOST 64% CONETIX 57% DREAMHOST 57% FLYWHEEL 100% GODADDY 71% HOSTINGER 86% HOSTPRESS 71% KINSTA 100% MEDIATEMPLE 43% PANTHEON 100% PRESSABLE 71% SITEGROUND 86% WP ENGINE 86% ZNETLIVE 50%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

WORLDWIDE 5.0

W O RLDWID E

TOP PERFORMERS 2019

This section highlights the top performers for each Managed WordPress category. None of the providers in our feature benchmark achieved top scores across all nine categories so you need to determine which feature sets are most critical for your needs before selecting a provider. Overall, we saw impressive results and have summarized the top performers by our nine categories below!

E STAG ANC ING RM & C FO LO ER NI P NG

D T E R V O E P L P O U P S E R S

S F E R I R E P N

D D R L

O Y

PERFORMER

TOP 2019 N

SPRING L

N O

O R T

B A C K U P A Y N IT D R R U E C S SE TO RE

GLOBAL REACH spectator.co m www.clou d

5.0 TOP PERFORMERS 2019 37 HOSTING MARKET ANALYSIS 6.0

HOSTING MARKET ANALYSIS 6.0 DETAILED PERFORMANCE BENCHMARK ww w . c lo u d s p ectator.c o DETAILED PERFORMANCE

m BENCHMARK

38 Speed and performance play a major role in the success of any online business. Website performance is about retaining users, improving conversions, making customers happy and grow your business. If you're running an ecommerce site, the statistics are even harder to ignore.

According to Forbes 40 % of users are likely to abandon a site if it doesn't load within three seconds or less and these prospects will most likely never return to this site. Google penalizes slow and poorly performing websites from an SEO perspective and downgrades search engine rankings. Comparing features of managed WordPress plans is only one part of the story. To complete the benchmark, we also need to analyze how each provider handles various level of trafﬁc in real time.

Terminology

Concurrency Requests Per Second 95% Latency / Response (RPS) Time This is a variable set when running Apache Benchmark. It This metric represents the This represents the response time represents the number of multiple number of requests the observed for 95% of the requests concurrent users that are webserver can respond to within sent during the test. Think of this connected to your application, 1 second. Sites with higher RPS as ‘95% of my users will requesting content as quickly as will be able to handle more trafﬁc experience a response time of X possible – but not all at once. than sites with lower RPS. Think (or lower)’. The latency will of a request as a response to a increase as test concurrency is GET / Page view from a user. increased until the server is unable to keep up with the incoming requests.

WORLDW I D E W O RLDWID E

Apache Benchmark Test Set-up

Apache Benchmark is set up on multiple Digital Ocean droplets running in North America (New York), Europe (Frankfurt) and Asia (Singapore). Each provider is tested from each DC location to determine which provider offers the best performance at various levels of concurrent requests from simulated users.

For each test, the following conﬁgurations were used:

Conﬁguration Modiﬁcations Results

WordPress versions: 5.1.1 (latest The only modiﬁcations made to The results simulate the version at time of testing, which the sites are as follows: performance of content rich sites was Feb - May 2019) which is generally much lower Set theme to twenty nineteen • than an out of box WordPress Updated all plugins (if the • PHP version: Provider default • install (for obvious reasons). version, which was 7.1 or later provider pre-installs plugins, for most providers other than those were left enabled) Hostinger, which uses 5.6) • All test results in this • Caching: Provider default, if presentation were generated by caching was enabled importing an XML with multiple automatically it was left enabled posts containing images, and settings were left at default comments and other content. settings All comments were approved, • Plugins: Provider default. No and all plugins were left as is. 40%“ of people abandon a plugins were added or removed website that takes more than • Digital Ocean 4vCPU, 8GB 3 seconds to load.

• RAM Compute Optimized spectator.co m Droplet were used for the AB ” test nodes Neil Patel www.clou d

6.0 DETAILED PERFORMANCE BENCHMARK 39 HOSTING MARKET ANALYSIS HOSTING MARKET ANALYSIS 6.0 DETAILED PERFORMANCE BENCHMARK www.cloudspectator.com

2 GEOs ( AMER & EMEA ) - A solid balance

40 Why geography can matter. N.AMERICA

This chapter covers performance APAC results from two prominent and

big subregions: North America EMEA (USA and Canada) and Europe (Western Europe). In order to LATIN keep this analysis to a reasonable AMERICA size we have summarized only a few key ﬁndings obtained from the full benchmark result set. Stay tuned for a follow up analysis that’s all about performance!

In the upcoming charts you will see proof that the location of the end user and the data center have a large impact on performance. North American providers tend to offer better performance than European providers, at least when accessing sites from North America. The same is true for European providers who tend to perform the best when you access the sites from within Europe.

North America (NA) - Very High Trafﬁc

NA - Requests Per Second - 512 Concurrent Requests

SITEGROUND 6430 WP ENGINE 3849 1&1 IONOS 2836 KINSTA 2473 PRESSABLE 1880 PANTHEON 1725 34SP 962 DREAMHOST 848 HOSTPRESS 533 A2 HOSTING 380 GODADDY 368 MEDIATEMPLE 326 FLYWHEEL 291 CONETIX 96 ZNETLIVE 49 HOSTINGER 32 BLUEHOST 2

0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 Request per second - Higher is better

WORLDWIDE HOSTING MARKETANALYSIS 6.0 DETAILED PERFORMANCE BENCHMARK MEDIATEMPLE MEDIATEMPLE SITEGROUND SITEGROUND DREAMHOST DREAMHOST HOSTPRESS HOSTPRESS A2 HOSTING A2 HOSTING PRESSABLE PRESSABLE HOSTINGER HOSTINGER WP ENGINE WP ENGINE North America. when testingfrom requests persecond achieved over1000 Only 6oftheproviders PANTHEON PANTHEON BLUEHOST BLUEHOST FLYWHEEL FLYWHEEL 1&1 IONOS 1&1 IONOS GODADDY GODADDY ZNETLIVE ZNETLIVE CONETIX CONETIX KINSTA KINSTA 34SP 34SP NA -95%ResponseTimes512ConcurrentRequests 0 0 0 0 201 19 685 987 84 2000 101 1487 1574 1711 200 197 2598 210 2717 EU -RequestsPerSecond512Concurrent 258 4000 265 95% responsetimesinMS-lowerisbetter this trafficlevel. seconds orlowerat response timesof3 were abletodeliver Only 8oftheproviders 318 4044 4243 400 4640 6000 5365 444 516 600 8000 7528 7764 641 Request persecond-Higherisbetter 10000 800 10949 12000 conversion. your customershappyandacceleratesales during trafficspikesiscriticalifyouwanttokeep one thing,butdeliveringquickpageloadtimes Being abletostayonlineduringatrafficspikeis 1000 1003 14000 1114 14088 1200 1171 14642 16000 1400 Target NA Stress WP Engine 34SP 1&1 IONOS HostPress Kinsta ZNetLive MediaTemple SiteGround GoDaddy Hostinger Pantheon Pressable Flywheel DreamHost Conetix BlueHost A2 Hosting 1600 1800 Connection WORLDWIDE Errors 4777 3262 3118 825 600 392 194 67 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1900 2000 41 www.cloudspectator.com HOSTING MARKET ANALYSIS 6.0 DETAILED PERFORMANCE BENCHMARK w w w . c l o u d

s EU - 95% Response Times - 512 Concurrent Requests p EU Stress Connection ect a Target Errors

t 464

o PANTHEON r . c 512 A2 Hosting 0 o 1&1 IONOS m WP ENGINE 590 Conetix 0 A2-HOSTING 1182 DreamHost 0 42 SITEGROUND 1249 Flywheel 0 PRESSABLE 1400 GoDaddy 0 GODADDY 1968 HostPress 0 MEDIATEMPLE 2884 MediaTemple 0 34SP 2959 Pantheon 0 Pressable 0 KINSTA 3223 SiteGround 5 FLYWHEEL 6013 ZNetLive 263 HOSTPRESS 6436 Kinsta 2814 DREAMHOST 6531 34SP 9357 CONETIX 7014 1&1 IONOS 14963 ZNETLIVE 12313 WP Engine 16218 BLUEHOST 0 BlueHost Failed HOSTINGER 0 Hostinger Failed 0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 95% response times in MS - lower is better

Only 4 providers achieved 1000 requests per 9 providers delivered response times of 3 second or higher when testing from Europe. seconds or less when testing from Europe.

By total score the winners of this benchmark are Managed WordPress Benchmark – Total Results SiteGround, WP Engine and HostPress, offering more SITEGROUND 88% than 80% coverage of the WP ENGINE 88% WordPress friendly features HOSTPRESS 83% in combination with the KINSTA 80% Apache Benchmark GODADDY 78% performance results. FLYWHEEL 75% However, we were CONETIX 75% impressed to see that all A2 HOSTING 73% providers in this analysis offer more than 50% of the ZNETLIVE 69% most wanted WordPress BLUEHOST 68% features that also include PANTHEON 67% performance. 34SP 62% MEDIATEMPLE 58% 1&1 IONOS 57% PRESSABLE 57% DREAMHOST 55% HOSTINGER 52%

0 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Percentage of Managed Features Offered

WOR L D W I D E spent. performance yougetperdollar WordPress features,and you mightbeinterestedinthe low costaudienceastheowner a leanbudget,orsimplycaters business isjusttakingoff,oron the valueformoney.Ifyour it wasworthwhiletoalsolookat To completethisanalysiswefelt but notnecessarilyapriority. features arealwaysnicetohave services varies,too.More spend formanagedhosting budget abusinessownercan business isdifferentandthe a businessisnoteasy.Every plan thatbestmeetstheneedsof It’s clearthatﬁndingahosting HOSTING MARKETANALYSIS 6.0 DET S MEDIATEMPLE 7 SITEGROUND DREAMHOST HOSTPRESS A2 HOSTING . PRESSABLE HOSTINGER WP ENGINE UMM 0 PANTHEON AILED PERFORMANCE BENCHMARK BLUEHOST FLYWHEEL 1&1 IONOS GODADDY ZNETLIVE CONETIX KINSTA 34SP 0 A R 0.05 0.05 0.06 0.06 Y 0.07 0.08 0.10 0.09 0.09 Managed FeaturesperDollarSpentIndex 0.10 0.12 0.12 0.12 everyone! Managed WordPressProviderfor As saidinthebeginning,there'sa with more'bangforyourbuck'. IONOS whoareprovidingyou are ZNetLive,Hostingand1&1 When budgetmattersthewinners Higher ScoresIndicateMoreValue 0.20 0.19 0.21 0.30 0.30 0.40 W O RLDW 0.47 0.50 0.49 I D E 43 www.cloudspectator.com 745 Atlantic Avenue, Boston MA 02111, USA P. +1 617-300-0711 E. [email protected]