Many hosting companies make bold claims about their speed. They share impressive numbers and charts to win you over. But when your site suddenly has 500 visitors, most providers can’t deliver on those promises.
We take a different approach. After years of building a server environment for heavy traffic, independent tests confirm our results. Our average time-to-first-byte is 418ms, and our performance remains steady even with 100 users visiting your site at once. This is why we’re leading the shared hosting market as 2026 nears.
What makes us so fast? It’s the way our technologies work together:
- LiteSpeed servers
- MariaDB databases**
- Container-based isolation
- Our proprietary PowerCacher system
We host over 600,000 websites across four data centers on three continents, and our performance remains strong wherever you are. In Hostingstep’s benchmark tests, we had the fastest time-to-first-byte among LiteSpeed hosting providers. When tested from 40 international locations without a content delivery network, our servers averaged 491ms response times. This proves our infrastructure is reliable on its own.
The Server Technology Behind the Speed
LiteSpeed Web Server Architecture
The LiteSpeed web server is the core of our request-handling process. While traditional Apache servers handle moderate traffic, they can slow down during surges. LiteSpeed handles these requests more efficiently, so pages load faster and performance stays strong during traffic spikes.
We began using LiteSpeed server technology early, and independent tests have shown its benefits. Sites on our platform load up to twice as fast as those on standard Apache servers, based on our performance data.
LiteSpeed also added HTTP/3 support by default with version 6.0.2, released in June 2021. This upgrade reduces latency compared to older HTTP versions and can deliver content up to 4x faster than HTTP/1.1 in some cases.
This setup is especially effective for content management systems such as WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal:
These platforms make frequent database calls and serve dynamic content, both of which benefit from our optimized data handling.
Pairing LiteSpeed with the LiteSpeed Cache plugin for WordPress can deliver sites that are up to 4x faster than standard configurations.
MariaDB Database Optimization
Database performance impacts every page load on a dynamic website. When someone visits a WordPress site, the server checks the database to retrieve content, process user information, and render the page. If the database is slow, it creates delays that front-end fixes can’t solve.
We use MariaDB for our databases instead of standard MySQL. Both are compatible, but MariaDB reads and writes data faster. By combining MariaDB with LiteSpeed servers, we can deliver pages up to 50 times faster than traditional setups, according to our technical documentation. This speed is enabled by rapid data transfer between the web server and the database.
For sites with heavy database usage, the Premium plan adds Redis object caching. Redis stores frequently accessed data in server memory, eliminating the need to query the database repeatedly for the same information.
A website using Redis typically loads 10% to 30% faster because the server retrieves cached data from memory rather than making round-trip requests to the database. This matters most for high-traffic sites where database requests can number in the thousands per minute.
Storage Infrastructure
Our servers use solid-state drives in RAID-10 arrays. This setup has two main advantages over regular hard drives. First, SSDs are faster because they have no moving parts and access data electronically. Second, RAID-10 mirrors data across several drives and stripes it for quicker access, improving both speed and reliability.
The type of storage affects how fast the server can get files when someone visits your site. Images, scripts, stylesheets, and database files are all stored on these drives. Faster storage means pages load and display to visitors more quickly. The difference between SSDs and traditional hard drives can be hundreds of milliseconds per page load. These minor delays add up across the entire page.
PowerCacher and LSCache Integration
We created PowerCacher, our own caching system that stores ready-made versions of your web pages. With caching, the server doesn’t need to rebuild each page from scratch. Visitors get pre-built pages that load instantly. Our data shows that PowerCacher makes pages load 100%- 120% faster than uncached setups.
The system works alongside LiteSpeed Cache, which handles WordPress-specific optimization. LSCache stores frequently accessed data and serves it instantly when requested. For WordPress sites, WooCommerce stores, and other content-heavy platforms, this reduces the server workload per page request. Cached versions remain valid until the content changes; the cache then rebuilds automatically.
This two-layer caching approach means:
- PowerCacher handles server-level caching
- LSCache manages optimization at the application level
HTTP/3 and QUIC Protocol Implementation
The protocol your browser uses to communicate with a server affects how quickly data transfers. HTTP/3 is the latest version of the protocol and runs over QUIC rather than TCP, unlike older HTTP versions. The technical differences matter because QUIC establishes connections faster and handles packet loss more gracefully.
Traditional TCP connections require a three-way handshake before data transfer begins. QUIC reduces this to 0-RTT or 1-RTT handshakes, allowing the browser and server to start exchanging data almost immediately. For website visitors, this means pages load faster, and interactive elements respond more quickly.
We enable HTTP/3 and QUIC across our server infrastructure. The benefit is most pronounced for visitors on mobile networks or connections with moderate latency, where the faster handshake eliminates waiting time. For sites with visitors across different network conditions, protocol support ensures consistent performance regardless of how users connect.
Data Center Distribution and Global Performance
Physical Infrastructure Locations
We operate data centers in four locations across North America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. The Chicago facility serves traffic from the central and eastern United States and provides direct connections to major internet backbones. Montreal handles Canadian users and provides an alternative path for East Coast visitors. Amsterdam serves European traffic with Tier III infrastructure and redundant network routes. Singapore, the newest addition, reduces latency for visitors in the Asia-Pacific region.
The geographic spread matters because physical distance affects data transfer speed. When a visitor in London requests a page from a server in Chicago, the data must travel across the Atlantic Ocean. That journey adds latency to every request. By hosting content in Amsterdam, European visitors receive pages from a server thousands of miles closer, which measurably reduces round-trip time.
Server response time testing confirms the geographic impact. We recorded 9ms response times in Germany and 17ms in London for sites hosted in their European data center. The same sites show 182ms in Singapore and 189ms in Mumbai when served from North American infrastructure. Choosing the right data center for your primary audience produces real performance improvements.
Network Hardware and Routing
The data centers run on Intel Xeon processors with Cisco and Juniper networking equipment. This hardware handles traffic routing between visitors and the servers hosting their content. We maintain relationships with multiple major bandwidth providers, which allows traffic to route through optimal paths rather than congested network segments.
The physical environment maintains constant conditions for the hardware. Automatic temperature and climate controls keep servers operating within optimal temperature and climate ranges. Dual-city grid power feeds provide redundancy, with battery backup systems and diesel generators available if primary power fails. FM 200 fire suppression systems protect equipment without the water damage from traditional sprinklers.
Security measures include biometric access controls, man-traps at entry points, and rack-level locking. Staff monitor the facilities around the clock, with additional remote monitoring to trigger alerts and detect anomalies. The combined infrastructure ensures servers stay online and responsive even when external conditions change.
Content Delivery Network Integration
We include Cloudflare CDN access with all hosting plans. The integration extends your site’s reach to over 100 edge locations worldwide, covering North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa, and the Middle East. When visitors request content, Cloudflare serves cached content from the nearest edge location rather than routing every request back to the origin server.
The CDN handles static content like images, stylesheets, and JavaScript files particularly well. These elements rarely change and benefit most from edge caching. A visitor in Tokyo might receive pictures from a Cloudflare server in Japan while the dynamic page content comes from your origin server in Chicago. The split approach reduces latency for most page loads.
For sites with global audiences, CDN integration produces the most noticeable performance improvements. Without it, every visitor receives content from the same data center regardless of location. With the CDN active, content is distributed automatically to edge servers worldwide, and visitors receive it from nearby locations. The free inclusion removes a cost barrier that might otherwise prevent smaller sites from using this technology.
Independent Performance Benchmarks
Time-to-First-Byte Measurements
Time-to-first-byte measures how long it takes the server to start delivering content after receiving a request. Lower numbers indicate faster initial response. We record TTFB of 395-418ms in independent testing, ranking among the top shared hosting providers evaluated by organizations like Hostingstep.
When tested from 40 international locations without CDN involvement, the average climbed to 491ms. This number still performs well because it reflects raw server capacity rather than edge-caching-assisted performance. The underlying infrastructure handles requests efficiently, and the CDN layer further improves performance on top of it.
The 2025 benchmark data from independent testing shows an average TTFB of 158ms and global load times under 1.2 seconds. These measurements place us among the fastest options available at this price point, and consistent performance across testing platforms suggests the performance holds across different conditions and configurations.
Load Testing Results
Load testing evaluates how servers perform under simultaneous requests from multiple visitors. Single-visitor tests can produce flattering numbers that collapse under real traffic. We maintain our performance metrics even when concurrent user counts rise.
When Hostingstep ran load tests with 100 concurrent users, we maintained a 26ms response time with zero errors. The server handled every request successfully without any speed degradation. Real-world testing by WPBeginner recorded page load times of 646 milliseconds under normal conditions, with stress test responses at 272 milliseconds. The faster stress-test result indicates optimized caching and request handling under load.
The Premium plan delivers even stronger numbers. The combination of LiteSpeed servers and Redis object caching delivers up to 200% faster performance than traditional shared hosting setups. Sites experience noticeably quicker load times because the caching layers handle repeated requests more efficiently as traffic increases.
Uptime and Reliability Metrics
Speed matters little if the server goes offline regularly. We guarantees 99.9% uptime and exceeded that target between 2024 and 2025, achieving a measured uptime of 99.98%. UK Web Host Review found monthly uptime often reached 99.99%, with rare, brief drops below the guaranteed threshold.
The 99.98% figure translates to an average of less than four minutes of downtime per month. For businesses that depend on website availability, this reliability ensures visitors can access content when they attempt to reach it. Downtime costs extend beyond lost sales to include damaged search rankings and user trust, making consistent availability as valuable as raw speed.
The reliability stems partly from the container-based architecture, which isolates accounts from one another. When a site on a shared server misbehaves or experiences a traffic spike, isolation prevents the issue from affecting neighboring accounts. The technical approach ensures consistent performance for all users, even when individual sites experience problems.
Container Technology and Account Isolation
Traditional shared hosting places multiple accounts on the same server, sharing resources. When one account uses excessive processing power or memory, other accounts on the same server suffer performance degradation. This “noisy neighbor” problem has plagued shared hosting since the model began.
We address this by using container-based isolation with LXC technology. Each account operates within its own virtual segment with dedicated computing resources. The approach creates kernel-level separation between accounts, preventing resource conflicts and security breaches from spreading across accounts sharing the same physical hardware.
If an account exceeds its allotted resources, it slows while others continue to operate normally. The system protects well-behaved accounts from the consequences of other users’ traffic spikes or poorly optimized code. Your site maintains consistent performance regardless of activity across different accounts on the same server.
The isolation extends to file systems as well. Each account receives its own secure virtual file system, preventing visibility into or access to other accounts. This separation prevents malware from spreading between accounts and ensures that security vulnerabilities on one site do not compromise neighboring installations.
Performance at Different Plan Levels
Shared Hosting Performance
The entry-level shared hosting plans provide access to LiteSpeed servers, SSDs, PowerCacher, and CDN integration. These technologies deliver strong baseline performance for most websites without extra configuration. Users can expect load times under 600 milliseconds and an average uptime of 99.9% according to published specifications.
Shared hosting is suitable for sites with moderate traffic that do not require dedicated server resources. The container isolation ensures consistent performance, and the caching layers handle traffic efficiently. For WordPress sites, WooCommerce stores, and business websites with typical visitor volumes, shared hosting provides sufficient capability at accessible pricing.
The introductory rate of $2.95 per month positions us as a substantial value when performance metrics are considered. The speed scores match or exceed those of providers charging more, which makes the value proposition straightforward to evaluate.
Premium and VPS Options
The Premium plan adds Redis object caching, a dedicated IP address, and increased resource allocations. The Redis integration provides measurable performance improvements for dynamic content by storing database query results in server memory. Sites with frequent database operations benefit most from this upgrade.
VPS hosting provides dedicated resources for sites that have outgrown shared hosting limits. We provision virtual servers in under 60 seconds with SSD storage ranging from 50GB to 150GB. The RAID-10 configuration provides redundancy and performance benefits similar to those of shared hosting infrastructure. Root access enables developers to configure servers with custom software or settings.
The VPS plans include cPanel and WHM licenses, free site migration, and 24/7 support. DDoS protection and ConfigServer Security protect against attacks, while nightly backups ensure data can be recovered if issues arise. For high-traffic sites or resource-intensive applications, VPS hosting maintains the performance standards while providing greater capacity.
WordPress-Specific Optimization
WordPress powers a substantial percentage of websites, and we have optimized our infrastructure specifically for this platform. Managed WordPress hosting includes automatic updates, pre-installed caching, and server configurations tuned for WordPress performance.
The LiteSpeed Cache plugin integrates directly with the server environment to provide WordPress-specific optimization. The caching stores static versions of pages and serves them without database queries or PHP processing. For most WordPress sites, this reduces page generation time from hundreds of milliseconds to nearly instant delivery.
The AI-Powered Website Builder, launched in January 2025, creates complete WordPress sites in under 60 seconds. Users enter business information, and the tool generates a professional layout with initial content and basic SEO configuration. The builder handles the technical setup automatically, reducing the time from sign-up to a functional website.
Core Web Vitals optimization is enabled by default. Google uses these metrics as ranking factors, making performance improvement a matter of both search visibility and user satisfaction. The LiteSpeed server, caching layers, and CDN integration work together to deliver good scores for Largest Contentful Paint, First Input Delay, and Cumulative Layout Shift.
Security Infrastructure and Its Performance Impact
Security systems affect hosting performance by inspecting and filtering traffic before it reaches your website. Poorly implemented security slows down legitimate requests while trying to block malicious ones. We balance protection with performance through efficient, layered security.
The AI-powered Web Application Firewall analyzes incoming traffic using behavioral algorithms that identify attack patterns. The system blocks zero-day exploits at the application layer while allowing legitimate traffic through with minimal delay. Response times for network filtering remain under 10 seconds, preventing security scanning from causing noticeable delays for visitors.
ModSecurity rules and Apache configurations provide additional layers of protection. The firewall receives continuous updates with new threat signatures and adapts its detection patterns to emerging attack methods. The combination protects sites from common attacks without requiring visitors to wait while security systems evaluate their requests.
Account isolation through container technology also provides security benefits. Even if an attacker compromises a single account on a shared server, kernel-level separation prevents lateral movement to other accounts. This architecture protects your site from vulnerabilities in neighboring installations.
The Environmental Commitment and Performance Balance
We match 300% of our energy use through Renewable Energy Certificates from the Bonneville Environmental Foundation. For every unit of power we consume, we reinvest three times that amount into renewable sources. This process offsets our carbon footprint and covers the emissions of two additional companies of our size.
The environmental practices do not compromise performance capabilities. The same benchmark tests that confirm fast load times and high uptime also apply to servers powered by green energy. LiteSpeed servers, SSD storage, and optimized caching work identically regardless of how the data center sources its electricity. Users benefit from improved performance while reducing environmental impact.
Infrastructure powered by renewable energy offsets delivers the 99.98% uptime, 418ms time-to-first-byte, and 26ms load-handling times. The technology stack remains unchanged, the hardware maintains identical specifications, and the network operates with the same level of redundancy. Environmental responsibility exists alongside performance, not instead of it.
Making the Performance Decision
The testing data present a consistent picture across independent sources. We deliver time-to-first-byte performance on par with top-tier shared hosting providers, maintain response times under load, and exceed uptime guarantees. The LiteSpeed servers, MariaDB databases, PowerCacher system, and CDN integration produce these results through coordinated optimization rather than any single technology.
For sites serving North American and European audiences, the data center locations offer low-latency connections, reducing wait times. The Singapore facility extends fast performance to Asia-Pacific visitors. The Cloudflare CDN fills gaps in geographic coverage by distributing content to edge locations worldwide.
The container isolation protects your site’s performance from other accounts sharing the same physical server. Your resources remain dedicated to your account regardless of traffic patterns or neighbors’ resource usage. This architecture addresses the traditional weakness of shared hosting while maintaining the cost advantages.
At a starting price of $2.95 per month, our performance-to-price ratio is tough to beat. You get speed, uptime, and features all in one place. Independent testing confirms our technology stack delivers one of the fastest hosting environments as 2026 approaches.
