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Website speed is a business issue these days: some visitors won’t even wait for a slow page to load, online shops see fewer purchases, and Google measures user experience using its Core Web Vitals metrics. Speed consists of two parts: how quickly the server responds, and how much content the browser has to download and display. The hosting provider is responsible for the first, whilst the website itself is primarily responsible for the second.
In this article, we’ll look at how much hosting affects speed, what makes a hosting service fast, how to measure it, and what the most common misconceptions are.
How much does hosting cost?
When a visitor opens a page, the browser first requests the HTML from the server. The time it takes for the first byte to arrive is known as TTFB (Time to First Byte). This includes the network path, server processing (running PHP, database queries) and the load on the hosting server. Whilst the TTFB is ongoing, the browser cannot do anything, so a slow server delays every subsequent step.
According to Google’s recommendations, TTFB should be under 0.8 seconds; on a good hosting service, a cached page is much faster than this, typically taking a few hundred microseconds. TTFB directly affects the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), which is one of the key metrics of Core Web Vitals. A practical guide to improving TTFB explains how to reduce server response time.
Hosting is therefore the foundation of speed: even the best-optimised website will be slow on a slow server, whilst a fast server cannot compensate for the slowness caused by large images and too many scripts.
What makes hosting fast?
Storage. The dynamic website reads many small files and database records with every request. NVMe SSDs are orders of magnitude faster than old hard drives in this respect, and considerably faster than SATA SSDs too, as they perform more operations per second with lower latency. All of aWh’s hosting plans run on NVMe SSDs.
Processors, memory and limits. With shared hosting, it’s not the server’s total capacity that matters, but how much of it your account is allowed to use. If your plan has low CPU, memory or process limits, your site will slow down under load, no matter how fast the server is. A good provider will publicly state these limits and isolate accounts so that a neighbouring one doesn’t slow yours down (on aWh’s cPanel hosting plans, this is handled by CloudLinux).
PHP version and OPcache. Newer versions of PHP are faster than older ones; simply switching from PHP 7.x to 8.x can result in a noticeable speed boost. OPcache stores the compiled PHP code in memory. PHP 8.3, 8.4 and 8.5 are all available on aWh’s hosting plans.
Caching. The greatest speed boost comes from ensuring the page isn’t rebuilt for every request. A page cache (in WordPress, a caching plugin) stores the finished HTML, so the PHP and database aren’t even involved. We have a separate article on server-side caching.
Protocols. HTTP/2 downloads files in parallel over a single connection, whilst TLS 1.3 establishes the encrypted connection more quickly. HTTP/2 is available in every plan on aWh’s hosting services.
Network and distance. The distance between the server and the visitor adds a few milliseconds to every request. Within Europe, this amounts to a few tens of milliseconds, which is barely noticeable on a website; with a server on another continent, it can be several hundred. If your visitors are far away, a CDN can help.
How do you measure it?
- PageSpeed Insights: Google’s tool displays real visitor data (Core Web Vitals) as well as lab measurements, along with recommendations.
- GTmetrix, WebPageTest: a detailed waterfall chart showing how long each element takes to load; the TTFB is also shown here.
- Browser developer tools (F12 › Network): on your own computer.
curlcommand:curl -o /dev/null -s -w "%{time_starttransfer}\n" https://cegnev.hureturns the TTFB in seconds.
Measure your site several times and on several pages (the homepage, a blog post, a product page, the shopping basket), as a single measurement may be randomly good or bad. Our guide covers how to measure website speed, whilst you can read about interpreting GTmetrix results in our article on GTmetrix analysis.
How can you tell if your hosting is slow? If the TTFB is high (over 0.5–1 second for a cached page), either the server or the application is slow. If the TTFB is good but the page still loads slowly, the problem lies with the content downloaded by the browser (images, scripts, fonts), and changing your hosting provider won’t help with that.
Common misconceptions
“More GB of storage = a faster website.” The size of the storage says nothing about speed. What matters is the type of storage (NVMe), the CPU and memory limits, and the software environment.
“Unlimited hosting is the best.” Behind “unlimited” hosting plans, there are almost always strict CPU and memory limits or terms of use, which mean that the unlimited storage cannot be used up quickly.
“If your site is slow, you need to switch to a different hosting provider.” Often, this isn’t the case: most slowdowns are caused by large, unoptimised images, too many plugins, a missing cache or an outdated version of PHP. Measure first, and if the TTFB is good, you’ll need to make improvements to the website itself. Our WordPress image optimisation guide covers image optimisation.
“A VPS is always faster.” A small, poorly configured VPS can be slower than a good shared hosting plan. A VPS is faster when the limits of shared hosting are tight and you configure the server properly.
“The server’s location also determines Google rankings.” Google determines the target country based on the domain extension, the language of the content and the links; the server’s location only affects rankings in terms of speed.
“A CDN solves everything.” A CDN speeds up static files (images, CSS, JS), but does not help with server-side slowness on dynamic pages (shopping basket, admin).
What should you look out for when making your choice?
- NVMe SSD storage,
- publicly specified, sufficient CPU and memory limits,
- the latest PHP versions,
- HTTP/2 and free SSL,
- server-side caching capability (or at least good support for caching plugins),
- Availability as set out in the SLA,
- and the option to upgrade to a larger plan or a VPS if traffic increases.
The full list is included in our pre-hosting checklist.
Summary
Hosting is the foundation of a website’s speed: server response time (TTFB) takes precedence over everything else and directly affects Core Web Vitals metrics. Fast hosting is determined by the type of storage (NVMe), the resource limits of the hosting plan, up-to-date PHP and caching, not by the number of gigabytes. Before switching hosting providers because of a slow website, check whether it is the server or the website that is slow.
aWh’s web hosting, cPanel and WordPress hosting plans are available on NVMe SSDs, with PHP 8.3–8.5, HTTP/2 and 99.9% uptime.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does hosting affect website speed?
The server’s response time (TTFB) is determined by the hosting provider and the application, whilst the amount of content downloaded is determined by the website itself. On a slow hosting service, every page will be slow; however, even a fast hosting service cannot compensate for the lack of optimisation of large images and numerous scripts.
What is a good TTFB?
According to Google, this takes 0.8 seconds; for a cached page on a good hosting service, it takes much less than that – typically a few hundred thousandths of a second.
Is NVMe really noticeably faster?
For a dynamic website (WordPress, online shop), yes, because these perform many small disk operations, and NVMe is many times faster for these. For a static website, the difference is smaller.
Does the server’s location matter?
Within Europe, the difference is negligible, as it amounts to just a few tens of microseconds. If your visitors are on another continent, a closer server or a CDN will make a noticeable difference.
Does fast hosting help with Google rankings?
Indirectly, yes: a faster server improves Core Web Vitals metrics and the user experience, both of which Google takes into account. However, the quality and relevance of the content matter far more than that.