According to research, 70% of internet users say site speed affects their purchase decisions. This means that if your website is loading slowly, you’re likely losing out on potential customers.
Your choice of a host will have a big impact on your site’s speed. Siteground and Bluehost are among the most popular hosting providers. They both offer a variety of features that can help you build a fast and reliable website.
But are they equally fast? In this article, we’ll pit SiteGround vs Bluehost to see which one comes out on top in the speed department. Read on!
Siteground
Siteground is easily the fastest WordPress solution recommended by WordPress. It is also considered one of the best hosting providers. It is packed with features that make it ideal for high-traffic websites.
But what makes Siteground so fast?
Use of Solid-State Drives (SSDs)
Solid-state drives are a newer type of storage that is faster than traditional hard drives. Siteground uses SSDs for its shared and cloud hosting plans. These drives can speed up your website by up to 300%.
What makes SSDs so much faster than regular hard drives is that they have no moving parts. This means that they can access data much faster than hard drives.
Content Delivery Network (CDN)
Siteground also uses a Content Delivery Network (CDN). A CDN is a network of servers that deliver content to your visitors.
A CDN is a network of servers that delivers content to users based on their geographic location. When you use a CDN, your website’s static files (images, CSS, and JavaScript) are cached on these servers.
When a user tries to access your website, the CDN will serve them the cached files from the server that is closest to their location. This reduces the distance that data has to travel, and as a result, your website loads faster.
Unique SuperCacher Technology
SiteGround SuperCacher is a caching system that speeds up the loading of pages that don’t change often, such as your homepage or product pages.
SuperCacher works by creating static HTML files of your dynamic WordPress pages and storing them on servers. When a user tries to access one of these pages, they are served the static HTML file instead of the dynamic page.
This speeds up the loading of the page as there is no need to run any PHP code or make database queries.
Brotli Compression
Brotli is a newer type of compression that is more efficient than gzip. Siteground uses Brotli to compress files on its servers. This reduces the size of the files, which speeds up the loading of your pages.
Nginx Web Server
Nginx is a type of reverse proxy web server that is known for its high performance. Siteground uses Nginx to handle requests from visitors to your website.
Nginx is a faster web server than Apache, which is the most popular type of web server. This means that it can handle more traffic and load pages faster.
Latest PHP Version On All Servers
PHP is a programming language that is used to create dynamic web pages. The latest version of PHP, PHP 7.4, is up to 20% faster than the previous version, PHP7.3.
All of Siteground’s servers are running the latest version of PHP. This means that your website will benefit from the speed improvements that come with it.
Also Read:
- What is Cloud Hosting and How Can it Benefit Your Site?
- How Hosting Affects the Speed of Your Website
- How to Choose a Web Hosting Provider?
- How to Select the Best Web Hosting Service
Bluehost
Bluehost is another top web host recommended by WordPress. They are also one of the 20 largest web hosts, powering over two million websites worldwide.
But what makes Bluehost one of the fastest hosts?
Free Cloudflare Integration
Bluehost partners with Cloudflare, a free CDN service, to deliver your content quickly and efficiently. By caching your static content on Cloudflare’s global network, Bluehost can serve it faster to your visitors.
Automatic Caching
Bluehost also automatically caches your pages and posts, so your site doesn’t have to generate them each time a visitor arrives.
Gzip Compression
Bluehost automatically uses gzip compression to make your pages and posts smaller, so they take less time to transfer to visitors’ browsers. The smaller the file, the faster it loads.
Optimized Servers
All of Bluehost’s servers are optimized for WordPress, so you can rest assured that your site will run quickly and smoothly. The servers are also monitored 24/7 to make sure they are running at peak performance.
SiteGround vs Bluehost: Verdict
Both Siteground and Bluehost are excellent choices for a fast WordPress site. They promise a guaranteed uptime of 99.99%, fast loading times, and 24/7 customer support.
However, Siteground is more advanced in its caching technology, with its unique SuperCacher system and Brotli compression. It also beats Bluehost in its use of the Nginx web server.
This doesn’t mean that Bluehost is a bad host – it’s still a top-rated web host. Your choice should come down to your specific needs and preferences.
Remember, a web host is not the only factor that contributes to the speed of your website. You should also consider using a caching plugin, optimizing your images, using adaptive images, minimising HTTP requests, and minify files.
When you combine these factors with a fast managed WordPress hosting, you will have a site that not only loads quickly but provides a great user experience.
