No code changes. No plugin swaps. Just better hosting.
A few days ago, we decided to put WP LightHost to the test.
Not in theory. Not in “hand-picked demo site” conditions. We wanted to see how our infrastructure stacked up against two of the most recognizable players in the WordPress hosting world: Kinsta and WP Engine.
Oh — and we tried to include GoDaddy Pro too. But we hit a fatal error… in their checkout process. Couldn’t even buy the damn plan.
Which, in hindsight, kind of proves our point.
The challenge: same site, three hosts, no fluff
We took one WordPress site — same content, same theme, same everything — and deployed it across:
- Kinsta
- WP Engine
- WP LightHost (that’s us)
Then we ran the exact same GTmetrix tests on each version.
Here’s what happened
The benchmark brawl (aka the results)
| Metric | WP LightHost | WP Engine | Kinsta |
| GTmetrix Grade | ✅ A (92%) | A (90%) | B (88%) |
| Performance Score | ✅ 91% | 88% | 84% |
| Structure Score | 93% | 93% | 93% |
| Fully Loaded Time | ✅ 2.2s | 7.0s | 6.7s |
| Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) | 1.7s | 1.5s | ✅ 1.3s |
| Total Blocking Time | ✅ 0ms | 167ms | 265ms |
| Total Page Size | ✅ 927KB | 2.83MB | 6.69MB |
| Requests | ✅ 17 | 158 | 158 |
Let’s break this down:
- We served the smallest, leanest page — by a mile
- Our site loaded 3× faster than WP Engine, and over 4 seconds faster than Kinsta
- Zero blocking time — meaning your visitors aren’t stuck waiting while scripts fight for attention
- Oh, and our request count was so low it probably made the GTmetrix servers smile
But isn’t Kinsta’s LCP the fastest?
Yes — by 0.2s.
But when you zoom out:
- Kinsta took 6.7 seconds to fully load the site
- Our version finished at 2.2 seconds, with most visual content appearing around 1.1s without cache
In other words, they hit one good metric, but we delivered consistently better performance across the board.
And when it comes to real-world WooCommerce traffic — product pages, carts, filters — fully loaded speed (not just LCP) is what moves the needle.
Why we’re faster (and smaller)
We didn’t just optimize for benchmarks. We rebuilt the stack from scratch to serve real WooCommerce and WordPress use cases. That includes:
- LiteSpeed + Redis built for dynamic content and fast checkouts
- Global infrastructure with our own high-powered VPS machines in Europe and North America
- Plesk moved to the cloud (we’re pretty sure no one else has done this)
- Custom VM panel for power users and newbies alike
- One-click WordPress deploys in under 6 minutes
Our infrastructure isn’t bloated. It’s battle-ready.
Meanwhile, GoDaddy Pro…
We wanted to be fair. Really.
We were ready to test GoDaddy Pro against our setup.
But after “Proceed to checkout,” the site collapsed on itself like a dying star. No confirmation screen. No email. Just an error and an existential sigh.
We could’ve chased it down. Opened a ticket. Waited a few days.
Instead, we moved on. And that, honestly, says everything.
The takeaway
If you’re:
- Running a WooCommerce store where every second = sales
- Managing client sites that can’t afford random traffic crashes
- Tired of hosting that feels more like a bottleneck than a partner
Then benchmarks like this aren’t just nice to look at — they’re your cheat sheet.
You don’t have to settle for “good enough” hosting.
You don’t have to pay more for less.
And you definitely don’t have to wait 7 seconds for a homepage to load.
Want to test it yourself?
We’re offering 2 months free of WP LightHost — no strings, no pitch decks, just fast, clean hosting that makes your sites feel light again.