Benchmarking WordPress Performance using WP Hosting Benchmark Plugin

Introduction

WP Hosting Benchmark is a WordPress plugin designed to measure server-side performance from inside a WordPress installation.

Unlike front-end tools such as Lighthouse or PageSpeed Insights, this plugin focuses on the hosting environment itself, not theme design or network latency. It answers a simple question: "How fast can this server actually run WordPress?"

What the Plugin Measures

WP Hosting Benchmark runs several server-side tests to evaluate how well a hosting environment executes WordPress workloads.

Each category focuses on a different subsystem:

These tests provide a practical view of CPU scheduling quality, memory behavior, storage I/O, and overall execution efficiency.

Prerequisites

• WordPress already installed
• Redis already installed and enabled

To ensure fair and comparable results, all tests use the same configuration, except for the server type.

Fixed Software Stack

• OS: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
• Web Server: Nginx
• PHP: 8.4 (PHP-FPM)
• PHP memory_limit: 512M
• Database: MariaDB 11
• Cache: Redis 7
• Theme: Twenty Twenty-Four
• Plugins: Redis Object Cache, WP Hosting Benchmark

Fixed Hardware Profile

Step 1 - Install and Run WP Hosting Benchmark in WordPress

• Log in to WordPress Admin

  Access the WordPress dashboard as an administrator at example.com/wp-admin.

• Install the Plugin

  1. Go to Plugins → Add New Plugin
  2. Search for WP Hosting Benchmark
  3. Click Install Now
  4. Click Activate
  5. Repeat above process for Redis Object Cache plugin

• Enable Redis Caching

  After the plugins are installed, enable caching to make it work. To enable Redis object caching:

  1. In the WordPress admin dashboard, go to Settings -> Redis.

  2. Click the Enable Object Cache button.

     

  If you see a green indicator or a message like "Object cache enabled," then Redis is working. Once Redis is enabled and object caching is active, WordPress can store frequently accessed data in memory, which speeds up performance and provides a fair environment for benchmarking.

  

• Open the Benchmark Tool

  After Redis object caching is enabled, open WP Hosting Benchmark.

  • Tools » WP Benchmark tool

  Read and accept the terms, then click the "Run Benchmark" button.

  

  Wait for the process to complete. Note that this can take a while. After the benchmark process completed, you will get results like this:

  

Step 2 - Comparing Benchmark Results Between Hetzner Cloud Servers

Hetzner Cloud offers several different cloud server plans: Cost Optimized VPS, Shared Regular Performance, and Dedicated General Purpose. Each plan tailored to meet different needs and budgets and has its own infrastructure characteristics, pricing, and performance profile.

Benchmarking all three types is important because it allows us to objectively compare their performance before choosing the one that best fits our WordPress website needs. By running the same test on each plan, we can understand the trade-offs between cost and performance, ensuring we select the most suitable and cost-effective option for our workload. These results provide an overview of how each server performed under identical test conditions.

⚠️ Note Scores are shown as relative values for comparison. Absolute numbers may vary depending on the PHP version, kernel, storage backend, and data center location when the test is performed at a later time.

Step 3 - Understanding Hetzner Cloud Server Type Tested

All benchmarks are performed on cloud servers provided by Hetzner with the same vCPU and RAM (except dedicated), but different infrastructure characteristics.

	Shared Cost Optimized	Shared Regular Performance	Dedicated General Purpose
Characteristics	Low-cost Suitable for testing and development Running on shared CPU and shared storage	Shared CPU cores and storage I/O Cost-efficient Less predictable performance	Fully dedicated CPU cores No noisy neighbors Highly predictable performance
When to Choose	Choose this option if: The environment is non-production You need a cheap WordPress instance for testing Performance consistency is not critical	Choose this option if: Cost is the primary concern Traffic and performance requirements are low Occasional slowdowns are acceptable	Choose this option if: Performance consistency is critical WordPress directly generates revenue You run WooCommerce, LMS, or high-concurrency workloads
Best for	Growing business websites, SaaS dashboards, internal tools, medium-traffic WordPress.	Personal blogs, development environments, staging sites.	High-traffic WordPress sites, WooCommerce stores, membership platforms, enterprise workloads.

Summary:

Conclusion

Benchmarks like WP Hosting Benchmark don’t exist to chase high scores. They help set realistic expectations and make infrastructure choices based on behavior, not assumptions. If your WordPress site is:

• experimental » don’t overpay
• growing » don’t under-provision
• revenue-critical » don’t gamble

Same specs. Different realities. Benchmark first, choose deliberately.

License: MIT