WordPress.com

What they say they tested: Reviewer built a portfolio site, tried the editor and AI assistant, and contacted live chat and email support. No speed or uptime figures are shown.

• + Liked: Strong for blogging and content-heavy sites
• + Liked: Large theme choice and a powerful plugin ecosystem
• + Liked: Security and maintenance handled for you
• + Liked: Live chat support was quick and helpful
• + Liked: Paid plans seen as good value next to other builders

• – Disliked: Takes some learning, so not ideal for complete beginners
• – Disliked: Little storage on the free and lower plans
• – Disliked: Says plugins need the Business plan or above
• – Disliked: Support email address is hard to find

Summarised in our own words.

What they say they tested: July 2026 test of an identical WordPress site on a custom domain. GTmetrix page speed gave 417 ms LCP, and a k6 stress test with 50 simultaneous virtual users gave 10 ms P95. Server response from 6 regions averaged 273 ms, and 30 days of UptimeRobot checks showed 100%. Score is 80% performance, 20% value.

• + Liked: Among the fastest page loads in their test group
• + Liked: Best result under a traffic spike of any host they recommend
• + Liked: Lowest entry price of their recommended hosts, with a free domain for year one
• + Liked: Plugins can now be installed on the Personal plan
• + Liked: Fully managed: updates, security, backups and caching are handled for you

• – Disliked: Only 6 GB storage on the Personal plan
• – Disliked: No lasting email hosting included
• – Disliked: Fewer bundled extras than a budget self-hosted plan
• – Disliked: Round-the-clock priority support only on the Business plan

Summarised in our own words.

What they say they tested: Uses the same speed, stress, regional response and uptime data as the review page.

• + Liked: Top speed and traffic-spike handling in their tests
• + Liked: Cheap way in with nothing to install or maintain

• – Disliked: Hostinger judged better on tools and value for money

Summarised in our own words.

What they say they tested: Bought the Personal plan in July 2025 and monitored a standard test site. Pingdom from 15 North American locations showed 319 ms average TTFB and 100% uptime (1 Oct 2025 to 31 May 2026). Loader.io with 100 concurrent visitors gave 16 ms, global TTFB from 40 locations was 69 ms, and a hardware benchmark scored 6.8.

• + Liked: Fastest server response and load handling among the hosts compared
• + Liked: No downtime recorded during monitoring
• + Liked: Quick for visitors worldwide thanks to its own edge caching
• + Liked: Renewal price the same as the starting price on the plan tested
• + Liked: No traffic limits

• – Disliked: Hardware benchmark was its weakest result
• – Disliked: Personal and Premium plans lack developer tools such as SFTP, SSH and WP-CLI
• – Disliked: Automatic daily backups only from the Business plan
• – Disliked: No cPanel-style control panel

Summarised in our own words.

What they say they tested: Walks through sign-up, the editor, themes and plugins as a website builder; no performance measurements are shown.

• + Liked: Good free option for a personal blog
• + Liked: Hosting included and several sites supported
• + Liked: Strong blogging, comments and built-in statistics
• + Liked: Easy way to learn the basics of WordPress

• – Disliked: Page layouts can be awkward to customise
• – Disliked: Plugins, premium themes and extras add cost
• – Disliked: Self-hosted WordPress on a commercial host gives more for less money
• – Disliked: Paid plan options judged too simplified

Summarised in our own words.