After 3 years of testing, let’s compare Lightning Base vs Bluehost and find out how they’ve performed so far…
Lightning Base vs Bluehost – Testing Method
- Prior to testing, I have setup identical content on all 8 Live Test Sites
- Each week over 80,000 speed & uptime tests are run using independent tools, GTmetrix & Pingdom
- Test results below are from 04 Apr 2016 to 22 Dec 2018
Test #1: Speed
The GTmetrix Speed Test checks how long it takes for a website to fully load using a desktop internet browser. This test is then repeated every hour throughout the week (1,340 times).
- Lightning Base’s Speed has been outstanding since it was added in Apr 2017, consistently finding itself in our Top 2 Hosts. It started with a bang by finishing fastest across the first half of 2017, and has continued that good form with 2nd fastest load times across H2 2017 & H1 2018, and 3rd fastest in H2 2018.
- Bluehost’s average speed was poor across 2016 & 2017, consistently finishing in the bottom 2 hosts. However, in 2018, there has been a massive turnaround, as they have been our 4th fastest host in both H1 & H2 2018.
- Lightning Base is currently 2nd, while Bluehost is 4th in our Speed Rankings.
H2 2018 Results
H1 2018 Results
H2 2017 Results
H1 2017 Results
Test #2: Uptime
The Pingdom Uptime Test confirms that the website is actually accessible to visitors. This test is then repeated every minute throughout the week (80,640 times).
- Lightning Base have also performed brilliantly when it comes to Uptime, with only 65 minutes of downtime since Apr 17. To put this into perspective, nearly all of our other hosts have experienced more than 65 minutes of downtime in 1 week!!
- Bluehost performed poorly when it came to Uptime across 2016 & 2017. But once again 2018 is a different story, recording just 6 minutes of downtime in H1 2018 and 8 minutes in H2 2018. It is a remarkable result when you consider the past performance, but amazingly Bluehost is the best performing host for uptime in 2018.
- Lightning Base is currently 1st and Bluehost is 4th in our Uptime Rankings.
View the Weekly Uptime Tests
Lightning Base vs Bluehost – Overall Test Results
The Overall Ranking accumulates the results from the speed & uptime tests to determine the #1 Host.
- Lightning Base’s performance has been excellent across the board, and are currently ranked #1 in uptime & #2 in speed tests. They have consistently been in our Top 2 hosts, and have only just missed out on the coveted #1 overall ranking.
- Bluehost was consistently the slowest of our active hosts across 2016 & 2017. Combined with a less than stellar uptime resulted in it being 8th Overall at the end of 2017. But the big news of 2018 is the miraculous turnaround of Bluehost’s speed and especially it’s uptime performance. This has led to a massive jump in the overall rankings.
- Lightning Base is currently 2nd and Bluehost is 4th in our Overall Rankings.
Hi, I'm Clint!
