Methodology

This page explains exactly how we collect and measure everything in the shared hosting comparison table. Our goal is full reproducibility: any reader with a hosting account capable of running WordPress should be able to run the same tests and get comparable results.

Pricing

All prices in the table are:

• Standard renewal prices — we exclude introductory or first-year promotional discounts. We record the price you pay when you renew.
• New Zealand Dollars (NZD), excluding GST — all prices in the comparison table are shown in NZD at the standard renewal rate. When a provider quotes another currency (USD or AUD) we use the axhchange rate on the day the data is updated.
• Entry-level shared plan — we track the cheapest plan that includes at least one website.

Each row in the table displays a Verified date (hover over the price on desktop, or expand the row on mobile). This is the last_verified field in our data, updated whenever we confirm a price is still accurate. We check all prices at least once per quarter.

PHP Vitals

PHP Vitals is a third-party benchmarking service that tests a PHP environment's raw performance by running a standardised suite of micro-benchmarks: string manipulation, mathematical computation, array operations, and file I/O. The outcome is summarised as a letter grade (best to worst), including plus/minus variants where reported (e.g. A+, A, A−, B+, B, through to E and F). Strong grades indicate high PHP throughput; weaker grades flag environments that lag under load.

What it measures

CPU and I/O throughput available to a PHP process. It does not measure network latency, WordPress page-load speed, or database performance.

How we run it

1. Install and run PHP Vitals on the reference WordPress site.
2. Record the letter grade, and duration (the fastest run is best).

Column colour thresholds

• Green — grade A+, A, or A−
• Yellow — grade B+, B, or B−
• Red — grade C or below (including D, E, F)

WP Benchmark

We use the WP Benchmark plugin installed on a reference WordPress site. The plugin runs three sub-test categories and produces a composite score; higher is better.

Reference environment

• No other active plugins; default theme.
• A fresh database with no posts or users beyond the default admin.

Sub-tests included in the composite score

• PHP — raw PHP execution speed (similar to PHP Vitals).
• Database — MySQL/MariaDB read and write throughput.
• Filesystem — disk read/write speed available to WordPress.

How we run it

1. Install the WP Benchmark plugin on the reference WordPress install for each provider.
2. Navigate to Tools → WP Benchmark in wp-admin and click Run.
3. Record the composite score once all three sub-tests complete.

Column colour thresholds

• Green — score ≥ 7
• Yellow — score 5–6.9
• Red — score < 5

Scores in the current measurement round use the WP Benchmark plugin’s composite 0–10 scale.

Verified Server Location

Providers sometimes claim a New Zealand data centre but route traffic offshore. We verify by resolving the reference site's IP and ASN and comparing against NZ allocations (see schema for recorded fields).

Badge thresholds

• Verified — IP and ASN align with NZ infrastructure

Support Quality Benchmarking

Standard questions across advertised channels; composite score 0–100 (accuracy, speed, helpfulness). See provider detail cards for thresholds.

• Green — score ≥ 80
• Yellow — score 50–79
• Red — score < 50

Hidden Limits & Throttling

• None detected
• Suspected
• Confirmed

Storage Performance

Recorded medium type (NVMe / SSD / HDD) and tenant-visible IOPS where measurable.

Update policy

Plan data carries last_verified; benchmarks carry run_date. Prices checked at least quarterly; benchmarks re-run on infra changes or annually.

Affiliate disclosure

Where a provider has an affiliate arrangement with us, outbound links may carry rel="nofollow". That does not change methodology or default table sort (price ascending).

For a narrative overview, see our blog post How we test NZ web hosting.