There has been a lot of discussion recently about the speeds we have all been experiencing when using a Magento store. While trying to compare speeds for ourselves, we thought we’d try and get as objective a view as possible of the speed of a Magento site, and after a bit of testing we felt that it would be helpful if we shared our methods and the tool we used to compare them.
The Excel spreadsheet we formulated to give us clear averages is available from this link if you want any help comparing and contrasting different Hosting providers. We’ve only tested those who had posted a URL to a working Magento site. The tool will calculate the average results from all of the speed test locations for you, and highlight the best demo site / Host too. There are no suspect formulas to make anyone look better or worse – it’s just that we found it a lot easier to see who was faster than who, and some of you might appreciate using it yourselves. All our speed tests have been conducted using the Internet Supervision Speed Test. It’s also worth mentioning that there are only two European areas in this speed test, so those of us in the EU will seem slower than US providers, regardless of the relative speeds of our Servers!
Hopefully, this will help everyone to have a standardised comparison of the different providers out there willing (and able!) to Host a Magento eCommerce site, and help with making Hosting decisions. Although we’ve done a fair few comparisons we’re not posting any of the results as it seems a bit unfair, particularly as a Hosting company ourselves, to reveal any ‘winners and sinners’. Here are a few of the demo site URL’s we’ve used, and feel free to add more:
Great idea, Ewan. I thought your spreadsheet would actually have test results, but it didn’t. I went ahead and used the link you posted to test the sample demo stores and here are my results (I only ran the tests once). See attached for results.
By the way, I would run these tests for the Magento store again in a week, they should most certainly increase.
Oh, and I highlighted the fastest result for each test to make it easier to read.
Again, great idea, I’d actually like to develop a little PHP script and post it on a website so other users can record their own results and we can have an on-going speed test comparison from various places, not just demo stores, but actual client stores. Also, I didn’t check if the sample data was loaded for all these stoers so that could impact the results slightly.
Checked From Time (US/Central) Result KBytes Seconds Kbps Washington, DC (3 Mbps) 15:22:21 OK 13.95 0.84 132 Santiago, Chile (760 Kbps) 15:17:25 OK 13.95 1.82 61 Dortmund, Germany (5 Mbps) 15:17:27 OK 13.95 0.42 265 Los Angeles, CA (1.5 Mbps) 16:16:07 OK 13.95 1.31 85 Beijing, China (5 Mbps) 15:13:09 OK 13.95 2.36 47 Detroit, MI (5 Mbps) 15:14:06 OK 13.95 1.08 104 Chicago, IL (45 Mbps) 15:17:25 OK 13.95 0.78 143 St. Petersburg, Russia (5 Mbps)15:16:24 OK 13.95 0.73 152 Gloucester, UK (5 Mbps) 15:17:25 OK 13.95 0.38 298 Sydney, Australia (5 Mbps) 15:17:23 OK 13.95 2.39 47
I actually switched from MediaTemple to HelpingHandHost and it’s a night and day difference between the two hosts as far as speed is concerned. MediaTemple was taking me anywhere from 1-3 minutes to move from screen to screen so it made the whole experience fe like a 56k nightmare. HelpingHandHost loads in just a few seconds if not quicker.
After trying many different hosting companies for Magentom, I had to use their 30day Guarantee to break the contract on all except for Simple Helix. You should definitely go with Simple Helix Hosting. They are fast and responsive to your needs and have the features to make a great e-commerce site.
I just ran the test right now at 1:40AM Pacific Time for Properhost.net
Results for http://magento.properhost.net/
Checked From Time (US/Central) Result KBytes Seconds Kbps
Washington, DC (3 Mbps) 03:44:12 OK 25.97 0.61 341
Santiago, Chile (760 Kbps) 03:38:41 OK 25.97 1.26 165
Dortmund, Germany (5 Mbps) 03:38:38 OK 25.97 1.16 180
Los Angeles, CA (1.5 Mbps) 04:37:30 OK 25.97 11.36 18
Beijing, China (5 Mbps) 03:37:35 OK 25.97 2.23 93
Detroit, MI (5 Mbps) 03:16:20 OK 25.97 0.73 283
Chicago, IL (45 Mbps) 03:38:41 OK 25.97 0.61 341
St. Petersburg, Russia (5 Mbps) 03:40:04 OK 25.97 22.31 9
Gloucester, UK (5 Mbps) 03:38:41 OK 25.97 0.91 229
Sydney, Australia (5 Mbps) 03:38:33 OK 25.97 1.98 105
2nd test
Results for http://magento.properhost.net/
Checked From Time (US/Central) Result KBytes Seconds Kbps
Washington, DC (3 Mbps) 03:46:12 OK 25.97 0.77 271
Santiago, Chile (760 Kbps) 03:40:41 OK 25.97 1.26 165
Dortmund, Germany (5 Mbps) 03:40:38 OK 25.97 1.11 187
Los Angeles, CA (1.5 Mbps) 04:39:24 OK 25.97 0.72 289
Beijing, China (5 Mbps) 03:39:35 OK 25.97 4.73 44
Detroit, MI (5 Mbps) 03:18:20 OK 25.97 0.75 277
Chicago, IL (45 Mbps) 03:40:41 OK 25.97 0.56 369
St. Petersburg, Russia (5 Mbps) 03:42:04 OK 25.97 4.17 50
Gloucester, UK (5 Mbps) 03:40:41 OK 25.97 0.97 214
Sydney, Australia (5 Mbps) 03:40:33 OK 25.97 1.58 132
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