TTFB — Time to First Byte — is the single most important metric for WooCommerce speed. It measures how long your server takes to respond to the first request. Every other speed metric (LCP, FCP, INP) starts after TTFB.
If your TTFB is 500ms, your LCP can never be faster than 500ms — no matter how optimized your theme or plugins are. The server has to respond first.
We measured TTFB across 5 WooCommerce hosts using the method recorded in our published benchmark dataset: a 3-sample averaged, cache-busted HTTP GET, with the first sample discarded to allow for DNS, TCP and TLS warm-up. Measurements are point-in-time and network-dependent, so read them as directional rather than as guarantees.
One thing worth stating plainly: we publish a figure only for a host we have actually measured. Cloudways, DreamHost, HostGator and InMotion are not in our measured set, so this article carries no TTFB number for them. Our dataset is reproducible by anyone, and we would rather show five traceable measurements than eight impressive guesses.
The TTFB benchmarks
InterServer answers in 162ms TTFB — fast enough that Google's Core Web Vitals won't penalize you. The two slowest hosts we measured, Bluehost (499ms) and GoDaddy (719ms), sit well past the 400ms threshold where speed starts costing conversions.
"A 557ms TTFB gap between the fastest and slowest host we measured costs roughly $220–330/month in lost conversions on a $10K/month store. That's $2,700–4,000/year you never see."
FutureStack — WooCommerce Speed Research futurestk.online/blog/fastest-woocommerce-hosting-ttfb.htmlWhat TTFB actually means for your store
Google's published research shows that 100ms of additional latency reduces conversions by 0.6%. Deloitte found 2.1% conversion lift per 100ms improvement on desktop. The exact number varies by study, but the direction is clear: faster server response = more sales.
Here's what the TTFB gap means in real revenue:
| TTFB Gap | Conversion Impact | Revenue Impact ($10K/mo) |
|---|---|---|
| 101ms gap (InterServer vs SiteGround) | −0.4% to −0.6% relative | $40–60/mo lost |
| 337ms gap (InterServer vs Bluehost) | −1.3% to −2.0% relative | $135–202/mo lost |
| 557ms gap (InterServer vs GoDaddy) | −2.2% to −3.3% relative | $223–334/mo lost |
Fast Tier (Under 300ms)
- InterServer — 162ms TTFB
- Hostinger — 210ms, SiteGround — 263ms
- Google CWV: Good to Excellent
- Conversion impact: Minimal to none
- Revenue loss: $0–60/mo
Slow Tier (Over 400ms)
- Bluehost 499ms, GoDaddy 719ms
- Google CWV: Poor to Needs Improvement
- Conversion impact: −1.3% to −3.3%
- Revenue loss: $135–334/mo
Enter your store URL into the Revenue Leak Detector. We'll measure your real TTFB and calculate your monthly revenue exposure.
The "shared hosting" label tells you almost nothing
Every host in our measured set sells shared plans, and those plans span 162ms to 719ms — a 4.4x difference inside a single category. Whichever host you pick, the plan tier and the machine it lands on matter far more than whether the marketing page says "cloud".
What actually moves TTFB is CPU allocation, whether a host oversells its capacity, the caching layer, and your own software stack. "Shared" is a billing model, not a performance guarantee.
We have not independently measured any managed or cloud plan, so we make no claim about how managed hosting compares to the numbers above. We would rather tell you that than publish a figure we can't trace back to a measurement.
The bottom line
Among the five hosts we can actually substantiate, InterServer — a price-locked shared plan — is fastest at 162ms, and GoDaddy is slowest at 719ms. That 557ms gap is worth roughly $220–330/month on a $10K/month store. We publish no TTFB figure for any host outside our measured set, so treat the ranking elsewhere on this site as a pricing and support comparison rather than a speed one.
Further reading
- WooCommerce Speed & Revenue Lost — the full math on speed-to-revenue
- Cloudways vs SiteGround TCO — the 3-year cost comparison
- Best WooCommerce Hosting 2026 — the full ranking of 8 hosts, with measured TTFB where we have it
- How Slow Hosting Costs You Sales — the general TTFB → revenue breakdown
FAQ
Under 200ms is excellent. 200–400ms is acceptable. Over 400ms is slow and will impact your Core Web Vitals scores and conversions.
Measured performance varies too much between plans to answer this honestly. In our own data, five shared plans ranged from 162ms to 719ms — a 4.4x spread within the same category. We have not independently measured any managed or cloud plan, so we don't claim a comparison. If you want a real number for your own store, run it through the tool and compare against your alternatives.
At the conservative floor: ~0.4% of conversions per 100ms of gap. For a $10K/month store, the 557ms gap between the fastest and slowest host we measured is worth $223–334/month — roughly $2,700–4,000/year. If you're on a 400ms+ host, you're in the top of that range.