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 tested 8 popular WooCommerce hosts for real-world TTFB on product pages under load. Here's what we found.
The TTFB benchmarks
Cloudways delivers 80–200ms TTFB — fast enough that Google's Core Web Vitals won't penalize you. Every shared host we tested delivers 300–700ms — slow enough that you're losing measurable conversions.
"A 400ms TTFB gap on a $10K/month WooCommerce store costs roughly $200/month in lost conversions. That's $2,400/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) |
|---|---|---|
| 100ms gap | −0.4% to −0.6% relative | $40–60/mo lost |
| 200ms gap | −0.8% to −1.2% relative | $80–120/mo lost |
| 400ms gap (Cloudways vs SiteGround) | −1.6% to −2.4% relative | $160–240/mo lost |
| 500ms gap (Cloudways vs Bluehost) | −2.0% to −3.0% relative | $200–300/mo lost |
Fast Tier (Under 200ms)
- Cloudways — 80–200ms TTFB
- Google CWV: Excellent
- Conversion impact: None
- Revenue loss: $0
Slow Tier (Over 300ms)
- SiteGround, Bluehost, Hostinger
- Google CWV: Poor to Needs Improvement
- Conversion impact: −1.6% to −3%
- Revenue loss: $160–300/mo
Enter your store URL into the Revenue Leak Detector. We'll measure your real TTFB and calculate your monthly revenue exposure.
Why shared hosting is always slow
Shared hosting puts your WooCommerce store on a server with hundreds of other sites. When any of them gets a traffic spike, your store slows down. When the server is under load, your TTFB spikes.
Cloudways uses managed cloud infrastructure — your store runs on dedicated resources. No noisy neighbors, no shared CPU spikes. That's why the TTFB is consistently faster.
The gap isn't close: Cloudways is 2–4x faster than any shared host we tested.
The bottom line
If you care about speed — and you should, because speed = revenue — Cloudways is the only host we tested that delivers sub-200ms TTFB consistently. Every shared host we tested delivers 300–700ms. The revenue difference is $160–300/month for a $10K/store. That's not a rounding error — it's the cost of slow hosting.
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
- 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.
Shared hosting puts your store on a server with hundreds of other sites. Your resources are shared, so traffic spikes on other sites slow your store down. Cloud hosting gives you dedicated resources — no noisy neighbors.
At the conservative floor: ~0.4% of conversions per 100ms over 200ms TTFB. For a $10K/month store on shared hosting (400ms TTFB), that's $160+/month in lost conversions — over $1,920/year.