Every number in our comparison table has a story behind it. Here's exactly how we collect them — and why we do it the way we do.
We start with renewal pricing, not introductory deals
The first thing most hosting comparison sites get wrong is pricing. They list the promotional rate — the one that applies for the first 12 months and then doubles or triples at renewal. We don't do that.
Every price in our table is the standard renewal price in New Zealand Dollars, excluding GST. If a provider charges $2.99/month for year one and $9.99 after that, we show $9.99. That's the price you'll actually live with.
We track the entry-level shared hosting plan that includes at least one website, email hosting, and a free SSL certificate. If the cheapest plan lacks those basics, we step up to the next tier.
All prices are verified at least once per quarter. The verification date is visible in the table — hover over any price on desktop to see it.
PHP performance: two independent tests
We measure PHP performance two ways, because no single benchmark tells the whole story.
PHP Vitals runs micro-benchmarks (strings, maths, arrays, file I/O). PHP Vitals reports a letter grade (including plus/minus variants, through to weaker grades such as E and F) for the environment — we record that grade plus the link to the result page when available, then remove their harness.
WP Benchmark is a WordPress plugin that runs three sub-tests — PHP execution, MySQL/MariaDB throughput, and filesystem speed — then combines them into a single composite score. We use a frozen WordPress installation with the plugin pinned to a specific version, so scores stay comparable across providers.
The key word is pinned. If we update either tool, we re-run every provider before publishing new scores.
Latency: probed from three NZ cities
TTFB tells you how quickly the server responds. We measure it from Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch. For each city we send 20 timed requests with cache busting and record mean and p95. The table shows the best city mean; the provider page lists all three.
Server location verification
We resolve the site's IP and ASN and compare against NZ network allocations so "NZ hosting" claims match reality.
Support, email, backups
We benchmark support with standard questions across channels; test Gmail and Microsoft 365 inbox placement from the host's mail; and attempt real restores from the provider's backup UI. Thresholds and procedures are documented on our full methodology page.
Read the technical detail — commands, versions, grade bands — on Methodology. Spot an error? Email [email protected].