Vultr WordPress Hosting: Using Vultr’s High-Frequency Compute

What are some of the fastest and most cost-effective ways to host a WordPress website?

Since the new product line of Vultr was launched, I was really curious how performant WordPress runs on this new line. How well does Vultr WordPress hosting perform? But first, let’s explain some of the basic terms.

Vultr is a well-known VPS provider out there. VPS is the abbreviation for Virtual Private Server. A VPS can be used to host all kinds of applications. Basically, you’re renting a small computer on the internet.

Vultr High-Frequency Compute Specs

In June 2019, Vultr launched a new product line called High-Frequency Compute. Their initial VPS offering was already pretty fast, scoring solidly in many benchmarks and on fora.

In the meantime, a little geek-alert out here! It’s time to talk about specs. So, what are the actual specifications for the High-Frequency compute line?

• 3.8 GHZ Intel CPUs: that’s pretty fast for a VPS!
• NVME SSDs for storage: most VPS providers still use SSD.
• Low latency memory – although it is unclear which type.

I contacted Vultr on more details of their architecture and hardware, but for obvious reasons, this could not be disclosed.

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The High-Frequency plans are generally speaking 20% more expensive than the regular plans from Vultr. But does this price raise match up to the improved performance? And especially if we’re running WordPress? You came here for the actual results. So let’s dive into that.

WordPress Performance on Vultr High frequency compute

In the performance test, I tested a regular 1GB/1C Vultr VPS against a High-Frequency Vultr VPS. First, I set up a WordPress website using a bloated theme with WooCommerce.

Subsequently, I tested for the maximum number of concurrent visitors a server could handle. A concurrent visitor is a user, visiting a website, and firing one request each second. That means that if a server can handle 1000 concurrent users, it can also handle 60000 requests per minute.

First, I did this test for pages that were cached. Secondly, I did this for uncached pages (caching is a technique to drastically speed up a website and improve performance under load). Also, I used the WP Performance Tester plugin to do some WordPress benchmarks. These are the results:

Vultr claims to provide 40% faster compute instances. And it is true. As you can see from the results, the high-frequency server can handle almost 40% more concurrent users.

But where it really gets interesting are the uncached results. A whopping 83% performance increase. This means that if you’re running a webshop or a platform with a lot of user interactions, Vultr High-Frequency compute is really performing.

Moreover, the WordPress-related benchmark showed a drastic increase in the number of queries that can be handled per second. In other words: data can be pulled from the database a lot faster. In this case, a lower server score was also positive!

The only downside we found was the average response time (or time to first byte). I found it a little bit higher than the regular Vultr offering.

Vultr Compared to Other Providers

But how does Vultr compare to other providers? Do they indeed offer the fastest VPSes? In the article Linode VS DigitalOcean VS Vultr (VS Upcloud VS Hetzner), I do a massive comparison of five very well-known and solid VPS providers. You can find much more information in that article.

Or, as a bonus: you can also use the dropdown below to compare Vultr on various performance benchmarks to some of its competitors.

Hosting WordPress on Vultr: do it the easy way

One of the applications that can be run on a Vultr VPS is WordPress. As you may know, WordPress is the most popular content management system in the world.

If you’re a WordPress developer or system administrator, you probably know your way around a Virtual Private Server. And thus, you may be able to install WordPress on a VPS.

However, it is still a lot of work to do this manually (unless you are using EasyEngine). Luckily, a number of platforms are emerging that allow you to install WordPress on your own VPS easily. You could call these platforms WordPress Hosting Control panels or WordPress server panels.

These platforms optimize the server and install all necessary software, so you can focus on building with WordPress. Some of the common platforms are Runcloud, Serverpilot, SpinupWP and Gridpane. These platforms all support Vultr and are an easy way to set up Vultr WordPress hosting. And because the latter, Gridpane, is so good, I want to introduce it here.

Vultr WordPress Hosting with GridPane

I extensively tested these WordPress control panels and in my opinion, GridPane is one of the best panels for hosting WordPress. It also has a basic free starter plan case you just want to check them out.

So how can you take advance of the VULTR high-frequency goodness? Connecting GridPane with Vultr is easy. It actually takes the following steps:

• Create an API key at Vultr (under Account, API). You don’t need to set-up any server, as this is done through GridPane.
• Second, whitelist GridPane’s IP addresses (93.95.4.188, 35.199.11.215 , 130.211.115.235).
• Third, signup and login at GridPane.
• Fourth, go to your account settings in GridPane and add your Vultr API key under Vultr API settings.
• In the screen with servers (Home from the top-menu), you can now add a Vultr server. GridPane will use the API connection you made to spin-up a server at Vultr.
• Then, head to the sites tab and add your first WordPress website. It’s that easy!
• And you’re done!

So are you wondering how I did set-up this test? For this test, I used GridPane as well. While it is still actively being developed, it is already great to use. The major advantages of GridPane are:

• Optimizes servers for WordPress out of the box.
• Great performance, even for $5/VPS plans.
• Very easy to add new WordPress websites (or installations).
• Very easy to add, clone, migrate or start Staging Environments.
• Automatic visually controlled WordPress updates.
• Runs with various VPS providers, such as Vultr.

GridPane is actually a great way to set up WordPress Hosting on Vultr. So do you manage a couple of WordPress websites for yourself or for clients? Try GridPane! For those interested, I wrote a detailed review of GridPane in the review database where you can compare WordPress hosting.

So what are your experiences with Vultr WordPress hosting and their new High-Frequency Compute plans? Don’t hesitate to leave a reaction below!