Let’s jump straight into the full setup which costs $4.95/mo for everything:
- Hosting: ChemiCloud’s WordPress Turbo plan ($4.95/mo).
- Cache plugin: LiteSpeed Cache which connects to Redis (free).
- CDN: Super Page Cache For Cloudflare plugin (free full page caching).
- CSS/JS unloading: Asset CleanUp (or similar) to disable plugins on specific pages (free).
This demo site uses the same setup which you can test in KeyCDN or SpeedVitals to measure TTFB in multiple global locations. You’ll want to run 3 tests to make sure resources are cached.
- TTFB tests
- ChemiCloud vs. other shared hosts
- Why LiteSpeed?
- Why their WordPress Turbo plan?
- Request free migration(s) or install WordPress
- Configure LiteSpeed Cache
- Configure Redis
- Configure your CDN (Cloudflare or QUIC.cloud)
- Optimizing images
- Use PHP 8.2
- Scalable CPU cores/RAM
- NVMe SSDs + MariaDB
- 5/5 TrustPilot rating with great support
1. TTFB Tests
SpeedVitals tests TTFB in 40 locations. Run 3 tests to ensure you get a cache HIT and that content is served from the closest CDN data center (also recommended by SpeedVitals). After configuring ChemiCloud, LiteSpeed Cache, and Super Page Cache For Cloudflare, tests showed a ~100ms average TTFB. Each test is different, so you can run your own or click through the site.
Even when using ChemiCloud’s New York data center, TTFB is ~100ms in most locations.
This is why “choosing a host based on data center location” doesn’t always make sense (especially for static sites and if Cloudflare has a close PoP to your visitors). To get a similar TTFB on WooCommerce, you would ideally use CDN smart routing (like Cloudflare Argo). Without a CDN, TTFB is fast for visitors close to the data center and slower in other locations:
2. ChemiCloud vs. Other Shared Hosts
With this setup, you get the best of all worlds (the “TLDR” of this review):
- Performance: LiteSpeed servers, LiteSpeed Cache, Cloudflare, NVMe SSDs, Redis, and PHP 8.2 are generally faster than alternatives (tables/references listed below).
- Server resources – you get 3 CPU cores + 3GB RAM on the WordPress Turbo plan (more than most shared hosts who sometimes don’t even list these). LiteSpeed is also more CPU + memory efficient with roughly 2x the capacity of Apache servers.
- Large network – ChemiCloud has 11 data centers, Cloudflare has 300+. So even if Chemi doesn’t have a close data center, static sites/blogs can get a ∼100ms global TTFB between Cloudflare’s full page caching and ChemiCloud’s LiteSpeed servers.
- Scalability – their Turbo Boost add-on can scale CPU/RAM from 3/3 to 6/6. Which means even if you pay 3 years upfront, you’re not stuck with the same resources.
- Price: with other hosts, it gets ridiculous between renewals, premium CDNs, and premium cache plugins (SiteGround Optimizer and Cloudways Breeze can’t even delay JavaScript or remove unused CSS, so you need FlyingPress or Perfmatters).
- Support: ChemiCloud has a perfect 5/5 TrustPilot rating and does free migrations.
3. Why LiteSpeed?
Speed
LiteSpeed servers with LiteSpeed Cache outperform most shared hosting setups (that’s why it got popular). This has a lot to do with LiteSpeed Cache optimizing web vitals better than other cache plugins – including WP Rocket. Not only does it have nearly every features in WP Rocket, but it has faster server-side caching, can host third-party code locally (i.e. fonts/Gravatars), lazy renders HTML elements (great for page builders and WooCommerce), gives you more control of caching, and their “remove unused CSS” is faster because it can load used CSS in a separate file.
All ChemiCloud’s WordPress hosting plans use LiteSpeed.
Resource Usage + Scalability
“You’ve exceeded your plan’s maximum resources, now upgrade or we’ll suspend you.” This is what SiteGround does, or you’ll get 5xx errors on hosts like Bluehost/GoDaddy. Since LiteSpeed uses resources more efficiently, it can mean more traffic/plugins without worrying about spikes.
Easy On The Wallet
- No need to pay for a cache plugin (LiteSpeed Cache is free).
- Less chance of upgrading due to spikes in CPU/memory usage.
- Even if you upgrade, the Turbo+ Boost add-on doubles CPU/RAM for just $6-7/mo.
- ChemiCloud is cheaper than most hosts and lets you buy 1-3 years at the intro price.
4. Why Their WordPress Turbo Plan?
In the table, you get more resources (cores/RAM/inodes) and a faster site with Redis, APC, OPcache, and QUIC.cloud’s protocol. For just over $1/mo more than the Pro plan, it’s worth it.
5. Request Free Migration(s) Or Install WordPress
Migrations include 200 cPanel + 10 non-cPanel. It’s also easy to install WordPress with cPanel (Softaculous). More importantly, you can trust them since support knows what they’re doing – unlike some hosts. Or just search “migrations” on TrustPilot to see other people’s experiences.
6. Configure LiteSpeed Cache
Next, configure LiteSpeed Cache using my tutorial, but check the CDN section if you plan on using the Super Page Cache plugin for full page caching.
It does a great job optimizing core web vitals and is arguably faster than WP Rocket (and definitely faster than SiteGround’s Optimizer plugin) which can’t even delay JavaScript or remove unused CSS. You also get server-side caching and the developers do an awesome job releasing new features which you can follow in the LiteSpeed WordPress Community FB group.
| SiteGround Optimizer | WP Rocket | LiteSpeed Cache | |
|---|---|---|---|
| WordPress rating | 4.3/5 | N/A | 4.8/5 |
| Price | Free | $59/year | Free |
| Server-side caching | ✓ | x | ✓ |
| Object cache integration | Memcached | x | Redis/Memcached |
| Delay JavaScript | x | ✓ | ✓ |
| Remove unused CSS | x | Inline | File ? |
| Critical CSS | x | ✓ | ✓ |
| Self-host third-party code | x | x | ✓ |
| Image compression | ✓ | x | ✓ |
| WebP | ✓ | x | ✓ |
| Add image dimensions (CLS) | x | ✓ | ✓ |
| Exclude viewport images from lazy (LCP) | By class/type | Helper plugin | Automatic |
| Lazy load HTML | x | x | ✓ |
| Preload links | x | ✓ | ✓ |
| First time visit optimization | x | x | Guest Mode |
| Control cache TTL | x | ✓ | ✓ |
| Control preloading | x | ✓ | ✓ |
| ESI (edge side includes) | x | x | ✓ |
| Gravatar cache | x | x | ✓ |
| Limit post revisions | Deletes all | Deletes all | Keeps some |
| 1-click preset settings | x | x | ✓ |
LiteSpeed Cache works best on LiteSpeed servers. If you don’t use LiteSpeed, you’re missing out on “LiteSpeed exclusive features” listed on the plugins page.
7. Configure Redis
Redis is more powerful than Memcached, especially for speeding up the admin.
Step 1: Go cPanel → Redis Object Cache.
Step 2: Enable Redis and copy the socket path.
Step 3: Go to LiteSpeed Cache → Cache → Object. Enable object cache + Redis and paste the socket path. Port will always be 0. Save changes, then make sure you pass the connection test.
When setting up Redis on multiple sites, each site should have a unique Redis Database ID (0-100). For example, site 1 is “1” and site 2 is “2.” You can also read ChemiCloud’s Redis tutorial.
8. Configure Your CDN (Cloudflare Or QUIC.cloud)
CDNs are a huge part of TTFB for visitors far away from your hosting server.
While QUIC.cloud’s CDN was built by LiteSpeed, Cloudflare has better performance on CDN Performance Tracker, or see cdnperf.com. This is due to Cloudflare’s network (3x larger than QUIC’s) + 228 Tbps (data transfer speeds). Cloudflare also has more features in the dashboard.
Some hosts/cache plugins started offering CDN integrations (SiteGround CDN, RocketCDN, etc). These are usually inferior since you lose access to the original CDN dashboard… which means you also lose access to many features. And the CDNs they use are typically inferior to Cloudflare.
| RocketCDN (WP Rocket) | FlyingCDN (FlyingPress) | SiteGround CDN | QUIC.cloud Standard Plan | Cloudflare | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CDN | BunnyCDN | BunnyCDN | Google Cloud | QUIC.cloud | Cloudflare |
| Locations | 121 | 121 | 183 | 84 | 310 |
| Speed (Tbps) | 80 | 80 | Not listed | Not listed | 228 |
| Full page caching | x | x | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Load balancing | ✓ | ✓ | x | ✓ | ✓ |
| Firewall | ✓ | ✓ | x | ✓ | ✓ |
| Image optimization | x | Bunny Optimizer | Limited | ✓ | x |
| Bandwidth | Not unlimited as advertised | Unlimited | Unmetered | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Features | Low | Low | Low | Medium | High |
| Price | $8.99/mo | $.03/GB | $14.99/mo | $.02 – .08/GB | Free with Super Page Cache |
On the ChemiCloud demo site, I used the free Cloudflare Super Page Cache plugin to cache everything, which is similar to APO and seems to have better compatibility than the official Cloudflare plugin (which has very few settings). I’ll also show you how to set up QUIC.cloud’s CDN if you prefer it, but I recommend at least trying Super Page Cache.
Cloudflare Super Page Cache
Step 1: Change your DNS to Cloudflare which performs well on dnsperf.com. Add your website to Cloudflare, they will scan records, then provide you with 2 nameservers. In ChemiCloud, you will change these (Domains → Manage Domains → Nameservers → Use Custom Nameservers).
Step 2: Install the Super Page Cache For Cloudflare plugin. Add your Cloudflare email, global API key, domain, and enable page caching. According to the developer (iSaumya), follow these next steps. If you have additional questions, I recommend asking iSaumya in a support thread.
- Disable LiteSpeed’s page caching and guest mode + guest optimization.
- “Only use LiteSpeed Cache for static file optimization.” However, I believe you can still configure it normally except for the caching/CDN settings (including using it for object cache, crawler, database optimization, Heartbeat, and image/page optimization settings).
- Do not enter your Cloudflare API details in LiteSpeed Cache (it’s handled by this plugin).
- Do not use the official Cloudflare plugin and make sure APO is disabled in CF dashboard.
- Enable fallback cache in Super Page Cache, then disable page caching in LiteSpeed Cache.
Step 3: Configure settings in your Cloudflare dashboard (I recommend the following):
- SSL/TLS Recommender (SSL/TLS → Overview).
- Always Use HTTPS (SSL/TLS → Edge Certificates).
- HTTP Strict Transport Security (SSL/TLS → Edge Certificates).
- WAF Rules (Security) to block unwanted requests.
- Brotli (Speed → Optimization → Content Optimization).
- Early Hints (Speed → Optimization → Content Optimization).
- Automatic Signed Exchanges (Speed → Optimization → Other).
- Crawler Hints (Caching → Configuration).
- Hotlink Protection (Scrape Shield).
- Purge Cloudflare’s Cache (after you’re done configuring settings).
QUIC.cloud
Step 1: In the LiteSpeed Cache General settings, request a domain key and add your server IP. Once you have a domain key, click “link to QUIC.cloud” which adds a link to QUIC’s dashboard.
Step 2: In LiteSpeed Cache’s CDN settings, enable QUIC.cloud CDN (leave CDN Mapping off).
Step 3: Change nameservers to QUIC.cloud’s:
Step 4: Review the free vs. standard plan. The free plan only uses 6 PoPs without DDoS protection while the standard plan uses all 83 PoPs with DDoS protection. It costs $.02-$.08/GB (depending on the regions you select) and requires adding credits inside your QUIC dashboard.
9. Optimizing Images
When using Cloudflare’s CDN, you don’t get QUIC.cloud’s image optimizations.
Which means you’ll have to find another way to compress and convert them to WebP. I recommend Optimole (same developers as Super Page Cache For Cloudflare) or ShortPixel.
10. Use PHP 8.2
Login to your ChemiCloud cPanel → Select PHP Version. Update to the latest version while testing your site for broken elements (which probably means a specific plugin isn’t compatible).
11. Scalable CPU Cores/RAM
The Turbo+ Boost add-on doubles CPU/RAM from 3 cores + 3GB RAM to 6 cores + 6GB RAM for $6-7/mo. Which means even if your resource usage goes up, you don’t have to buy a new plan.
As far as I know, ChemiCloud is the only host with this kind of scalability on shared hosting. Other hosts make you sign up for 3 years to get the cheapest price, then you’re trapped with a fixed amount of resources. You max them out with extra traffic, plugins, background tasks, etc. You’re then at the mercy of your host (who will probably tell you to upgrade plans). And since resource usage should be under 50%, it’s nice to have. ChemiCloud has other add-ons as well.
Price:
- 12 months (7% Discount) $77.40 ($6.45/mo)
- 24 months (10% Discount) $150 ($6.25/mo)
- 36 months (14% Discount) $214.20 ($5.95/mo)
12. NVMe SSDs + MariaDB
NVMe SSDs often have 6x faster read/write speeds than traditional hard drives, but they’re usually only beneficial for dynamic (WooCommerce) or complex sites with large databases. NVMe SSDs (and MariaDB) are still preferred over traditional hard drives and MySQL which are used on hosts like SiteGround/Bluehost. If the price is the same, stick with NVMe and MariaDB.
13. 5/5 TrustPilot Rating With Great Support
Search their profile for people who moved from SiteGround, Bluehost, HostGator, etc.
Not many hosts let you review them on Google:
As always, I recommend joining the WP Speed Matters Facebook Group since most other Facebook groups are run by SiteGround (that’s the only reason they’re promoted everywhere).
Try them out and see yourself (they have a 45 day money back guarantee): chemicloud.com
Cheers,
Tom
I’m moving my site from Siteground. Both my domain registrar and hosting is via Siteground and I’m planning on going to Chemicloud but I was wondering if moving my domain registrar to Cloudflare. Would you recommend that or is there a better set up?
Thank you :)
For domains, Bill Hartzer answered this in the SEO Signals Facebook group. He ran a stolen domain recovery service and essentially said it boils down to using a register with good support in case anything were to go wrong.
“Namecheap, any Tucows registrars, porkbun, fabulous, Dynadot are all good.”
…
“never move domains to Cloudflare registrar. The CDN is great, but cf registrar is one of the worst out there. I’ve had to recover way too many stolen domain names from Cloudflare. They only have 1 employee in Singapore who handles the registrar. Took 10 days to get a stolen domain back and usually it’s about 1-2 days.”
A lot of people ask this, so I’ll probably ask Bill if I can share this all in a post or screenshot his responses.
Hey Tom,
I’ve read so much on your site, I’ll switch to either rocket.net or Chemicloud through your links at this point.
But I was wondering if I can be on a budget with my WooCommerce site.
The rocket plan with Cloudflare Enterprise included sounds enticing but they use Apache+Nginx servers. Aren’t they much slower than Litespeed servers? Plus the total price point is quite high when adding FlyingPress into the mix.
I was thinking to use Chemiclouds WP Turbo, get Cloudflare Images for $5 and use Litespeed Cache + Super Page Cache for free to get the benefits of Litespeed servers at much lower cost.
Does it make sense?
Hey Andy,
Might want to explore a VPS. You probably don’t want shared because of low resource limits which aren’t great for WooCommerce. Not managed cloud because of price.
LiteSpeed is preferable but managed cloud hosts don’t use it… I believe because the licensing is super expensive. Even on VPS plans like on Chemi/NameHero, the customer has to pay extra for the license. That said, have you looked at RunCloud?
You can also go on these company’s TrustPilot profiles and use the filter to search “VPS.” See how many good vs. bad reviews they have specifically about their VPS plans. For example, Scala has mostly good reviews, Hostinger and FastComet have quite a few bad ones.
I’ve been creating a spreadsheet comparing a bunch of different hosts including different shared, VPS, and managed cloud plans. Planning on publishing it on my “best WordPress hosting” article soon… likely in the next 1-2 weeks. But it sounds like RunCloud or Scala may be two better options.
Hope that helps but lmk.
Hi Tom!
I had read your review for a long time and today I had signed up for Chemicloud via your affiliate link. I had got 3 hosting experience by your review and It is true everything’s.
Have a nice day :)
Thank youuuu! Really appreciate that, trying to be as true as I can. Have an awesome day yourself.
Hi Tom! I just wanted to say “Thank you” for this excellent review of Chemicloud which I came to via your “..Best Hosting..” page. Having been a Cloudways customer (Vulture HF) for about 1.5 years now or so, I’ve just signed up for Chemicloud via your affiliate link.
Originally I started learning information about what *REALLY* matters for page speed from your wonderful content some time ago. I became one of the few people I know personally to achieve near 99-100 Pagespeed Insights (mobile, no CDN, no “tricks”) scores using what I learned from your site as a foundation and then going down the rabbit hole as we say, ha ha.
Moving to Chemicloud will be a refreshing change as:
– Cloudways does not include email by default. The dashboard optional email add-on, Rackspace Email, is cheap ($1/month) but messed up the formatting on basic text emails when I tried it. Ridiculous! I’ve been using SMTP2GO for free, but fewer and fewer Wordpress emails having been getting through over time. :(
– Cloudways pricing has increased, making it a worse value than before.
– Speeds are good but they have a custom user interface (not cPanel), and while it works fine, I have to admit it’ll be nice to go back to cPanel.
– No file manager with Cloudways unlike in cPanel; I have to use FileZilla for that. It works, but requires more time & hassle.
– Cloudways support is not “bad” per se, but it’s simply not at the level of higher-tier hosting providers or better-rated ones like you’ve mentioned here.
For anyone concerned about storage growth I contacted Chemicloud and they replied that you can add 20GB more storage for $4.95 more/month, so that’s good to hear.
Looking forward to trying to implement CDN use for the first time based on the steps you listed. The test data you provided showing how it actually does help for site visitors in other countries was very helpful in convincing me to finally give it a fair try.
Thanks again Tom. Your test data, snapshots, and tables are awesome! Sadly, it’s very rare to see legit hosting comparisons – SO MUCH garbage out there.
Have a great week and even better Christmas holiday. :)
Hey Marty,
That’s awesome! Glad the tutorials are useful to ya :)
I felt the same about Cloudways… definitely lacking in some key areas which lead me to find some better solutions. ChemiCloud is one of them (it’s shared hosting, but solves nearly every problem). Rocket.net is another (higher budget, but a major upgrade from CW), and the other would probably be something like ServerAvatar.
Of course I agree about the garbage… it’s all about commissions and aggressive/unethical marketing from both hosting companies and their affiliates. And when you’re honest, there’s a good chance you’ll get threatened.
Let me know where you end up at and if you have questions along the way. Really appreciate you saying all that and have an amazing Christmas!