What is Pick a Host?
Pick a Host is an independent Australian web hosting comparison site. We test hosting providers from Sydney, monitor uptime over 30-day periods, and measure real support response times during AEST business hours — then publish what we find, whether it’s flattering to the provider or not.
We’re based in Australia. We’re not affiliated with any hosting company. We earn affiliate commissions when you buy through our links, but our rankings are determined by our test data — not by who pays us the most.
Why We Built This
Try Googling “best web hosting Australia” and you’ll find dozens of comparison sites all ranking the same providers in roughly the same order. Hostinger or Bluehost at #1 almost every time. There’s a reason for that: those providers pay the highest affiliate commissions — $65–150 per sale — and many comparison sites optimise their rankings accordingly.
The problem is that Hostinger runs their Australian customer traffic through servers in Singapore. That adds 80–100ms of latency for every page load, every day, for every Australian visitor. That latency costs you in Google Core Web Vitals, in bounce rate, and in the patience of customers who are used to fast local services.
No existing Australian hosting comparison site was testing from Australian servers and reporting on this gap honestly. So we built one.
How We Test
Our methodology is designed to produce data that’s actually useful for Australian businesses — not benchmarks that look good on paper but don’t reflect real-world conditions.
Speed Testing (TTFB)
Time To First Byte (TTFB) is the time between a browser making a request and receiving the first byte of data back. It’s the most direct measure of server response speed and correlates strongly with Google’s Core Web Vitals score.
We measure TTFB using curl from a virtual machine located in Sydney. Every host gets an identical WordPress installation: GeneratePress theme, 10 sample posts, WooCommerce installed with 5 products. We run 20 consecutive tests and take the median to filter out spikes.
We test each provider from four Australian cities:
- Sydney (primary — all rankings based on this)
- Melbourne
- Brisbane
- Perth
Sydney is our primary ranking metric because it’s where most Australian hosting providers locate their servers and where the largest portion of Australian internet traffic originates.
Uptime Monitoring
We monitor all tested providers continuously using UptimeRobot, set to check every 5 minutes. We don’t report on a provider until we have at least 30 days of data. Our uptime figures represent the percentage of 5-minute intervals where the server responded within an acceptable time threshold.
We restart the 30-day clock after any significant configuration change on our test installs.
Support Testing
We test support by contacting each provider during AEST business hours (9am–5pm AEDT/AEST) via both their live chat and ticket system. We ask the same technical question — about configuring a PHP version — and record the time to first response and the quality of the answer.
Support quality is subjective, so we record it as a data point rather than a primary ranking factor. A provider with faster servers but slower support still ranks above one with slower servers and faster support.
Pricing Transparency
Many hosting providers advertise introductory prices that require 24–48 month commitments, then renew at 2–4x the original price. We show both the intro price and the renewal price in every comparison, so you know the real cost of ownership over two to three years.
Our Ranking Method
Providers are ranked primarily by Sydney TTFB. Secondary factors (in order of weight) are:
- Sydney TTFB — median of 20 runs
- 30-day uptime percentage
- Value for money (performance per dollar, using renewal pricing)
- Support response time and quality
- Server location (AU-based servers weighted higher)
- AU-owned status (as a secondary trust signal)
We do not factor commission rates into our rankings. Kinsta pays us more per sale than VentraIP — and Kinsta is ranked higher because it’s genuinely faster. Hostinger pays us a commission too — and Hostinger is ranked last because it routes Australian traffic through Singapore.
How Often We Update
We re-run speed tests monthly. Uptime data is continuous. Pricing is reviewed quarterly or whenever a provider announces changes.
Each article shows a “last tested” date. If a provider has made significant infrastructure changes (new server location, CDN rollout, hardware upgrade), we re-test immediately and update accordingly.
Affiliate Disclosure
Pick a Host earns affiliate commissions from some (not all) of the hosting providers we review. When you click a link on this site and purchase a hosting plan, we may receive a commission from the provider — at no extra cost to you.
Not all providers we review have affiliate programs. VentraIP, Digital Pacific, Conetix, and several other AU-owned providers we recommend do have programs. Some smaller AU hosts (Serversaurus, DreamIT Host) don’t, and we review them anyway because our goal is to give you an accurate picture of the market, not to restrict our coverage to providers who pay us.
Our rankings and editorial opinions are not influenced by affiliate relationships. A provider can have the highest-paying affiliate program in the market and still be ranked last if their performance data says so. (See: Hostinger.)
Contact
If you’ve spotted an error, have a question about our methodology, or represent a hosting provider who wants to discuss our test results, you can reach us at the contact page.
We don’t accept paid placement, sponsored rankings, or “featured provider” slots. If you’re a hosting provider and want to be reviewed, the only path in is the same one everyone takes: we test you and publish what we find.