StableHost

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StableHost's claim to fame is their stability. They've been around since 2009 and host around 32,000 domains. They have data centers located in Phoenix, Arizona; Chicago, Illinois; and Amsterdam, Netherlands.

I have purchased a hosting plan on StableHost and set up a typical web site. I use that example website to run these tests. Learn more about how I test.

Here is the plan information I chose:

Plan NameStable
Cost$5.95/month
Disk Space7GB
BandwidthUnlimited
Uptime Guarantee99.9%
Money Back Guarantee45 days
NotesSite was ready within minutes after I purchased.

On this page: Uptime | Speed | Support | Alternatives

Uptime Test

I use Pingdom to report website uptime. Pingdom is configured to make an HTTP request to the host every minute, and report if it is unreachable. It'll also report an error if the host takes longer than 30 seconds to respond (Yes, that's not actually down, but if your site takes that long to respond it is unusable in my opinion). Pingdom performs this test from at least 3 servers worldwide, and reports a problem if 2/3 servers do no respond. This test is important if you are concerned about the reliability of your web host (this is important!)    

StableHost Uptime Test Results

StableHost performs alright in the Web Hosting Uptime: Which Hosting Brands Are Best & Worst? Test, with an average result of 99.92 percent. It's best result was 100.000 % but it has been as bad as 73.000 %. StableHost most recent result on Dec 9 was 100.000 %. Stablehost really lives up to its name - proving itself with one of the best uptime percentages around, it truly is stable. Not sure I've witnessed an outage more than a minute or two with them. That's unheard of. Kudos, Stablehost.

Let’s see if StableHost is consistent in its uptime stats:

Recent Raw Results for StableHost

Date Uptime Downtime Outages Avg Response Time
2018-12-09 100.000% 0 mins 0 575 ms
2018-12-08 100.000% 0 mins 0 576 ms
2018-12-07 100.000% 0 mins 0 629 ms
2018-12-06 99.000% 1 mins 1 623 ms
2018-12-05 100.000% 0 mins 0 600 ms
2018-12-04 100.000% 0 mins 0 599 ms
2018-12-03 100.000% 0 mins 0 611 ms
2018-12-02 100.000% 0 mins 0 620 ms
2018-12-01 100.000% 0 mins 0 639 ms
2018-11-30 100.000% 0 mins 0 663 ms
2018-11-29 100.000% 0 mins 0 633 ms
2018-11-28 100.000% 0 mins 0 646 ms
2018-11-27 100.000% 0 mins 0 638 ms
2018-11-26 100.000% 0 mins 0 635 ms
2018-11-25 100.000% 0 mins 0 629 ms
2018-11-24 100.000% 0 mins 0 643 ms
2018-11-23 100.000% 0 mins 0 646 ms
2018-11-22 100.000% 0 mins 0 661 ms
2018-11-21 100.000% 0 mins 0 661 ms
2018-11-20 100.000% 0 mins 0 646 ms
2018-11-19 100.000% 0 mins 0 650 ms
2018-11-18 100.000% 0 mins 0 640 ms
2018-11-17 100.000% 0 mins 0 638 ms
2018-11-16 100.000% 0 mins 0 645 ms
2018-11-15 100.000% 0 mins 0 665 ms
2018-11-14 100.000% 0 mins 0 640 ms
2018-11-13 100.000% 0 mins 0 597 ms
2018-11-12 100.000% 0 mins 0 594 ms
2018-11-11 100.000% 0 mins 0 581 ms
2018-11-10 100.000% 0 mins 0 577 ms
2018-11-09 100.000% 0 mins 0 696 ms
2018-11-08 100.000% 0 mins 0 723 ms
2018-11-07 100.000% 0 mins 0 698 ms
2018-11-06 100.000% 0 mins 0 797 ms
2018-11-05 100.000% 0 mins 0 625 ms
2018-11-03 100.000% 0 mins 0 664 ms
2018-11-02 99.000% 2 mins 1 741 ms
2018-11-01 100.000% 0 mins 0 700 ms
2018-10-31 100.000% 0 mins 0 657 ms
2018-10-30 100.000% 0 mins 0 640 ms
2018-10-29 100.000% 0 mins 0 582 ms
2018-10-28 100.000% 0 mins 0 576 ms
2018-10-27 100.000% 0 mins 0 581 ms
2018-10-26 100.000% 0 mins 0 587 ms
2018-10-25 100.000% 0 mins 0 602 ms
2018-10-24 97.000% 33 mins 1 605 ms
2018-10-23 73.000% 383 mins 1 672 ms
2018-10-22 100.000% 0 mins 0 641 ms
2018-10-21 100.000% 0 mins 0 622 ms
2018-10-20 100.000% 0 mins 0 633 ms
2018-10-19 100.000% 0 mins 0 666 ms
2018-10-18 100.000% 0 mins 0 722 ms
2018-10-17 100.000% 0 mins 0 663 ms
2018-10-16 100.000% 0 mins 0 722 ms
2018-10-15 100.000% 0 mins 0 656 ms
2018-10-14 100.000% 0 mins 0 612 ms
2018-10-13 100.000% 0 mins 0 613 ms
2018-10-12 100.000% 0 mins 0 675 ms
2018-10-11 100.000% 0 mins 0 913 ms
2018-10-10 100.000% 0 mins 0 758 ms

Page Speed Test

This test is performed by submitting a typical web page served on the host to WebPageTest and recording how long it takes to load. This test web page is 56 KB of HTML, 287 KB of JavaScript, 51 KB of CSS, and 1,128 KB of images (these are typical according to the HTTP Archive). WebPageTest (a 3rd-party, vendor-neutral organization) uses servers located in Virgina and California to measure the page load waterfall in the latest version of Chrome, on a very fast internet connection. The test is ran 5 times each, and the middle (median) result is what is counted from each location. Then the east coast and west coast times are averaged, which should eliminate any bias due to server location. We're interested in first page load, not the repeat/cached view. If you're really interested, I use the 'Load Time' measurement that's returned from WebPageTest for ranking page speed. I still collect other metrics such as TTFB (time to first byte), fully loaded time, and the speed index, in addition to server setting scores which are translated to grades. You can see these detailed values in the "Raw Results." This test is important if your site resembles a typical website and you're concerned about speed (which you should be!)   In September 2014 I updated this test to be more accurate, and you'll notice page speeds were a bit higher before then. The test used to be run only 3 times from one location using a simulated cable internet connection on Internet Explorer 11. The new method provides much more consistent results.

StableHost Page Speed Test Results

StableHost performs impressively in the Web Hosting Speeds: Which Hosting Brands Are Best & Worst For Your Site? Test, with an average result of 2.84 seconds. It's best result was 0.00 s but it has been as bad as 12.29 s. StableHost most recent result on Dec 10 was 0.00 s. Stablehost is one of the few hosts that routinely has page load times under 3 seconds - that's awesome. They have all headers optimized for performance (compression, caching, connections), and their stats back it up.

Let’s see if StableHost is consistent in its page speed stats:

Recent Raw Results for StableHost

Date Location Load time TTFB Fully loaded Speed index Keep-alive Score Compress Score Caching Score
2018-12-10 Dulles, VA 0.7 0.5s 1.1s 0.8s A A A
2018-12-09 Dulles, VA 0.7 0.5s 1.1s 0.8s A A A
2018-12-08 Dulles, VA 0.7 0.5s 1.1s 0.8s A A A
2018-12-07 Dulles, VA 0.7 0.5s 1.1s 0.8s A A A
2018-12-06 Dulles, VA 0.7 0.4s 1.1s 0.8s A A A
2018-12-05 Dulles, VA 0.7 0.4s 1.1s 0.8s A A A
2018-12-04 Dulles, VA 0.6 0.5s 1.1s 0.8s A A A
2018-12-03 Dulles, VA 0.6 0.5s 1.1s 0.8s A A A
2018-12-02 Dulles, VA 0.7 0.5s 1.1s 0.8s A A A
2018-12-01 Dulles, VA 0.7 0.5s 1.1s 0.8s A A A
2018-11-30 Dulles, VA 0.7 0.5s 1.2s 0.8s A A A
2018-11-29 Dulles, VA 0.7 0.5s 1.2s 0.8s A A A
2018-11-28 Dulles, VA 0.7 0.5s 1.2s 0.8s A A A
2018-11-27 Dulles, VA 0.8 0.6s 1.3s 0.9s A A A
2018-11-26 Dulles, VA 0.8 0.6s 1.3s 0.9s A A A
2018-11-25 Dulles, VA 0.7 0.5s 1.1s 0.8s A A A
2018-11-24 Dulles, VA 0.7 0.5s 1.1s 0.8s A A A
2018-11-23 Dulles, VA 0.8 0.6s 1.2s 1.0s A A A
2018-11-22 Dulles, VA 0.8 0.6s 1.2s 1.0s A A A
2018-11-21 Dulles, VA 0.7 0.5s 1.1s 0.8s A A A
2018-11-20 Dulles, VA 0.7 0.5s 1.1s 0.8s A A A
2018-11-19 Dulles, VA 0.7 0.5s 1.1s 0.8s A A A
2018-11-18 Dulles, VA 0.7 0.5s 1.2s 0.9s A A A
2018-11-17 Dulles, VA 0.7 0.5s 1.2s 0.9s A A A
2018-11-16 Dulles, VA 0.7 0.5s 1.2s 0.9s A A A
2018-11-15 Dulles, VA 0.7 0.5s 1.2s 0.9s A A A
2018-11-14 Dulles, VA 0.7 0.5s 1.1s 0.8s A A A
2018-11-13 Dulles, VA 0.7 0.5s 1.1s 0.8s A A A
2018-11-12 Dulles, VA 0.7 0.5s 1.1s 0.8s A A A
2018-11-11 Dulles, VA 0.7 0.5s 1.1s 0.8s A A A
2018-11-10 Dulles, VA 0.8 0.5s 1.2s 0.9s A A A
2018-11-09 Dulles, VA 0.8 0.5s 1.2s 0.9s A A A
2018-11-08 Dulles, VA 1.1 0.9s 2.1s 1.3s A A A
2018-11-07 Dulles, VA 1.1 0.9s 2.1s 1.3s A A A
2018-11-06 Dulles, VA 0.6 0.4s 1.1s 0.8s A A A
2018-11-05 Dulles, VA 0.6 0.4s 1.1s 0.8s A A A
2018-11-04 Dulles, VA 0.6 0.5s 1.1s 0.8s A A A
2018-11-03 Dulles, VA 0.6 0.5s 1.1s 0.8s A A A
2018-11-02 Dulles, VA 0.7 0.5s 1.1s 0.8s A A A
2018-11-01 Dulles, VA 0.7 0.5s 1.1s 0.8s A A A
2018-10-31 Dulles, VA 0.7 0.5s 1.1s 0.8s A A A
2018-10-30 Dulles, VA 0.7 0.5s 1.1s 0.8s A A A
2018-10-29 Dulles, VA 0.7 0.5s 1.1s 0.8s A A A
2018-10-28 Dulles, VA 0.7 0.5s 1.1s 0.8s A A A
2018-10-27 Dulles, VA 1.0 0.8s 1.4s 1.0s A A A
2018-10-26 Dulles, VA 1.0 0.8s 1.4s 1.0s A A A
2018-10-25 Dulles, VA 0.8 0.6s 1.3s 0.9s A A A
2018-10-24 Dulles, VA 0.8 0.6s 1.3s 0.9s A A A
2018-10-23 Dulles, VA 1.3 1.2s 1.9s 1.5s A A A
2018-10-22 Dulles, VA 1.3 1.2s 1.9s 1.5s A A A
2018-10-21 Dulles, VA 1.2 1.0s 1.8s 1.2s A A A
2018-10-20 Dulles, VA 1.2 1.0s 1.8s 1.2s A A A
2018-10-19 Dulles, VA 0.7 0.5s 1.3s 0.9s A A A
2018-04-05 Dulles, VA 0.6 0.4s 1.0s 0.7s A A A
2018-04-05 San Jose, CA 0.4 0.3s 0.7s 0.4s A A A
2018-04-04 Dulles, VA 0.8 0.7s 1.3s 1.0s A A A
2018-04-04 San Jose, CA 1.0 0.7s 1.6s 0.9s A A A
2018-04-03 Dulles, VA 0.6 0.4s 0.9s 0.7s A A A
2018-04-03 San Jose, CA 0.4 0.3s 0.7s 0.5s A A A
2018-04-02 Dulles, VA 0.6 0.5s 1.0s 0.8s A A A

Does StableHost Suck?

Some people may think StableHost sucks. Here are some real benchmarks to show you StableHost‘s speed, reliability, and support – so you can see if they really do suck.

Is StableHost slow?

This test measures the total time it takes to load a standard web page. Lower is better.  Learn more about the Page Speed Test.

HostAverageBestWorst
HostGator: How Good (Or Bad!) Is Their Uptime & Hosting Speed?2.79 s2.00 s15.02 sTest Results
StableHost2.84 s0.00 s12.29 sTest Results
GoDaddy2.90 s0.31 s37.97 sTest Results
DreamHost: How Good (Or Bad!) Is Their Hosting Speed & Uptime?2.99 s0.00 s21.25 sTest Results
Bluehost3.01 s0.00 s9.17 sTest Results
MDDHosting: How Good (Or Bad!) Is Hosting Speed & Uptime?3.04 s2.00 s74.96 sTest Results
InMotion Hosting: How Good (Or Bad!) Is Hosting Speed & Uptime?3.09 s0.00 s14.12 sTest Results
Namecheap: How Good (Or Bad!) Is Hosting Speed & Uptime?3.12 s2.00 s72.71 sTest Results
Site5: How Good (Or Bad!) Is Hosting Speed & Uptime?3.24 s0.25 s46.29 sTest Results
Yahoo Small Business: How Good (Or Bad!) Is Hosting Speed & Uptime?3.98 s2.00 s60.96 sTest Results

StableHost performs stellar in the Web Hosting Speeds: Which Hosting Brands Are Best & Worst For Your Site? Test, with an average result of 2.84 seconds. It's best result was 0.00 s but it has been as bad as 12.29 s. StableHost most recent result on Dec 10 was 0.00 s. Stablehost is one of the few hosts that routinely has page load times under 3 seconds - that's awesome. They have all headers optimized for performance (compression, caching, connections), and their stats back it up.

Let’s take a look at some of the times that StableHost had some poor page speed performance:

Date Location Load time TTFB Fully loaded Speed index Keep-alive Score Compress Score Caching Score
None found!

Is StableHost unreliable?

This test is performed by measuring the % uptime of a host. Higher is better. Learn more about the Uptime Test.

HostAverageBestWorst
HostGator: How Good (Or Bad!) Is Their Uptime & Hosting Speed?99.970 %100.000 %97.500 %Test Results
GoDaddy99.970 %100.000 %94.720 %Test Results
Bluehost99.940 %100.000 %84.930 %Test Results
Namecheap: How Good (Or Bad!) Is Hosting Speed & Uptime?99.940 %100.000 %92.000 %Test Results
StableHost99.920 %100.000 %73.000 %Test Results
MDDHosting: How Good (Or Bad!) Is Hosting Speed & Uptime?99.870 %100.000 %64.580 %Test Results
Yahoo Small Business: How Good (Or Bad!) Is Hosting Speed & Uptime?99.850 %100.000 %82.780 %Test Results
Site5: How Good (Or Bad!) Is Hosting Speed & Uptime?99.820 %100.000 %50.690 %Test Results
InMotion Hosting: How Good (Or Bad!) Is Hosting Speed & Uptime?99.600 %100.000 %0.000 %Test Results
DreamHost: How Good (Or Bad!) Is Their Hosting Speed & Uptime?83.360 %100.000 %0.000 %Test Results

StableHost performs mediocre in the Web Hosting Uptime: Which Hosting Brands Are Best & Worst? Test, with an average result of 99.92 percent. It's best result was 100.000 % but it has been as bad as 73.000 %. StableHost most recent result on Dec 9 was 100.000 %. Stablehost really lives up to its name - proving itself with one of the best uptime percentages around, it truly is stable. Not sure I've witnessed an outage more than a minute or two with them. That's unheard of. Kudos, Stablehost.

Let’s take a look at some of the times that StableHost had some poor uptime performance

Date Uptime Downtime Outages Avg Response Time
2018-12-06 99.000% 1 mins 1 623 ms
2018-11-02 99.000% 2 mins 1 741 ms
2018-10-24 97.000% 33 mins 1 605 ms
2018-10-23 73.000% 383 mins 1 672 ms

Does StableHost have poor customer service?

This test measures how quickly the host’s support team responds to your request. Lower is better. Learn more about the Support Response Test.

HostAverageBestWorst
MDDHosting: How Good (Or Bad!) Is Hosting Speed & Uptime?0.11 h0.10 h0.20 hTest Results
GoDaddy0.12 h0.10 h0.30 hTest Results
Site5: How Good (Or Bad!) Is Hosting Speed & Uptime?0.28 h0.10 h0.80 hTest Results
StableHost0.37 h0.10 h1.70 hTest Results
InMotion Hosting: How Good (Or Bad!) Is Hosting Speed & Uptime?0.94 h0.20 h2.30 hTest Results
Namecheap: How Good (Or Bad!) Is Hosting Speed & Uptime?2.20 h0.10 h6.00 hTest Results
DreamHost: How Good (Or Bad!) Is Their Hosting Speed & Uptime?2.79 h0.20 h11.00 hTest Results
Bluehost34.67 h0.10 h168.00 hTest Results
Yahoo Small Business: How Good (Or Bad!) Is Hosting Speed & Uptime?50.89 h16.00 h124.00 hTest Results
HostGator: How Good (Or Bad!) Is Their Uptime & Hosting Speed?53.40 h0.30 h168.00 hTest Results

StableHost performs impressively in the Web Hosting Support Response Time: Which Hosts Are Best & Worst? Test, with an average result of 0.37 hours. It's best result was 0.10 h but it has been as bad as 1.70 h. StableHost most recent result on Mar 22 was 0.20 h. Stablehost's tech team is top notch not just in their speed and uptime knowledge, but in their response time too. You can count on the fact that Stablehost will get back to you within a couple hours - and most likely a few minutes.

Let’s take a look at some of the times that StableHost had some poor support response performance:

Date Support Ticket Submitted Support Ticket Resolved Response Time
None found!

Still think StableHost sucks?

I’ve presented you with lots of data that will show you whether or not StableHost sucks. So, what do you think? Are they reliable, fast, and helpful? If not, consider these StableHost alternatives.

Support Response Test

I personally contact each host's support department with a new question/concern and measure how long it takes for them to get back to me. This test is important for every host - it's imperative your web host is able to quickly address your concerns in a timely manner, even if you're an expert webmaster. Who wants to deal with a host that has poor customer service? Tech is hard, and tech support is critical!  

StableHost Support Response Test Results

StableHost performs stellar in the Web Hosting Support Response Time: Which Hosts Are Best & Worst? Test, with an average result of 0.37 hours. It's best result was 0.10 h but it has been as bad as 1.70 h. StableHost most recent result on Mar 22 was 0.20 h. Stablehost's tech team is top notch not just in their speed and uptime knowledge, but in their response time too. You can count on the fact that Stablehost will get back to you within a couple hours - and most likely a few minutes.

Let’s see if StableHost is consistent in its support response stats:

Recent Raw Results for StableHost

Date Support Ticket Submitted Support Ticket Resolved Response Time
2016-03-22 Mar 10, 2:47pm Mar 10, 2:56pm 0.2 hours
2015-02-24 Feb 24, 3:35am Feb 24, 4:05am 0.5 hours
2015-01-27 Jan 27, 5:59am Jan 27, 6:09am 0.2 hours
2014-12-20 Dec 20, 2:56pm Dec 20, 3:04pm 0.1 hours
2014-11-28 Nov 28, 4:40pm Nov 28, 4:44pm 0.1 hours
2014-10-26 Oct 26, 10:58am Oct 26, 11:12am 0.2 hours
2014-09-06 Sept 6, 6:51pm Sept 6, 8:32pm 1.7 hours
2014-08-09 Aug 9, 3:02pm Aug 9, 3:08pm 0.1 hours
2014-07-12 July 13, 2:17pm July 13, 2:30pm 0.2 hours

StableHost Alternatives: Better speed, reliability, and support

Are you having problems with StableHost? It’s not uncommon to want to change to a better host if your current host has issues with being slow, down, or unsupportive. Let’s see if we can find a StableHost competitor that has better uptime, faster load times, and speedier support.

Hosts faster than StableHost

This test measures the total time it takes to load a standard web page. Lower is better. Learn more about the Page Speed Test.

If StableHost is having page speed problems, consider these alternative hosts that score better:

HostAverageBestWorst
HostGator: How Good (Or Bad!) Is Their Uptime & Hosting Speed?2.79 s2.00 s15.02 sTest Results
StableHost2.84 s0.00 s12.29 sTest Results

Hosts more reliable than StableHost

This test is performed by measuring the % uptime of a host. Higher is better. Learn more about the Uptime Test.

If StableHost is having uptime problems, consider these alternative hosts that score better:

HostAverageBestWorst
HostGator: How Good (Or Bad!) Is Their Uptime & Hosting Speed?99.970 %100.000 %97.500 %Test Results
GoDaddy99.970 %100.000 %94.720 %Test Results
Bluehost99.940 %100.000 %84.930 %Test Results
Namecheap: How Good (Or Bad!) Is Hosting Speed & Uptime?99.940 %100.000 %92.000 %Test Results
StableHost99.920 %100.000 %73.000 %Test Results

Hosts more helpful than StableHost

This test measures how quickly the host’s support team responds to your request. Lower is better. Learn more about the Support Response Test.

If StableHost is having support response problems, consider these alternative hosts that score better:

HostAverageBestWorst
MDDHosting: How Good (Or Bad!) Is Hosting Speed & Uptime?0.11 h0.10 h0.20 hTest Results
GoDaddy0.12 h0.10 h0.30 hTest Results
Site5: How Good (Or Bad!) Is Hosting Speed & Uptime?0.28 h0.10 h0.80 hTest Results
StableHost0.37 h0.10 h1.70 hTest Results

StableHost vs Other Hosts

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