What is TTFB, and why does it matter when choosing a host?
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Time to first byte (TTFB) is the time between a browser asking for a page and receiving the first byte of the answer. It includes the network trip, connection setup and — the part your host controls — how long the server takes to build the page.
What counts as a good TTFB?
Google’s web.dev guidance treats a TTFB of 0.8 seconds or less as good. For a cached WordPress page on decent hosting you should see far less than that from a nearby location.
What affects it
- Server speed and how busy it is (shared plans vary the most)
- Page caching — cached pages skip PHP and the database
- Distance between the visitor and the data centre (or a CDN)
- Heavy plugins and slow database queries on uncached pages
Test it yourself
Run this a few times from your own computer and look at the middle result:
$ curl -o /dev/null -s -w 'TTFB: %{time_starttransfer}sn' https://example.com/How we use it
Every Hostnado review measures TTFB on the same WordPress test site from several locations, so the numbers are comparable between hosts. See how we test.