Many PrestaShop stores are slower than they should be. And in most cases, the problem is not in the code: it is in the server where they are hosted.

At PrestaTools we have spent years developing modules and analysing client installations. One of the first questions we ask when a store has performance issues is not “What version of PrestaShop are you on?”, but “What hosting are you using?”. The answer usually explains everything.

In this article we explain what a good hosting for PrestaShop needs in 2026, what mistakes to avoid, and why we have been recommending Hostinger to our clients for a while now.

Speed is not a luxury: it is conversion

There is a direct relationship between a store’s load time and its conversion rate. This is not an opinion: it is documented with real data from millions of sessions.

Google has been using Core Web Vitals as a ranking signal for several years. A slow store does not just lose customers directly: it also loses organic visibility. Hosting is the first link in that chain.

How hosting actually affects PrestaShop performance

PrestaShop is a PHP application with a MySQL database, image management, third-party modules and a Smarty template layer. All of that consumes server resources. When the server is oversold, the impact shows on every single request.

TTFB: the metric nobody checks (but should)

Time To First Byte is the time it takes the server to send the first byte of response to the browser. It is the most direct indicator of hosting quality. A TTFB above 600ms on standard shared hosting is common. A well-configured one should be under 200ms.

CPU and RAM: what the spec sheet doesn’t tell you

Many hostings sell plans without clearly specifying the CPU allocation. PrestaShop, especially with third-party modules and large catalogues, can be demanding on processing power. A server with shared CPU at its limit turns every request into a waiting game.

NVMe vs SSD vs HDD: it really matters

The disk type directly affects database queries and cache file reads. An NVMe disk can be 5 to 10 times faster than a conventional SSD on random operations. In PrestaShop, with dozens of queries per page, that difference is felt.

Server-side cache: the difference between 4s and 400ms

PrestaShop has its own cache layer, but it depends on the server supporting it properly. Options like Redis or Memcached for session and object storage can multiply performance on medium-to-high traffic stores.

Server location

If your store sells primarily in Europe, the server should be in Europe, ideally in a central European datacenter. Every extra millisecond of latency adds up. Selling in Europe with a server in the US is a mistake your conversion rate will pay for.

The most common mistakes when choosing hosting for PrestaShop

What a good PrestaShop hosting must have in 2026

There is no single perfect checklist, but there are minimum requirements for PrestaShop to run well in production:

Why we use Hostinger at PrestaTools

This is not a catalogue recommendation. It is the one we actually use.

When we migrated some of the projects we manage to Hostinger, the results were immediate. TTFB went from 600–900ms on generic shared hosting to consistently under 200ms. Core Web Vitals turned green on most pages without changing a single line of code.

What we value most day to day:

Is it perfect? No. For very high-traffic stores or very specific needs, a managed VPS may be the right choice. But for 90% of PrestaShop stores, Hostinger covers the performance-to-price ratio very well.

Real comparison: slow hosting vs optimised hosting

This is the typical difference we observe when auditing stores before and after a hosting change:

Hosting is the first step. Internal optimisation is the second.

Switching to a good hosting can bring an immediate and significant improvement. But there is a ceiling: once the server is fast, the remaining bottlenecks tend to be inside PrestaShop itself.

Poorly optimised modules, unindexed SQL queries, uncompressed images, render-blocking JavaScript… All of that persists even on an excellent server.

SpeedBoost — Internal optimisation for PrestaShop

Hosting lays the foundations. SpeedBoost handles the rest: resource minification, lazy loading, query optimisation, image compression and much more, all from the back office without touching code.

View SpeedBoost on PrestaTools →

The combination that works best is exactly that: fast hosting as the foundation, and serious internal optimisation on top. Each layer solves different problems and they complement each other. They are not alternatives — they are cumulative.

Conclusion: there is no fast store on slow hosting

If your PrestaShop store loads slowly, before reviewing the code, before changing the theme, before commissioning a complex audit: check where it is hosted.

Hosting is not a cost to minimise. It is the infrastructure your online business runs on. A poorly chosen server can cost you more in lost conversions than what you save on the monthly fee.

Our recommendation in 2026: NVMe drives, properly configured PHP 8.x, European datacenter and real support. Hostinger meets those requirements with a price proposition that is hard to match.

This article contains affiliate links to Hostinger. If you sign up through them, PrestaTools receives a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend services we use and trust.

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