Almost two years ago, right after PanelAlpha v1.0 release, we published our first PanelAlpha Engine performance benchmarks, based on its BETA version. Those tests already showed a clear advantage of a container-based WordPress hosting architecture over traditional control panels.
You can read that original article here: PanelAlpha Engine BETA – Performance Test
Since then, PanelAlpha Engine has evolved significantly. After shipping v1.0 of it together with multiple architectural and performance-related improvements, we decided to rerun the exact same performance tests, using the same methodology and workload.
The result is simple: the gap did not close. In many areas, it actually widened.
What changed since the BETA tests
Since the BETA version benchmarks, PanelAlpha Engine has received +50 significant improvements and fixes that directly affect performance and stability:
- Introduction of LiteSpeed Enterprise and OpenLiteSpeed together with Apache-only and NGINX-only webserver options
- Redis object cache and LScache support at the Engine level
- Improved PHP-FPM process management and worker allocation
- More accurate CPU and memory limits per container
- Better container isolation under sustained concurrency
- Reduced cross-container I/O contention
- Network stack optimizations between containers
- Smarter scheduling of PHP processes under load
- Improved handling of slow or blocked PHP workers
- Stabilized Engine installation and update process
- … and many more!
The full and continuously updated list of changes is publicly available in the official changelog: https://www.panelalpha.com/changelog
These changes were not cosmetic. Many of them directly affect latency, throughput, and performance consistency under load. Still, the latest test results confirm that PanelAlpha Engine delivers significantly better performance for WordPress workloads.
Test prerequisites and methodology
To ensure the results are fair, all tests were executed under the same assumptions and constraints:
- The same WordPress installation and content were used across all platforms
- No CDN or external caching layers
- Default panel configurations were used for all platforms
- In the case of PanelAlpha Engine, the only variable changed was the web server
(LiteSpeed Enterprise, OpenLiteSpeed or the Nginx + Apache stack – which was the only option for BETA version) - Load testing tool: k6 with scenario:
- 20 concurrent virtual users
- ~20 seconds per test
- Requests distributed across the site using sitemap URLs
- 0 percent HTTP errors in all test runs
- All tests were performed on the same server plan on Hetzner: CX21, Shared vCPU x86, 2vCPUS, 4 GB RAM, 40GB SSD
1. Average response time
Average response time measures how long it takes for a server to respond to a request, from the moment it is received until the response is fully generated. This is one of the most visible performance metrics for end users, because it directly affects perceived speed.
Results:
| Platform | Average response time (ms) |
|---|---|
| PanelAlpha Engine + LiteSpeed Enterprise | 54 |
| PanelAlpha Engine + OpenLiteSpeed | 54 |
| PanelAlpha Engine + Nginx + Apache (default) | 365 |
| Plesk | 828 |
| DirectAdmin | 1713 |
| cPanel | 1641 |
PanelAlpha Engine with LiteSpeed Enterprise and OpenLiteSpeed responds in ~54 ms, while traditional control panels respond in 800–1700 ms. This means PanelAlpha Engine is 15–30x faster than cPanel and DirectAdmin and over 10x faster than Plesk under the same workload.
2. Average requests per second
Requests per second shows how many HTTP requests the platform can process concurrently.
It is a strong indicator of how well a system handles traffic spikes and concurrent visitors.
Results:
| Platform | Requests per second |
|---|---|
| PanelAlpha Engine + LiteSpeed Enterprise | 340 |
| PanelAlpha Engine + OpenLiteSpeed | 345 |
| PanelAlpha Engine + Nginx + Apache (default) | 54 |
| Plesk | 22 |
| DirectAdmin | 10 |
| cPanel | 10 |
Higher throughput means the same server can handle significantly more users at the same time.
For hosting providers, this directly impacts density, cost efficiency, and stability during traffic peaks.
3. Time to First Byte
Time to First Byte measures how long it takes before the browser receives the first byte of the response from the server. It reflects server responsiveness and backend efficiency.
Results:
| Platform | Time to first byte (s) |
|---|---|
| PanelAlpha Engine + LiteSpeed Enterprise | 0.28 |
| PanelAlpha Engine + OpenLiteSpeed | 0.20 |
| PanelAlpha Engine + Nginx + Apache (default) | 0.26 |
| Plesk | 0.27 |
| DirectAdmin | 0.57 |
| cPanel | 0.45 |
Lower and more stable TTFB improves perceived performance and has a direct impact on SEO and Core Web Vitals. PanelAlpha Engine consistently delivers fast initial responses even under concurrent load. What’s surprising is that OpenLiteSpeed had better results than LiteSpeed Enterprise. We’ll definitely look into this more with further testing to confirm if it’s a consistent result.
4. 90th percentile response time
Requests per second shows how many HTTP requests the platform can process concurrently.
It is a strong indicator of how well a system handles traffic spikes and concurrent visitors.
Results:
| Platform | 90th percentile response time (ms) |
|---|---|
| PanelAlpha Engine + LiteSpeed Enterprise | 60 |
| PanelAlpha Engine + OpenLiteSpeed | 58 |
| PanelAlpha Engine + Nginx + Apache (default) | 410 |
| Plesk | 922 |
| DirectAdmin | 1948 |
| cPanel | 2114 |
PanelAlpha Engine remains predictable under load, with minimal latency spikes. Traditional panels show large and inconsistent response times once concurrency increases.
5. Average request duration
Requests per second shows how many HTTP requests the platform can process concurrently.
It is a strong indicator of how well a system handles traffic spikes and concurrent visitors.
Results:
| Platform | Average request duration (ms) |
|---|---|
| PanelAlpha Engine + LiteSpeed Enterprise | 55 |
| PanelAlpha Engine + OpenLiteSpeed | 54 |
| PanelAlpha Engine + Nginx + Apache (default) | 365 |
| Plesk | 841 |
| DirectAdmin | 1763 |
| cPanel | 1877 |
PanelAlpha Engine finishes requests quickly and frees resources sooner, allowing the system to handle more traffic with less degradation. This directly improves scalability and stability.
Final thoughts
The new benchmarks show that the performance gains observed during the BETA phase were not accidental. Despite adding dozens of improvements, additional services and security layers that would normally introduce overhead, PanelAlpha Engine continues to deliver strong and predictable performance under load, with 2.5to 5x gains across most metrics.
Even when compared using default configurations, PanelAlpha Engine outperforms traditional control panels. The tests also clearly show a significant performance gap between the default Nginx and Apache stack and LiteSpeed-based configurations.
Based on these results, we also strongly recommend using LiteSpeed Enterprise, or at minimum OpenLiteSpeed, to fully leverage the performance potential of PanelAlpha Engine.
you should add Nginx + Varnish to Engine and than do benchmarks
You’ll be surprised how much more you can improve.