Methodology

METHODOLOGY · LAST REVIEWED JULY 2026

Methodology – How Hosting Garage Measures

Every check runs live from HG Node, our Mumbai server, at the moment you request it. Nothing is cached. Nothing is simulated. Here is exactly how each result is produced – and what it can’t tell you.

THE CHECKS

How each check works

CheckMethodSource
SSL A live TLS handshake with your server. Certificate chain, expiry date and issuer are read from the server’s actual response — not from a database. HG Node
DNS Records are resolved live from Mumbai, reflecting how your domain answers from India. For propagation across global locations, the dedicated DNS checker resolves from 20+ vantage points worldwide. HG Node
Status A real HTTP request is sent to your site and the actual response code is read — not inferred, not estimated. HG Node
Server speed TTFB (time to first byte) is measured three times from Mumbai and the median is reported — so one slow request or a network blip can’t distort your result. HG Node
Page speed Core Web Vitals — LCP, CLS, FCP, TBT — and the performance score come directly from Google’s PageSpeed Insights. Google PSI
Safety Your domain is checked against Google’s Safe Browsing threat database for known phishing and malware flags. Google Safe Browsing
Security & stack Security headers and the technology stack are read from your site’s live HTTP response. HG Node

Why Mumbai, and not California

A server that answers in 180ms from a probe in San Francisco can take 420ms from Mumbai. Most tools measure from the US or Europe — numbers your Indian visitors never experience. Every Hosting Garage check originates in Mumbai, because that’s the route that matters.

BENCHMARK DATA

Where the hosting benchmark comes from

Hosting Garage does not collect benchmark data. When a result points to your host, it can be compared against independent India hosting benchmarks from HostLatency — a separate project that purchases real paid hosting accounts and monitors them continuously from Mumbai.

We don’t buy the accounts, run the probes, or produce the rankings. HostLatency’s test setup, plan selection and ranking formula are documented on its own methodology page.

Read HostLatency’s methodology →

LIMITATIONS

What these checks can’t tell you

A single moment in timeEach check reflects the instant you ran it — not continuous monitoring. A site that’s up now may have been down an hour ago.
One vantage pointResults reflect the Mumbai route. Visitors in other regions may see different response times.
CDNs can mask the hostIf your site sits behind Cloudflare or a similar CDN, TTFB reflects the CDN edge — not your origin server’s true speed.
Not an SEO auditInfrastructure only — no keywords, backlinks or content analysis.
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Maintained by the Hosting Garage Research Team

Thirteen years in the Indian web hosting industry · Last reviewed July 2026 · This page is updated whenever the testing approach changes