SiteGround is a leading WordPress hosting service provider. They offer automatic WordPress upgrades, built-in WP caching, CDN, one-click staging, and more. They are one of the few companies that provide location-specific hosting with 5 data centers globally.
SiteGround Review – The Good, the Bad, and the Everything Else
SiteGround Review: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Having data centers in 4 continents, SiteGround provides a superior site experience to your visitors regardless of their geographical location. SiteGround is one of the few top hosting brands that’s not been acquired by Endurance International Group, a leading web hosting company.
SiteGround stacks up against the competition by providing the latest speed technologies and proactive security practices with all their hosting plans. They offer enhanced performance with NGINX, HTTP/2, PHP7, and free CDN.
They also offer optimized solutions for different open source applications including WordPress and Magneto.
If you need a great hosting service, which is stable, secure, and super-fast, SiteGround is the best choice.
- Free auto daily backups
- Free Cloudflare CDN
- Free Let’s Encrypt SSLs
- Files are stored in SSD (Solid State Drive) storage as opposed to HDD (Hard Disk Drive)
- Regular price $14.99 / mo. but our users pay $3.99 / mo!
- Get started with SiteGround today!
SiteGround Cheap Hosting Review
SiteGround offers cheap hosting, also known as shared hosting, which is the best option for users who are just starting out and need an affordable hosting solution. With cheap hosting, many websites will share resources of the same server, which makes the cost low.
Although it’s SiteGround’s cheapest hosting option available, there’s nothing to be concerned about since your files and data will be secure on the server.
SiteGround offers 3 different shared hosting plans: Startup, GrowBig, and GoGeek.
The Startup plan allows you to host only one website which is great for bloggers and websites of small businesses. With all other plans, you can host multiple websites.
With every SiteGround cheap hosting plan, you get dozens of one-click installers for WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc. that help you quickly start a website.
The GoGeek plan offers geeky advanced features like PCI compliant server, WordPress and Joomla staging, and one-click git repo creation.
SiteGround doesn’t have VPS hosting (virtual private server) plans, but they do offer cloud hosting plans, which is an in-between solution for sites that outgrows shared hosting but can’t afford to have dedicated hosting.
- Free auto daily backups
- Free Cloudflare CDN
- Free Let’s Encrypt SSLs
- Files are stored in SSD (Solid State Drive) storage as opposed to HDD (Hard Disk Drive)
- Regular price $14.99 / mo. but our users pay $3.99 / mo!
- Get started with SiteGround today!
SiteGround WordPress Hosting Review
SiteGround offers WordPress hosting solutions for users who want to host their site on a managed hosting environment. There are no significant differences between shared and managed WordPress hosting plans, except your site will be operated under a WordPress optimized ecosystem. This makes it much easier for WordPress users.
SiteGround is officially recommended WordPress hosting provider by WordPress.org.
With WordPress hosting, you’ll get an additional layer of protection from WordPress specific vulnerabilities. Your core WordPress and installed plugins will be automatically updated to prevent threats from any known vulnerabilities.
- Free WordPress install with WP-CLI enabled
- Auto WordPress updater
- Free Let’s Encrypt SSLs
- Proactive security
- Regular price $14.99 / mo. but our users pay $3.99 / mo!
- Get started with SiteGround today!
SiteGround WooCommerce Hosting Review
If you want to set up an online store with WooCommerce but are not sure about the hosting requirements you’ll need, you just have to choose a SiteGround WooCommerce hosting plan. With SiteGround’s WooCommerce hosting, you can quickly build an online store without having to install WordPress and WooCommerce on your account.
Just sign up for a WooCommerce hosting plan and launch your eCommerce store by logging into your WordPress dashboard. You’ll get all the essential tools including free SSL, Storefront theme preinstalled, and hassle-free WordPress management.
You can choose a WooCommerce hosting plan for as low as $3.99 / mo.
- WooCommerce + Storefront installed
- Auto WordPress updater
- Free Let’s Encrypt SSLs
- Proactive security
- Regular price $14.99 / mo. but our users pay $3.99 / mo!
- Get started with SiteGround today!
SiteGround Reseller Hosting Review
SiteGround’s best reseller hosting is geared towards web designers and developers who want to maintain their clients’ websites on a long-term basis. With a reseller hosting plan, you get all the powerful tools you need to succeed in your reseller hosting business.
You can start as low as $81 per credit for a year and get special domain name deals.
To join the program, you just need to order 5 reseller credits. One credit is equivalent to 1-year hosting. When you purchase more credits in bulk, you’ll get high discounts. Since reseller credits never expire, you can use them anytime to launch or renew hosting accounts for your clients.
Best of all, with SiteGround’s reseller hosting, you get white-labeled cPanel and private DNS upgrades.
- Start by purchasing 5 reseller credits
- 1 credit per activation
- Reseller credit never expires
- Special domain name deals
- $6.69 / month
- Get started with SiteGround today!
Features
(5.0 / 5.0)SiteGround comes with a unique set of features that help you create a blazing-fast website with ease. Let’s take a look at some of the important features you need to look for when hosting a website.
Free SSL
With every SiteGround hosting plan, you get a free SSL certificate. When you host your website on the SiteGround platform, a free standard SSL certificate is automatically enabled without any effort.
SiteGround integrates with the Let’s Encrypt project to provide SSL certificates to its users. An SSL certificate protects user data and helps meet search engine requirements to improve website rankings.
Free Cloudflare CDN
SiteGround offers a free CDN which enables the website to load from the nearest data point for a user. Cloudflare’s CDN, clubbed with SiteGround hosting, ensures your website loads quickly and has the fastest response time.
Free Email Service
SiteGround lets you create a free email address with your domain name. There’s no limit to adding email accounts to your hosting plan.
The email tools include a user-friendly webmail interface, email forwarding option, autoresponders, and more. They also support SMTP, POP3, and other email protocols to deliver your emails smoothly.
Super Caching
By default, SiteGround enables a caching system for all users on their servers. This means your site will load faster than usual from the memory of the server.
It comes with a SuperCacher service to further improve the website loading speed. This service is available specifically for their premium plans (GrowBig and GoGeek).
Free Auto Daily Backups
Many web hosting services don’t back up your site on a daily basis. However, all SiteGround plans come with daily automatic backups, ensuring you don’t have to remember to back up your site regularly.
You can also generate on-demand backups from SiteGround’s provided tools. This service is free on the premium plans and costs a minimal fee on the starter plan.
Website Transfer Tool
When moving a website from one host to another, you need to be careful of traffic, security, backups, and many other things. SiteGround offers a free WordPress plugin that works magically to move your WordPress website without affecting your content or configuration.
SiteGround also provides a professional website migration and transfer service. This is a paid service where a team of experts will move your site while you sit back and relax.
SSD Storage
SiteGround uses solid-state drives (SSDs) instead of Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) for storage. Since SSDs don’t have moving parts, they’ve been proven to improve site performance compared to websites that use HDD storage.
Advanced Security
Security is the key concern when hosting a website with any provider. SiteGround provides free in-house SSH to restrict user account access for your hosting.
It gives an encrypted connection to your hosting account, so web developers and website admins can access the web server in a secure environment. These security features also help manage large files and databases securely.
SiteGround Hosting Pros:
Let’s take a look at how SiteGround stacks up against the competition:
Choose Your Data Center
Even with a shared hosting plan, you’ll be asked to choose your preferred data center. This way, you can ensure your site is hosted on servers closer to your audience geographically.
Amazing Customer Support
SiteGround is well-known for its superior customer service. Best of all, you don’t have to wait more than a few seconds for the next available operator because they have additional support staff in all shifts, so there’s always someone to pick up the live chat. With the GoGeek plan, you’ll get priority support.
Unmetered Bandwidth
The bandwidth is unmetered meaning you’re not charged based on the bandwidth. SiteGround’s StartUp plan, GrowBig plan, and GoGeek plan come with an unmetered data transfer that you can use as much as you like.
Money-Back Guarantee
SiteGround offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on all their plans. This will allow you to test the service and tools with full options for up to a month and if you feel SiteGround isn’t the host for your site, you can request a full refund.
The refund doesn’t include the domain registration fees. The domain name will be your property anyway.
SiteGround Hosting Cons:
Here are some limitations of SiteGround Hosting…
Expensive Plans
Compared to other hosting providers like Bluehost, SiteGround’s pricing is a bit expensive. However, SiteGround offers several unique features than Bluehost for faster page rendering.
No Free Domain
Unlike popular web hosting services, SiteGround doesn’t offer free domain names with their plans. If you’re starting your website, this will be an additional cost to your budget.
Performance
(5.0 / 5.0)SiteGround Uptime Guarantee and Speed Tests
SiteGround ensures a 99.9% uptime guarantee. Best of all, if you ever experience more than 0.1% downtime on a yearly basis, you will be compensated.
To provide our users with real facts, we built a WordPress test site environment and perform several speed tests using the following tools:
- Pingdom
- Load Impact
- Bitcatcha
According to Pingdom’s website speed test, our test site loads in less than a second for a server in Dallas, Texas. That’s faster than 95% of all tested sites.
Apart from Pingdom, we also used a testing tool called Load Impact to figure out how SiteGround handles visitors during a traffic surge. Load Impact sent some virtual users (VUs) to our site and gradually built up to 100 visitors at a time.
In the chart, you can find a blue line (VUs active) which shows the number of virtual users sent to our SiteGround site and a green line (VU load time) which represents how much time it would take to load a web page for a user.
SiteGround performed almost consistently except for a spike when there were 50 users on the site. It quickly recovered and page load time remained steadily low even with more users.
It’s worth noting that the site never went down during our speed test. Take a look at the report below.
SiteGround Server Response Time
The content on your website has a huge influence on page loading time. For instance, if your site has too many images, it will take more time to load than a lightweight site. In fact, images account for most of the downloadable bytes in a typical site.
To get accurate results, instead of the analysis of page load time alone, we decided to test the actual server response time by entirely ignoring the content of our SiteGround site.
To track our SiteGround server response time, we used a tool known as Bitcatcha. Bitcatcha works differently from Pingdom.
Bitcatcha ignores the content of your page and records the page loading time from eight different global locations: New York, LA, London, Brazil, India, Singapore, Japan, and Australia. The speed for each location is measured three separate times, and then the results are averaged.
From the result, it’s evident that SiteGround is the perfect choice if your target audience is mostly located in the United States. In the United States, the server responded in just a fraction of a second. In all other locations, except Japan, the server responded within less than a second.
If your target audience is mostly located in Japan, it’s in your best interest to move your site to their Asia-Pacific data center for the best results.
Support
(5.0 / 5.0)SiteGround Customer Support
Most hosting providers advertise excellent customer support, but SiteGround actually delivers it. SiteGround’s customer service team is well-known for its quick response time and for resolving customer issues quickly.
SiteGround offers 24/7 support via 3 modes: tickets, live chat, and phone.
With SiteGround, you don’t have to wait more than a few seconds for the next available operator. They also have extensive documentation that walks you through every aspect of web hosting with SiteGround. You can also find a webinar series where they share hands-on knowledge on industry trends.
Ease of Use
(5.0 / 5.0)SiteGround allows you to manage your website and hosting account with cPanel.
They also offer dozens of one-click installer for popular website scripts such as WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal.
You’ll also get a basic drag and drop builder with every SiteGround hosting plan to create a website the way you want.
Pricing
(5.0 / 5.0)SiteGround Pricing
SiteGround offers one of the most competitive prices in the industry for its level of service and performance.
To make it even better, they’re offering our users an exclusive discount if you use our SiteGround coupon code.
Here are some of the hosting plans offered by SiteGround.
PLAN | DISK SPACE | BANDWIDTH | PRICE |
Shared Hosting Startup | 10 GB | Unmetered | $3.99 /mo. |
WordPress Hosting Startup | 10 GB | Unmetered | $3.99 /mo. |
Cloud Hosting Entry | 40 GB | 5 TB | $100.00 / mo. |
WooCommerce Hosting Startup | 10 GB | Unmetered | $3.99 /mo. |
Reseller Hosting | 10 GB | Unmetered | $6.69 /mo. |
FAQs
Having helped thousands of users choose a web hosting plan and start their website, we have answered just about every question you can think of. Here are some of the most frequently asked questions about SiteGround.
Why should I choose SiteGround to host my site?
Below are a few features that make SiteGround hosting sets apart from its competitors:
Even with the basic shared hosting plan, you’ll get…
- Free auto daily backups
- Free Cloudflare CDN
- Free Let’s Encrypt SSLs
- Your files will be stored in SSD (Solid State Drive) storage as opposed to HDD (Hard Disk Drive), which doesn’t compromise page speed and overall performance.
- You’re allowed to choose from 6 different data centers of SiteGround for the best performance.
- Unlike most other hosting companies, SiteGround never hard sells hosting addons when you purchase a hosting account.
Which SiteGround plan should I get?
It depends on your hosting needs. If you’re just starting out, we recommend you choose one of SiteGround’s shared hosting plans. If you want to quickly launch a WordPress site without having to install WordPress manually, you may choose a website hosting plan. If you’re after an online store powered by WooCommerce, you may choose one of their WooCommerce hosting plans designed to handle eCommerce websites.
Where are SiteGround servers located?
Here’s a list of the SiteGround server locations:
- IOWA, USA
- London, UK
- Eemshaven, Netherlands
- Frankfurt, DE
- Singapore
- Sydney, AU
Can SiteGround handle high traffic?
SiteGround is capable of handling high traffic around the clock. They offer different hosting packages to their customers and it all depends on which plan you’re on. If your site is found to consume too many resources, they’ll request you to upgrade to a higher plan.
Can I upgrade my SiteGround plan later?
Of course! When you’re starting out, you can choose the most basic plan. As you grow, you can always upgrade to a higher plan per your needs.
Does SiteGround offer a month-to-month payment option?
SiteGround does not offer month-to-month payment options for their shared plans. For higher plans like dedicated servers, they do offer monthly payment options. However, it’s important to note that they offer significant discounts for longer-term deals.
Can I create subdomains in SiteGround?
Yes, you can easily create subdomains in SiteGround using the cPanel.
Do I have to register my domain name with SiteGround?
No, you do not have to register your domain with SiteGround. You can use Godaddy, NameCheap, or any of your preferred domain name registrar.
Does SiteGround offer free SSL?
Yes, SiteGround offers free SSL with all of their plans. eCommerce plans come with dedicated IPs and private SSL.
Does SiteGround offer free CDN service?
Yes, SiteGround has a partnership with Cloudflare CDN to provide free content delivery network (CDN) service to all its customers. This will help speed up your website loading time for users in different locations in the world.
Do I need to purchase the addons that SiteGround offers me?
No, you do not need to purchase any addons at the time of purchase. Should you decide that you need them later, you can always add them to your account.
How good is SiteGround support?
SiteGround offers 24/7 support via 3 modes: Live chat, phone, and ticket. SiteGround is well-known for its speedy response. Unlike other hosting providers, they don’t make you wait more than a few seconds for the next available support agent. Their extensive documentation helps you walk you through every aspect of web hosting.
Can I create an eCommerce site on SiteGround?
Absolutely! SiteGround’s WooCommerce hosting plan comes pre-configured with all the things you need to start an online store.
SiteGround vs Other Hosts
Wondering how SiteGround stacks up against other web hosting companies? See our side-by-side comparison to see for yourself.
Sorry, we do not have any comparison data for this web host.
Final Recap
SiteGround is the best choice for users who need an excellent customer support without compromising on server performance and page speed. SiteGround offers SSD storage for all hosting plans as opposed to HDD like other companies, which has proven to boost the server’s performance.
On top of that, they spend a lot of resources on training, hiring, and managing a great support team. Unlike other web hosting service providers, SiteGround’s support team does not shy away from application-specific questions.
If you want a web hosting provider that keeps the perfect balance of latest technology and excellent customer support, SiteGround is the best bet for you.
- Free auto daily backups
- Free Cloudflare CDN
- Free Let’s Encrypt SSLs
- Files are stored in SSD (Solid State Drive) storage as opposed to HDD (Hard Disk Drive)
- Regular price $14.99 / mo. but our users pay $3.99 / mo!
- Get started with SiteGround today!
I love siteground. The support is fast and effective. The support representatives are friendly, patient and always provide the correct answers to my questions. They will even fix the problem for me if I do not understand exactly what to do. After 25 years in the computer industry, this is the best site with the best support group I have ever worked with
Always a pleasure working with competent people. Great support representative, helpful, nice and smart to understand exactly what i need. Always been this way.
Had the unpleasant experience with the support of other providers in the past so i can tell you for sure that Siteground is the best out there!
They are really good, I recommend them if you want a high-quality website.
They have the best support. It usually takes a few minutes and they get back to you with a detailed response. They DON’T say ‘sorry you’re screwed that’s not my problem’ like some companies. The sites run fast because of the 3 levels of caching. Highly recommend.
I spent days trying to resolve an SSL issue on my own. When I finally gave up and asked SiteGround for help, they resolved it for me within 5 minutes.
After jumping from host to host, SiteGround is by far the only host that simply goes in to resolve it for you.
I’ll totally recommend this awesome host. Thumbs up!
I appreciate how quickly you can get online support. I did feel all my questions were answered. The one thing I didn’t like is that I asked that all my domains and sub-domains be transferred and I was told by the sales guy they would be and then they weren’t and I wasn’t even told about it. Like a trusting individual, I didn’t double-check and so I did lose the data I had on my Sub-domains. Luckily it wasn’t a lot, but it could have been terrible if it was and there was no back up. Always check and double-check.
i have been hosting my site with site ground host for the past 5 years… i am really impressed of there support and there services… you guys are the best
I’ve been with SiteGround now for about 3 years and I have nothing but great things to say about them. Their servers are top-notch and their support is simply fantastic. I just spoke with an Alex, who was super helpful and just reaffirmed my belief that they’re the best hosting provider around, period.
If you haven’t checked out SiteGround, you’re doing yourself a great disservice. What are you waiting for? Get off your ass and join the community!
I recently transferred my site across to Siteground after using the chat function to talk about some silly questions I had. Once the service was paid for, the site move was carried out really quickly. Once tested the site was made live and apart from a few niggling problems the site has worked as I hoped it would. I have used the ticket support a few times and have always received a prompt answewr and fix to my problems. So far cant fault the product or service.
great company
great service
great support
O_O
Real over powered stuff I learned with kindness.
When stuff will become real, i’ll be like :Ô _:Ô
Amazing service…!!!, I swear it felt i was assisted in seconds within my query…
I had three problems with the transfer of my WordPress site by Siteground. The htaccess and config files were not transferred well. Also the clouflare was not installed well. I got a ERR_TIMED_OUT warning on my smartphone. The SSL setting had to be set to FullStrict to solve this problem. After all everything is solved by using the chat which is good and fast (24/7).
Negative: I felt commercial tricked by Siteground. I started with a startup plan of one month to test the hosting qualities. I had read on the site of Siteground that there was made a backup every day. I discovered that when you want to restore a backup that you have to pay for restoring it. This can be financially very painful when you start with your first website!
After I tested my site I checked what upgrading tg the Growbig plan would cost. This would be double the price because I was already a member (five days)! After contacting the support about this they gave me the prom price. You can choose for one, two or three years. After that I will have to pay the double price.
I will order the Growbig plan because of the postive servers and the positive support. So, end good all good, but be care!
You guys are simply the best, you high level of experts are always and patiently willing to assist. I was glad my issues were resolved. Thank you.
The support was very good. I presented your advisor with a complex problem and she had to work to help me solve it immediately. Lot’s of pressure there. She came through. I appreciate that.
friendly. direct. knowledgeable. what else is left. gotta’ clear up some stuff with old host, but will be moving to siteground.
Thank you for your help and understanding when Jetpack ‘highjacked’ one of my sites. You guys are the best!
Support did a fantastic job guiding me in the right direction to solve this transfer in a very short period of time. Excellent customer service. Thank you
SiteGround support is absolutely phenomenal. I had given myself an entire weekend to move a host domain and 5 add-on domains from another provider to SiteGround including two Joomla sites and preparations for a third Joomla site in one of the add-on domains. Thanks to eccellent support through Chat whenever I had questions, I completed it all in just over 24 hours. They fixed .htaccess hiccups for me, installed Joomla in an add-on domain, and answered various questions along the way. Each time I had a different rep and every single one of them was great and deserved 5 stars. Great job SiteGround support!
I’ve dealt with 3 different service reps at SiteGround today while trying to decide if they were the company for me, and then which plan was best — I stared my search online scouring reviews and they seemed like the best choice for me for WordPress.
Each time I connected with them (twice by phone – waited only 10 seconds once, 20 seconds the second time (on a late Saturday afternoon EST, and then about 25 sec for the live chat to open), the reps were very pleasant while still very knowledgable, friendly and confident about what they were sharing. I am actually excited to start working with them! l feel like I’ve made a great decision — I’m going in with positive expectations 🙂
Outstanding service and support, they go above and beyond the call of duty. Couldn’t be more happy and satisfied with Siteground and their support team!
I’ve been with Siteground for a few months now and it’s the best hosting service I have ever used, among many others I’ve had experience with.
I’m currently using their Startup plan (which is the basic contract) and, honestly, it feels like a higher tier from any other service.
Site performance and uptime great: never experienced any issue so far.
Their admin panel is clear and simple to use, and the included features are very good (free domain property, Cloudflare basic, free HTTPS for one year, etc.).
But their strongest point is support: they really are fast and helpful as others said. Siteground makes a point of “being there for you” since you first press the “Purchase” button.
Totally recommended, don’t look further.
Excellent service and help us, thank you
Outstanding support. I had an update cause a website issue on my WP site and needed help restoring a backup. Support team helped walk me through the process and things are up and running again.
Huge thank you! So happy I went with SiteGround.
After hours of frustration with hosting company I’ve been with for years, I finally just had to fire them and transfer my domain to siteground. Support staff was extremely efficient on helping me through the chat. I got my issue resolved with very little wasted time.