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Our independent research projects and impartial reviews are funded in part by affiliate commissions, at no extra cost to our readers.
SiteGround should be on your list of top web hosting services if you’re the kind of customer who likes an innovative boutique over a big box brand. Large corporations have gobbled up many hosting services to the extent that they sometimes leave the unique qualities that characterize a hosting company in the process.
While other hosting companies struggle to keep up with these unique properties, SiteGround continues to improve their customers’ experience on their platform. For instance, their in-house developed hosting solutions, hassle-free scaling for small businesses, advanced hosting architecture optimization for excellent speed and performance, and many others are some of the features that make them stand out.
SiteGround demonstrates a genuine desire to assist their clients with their online activities. In addition, the company goes beyond and above what is often required of web hosts by providing its own malware/virus scanning tools and isolation technologies. The tools stop compromised websites from bringing down other websites on the same server.
SiteGround is a privately owned web hosting firm that was founded in 2004. The corporation is headquartered in Bulgaria and serves people all over the world. Their Data Centers are located in Amsterdam, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Singapore, and you’re allowed to choose from any of them during signup. The multiple server locations also contribute to the fast loading time since it reduces the load that would have been on a single server.
SiteGround is very involved with community activities and has positioned itself as a provider of “well-crafted” hosting solutions. The company hosts over 2,000,000 domains and has more than 500 workers.
Before now, SiteGround used to have similar features as Bluehost, but SiteGround’s hosting infrastructure has dramatically changed as a result of recent developments.
SiteGround outperforms Bluehost in terms of performance (speed and uptime), technical resources, pricing transparency, more advanced backup options, and customer service quality. However, as a result of all of this creativity, SiteGround had to raise its prices by 100%.
When it comes to prices, Bluehost is better than SiteGround because they not only give a 50% discount, but they also have a free domain name for every account.
You may be curious why someone might prefer WP Engine, a managed WordPress host, over SiteGround, although it costs too much more. WP Engine specializes in WordPress hosting, so all of their hardware and software is optimized for the platform. This has a lot of benefits, the most important of which is faster page loading, which search engines include when rating websites.
SiteGround, on the other hand, has a host of features that WP Engine does not, such as email. For most business owners, SiteGround is the better choice. However, for others, the additional expense of WP Engine is well worth it.
When choosing a web-hosting facility, there are several factors to consider. These are features that relate to a broad consumer base (like pricing and storage) and features that are more business-oriented (such as security, e-commerce, and server location).
Many of these topics are addressed by SiteGround, and they do it well. It provides a fair number of hosting options, various performance-enhancing software, and outstanding customer support.
SiteGround is a good web hosting service for individuals and small enterprises, despite the lack of VPS, dedicated, and Windows servers.
Recently, SiteGround replaced cPanel with their Client Area and Site Tools, which they built in-house.
You can navigate your site more easily with this new interface which was built using REACT as a single application. The new interface allows you to work more seamlessly and access your account from any device.
Often people have the terms uptime and reaction time mixed up. The difference is quite simple. Uptime refers to the period the server is active, while the server response time is the time it takes for the server to send out a web page. SiteGround promises an excellent uptime of 99.99% for their users.
The server response time is a crucial factor to consider when choosing between two or more hosting options. For SiteGround, their response time is incredible. For instance, the response time for some locations like the United States is as low as 1ms.
All of SiteGround’s cloud hardware is designed with the most up-to-date technologies. They also move users’ profiles regularly from old hardware to modern, upgraded, and faster servers to ensure faultless performance on all of the hosted websites.
The company’s web host service is one of the fastest, with an approximate load time ranging from 20ms to 1s. SiteGround uses the following technology to increase its loading speed:
SiteGround tracks its servers in real-time, unlike other web hosts that monitor them every 1 to 5 minutes. As a result, server issues are identified as soon as they arise and, as a result, are resolved even more quickly. The combination of real-time monitoring and cutting-edge server technologies means limited downtime.
SiteGround offers backups and restores features on all their plans allowing you to restore to an earlier version of your website. You get 30 automated regular backup copies and free automatic daily machine backups. It only takes a single click to restore your site to an earlier version.
Automatic backups and instant restoration are accessible on all their plans. You may also schedule on-demand backups on the GrowBig plan for a specified period.
Additionally, you have the option of creating an “on-demand” backup at any time. This feature is used in both GrowBig plans and higher tiers.
The on-demand backups might be helpful when you publish significant updates on your website. You may back up specific data archives, or emails, or your whole account when you make an “on-demand” backup.
SiteGround’s Google Cloud infrastructure is probably one of their most underrated features that many hosting companies and reviewers overlook. The server architecture has a significant impact on how well the website does in different geo-locations.
Today, Google Cloud is renowned for being one of the fastest and most efficient networks. With this feature, your website would load faster on SiteGround, unless you make a mistake with poorly designed plugins or themes.
Here are some of the most overlooked benefits of this feature:
One of the first things most people consider before choosing a web hosting service is server speed. Research by Google shows that about 53% of users will migrate away from your hosting service if your page loading time exceeds three seconds.
You don’t have to worry about that when you use SiteGround, as their servers are super optimized for speed. They use one of the fastest platforms (Google Cloud platform) on the market.
SSL seeks to protect all data transmitted back and forth from the user’s device and the server, including personal information such as IP addresses and credit card numbers. Hackers and others could quickly intercept this information if it was left unprotected.
Some web browsers warn users against visiting websites that don’t have an SSL certificate set up. Nowadays, SSL certificates are requirements on all websites, and fortunately, SiteGround offers them for free on all plans.
SiteGround also provides a free Cloudflare CDN, which stores large files like images and videos on multiple servers in different locations in the world. This ensures that the files are easily accessible by the site visitors.
SiteGround offers shared hosting, cloud hosting, managed WordPress hosting, and dedicated hosting plans. If you’re just getting started, their shared hosting plans would fit your needs perfectly. However, as the platform grows, you’ll want to make sure they have other packages to which you can upgrade.
If you’re looking for the cheapest web hosting option, SiteGround’s shared plan is the way to go. Several websites are stored on a single server with joint hosting, reducing the total expense. However, since the different sites share the server’s processing resources, the site’s success can be affected if another bunk-mate experiences a massive traffic spike due to a Reddit hit.
Like a few other web hosts, SiteGround allows you to select which data center you want to host your website. You can pick a European data center if you are worried about data protection or preservation rules. Also, you should use an Asia-Pacific data center if several of the customers are located in Asia.
Each SiteGround server package has a comparatively high monthly price, but you can save money by taking advantage of promotional offers and signing up for a year at a time. Here’s how their current price list look:
Note: For users signing up for new annual plans, SiteGround offers discounts of $6.99 a month, $9.99 a month, and $14.99 a month on their StartUp, GrowBig, and GoGeek packages, respectively. Furthermore, SiteGround claims that it can accommodate more visits than the stated quotas, but only on a one-time basis every month (for example, when your blog receives a Reddit hit).
We applaud SiteGround for being transparent about its limitations; most web hosts, including those who advertise “unlimited” visitors and/or info, have traffic limitations hidden in their terms of service.
VPS storage is no longer available at SiteGround, but cloud hosting is. The Linux-based network, which pools resources from several servers, is programmed to auto-scale in response to traffic spikes, ensuring that your site never goes down due to a power outage.
SiteGround Cloud hosting plans prices and features:
Jump Start (Easy start on the Cloud)
Business (Optimal Cloud Experience)
Business Plus (Advanced Performance)
Super Power (Premium Server Power)
There’s also a lot of space for growth, and you may also customize your cloud hosting packages if you need more power. The plans also come with a one-year free SSL certificate.
The Collaborator feature in SiteGround’s cloud hosting plans and its shared GoGeek and GrowBig bundles allows users that don’t need access to a site’s management resources to upload and generate content.
Like many other web hosting companies, SiteGround provides WordPress hosting. SiteGround manages your setup with integrated controlled WordPress hosting, which provides improved protection, page caching, regularly automated backups, staging, and automatic content management system upgrades for your website.
It also includes a one-click setup and a free account transfer. SiteGround no longer provides a free domain name, although it does provide significant registration reductions.
In terms of costs, the services are comparable to the company’s shared hosting plans, but they’re focused on WordPress only. So if you’ll use WordPress for your website, you can use one of these plans. They’re the same price as the shared plans and still use the same names.
These services aren’t very business-oriented, at least in comparison to shared hosting plans. For the most part, they can both function well for most small companies. However, if you plan to sell goods online, GoGeek is the way to go since it is PCI compatible.
SiteGround’s WooCommerce hosting is another version of their shared hosting plan but focused on WooCommerce. The hosting plan includes SiteGround’s optimization, which significantly boosts your online store’s performance.
The plan has comparable prices with the shared and WordPress hosting plans. You can look into these plans if you want to launch a WooCommerce platform on WordPress. However, the GoGeek plan is the only one that is PCI compatible, so you’ll almost definitely want to use it.
SiteGround’s reseller hosting allows business owners to incorporate web hosting into their services as a means of creating additional revenue streams. You may also use these reseller contracts to start your own web hosting company and white mark all so that your customers never see the SiteGround logo.
Reseller plans at SiteGround start at $9.99 a month, and all of them enable you to host an infinite amount of customers.
These FAQs will help you determine if SiteGround is the right platform for you.
SiteGround is positioned explicitly as a hosting provider for beginners, particularly small business newcomers. SiteGround’s services, from their functionality to their support tools, are tailored to small companies, sole proprietors, and independent contractors who don’t have a lot of design time or specialized web skills.
Also, if you don’t plan to have a constant stream of visitors on your website or don’t need unlimited storage space or unlimited monthly data backup, SiteGround’s restrictions in those areas won’t bug you.
Here are a few other reasons why SiteGround is ideal for small businesses:
Most web hosting services can provide unique plans for newbie business owners, but you’ll need to add more features to your website as the business grows. SiteGround allows you to expand without having to switch hosting providers.
It takes time to switch hosts, and there are almost always issues. As a result, it’s best to stay with your new host wherever possible. SiteGround makes it easy.
Since SiteGround offers several different hosting services, switching hosts should never be needed. Start with their extremely cheap StartUp hosting plan and scale up to their Super Power Cloud Hosting plan or several other dedicated servers to build your own Cloud with OpenStack.
They also have Enterprise Hosting, in which they can custom-build a server to meet your specific requirements and then control it for you.
Many companies begin by simply wanting an online version of a business card, but they quickly expand. Perhaps your company has already arrived at that stage. There isn’t much of a distinction between selling items in the physical shop and selling them online.
Selling online requires just one additional step: delivery. What’s excellent about SiteGround is that you can do this with their most affordable plans, including PrestaShop, Magento, OpenCart, and more.
You may also do drop delivery, so you offer items that you don’t keep in stock. Your online shop would likely expand quicker than your physical store.
If you’re already running a WordPress website, you can use WooCommerce to convert your current website into an e-commerce store. If your e-commerce hosting requirements are demanding, we recommend that you choose SiteGround’s GoGeek package.
It provides hosting services and functionality that can handle online stores with a high volume of traffic.
SiteGround’s user interface is intuitive and easy to navigate. They are stocked with simple and free single-click installs and several optional add-ons and upgrades.
It is worth mentioning that their all-encompassing and comprehensive cPanel is easy to learn and offers various choices for users of varying comfort and skill levels. Also, keep in mind that SiteGround’s in-house professionals are available to assist you at any time.
If you need professional assistance with WordPress configuration or a few marketing tips, SiteGround’s skilled technical support team has put together many guides, videos, and step-by-step tools to make launching your site with SiteGround easy and stress-free.
For users who already own a WordPress website, SiteGround is an excellent choice since they can move the site for free to their servers. Keep in mind that switching web hosts is an easy, fast, and one-time process. Even a website owner who isn’t acquainted with the process can do it.
SiteGround also has a note-worthy additional starter kit for new WordPress websites. The best part is that you don’t require any technical skills or expertise to set up the website with this starter kit. This is useful for many new websites, but it is particularly appealing to bloggers.
The WordPress-SiteGround partnership is transparent and smooth, giving both new and seasoned WordPress consumers and clients no reason to be concerned.
According to their Service Level Agreement, SiteGround guarantees up to 99.99% network uptime annually. If they ever fall below that level, you’ll be rewarded with free months of hosting.
There are a few requirements that must be met in order for the uptime to be measured. SiteGround excludes maintenance issues, whether planned or unplanned. They would also not be held liable if you experience downtime due to a mistake from your end, like exceeding resources, installing incompatible programs, or violating terms.
Some significant external assaults on their infrastructure may also undermine this policy.
The SiteGround support service is outstanding. They offer live chat, 24/7 phone support, and ticket-based support. Unlike some other hosting companies, there are noticeable delays (usually less than a minute) when you use their live chat.
Their customer support staff are also very knowledgeable and don’t need to search for an answer each time you send a new question.
SiteGround has developed its advanced ticketing system, which has an intelligent algorithm for selecting appropriate technical support reps for particular tasks.
Are you wondering which language they support? SiteGround’s customer support is only available in English. They have both an English language YouTube channel and a Spanish Language YouTube channel. Customers on the GoGeek package and higher enjoy “Advanced Priority Support,” which ensures the service request would be prioritized over all others and forwarded to the most qualified support team members.
If you’re searching for a free SiteGround trial, they do have it, but it’s not worth your time. If you just want to give it a shot, SiteGround offers a 30-day money-back guarantee if you are unhappy with them for some reason. Follow these steps to terminate your account:
If the cancellation happens within 30 days of subscription, you are eligible for a refund. With their 30-day money-back guarantee all on their shared plans, you can try out their services for the said period. If you’re not satisfied with the service and decide to cancel your account, you’re eligible for a refund. However, you won’t get a refund on domain name registrations as the fees are non-refundable.
We examined every part of SiteGround’s hosting services in this comprehensive analysis. The following are some of our users’ most frequently asked questions about SiteGround.
Of course, they are. SiteGround is one of the top-rated hosting services for the WordPress community; even WordPress recommends them. The exciting thing about their partnership is the extra WordPress features on SiteGround. Here are some of the users’ favorites:
Instead of VPS hosting, SiteGround offers cloud hosting. Cloud hosting has all of the same features as VPS hosting, with the added benefit of being able to scale up your plan on request. All Cloud hosting plans come with complete management.
There’s hardly a day that goes by without news about cyber-security violations or attacks. Corporations, companies, and even government departments have also become victims of cybercrime. Anyone who operates or maintains a website should be concerned with security.
In this respect, SiteGround excels since it provides a variety of protection solutions. They have a tool called the SG Site Scanner that can tell you if the website is under threat. They also use two reputable anti-spam apps – SpamAssassin and SpamExperts. These tools prevent bots and people from spamming your website.
Other security features on the platform are hotlink protection and IP address blocklists. They check all the links on your website’s homepage to ensure that they are secure.
All SiteGround’s servers support HTTP/2 technology, which is, without a doubt, the safest and most dependable solution available. You’ll still have access to their excellent Web Application Firewall (WAF). It guards against a wide range of possible security violations.
No, they don’t offer domain names in any of their plans. If you need one, you’ll have to purchase it separately from them for around $16/year for a .com domain. You can also use a domain name you purchased from a third party and use it on your SiteGround account.
SiteGround supports several scripting languages like PHP 7, Perl, Ruby, and Python.
SiteGround does not have its own website builder because they want its users to be able to choose the right website creator for their specific needs. That is why they make installations of WordPress, Weebly, Magento, Joomla, and several other website builders. You’re also allowed to create unlimited web pages on the SiteGround platform.
No, SiteGround does not have cPanel hosting anymore. SiteGround opted to drop cPanel hosting after they increased their license prices and instead created a much superior web hosting control panel for customers, allowing them to provide controlled WordPress hosting without the exorbitant prices.
No. SiteGround only offers Linux hosting; they don’t offer Windows hosting.
You can make payment on SiteGround using any Mastercard, Visa Card, American Express, and Discover. Also, you must make payment for one-, two-, or three years of service.
It is possible that after reading this SiteGround review, you’re still wondering if SiteGround is the right web hosting provider for you. As you would have noticed from this review, it is glaring that SiteGround excels in every important aspect of web hosting. Their performance, response time, uptime, security, and customer support are top-notch, to say the least.
The company also offers several incredible features that you won’t find on other web hosting platforms. SiteGround’s servers are not only fast, but they’re also reliable, and their customer support is second to none.
Whether you’re a beginner or you’ve been in the web development industry for a long time, SiteGround has everything you need. You can enjoy a flawless performance, top-of-the-class security features, reliable uptime, efficiency, and outstanding features on all their hosting packages regardless of the one you buy.
You’ll also enjoy a 30-day free trial during which you can request a refund if you’re not satisfied with what they’re offering you. So, in my opinion, SiteGround is an excellent hosting platform choice. But, of course, you’re the one to decide as to whether or not they’re the right fit for you. Head over to SiteGround to make your decision.
