SiteGround could even be a popular shared hosting provider offering its users multiple hosting options. Let’s Dive into a Detailed SiteGround Review.
These include WordPress hosting, cloud hosting, and even dedicated server hosting.
We’ve been keeping an eye on SiteGround’s cheapest “Startup” shared plan for over two years.
We purchased a shared hosting account, discovered a live test site, and closely followed its performance with a third-party tool to provide this unbiased and transparent review.
Overall, SiteGround Hosting is on the edge of the best web hosting companies in terms of uptime (99.99%) and speed (673ms) worldwide. Their support team for customers is competent, quick, and polite. A CDN, SSL license and email accounts are in the middle of all plans.
Table of Contents
General Info & Hosting Overviews:
| LOAD TIME: | 660 ms |
| UPTIME: | 99.99% |
| SUPPORT: | 24/7 Live Chat |
| APPS: | Supports more than 500 applications |
| FEATURES: | Un-metered bandwidth, 10 GB storage, website builder, and free email, free SSL and CDN, daily backup |
| HOSTING PLANS: | Shared, WordPress, Cloud, Reseller, Enterprise, and Dedicated Servers |
| SITE TRANSFER: | Not free |
| PRICING: | Starting at $3.99/mo (renews at $14.99/mo) |
Pros of SiteGround Review Hosting
With 99.99 percent uptime, above-average speeds, and plenty of additional features that are great for both beginners and advanced users, SiteGround is off to a strong start. Check out our SiteGround Review Pros here:
Below is a full breakdown of all the pros and cons.
1. Good Performance – 99.99% Uptime in Last 24 Months
All our accommodation reviews have a minimum of 24 months of statistics and real data.
SiteGround’s uptime performance has been near perfect at the time. Their 99.99% average places them among the top trusted hosts we’ve reviewed.
Reliable uptime like this keeps website visitors happy. But more importantly, it means that your site is almost forced to run 24 hours a day, so you won’t get lost when your customers want to make a purchase either.
Here are the month-over-month results from Pingdom, our third-party tracking tool.
The average uptime for the last 12 months:
- January 2020 Average Uptime: 99.92%
- December 2019 Average Uptime: 100%
- November 2019 Average Uptime: 100%
- October 2019 Average Uptime: 100%
- September 2019 Average Uptime: 99.99%
- August 2019 Average Uptime: 99.99%
- July 2019 Average Uptime: 99.98%
- June 2019 Average Uptime: 99.99%
- May 2019 Average Uptime: 99.98%
- April 2019 Average Uptime: 100%
- March 2019 Average Uptime: 99.99%
- February 2019 Average Uptime: 100%
2. Above-average load time (660 ms)
Site speed is by far the second most important factor when choosing a variety.
For starters, Google research shows that 53% of people will leave if their pages don’t load within three seconds.
Also, you can’t do much to repair a slow host. Possibly you are ready to compress images to lighten their weight. Possibly you are ready to load them via CDN to wish some pressure on your server. But once a slow host? Always a slow host.
Fortunately, you don’t need to worry about that with SiteGround. Its above-average load time of 660ms isn’t the fastest we’ve seen, but it does put SiteGround near the top 10 for speed.
SiteGround average load time:
Overall, SiteGround is pretty fast.
3. Good customer service experience (2017-2020)
For over two years in total, we’ve been tracking SiteGround, and we haven’t had any major problems with their help. They provide a data website for users to find their quick answers. Otherwise, you will phone or use live chat 24/7.
We opted for the live chat option for this last test and briefly connected with Vladislav.
Unlike other hosts, there have been no noticeable delays in responses. So he seemed like he knew what he was talking about and wasn’t looking for answers every time we sent him a replacement question.
Good experience all around.
4. Free site migration for ONE website
It makes us a little nervous whenever we see web servers with a “DIY migration” option. That’s because most of them are not perfect, so the customer gets a heavier load.
However, the exception to this rule is usually SiteGround. They need to create a free WordPress migration plugin that you can upload to any platform.
There are also no long and boring tutorials. You generate a token from your SiteGround hosting account; thus, the plugin will quickly help you get the job done.
Yes, it still requires you to undertake tactile employment. But the great news is that this feature allows you to migrate as many websites as you want. (In comparison, some hosts that provide “free migrations” limit you after a few times, forcing you to pay after a specific point.)
If you prefer to have professional and practical help, SiteGround will provide free service in its higher-level plans (GrowBig and above).
If you exceed the limits of each plan, they charge a nominal fee of $30 for each additional site.
5. Free SSL certificate and content delivery network (CDN)
Google Chrome has started to actively warn people if the situation they are trying to achieve does not have an SSL certificate discovered.
SSL helps protect any information sent between the user’s device and, therefore, the website, including personal data such as IP addresses or master card numbers. Hackers et al. will easily intercept this information if you are not protected. So Chrome is trying to find what web users are most curious about here.
In other words, that basically makes SSL certificates a requirement on every website today. And thankfully, SiteGround offers these certain free on all plans.
The other great news comes within the fairly free Cloudflare CDN (Content Delivery Network). CDN stores large files, such as images, on many servers in various locations around the world. This helps ensure that files are stored as close to site visitors as possible, speeding up access to them.
SiteGround has servers on three continents, which helps maintain fast load times and offers an honest user experience.
6. Functions available for beginners and advanced
Beginner-friendly hosting, SiteGround offers something for everyone.
Beginners and bloggers will like that you can install popular website builders like Weebly in just a couple of clicks. Weebly features a simple drag-and-drop editor so that you take full control over the design and feel of your site (without having to dive into code).
SiteGround also has extensive integrations with WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and Weebly. They also install each of these apps easily and seamlessly. To help you, you don’t need a developer.
However, if you’re already a developer, you’re in luck too.
On larger plans, along with SSH, WP-CLI, SFTP, and phpMyAdmin, you’ll get Git pre-installed. At their disposal, they need many versions of PHP. There is multi-level caching. And before bringing the new functionality to production, you’ll also have access to test environments for sites to plan or test.
Our favorite, SiteGround, also helps with security, employing a proprietary artificial intelligence bot prevention tool that attempts to quell new attacks before they occur. Their data reports that between 500,000 and 2 million brute force attempts are blocked on their servers every hour.
Therefore, you are also not left alone to affect these headaches.
7. 99.99% uptime guarantee
Best web hosting, SiteGround has servers on three continents, which helps maintain fast load times and offers an honest user experience. Remember that solid 99.99% uptime average? Well, there’s a reason SiteGround doesn’t falter here – it could cost you tons of cash.
Oftentimes, once you research an internet host’s terms of service, there’s only bad news hidden in the fine print.
The fastest web hosting, SiteGround surprised us in a big way. Under their SLA, they guarantee “99.9% annual network uptime.” If they ever fall below that threshold, you will be compensated with free months of hosting.
Now, there are some conditions to measure uptime. Any problems with planned or emergency repairs are excluded. If the downtime is due to something you do (such as exceeding resources, downloading apps that don’t work, or violating conditions), SiteGround is not responsible. This strategy could also prevent any significant external attacks on your networks.
8. 30-day money-back guarantee
On all shared hosting offers, SiteGround offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. In contrast, their cloud, VPS, and dedicated hosting plans only come with a 15-day refund.
Charges for domain names and all other “extras” are generally not refunded, like many other hosts. And it only extends to new customers with this refund policy. So in extension contracts, you cannot get refunds.
Cons of SiteGround Review Hosting
Our favorite hosting, SiteGround, surprised us with nearly flawless uptime and its promise of free service when uptime dropped below 99.99%. While they are not the fastest, their loading speeds are very good. Furthermore, to satisfy both novice and experienced users, SiteGround offers a range of applications. Check out SiteGround Review Cons here:
However, there are a couple of drawbacks to think about before signing up. These are some of the biggest issues we saw during our practical test.
1. Higher renewal rates
SiteGround’s cheapest plan, StartUp, features a coffee price of $3.99/month advertised on its website.
This deal seems too good to be true because it is. Almost every web server we’ve reviewed so far uses an equivalent trick. They catch your eye with an introductory rate of coffee, only to double (or even triple) the value when it’s time to renew.
For example, that $3.99/month rate increases to $14.99/mo once you renew. The other SiteGround plans go up to $24.99/mo and $39.99/month, respectively.
So far, the best solution is to stay as long as possible (36 months at SiteGround) to take advantage of that low rate for as long as possible.
2. Limited “budget” plan
SiteGround’s price on its lowest plan is like the competition, so it seems like an honest deal once you check it out for the first time.
However, the functions of the plan are not exactly aligned.
For example, you get a website and only 10GB of web space to handle around 10,000 monthly visits. This plan also includes unlimited traffic (or unmetered bandwidth). However, performance will suffer if your site is on the edge of those limits.
That means it’s good for smaller sites that won’t hit those thresholds for a short time. But if your site starts to grow, you will probably have to upgrade and pay more for more resources.
3. No free domain name
Most web servers offer “giveaways” to attract new customers.
The low introductory rate and additional services such as email or migration are also included in this.
The list almost always has a free name for the elementary year.
SiteGround, unfortunately, does not do this. If you don’t have a website name yet, you’ll be charged for one from day one, starting at $15.95/year.
SiteGround Review Prices, Hosting Plans, and Quick Facts
There are three levels of shared hosting at SiteGround. The costs and highlights are here:
| StartUp Plan | GrowBig Plan | GoGeek Plan | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | $3.99/month (Renews at $14.99/mo) | $6.69/month (Renews at $24.99/mo) | $10.69/month (Renews at $39.99/mo) |
| Websites | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Bandwidth | Un-metered | Unmetered | Unmetered |
| Storage | 10 GB | 20GB | 40GB |
| Email Accounts | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Other Features | – | • On-Deman Backup Copies • Speed Boosting Caching • Staging • Add Collaborators | • White Label Clients • Ultrafast PHP • Priority Support |
Quick Facts about SiteGround Review
- Domain: Domain prices start from $15.95
- Ease of Registration – Very simple one-page registration process.
- Money back: 30 days money-back guarantee.
- Payment methods: MasterCard (other options are available through chat)
- Clauses and Secret Costs: If you buy their shared hosting plans monthly instead of annually, they charge a setup fee of $14.95. Also, the renewal rates are higher. And you have to buy the name of a website (no gift).
- Additional Sales: Some… but nothing regrettable.
- Account activation: Quick account activation.
- Control Panel and Dashboard: cPanel
- Installation of applications and CMS (WordPress, Joomla, etc.): Quick and easy installation of popular applications and CMS using Softaculous.
Do We Recommend SiteGround?
Yes, we do!
SiteGround has provided solid uptime for a couple of years. And its uptime guarantee ensures that you will probably never have major downtime issues.
The speed of your site is pretty good too. That’s thanks in part to their open servers on three continents and Cloudflare’s free CDN account. They also offer you free SSL on all plans.
The prices are good if you take advantage of the longest possible term. Otherwise, you will find yourself hitting those high renewal rates sooner. Bring your own domain, too, to escape another fee.
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