In our SiteGround Reviews, we will cover this web host’s features, pricing, and pros & cons. Using our links, you can also claim a generous SiteGround discount for first-time users.
You can select a SiteGround topic in a table of contents on the right sidebar of this page or read start to finish. If you are in a hurry, you can claim your SiteGround discount here.
Are you starting a new site? Or maybe you’re just tired of your current web host? If you’re considering starting your blog, an eCommerce store, or a business website, you would probably need web hosting services.
Usually, the first step in choosing a web host is looking at reviews. Are they reliable? Do they offer good customer service? How much do they cost? What kind of features do they have?
These are all valid questions, and we’re here to answer them for you. This SiteGround review will go over everything you need to know about this web hosting provider.
We will discuss their different hosting plans, their features, pricing, performance, and any additional pros and cons.
By the end of our Siteground reviews, you should have a good idea of whether SiteGround is the right web host for you and your website.
We’ll also give our honest opinion on whether we think SiteGround is a good value for the money.
So, let’s get started!
SiteGround Reviews
SiteGround is a web hosting company that was founded in 2004. They are headquartered in Bulgaria but have data centers worldwide, including locations in the US, Europe, and Asia.
They offer a variety of different hosting plans, including shared, cloud, reseller, and dedicated hosting. They also offer WordPress-specific hosting plans.
They are among the WordPress recommended hosts, which makes them one of the best WordPress hosting companies.
Some of their features include free SSL certificates, daily backups, and malware scanning. They also have a proprietary caching system called SuperCacher, which can speed up your website.
Their performance in terms of uptime and speed is phenomenal, and they offer 24/7 customer support.
But since we talked about WordPress hosting in the beginning, let’s see WordPress-related features in more detail.
SiteGround WordPress Hosting Reviews & Features
As we mentioned before, SiteGround is a WordPress-recommended hosting company. That means they offer several features that are specifically designed for WordPress users.
SiteGround Offers Simple WordPress Installation:
For starters, they have a 1-click WordPress installer. This makes it easy to install WordPress on your site without having to mess with any code. If you are a beginner, then this takes away many of the headaches that can come with trying to install WordPress.
SiteGround Offers Free WordPress Migration:
If you already have a WordPress site, they offer free migration. This means that they will transfer your entire WordPress site from your old host to SiteGround for you.
They have built a free plugin that will handle the entire migration process for you. All you have to do is install the plugin, enter your old host’s login credentials, generate a token from your hosting account, and then click “start migration.”
It will require a little manual work from your side, but it’s still a really helpful feature. Another good news is that you can migrate as many sites as you want. This is good because most web hosting companies let you migrate only one site for free.
SiteGround Offers Free WordPress Updates Automatically:
One of the most important things you need to do to keep your WordPress site secure is to make sure that you are running the latest version of WordPress.
Every time a new version comes out, there are usually security fixes and other improvements.
SiteGround Has One-click Staging:
If you want to test out a new plugin or theme on your WordPress site, you can create a staging site. This is a copy of your live site that you can play around with without affecting your live site.
Now that we’ve gone over some of the WordPress-specific features, let’s talk about the different types of hosting that SiteGround offers.
But first thing first.
SiteGround isn’t the most affordable hosting company out there, but their uptime, speed, and customer support more than makeup for it.
If you are just getting started and are shopping for the best price, check out our BlueHost Reviews.
SiteGround offers a wide range of hosting plans, including shared, cloud, reseller, and dedicated hosting.
They also have WordPress-specific hosting plans that come with several features that are specifically designed for WordPress users.
Let’s have a detailed look into the various SiteGround web hosting plans they offer:
SiteGround Hosting Plans, Pricing, and Features
SiteGround Shared Hosting Plans:
SiteGround has 3 different shared hosting plans – the StartUp plan, the GrowBig plan, and the GoGeek plan.
The StartUp plan is their cheapest shared hosting plan and it’s good for people with small websites.
The GrowBig plan is their most popular shared hosting plan and it’s good for people with medium-sized websites.
The GoGeek plan is their most expensive shared hosting plan and it’s good for people with large websites.
Here is the breakdown of price and features for the 3 shared hosting plans:
How Much Does the SiteGround StartUp Plan Cost?
– $3.95/month (renews at $11.95/month)
– Suitable for small websites with 10,000 monthly visits or less
– 1 website
– 10 GB of web space
– Free SSL and CDN
– 1 Email account
– Daily backups
-Enhanced security
-Managed WordPress updates
How Much Does the SiteGround GrowBig Plan Cost?
– $5.95/month (renews at $19.95/month)
– Suitable for medium-sized websites with 100,000 monthly visits or less
– Unlimited websites
– 20 GB of web space
– Free SSL and CDN
– Unmetered emails
– Daily backups
-On-demand backups
-Enhanced security
-Managed WordPress updates
This Siteground GrowBig plan also has additional features like:
- 30% faster PHP
- Staging
- On-demand backup copies
How Much Does the SiteGround GoGeek Plan Cost?
– $10.69/month (renews at $34.95/month)
– Suitable for large websites with 400,000 monthly visits or more
Apart from this, this package has everything in the GrowBig plan, plus:
– Staging + Git pre-installed
– Free Private DNS
-Priority support
Now before moving ahead, in case you don’t know most of these terms, don’t worry, I will explain them here:
- SSL and CDN:
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is a protocol that encrypts the data that is sent between your website and your visitors’ web browsers.
- CDN (Content Delivery Network):
It is a network of servers that are located around the world. When someone visits your website, the CDN will serve them the content from a server that is nearest to their location.
- Staging:
Staging is a copy of your live website that you can use to test out changes before you make them on your live site.
- PHP:
PHP is a programming language that WordPress is written in.
- Git:
Git is a version control system that allows you to keep track of the changes you make to your code.
- Private DNS:
Private DNS is a DNS (Domain Name System) service that is provided by SITEGround. It allows you to manage your DNS records in one place.
Which SiteGround Hosting Plan is Best?
We think the StartUp plan is a good option for people with small websites. Also, this is the cheapest plan so if you’re on a budget, this is a good option.
The GrowBig plan is a good option for people with medium-sized websites. This is SiteGround’s most popular plan and it has a lot of features that you will need as your website grows. This is the most recommended plan.
Ready to get started? Visit SiteGround and claim your discount.
SiteGround WooCommerce Hosting
WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin that allows you to turn your WordPress website into an online store.
SiteGround has a WooCommerce-specific hosting plan that is designed for WooCommerce users. The best thing about this plan is that it comes with pre-installed WooCommerce, so you don’t have to install it yourself.
Also, the plans for Woocommerce hosting are the same as for shared hosting only the price is high as this hosting is for eCommerce websites so, it has to be more reliable.
However, for Woocommerce, we do not recommend the StartUp or GrowBig plans. We recommend the GoGeek plan, as it comes with all the features you need to run a successful online store.
This plan can handle the highest number of traffic and it also comes with a few extra features that are designed for WooCommerce users.
SiteGround Cloud Hosting Reviews
When it comes to cloud hosting, Siteground has different plans from shared or WordPress hosting. The main advantage of cloud hosting is that it is more scalable than other types of hosting.
This means that you can easily increase or decrease your resources as needed. They have four plans:
1) Jump Start
2) Business
3) Business Plus
4) Super Power
Let’s have a look at the features of each plan:
SiteGround Jump-Start Plan Pricing & Features
The price starts at $100.00/month and you get 4 CPU cores, 8 GB of RAM, 40 GB of storage, and 5 TB data transfer.
SiteGround Business Plan Pricing & Features
The price starts at $200.00/month and you get 8 CPU cores, 12 GB of RAM, 80 GB of storage, and 5 TB data transfer.
SiteGround Business Plus Plan Pricing & Features
The price starts at $300.00/month and you get 12 CPU cores, 16 GB of RAM, 120 GB of storage, and 5 TB data transfer.
SiteGround Super Power Plan Pricing & Features
The price starts at $400.00/month and you get 16 CPU cores, 20 GB of RAM, 160 GB of storage, and 5 TB data transfer.
As you can see, the plans are very comprehensive and they offer a lot of resources. If you need more than 5 TB of data transfer, you can contact their sales team for a custom quote.
This way, you only pay for what you need and you don’t have to worry about overage charges.
We recommend the Business Plus plan for most users. This plan has the perfect balance of resources and price.
However, if you need more resources, you can always upgrade to a higher plan.
Ready to try SiteGround? Get a SiteGround Discount here.
SiteGround Reseller Hosting Review
If you want to start your own web hosting company, SiteGround has a reseller hosting program. This program is designed for people who want to sell web hosting to their customers.
They have three plans:
1) GrowBig
2) GoGeek
3) Cloud
Check the below screenshot to see the features of each plan:
As you can see, other than the Webspace, all the features are the same. However, there are a few + features with GoGreek and Cloud which are as follows:
For GoGreek:
-White-labeled client area
-Priority technical support
-Free Private DNS
For Cloud:
Everything in GoGeek +
-Customize the client’s success
-Tailor site’s resources
So, till now you must be clear about Siteground and its various types of hosting plans. We will now look at the different features of Siteground that set it apart from the other web hosting companies.
Unique Features of SiteGround
SiteGround Has Stellar Customer Support
One of the things that set SiteGround apart from other web hosting companies is their customer support. We have used their support and we can say that they are one of the best in the business.
Quick and expert responses, 24/7 availability, and multiple channels of support are some of the things that make their customer support stellar.
You can contact them via phone, live chat, or ticketing system. We recommend using live chat support as it is the quickest way to get your issues resolved.
They have a detailed knowledge base where you can find answers to most of your questions.
Additionally, they also have pre-recorded webinars that you can watch to learn more about web hosting and WordPress.
Also, you will get tutorials in case you face issues setting up your account.
SiteGround Has Great Performance & Fast Servers
Time to review the technical side of things. As we all know, the speed of your website is very important. If your website is slow, you will lose visitors, and eventually, you will lose money.
SiteGround uses the latest technology to make sure that your website is always fast.
They use SSDs (solid-state drives) for all their plans. SSDs are much faster than traditional hard drives.
SiteGround also offers usage of a free CDN (content delivery network) with all their plans.
Additionally, SiteGround has a caching system called SuperCacher that further speeds up your website.
- NGINX:
Another performance-related feature is that they use NGINX. It is a high-performance web server.
It can handle more traffic and it is more reliable than Apache (which is the most popular webserver).
Additionally, NGINX uses fewer resources which means your website will load faster.
- HTTP/2:
To further improve the security and performance of your website, SiteGround offers HTTP/2.
It is the latest version of the HTTP protocol and it is much faster than the older versions.
Additionally, it uses less bandwidth which means your website will use fewer resources and it will load faster.
So, these were some of the performance-related features that make SiteGround one of the best web hosting companies.
Ready to try SiteGround? Get a SiteGround Discount here.
Review of SiteGround Client Area and Control Panel
Like other hosting sites, SiteGround also had Cpanel which they recently upgraded to the client area and control panel. The new client area is much more user-friendly and it is very easy to use. This interface is built with REACT.
The main advantage of the new client area is that it loads very fast. You can also manage all your websites from one very convenient place.
The new control panel is also very user-friendly and it has a lot of features that you can use to manage your website.
Let’s understand what is Client Area and Control Panel
The SiteGround Client Area
The client area is where you will manage your account. You can do things like view your invoices, renew your hosting plan, etc.
The client area is very user-friendly and it is easy to use.
SiteGround’s Control Panel Review
The control panel is where you will manage your website. You can do things like creating email accounts, installing WordPress, etc.
SiteGround uses the industry-standard cPanel control panel. It is very user-friendly and it is easy to use.
Additionally, they also offer a custom control panel called Site Tools. It is very user-friendly and it has all the features that you need to manage your website. Be it specific WordPress tools or email accounts.
You can also use the Site Tools control panel to create a staging site. A staging site is a copy of your live site.
It is very useful if you want to test a new plugin or theme on your site. You can do it on the staging site and if everything works fine, you can push it to the live site.
What Is SiteGround’s Uptime?
Uptime is the most important thing for any web hosting company. If your website is down, you will lose money.
SiteGround offers a 99.99% uptime guarantee. Additionally, their servers are very fast. They use the latest technology to make sure that your website is always fast. We use a third-party tool to track the uptime of our website and it has always been around 99.99%.
Though we faced a few issues that reduced the speed to around 99.7%. However, within minutes we were back to 99.99%.
Does SiteGround Have a Money-Back Guarantee?
SiteGround offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. So, if you are not happy with their service, you can cancel your account and get a full refund.
However, please note that the money-back guarantee is not valid for domain names, add-ons, and maintenance plans. But still, it is a very good deal.
SiteGround’s Daily Backup is a Life Saver
Backups are very important. If you make a mistake while editing your website, you can always restore the backup and your website will be back to normal.
SiteGround offers daily backups and they store the backup for 30 days. So, if you accidentally delete something, you can always restore it from the backup.
SiteGround keeps 30 copies of your website and you can restore any one of them. You don’t pay additional for the backups. It is included in your hosting plan.
How Efficient is SiteGround Email Hosting?
Email hosting is one of the most important things for any website. If your email is down, it will impact your business.
The best thing about the SiteGround email service is it’s free and you can create as many email accounts as you want.
Additionally, their email hosting is very reliable and we have never faced any issue with their email service. We use their email service for our business and it works great.
It’s very beginner-friendly to create an email account on SiteGround. You can do it from the control panel or the client area.
Even if you have an entry-level plan, you can create an unlimited number of email accounts.
Additionally, they offer spam filtering and encryption which will protect your email from spam and hackers.
Does SiteGround Offer Free SSL Certificates?
SiteGround has integration with Let’s Encrypt which is a free SSL certificate. So, you can easily add an SSL certificate to your website for free. So, I would give them a plus point for that.
SiteGround Has Something for Everyone
Not everyone who needs hosting is a tech-savvy person. So, it’s very important for any web hosting company to have something for everyone.
Other than WordPress, SiteGround also has website builders like Weebly that you can use to create a website without any coding knowledge.
Additionally, they also offer Joomla and Drupal builders which require a few clicks and you can create a website without so much manual input.
That’s for people who are new to website creation. But what about tech-savvy people?
For them, SiteGround has preinstalled Git, SSH, and WP-CLI which will make their life easy. When you are using SiteGround, you don’t need to worry about the technical side of things.
So, these are positive or in short good things about SiteGround. But like every other web hosting company, they also have some negatives that I will discuss in the next section.
What We Don’t Like About SiteGround
SiteGround’s Renewal Prices Are High
Though we already told you, SiteGround isn’t the cheapest web hosting company, their renewal prices are very high.
When you see plans on their site, it’s starting from $3.99/month which is good but it’s for the first term only.
After that, you will be paying $14.99/month for the start-up plan which is almost 3 times more than their initial price.
To be honest, this is a very common thing in the web hosting industry. Almost every company does this. But the thing is, their renewal prices are very high which is not good.
SiteGround Does Not Offer a Free Domain Name
Most hosting companies offer a free domain name with their hosting plans to attract customers. But SiteGround doesn’t do that.
They don’t offer any free domain name with their hosting plans. So, if you don’t already have one, they will charge you an additional price for that.
Here is the screenshot from their site where they are showing the price of domain names.
As you can see, a .com domain name will cost you $17.99 which is not a small amount. So, that’s something you should keep in mind before buying their hosting plans.
Do We Recommend SiteGround Hosting?
Yes, we do recommend SiteGround hosting. They have great features, great uptime, and fast speed. And most importantly, they offer 24/7 customer support.
The only thing that I didn’t like is their renewal prices but still, they are worth it.
So, that’s all from my side in this SiteGround review. I hope this article was helpful and you got all the information that you were looking for.
If you have long-term plans with SiteGround and want to purchase hosting for multiple years, then the renewal price will not hurt you so much.
If you are looking for a good host based mostly on lowest price, try BlueHost.
Having said that, you can get a nice SiteGround discount here.
SiteGround Reviews – Final Thoughts
Choosing a web hosting company is a very important decision. A good web hosting company can make your life easy but a bad one can give you a lot of headaches.
There are hundreds of web hosting companies out there and it’s very hard to choose one.
In this SiteGround review, I tried to cover everything about this company so that you can make an informed decision. With SiteGround, you get daily software updates, advanced caching technology, and fast loading.
So, if you are looking for a good web hosting company, I would recommend SiteGround.
SiteGround FAQs
Is SiteGround Worth It?
Yes, SiteGround is a good hosting company and is worth the price. They offer great features, great uptime, and fast speed. And most importantly, they offer 24/7 customer support.
Why Is SiteGround Expensive?
SiteGround is a bit more expensive than some of the other web hosting companies but considering the features they offer, the price is justified.
What are the Best SiteGround Alternatives?
Here is a list of some of the top web hosting services as an alternative to SiteGround.
- Hostinger – Read Our Full Hostinger Review.
- BlueHost – Read Our Full BlueHost Review.
- DreamHost – Read Our DreamHost Review.
- LiquidWeb – Best for high-traffic websites.
Does SiteGround Use cPanel?
Not anymore. In January 2019, they switched from cPanel to their custom panel. which is called Site Tools.
Is SiteGround good for WordPress?
Yes, SiteGround is a great choice for WordPress. They offer WordPress-specific features like WordPress staging, one-click WordPress install, and more.
Is SiteGround good for beginners?
Yes, SiteGround is a great choice for beginners. We would recommend SiteGround to anyone who is looking for a good web hosting company and has never used WordPress before.
About The Author: This article was researched and published by Tim Schroeder. As a husband and wife real estate team residing in Florida, Tim Schroeder brings deep expertise with over 8 years of experience as a licensed real estate agent.
Deb and Tim Schroeder have earned numerous real estate industry awards and recognitions. They have been recognized by Orlando Magazine as a “Top 100 Real Estate Professional” as well as earned Top Producer Designations with the Orlando Realtor Association for 6 years straight.