If you observe SiteGrounds’ branding, you will see many references to being “crafted with care.” While you might associate that more with a blanket from grandma, there is a certain charm to it. But does SiteGround’s wholesome message compare to your grandma’s ability to make warm sweaters?
Probably not, but this article will tell you how this company performs when it comes to web hosting services. We will test web performance, available features, customer service quality, and ease of use. Considered one of the best hosting companies around, let’s see how they stand.
But we must warn you, some of the info we found (standards with other web hosts) shockingly does not come with SiteGround. How on earth then could they earn such positive ratings and reviews?..
What is SiteGround?
SiteGround’s founding was in 2004 in Sofia, Bulgaria. A group of university friends created the company, where they grew to just over 600 employees in 16 years.
The company was founded by Ivo Tzenov and the current CEO is Tenko Nikolov.
SiteGround is known to be a fun office to be around, which bodes well for its employee happiness. They are known for creating inspiring experiences for their employees. That’s pretty awesome when it comes to some companies doing the opposite.
Their companies values include the following:
- Do everything with care
- Work with purpose
- Challenge yourself
- Innovate using the power of technology
- Respect yourself and others
These are great values and simple enough to fulfill that “grandma sweater” kind of care.
They first partnered with Joomla but grew to include WordPress hosting and WooCommerce. They currently have six data centers alongside offices in six different countries:
Today, it boasts two million worldwide domains with cloud hosting, shared hosting, email hosting, and domain registration services.
There seems to be one remaining founder of the university friends, Ivo Tzenov. Based on how the company is grown, I imagine there’s a certain level of pride to see how things have gone.
High levels of mush is a good sign, as that tells you there’s a real passion behind this company. But passion doesn’t always translate to a good product.
Is SiteGround a Good Choice?
Before we get into the details behind this web hosting service, check out these features to be sure SiteGround is legit for your web goals.
Would Recommend If…
SiteGround is excellent if you need simple, secure, and high-quality web hosting. They are fantastic for small to medium-sized businesses. SiteGround also offers a scalable cloud server solution for larger enterprises, but bandwidth limits make them less suited to large companies. They’re also a great choice if you plan on using WordPress.
Wouldn’t Recommend If…
If you are looking for the cheapest hosting provider, SiteGround isn’t for you. This company also has no bonus features, meaning no logo designs, marketing packages, or SEO assistance. Those will have to be through third-party websites.
Pros and Cons of SiteGround
SiteGround has high marks among web hosting reviews. But even the most vigorous website host has room for improvement.
Below is a list of pros and cons behind this company:
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| 30-Day Money Back Guarantee | No Free Trial |
| 99.9% Uptime Guarantee | No Free Domains |
| NGINX Caching & Dynamic Caching | Expensive by Comparison |
| “Free” Unlimited Email | Professional Migrations Cost Extra |
| “Free” SSL Certificate | Restricted Storage Limits |
| Worldwide Server Selection | No Dedicated VPS Servers |
| Free Daily Backups | No Integrated Website Builder |
| Great Customer Service | No Windows Servers |
| Cloudflare CDN Integration | Limited Marketing Feature |
| Easily Scaleable | |
| Simple Website Migration |
SiteGround has a lot of powerful features by focusing on its web hosting capabilities. Here’s a list of promising features worth looking out for.
Simple Website Migration
SiteGround has an entire tutorial on transferring your domain to its management software. Thankfully, they have experts on staff to make website migration simple.
If you don’t want to talk to a human being, WordPress hosting migration is painfully simple. Being a preferred WordPress hosting site means they have an auto migrate feature.
The drawback behind using their professional services is that it comes with a bill. The bill is typically about $30, which is something that should be a complimentary service.
SiteGround knows how to value its products, as they cost more than some more basic services. We’ll revisit that topic later in this article.
Website Building (Weebly and WordPress)
Unlike other hosting providers, SiteGround does not offer personal website building services. Instead, they integrate their systems with WordPress and Weebly’s website-building platforms.
SiteGround hosting comes with either builder, depending on whether or not you have a WordPress site. You can find their website building features under the “websites” tab. Just look for “Weebly site builder.”
Those seeking a unique website experience will find that Weebly has a solid editor. They also have methods by which to import custom themes.
When you compare this to our GoDaddy review, they have an entirely integrated system. Still, most web hosts stick with what they are good at, so using a third-party service for website building isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Easily Scalable
SiteGround’s service has easy-to-understand scalability potential. Their base package has a clear limit for the number of expected visitors per month.
The two higher shared hosting plans also provide this information. As a result, you’ll know exactly when you need to start considering an upgrade.
If you continue to use SiteGround as your company grows, you’ll eventually become familiar with their cloud hosting services. Each plan offers a dedicated IP address, meaning that another webmaster’s actions won’t affect your website.
SiteGround support is also available to explain how its cloud based hosting plans expand your limitations. Experienced web admins will also appreciate the level of control.
Great for Collaborators
SiteGround offers one of the best systems for collaborators. This comes from the ease of inviting other page users and collaborators.
This feature is also handy for resellers. SiteGround has robust reselling features with comparable prices to their standard servicing.
You can invite your clients by selecting the “add user” option under your profile. But setting their custom role as “client,” they can see the current status of any websites you manage for them.
“Free” Unlimited Email
Creating email accounts through SiteGround is pretty simple. They offer the unique feature of free unlimited email accounts.
In most of our other hosting reviews, you’ll find that a single email address is more common. This feature makes SiteGround much handier than other web hosting services.
Because SiteGround supports cPanel shared hosting, that means you’ll be able to integrate your Roundcube email. This isn’t unique for any web host, meaning SiteGround supports standard features among other hosting companies.
To create an email, just go under the “email” subtab and type it in. SiteGround handles the rest for you (provided you have the disk space to support additional emails).
Fast and Secure Caching Features
SiteGround includes support for three different forms of caching. These caching forms increase the speed potential of underlying sites hosted by Siteground:
- Dynamic caching – Stores the entirety of a website on a server’s RAM, storing it in the server memory, allowing for quicker loading.
- NGINX Caching – A well-known reliable caching method that also contributes to page speed loading
- Memcaching – An open-source system for speeding up web applications and general websites
These services all work together to increase the stability and speed of your site.
Great Site Staging Features (With Higher Tiers)
SiteGround offers staging features allowing you to create a test site to see future changes. These staging features will enable you to test the effectiveness of your website.
For those familiar with the WordPress editor, you know the importance of testing before publishing. Sometimes, moving to a new theme or adding a new feature can destroy your website.
SiteGround allows you to create numerous sites for testing. These testing sites will enable you to select the best website that works for your needs.
SiteGround limits website testing to their two larger plans: the GrowBig and GoGeek plans.
Worldwide Server Locations (Choose Your Data Center)
SiteGround current has these server locations:
- Iowa, USA
- Sydney, AU
- London, UK
- Eemshaven, Netherlands
- Frankfurt, DE
- Singapore
The widespread servers receive (based on their website) continuous monitoring, upgrading, and securing. The ability to select personal server locations is something most providers don’t offer.
The best server location will always be the one closest to you. Selecting one halfway across the world should only be considered if SiteGround announces a security breach.
Regardless, SiteGroudn still has daily backups at all these server locations. In some ways, a part of you will always be left behind on each of SitGround’s servers.
Integration with Cloudflare Content Delivery Network
The Cloudflare CDN, or Content Delivery Network, is a service that increases the speed of affiliate websites. With support from a CDN, websites can load content at greater efficiency.
SiteGround integrates with this CDN to increase the speed of your website. The staggered loading approach is naturally better at reducing bandwidth costs.
Combined with hosting features like SuperCacher and an SG optimizer means your website has incredible speed potential. Performance tests will be made available later in the article.
This, combined with a limited visitor count, is an unusual choice as a hosting provider. You’ll find yourself running out of other things before hitting that visitor count limit, depending on what your website offers.
The visitor count is more of a “soft” limit, as it gauges a website’s potential to use data limits. We’ll discuss while data caps are important later in this article.
Hosting Solutions for Agencies
For agencies that manage multiple client websites, they have solutions for you. Those solutions come in the form of numerous powerful tools listed below:
- WP-CLI: WP-CLI is a command-line interface for WordPress. It allows users to automate many processes typically handled by WordPress admins (like automated updates)
- SSH: Secure Shell Protocol (SSH) allows clients and servers to create a secure tunnel connection on an unsecured network. This is useful for site staging features and other site tests.
- Git integration: Git Integration allows you to control software versions to ensure your website’s functions continue to work together well. This is incredibly useful in cases of remote access, where versions must remain the same on both sides.
Multiple Shared Hosting Options
SiteGround currently supports the following shared hosting services:
- Standard (not integrated with any third-party provider)
- Managed WordPress hosting
- WooCommerce and WordPress Hosting
Many of these features are not unique to SiteGround. These features are incredibly standard across the board.
Managed WordPress host features can be beneficial for website managers who aren’t tech-savvy. They also offer better overall security features with an included WordPress plugin.
The image above is the “SG Optimizer” we referred to earlier.
30 Day Money Back Guarantee
All available hosting plans SiteGround offers have a 30-day money-back guarantee. This is essential, as SiteGround has one major drawback that we will be mentioned in the next section.
This guarantee applies to most of SiteGround’s services, as they integrate with SiteGrounds other offerings.
Spanish Speaking Support
Hosting Web en Español? SiteGround offers Spanish speakers as part of any plan. While that isn’t too unique, the level of support is excellent for Spanish-speaking individuals.
Cons
SiteGround has a wide variety of unique features. However, any web host has drawbacks, and SiteGround is no different.
No Free Trial
Unfortunately, they do not offer any free trials. While they do make this up with a 30 day money back promise, those with minimal budgets won’t be able to take advantage of their services.
The lack of a free trial is extra painful because SiteGround offers no demo mode. That means you have to pay or look elsewhere when testing to see if you like the dashboard.
While the opening costs aren’t too much, having to pay to see the bare minimum is a bit of an oversight. Hopefully, SiteGround eventually addresses this in a future update.
Expensive Basic Plan (Compared to Other Providers)
SiteGround’s basic plan is called the StartUp. This StartUp plan offers comparable features to other hosts but typically at almost double the cost of similar hosting providers.
When you pay $5 per month (if paying for a year) compared to $2 or $3, that adds up quickly. Most of those reduced costs are also paid all at once. The basic plan also only has a single website, making it comparable to BlueHost.
There’s little reason for prospective website builders to stick with a basic plan. But paying the extra cost for unlimited websites is necessary for most small businesses.
Professional Migrations Cost Extra
SiteGround allows you to submit a support ticket, making its managed transfer process pretty easy to use. However, other companies include this as part of their hosting packages, making this another expense you have to worry about.
The result is a one-click system where you submit a support ticket for review. It takes about five business days, depending on various factors such as the size of the website and the condition of the old hosts.
Users will find it easy, but it’s another expense that SiteGround throws at you.
Stringent Database Limits for Larger Businesses
SiteGround is incredibly easy to scale, appealing mainly to small businesses. These database limitations come in the lack of unlimited storage or data transfers.
Their highest-tier offers 40 GB of storage space, which is pretty painful, especially if you run an eCommerce business. You’ll find yourself quickly jumping to the cloud services if you integrate their services with WooCommerce.
SiteGround’s hosting plans also don’t match up with the storage limits. Sites with more than five thousand visitors per month will usually need a website with more space than 20 GB. As you’ll find out later, SiteGround users run into storage limitation issues well before reaching their max visitor count.
No Windows Servers (Only Linux)
For those who love Windows servers, SiteGround does not have any support for this sort of integration. That means no shared hosting plans that include Office 365, OneDrive, or Outlook.
Instead, SiteGround uses Fedora for all of its hosting solutions. Fedora is an open-source Linux hosting software known for offering excellent cloud solutions.
Relying on Linux fedora isn’t necessarily a bad thing, so it is only a “con” in the sense that some people like to stick with Microsoft. Linux is often better for web hosting than Windows. After all, Windows is not open source.
Still, the lack of flexibility has to be noted.
Limited Marketing Features
Another potential disappointment comes from the lack of marketing integrations. To remain competitive, other web hosts have these fully integrated systems. These systems typically come with website builders and marketing features.
You can find excellent examples on Wix, Squarespace, or GoDaddy. Because SiteGround focused on dedicated servers and shared hosting, there are no marketing features built-in.
Some web hosts have often included ad credits to get people excited about advertising their website. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) features are also incorporated to try and conquer Google’s algorithm through other providers.
SiteGround does not have many of these “basic” features that other web hosts have. As a result, SiteGround’s value goes down a bit.
Some of these tools come as part of using WordPress, but that isn’t a unique offering by SiteGround. SiteGround is not the best-integrated solution if you also need a marketing service.
No Free Domain Purchase
Most website hosts offer a free domain for one year at purchase with any of their hosting plans. SiteGround is one of the few web hosts that does not provide this feature of their program.
The fact that they don’t is a bit confusing, as it’s another $1 per month on top of most products. It isn’t enough of an issue to call this a deal-breaker, as an extra $1 or $3 per month isn’t massive.
Thankfully, SG allows you to include a domain purchase alongside the purchase of their hosting packages. So while this purchase isn’t “free,” it is still pretty convenient.
No Integrated Website Builder
While Weebly and WordPress both have easy-to-use builders, SiteGround does not integrate this service into what they offer. Compared to larger providers like GoDaddy, WPX Hosting, or other similar options, this can be a bit of a headache.
The problem relates to the integrated features issues. Some customers have taken note of this limitation. If all of your services are available through third parties, why bother purchasing SG?
The answer is because of solid hosting features.
Performance Tests
SiteGrounds servers are all over the world and run on Solid State Drives (SSDs). SSDs have some of the fastest data-catching capabilities on the market. There’s no old-school hosting in their data servers here.
With SSDs under the hood, you expect to see lightning-fast speeds for any site on their system. Let’s check it out with some tests:
How Fast is SiteGround? (Speed Results)
To test the speed of SiteGround, we looked at pacb.com, a third-party site confirmed to host with the company. The first test was with web.dev, resulting in some interesting first results.
The performance was rated at a 19. This score seems fair given that it took ten seconds for the website to load.
GTMetrix, a similar site, shows a much more reasonable four seconds of loading time for this site.
Our third test from Pingdom revealed that the load time was about two seconds.
While we can’t assume anything, pacb.com’s relative size tells us that they subscribe to one of the higher-end services from SiteGround. Averaging their speeds tests out tells us their dedicated servers average at about 4.6 seconds of response time.
Much of this slower loading time comes from the risk of shared hosting. Response times are likely to be better using cloud servers.
Is SiteGround Reliable? (UpTime Stats)
Many SiteGround reviews mention a 99.7% uptime guarantee. This was confirmed after chatting with a customer support agent. This company also has a support team that boasts about a 99% customer happiness rating. Although I’m not sure how they measure that metric.
Of course, having a high uptime guarantee opens your company up to more lawsuits. If you don’t have a guarantee, you don’t have to give a refund.
There are always cases where the strongest companies have downtimes. Still, if having an UpTime guarantee is important to you, you might want to pass on SiteGround.
SiteGround Security
SiteGround has a powerful support team known to help with some of the best security measures available. This hosting provider focuses on these security features.
Free Wildcard and Let’s Encrypt SSL
All SiteGround sites come with a free secure socket layer (SSL) supported by Wildcard and Transport Layer Security (TLS) under Let’s Encrypt.
Wildcard certificates have the power to secure multiple sub-domains. The support for this feature secures multiple levels of your website, which can be handy for subdomains.
They also get free certificates from Let’s Encrypt. Let’s Encrypt is a non-profit organization that produces Domain Validation (DV) certificates. SSL certificates from Let’s Encrypt are solid but less suitable for eCommerce sites because of additional Organizational Validation (OV) needs.
Still, free SSL support is better than nothing. Keep this in mind if purchasing a WordPress hosting plan supporting WooCommerce.
Smart WAF
A Web Application Firewall, or WAF, protects domains against HTTP attacks. It’s a necessity to protect your site against malicious files or SQL injection attacks.
SG added over 300 custom rules over the past year to their WAF to resolve potential vulnerabilities. Their support team keeps track of those security vulnerabilities daily, ensuring that its servers remain secure.
Daily Backups Distributed Among Multiple Locations
SiteGround includes daily backups with all available pricing plans. Those backups are regularly scheduled around ten minutes after midnight.
These backups are stored on multiple SiteGround servers. So if someone were to destroy your website while attacking SiteGround, there’s a good chance you will get your website back.
You don’t have to purchase any special plan to get this feature as well. SiteGround offers a great deal to ensure your website is secure in the event of destruction.
AI Defense
In 2017, SiteGround announced the release of its AI protection features. This AI protection blocks up to 2 million brute-force attempts by bots trying to access its servers each hour.
The idea of automated systems trying to access your data is concerning, so it’s great to see that SG makes investments in its security systems.
SiteGround Customer Service
When it comes to customer support, SG offers the big three options available:
- Available 24/7 live chat
- Phone support
- The ability to submit helpdesk tickets
SiteGround claims to have a 90% first-time resolution rate with response times typically lasting under 15 minutes.
To access support, you’ll either need to be just before the sales process or already have an account created.
It took me less than a minute to connect with Lilia, a charming human being. She also has a sense of humor:
Getting back to customer support topics, I asked about two areas of concern I had to test her knowledge.
- Confirming their uptime guarantee
- The existence of a demo environment
Her response confirmed a concern for me that the company had tutorials but no demo for the dashboard.
The live chat response took less than thirty seconds of waiting and provided me with a decent solution. SiteGround offers a solid support team with good customer service.
They also offer priority support for those in the upper two plan tiers: the GrowBig and GoGeek plans. We didn’t test SiteGround’s priority support on this review; the basic support was more than enough.
Trustpilot SiteGround Review – What Other Customers Say
Because you can’t get a good idea of a company’s customer support without getting other opinions, we’ve expanded this SiteGround review to include other user experiences.
Thankfully, the high customer satisfaction levels are clear on an overall front. The site nearly has a perfect rating, but there’s that “.3 “they have to deal with.
In a double whammy review, we’ll start with the ugly. This customer shares their experience in how SiteGround uses third-party services.
“SiteGround has gone downhill so much over the past year it’s making my head spin. I’ve been with them nearly a decade and they have essentially become GoDaddy. They farm many of their systems out to 3rd parties, which results in downtime and blocks that are completely absurd, and their support is hardly helpful anymore.”
Other people share a more positive experience:
“I own an agency and think it’s safe to say I’m tech-savy (I started out of a local Starbucks many years ago.) Not only has SiteGround increased my speed tremendously and security, but also has simplified the process for my clients to manage their hosting needs… (cont.) everyone I have chatted with is super kind, charismatic, friendly, and someone I kind of want to share a coffee and/or beer/wine/alcoholic beverage with.
Any customer service experience that ends with “I want a beer with that person” typically means good things.
Finally, we have someone who has shared their web hosting experience from expressing a neutral perspective revolving around email services:
“I own a Startup plan since 5 years, The support is awesome, every problem was solved in few minutes. But…. The cost of the service rising sharply and despite the price they are many limitation with the email services.
You can’t please everyone, and all companies try their best to have a solid customer service experience. Overall, SiteGround seems to allow that positive employee environment to expand to their customer support. Each SiteGround review is certainly justified on experience.
Ease of Use
SiteGround’s control panel allows for easy transition between multiple features. SiteGround’s dashboard is easy to use. Since they handle WordPress hosting, most of your development process involves switching between multiple screens.
As a result of the limited integration, there are few “one-click” solutions. Still, the dashboard is not at all complicated:
SiteGround Dashboard
SiteGround starts on the right foot with a simple user interface. The control panel easily allows you to switch between different functions.
All features are labeled with easy-to-recognize graphics. The navigation bar along the left is simple. However, “Site” doesn’t really leave much to the mind.
Some of these submenus are best left to experienced web admins. For example, database management through SQL is above most paygrades (mine included).
Includes WordPress, WooCommerce, and Small Business Tutorials
To make site and business management easier, they offer various free resources to understand utilizing different platforms. Here are the topics SG’s eBooks currently cover:
- WordPress use, optimization, and security
- WooCommerce
- The WordPress REST API
- Small Business
- Holiday Marketing
- Post-Holiday Sales
- A general knowledge base
They also have a podcast that explains industry terms called Geek 2 English.
Regardless, they understand that potential websites can comprise users with many needs. As a result, the topics they go over have a narrow niche focus.
SiteGround Pricing and Plans
SiteGround offers hosting packages that come in three standard forms:
- StartUp plan is $4.99/mo for introductory pricing ($14.99/mo otherwise)
- GrowBig plan is $7.99/mo discounted pricing ($24.99/mo under standard pricing)
- GoGeek plan is $14.99/mo on discount ($39.99/mo under standard pricing)
All three pricing plans have no free trial but come with a thirty-day money-back guarantee. They do not have rates for dedicated hosting or VPS hosting plans. All SiteGround hosting plans also apply to their managed WP hosting and WooCommerc hosting.
The cost of their services is above average compared to other hosts. SG justifies this cost by offering the following features with every website:
- Free SSL
- Daily Backups
- Free Email (with multiple email addresses)
- Managed WordPress hosting
- Unmetered traffic
- the ability to add collaborators and clients
The GrowBig plan comes with three additional abilities:
- The ability to create “on-demand” site backups that allow you to save during major changes
- Access to a fast and custom PHP that allows for faster loading
- Staging so you can test changes before publishing your website
- Unlimited websites for a single host
- A 20 GB storage space limit
GoGeek plan recipients receive these additional features:
- Priority support
- The “highest tier” of resources
- A 40 GB storage space limit
- Unlimited websites
Access to unlimited websites allows users to take advantage of the SiteGround reselling program.
Cost of Plans on the Reseller Program
Both the GrowBig and GoGeek plans have support for white hat resellers. SiteGround’s cloud hosting opportunities also support their reseller program.
All the above plans allow you to build and manage websites for your clients. There is no difference in the features among standard and cloud plans. However, SiteGround will not support your reselling efforts under the StartUp plan, as it only allows for a single website.
SiteGround Cloud Hosting Pricing Plans
This includes all of the best features available from its most extensive shared hosting plan. SG’s cloud plans come in four forms:
- Jump Start – $100/mo
- Business – $200 /mo
- Business Plus – $300 /mo
- Super Power – $400 /mo
They all vary by these four areas:
- CPU cores are 4,8, 12, and 16, respectively. More cores result in faster servers.
- Memory limits are 8, 12, 16, and 20, respectively. They offer quick response times on your servers.
- SSD space limits are 40, 80, 120, and 160 GBs, impacting the amount of storage you have across your websites.
- A 5 TB data transfer (bandwidth) across the board for all services means you can
SiteGround also allows you to configure your own custom cloud hosting but will not exceed the five terabyte transfer limit. Creating a custom cloud should be limited to experienced web admins. You can also talk to SG’s support team to see about your options.
SiteGround Alternatives
If SiteGround doesn’t sound like a good fit, many web hosts might be the best for your needs. We have three different alternatives for you to consider.
• WP Engine follows the same premium pricing model as SiteGround. The major difference in WP Engine comes from their creative flexibility. They work with platforms like Amazon Web Services (AWS).
The greater access to integrated tools makes them more suitable for people looking for integrated platforms. Those extra features reflect in their pricing, which is much more expensive than SG. If you want a creative focus with better design tools, WP Engine is a better investment for your money.
• WPX Hosting likes to emphasize its speed. After all, they have a similar CDN (comparable to Cloudflare CDN), staging areas, and multiple automatic backups with manual backups included.
They also boast 30-second average live chat responses, which is an insane response time. Their main trump on SiteGround is the allowance of unlimited bandwidth (transfer data).
As a result, WPX hosting is far more effective at managing high-traffic websites. But SiteGround is better at managing multiple websites at once.
• A2 Hosting is the bargain option compared to SiteGround. They sport the low introductory price of about $3 per month on their shared hosting plans.
A2 hosting also offers VPS hosting and dedicated hosting, which is something where SiteGround lacks. But A2 seems to rely a lot more on buzzwords like “turbo hosting.”
If you are looking to save some money or want specific hosting types, A2 hosting offers greater flexibility.
Real SiteGround Reviews
If you’re looking for an authentic SiteGround review, Twitter is the ultimate resource. These are paying customers who utilize SiteGround over long and short periods of time. Here’s what some users had to say in regards to their experience. We try and grab positive, neutral, and of course negative comments to paint an overall picture.
The issue has been resolved by technical team 10 minutes after raising a ticket. If I knew, I could have done this 2 days ago. Thank you very much for your help!!
— Josphat (@josphatmwangi) July 28, 2021
Hey @SiteGround super disappointed that you have decreased your customer support options.
— Julie F Bacchini (@NeptuneMoon) August 9, 2021
Can I not get a technical question answered any more?
I vaguely recall receiving an email from @SiteGround where they gave me 7 days to renew otherwise they practically WIPE OUT my entire website. Sure enough, I completely missed the email and that took down the entire hosting service. All that data lost.
— Kim Castillo (she/they) (@kimdelsur) August 7, 2021
After being a customer for several years, disappointed that @SiteGround are refusing to provide help during a tricky time. Whilst offering new customers 75% off. How about look after your existing customers first? #poorcustomerservice
— Phil Treagus-Evans (@philtreagus) August 4, 2021
*sigh* I just love the support at @SiteGround That’s all.
— Vikki B (@_Vikki_B) July 9, 2021
@SiteGround your web hosting service is just awesome. Several wordpress websites running concurrently, great speed, no downtime. Keep up the great work!
— Alex MJ (@aleximj) August 9, 2021
It’s weird to have to go to Twitter to get this information. So much for the 24/7 support listed on the site. It would also be good to know if the email bouncing back will end up being delivered.
— Tanya Žilinskas (@TanyaZilinskas) July 30, 2021
I use WordPress and Siteground and I love it!
— Alaia | Blogger ♥️ (@beingalaia) July 20, 2021
Much like all providers, Twitter is a stomping ground for people to complain about product issues. However, most people on SiteGround’s twitter also seem to enjoy their offering.
FAQ
Is SiteGround Good for Beginners?
Yes and no.
SiteGround is good for people who want entry-level hosting. The security is there, and the speed is there. Also, managing multiple addresses and websites is incredibly simple. However, SiteGround isn’t beginner-friendly for people who are looking for integrated solutions. While they work with the Weebly website builder, this access requires you to learn multiple platforms.
SiteGround also lacks solutions for marketing, SEO, and other features common among some hosting services. Instead, SiteGround’s business strategy is to focus on what they are good at. If you enjoy WordPress’s website builder, SiteGround is incredibly user-friendly. This is because WordPress already has an engaging website builder, meaning you won’t have to go elsewhere unless you need to seek out marketing services or link-building services.
Is SiteGround Better Than GoDaddy?
When asking who is the best when comparing SiteGround and GoDaddy, the answer depends on your priorities. GoDaddy offers an entirely integrated solution with a site builder, marketing features, and limited SEO features. As a result, GoDaddy offers a comprehensive solution that requires less traveling between websites to get things done.
On the other hand, SiteGround offers greater control over hosting multiple websites. The dashboard is focused on hosting, making it far less confusing than navigating between multiple pages on GoDaddy’s website. So, the answer to this question depends on your priorities. But if you plan on hosting multiple WordPress sites, SiteGround offers better overall control of that.
Does SiteGround Offer a Free Domain Name?
No, SiteGround does not offer free domain names with the purchase of their services. Instead, this host site focuses on offering alternative “free” items to coax people to join. One of the unique aspects compared to other hosting companies is offering multiple “free” email addresses.
All email addresses are under the control of the same server, meaning you’ll still have to be careful not to exceed disk space. Being able to break down emails into different sub-categories can save you time. Having Admin@website.com and support@website.com are a few simple examples.
Is WordPress Free With SiteGround?
The WordPress website builder is free with SiteGround. As a result, paying for WordPress hosting through SG means you pay for a package deal. While this isn’t technically “free,” this host site has some powerful features.
This is where the importance of WooCommerce and WordPress integration come in handy. The two free plugins with WordPress hosting are WooComerce and the SG optimizer. All additional services offered by WordPress must be paid for separately.
Final Thoughts
With this information available, can we comfortably say that SiteGround offers the best web hosting service available? Or is it too expensive with a bunch of users who are stuck with this web host?
SiteGround should be incredibly proud of what they’ve accomplished so far. While they aren’t the best regarding creative tools, they are really good at their limited offers. SiteGround never expresses being something that they aren’t, which is rare for any web host who loves buzzwords too much.
For cloud and shared hosting, SiteGround is a wonderful business partner. They also have great WordPress hosting features and an integrated reseller dashboard. This, combined with the creation of multiple email accounts, means that this is great for those who have websites managed by teams.
If you want to test it out, do everything you can to take advantage of that 30-day refund policy. If you feel like you can get a good feeling within those thirty days, SG is certainly worth trying out.
