SiteGround Review – Web Hosting Services

SiteGround is an interesting and powerful hosting company, with several categories of services. First off, they provide shared hosting, cloud hosting, dedicated server hosting, and reseller hosting. Next, they also include a full guide to WordPress (hosting, themes, and tutorials), as well as a full guide to Joomla services (hosting, templates, and guides). In this SiteGround review, we will be looking strictly at their web hosting services. If you decide that SiteGround isn’t what you need, we will also offer a list of competitors that may be perfect.

SiteGround Overview

SiteGround offers a wonderful range of hosting without listing too many plans on their website. They also allow their customers to work with them to create their own hosting plan that fits their needs exactly.

Performance is a key factor in choosing a web hosting service, and not many companies will disclose their actual statistics. SiteGround has a 99.9% uptime guarantee and the actual average an amazing 99.99% uptime even for their shared hosting. Their page load speeds are also amazing. At an average of 459ms for a typical page, you can’t go wrong.

Pricing Information

SiteGround offers shared hosting, cloud hosting, dedicated servers, and reseller accounts. You can also contact SiteGround directly for a quote for a custom plan.

They do their reseller accounts differently than any other web hosting company. You get credits for every account you activate and you pay by the credit. Credits start at $49/year per credit and drop to $42/year per credit for having over 10 credits.

The StartUp package gives users access to a free domain name, free setup and transfer for a website, a free website builder, unlimited emails, and databases, SSH, free cloud backup daily, and CloudFare CDN.

The GrowBig package features all the awesome stuff above, plus a few extra ones such as prioritized, premium support, unlimited websites, e-commerce capabilities with SSL (for extra security). The GoGeek package has all of the above plus a few advanced web design tools for those customers that are extra passionate about their websites.

Security & Risk

SiteGround keeps up to 30 backup copies of your website. They also offer free SSLs if you need it, though the type of SSL certificate will depend on the plan you choose. For example, the StartUp plan has a Let’s Encryped SSL certificate, while the GrowBig and GoGeek shared plans have a free Wildcard SSL certificate. They also provide a free CloudFlare CDN to guard against DDoS attacks.

Usability & User Friendliness

Being exclusive to Linux, SiteGround provides an enhanced version of cPanel for all of their websites. The user area is also very friendly and intuitive, providing simple one-click management of the client’s website, a sleek and serious design, and a few easy-to-use but important tools.

Free migration is a growing trend in the web hosting industry. It’s great for those who need to move a website to their new hosting. SiteGround will do it for free as long as your previous site was hosted on a cPanel hosting service.

They have a drag-and-drop web builder and one-click installs of your favorite CMS and other applications. They also offer tutorials and free, professional-looking WordPress and Joomla themes.

Customer Support & Additional Info

SiteGround has some of the best customer support reviews online. Other SiteGround reviews online state that they are very happy with the customer service they received. They offer 24/7 customer support via phone, live chat, and their online ticket system. There are no wait times for live chat or phone. Their average ticket response time is 10 minutes.

Contact details:

• Website: SiteGround.
• SiteGround Customer Support.
• SiteGround Phone Number: 800 828-9231.
• SiteGround Email.
• Social Media: Facebook, Twitter. 

SiteGround Overall Rating:

We’re coming to a close on our SiteGround review but we wanted to leave you with some food for thought.

What we like: 

• Incredible Uptime – They even post it on their site. They are proud of their 99.99% uptime and who wouldn’t be.
• Extremely Fast – Their page load times are some of the best in the industry, and they make sure that their servers are optimized for the most popular CMS software out there.
• Great Security – The best part of the SiteGround services is represented by their automatic backups.
• Scalable and Customizable – It is obvious throughout their website that they are focused on providing their customers with exactly what they need.

What we don’t like: 

• Reseller Credit System – While it’s a wonderful idea, it’s very hard to understand. It could probably use a bit clearer explanation on their site.

Rating:
Web Hosting Plans & Prices: 5/5
Security and Risk: 4/5
Usability & User Friendliness: 5/5
Customer Support: 5/5

SiteGround Top Alternatives

Have you come to a conclusion about what web hosting service you will use after reading this SiteGround review? If not, here are some alternatives that might interest you more.

• GoDaddy – GoDaddy is slower on average than SiteGround but their customer service is almost as fast, and they offer a 45-day money back guarantee instead of 30-days. They also offer SSD and HDD hosting.
• GreenGeeks Web – GreenGeeks Web is 300% powered by renewable energy. Being a green company, they care about the environment as much as their customers. While their page load speeds have been reported at around 3 seconds, they have an excellent 99.99% uptime.
• InMotion Hosting – Looking for a completely secure hosting company? They offer an advanced firewall, DDoS protection, 24/7 security monitoring, safe app roll back, daily backups, and more.

Verdict

We definitely recommend SiteGround as a solid and secure web hosting service. Their customer support is top-notch and there are few out there that can top their performance ratings. Even their plans are reasonable, and any introductory prices that are offered do not hide the price that they charge after the promotional period has ended.

How does this review compare to other SiteGround reviews? Please share your comments, experience, and questions with us.