SiteGround Site Overview
If you know only one name in the modern world of web hosting, SiteGround is probably the name. Someone loves the company, someone hates it – as in any popular online business, SiteGround has its share of happy and unhappy customers.
But most people will not say that SiteGround has done an excellent job developing their business over the past 5 years. These are the fastest growing hosting companies I have ever seen in a long time – their name was mentioned in every publication on social networks related to hosting, and in WHSR we get SiteGround service requests more often than all other brands.
So what’s so special about SiteGround? We are going to find out in this review.
If you’re looking for a SiteGround review that shows you behind the scenes, you’ve come to the right place.
About SiteGround Company
- It was founded in 2004 by a group of university friends.
- The company claims that at the time of writing, it accepted more than 2,000,000 domains.
- Services: shared, managed WP, managed WooCommerce, dedicated and cloud hosting
- Offices in five different countries: Bulgaria, Italy, Spain, the UK, and the USA.
What’s in this SiteGround review
PROS
- Excellent server performance – 100% uptime + excellent speed
- Free site migration for GrowBig and GoGeek users
- Choosing server locations on three continents
- Officially recommended by WordPress.org and Drupal.org
- Easy setup Let’s Encrypt Standard & Wild Card SSL
- Advanced Server Speed Technologies
- Save 60% on SiteGround First Account
- Great reviews from other SiteGround users
- Awesome customer support
Cons
- The performance guarantee does not cover failures in the case of DDoS
- Hosting cost after the first invoice
Pros: Why We Like SiteGround Hosting
1. Extremely reliable and fast – 100% host uptime
I cannot but stress how important it is that the hosting provider is always reliable and fast since any downtime or slowdown of your site can seriously affect the overall return on investment. That’s why SiteGround’s hosting performance impressed me, as they are capable of maintaining 100% uptime from year to year and loading relatively quickly.
SiteGround Hosting Performance
FYI, WHSR reviews are partly based on tracking performance on the sites we install on each host. In addition to a subsidiary site designed to track host performance (HostScore), we also conduct independent tests on our own sites for each host.
Here are the speed statistics for my test site hosted on SiteGround in January and February 2020.
SiteGround Speed Test in Bitchatch
Recent Website: Ground Uptime (2020)
I always liked SiteGround because I had very few problems with them. In particular, server reliability, in my opinion, is one of SiteGround’s most powerful solutions.
The following image shows the SiteGround uptime we received in January and February 2020. Their server performance has always been impressive to me – I have data for 2014 showing that they continuously achieve 99.99% uptime.
Previous siteGround Uptime (2014 – 2019)
2. Free site migration for GrowBig and GoGeek users
With each new GrowBig or GoGeek hosting account at SiteGround, you get one free professional website translation. The support service at SiteGround will help transfer your site to your SiteGround server. For StartUp users, the transfer service is paid (30 US dollars for each site transfer).
How to request a free site migration to SiteGround
The GIF image shows how to request a site transfer. Please note that I am using my personal account to demonstrate how this is done.
Siteground migrator
Alternatively, there is the possibility of self-migration for WordPress users – SiteGround Migrator. This is a special plug-in for automating the transfer (after you install and enter the necessary data) of a WordPress site into your SiteGround hosting account.
3. Choosing server locations on three continents
Like all things in our world, data transfer is limited by physical limitations.
When your site is placed closer to your users, it will load faster for them (since data and user requests are moved a shorter distance).
Faster site loading time corresponds to a better user experience. Better user experience is often equal to higher online customer conversions.
Therefore, it is important to place your site near your users.
SiteGround provides users with a choice of six server locations when registering:
- Chicago and Iowa, USA
- London, Great Britain
- Amsterdam and Emshaven, Holland
- Singapore.
This allows users to host their site next to an audience.
We performed several latent tests for the UK and Malaysia / Singapore Sites in 2017/2018. Based on our testing results, SiteGround is best suited for sites targeting an audience living in these regions.
UK time-out tests
Latency Tests from Malaysia / Singapore
4. Let’s Encrypt SSL support: easy SSL installation and upgrade
Security is important to a website because it not only protects you from hackers and malware but also tells your users that their data is safe on your website.
SiteGround offers Let’s Encrypt and Wild Card SSL for free when you sign up with their web hosting plans, and it is surprisingly easy to install on any of your domain names.
To verify and install Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates on SiteGround
To show you how to Let’s Encrypt SSL is installed on SiteGround, let me go to my personal account. Below you see the SiteGround Hosting user dashboard.
Let’s Encrypt Wildcard SSL support
Starting March 29, 2018, all SiteGround customers can receive a free SSL Let’s Encrypt Wildcard – which greatly simplifies the process of setting up subdomains.
Standard Let’s Encrypt SSL Against WildCard SSL
When using the standard FOC Let’s Encrypt SSL, users need to install a separate domain certificate for each subdomain.
With Wildcard, you can provide them with one certificate.
Private SSL (Premium EV SSL) at SiteGround – Purchase and Installation
SiteGround also offers Premium EV and Wildcard SSL certification through GlobalSign for users who need them. To buy your private SSL , just log in and go to “Add services” (see image).
Wildcard SSL lookup certificate costs $ 90 ++ for 12 months; EV SSL Certificate costs $ 499 ++.
6. Advanced server speed technologies (SSD, HTTP / 2, NGINX and others)
All SiteGround shared hosting comes with:
- Full SSD Storage,
- HTTP / 2 servers
- Easy implementation of Cloudflare CDN, and
- Different levels of the caching mechanism using SiteGround SuperCacher
These features help users easily optimize the download speed of their site.
7. Promotion SiteGround New Users: save 66% on the first account
When you register with SiteGround, you will receive a 66% discount on your first account for any of your hosting plans.
Considering that the standard price for SiteGround is about $ 11.95 / month for their StartUp plan and $ 19 / month for their GrowBig plan, a 60 +% discount on any of them is absolutely beneficial.
8. Amazing customer support
SiteGround charges a premium for its hosting services. if you compare SiteGround with other hosting providers, you can see that they charge 80 – 200% above the market rate.
However, most SiteGround users prefer to stay with them for a long time. What for?
I believe that customer support is one of the main reasons. It is always easy to get help from SiteGround – whether through chat, email, phone or their 4,500 knowledge base and tutorials.
Pricing: How much does SiteGround Hosting cost?
SiteGround Shared Hosting Prices
SiteGround Cloud (/ VPS) Hosting Prices
SiteGround Frequently Asked Questions
How good is SiteGround?
SiteGround is one of the most recognizable names in web hosting, which boasts impressive server performance and reliability. It is also known for its excellent customer service record.
How much is SiteGround?
SiteGround shared hosting plans start at $ 3.95 / month, and upgrade to $ 11.95 / month; VPS hosting plans start at $ 80 per month and go up to $ 160 per month.
Which is better than Bluehost or SiteGround?
SiteGround offers users better performance than Bluehost, although the latter offers cheaper plans.
Does SiteGround have a money-back guarantee?
Yes. SiteGround has a 30-day money-back guarantee.
You can cancel the service within the first 30 days and you will receive a full refund. The money-back-guarantee does not apply to domain names, cloud or dedicated server.
Which SiteGround Plan Is Better?
SiteGround claims its most popular plan is GrowBig, which offers a good balance of resources with cost-effectiveness.
For GrowBig users, you can request a free site migration if you are switching from other web hosts to SiteGround.
Where is SiteGround located?
SiteGround is based in Bulgaria and serves servers in North America, Europe and Asia.
Does SiteGround offer a CDN?
SiteGround has built-in CDN Cloudflare support for all hosting plans. In addition, it also offers its own caching mechanism to further improve site performance.
What is SG Site Scanner?
SG Site Scanner (formerly called HackAlert) runs on Sucuri and is a highly reliable malware detection and early warning system that helps protect your site and costs $ 19.80 / year.
Is SiteGround recommended?
In short, yes. SiteGround is one of the most recognizable names in the web hosting industry and offers an unrivaled combination of excellent performance and impeccable customer service. Despite the relatively high renewal price, they offer new users an excellent registration price.
Their offers cover the entire spectrum of products for web hosting, and this means that even if you buy only from shared hosting, there is a very clear migration path on this host. Scalability is certainly not a problem.
Who should take part in SiteGround?
SiteGround is one of those who are looking for a hosting solution without unnecessary worries, SiteGround is well suited for this.
