SiteGround has been in the hosting game for a long time now. As a matter of fact, they have been hosting websites for over a decade, so chances are, you’ve heard of them at least once or twice. There are tons of SiteGround reviews on the internet but I found few that have been created for 2017.You might have also noticed that SiteGround’s hosting is recommended by many bloggers and forums all over the internet. Is their hosting really that good? Is everyone doing SiteGround reviews all over the internet just because of their affiliate program? Or maybe it’s because they have sharks with laser beam goggles and a moat that keeps the black knight at bay?
[clickToTweet tweet=”#SiteGround #Review: Affordable Managed Hosting for #WordPress @SiteGround ” quote=”maybe it’s because they have sharks with laser beam goggles and a moat that keeps the black knight at bay?” theme=”style3″]Okay, I MIGHT have made that last one up….
Joking aside – The truth is, while they do have a great affiliate program, it’s definitely not the only reason they are highly recommended everywhere you look.
I will do my best to tell you why you should or shouldn’t host your website with SiteGround while also outlining some of the basic features, plans, and pricing. So that way you’re able to make a better and more informed decision.
Now on to the review!
**Don’t forget to check out our deals page or use our link to get 60% off their hosting plans!**
1. Overview
According to Wikipedia, SiteGround was founded March 22, 2004; and host more than a half a million websites.
When I look at the overall value of SiteGround, it’s a VERY good option for a new blogger or someone on a budget looking for an affordable WordPress Hosting solution that might not need expensive hosting and the bells-and-whistles that come with it. As your website grows bigger and becomes more popular, I would then recommend transferring the site over to a faster (but more expensive) managed WordPress hosting company with more features such as:
2. SiteGround’s Hosting Plans and Pricing
This company targets private WordPress clients that are looking for scalability among their most important attributes. They offer three specific plans; the Startup, GrowBig, and GoGeek plan as well a WooCommerce specific plan that is great for people with online shopping carts through WordPress. One of the main features I love about SiteGround is their affordability while still being able to offer some of the same services provided by much more expensive hosting options.
» The Startup Plan:
(click here to get 60% OFF THE REGULAR $9.95/MO. $3.95/mo.)
The Startup plan is perfect for the individual just starting a blog or is new to the WordPress world and is looking for a reliable and secure host for their site. The Startup plan begins by offering users the following services with the beginning price set at $9.95 per month.
- Storage Space of 10GB
- One WP Install
- Free Domain
- Free Set up and transfer
- 30-day money back guarantee
» GrowBig Plan:
(click here to get 60% OFF THE REGULAR $14.95/MO. $5.95/mo.)
The second level up is the GrowBig plan that is targeted to web developers and companies with multiple WordPress websites that need to be hosted on the same server. This plan starts at $14.95 per month and offers multiple benefits including:
- Storage Space of 20GB
- Unlimited amount of websites
- Same 30-day money back guarantee
» GoGeek Plan:
(click here to get 60% OFF THE REGULAR $29.95/MO. $11.95/mo.)
The final plan is their GoGeek plan that pretty much offers true cyber-geeks all they could want in a WordPress hosting service. This plan starts at $29.95 per month and offers:
- 30GB storage space
- Unlimited WP Installs
- Free SSL, Domain, PCI Compliance and Developer features
- The sites are suitable for 25,000 visits monthly
3. SiteGround’s Features
SiteGround offers some of the most freebies I’ve ever seen by a hosting company including:
- FREE domain name
- FREE email
- FREE SSL through “Let’s Encrypt”
- FREE CDN (most companies charge an extra $10/mo. for this)
The area where SiteGround actually does better than most? They are always creating new tools to enhance the user experience such as their SuperCacher and Toolkits for WordPress developers and website builders. The SuperCacher is designed to help improve site speed dramatically.
Their Free SSL that they offer through Let’s Encrypt is awesome and easy to setup. I love how a lot of hosting providers are offering this now and I use Let’s Encrypt on all of my websites (including DesignRope). Having SSL certification not only encrypts the data for your users that visit your website making it more secure, it’s also one of the many important ranking factors that Google uses for their search engine!
4. Is SiteGround’s Hosting Fast?
You can have hundreds of perks but if your site is slow, this not only affects the users’ experience but also SEO for ranking in Google and other search engines.
In my own tests, I saw an average page loading speed of 352ms with the highest at 686ms with their “GoGeek” hosting plan. I have checked other reviews to see how my tests compared and all of them found similar speeds. This was very consistent with no huge spikes so as you can see – SiteGround is fast and pretty much unbeatable for the price.
Keep in mind this was on a site very basic WordPress website that gets about ~100 visitors a day, so your mileage may very.
5. The Good / The Bad
» The Good
- Really quick customer service: SiteGround offers 24/7 support and I have found that most tickets are processed within 15 minutes. This doesn’t always mean that the problem is instantly fixed, but it does show that they are on the job trying to resolve your issue.
- Exceptional uptime: In fact, 99.9% of the time, websites hosted on SiteGround are up and running. This is one of the better percentages out there as their data centers are strong and accurately powered based on the website needs.
- Tons of freebies: No seriously… that’s a lot of free stuff that most hosting companies don’t offer.
» The Bad
- Setup fee: They charge a $14.95 setup fee if you pay for their shared hosting plans monthly instead of annually.
- Having them host your emails and domain name: While some may consider this a positive that SiteGround does offer domain name services (DNS) and email hosting. It’s best practice keeping your domain name separate from your hosting provider. This is the same reason most high-end managed WordPress hosting providers do not provide these services.
**I personally recommend and use G Suite from Google (yes they now offer domain’s too!) as my DNS/email hosting provider for DesignRope but I also use Namecheap for a few of my other websites domain names**
Have something to share about SiteGround’s Managed WordPress Hosting? Let us know in the comments below!
5. Our Verdict
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Price:
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Usability:
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Customer service:
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Speed:
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Features:
Summary
For more than a decade, SiteGround has been a fairly good host of websites for small to medium-sized customers looking for affordability and reliability. In recent years, they’ve become one of the better medium-range WordPress hosting services, offering customers affordable rates with exceptional security protection layers and fairly decent speed.
SiteGround fills the gaps for someone looking for a cheap hosting provider but want’s something that was built specifically for WordPress (Managed) and doesn’t want to go with a bare-bone static shared host that may have security gaps for their site. I would always recommend going with SiteGround over other cheaper options like GoDaddy or BlueHost if those are your only options at your price point.