SiteGround Review 2020

Meta description: SiteGround is a powerful hosting service. It offers FAST LOAD TIMES and RELIABLE UPTIME. In this SiteGround review, I’ll examine the service and let you know…

SiteGround is an excellent hosting service that powers more than 2,000,000 websites today. The provider offers multiple hosting options and performs well in regards to both speed and uptime.

But is SiteGround the right web host for you? Well, keep reading to find out.

In this detailed SiteGround review, I’ll take a look at the service’s features and benefits as well as its pros and cons.

What is Liquid Web?

SiteGround is a leading web hosting company that launched in 2004. It was founded in Sofia, Bulgaria, by a few university students, most notably Tenko Nikolov, Nikolay Todorov, and Reneta Tsankova.

Over the years, SiteGround has grown tremendously and now has 500 employees and offices in Sofia, Stara Zagora, Madrid, and Plovdiv. Currently, they host over 2 million websites on Shared, WordPress, Cloud, Dedicated, and Enterprise Hosting.

The provider has incredible support and offers users a free domain registration, website building tools, and a full suite of eCommerce features.

Before we dive deeper, here’s a quick look at the pros and cons.

Pros

99.99% uptime guarantee
Excellent page load times
Free SSL certificate
Free domain name registration
Free SiteBuilder
Unlimited MySQL
30-day money-back guarantee
24/7 customer support

Cons

Higher renewal fees

SiteGround Features & Benefits

99.9% Uptime Guarantee

If your hosting service can’t keep your site online, why get it in the first place. What happens when you find a website is offline? I’m guessing that you don’t usually stick around and wait – you move on to another website.

Low uptime can significantly lower your traffic and cost you not only money but also your hard-earned reputation. It can also lower your website’s ranking on Google Search, which is probably the last thing you need.

SiteGround has some of the best uptime levels I’ve ever seen. The service consistently averaged 99.99% in my tests, with my only downtime lasting less than a minute.

To prevent downtimes affecting users, the provider uses server isolation technology on all their hosting plans, including the entry-level Shared Hosting. This ensures the sites stay online even when one server has been compromised.

To get an understanding of SiteGround’s uptime reliability, I hosted a test site with SiteGround and monitored it for 6 months. I was pleased with the results, but even more, I was impressed by the provider’s commitment to providing reliable hosting.

According to their terms of service, they guarantee 99.9% uptime, and they will even offer you free hosting if the service does fall below the threshold.

SiteGround Uptime in 2019

July – 100%
August – 100%
September – 99.9%
October – 100%
November – 99.9%
December – 100%

Excellent Response Times

While reliable uptime is essential, you cannot afford to disregard speed when choosing a web host. According to research by Gomez.com and Akamai.com, a 1-second delay in page response can result in a 7% reduction in conversions.

Similarly to uptime, slow speeds can cause your search engine rankings to fall. And as your SEO rankings tank, so will your visibility online.

SiteGround has fast load and response times and comes with advanced optimizations to ensure the service maintains great speeds.

SiteGround features Supercacher, a proprietary caching technology that allows you to boost your site speed.

Since load times are often affected by website content, I decided to test for the response times instead. To do this, I used a tool called Bitcatcha.

Here is a snapshot of the results.

24/7 Customer Support

Just like any other software, web host services can develop issues. Whether it’s a technical or account problem, quick and reliable customer support can be invaluable.

SiteGround’s customer support is one of the best out there. It’s available 24/7, and response times are off the charts. The support agents are friendly and knowledgeable and can be contacted via phone, live chat, and email.

I was particularly impressed with the quality and speed of their live chat support. After contacting them, I was connected to Lilia in seconds.

As you can see in the screenshot below, all here answers were straightforward, which is what I like to see from support teams.

In addition to the phone, email, and live chat, SiteGround also offers a knowledge base section with setup guides and other informative articles and videos.

Great Security Features

SiteGround does not mess around when it comes to security. The internet is full of threats, and it’s upon you to protect your site and visitors. And one of the best ways you can achieve this is by ensuring your site is SSL certified.

SSL protects data sent between your site and visitor’s devices, including sensitive information like passwords and credit card details. It also safeguards the user’s IP addresses from eavesdroppers and other malicious individuals.

It is easy to see why Google Chrome and other popular browsers warn users when visiting unsecured websites. Luckily, SiteGround bundles a free SSL certificate in all their hosting plans.

The provider also offers a variety of other security tools, including spam protection and firewalls.

SiteGround also recently launched its very own AI anti-bot protection that guards against malicious traffic. In a day, the system blocks between 500,000 to 2 million brute force attacks before they can reach customer sites.

SiteGround also implements real-time server health checks and has a dedicated security team always watching out for emerging threats and vulnerabilities.

Also, all their hosting plans support CloudFlare CDN, which not only protects your site from DDoS attacks but also improves your site’s load times.

SiteGround Account Isolation

Shared hosting is very popular, but also it presents a few security challenges. If one account is compromised, it can affect the others. Does SiteGround have the means to guard against this?

Absolutely. The company uses a unique chroot mechanism to isolate each account in its own directory. That way, even if one account has a security flaw, it can be quickly identified and fixed without compromising the entire server performance.

SG Site Scanner

If you have a few extra dollars to spare, SiteGround offers an integrated malware scanner. SG Site Scanner not only detects threats but also warns about potential infections. It is powered by Sucuri, and once activated, scans all site links daily.

Domain ID Protect

SiteGround’s Domain ID Protect feature protects your personal information from being in the WHOIS database. It allows you to hide your name, email address, phone number, and any other information attached to your domain.

Simple Account Management

Another area where SiteGround shines. Many hosting services already offer cPanel, but this service goes a step further. Just recently, the company launched a new simple interface that is quite easy and convenient to use.

I have to say, I’m pleased with the new sleek design. It allows you to manage everything from apps to domains, email accounts, backups, PHP versions, and CDN. With Site Tools, you can also monitor your site’s traffic statistics, view your current billing, and even block IPs.

Basically, it allows you to manage your site from a single location. It also provides an easier site creation and onboarding process.

Free Site Migration

SiteGround is not big on freebies, but I was pleased to see that they offer free site migration. I was able to transfer my site easily and with no downtime. However, if you should note that SiteGround includes free transfers in their GrowBig and GoGeek plans only, but more on this later.

Advanced Hosting Features

SiteGround has something for everyone. Beginners get to enjoy fast response times, great support, and robust security. But what if you are looking to build an e-commerce site? Well, SiteGround also has you covered.

The provider offers a wide list of e-commerce applications to choose from. I was also thrilled to see they offer eCommerce Hosting, which is designed to help get your business up and running in no time. With the plan, you get free shopping carts, free eShop transfer, and eCommerce optimized servers.

Extra SiteGround features include White-label site management, 1-click WordPress staging, and pre installed Git repo.

SiteGround Hosting Types

Here is a quick look at the available SiteGround hosting options:

Shared hosting: As the name suggests, Shared Hosting allows users to share server resources at an affordable price. It is recommended for beginners and is suitable for low traffic websites. Price starts at $3.95 per month
WordPress hosting: Optimized for WordPress, this hosting package improves performance and makes your WordPress site management easier. Price starts at $3.95 per month.
Managed WooCommerce Hosting: Provides easy WooCommerce store setup for new and existing stores and comes with unique features to help you sell more online. Price starts at $3.95 per month.
Cloud hosting: Cloud hosting is a powerful and more secure alternative to Shared hosting. It’s much cheaper than Dedicated hosting as well and offers a reliable and scalable hosting solution. Price starts at $80.00 per month.
Dedicated servers: Provides an entire physical server for your website. This gives you total control over resources allowing you to boost your site performance and offer more functionality to your visitors. Price starts at $269.00 per month.
Enterprise hosting: SiteGround’s most powerful hosting package. It’s fully managed and custom made to fit your company’s unique needs. It does not have a fixed price.

Pricing Plans & Payment Methods

Now that we know the different hosting types offered by SiteGround, let’s have a more detailed look at the different packages and pricing.

Shared Web Hosting

SiteGround’s Shared Web Hosting is their most basic plan. It’s also the cheapest available and is perfect for new sites. The package comes with four subscription options:

StartUp plan

Although it is not a terrible option for a new blog, this plan is severely limited. It supports only one site and offers 10 GB of webspace. That said, it does feature all the essential features, including SSL, website builder, CloudFlare CDN, daily backups, 24/7 customer support, and unlimited MySQL.

Starts at $3.95 per month (renewals at $11.95/mo).

GrowBig plan

GrowBig is a perfect upgrade to the StartUp plan if you are want to host more than one website. It supports unlimited websites and up to 20 GB of webspace. It also adds premium features such as managed site transfer, on-demand backup, SuperCacher speed booster, and the ability to add collaborators.

Starts at $5.955 per month (renewals at $19.95/mo).

GoGeek plan

This is the ultimate shared hosting package. It provides 30 GB web space and support for 100,000 monthly visits. Extra features include white-label site management and advanced priority support.

Starts at $5.45 per month (renews at $34.95/mo).

Managed WordPress Hosting Plans

SiteGround is one of the three hosting sites recommended by WordPress. Their Managed WordPress hosting is ‘powerful yet simple to use.’ It is also competitively priced and is available for the same price as their Shared Web Hosting package.

Some of the features of this plan include automated WordPress installation and access to WordPress experts. It also offers powerful tools for WordPress webmasters.

StartUp WordPress Plan: $3.95 per month (renewals at $11.95/mo)
GrowUp WordPress Plan: $5.95 per month (renewals at $19.95/mo)
GoGeek WordPress Plan: $11.95 per month (renewals at $34.95/mo)

Cloud Hosting Plans

A great option for website owners looking for powerful and scalable hosting. This hosting plan packs lots of advanced features, including Private DNS, Dedicated IP, and is fully managed. Hosting packages include Entry, Business, Business Plus, and Super Power.

Let’s take a look at each.

Entry Package

The Entry-level cloud hosting plan may not be as basic as you think. This package offers 2 CPU cores, 4GB memory, 40GB SSD space, and 5TB data transfer.

Starts at $80.00 per month.

Business Package

A slight improvement on the Entry package, the Business Package provides an extra CPU core, 6GB RAM, 40GB SSD space, and 5TB data transfer.

Starts at $120.00 per month.

Business Plus Package

The Business Plus package offers 20GB more SSD space than the Business Plan. It also offers 2GB more memory and one more CPU core. However, the amount of data transfer is uniform in all plans.

Starts at $160.00 per month.

Super Power Package

This is the most powerful cloud hosting provided by SiteGround, and its pricing suggests as much. It comes with an incredible 8 CPU cores. Now that’s power. To put it in perspective, this is twice more than what the Business Plus plan offers and 4 times the entry plan.

The plan also features 10GB memory and 120GB SSD capacity. Honestly, this is as close you can get to achieving the performance of dedicated server hosting.

Starts at $240.00 per month.

Dedicated Hosting Plans

If you are looking for total control, then this right here is the ideal SiteGround hosting type for you. It gives you access to your own servers and allows you to integrate your own applications.

Still, SiteGround offers lots of preinstalled software with this plan, including Softaculous Autoinstaller, Exim Mail Server, MySQL 5 & PostgreSQL, and IP Tables Firewall. The plan also includes 5 free Dedicated IPs and 5 PHP versions.

With this plan, SiteGround allows you to pick your data center location. Currently, the available locations are the United States, Europe, and Asia Pacific.

SiteGround’s Dedicated Hosting plans include Entry Server, Power Server, and Super Power Server.

Entry Package: The entry plan includes 4 CPU cores, 16GB memory, and 480GB SSD. Starts at $269.00 per month.
Power Server Package: Offers higher performance with 32GB and twice the SSD capacity offer in the Entry plan. Starts $349.00 per month.
Super Server Package: Ideal for large businesses and corporations, the Super Server package offers incredible performance and storage. It includes 64GB and two 960GB SSD.

Do I Recommend SiteGround?

SiteGround has lots of excellent features. The service is fast and has awesome uptime reliability. It is also easy to manage, and their customer service is one of the best you can find.

But is SiteGround the right hosting service for you? It also depends on your needs and budget. If you look around, you’ll find several cheaper shared hosting options like HostGator. However, always remember: ‘Price is what you pay: Value is what you get.’

SiteGround offers great value for money, and I recommend it if you are looking for a reliable hosting service.

Try it out and let me know your thoughts in the comment section below.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse