There are a lot of website hosts out there, but SiteGround is rare in its longevity and reliability. SiteGround has provided consistent, reliable, user-friendly service for 20 years and as a result there are currently almost 3 million sites hosted by them. In this SiteGround review we’re going to take a closer look at their features, pricing, pros and cons, and then examine who should be using SiteGround.
| Rating | |
| Price | Starts at $2.99/mo |
| Uptime | 99.99% |
| Backups | Automatic, daily |
| SSL Included | Yes |
| Staging Included | Yes – GrowBig plan and up |
| Email Included | Yes |
| Hosting types | Shared, Cloud, Reseller Hosting, WordPress |
| Server locations | USA, UK, Netherlands, Germany, Australia, Singapore |
| Support | 24/7 live chat, email, & phone, + knowledge base |
PROS |
CONS |
|
|
Overview of SiteGround Features
SiteGround’s basic plan, StartUp, is pretty basic. It can be a good option if you just have one small site, or are just getting started (because you can always upgrade your plan when needed). Their other 2 plans, GrowBig and GoGeek are feature rich and powerful, especially considering their prices.
Most of SiteGround’s included features are available for all 3 plans, however they get much more powerful as you scale up. Let’s take a closer look at some of the features SiteGround offers:
- Automatic daily backups – to give you peace of mind!
- Free SSL – you need an SSL certificate to keep your site secure and they can cost $100+ a year when bought separately.
- Free CDN – a CDN is a “content delivery network” and it helps your site content load much faster
- 24/7 support – chat, email, phone, and a huge knowledge base to help you if you ever need it.
- Email accounts included – so you can have [email protected]
- Staging environment included – (starting at the GrowBig plan level) so you can test updates and changes before you make them live on your main site
- Site migration – SiteGround has a free site migrator plugin that is easy to use and works well if you need to move a simple site. More complex sites may still need to be moved manually, or SiteGround offers a paid “professional migration” if you need them to do it for you.
- Collaboration options – if you have multiple people working on your website you can give them just as much access to SiteGround as they need without sharing your own login.
- Optimizer & Security plugins – SiteGround comes with an optimization plugin to help your site’s performance, and a security plugin to help keep your site safe.
SiteGround Ease of Use: SiteGround is great for any experience level
When it comes to ease of use, SiteGround really shines. If you’re just getting started, SiteGround offers an intuitive user interface. With a prominent “New Website” button and a step-by-step walk-through, you can get your website set up in just a few minutes.
SiteGround makes setup very easy
For working on your site, SiteGround has it’s own “Site Tools” dashboard that replaces cPanel. Site Tools provides a great user experience. It’s clean, modern, and very visually pleasing. Most used tools sit right at the top for easy access, and the rest of the tool options are right at hand in the sidebar.
The SiteGround ‘Site Tools’ dashboard
Now if you’re a more advanced user and are unhappy that there is no cPanel, there’s no need to worry here! There are still a lot of advanced tools like phpmyadmin, File Manager, FTP access, Git, Cron Jobs, PHP manager, and SSH access.
So whether you’re a total beginner or an experienced developer, SiteGround is going to offer the tools you need in a sleek, intuitive way that makes managing your site a simple task.
SiteGround Performance: Is SiteGround fast?
Performance is critically important for your website if you want to get search engines to recommend your site– and also so your users stay on your site once they’ve arrived. SiteGround uses start-of-the-art technology with Google Cloud to serve all their websites, and they also promise 99.9% uptime, so you can bet that your site is online and working.
Awesome Data Center Options
Data Centers are the places that store and serve your data to your website users. You want to choose a data center that is as close to your main audience as possible. SiteGround has data centers in 4 US locations, 5 European locations, Singapore & Australia. This gives you lots of options to choose from, especially if you have a US audience.
All of SiteGround’s data centers are on Google’s Cloud Platform which is one of the fastest networks in the world. It’s basically the best hardware available, but it can be very difficult to manage if you’re not experienced with technical server management. With SiteGround you’re on the best platform and they manage it FOR you, so you get all the benefits without any of the headaches.
SiteGround US data centers & CDN locations
CDN Included
A CDN is a ‘content delivery network.’ Basically, it saves and stores a copy of your website in multiple locations and when visitors from different parts of the world visit your site they can load it from their nearest location. SiteGround has 17 CDN locations around the world, so you can expand to a global audience and feel confident that your site will load fast no matter where your users are located.
Optimization & Caching
SiteGround includes the SG Optimizer plugin which provides excellent media and frontend optimization options. All websites on GrowBig (and up) plans also get static and dynamic caching enabled which can increase your site’s speed up to 5x.
Solid Response Times
Google recommends a site’s server response time be under 200 milliseconds, while an average response time is 200-500ms (but you want to be faster than that).
HostScore checks SiteGround’s shared hosting response time every four hours, and reports that the average response time is ~ 172ms. This is great! It’s well under Google’s recommended 200ms. While it’s not the fastest in the game, it is excellent speed at SiteGround’s price point.
Low CPU Limits
SiteGround’s biggest flaw is their low CPU seconds per account limits. The StartUp plan allows from approximately 10,000 monthly visits. This is an estimate of how many visits your site can take before the CPU limit is reached. For the GrowBig plan this is 100,000 monthly visits and the GoGeek plan is 400,000 monthly visits.
When you’ve hit 90% of your provided monthly CPU SiteGround will send you an email letting you know, and at 100% usage your service will be limited. SiteGround support is good about temporarily increasing this limit if you need so you can optimize your site, but it’s definitely a negative overall in terms of SiteGround’s hosting services.
SiteGround Support: Lots of ways to get help
SiteGround offers support 24/7, and they’ve won 2 Stevie Awards recognizing their excellence when it comes to helping their customers.
Every page of the SiteGround dashboard has a big “?” icon in the top right of the screen, and this opens up their Help widget with common questions about the specific page you’re on. From there you can click “View Help Center” which is their Knowledge Base, and there is a “Contact Us” link at the top of the page. The ease-of-access to their contact page could be improved, but once you’re at the Contact Page they make things very simple and intuitive.
From their Contact Page they will funnel you towards the type of help that you need as well as what’s currently available and shortest wait-time. For example, after business hours it will direct you toward the online chat (which is always available) or to submit a help ticket, but during their working hours they may recommend you contact their phone support.
SiteGround support options
Plus, the support agents at SiteGround are quick, helpful, and knowledgeable. Response times with chat and phone are usually within moments, and even email support typically gets some kind of reply within 10 minutes.
SiteGround Pricing: Buy in bulk
Like many hosting providers, SiteGround offers a significant discount if you pay for their plan yearly instead of monthly, so it’s a good idea to save yourself some money and pay for the year upfront if you can. Plus they have a 30 day money back guarantee, so it comes with very little risk.
Keep in mind that the first year with SiteGround is cheaper than renewal years, which unfortunately is a very common pricing structure for website hosting.
Here’s how SiteGround’s basic pricing breaks down:
| Plan | Features | Price | Renewal |
| StartUp | 1 website, 10GB storage, 10,000 monthly visits | $2.99/mo | $14.99/mo |
| GrowBig | Unlimited websites, 20GB storage, 100,000 monthly visits | $4.99/mo | $24.99/mo |
| GoGeek | Unlimited websites, 40GB storage, 400,000 monthly visits | $7.99/mo | $39.99/mo |
They also offers Cloud Hosting and Reseller Hosting options.
SiteGround Review: Final verdict
As you can see, we’re fans of SiteGround. Their ease-of-use and great customer support make them an excellent option for beginners, while their feature-rich GrowBig & GoGeek plans can offer powerful tools for even experienced techies.
| Features | 4.7 – Lots of great features like daily backups, free SSL & CDN, a staging environment, daily updates, and optimization & security plugins |
| Ease of Use | 4.9 – Their Site Tools dashboard is modern, sleek, and so easy to use |
| Performance | 4.2 – The CPU limits knock their score some, but with 99.9% uptime, lots of data center locations and running on the Google Cloud platform, they still do a very good job |
| Support | 4.5 – 24/7/365 chat, email, & phone support that does an excellent job |
| Pricing | 4.0 – Great first year pricing, but higher renewal prices |
| FINAL SCORE | 4.5 |
So, who should use SiteGround?
We think that SiteGround is especially good for beginners, or those who don’t want to mess with the technical aspects of their website hosting. While SiteGround does offer powerful advanced tools, the real benefit of SiteGround is its ease-of-use for those that want their hosting setup to be mostly handled for them.
FAQs
Is SiteGround good for WordPress?
SiteGround is very good for WordPress. They have designated WordPress Hosting plans that are optimized for WordPress and let you install and manage your WordPress site with just a few clicks.
Does SiteGround come with a domain name?
No. While SiteGround does sell domain names, a domain does not automatically come with a hosting plan. However, SiteGround does provide free SSL certificates.
How much does SiteGround cost?
SiteGround hosting starts at $2.99/mo for the StartUp plan if you pay for the first year upfront. Their GrowBig plan starts at $4.99 and their GoGeek plan starts at $7.99. Keep in mind that their renewal prices are higher than their first year prices.
Is SiteGround worth the money?
Yes, SiteGround is worth their prices. They have worldwide servers, a 99.9% uptime guarantee, great customer service, and one of the easiest to use dashboards in the business. They have also proven to be reliable for over 20 years.
Does SiteGround come with staging?
The GrowBig and GoGeek plans offer free staging as part of their hosting service. The StartUp plan does not include a staging environment.
Where are SiteGround’s data centers located?
SiteGround has data centers in Ashburn (Virginia, US), Council Bluffs (Iowa, US), Dallas (Texas, US), Los Angeles (California, US), London (UK), Madrid (Spain), Eemshaven (Netherlands), Frankfurt (Germany), Paris (France), Sydney (Australia), & Singapore (Singapore).
Does SiteGround have cPanel?
No, SiteGround does not have cPanel. They have a dashboard called ‘Site Tools’ that is very user friendly. It still provides many advanced tools for more experienced users, including MySQL, File Manager, FTP access, Git, Cron Jobs, PHP manager, and SSH access.
Not Sure About SiteGround? Check out our other recommendations:
