Siteground is one of the most recommended WordPress hosting companies. They are known for their top-notch customer support, reliable, and fast hosting plans. Their WordPress optimized hosting includes everything you’ll need to create and grow a successful website or blog. Read our complete SiteGround review to find out if SiteGround is the right host for you.
In this detailed SiteGround review, we’ll put their promises to test. These are the areas we will look into:
- Performance: Speed is crucial for the success of any website. How fast will your website load with SiteGround?
- Reliability: Will your website be available 24/7/365 without facing any downtime?
- Customer Support: Can you count on their customer support?
- Features: Do they offer all the features and tools you’ll need to build your website?
- Pricing: How much would it cost you? Are there any SiteGround deals that can save you money?
This is a comprehensive SiteGround review with a detailed analysis of SiteGround’s hosting service. If you don’t want to read the full hosting review, here is the quick scorecard with our verdict right below it.
| SiteGround Review Summary | |
|---|---|
| Performance grade | A+ |
| Average load time | 397 ms |
| Average response time | 123 ms |
| Free domain | Yes |
| Free SSL | Yes |
| 1-click WordPress | Yes |
| Support | Phone / Live Chat / Knowledge base |
| Start with SiteGround | |
Bottom line: We found SiteGround to be noticeably faster and extremely reliable. Their hosting plans are flexible, and their customer support is one of the best in the industry.
That’s why we’ve chosen to recommend SiteGround as one of the best WordPress hosting companies.
Now let’s dive into our detailed SiteGround review so that you can see how we reached that conclusion and decide for yourself.
About SiteGround
Siteground was founded in 2004, and since then, it has grown into one of the most well-known hosting companies.
SiteGround is a holding of companies registered in the USA, UK, Bulgaria, Cyprus, and Spain, with data centers on three continents. Today, the company has over 500 employees and hosts over 2,000,000 domains.
Pros and Cons of SiteGround
Each hosting company has its pros and cons. Some advantages can overshadow the disadvantages, but some cons can be a total deal-breaker for your needs.
Before making a decision, you may want to review these SiteGround pros and cons.
Pros
Here are some advantages that make SiteGround one of the top-rated hosting companies in the world.
- Super fast servers: All SiteGround servers are highly optimized for speed. They use the Google Cloud platform for all new customers, which is one of the fastest platforms on the market.
- Top Notch Customer Support: Their customer support is amazing, to say the least. They offer 24/7 phone support, live chat, and ticket-based support.
- Free CDN and SSL They offer an instant setup of Cloudflare’s free CDN and free SSL certificate from Let’s Encrypt.
- Multiple Server Locations They have data centers on three continents. You can choose the location you prefer during signup.
Cons
As we mentioned earlier, there are some downsides to every hosting company. The following are some disadvantages of choosing SiteGround as your host.
- Limited Storage: Their plans come with fixed storage. However, this storage is quite large, and if you are just starting out, you will most likely never need extra storage.
- Higher fee for monthly billing: The hosting service gets expensive if you choose monthly billing. But if you sign up for a longer billing period, then you’ll get a bigger discount and a lower rate. They offer a 30-day money-back guarantee anyway, so it’s a good idea to choose a longer billing period when you sign up.
SiteGround Performance
While price often plays a significant role when choosing a web host, you cannot compromise on performance.
This is why we decided to run our own tests to thoroughly review SiteGround’s performance.
SiteGround Speed Test Results
Speed is one of the most important performance metrics that you should look for. A faster website offers a good user experience and boosts your SEO at the same time.
In fact, a single-second delay can cause a 7% decrease in conversions, 11% fewer page views, and a 16% decrease in customer satisfaction.
We created a WordPress-powered test site on SiteGround and filled it with dummy content for theme development with images.
After that, we used Pingdom’s website speed test tool to run our tests. These were the results we got:
As you can see, our test site loaded in less than a second (417 ms to be precise) with a performance score of 95.
This is incredible, but this website had almost no traffic, so the Pingdom test alone is insufficient.
To test how SiteGround servers would respond to increased traffic, we used a stress testing tool called K6 by Grafana Labs.
This tool gradually sends up to 50 users to see how the server would respond to increased traffic from multiple connections.
You can see the results in the chart below:
The purple line is the number of active virtual users on the site, and the light blue line is the server response time. SiteGround performed consistently throughout the test without any hiccups.
This test shows that if you are looking for a really fast website, then SiteGround can be a perfect choice for you.
One of the reasons why SiteGround performed exceptionally well in these performance tests is because of the recent innovations they’ve added.
Almost all SiteGround servers are now hosted on the Google Cloud Platform. They’ve also added UltraFast PHP and created a custom WordPress plugin for optimization (SG Optimizer), which really puts them in a premium web hosting category.
Typically, websites hosted on shared hosting accounts slow down during top traffic hours. That’s because your site is sharing resources with other websites on that server.
Most shared hosting companies automatically kill the server process if your site is taking too many resources. This causes downtime on your website.
We tested our SiteGround site for the downtime and got 100% uptime result.
SiteGround Server Response Time
Your website’s content has a huge impact on page load time. For example, if you have high-resolution images on a page, then it will significantly increase the overall page load time.
This means that speed test results may not accurately reflect how fast your hosting server really is.
Instead of analyzing page load time alone, we decided to test the actual server response time as well.
To do this, we used a tool called Bitcatcha. It ignores page content and only tests the response time of the server.
Bitcatcha also gives you average loading speed from different global locations. The speed for each location is measured three separate times, and then the results are averaged.
Take a look at the results in the screenshot below.
As you can see, SiteGround is a great choice if your target audience is mostly located in the United States. The server responded in a fraction of a second in the United States.
It responded within less than a second for all locations.
SiteGround also allows you to change your server location and you can choose a data center closer to your target audience for even better response times in that particular region.
SiteGround Hosting Plans and Features
SiteGround offers shared hosting, WordPress hosting, cloud hosting, and dedicated hosting plans. If you are just starting out, then their shared hosting plans would be a perfect fit for your needs. However, your site will eventually grow, and you want to make sure that they have other plans that you can upgrade to.
Let’s check out SiteGround’s hosting plans and their features.
- Shared hosting: Shared hosting is recommended for new websites, bloggers, small business website,s or a startup online store. It is suitable for low-traffic websites as you will be sharing resources with other websites hosted on the server.
- WordPress hosting: This plan is WordPress optimized version of their shared hosting plan. It comes with SiteGround’s in-house WordPress optimizations to improve the performance of your website. See SiteGround WordPress hosting.
- WooCommerce hosting: This plan is a WooCommerce optimized version of their shared hosting plan. It includes SiteGround’s optimizations, which greatly improve the performance of your online store. See SiteGround WooCommerce hosting.
- Cloud hosting: Cloud hosting plans provide a flexible upgrade to a shared hosting solution. It allows you to use resources of cloud architecture, including multiple cores CPU and bandwidth. It is suitable for growing websites, popular blogs, or businesses. It can also be an upgrade over VPS and traditional dedicated servers. See SiteGround Cloud hosting.
WPBeginner website is hosted on SiteGround’s Enterprise hosting infrastructure which is an enhanced version of their Cloud platform for large sites.
Breakdown of SiteGround’s Shared Hosting Plans
SiteGround’s shared hosting options are the best way to build a new website. Their shared hosting packages are available in three levels to match different budgets.
- Startup: This plan is limited to hosting one website. It includes 10 GB disk space and is suitable for hosting a website with 10,000 monthly visitors. You’ll also get all essential features like a 1-click WordPress install, free setup, website transfer, daily backups, built-in caching (SuperCacher), free CDN, free SSL, and more.
- GrowBig: The GrowBig plan lets you host unlimited websites. It comes with 20 GB of disk space and is suitable for hosting websites with 25,000 monthly visits. You’ll get all the features of the Startup plan, plus you’ll get premium features like ultrafast PHP for even faster speed, on-demand backups, an easy staging tool, and the option to add collaborators to your sites.
- GoGeek: GoGeek plan is suitable for eCommerce websites. It can handle websites having 100,000 monthly visitors. In addition to all GrowBig’s features, you’ll get access to priority support, more server resources, advanced features like one-click git repo creation, and the option to manage white-label clients on your sites.
Each Siteground plan comes with faster disk storage, email accounts, support for the Cloudflare free content delivery network, and Let’s Encrypt free SSL certificate.
They also include several popular WordPress plugins like WPForms, OptinMonster, and All in One SEO to help you improve your website rankings.
SiteGround Support and Customer Service
You’ll see high praise for SiteGround’s customer support service everywhere. Their support team is remarkably good at offering quick, helpful, and knowledgeable support to their customers.
Their customer support includes 24/7 phone, live chat, and ticket-based email support. Their phone and live chat response times are almost instant. Email-based tickets get the first response within less than 10 minutes.
For users who prefer to fix things on their own, SiteGround offers an instant AI assistant. Built on top of ChatGPT, this AI is trained to answer SiteGround customer questions.
The helo resource center also includes a massive collection of knowledge base articles.
This includes step-by-step tutorials and troubleshooting guides with screenshots and videos.
Since we use SiteGround to host several of our websites, we can say with confidence that their support staff is very knowledgeable.
Conclusion: Is SiteGround the Right Choice for You?
After reading our detailed SiteGround review, you might be wondering if SiteGround is the best web hosting company for your website.
If you want a fast and reliable web hosting provider with excellent customer support, then SiteGround is perfect for you. They have hosting plans for every budget, and each plan comes with a great set of features.
All their shared hosting plans include SSD storage, site tools, easy setup of Let’s Encrypt free SSL and Cloudflare CDN service, 1-click WordPress installer, and free migration. Built-in security features protect your website against malware, and you can add additional protection by turning on Cloudflare CDN functionality.
If you are just starting a website for the first time, then you will certainly appreciate SiteGround’s customer support.
Ready to get started with SiteGround? Click here to choose your hosting plan today.
SiteGround Coupon
WPBeginner users get an exclusive 70% discount and free SSL with our SiteGround coupon code.
All you have to do is click on this link to purchase. The discount will be applied automatically.
Frequently Asked Questions about SiteGround Hosting
In this detailed SiteGround review, we looked at all aspects of their hosting services. The following are some of the most frequently asked questions about SiteGround that we are asked by our users.
1. Where are SiteGround servers located?
SiteGround servers are located in the United States, Europe, and Singapore. You can choose the server location during sign up.
2. Why choose SiteGround for WordPress hosting?
SiteGround offers a highly optimized WordPress hosting platform. Each plan includes its own in-house security features and WordPress tweaks that boost your WordPress site speed and performance.
You can easily set up a WordPress website with their 1-click WordPress installation. You can also move existing WordPress websites using the SiteGround Migrator plugin.
This is why SiteGround is an officially recommended hosting provider for WordPress users.
3. Does SiteGround support WooCommerce?
SiteGround specializes in WordPress and WooCommerce hosting. If you are building a WooCommerce store, then you can rely on SiteGround’s optimizations for consistent performance and reliability.
They are one of the top WooCommerce hosting providers and make it super easy to start an online store without any special technical skills.
4. Does SiteGround offer a website builder?
No, SiteGround does not offer its own site builder. That’s because they want users to have the option to pick the best website builder for their needs.
This is why they allow you to easily install WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Magento, Weebly, and many other site builder platforms.
On the SiteGround platform, you can also create unlimited web pages without any restrictions.
5. Does SiteGround offer cPanel hosting?
No, SiteGround no longer offers cPanel hosting. Once cPanel raised its licensing fees, SiteGround decided to remove cPanel hosting and instead built a far superior web hosting control panel for both beginners and advanced users. This allows them to offer managed WordPress hosting-like features without the high costs.
6. Is SiteGround better than Bluehost?
SiteGround and Bluehost used to offer the same features, but with recent innovations, SiteGround has significantly improved its hosting technology.
Regarding overall performance, technology infrastructure, and support quality, SiteGround is better than Bluehost. However, with all this innovation, SiteGround pricing is significantly higher.
So, when it comes to pricing, Bluehost is better than SiteGround because not only is it 50% cheaper, but it also offers a free domain name with each account.
For more details, see our honest comparison of SiteGround vs. Bluehost vs. WP Engine.
7. How does SiteGround compare with other hosting providers?
Readers often ask us how SiteGround compares with GoDaddy, Hostinger, HostGator, GreenGeeks, DreamHost, A2 Hosting, and other web hosting services.
They all used to provide similar features and technology, but over the last year, SiteGround has really stepped up its innovation.
With all the managed WordPress hosting features, Google Cloud infrastructure, and custom performance optimization, SiteGround is now in a class of its own with its premium hosting.
8. Does SiteGround offer a free domain name?
No, SiteGround does not offer a free domain name. You can buy a domain name from another registrar and point it to your SiteGround account or buy one from SiteGround during signup at an additional cost.
9. Can I cancel my SiteGround account and get a refund?
SiteGround offers a 30-day money-back guarantee with all their shared plans. You can try out their services during this period. You are eligible for a refund if you cancel your account during this period. However, domain name registrations are non-refundable.
10. Which SiteGround plan is best for me?
Each SiteGround plan has different server resources. However, if you are just starting out, then their Startup plan would be perfect for that. You can upgrade at any time if you need more resources. Choose your SiteGround plan to get started.
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Tania Jeffs says
Just the best hosting company I’ve used in over 20 years. So fast at getting back to you, great value hosting and tons of features. They really know their stuff. Perfect for WordPress and also our PHP commerce site. Have recommended to a few clients too!
David Fozdar says
As you can see by these reviews, SiteGround is one of the best hosts around.
I recently transferred my entire cPanel account to SiteGround from a web hosting company owned by EIG (Just Host), and I could not be happier. I just wish I would’ve done it about 2 years ago.
Folks, if you are serious about running a blog or eCommerce site (or sites), then it is IMPERATIVE that you find a good web host. Sooner or later you WILL run into problems and have to sort things out with your web host. Moreover, customer support is what separates the boys from the men in web hosting, not just the quality of the server technology. SiteGround’s support is unbelievable. In fact, I still cannot believe how much better they are than my old host.
Even if you have to pay more for SiteGround hosting than what you’re currently paying for your current hosting plan, it is worth every penny. If your current host uses cPanel, then SiteGround will copy your entire cPanel free of charge, which includes all your email accounts, ftp accounts, websites, etc. (everything in your cPanel).
To speed up the transition process, you can have SiteGround backup/copy your cPanel account and leave the backup in the public_html directory (a tar.gz file) of the file manager in your old hosting account (where you’re moving from). Then you can personally download the cPanel backup from your file manager and ftp it to your new hosting account (to the public_html directory) at SiteGround. SiteGround will set up everything from the backup in your new hosting account. You can do this within a period of like 4-6 hours. You can then follow the normal procedures to make sure your website works (or websites) (SiteGround will tell you how to do that). After that, you can then quickly change your nameserver info in the cPanel of your old hosting account (do not cancel your old hosting account until everything is set up). Within 24 hours, you will have your website(s) being hosted with SiteGround with literally NO downtime.
Also, when you copy over your cPanel, you will likely have your SSL certificates copied over if you have them. Thus, you will have no issues with transferring and testing your SSL sites before you change the nameserver info (just make sure to purchase a dedicated IP address from SiteGround). After everything transfers, you can get new SSL certificates from SiteGround if necessary.
Anyways, this is my take. I hope I helped some of you out.
Charles Sharp says
I think SiteGround is one the best hosting services around. As long as they don’t get eaten by EIG, I expect them to remain so.
Larry says
Absolutely AWESOME customer service and support!!
Allison says
This is a company that excels customer support. I’ve contacted them a couple of times over chat and always gotten the issue resolved in less than 10 minutes.
Boris says
I had an issue with a transfer from another host to SiteGround. I chatted with support, and they fixed the issue for me. It made my day much easier and saved me a lot of time and headaches! Thumbs up!
Don vogel says
Very helpfull fixed the problem before I could fully explain it!
RDH says
Excellent Chat Support.
Emily says
SiteGrounds support team is amazing and they have helped me out on a number of occasions.
Jonathan Moungchoo says
I have to say I’m never disappointed with the customer service here. Support staff helped resolve a problem which the actual cause was from Cloudflare, not Siteground hosting itself but they helped all the way without hesitation. Once again, I would highly recommend SG. Fast service and reliable hosting.
Momonga says
Excellent costumer service keep it up guys
Ron D. says
Since moving to SiteGround their support has surpassed even my expectations
As a result, I was able to resolve a significant issue with my staging sites and SSL certificates in minutes. For anyone looking for a service that supports true security and staging to protect your production site safely, SiteGround has it all.
Thomas says
One of the best hosting options out there. Maybe a bit more pricy than others but hey, their support is outstanding and so is their hosting. Fast and reliable. I can highly recommend them. Keep up the great work!
Naveed says
Excellent customer support. Highly recommended.
Andriyas Redel says
You guys are simply the best. Fastest hosting, incredible support and limitless resources. Thank you!
Katy Roque says
Fantastic support by very very friendly team. Highly recomend Siteground.
Kiyshia says
OK, So I’m fairly new to both web owning and everything that comes with it. I started my journey with HOSTGATOR in January (I have no issue naming and shaming because these guys are a joke!). I took out a 2 year plan – BIG MISTAKE. Just after one month of launching my website, it was down 3 times. 5 months after being with them, I woke to find that my website was down, blacklisted and blocked what for?? – Violating terms and services. after spening 5 HOURS on the chat group with them, I learned that it was to do with me receiving too many pageviews!! Can you imagine! this to me was the last straw. I was treated like a CRIMINAL and was told there was nothing they could do to help me. Even if I upgraded to the higher plan I still needed a professional web technician to sort my website out as there was ‘nothing they could do’ I’ve been hearing great things about Siteground so I did not hesitate to check them out! ooohh and the Customer service I’ve received is amazing! just the friendly tone was a big welcome. I’m very very excited to be part of this amazing team and look forward to my site growing and growing!! Thank you Siteground!!
Lemeki Delainukunawa says
I’ve been very very impressed by your service so far. Hats of to you folks.
James Tsai says
Honesty! They have the best customer support! It takes about 5 to 10 minutes for someone to answer your tickets! I used to be with other big companies (godaddy and hostgator), and it sometimes takes 3 hours for them to answer your tickets! I’m so glad I found siteground and I hope that your customer service will never change!
Prado says
Excellent customer service who was so patient and professional!! More power to all of you! (“,)
Isham Harris says
I own a digital marketing agency and we recommend ALL of our clients do their hosting with SiteGround. The original reason, was that I read a shared hosting speed test which revealed SiteGround to be one of the fastest, which is very important to SEO. The study also showed InMotion to be one of the fastest, but after trying both, I just found that SiteGround was easier to use, very responsive, and very reasonably priced. The ultimate proof of my testimonial is that SiteGround is where we chose to host our own company website!
Thank you and keep up the outstanding work!
Emilson says
Very nice. Competent and friendly support
Thank you very much, i hope my woo will be no faster then before
Mohamed Sheikh says
Siteground they have good customer support
Jaya Deva says
I’m fairly new to working behind the scenes with Cpanel and Word Press, and their administrative support has been wonderful compared to my previous server. Thank you so much!!!
Ahmed Hashish says
The Best Customer Support and very reliable service
J ANNE BAKER says
Patient. I have vision problems and got extra help. Service is fast and generally staff is very well informed.
Jane Akshar says
I so love Siteground support. In minutes they set me up a temporary area to develop my site and installed WordPress for me. Good humoured and efficient. I recommend them to all my clients
Gustavo Bianchini says
Perfect!
Sam says
Consistently top notch customer support. Siteground and the staff are the best!
Gary Freeland says
I left my previous provider whose support had really deteriorated over the last two years. I did not need it often, but when I did they were not very helpful and most difficult to reach. When looking for a replacement customer service was my main concern. The reviews I read about SiteGround, a company I had never heard of, were all outstanding. I decided to give them a try and have been rewarded for my decision over and over. The are the most responsive companies I have ever worked with, and that represents quite a few. I purchased my first desktop in 1983, so I have been doing this for awhile. Customer service remains the critical difference between companies, and it’s amazing how many companies still don’t realize that. Perhaps they do, but think a cheaper price is their best marketing tool. Wrong! Thank you SiteGround. Please don’t stop being who you are and providing the best level of service imaginable.
Graeme says
By far the best web host out there! The staff are always so helpful and fast on the live chat support. Amazing support and fair pricing.
Debbie Schmidt says
I’ve had nothing but issues using Magento (my opinion is that most ecommerce solutions are pretty crappy, especially as compared to wordpress and other cms), but I’ve had nothing but great service in resolving those issues as each one rears its ugly head. SiteGround may not have all the answers when it comes to being a magento hosting service, but they do work really hard to resolve all issues as soon as possible. Their asap is heads and tails above most other hosting companies’ support — and I’ve used quite a few.
Ryan James says
If customer support is important to you, which in the hosting world it inevitability will be, SiteGround is fantastic. Their service is good and reliable, but I’m always left feeling happy after talking to them. Can’t recommend them enough. 10/10.
For the record: My reasons for contacting support are never with a hosting issue. It’s always for a question I have or an upgrade I am thinking of making. Their tech is solid and I’m never left waiting for a reply. Chat/phone/ticket are all on point.
Kapcak says
Support has provided an excellent service and patiently resolved the challenge at hand. Siteground should be extremely happy to have great support staff. Great work!
Loraine says
Absolutely Excellent Service! I am totally new to the world of websites and it does not come easy when you are a little mature. The support staff are amazing, always helpful, polite and do not make you feel like you are an idiot. Thank you SiteGround. Truly an amazing experience signing up with you I was so apprehensive so did so research I could not find one negative review about your company, that said it all to me!
Hanumanbob says
For years I’ve moved from hosting company to hosting company and eventually there have always been support problems. After almost 3 years with SiteGround, I can’t say enough good things about their support. Always courteous and friendly, the staff is outstanding. I know enough to be dangerous and they always manage to help me out of the messes I create.
Ciel says
Support, a superhero in my books, helped with a ‘sticky’ email that just would not behave. He got to the bottom of the issue and corrected everything beautifully. Great service. Wonderful sense of humour. I really enjoy working with this company. Highly recommend Siteground. So much better than Network Solutions where we were.
Lynne Risk says
Siteground has by far and away the best tech support from any hosting company I have worked with. Very responsive chat support and my questions always get answered immediately. I am migrating all of my websites to siteground in the next few weeks because the cost and stellar service (and website speed) make it impossible to beat.
Katherine says
Absolutely outstanding support sorted out an issue with a database that I thought would have my site down for hours in no time flat. This is typical of the sterling support I’ve had from SiteGround whenever a problem occurs (which is rare) or I need assistance. I have probably my own and about 40 client sites there now and simply would not consider hosting anywhere else.
Joanna says
Dude….Siteground is the only hosting service I would ever even consider. They are so much more than just a hosting service. Their servers are fast, the compatibility with the other features on my website was seamless. Their tech support is amazing and they go the extra mile to make sure everything is resolved and functioning at its best. I always come away from a tech support session feeling like Siteground has a vested interest in my website succeeding. Which means a lot when you’re just figuring out the ropes like I’ve been. As far as I’m concerned, these guys are the best in the business.
TCHOUABE MARIUS VIVIEN says
It’s just the best support I know. The team is very responsive, efficient and attentive. Thanks again Siteground.
wyatt ng says
[100] [100] [100] perfect !
Vijay says
Great Service and Support. Customer service executives are much knowledgable.
Alex Almeida says
Best support EVER!
BEST OF THE BESTS
Tanja says
I’m really happy with this excellent service !
Jeremy says
I had an SSL config. problem
Support staff fixed it in 5 minutes.
Cool Name, Cool Service.
Gavin Smith says
I’ve been with Siteground for a couple of years now. Over that time the range of services and the ease of use has gone from good to exceptional. Their customer support is first rate and I would have no hesitation in recommending them to anyone.
I will certainly continue using them in the future.
Farhadur Chowdhury says
Excellent Services received !
Thank you so much.
Joe Sadloski says
By far the best hosting solution I have come across. With unbeatable 24/7 live chat, their team has never let me down. I tell all my fellow web devs to use them for WordPress hosting. Great company, great services, great prices, and probably the best customer service of any company I’ve ever used. ever.
Jack says
Had a 500 internal server error (not sure why) and contacted support and they quickly walked me through a site backup. (First time ever using cPanel.) Was back up and running in a jiffy. Thanks for saving my bacon siteGround!