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SiteGround

SiteGround Reviews

SiteGround is one of the most popular and highest rated hosting provider in the WordPress community. They provide unique in-house WordPress speed and security solutions to make your site as fast and secure as possible. They are known for the best 24/7 support in the industry which is why they’re an official ‘WordPress’ recommended hosting provider. This is also why we use SiteGround for hosting the WPBeginner website. SiteGround features include automatic upgrades, built-in WP caching, CDN, one-click staging and GIT version control. They are also one of the few companies offering location specific hosting with 3 data centers in USA, Europe, and Asia. On top of all this, they have а special 70% discount for WPBeginner readers.

Last seen 8 hours ago
Reviewed by: Syed Balkhi
Rating:

SiteGround Review from Our Experts

Siteground is one of the most recommended WordPress hosting companies. They are known for their top notch customer support and fast reliable hosting plans. Their WordPress optimized hosting includes everything you’ll need to create and grow a successful blog. Read our complete SiteGround review to find out if SiteGround is the right host for you.

In this detailed SiteGround review, we will put their promises to test. These are the areas we will look into:

  • Performance: Speed is crucial for the success of your 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 will need to build your website?
  • Pricing: How much it would cost you? Are there any SiteGround deals that can save you money?

Bottom line: Don’t want to read all the details? Let us summarize it for you. 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.

It is headquartered in Sofia, Bulgaria with offices in 6 locations and data centers in three continents. Today, the company has more than 400 employees and hosts more than 500,000 domains.

Siteground

Pros and Cons of SiteGround

Each hosting company has its own pros and cons. Some advantages can overshadow the disadvantages, but some cons can be a total deal breaker for your individual needs.

Before making a decision, you may want to review these SiteGround pros and cons.

Pros

Here are some of the 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 are equipped with latest hardware like SSD drives and custom software to make sure that your site is super fast.
  • Top Notch Customer Support Their customer support is amazing to say the least. They offer 24/7 phone, live chat, and ticket based support.
  • Free CDN and SSL They offer instant setup of Cloudflare’s free CDN and free SSL certificate from Let’s Encrypt.
  • Multiple Server Locations They have data centers in three continents. You can choose the location you prefer during signup.

Cons

As we mentioned earlier, there are some downsides with every hosting company. These 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, then you will most likely never need extra storage.
  • Setup fee for monthly billing: There is a $14.95 setup fee if you choose monthly billing. But if you sign up for a longer billing period, then you’ll get bigger discount and no setup fee. 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 metric that you should look for. A faster website offers good user experience and boosts your SEO at the same time.

In fact, a single second delay can cause 7% decrease in conversions, 11% fewer page views, and 16% decrease in customer satisfaction.

Website speed study by Strangeloop

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:

SiteGround speed test

As you can see, our test site loaded in less than a second (649 ms to be precise) for a server in Dallas, Texas. That means our site is faster than 95% of tested sites.

This is incredible, but this website had almost no traffic so the Pingdom test alone is not sufficient.

To test how SiteGround servers would respond to increased traffic, we used a tool called LoadImpact.

This tool gradually sends up to 100 users to see how the server would respond to increased traffic from multiple connections.

You can see the results in the chart below:

SiteGround loadimpact test results

The blue line is the number of active virtual users on the site, and the green line is the server load time. SiteGround performed almost consistently except for a spike when there were 50 users on the site. It quickly recovered and page load time remained steadily low even with more users.

This test shows that if you are looking for a really fast website, then SiteGround can be a perfect choice for you.

Typically, websites hosted on shared hosting account slow down a bit during top traffic hours. That’s because your site is sharing resources with other websites on that server.

Most shared hosting companies automatically kill 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 uptime test results

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 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.

SiteGround server response time from multiple locations

As you can see, SiteGround is a great choice if your target audience is mostly located in the United States. The server responded in fraction of a second in the United States.

It responded within less than a second for all locations, except Japan. If your target audience is mostly located in Japan, then you can ask SiteGround to move your site to their Asia-Pacific data center.

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 and beginners. 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 performance of your website.
  • Cloud hosting: Cloud hosting is a flexible upgrade to shared hosting. It allows you to use resources of multiple servers on a cloud architecture. It is suitable for growing websites, popular blogs, or businesses.
  • Dedicated servers: Dedicated servers give you a complete server for your website. It is more expensive but gives you a lot more power. The downside is that you will have to manage the server yourself.
  • Enterprise hosting: This plan is for large businesses and high traffic sites with challenging server requirements. Get in touch with SiteGround team and they will create a tailor-made plan to suit your needs.

Breakdown of SiteGround’s Shared Hosting Plans

SiteGround’s shared hosting is the best way to start a new website. Their shared plans 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 having 10,000 monthly visitors. You’ll also get all essential features like 1-click WordPress install, free setup, website transfer, daily backups, and more.
  • GrowBig: The GrowBig plan lets you host unlimited websites. It comes with 20 GB disk space and is suitable for hosting websites having 25,000 monthly visitors. You’ll get all the features of the Startup plan, plus you’ll get premium features like Super Cacher, 1-year free wildcard SSL, and more.
  • GoGeek: GoGeek plan is suiteable for small eCommerce websites. It can handle websites having 100,000 monthly visitors. In addition to all GrowBig’s features, you’ll get access to more advanced features like one-click git repo creation, WordPress and Joomla staging, and more.

SiteGround shared plans

SiteGround Support and Customer Service

You will see high praise for SiteGround’s customer support service everywhere. They are 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’s get first response within less than 10 minutes.

For users who prefer to fix things on their own, SiteGround offers a large collection of knowledge base articles with screenshots, videos, tutorials, and guides.

Conclusion: Is SiteGround the Right Choice for You?

After reading our detailed SiteGround review, you might be wondering if SiteGround is the right choice for your website?

If you want fast and reliable web hosting service with great customer support, then SiteGround is perfect for you. They have hosting plans for every budget and each plan comes with great set of features.

All their shared hosting plans include SSD storage, easy setup of Let’s Encrypt free SSL and Cloudflare CDN service, 1-click WordPress installer, and free migration.

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% off 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.

4,167 SiteGround User Reviews

  1. Martin Neumann says:
    Jun 1, 2020 at 3:32 pm

    I had a really complex setup and they were able to resolve it without any problems.

    Reply
  4. Laura R says:
    May 31, 2020 at 8:16 pm

    Bozhidar is a super patient guy! And went beyond to explain in detail. Really appreciate his explanations

    Reply
  5. Charles Yates says:
    May 31, 2020 at 7:50 pm

    Today I spoke with Atanas V. The level of service was excellent, as always. The staff at SiteGround are the best and I appreciate the extra mile you all go for your customers.

    To all at Siteground… Be safe and be kind to each other.

    Reply
  6. JP Garner says:
    May 31, 2020 at 7:22 pm

    I was on the verge of canceling my service because of a technical issue, but in desperation reached out to support. They quickly fixed my problem and now Im back on track. Great service, and quick!

    Reply
  8. ashley says:
    May 31, 2020 at 11:09 am

    The customer service I recieved today was top notch. 10/10 and I could not be happier. I am totally new to having a website and the help I received was more than I even expected. I will be recommending siteground to everyone from now on. I cannot say enough good things. Thank you so much to the great customer support team

    Reply
  11. Joanne says:
    May 29, 2020 at 6:50 am

    Rumen stayed with me for a long time because I was having trouble with my account and billing. He was patient and tried to help me understand what was going on until I finally worked it out. Thanks Rumen :)

    Reply
  13. Rob says:
    May 28, 2020 at 11:35 am

    Hi – Daniella T. was super helpful. Unfortunately our internet crashed before we could finish working through our issue, but Daniella got us far enough along that we could get fix what we needed. One of your best support people.

    Reply
  17. Milagros Corpus says:
    May 26, 2020 at 10:03 am

    Alexander did a great job today! He was able to assist me on my issue – guided me being I am a non-professional web developer.

    Thanks a lot!

    Reply
  21. David Abrames says:
    May 24, 2020 at 10:06 pm

    Excellent tech support help. Was able to answer my questions and on one issue where I need more help my ticket was forwarded to the appropriate help

    Thank you

    Reply
  22. Catherine says:
    May 24, 2020 at 9:06 pm

    Ekaterina was really helpful and fixed my problem within. 2 minutes. You guys consistently have amazing customer service techs!

    Reply
  26. Angelica Lima says:
    May 23, 2020 at 8:30 am

    I am not a developer, but I manage my own wordpress site. I love that I can depend on Siteground to be available and helpful with tech asssistance whenever I need it!

    Reply
  28. Robert Morrison says:
    May 21, 2020 at 2:03 pm

    Really fast and very helpful support! I was worried about an upgrade issue but it all went very smoothly with no problem. Thank you so much!

    Reply
  29. lisa says:
    May 20, 2020 at 10:38 pm

    Service is always terrific – tonight it was amazing! Thank you so much for helping me update my domain!!

    Reply
  34. Samantha says:
    May 17, 2020 at 11:19 pm

    Site Ground’s support is always really fast and the agents are really patient with helping us understand the issue and walking us through it :D

    Reply
  37. Hasan Habib says:
    May 17, 2020 at 3:00 am

    Siteground hosting gives me satisfactory services for two years.
    I am happy about it and will stay here next.

    Reading this post, I get more educated technically.
    Thanks

    Reply
  39. Geoff says:
    May 16, 2020 at 4:42 pm

    I had problems with emails being blacklisted. Julian understood my problem and resolved the issue very rapidly. My technical knowledge is limited so i was delighted that our conversation was in plain english not techno speak. Great job Julian, many thanks

    Reply
  41. Paula Choin says:
    May 15, 2020 at 4:30 pm

    Fantastic! Went above and beyond to help me with a redirect I needed. My mind is now at rest knowing I don’t have to spend hours trying to figure it out by myself. Great service!

    Reply
  43. Michele says:
    May 14, 2020 at 3:06 pm

    I am so happy with the support I got from Vladimir. I have been trying all day to resolve an issue – speaking to my web developer, on the phone to apple for hours, and siteground earlier in the day. But Vladimir this evening has resolved the issue he took the time to talk me through the problem and he found the solution. I’m so happy I can access my business site again! thank you

    Reply
  44. Brent says:
    May 13, 2020 at 5:10 pm

    I’m also so impressed with Siteground’s customer service. Every time I contact them – they address my issue immediately and always go the extra mile. They’ll show me what’s required so I actually learn what to do if something similar happens in the future. So different from many hosting providers.

    Reply
  45. Yohan H says:
    May 13, 2020 at 1:04 pm

    Great support, guidance and prompt responses.

    Thank very much for your assistance Stefan!

    Blessings!

    Reply
  48. Rosemary says:
    May 13, 2020 at 9:55 am

    Once again, fabulous support from the SiteGround technical team. They are always so polite, friendly and knowledgeable. A pleasure to deal with.

    Reply
  49. Russell Frazier says:
    May 13, 2020 at 8:57 am

    I’ve had great experience with Siteground services and support. They are quick to answer questions in a knowledgeable way.

    Reply
  50. Tracey says:
    May 13, 2020 at 6:30 am

    just had some tech help from Boris. He’s been absolutely brilliant. As a novice and first time user of WordPress, I can’t fault the service and support I’ve had from the hosting company I use, Siteground. Thanks guys

    Reply

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