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 it would 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 | 491 ms |
| Average response time | 137 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.
It is headquartered in Sofia, Bulgaria with offices in 4 locations and data centers in three continents. Today, the company has more than 500 employees and hosts more than 2,000,000 domains.
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 use 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 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 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, then 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 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 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 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 (491 ms to be precise) with a performance score of 94.
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 K6 (formerly LaodImpact).
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:
The green line is the number of active virtual users on the site, and the 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 extremely 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 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 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 datacenter 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 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 performance of your website. See SiteGround WordPress hosting.
- WooCommerce hosting: This plan is 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 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 having 10,000 monthly visitors. You’ll also get all essential features like 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 disk space and is suitable for hosting websites having 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, easy Staging tool, and 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 option to manage white-label clients to your sites.
Each Siteground plan comes with faster disk storage, email accounts, support for 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 a large collection of knowledge base articles with screenshots, videos, tutorials, and guides.
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 fast and reliable web hosting provider 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, 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% 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.
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 their 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 the recent innovations, SiteGround has significantly improved its hosting technology.
When it comes to 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 they also offer 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 does SiteGround compares with GoDaddy, 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 their premium hosting.
8. Does SiteGround offer free domain name?
Yes, SiteGround offers a free domain name. You can register a new domain name during sign up or you can use a domain name you already own. You can also buy a domain name from another registrar and point it to your SiteGround account.
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.
Ray Evans says
I am very satisfied with the Technical Support! Absolutely no wasted motions or useless email back and forth – I put in my request, and it got completed, in about an hour. This is REAL 5-star technical support and on a Sunday, too! Absolutely STELLAR! Thank you very much.
Tim Ernst says
Thanks Ivan for your patience and helping migrate my site.
Tadeo Lemus says
Siteground is awesome! I’ve been using them for years now and they have been getting better and better to where I’m thinking of moving all my websites here as I’m trusting them more and more and they’re support has always been able to help me.
SiteGround says
Thank you so much for your kind words and loyalty, Tadeo! We’re happy to have you as a long-time customer and are committed to providing you with the best service possible. If you decide to move all your websites to SiteGround, we’ll be here to support you every step of the way.
Bill Cochran says
Great to work with such an efficient and professional team.Thank you.
Gareth Foster says
The support and knowledge at Siteground far outweigh any other hosting provider and I have had my fair share!
Keep up the great work!!!
Thanks.
SiteGround says
Thank you for your wonderful feedback, Gareth! We’re delighted to hear that our support team has impressed you. We’ll keep up the great work and always be here for you. Thanks for choosing SiteGround!
Petros P says
Real fast, friendly and professional support to a difficult problem.
Dave says
THIS IS THE MESSAGE WITH WHICH I JUST REPLIED TO SITEGROUND SUPPORT REP SVETOSLAV AFTER HIS MOST RECENT HELP, AND I MEAN EVERY WORD OF IT!
(He is at once gracious and a consummate professional in my view. . . . )
…………………….
My gosh Svetoslav, you are amazing!
I have hardly ever received such a perfectly informative, point-by-point, fulsome support reply about anything! Just wonderful, and most educational.
You are extraordinary at what you do, and a master communicator. Thank you so much for your help, and for your patience in addressing each and every one of my concerns both professionally and kindly.
Please make sure you have a GREAT weekend, and thank you again!
SiteGround says
Thank you for your wonderful feedback! We truly appreciate your kind words and are delighted that our support representative, Svetoslav, was able to provide you with such helpful and informative assistance. We’ll make sure to pass your kind words along to Svetoslav. If you ever need further support, don’t hesitate to reach out.
Ginelle A Harvey says
Thank you for the wonderful customer service and prompt responses.
Ray Rolando says
Donetian at SiteGround was fantastic. This was a tier 3/4 issue that he helped me to resolve. HE was diligent and patient and persevered when others would have given up. Mulling thorugh the execution logs, with detailed notes during every step of the process, he led me to figure out exactly what was wrong and fix in in minutes after a grueling 6 hours. Thank you, Donetian. BEST experience I have had with SiteGround in 7 years!
SiteGround says
Thank you for sharing, Ray! Your positive experience with our services means the world to us! We’ll make sure to pass on your appreciation to Donetian. If you have any more questions or need further assistance, don’t hesitate to reach out. Thank you for being a valued customer!
fletch says
Very helpful
Quick response to solve problems professional
SiteGround says
We appreciate the kind words. Thank you for sharing your positive experience.
Schlomoh Brodowicz says
I received great support from Preslav at Siteground.
Alexis bolio says
I appreciate the prompt and accurate resolution to solving my email issue. Great service!
Farouk MECHERGUI says
Support so friendly, I High Recommend.
Mary Jo up hurch says
you guys are awesome! I’m so happy I decided to use siteground. always so helpful
SiteGround says
We’re glad you are happy with our services and support, Mary! Having you on board is a pleasure and we are available 24/7 for any assistance you may require. Thank you for your kind words.
Jeanne Marie Connolly says
The service I have received from SiteGround has always been 5 stars!
SiteGround says
Thank you for sharing your 5-star experience, Jeanne! It’s a pleasure to know you’ve been happy with our services – we appreciate the feedback!
Hans Eisenman says
Just used Siteground’s migration service. It was the best $30 I’ve spent in a while. They took care of everything once I gave them the access they needed. Site magically appeared under the temp domain on Siteground so I can test it. There are some super small things to adjust occasional button color that got lost in the transfer somehow. It’s a very short list so I’ll have all that fixed up before the end of the weekend and we’ll deploy it!
SiteGround says
Thank you for the positive feedback, Hans! We are committed to providing seamless and hassle-free services to our customers, and we’re delighted to hear that you were satisfied with your website migration. Please feel free to contact us at any time should you need other assistance – we’re here to help. Thanks again for sharing!
JimB says
Server migration of WordPress sites and custom APIs went flawlessly! Quickly answered all my questions too. Highly recommended!
SiteGround says
We’re glad to hear you are happy with the migration of your WordPress sites! Thank you for sharing your experience with us and recommending our services. Our team is available 24/7 if you need anything!
Andrea C Crenshaw says
I have been using SiteGround for several years, their support, reliability, price, is top notch! I have over 45 clients with them and use SiteGround for all of my clients whenever I have the choice.
SiteGround says
Thank you for letting us know how much you appreciate our services and support. Your loyalty all these years, as well as your trust in us with the hosting of your clients, means a lot to us. Once again, thanks for sharing!
Matthew Lane says
These guys are amazing. I requested help with an access file, and they did it right away. I figured I would ask off hand if they could give me any suggestions for settings, and they did! Best service I have ever used for hosting.
Brian says
I’ve used site ground for 5+ years now.
They have done several upgrades in that time with very little downtime.
They communicate well.
Their deal prices are very good.
Their staff for the most part are knowledgeable and able to complete requests timely and accurately.
They have data centers in several locations in the USA as well a quite a few around the world.
Their regular prices are a bit more expensive than some other hosts.
SiteGround says
You’re very welcome, Rob! We’re glad to hear our techs’ suggestion has helped, and please don’t hesitate to reach out if you need further assistance. We’re always here to help, and we appreciate your kind words!
Rob Purea says
Thank you as usual for your prompt attention to resolving my issues. I have reset the mesh router network and I will monitor to see how it goes from here. Thank you again for working with me in troubleshooting this matter and you guys are awesome as usual.
Benjamin says
As usual superb services from the SG Team A1
Thanks again guys.
SiteGround says
Thank you for the positive feedback and for being a valued customer, Benjamin! It’s great to hear you’re happy with the service and we appreciate the A1 rating. Thanks again!
John Duncan says
I was having BIG flippin’ issues with another host (that I had been with for 10 years!) so it was time to switch. Thank God, at the same time, Site Ground was offering a HUGE limited time discount offer for new subscribers. The stars had aligned ! I’d been a fool not to grab the discount. Looking forward to a long relationship with SiteGround.
SiteGround says
Thank you for this review, John! We agree, it was definitely meant to be. Glad to welcome you aboard!
SiteGround says
Thank you for this review, John! We agree, it was definitely meant to be. Glad to welcome you aboard!
Chris Bachman says
i love the support form you guys. I never am disappointed.
Oleksii Segodin says
Very quick response and problem fix in a critical situation.
Michael Hargreaves says
The support staff are very professional, and are able to diagnose, fix and explain what the problems are to persons who are not highly technical.
SiteGround says
Thank you for sharing your experience, Michael! We really appreciate it, and we’re here to help if you need anything!
Mara says
excellent customer service !!Great support
SiteGround says
Thank you, Mara! We’re glad you’re happy with the service and we’re here whenever you need us!
Dan Coughlin says
I’m not exaggerating at all when I say that working with SiteGround in the past couple of days has been the easiest IT type interaction I’ve ever had. As a new employee in our organization, I needed to update our domain hosting contact info but did not have access to previous login data. I contacted the sales department who tackled my questions without forwarding me to another technician. Then when we had malicious code detected on our website, the support team quickly helped get things fixed for me. They quickly made me a huge fan of SiteGround!
SiteGround says
Thank you for the kind words, Dan! If anything else comes up, our team is here for you!
ian theobald says
excellent support and resolved problem quickly
SiteGround says
Thank you for the kind words, Ian!
Jeff Morales says
Excellent support. Thanks for the much-needed help transferring my site to Siteground.
SiteGround says
It’s always a pleasure to help, Jeff! Our team remains available if anything else comes up!
Breanne Smith says
Ivan Alexandrov was extremely helpful with my issue. He worked through it quickly and communicated very well. GREAT SUPPORT!! Thank you!
SiteGround says
Thank you for the positive feedback and kind words, Breanne! We’ll pass them on to our colleague!
Frank F. Lopez says
The technical support was very helpful. I delete by mistake some files and folders and I couldn’t go to my WordPress page and the technician fixed everything for me. I’m very glad,
SiteGround says
It’s great to hear our team was able to help you out in this stressful situation. We appreciate the positive feedback!
Karen Callahan says
Valerese and Todor helped me today. I received cordial, respectful, QUICK attention to my issue. They immediately understood what the problem was, took steps to fix it, and fixed it. GREAT customer service experience.
Atily Gunaratne says
Thanks, Great chat line with quick response
Nantana Taptamat says
SiteGround support teams are the best customer supports. Hands down!
Yasir Shabbir says
Really amazing customer support and services
maria xanthopoulou says
Every time they solve my problems. they are also very polite every time we have a conversation.
SiteGround says
Thank you for the kind words!
Yanisar says
Amazing company, amazing service. One of the very best hosting companies, period!
Mounir Ouanaimi says
Excellent and timely support. I lingered on a review for a while which allowed me to experience their consistency as well. Top notch.
SiteGround says
Thanks for the positive feedback, we really appreciate it!
Mario Flores says
Nice job on keeping our sites secure but still offering some flexibility for less frequent coding styles.
John Fogarty says
great quick support
James porter says
Great support and they go extra mile to improve the situation.
Bella Gardner says
I have been impressed and relieved by the excellent customer service and technical support at Siteground. I find their dashboard to be as easy or easier to use than Bluehost. My website was transferred nearly seamlessly — my error slowed some things down. Overall, a very easy migration process, and I definitely recommend SiteGround over competitors, at the moment.
Marty V. says
I had a great experience with Plamen Martinov of SiteGround Hosting!
He diligent kept trying to understand my issue and to find the problem, in which he succeeded and perfectly fixed the (in what turned out) the misunderstanding.
Thank you Plamen!
(SiteGround should be happy that you work for them )
Nitin Tyagi says
Awesome support
Joe Sandler says
amazing for hosting my 10+ sites at a very reasonable cost. Support is amazing and tickets get addressed in real time so no long wait to resolve issues.
Thanks!!!!
Austin R says
Out of the 100’s of vendors I’ve worked with in the past, Siteground support is the best vendor support I’ve ever worked with. They make customer success their mission and are willing to do what’s needed to make it happen.
Waqas says
I can’t say enough about how amazing it has been to work with SiteGround. The team is knowledgeable, professional, and friendly. Not only do you get what you pay for, but so much more.
Michael Massimino says
SiteGround customer support is fantastic, quick and efficient! Great work Ines and Stoyen!