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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. This is also why we use SiteGround for hosting the WPBeginner website. SiteGround features include automatic upgrades, daily backups built-in WP caching, free CDN, free SSL, one-click staging and GIT version control. They are also one of the few companies offering location specific hosting with 6 data centers in USA, Europe, Asia, and Australia. On top of all this, they have а special 63% discount for WPBeginner readers.

Pros:

  • Fast servers powered by Google Cloud
  • Great customer support
  • Officially Recommended by WordPress
  • 1-click WordPress install
  • Free Domain, SSL, CDN, and Website Backups
  • Easy Staging Tools
  • Free Website Migration

Cons:

  • Slightly more expensive

WPBeginner users get an exclusive 70% off discount and free SSL!

Visit SiteGround

(this discount will be applied automatically)

SiteGround Review from Our Experts

Editorial Note: We earn a commission from partner links on WPBeginner. Commissions do not affect our editors' opinions or evaluations. Learn more about Editorial Process.

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 gradeA+
Average load time397 ms
Average response time123 ms
Free domainYes
Free SSLYes
1-click WordPressYes
SupportPhone / 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.

SiteGround website

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.

Strangeloop performance case study

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 results

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:

SiteGround stress testing results

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 uptime 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 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.

SiteGround response time

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 pricing plans

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.

SiteGround AI support assistant

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.

SiteGround support

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.

WPBeginner users get an exclusive 70% off discount and free SSL!

Reader Interactions

5,020 SiteGround User ReviewsLeave a Review

  1. Syed Balkhi says

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  2. Wolfgang RAnzmeir says

    Dear Sideground Evaluation TEam,

    had a great experience with Teodora N. She was so helpful an quick, i really loved her support. we opened a reseller account and she assists in everything and transfered me then to create a ticket for the technical senior support for transfering a website.
    see how this works now with the ticket guys, but anyway i always have the best experiences with sideground and will also step in inthe affiliate progarmm cause everybody needs a bruilliant host with brilliant support,

    Thank for all your effort

  3. Chris Hammond says

    Your technical adviser was knowledgeable and answered all of my queries immediately. As a result we transferred the hosting of two of our sites to SiteGround

  4. Liqing Lin says

    Thanks for the support of Mattia. He’s very kind and patient, help me a lot with my website migration! Thank you very much!!

  5. Brandy Woodfolk says

    I loved speaking with her. I believe I saw her name as Veronica. She was very sweet and helpful.

  6. Ian says

    Very impressed with Filip G.’s knowledge and support. He asked me a few questions and helped me with a creative solution to my problem. This is my first interaction with SG’s service and I’m so glad I switched to your company!

  7. Paul Rudolph says

    Every time I contact SiteGround team with a support ticket, it’s the same experience…AWESOME! Always quick, attentive and resourceful. Thank you for your continued dedication to our success.

  8. Hector B says

    The support staff at SiteGround never cease to amaze me. Fast, helpful and knowledgeable. A very happy customer for the last 2 years :)

  9. Karen Cleveland says

    Martin Sim resolved my staging site issue which I had been struggling with for several days and several Chat sessions. Thank you Martin!

  10. Andrew says

    Have been with SiteGround for a couple of years now. They are not the cheapest but still very reasonably priced. One thing that really makes them stand out from the crowd is their support service – never had a problem with support and they don’t keep you waiting for hours or days.

  11. Jochen Siepmann says

    I had a few technical issues, but the support was so phenomenal from Siteground I was always amazed how fast and accurate they got resolved and how well they communicate. Well surpassing my (high) expectations. Can only 100% recommend it.

  12. Hollander Layte says

    Iveline absolutely wonderful. He answered all my questions quickly and efficiently. He’s a ‘keeper’ for sure. I will be recommending that for the new site we use Siteground for hosting. Wonderful experience. Could not have asked for more. H

  13. Mary Rasmussen says

    With being brand new to website design, Ivelin was so helpful with answering questions about this and how SiteGround is a great choice for a hosting platform. His responses helped me feel comfortable with the upcoming endeavor of building a website.

  14. Pauline Soo says

    Great customer service – for a website newbie who is not remotely techie, I got great help from Dobrin

  15. John says

    Martin took the time to listen to requirements, dug to get additional information and provided good feedback. Appreciate the professionalism.

  16. Jeannette Simons says

    new customer, the SSL certificate didn’t install properly so we were getting the privacy error. started a chat session, explained the problem, and it was fixed in about 5 minutes! Great customer service

  17. Chris van Hook says

    Both of the representatives that I have spoken to thus far (Aleksandar(?) and Nevelina) were impeccable, and quickly addressed the problem at hand.

  18. David Lean says

    Twice this morning I used Live Chat to request information about the SIteGround offerings. Both times I got thru quickly. The responses were detailed & offered more information I hadn’t considered.
    It seemed that he was only focused on my live chat session, so the responses were immediate. Letting me get my answers & sign off.

  19. James D. Simmons Jr says

    I had great interaction with my support personnel (Martin T). Had me back up and running from a minor mistake on my end. I greatly appreciate the service and efforts!

    Thanks again!

  20. Daniel Hoover says

    Petar P. provided excellent customer service. He quickly understood the issue I was having with my SSL certificate and resolved it in seconds with a cheerful attitude.

  21. vicki cedillo says

    These people are wonderful. So helpful, and seem to know how I feel when frustrated. If it were me I would give all these wonderful folk a big rise.

  22. Shilpa Singh says

    Excellent and prompt support. I’m always overwhelmed with the kind of support I get from Siteground Team. Be it patience, courtesy, knowledge, everything is perfect.

    Great going…Keep up the good work.

  23. Mark Strong says

    He was ‘super smart’ (an SME) and communicated professionally and accurately. Much appreciated!

  24. Meryem Baycal says

    thanks for the great support Rumen, he took good time and interest to solve 2 of my main tech related issues

  25. Karl Collinson says

    Recently migrated to SG, Presales support and service support has been granular, detailed and accurate. Would h.recommend.

  26. Shannon Brown says

    Customer service today was over and above my expectations. He helped with my question and did more than I asked. Thank you.

  27. JoAnne Barton says

    Again, Site Ground tech support comes through! Today, Filip helped me with a problem with getting e-mail to download into gmail. What we discovered was that it’s a glitch with gmail, and that’s what I need to migrate away from gmail. I always appreciate the friendly, fast service I’ve received since coming over to Site Ground! Customer service is STELLAR!

  28. Simon Jackson says

    Daniel did an amazing job incredibly quickly. This is in fact the best customer support I have ever received. I will be letting people know! I’ll send links.

    Thank you so much.

  29. Steve says

    Nikolay.N helped me with several site issues and provided excellent support. Super helpful, very knowledgeable and professional. I’ve used quite a number of hosting accounts over the years and SiteGround’s support is one of the best by far! Many thanks!

  30. Isabel Christian says

    Siteground are fantastic! Chat support is friendly, fast and accurate. I cannot recommend Siteground highly enough! I will be with them for many years to come for all my business hosting needs.

  31. Rachel Ann Smit says

    I’ve been hosting with SiteGround for a little more than two years. Any time I’ve run into trouble knowing what to do next their team has been able to help me quickly using the chat feature. There is no such thing as server downtime with SiteGround, and every feature you could ever need is included. I will stick with SiteGround for a very long time to come!

  32. Hembree & Sybil says

    Maksim’s service was outstanding, very professional and super quick. Could not have asked for a better ‘chat’ connection. Having used various chat systems and agents, Maksim rates above any we have used before. We tried for the last 4 days to restart our website with no success in talking with several locations, yet Maksim was able to diagnose the problem and quickly put us on the right track. Many thanks from us to him!

  33. Marc Williams says

    Atanas was excellent support! He got me through the process of ordering a renewal of my website easily! His demeanor and ecstatic personality was and is by far one of the best! He wasn’t just helpful! Talking to Atanas made me think we were friends before even though I just met him for the first time! That’s the mark of a true and excellent personality. Thank you so much for all your help Atanas!

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