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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Chanele says
I switched over from another provider. The service that SiteGround offers is far superior. Anytime I have ever had an issue, SiteGround has ALWAYS been able to help me in a quick turn around time. It’s so nice to have a reliable support, and a domain provider that works so efficiently, without always having to fix technical issues. It allows me to focus on my content and running my site. Thanks for being amazing!
Mustafa Mala says
Siteground always provides upto the mark service.
have tried a lot of services. but Siteground is the BEST
Chris says
These guys are simply the best ! Very profesional, helpful and efficient ! All thumbs up!
Shawn Penoyer says
Great job, and super friendly. Quick response time with no waiting and very informative.
Mike says
I’ve been helped about transferring my domain name to siteground by Stoyan G. He was helpful and professional. He’s a asset to your organisation.
T Sundup says
I was having certain technical issues with two of my websites and wasn’t getting anywhere inspite of my best efforts. I contacted technical support through chat and then Valentin Stefanov from SiteGround Technical Support Team came and looked into these issues and fixed this in a blazing speed. Amazing Really
Thank You so much Valentin and all other support staff. You guys rock.
Caleb says
Even when I’ve run into excessive amounts of issues (a rarity) their support is quick and easily able to help. It might take a few tickets sometimes, but it blows other hosts I’ve tried right out of the water.
Thanks, guys!
Lora says
Daniel helped me with a certificate issue. He was patient and thorough.
Sander says
Honestly, they’re great with their support and have saved my ass multiple times. People from bulgaria, incredibly friendly and they speak english very well.
Sean Baker says
Diana was excellent, knowledgable,and kind. She helped lead me to a solution to my problem.
Diego van Koetsveld says
I had an issue with my payment method, I was attended to quickly and efficiently. Thanks Toni! I look forward to continued good service
Ivan Roca says
I received a very professional solution for my technical problem. A solution which was also education. Thanks for all your effort and goodwill to help customers like me without hesitation.
Patrick says
SiteGround is the absolute best host there is. Their prices are slightly higher than the competition, but it’s well worth it. I’d never go back to another host anymore.
Susie says
Such good support from Site Ground. They always solve my problems and are unfailingly polite.
Eve Verschelden says
Thank you so much for your support, I seriously waisted hours trying to resolve my problem. But you fixed it in a matter of seconds.
THANKS !!
Eve
Damaris says
Excellent customer and quick problem resolution. Very pleased
Sharif Miah says
Satisfied service ever!!!
Mubashir Ali says
Thank you for your support
Cindy Douma says
Each and every time I’ve used the Siteground support, they’ve been extremely helpful, friendly and fast. Website is very fast. I am very pleased with the service.
Damian says
Excellent and quick service as always!
Patricia Mitchell says
I have been a user of SiteGround’s services for several years. I have always been impressed by their second-to-none technical support. I run Joomla and WordPress installations and see myself as competent in a lot of the technical aspects of my sites.
SiteGround technical staff have always gone out of their way to solve any technical issues I have had, with courtesy, speed and a willingness to share what has happened. this way I am learning a bit more for myself.
You won’t do any better, in my opinion, than taking up SiteGround’s wonderful services for all your hosting.
pawan says
nice customer support
Philip Baker says
You guys are always super helpful. Thank you!
Scott Peterson says
That last article helped. Apparently outlook 2019 decided to break itself. After running the “quick repair” the email began working once again!
Thanks, for the help!
abdul salim says
best customer service fast reply
Keren Kalev says
I needed help with transferring a site from subdomain to a new addon domain, and Julien in the chat support helped me in less than a minute. not only he suggested to do what was needed, he also expolined it to me so I will know how to do it in the future. Thank you!
Jerick says
Staff was very responsive, very good attitude. Best online support I’ve ever encountered.
Peter van den Wittenboer says
Siteground keeps amazing me on the level of quick support
They offer me all the time if it would be helpful to do things for me if they notice that it might be to difficult for me.
I feel very secure to have my sites with them because they never failed to help me.
Caren Visser says
Best Hosting service and support ever!!
Marina says
I’ve been using SiteGround since February and highly recommend them. No issues so far. I contacted their customer support a few times and they always responded within 5 minutes and resolved my queries very quickly. Thanks SiteGround!
Cliff Darnell says
Thanks for all your help and great service!
Tom D says
I’ve just been helped with a website issue by Stoyan V and he was extremely helpful, professional, patient and courteous. He’s a credit to your organisation.
Sanjeeb says
Konstantin was just superb. Very good attitude and great respect for us.
I highly appreciate it.
Thank you, Sanjee
Gary S says
After 5+ years, I recently moved my hosting from bluehost to siteground. I know it’s early, but I could not be more pleased.
Siteground’s support is far and away superior to bluehost. I have spoken with at least 6-7 different support personnel and all are top notch!!!
Gille says
A got my problém solved from the begining at the end in less than 6 minutes , great service again , thanks to the team.
Bob McKay says
As always, support from SiteGround was excellent. Today I spoke to Doncho who was helpful, friendly and efficient. Everytime I have used SiteGround support (and I manage quite a few accounts with them) they are great.
Eric Anglin says
Petar M is great, talented and helpful, thank you
Chaim Bechor says
Assistance was quick and precise. I was also offered to do for me the critical fix so it became operational right away. Many Thanks!
Pavel Capcan says
Great customer service!
Alanna says
Unbelievable service from Petar P. I was having a panic attack because I messed up the coding on my site. He knew exactly what the problem was and fixed it ASAP. I was completely relieved and he even went above and beyond to help me with one of my smaller, less important issues. Thanks so much! I am so grateful and happy!
Kenz says
Your customer service is GOLD. Thank you for always beimg so helpful and awesome!
David Lockwood says
I’m 66 years young but the world is advancing at a faster rate than when I did websites etc. I was greatly confused and contacted an expert to see if they could help. I was helped by a positive and very knowledgeable adviser and after 45 minutes he had my site straightened out and I’m good to go!
If you’re thinking of starting a website or not happy with your host, give Siteground a try. You won’t regret it.
Mohammed Iqbal says
When ever I approach Site Ground support team, unlike my previous hosting company I go with a positive feeling that I will get my problems solved. And they never disappointed me
Ryan DaSilva says
SiteGround is awesome, they’ve helped me solve any server back-end issues as quickly as possible!
Jeremie Seanosky says
Awesome support. Very helpful and patient.
Giovani Pereira says
They are the BEST customer service I have ever dealt with. ALWAYS help with anything I ask, very polite, fast and knowledgeable.
Roxana says
Really great customer service. I always enjoy the way you guys help me with my difficulties. Keep up the good work!!
Ravindu Abeygunasekara says
siteground is the most user friendly hosting platform. everything is easy and fast. the speed is just amazing! the support is very good too. they are very helpful and friendly!
Alex says
Siteground is the best hosting (especially for wordpress) I have seen in over 12 years of wordpress / website development. Great support, fast shared servers, nice cpanel etc.
Rene Astudillo says
Quick and accurate response.
Perfect for me