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.
Syed Balkhi says
Hey WPBeginner readers,
Did you know you can win exciting prizes by commenting on WPBeginner?
Every month, our top blog commenters will win HUGE rewards, including premium WordPress plugin licenses and cash prizes.
You can get more details about the contest from here.
Start sharing your thoughts below to stand a chance to win!
Nat says
One of the best Support team, not like those other companys that just give you an article and don’t have any access to do things on their side, Siteground is truly one of the best ive been with, Thank you.
Angel Lourido says
The help was really good.
He was one of the best team members in siteground
Jason B says
Outstanding customer support. Would highly recommend SiteGround.
Ashish says
He tried his best to short out my problems.
Lindsay says
Fantastic! .. swift and thorough and explanations along the way. Thank you
Jack Holke says
He did a good job. I was very tired and frustrated. He reset my password for me. and everything is working
Dave Todd says
Excellent support, very polite and helpful
Peter Paul Harnisch says
Excellent service! He helped me through so much, and I could not have done it without him!
Alexander says
All i gotta say is wow, that was a fast customer service response.
Thank you!
sören says
Always such a polite support and always very helpful, only thing in these stressful days you have to wait quit abit for the livechat, but otherwise just amazing
Kamal Gurung says
I chatted with Nikol and she was very helpful in answering my questions about the services and products from Siteground.
Preston Derrick says
Filip G, as well as every other siteground support employee, has been amazing to work with. They ALWAYS help me solve my problems, often times taking matters into their own hands and resolving the issue on their own. 10/10, will always use siteground for their support
Shannon Crow says
I was so impressed with the time and expertise offered today to help me to switch my website to SiteGround. A friend told me to check this company out and I am so glad I did. My previous host wasn’t replying to any of my tech issues and my sites have been down for 48 hours. SiteGround assured me that they will be available 24-7 by chat or phone. This is worth so much with online business.
Ahmed Gamal says
Excellent service
Nick says
The team have been excellent in responding to our requests for assistance, even during this very busy time. Quick and informative information, and any issues resolved extremely quickly!
Highly recommend SiteGround and their tech support team!
Samir Pekaz says
Moved away from 1and1 to SiteGround, Happy so far with efficiency and customer support!
Daniela says
I have several business websites and was always worried to move them. Now with all this lock-down I took the chance and went with Siteground.
It was such a smooth and easy move of all my websites. Support is very helpful and absolutely outstanding!
Peter Fenk says
great support – quick and helpful – siteground is truly the best
Artur Schneider says
As always profesional and solid help and instruction… Kuddos to you guys
Raul Alvarez says
Excellent work, I’m grateful for your service.
Perhaps I’d had liked to deal only with one agent throughout the whole ticket. If that is a possibility to implement, it would be a great bonus.
Thank you all the same to all agents, I honestly appreciate your work and help.
Denat Jean Luc says
Although there was a problem with the path. The support team tried all sorts of things. It took longer than usual, but everyone is there to solve the problem, and they did. Thank you.
Mohammad sami hashimi says
thank you so much for helping, your are great in it
Lou Silva says
Aleksannder was professional and super helpful in my request. I have always been happy with SiteGround’s support.
Laura A Graham says
Great support from the Siteground Team upon my first contact and requesting my site migration!
Looks like I made the best choice by switching from Bluehost!
Silke says
I moved all our / clients accounts over to SiteGround and couldn’t be happier. Fantastic and fast support. I prefer to focus on the design part of my business and need a hosting provider I can rely on and who takes care of the nitty-gritty stuff.
David ("Doc") Gordon says
My rep was excellent: courteous, patient, knowledgable, and had the answers I heeded.
Much appreciated
Ray Sholes says
The level of knowledge and willingness to help even in a chat was undeniable. I cone from the service industry and when I say something is on point its sharper than a brand new Japanese kitchen knife. This experience was exactly that.
Brian Scott says
Kiril B. was a great help. He (unfortunately) had to deal with my inept ability to expedite the Google search three separate times. very much appreciate his knowledge and guidance.
Jonathan Rozek says
I have found Siteground support to be excellent. I’ve had a few questions and self-generated issues, and they’ve solved or answered all of them. Thanks!
Kevin Enos says
This operator was GREAT! Did everything I needed and then some. Very proactive individual. Makes me want to tell everyone to go use Siteground. Thanks for having such a skilled and dedicated tech team. Always a Pleasure!
Sheilla Kalijja says
Excellent customer service
Thiwanka Nawalage says
Great team. They have done perfectly what I have ask. Thank you siteground teach team. You all are the best.
David Dwyer says
excellent as always
Michael says
Again the great Support Team from Siteground made my day!
Philip Powell says
Quick and efficient work by support – thank you so much
Darnell says
I will echo many of the reviews that have already been posted. The support is phenomenal and the support personnel are always very professional. They are leaps and bounds above the competition. I have not created a new site or done hosting with any other provider in the last two years and will likely move my older sites over to siteground this year. 5-Stars all the way!
Abbas AbdulMajeed says
Requested website transfer from old server to other. transfer was done in less than one day and was absolutely functional without glitches. You also have the option to view your website in a local host setting and verify it. Great work.
Valentin says
As always, quick and professional help.
Richard Cabrera says
Philip helped me with the installation of WP and SSL.
In less than 10 minutes I was ready.
Perfect service.
Simply the best.
Russ Spencer says
As always, I have received the best help ever from your staff. They are fast, knowledgeable and great to work with. I recommend your service when I can.
Gurer Guncan says
Great assistance from Simon, thank you very much
Jessica Maree says
Im scared to spell Pailvan name wrong out of respect because he is such a kind kind soul. He helped me so much as I have cancer and he understood and took his time with me. I explained my horror story with another large host company and i use to actually be a company of site ground but i use purchase a lot of domain names so it was easier xyz.
Last night i wanted to join so bad as i wanted out of my plan with my host asap and he made it happen despite odds and went step by step helping me submit my form.
I hope i get him again. He was amazing to work with. A++++++++++++++++++++++++++ service.
Ahhh feels good to be home!
Erwin says
Super fast, no hassle, competent and professional support. As always, I must add, and that’s what makes SiteGround so special.
Helder Lana says
Amazing Support! The Best! 4ever
Paul Aydelott says
Although I’ve had few issues requiring support from SiteGround, their chat support has always been superior, friendly, and fast.
Isidro says
The Cad Support was the best I have expirence.
Ian M says
Dimitar saved my bacon. Thank you for help me find the most esoteric plugin clash bug imaginable.
Mili Bhatia says
Fantastic service and brilliant at helping you solve issue with your site x
Hauwa Abdulkadir says
Ivaylo was very helpful, he picked everything up from where i stopped with Zhorzh, he stayed from beginning to end of the hosting payment and site transfer process, he was very patient in answering all my questions (i thought he would get tired but he didn’t) , so helpful, knowledgeable i totally recommend him! thank you!
Cherry Yarrow says
Stefan was a wonderful supporter, very patient and explained things well. Am more than happy