SiteGround offers a suite of website hosting plans, including specialized options for WordPress developers and WooCommerce site owners. While SiteGround isn’t the most affordable web hosting service available, it does offer many benefits like fast speeds, helpful site-building tools, and impressive customer support. This user-friendly platform is appealing to small businesses and those who are just getting started with website development, but it also has the ability to support larger businesses and enterprises.
Compare SiteGround to The Best Web Hosting Services
When compared to other web hosting services, SiteGround stands out for its quality customer support and excellent uptime rates. In our testing, it had just two seconds of downtime over a 30-day period. This is even more impressive when you consider the fact that the average downtime for other hosts we tested was nearly 24 minutes.
SiteGround’s support is available 24/7, and they’re able to resolve more than 90% of technical inquiries during the first contact. This tech support availability and quality surpass what you’ll find from other web hosting services. New site owners and small businesses without their own technology teams will find this support particularly valuable.
While SiteGround has many benefits, there are many other quality web hosting services to consider, including:
- Bluehost – Best overall web hosting service
- HostGator – Best for scaling your small business easily
- Web.com – Best website builder for simple business sites
- Hostinger – Best web hosting for lots of storage
- DreamHost – Best for simple, straightforward hosting
- SiteGround – Best for keeping uptime above 99.99%
- InMotion Hosting – Best price for hosting two websites on one plan
- Nexcess – Best for experienced WordPress users
- A2 Hosting – Most dependable web hosting for global traffic
We thoroughly researched and reviewed each of these nine hosting providers so you can determine which ones might be right for your business and your needs. See all of our top picks.
SiteGround: The Good and The Bad
SiteGround is a user-friendly web hosting service with plans to support any website size or hosting need. In terms of overall quality, SiteGround is hard to beat. It delivers fast loading speeds and unbeatable uptime rates while providing top-notch customer service and 24/7 support. SiteGround also has the distinction of being one of the few site hosting services recommended by WordPress.
We’ll cover SiteGround’s strengths, as well its handful of drawbacks—like high-rate renewals—in greater detail below. Then you can weigh the good against the bad to see if SiteGround is right for you.
The Good
Excellent Customer Support: SiteGround excels when it comes to customer service and technical support. You can get instant help with features like SiteGround’s AI chatbot that can troubleshoot some issues, or the automated solutions generated when you submit a support request. SiteGround also offers 24/7 live help through chat, phone support, and helpdesk tickets. Phone and chat support requests are answered promptly, with replies arriving in an average of 15 minutes. SiteGround is also able to resolve 90% of support inquiries during the first contact.
Ease of Use: SiteGround is highly user-friendly. Its Site Tools functionality is much more accessible to beginning site owners than the traditional C Panel. SiteGround also hosts an array of tutorials and guides to help new site and business owners navigate site development and get the most out of their websites.
Managed WordPress: All managed WordPress plans take care of the daily-to-day maintenance, so you can focus on building your site and nothing else. Automated migrations and updates save you time, ensuring your site is always up-to-date for the best performance. SiteGround is one of the web hosting services recommended by WordPress.
High Speeds: SiteGround offers fast site speeds to support your site’s performances and your search engine visibility. Features like an ultra-fast network, ultrafast PHP, and server software solutions ensure a consistently above-average fast performance.
Daily Backups: In addition to being able to create your own site backup at any time, SiteGround’s automated daily backups for WordPress sites provide peace of mind and can be a lifesaver if your site is ever hacked or experiences data loss. SiteGround keeps 30 copies of these backups, so you can perform a full backup restore if ever needed. These restores are free, meaning you’ll have the confidence of knowing your site is always protected.
Free Email Service: All SiteGround plans include the ability to create email addresses using your website domain. This creates a professional look for any business. You can create as many email accounts as needed, saving money over the cost of using a paid email service.
Free SSL Certificates: SSL certificates are essential for any website. All SieGround plans include a free SSL certificate, thanks to SiteGround’s integration with Let’s Encrypt. SiteGround can automatically issue and renew SSL certificates, making it one less thing that site owners need to worry about.
Focus on Security: SiteGround focuses on protecting its users from security attacks. Its proprietary AI software stops more than 5 million attacks daily. In the past year alone, SiteGround security experts have added more than 300 custom rules to its Web Application Firewall to prevent software vulnerabilities.
Easy Collaboration: SiteGround offers several WordPress collaboration tools ideal for businesses that work with multiple staff or parties. You can add user roles and assign access rights, allowing staff to contribute to and maintain your site. You can also transfer a website from your account to a different SiteGround client, allowing designers and developers to easily work with clients. With the GoGeek plan, users can register clients and give them white-label access to their website site tools, creating a professional impression while ensuring clients have continuous access to the work that the user is completing.
Monthly and Annual Plans: Many web hosting services require annual contracts and bill on an annual basis, which can be difficult for small businesses and startups. SiteGround offers both monthly and annual billing options, with the option to pay for one, two, or three years of service at a time to lock in your current rates. This flexibility means the service can work for many different businesses.
The Bad
Paid Professional Migrations: While SiteGround does offer professional site migration services, they cost $30 per site, which can get expensive if you’re transferring multiple sites. SiteGround does offer a WordPress Migrator plugin that automates WordPress site migrations.
No VPS Hosting: SiteGround is a Linux platform, and it doesn’t offer VPS hosting. All SiteGround plans are for cloud hosting, but SiteGround does scale during traffic surges to ensure your site stays operational.
Price Increases: SiteGround offers attractive special pricing, but those prices increase significantly when it’s time to renew your plan. SiteGround does offer value that justifies its pricing, but it’s definitely not the most affordable web hosting service available.
SiteGround Pricing and Options
SiteGround offers attractive special prices for new users. Even when that introductory pricing period ends, SiteGround plans are affordably priced. They also include plenty of free features, like SSL certificates and email, meaning you’ll get plenty of value out of the plan that you choose.
SiteGround Pricing
SiteGround offers three different tiers for its web hosting, with introductory prices ranging from $2.99 to $7.99 per month. All three tiers include a daily backup and free SSL certificate, CDN, and email, as well as managed WordPress.
The StartUp tier may be the base tier, but it includes everything a basic site needs. With 10 GB of web space and 10,000 monthly visits, this tier offers excellent value.
The GrowBig and GoGeek tiers are ideal for those hosting multiple websites. The GrowBig plan includes unlimited websites, up to 20 GB of web space, and 25,000 monthly visits. That capacity is more than enough for many websites.
Large, high-traffic sites will benefit from the GoGeek plan, which includes 40 GB of web space and up to 100,000 monthly visits.
The SiteGround plans are comprehensive, and they include everything most sites will need, so there’s no need to worry about add-ons. As a result, the plans offer great value and are, at least for the first year, reasonably priced. It’s worth noting, though, that the discounted prices only apply for that first year of hosting, and will jump quite a bit when you renew your plan.
SiteGround’s WordPress hosting plans follow the same pricing tier as its general web hosting plans. That pricing tier also applies to SiteGround’s WooCommerce hosting.
This consistent pricing makes it easy to compare the different offerings. If site owners are still debating which type of site they want to build, the pricing consistency across different site types means they can base that decision on what’s truly best for their site, rather than choosing an option that might save them money.
SiteGround also offers managed cloud hosting, with four different plans available. Prices range from $100 to $400 per month. The Jump Start plan includes 4 CPU cores, 8 GB of memory, 40 GB of SSD space, and 5 TB of data transfer, making it suitable for smaller businesses. It’s also offered at a price point that’s accessible for smaller businesses who may be just getting started on the cloud.
The Business plan offers the performance that most businesses need. With 8 CPU cores, 12 GB of memory, 80 GB of SSD space, and 5 TB of data transfer, this plan is ideal for smaller and medium-sized businesses.
Large businesses with copious amounts of data will want to step up to the Business Plus or Super Power plans. These plans offer additional CPU cores, memory, and SSD space to support larger enterprises with specific storage and performance requirements.
Web Hosting
SiteGround’s comprehensive web hosting plans are user-friendly and designed for the new business owner as well as the experienced site owner and developer. Both Weebly and WordPress site builders are available, and SiteGround migration specialists can perform a professional, smooth site migration.
SiteGround hosting supports CMS and CRM applications, and free installation of WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla for CMS sites will save you money and let you get started building your site. Other highlights include free SSL certificates, free email with your business domain, and WordPress and domain management.
These offerings mean that new site owners can quickly get their websites up and running, while owners of existing sites can opt for a professional transfer if desired. This site hosting is suitable for both large and small businesses, and the inclusion of elements like email service means that businesses can save money over having to pay for separate services or upgrades.
SiteGround WordPress Hosting
Created for WordPress webmasters and designers, SiteGround’s WordPress hosting is tailored to support this unique platform with the development and design tools that are most helpful.
The WordPress Starter tool can quickly take a WordPress site from an idea to a functional website, while a developer toolkit that includes SSH access, PHP version control, Git integration, and WP-CLI tools gives site developers the control and functionality they need.
Daily backups are automated and stored, while collaboration tools let developers easily share sites with staff or with clients, while still retaining control of site access and editing capabilities.
The WordPress hosting offers impressive functionality and tools designed to make a developer’s life easier. The developer toolkit and staging tool, which allow developers to work on sites before pushing the changes live, are particularly valuable.
SiteGround’s WordPress hosting is a comprehensive solution available at an affordable price that will appeal to site developers and specialists. SiteGround is also one of the few web hosting services that WordPress recommends.
SiteGround WooCommerce Hosting
For WooCommerce site owners, SiteGround’s WooCommerce hosting comes with an array of tools to support site development and management.
WooCommerce is pre-installed to save you time, and it’s automatically updated to ensure your site is functional and protected against the latest security threats. Smart caching designed specifically for WooCommerce ensures that your store loads more quickly, and daily backups offer peace of mind.
SiteGround’s GrowBig and GoGeek plans include a staging tool that’s also highly valuable, allowing you to test changes on a staged copy of your site so you don’t disrupt your store’s functionality with edits and additions.
This WooCommerce hosting supports the unique needs of a WooCommerce store owner. The features make developing and adding to your store easy, while essential features like pre-installed SSL certificates and daily backups ensure you’ll receive everything needed to keep your store operating at its best.
SiteGround Cloud Hosting
Whether you’re ready to take your business to the cloud for the first time or are looking to transfer your hosting, SiteGround’s cloud hosting will appeal for many reasons. Cloud hosting is fully managed by experienced developers, so you don’t have to focus on the IT side of your business.
Dedicated resources ensure speed and efficiency, and you can add on more CPU and RAM whenever you might need it. An auto-scale option will automatically respond to traffic increases to ensure consistent performance and to prevent downtime.
Other perks include your own dedicated IP, as well as direct SSH access, daily backups, and a free Cloudflare CDN service to enhance site speeds for visitors from other geographic locations.
This cloud hosting is a comprehensive package that’s full of features that enhance performance. Cloud issues receive priority support from SiteGround, giving you peace of mind that your business will always be top priority.
Comparing The Best Web Hosting Services
There are plenty of great hosting services, so be sure to read our full, in-depth review of the best web hosting services before deciding on the best service for your needs. You’ll notice we rate SiteGround very highly on that list:
- Bluehost – Best overall web hosting service
- HostGator – Best for scaling your small business easily
- Web.com – Best website builder for simple business sites
- Hostinger – Best web hosting for lots of storage
- DreamHost – Best for simple, straightforward hosting
- SiteGround – Best for keeping uptime above 99.99%
- InMotion Hosting – Best price for hosting two websites on one plan
- Nexcess – Best for experienced WordPress users
- A2 Hosting – Most dependable web hosting for global traffic
While SiteGround might not be the absolute cheapest web hosting service, it does have many benefits that make it an appealing choice. All of its plans include essentials like SSL certificates, while extra perks, like email services, are also included. And you get the same pricing for managed WordPress and WooCommerce hosting as their shared plans, which makes those options quite attractively priced.
Fast speeds and impressive customer service make SiteGround a highly popular option, and specialized plans for WordPress developers and WooCommerce site owners ensure that the service supports the needs of each individual business. All in all, SiteGround is a quality web hosting service that can be ideal for small businesses, startups, and new site owners who need a user-friendly platform with quality support.
