Ease of Use
SiteGround is user-friendly and is suitable for low-traffic sites looking to get traffic to their site. In this article, we'd be looking at SiteGround's ease of use. What makes it appealing to users? What makes it stand out from others? Let's get to it.
Imagine a scenario where you are trying to get information from Google. You've clicked on this particular website, but it's taking forever to load. Are you going to sit back and wait? Of course, you will check the next available page. It's not just you, but it's the same for every internet user. No one wants to wait around for a website that loads slowly. If it takes more than 4 seconds to load, users will lose interest and move to the following available website.
There's nothing better than having a website with fast-loading pages. If you ate running an online business, it would make it easier for your clients and customers to request a service. Imagine the number of customers you will lose with site pages that load slowly.
SiteGround has a feature that boosts up your site's loading speed by 4x. It is known as SuperCacher, and this will make your site easy to use and navigate.
SiteGround's backend is straightforward to use. There are instances where you need a professional to put you through while using a website host. For SiteGround, you don't need any professional or tutorial to put you through. You also don't need any previous knowledge to do or navigate your way around it. Once you are on it, you can easily see what to do. Again, the pages and subpages are not confusing because you can easily fit them into what you want. This means that it is customizable to fit your needs. You can choose the sections you wish to and leave out the ones you do not want. SiteGround has many benefits; however, you must select a perfect web host for your purpose of creating a website.
Still, on the ease of use, SiteGround has an excellent dashboard and a site tools control panel. This houses advanced settings that will put users through. The user interface is straightforward to use. As aforementioned, a newbie can easily find everything. Starting, you will need to access SiteGround's account management dashboard. There, you'd see the steps to set up your website and also optimize it. If you follow these steps carefully, your website will be up and running in no time. This makes it perfect for beginners.
SiteGround's user experience is one of the best out there. The site tools are modern, appealing, and sleek. Every common action you need to use is easily accessible, and they are all arranged in a sidebar.
Your website host should be able to save you from unnecessary work and tasks. Obviously, that's why they are hosts. For SiteGround, it is very easy to install WordPress with the app manager. You need just one click, and it will be done in a few minutes. Any other thing, such as installing SSL certificates or even restoring backups, can easily be done. The tabs are self-explanatory and with what each one does. For example, you can see 'WordPress, 'security, 'speed', and so on.
Another tool that's easy to use is SiteGround's WordPress Starter Plugin. This particular tool lets you choose a theme for your website and helps you set everything up. In addition, you will find several WordPress plugins such as Jetpack, Yoast SEO, and so on.
SiteGround's uptime performance is just excellent. If your website is a business website, it needs to be up and running 24/7 just in case customers want to make a purchase or request a service. Website owners want web hosts that can keep their site running without experiencing any downtime. With SiteGround, you don't need to worry about this as their performance has been perfect over the years. Website visitors are excited if they can navigate around a website at any time of the day. More importantly, you will rest assured that your site is up at all times, so you don't miss out on customers' purchases. So, SiteGround's uptime performance is another thing that makes it quite popular. Everything with it is easy and very accessible.
In all, SiteGround's interface has many easy-to-use single-click installations. There are also lots of add-ons and upgrades to give you a seamless user experience. You will get a UI with a cPanel. It is pretty easy to set up, and it is also flexible.
SiteGround's in-house experts are there to help you at any time if you ever encounter any issues. It doesn't matter what it is; whether it is tips for running your website or expert help, the support team is ready to help. There are a series of resources to help you in this accord and make launching a website with SiteGround very easy.
SiteGround has its customers' interests at heart. This is why their customer service is top-notch. There are several technologies they've made available to help users deal with any issues. Whether it is an installation issue, backup and restore, billing, site transfer, and more, you can chat with a representative to help you. You can also phone or email them.
Pricing Plans
What about the pricing, though? Does SiteGround have plans that are other good value to money? Is the pricing worth the services offered? Well, we will be looking into that and more in this article. Let's go on.
1. Shared Hosting Pricing
Shared hosting is a feature SiteGround developed for website owners who get little or no traffic on their page. Especially for beginners, you may find it challenging to get the required traffic to your page at first. The shared hosting feature lets you share resources with other sites hosted on the server. It is the cheapest hosting on SiteGround since it is shared. The pricing structure for it may get confusing, but you will get it right eventually.
Usually, SiteGround accommodates three (3) shared hosting plans which start at $3.95/month to $11.95/month. After the first term, you will have to pay the regular price. However, there are discounts (special prices) if you're going to use it for a long time. Let's say you pay an upfront fee of three years; you'll pay a special price, which is the discount, thereby saving up to 70% every month. But the issue here is that not everyone may want to commit to a web host provider for such a long time.
It is, however, important to choose a hosting plan that matches your needs and not just your budget. You need to choose the right features at the lowest price possible. For the shared hosting, you can choose from the start-up plan, GrowBig, or GoGeek plan.
Startup plan: Starts at $3.95/month to $11.95/month. This offers 10,000 monthly visits, 10GB space, and hosting just one website.
GrowBig plan: Starts at $5.95/month to $19.95/month. This offers 25,000 monthly visits, 20GB space, SuperCacher, and unlimited website hosting. There's also free site transfer, data transfer, and you can collaborate with others on your site.
GoGeek plan: Starts at $11.95/month to $34.95/month. This offers 100,000 monthly visits, 30GB space, unlimited website hosting, every GrowBig feature, client management, Git, and advanced support.
Shared hosting is a popular choice for those who want cheaper hosting solutions that are convenient and affordable.
2. Cloud Hosting Pricing
If you want a more advanced website hosting solution, then SiteGround's cloud hosting is the one. It supports SuperCacher, daily backups, and excellent uptime performance. More so, you won't be hosted on a single server as resources will be pulled from various servers. The plans start at $80/month, and there are four different plans to select from.
Entry plan: This is $80/month and offers 2 CPU correspondence, 4GB memory space, 40GB SSD, and 5TB of transfer data support.
Business plan: This is $120/month and offers 3 CPU cores, 6GB memory space, 60GB SSD, and 5TB of transfer data support.
Business plus plan: This is $160/month and offers 4 CPU cores, 8GB memory space, 80GB SSD, and 5TB of transfer data support.
Super Power plan: This is $240/month and offers 8 CPU cores, 10GB memory space, 120GB SSD, and 5TB of transfer data support.
The cloud hosting plans are a bit expensive, but they are very reliable to build a good eCommerce website. Also, you can configure your cloud and choose the number of codes you want.
3. Dedicated Hosting Pricing
If you don't want basic web hosting and need access to specific advanced tools, you should consider dedicated hosting. It features advanced tools such as daily backups and plugin support for SuperCacher, Joomla, WooCommerce, and Cloudflare.
This particular hosting plan is suitable for conversant with how SSL certificates, GIT, SSD, and DNS work. If you know how to use them, their dedicated hosting will appear very easy for you to use. The plan is suitable for more extensive business websites that attract lots of traffic. More so, you won't share your data center with anyone, and in essence, there will be lesser downtime. This plan is costly as it starts from $269/month. There are three plans to choose from:
Entry Server plan: This costs $269/month and offers Intel Exon EX-1230 SSD, 16GB DDR3 RAM, 8 CPU, 480GB SSD, 8MB CPU cache, 10TB bandwidth, and 4 CPU cores 3.20Ghz CPU speed.
Power Server plan: This costs $348/month and offers everything from the entry server plan, including 32GB of DDR3 RAM and 960GB SSD.
Super Power Server plan: This costs $729/month and offers everything from the Power Server, including an extra Intel Exon, 2.00Ghz clock speed, 2 x 960GB SSDs, 64GB of DDR3 RAM,15MB of CPU cache, 10TB of bandwidth, 2 x 6 CPU cores, and 2×12 CPU,
For this hosting, everything is managed for you, and you get 24/7 VIP support. You can also choose where you want your server to be located.
4. WordPress Hosting Pricing
This is a custom package that SiteGround offers. You can get special hosting for your WordPress website. There are three plans to select from, and they are basically the same pricing as that of the shared hosting. This means that while signing up, you will pay a fee of $3.95 for that first term and move to $11.95 for the following months.
One spectacular thing is that WordPress will recommend SiteGround to you as the website host to use. And the pricing for this WordPress hosting is an excellent value for money compared to other web hosts out there. Apart from WordPress, you can get custom hosting for WooCommerce with SiteGround if you are running an eCommerce business. Since this WordPress hosting plan is the same as shared hosting, you will get the same features. However, there are some extras, such as one-click installation and automated updates.
5. Reseller Hosting Pricing
As the name implies, this plan allows buying one year's hosting and then reselling to another person. This is great for people that need opportunities other than website creation. However, reseller hosting works differently from others. Here's how it works- you use the hosting to buy credits that work the same way a year of shared hosting works. You can then resell these credits for a monthly fee. In essence, you become an intermediary between SiteGround and the person using the credits.
There are three types of the pricing available, and they all depending on the number of credits you purchase. There is:
1-4 credits: This costs $49 each
5-10 credits: This costs $45 each
11+: This costs $42 each
You need to buy at least five credits to start the reseller hosting plan, and you can resell to anyone at all. The more you purchase, the more discounts you get.
6. Enterprise Hosting Pricing
SiteGround may not be the most affordable hosting provider, but its versatility will always keep them one step ahead. You can choose from several hosting options and find one that explicitly fits what you want. For this enterprise hosting, you can design your plan. This means you can pick the resources you want and choose exactly how you want your website to be hosted. SiteGround will then manage every other thing on your behalf. It ensures that your resources are tailored to suit your needs. There's no particular pricing structure for this since it is bespoke. You choose your specifications, and your pricing will be tailored to it.
Extra Expenses
After getting your suitable hosting plan, there are going to be other purchases. You will have to pay for a domain name. This means that there's no free domain name with SiteGround. For this web hosting provider, there are no extra expenses such as email hosting costs. However, you could pay an extra setup fee if you're looking to get a trial plan.
Tools & Features
SiteGround is a popular choice for people who need website hosts because, unlike others, they are committed to their customers' success. Normally, web hosts do not include virus scanning software that prevents an infected website from infecting another. However, SiteGround does this for any website it hosts, and this makes it a popular choice.
We'd be looking into the features and specs of SiteGround. So let's go straight to it:
This is one of SiteGround's best features that enables your website pages to load in split seconds. There's nothing better than a website with great speed. An average internet user expects a website page to load in less than 2 seconds. No one is ready to wait for more than 4 seconds for a site to load completely; they'll lose interest and move on to the next available website. Site speed is very important for any website, especially if you are running an online store. You don't want to chase your potential customers with slow loading.
SiteGround's SuperCacher is an innovative development that boosts up a site's loading speed by 4x. Also, it increases your site's hits by up to 100 times.
Every website is created for a different reason from the other. It could be a business website, blog, educational website, and so on. Of course, you may love to customize your website to fit its purpose. SiteGround offers customized hosting solutions to its users. It is done by choosing hardware and developing custom software. The reviews on this particular feature are very great to show that users appreciate it. SiteGround has made a name for itself as one of the leading website hosts and with game-changing technologies.
No one likes anything that stresses them out, or that is difficult to navigate. Another great feature of SiteGround is that the back end is effortless to use. You don't need prior practice to navigate around it, as your intuition will quickly help you. More so, you won't be confused with the pages or subpages. You can also customize it to fit your needs. By customizing, it means you can decide what sections you need and the ones you do not need.
SiteGround's backend is modern and easy to use. If you are looking towards getting a website, you may want to check it out.
With SiteGround, you can create as many sub-domains as possible. Note that with the start-up plan, you can have just one website and unlimited with other plans. Your website can be freely installed on a free SiteGround subdomain. To host multiple domains, you'll add them from your "client area" to the website and then add a new website.
However, if you choose to get a new domain name for your website, you must register it on SiteGround.
This SiteGround feature is helpful for new website owners or beginner users. If you're just starting a website, getting traffic to your page may not be all that easy. SiteGround's shared hosting feature allows you to share resources with other sites that are hosted on the server.
It doesn't matter if you are a new site user or not. Some sites have been on long enough but still don't have enough visibility. So, let's say this feature is suitable for low-traffic website owners that want visibility for their site.
SiteGround has a feature that enables users to download and install several applications. These applications include WordPress, Moodle, Drupal, and so on. More so, the entire installation process is very easy, straightforward, and without hassles. An added advantage is that you can easily install applications in a few minutes.
One thing that attracts and keeps a user on the site is the website layout. A beautiful website that can be easily navigated is sure to keep users coming back. SiteGround has several beautiful templates that one can choose from. Its goal is to create beautiful and fully functional websites that people will love.
The templates and theme installation are free for websites hosted by SiteGround. As a result, you can give your website a beautiful look and keep visitors awed by it.
Backups are an essential aspect of hosting as something could go wrong unexpectedly. SiteGround makes an automatic backup for your site every day. In this way, you can choose to restore any version of your site you want. Also, you can restore the entire website or restore specific parts that you need. Of course, these parts are so indicated. It could be emails, databases, or files.
Everyone might not love the same thing you love. In essence, everyone has different tastes and likes. Concerning SiteGround, not everyone may choose it. It is not the most affordable hosting provider out there, and so you will need a cut-out budget for it. You can go on a month's trial, and if you are not satisfied, you will be refunded.
This means that SiteGround has a 30-day refund guarantee. In addition, the host promises to deliver more than 99.9% uptime and will compensate you if they don't deliver.
SiteGround is very positive with assistance and support. If you encounter any issues while using them as a website host, you can easily reach out to them through email, phone, or live chat. This feature helps the users ease, knowing they can quickly be attended to if any problem arises.
SiteGround also has various support materials and guides for users to refer to.
Performance & Speed
For every second a website takes to load, your frustrations begin to pent up. Well, it doesn't only happen to you as a one-second delay can literally frustrate any internet user. Worse, you lose interest and look for another website that loads faster. So here's what happens if, as a website owner, your site takes time to load:
You'll lose customers
Decrease in general customer satisfaction
Lesser page visits
Fewer page views
Lesser conversations and conversions
No matter how excellent your site content is, you could ruin everything with a site that loads slowly. This is why you need to pay the utmost attention when choosing a hosting provider. No one is going to stick around with your slow-loading pages till you fix the issue. You can fix the loading time by compressing images, reducing site redirects, optimizing your plugins, and improving server response time.
The server response time is the duty of your web hosting provider. It would help if you got a hosting provider with speedy servers. A website's server response time is the amount of time it takes to get information from a server. The faster time it takes, the better. SiteGround understands the assignment and uses sleek hardware and software to make sites hosted by them fast. It uses SuperCacher, Cloudflare, and PHP to enhance speed.
Also, SiteGround keeps its software up to date, and this helps with the speeding process. Outdated software may lead to unnecessary slowdowns and downtimes. By maintaining and constantly updating to the latest software, SiteGround keeps your website running round the clock and with fast-loading pages. If you're looking for a web hosting provider to give your website that speed to help your business, SiteGround is your best bet.
The question of reliability in web hosting is, "will your website be up and running 24/7/365 without facing any downtime?" Then, how reliable is your hosting provider? If you are running a business website and you experience downtime, you will lose a lot of customers. It could be that your potential customers were trying to purchase at the time of the downtime. They may be frustrated and leave your website. When choosing a website hosting provider, you must do concrete research and read up reviews on the host you want to use. And I must say, SiteGround is a very reliable website hosting provider. The reviews on them are very significant. It offers 99.9% uptime, and this is excellent.
Because of how reliable SiteGround is, it is the official hosting provider recommended by WordPress. If you encounter any issues, you will be attended to as soon as you reach out to their support. Some hosting providers will make you wait hours before responding to you. In that space, you would have lost a lot of potential clients and business deals. In less than five minutes, SiteGround would react to you, making them all the more reliable. You can phone them, send an email or use live chat. Whichever one you use is sure to get a swift response. And so, the customer support and help show how reliable SiteGround is.
Another thing to point out in SiteGround's reliability is that what negatively affects a website connected to SiteGround won't affect other websites. Why? Because SiteGround has developed and implemented server isolation technology. So, even if you are using a shared hosting plan, you won't experience any problems.
There's also automatic backup for your website in case anything happens. This means you can quickly restore your previous data and information.
In all, SiteGround offers:
Website security is very paramount because if there are any mishaps, you could lose your website data and probably your website too. This is why SiteGround has gone the extra mile to make sure that users website is very secure. As a leading website hosting provider, it would be disheartening if the millions of websites connected to them were not secure. We talked about Isolation technology earlier. Yes, this particular development protects servers from being infected and affected by one vulnerable server. So, if you are choosing the shared hosting plan, you are completely safe. This is how SiteGround keeps websites secure:
They use the latest PHP 7 version and with the latest security updates
The servers have ModSecurity installed on them
Security rules are updated weekly, thereby preventing common attacks
SiteGround monitors vulnerabilities and develops firewalls to help shield websites
The use of IDS/IPS systems that block any malicious attack
Steady updates for WordPress
Keeping databases up to date with the latest security patches.
Also, SiteGround makes sure that any user's data is accessible to trusted personnel on request.
Help & Support
By the time you discover that those are just mere words, you may have paid upfront hosting fees. You find yourself waiting hours upon hours for them to attend to you and sort your website issues. SiteGround's customer support takes it one step ahead of other hosting providers. Why? Because they are swift to reply to messages.
Website users may encounter an issue or need advanced help for certain technical issues. Of course, not everyone is supposed to know even the basics. And that's why there are customer support channels. At this time of difficulty, you would probably love to reach out to your hosting provider to help you out. For SiteGround, you can easily give them a call, send an email, or use live chat by creating a ticket. In less than five minutes, you will be attended to. That's very fast. And this is what SiteGround's many users love about them. The reviews are there and reviews don't lie.
Overall, SiteGround has a great user interface and you may not encounter problems. But if in case you have any issues and you want assistance, it's good to know that there are agents to help you. For those using the GoGeek plan, you are automatically connected to expert SiteGround technicians that would help you out if you are facing any difficulties.
The support team is very helpful, well expertise, and knowledgeable too. It may interest you to know that there are tips and guides to help users while they find their way around SiteGround. These guides will let you in on everything you need to know to succeed with SiteGround. If issues come up, you can refer to this guide but if it is something advanced, you can then request support.
To request help and support, log in to the client area. Search for the question mark icon at the top right corner. Click on it and choose the view help center. Then go straight to the contact us option. Follow suitable instructions and you will be attended to. You will be required to provide information regarding the issue you are facing. Then, an appropriate channel will be recommended for you. It is best to use the channel suggested so you can get a faster response.
If you want the live chat option though, you will be directed to chat with an agent. If, on the other hand, you want your support through a phone call, a number to call for support will be displayed. If you also want to use a ticket, you'll fill in the form and send it in. Your ticket will then be sent to the appropriate authorities.
SiteGround's Value For Customer Service
SiteGround values their customers and they do everything to ensure that every user had something positive to say. They do this by making sure there is a great user experience and good customer support. There are values for customer service and here's how it is achieved:
SiteGround ensures that everyone who is attending to a customer is capable of directing them rightly and solving their issue. Of course, you cannot give what you don't have. Not everyone can attend to customers and help them solve an issue. This is why only capable experts are used for this job. They go through a lot of training under professional mentors. They also get a lot of evaluations. The training helps them know more about SiteGround than the primary users. Being ahead of the users, they can now offer support to them.
No one wants an agent that would be rude to them. They're paying for your service, so it is only right to treat them well. SiteGround's agents are very friendly and with a great attitude. They handle issues with utmost care and this results in a good client relationship. You can say that the support team works with their brain and heart.
The support team does not only help users to solve immediate issues. They also empower them to handle future problems on their own. How is this done? Well, they write articles and guides that help to educate users on how to become webmasters of their own. If you read the guides properly, you can solve issues on your own without contacting a customer agent. Of course, there may be technical issues that will need advanced technical knowledge, and this is when you can contact a support agent.
The system suggests the fastest channel for your issue. And again, that channel is fast to respond too. SiteGround aims to solve user's problems as quickly as possible without going back and forth. This is done with the multiple help channels available.
In all, SiteGround wants its clients to have utmost trust in them. In the end, you will get the best out of your website without any hassles. The customer satisfaction rate of SiteGround is at 98% and this is quite impressive.
Who Should Use
SiteGround may not have the cheapest hosting plans, but the plans available will give you value for your money. We'd be looking into who should use SiteGround and who should not use SiteGround. Don't get this twisted, though. Of course, anyone is open to use SiteGround if it meets your needs. So, this article will tailor down to the needs of users and if SiteGround fits those needs. This brings us to the first question.
SiteGround has over 95% rating in every aspect except their pricing. It is, therefore, not appealing to those with a limited budget. However, if you have the money to buy a hosting plan, there's a lot to benefit from. There are several hosting plans to select from that will suit your needs. Custom hosting is also available, and this makes it more exciting. Who then should use SiteGround?
1. You are a professional blogger:
If you are a popular or professional blogger, using SiteGround to host your website might just be the best thing you will do for your blogging career. Why? Because you'll need a host that can take the amount of traffic you bring to your website without crashing. It would help if you also had a host that guarantees up to 99.9% uptime, ensuring that your blog is running 24/7/365. SiteGround offers all these and more.
As a blogger, you must choose a host that will ensure your pages load very fast. If you don't do this, you will reduce traffic to your page as no one will wait around waiting for a page to load slowly. Also, bear in mind that there are other bloggers in the same niche as you are. So, they can easily get information from other blogs.
2. You are running a business/eCommerce store:
This is almost the same as the first. If you use a web host that experiences downtime now and then, you will lose a lot of potential customers. Imagine a scenario where a customer is trying to place an order, and your site is not responding. Such a user will lose interest and look for another vendor. You also need a web host that will guarantee fast loading. SiteGround is your best bet for this.
3. You are a reseller:
SiteGround offers reselling options to developers who buy a year's hosting plan in the form of credits and sell these credits to others. If you are into this, then you should use SiteGround. In addition, it would be very easier and more seamless for you to buy and resell to any other person.
4. You use WordPress, Magneto, Joomla, or Drupal:
SiteGround has features that enable users to download and install these applications easily. The installation process is quite straightforward. More so, you can complete it in minutes.
5. You are a developer or designer:
If you are a developer or designer who needs a quality web hosting provider with great support, you should use SiteGround. It has all the necessary software and hardware needed to give you a jolly good ride and a wonderful experience in general.
6. You need a great web hosting company:
If you need a great web hosting company, then you should use SiteGround. It offers several benefits such as excellent uptime performance, great security, beautiful themes, great user interface, customer support, fast loading pages, amongst others. All these benefits bring about a good user experience.
Others that can use SiteGround are:
People who need hosting and a free CDN from Cloudflare
Experts that need great customer service. SiteGround may just be the best in terms of offering customer support to its users.
Those that want access to NGINX SuperCacher with SSL support
Those that need features like Git repositories or SSH access
People who need a web hosting company that integrates plugins like SSL, Let's Encrypt, and SEO tools.
Those that need support for PCI compliant website building and private IP addresses
Big industries that need advanced server resources and server locations
Having noted all these, we'll go straight to the next question.
Who Should Not Use SiteGround?
SiteGround offers unbeatable web hosting services, and it is highly recommended. However, it may not just fit into some people's needs because of several reasons.
1. You are looking for cheap hosting:
There's no need to mince words as SiteGround is not all that cheap. The cheapest pricing goes from $3.95 in the first month to $11.95 in the subsequent months. Not everyone can fit this into their budget. So, if your budget cannot carry this plan or you are looking for a cheap hosting provider, don't use SiteGround.
2. You need a large webspace with a limited budget:
If you need a large web space but have a limited budget, then SiteGround is not for you. Even with the cheapest hosting plan, you may not really get a very large webspace as you so desire. Other providers may offer that, but it is not feasible with SiteGround. You will have to pay for a higher hosting plan to get a large web space with SiteGround.
3. You are looking for a free domain:
There's no inclusion of a free domain in SiteGround's plans. You will have to purchase it separately. However, their plans come with a professional business email account, if it helps.
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Ease of Use
SiteGround is user-friendly and is suitable for low-traffic sites looking to get traffic to their site. In this article, we'd be looking at SiteGround's ease of use. What makes it appealing to users? What makes it stand out from others? Let's get to it.
Imagine a scenario where you are trying to get information from Google. You've clicked on this particular website, but it's taking forever to load. Are you going to sit back and wait? Of course, you will check the next available page. It's not just you, but it's the same for every internet user. No one wants to wait around for a website that loads slowly. If it takes more than 4 seconds to load, users will lose interest and move to the following available website.
There's nothing better than having a website with fast-loading pages. If you ate running an online business, it would make it easier for your clients and customers to request a service. Imagine the number of customers you will lose with site pages that load slowly.
SiteGround has a feature that boosts up your site's loading speed by 4x. It is known as SuperCacher, and this will make your site easy to use and navigate.
SiteGround's backend is straightforward to use. There are instances where you need a professional to put you through while using a website host. For SiteGround, you don't need any professional or tutorial to put you through. You also don't need any previous knowledge to do or navigate your way around it. Once you are on it, you can easily see what to do. Again, the pages and subpages are not confusing because you can easily fit them into what you want. This means that it is customizable to fit your needs. You can choose the sections you wish to and leave out the ones you do not want. SiteGround has many benefits; however, you must select a perfect web host for your purpose of creating a website.
Still, on the ease of use, SiteGround has an excellent dashboard and a site tools control panel. This houses advanced settings that will put users through. The user interface is straightforward to use. As aforementioned, a newbie can easily find everything. Starting, you will need to access SiteGround's account management dashboard. There, you'd see the steps to set up your website and also optimize it. If you follow these steps carefully, your website will be up and running in no time. This makes it perfect for beginners.
SiteGround's user experience is one of the best out there. The site tools are modern, appealing, and sleek. Every common action you need to use is easily accessible, and they are all arranged in a sidebar.
Your website host should be able to save you from unnecessary work and tasks. Obviously, that's why they are hosts. For SiteGround, it is very easy to install WordPress with the app manager. You need just one click, and it will be done in a few minutes. Any other thing, such as installing SSL certificates or even restoring backups, can easily be done. The tabs are self-explanatory and with what each one does. For example, you can see 'WordPress, 'security, 'speed', and so on.
Another tool that's easy to use is SiteGround's WordPress Starter Plugin. This particular tool lets you choose a theme for your website and helps you set everything up. In addition, you will find several WordPress plugins such as Jetpack, Yoast SEO, and so on.
SiteGround's uptime performance is just excellent. If your website is a business website, it needs to be up and running 24/7 just in case customers want to make a purchase or request a service. Website owners want web hosts that can keep their site running without experiencing any downtime. With SiteGround, you don't need to worry about this as their performance has been perfect over the years. Website visitors are excited if they can navigate around a website at any time of the day. More importantly, you will rest assured that your site is up at all times, so you don't miss out on customers' purchases. So, SiteGround's uptime performance is another thing that makes it quite popular. Everything with it is easy and very accessible.
In all, SiteGround's interface has many easy-to-use single-click installations. There are also lots of add-ons and upgrades to give you a seamless user experience. You will get a UI with a cPanel. It is pretty easy to set up, and it is also flexible.
SiteGround's in-house experts are there to help you at any time if you ever encounter any issues. It doesn't matter what it is; whether it is tips for running your website or expert help, the support team is ready to help. There are a series of resources to help you in this accord and make launching a website with SiteGround very easy.
SiteGround has its customers' interests at heart. This is why their customer service is top-notch. There are several technologies they've made available to help users deal with any issues. Whether it is an installation issue, backup and restore, billing, site transfer, and more, you can chat with a representative to help you. You can also phone or email them.
Pricing Plans
What about the pricing, though? Does SiteGround have plans that are other good value to money? Is the pricing worth the services offered? Well, we will be looking into that and more in this article. Let's go on.
1. Shared Hosting Pricing
Shared hosting is a feature SiteGround developed for website owners who get little or no traffic on their page. Especially for beginners, you may find it challenging to get the required traffic to your page at first. The shared hosting feature lets you share resources with other sites hosted on the server. It is the cheapest hosting on SiteGround since it is shared. The pricing structure for it may get confusing, but you will get it right eventually.
Usually, SiteGround accommodates three (3) shared hosting plans which start at $3.95/month to $11.95/month. After the first term, you will have to pay the regular price. However, there are discounts (special prices) if you're going to use it for a long time. Let's say you pay an upfront fee of three years; you'll pay a special price, which is the discount, thereby saving up to 70% every month. But the issue here is that not everyone may want to commit to a web host provider for such a long time.
It is, however, important to choose a hosting plan that matches your needs and not just your budget. You need to choose the right features at the lowest price possible. For the shared hosting, you can choose from the start-up plan, GrowBig, or GoGeek plan.
Startup plan: Starts at $3.95/month to $11.95/month. This offers 10,000 monthly visits, 10GB space, and hosting just one website.
GrowBig plan: Starts at $5.95/month to $19.95/month. This offers 25,000 monthly visits, 20GB space, SuperCacher, and unlimited website hosting. There's also free site transfer, data transfer, and you can collaborate with others on your site.
GoGeek plan: Starts at $11.95/month to $34.95/month. This offers 100,000 monthly visits, 30GB space, unlimited website hosting, every GrowBig feature, client management, Git, and advanced support.
Shared hosting is a popular choice for those who want cheaper hosting solutions that are convenient and affordable.
2. Cloud Hosting Pricing
If you want a more advanced website hosting solution, then SiteGround's cloud hosting is the one. It supports SuperCacher, daily backups, and excellent uptime performance. More so, you won't be hosted on a single server as resources will be pulled from various servers. The plans start at $80/month, and there are four different plans to select from.
Entry plan: This is $80/month and offers 2 CPU correspondence, 4GB memory space, 40GB SSD, and 5TB of transfer data support.
Business plan: This is $120/month and offers 3 CPU cores, 6GB memory space, 60GB SSD, and 5TB of transfer data support.
Business plus plan: This is $160/month and offers 4 CPU cores, 8GB memory space, 80GB SSD, and 5TB of transfer data support.
Super Power plan: This is $240/month and offers 8 CPU cores, 10GB memory space, 120GB SSD, and 5TB of transfer data support.
The cloud hosting plans are a bit expensive, but they are very reliable to build a good eCommerce website. Also, you can configure your cloud and choose the number of codes you want.
3. Dedicated Hosting Pricing
If you don't want basic web hosting and need access to specific advanced tools, you should consider dedicated hosting. It features advanced tools such as daily backups and plugin support for SuperCacher, Joomla, WooCommerce, and Cloudflare.
This particular hosting plan is suitable for conversant with how SSL certificates, GIT, SSD, and DNS work. If you know how to use them, their dedicated hosting will appear very easy for you to use. The plan is suitable for more extensive business websites that attract lots of traffic. More so, you won't share your data center with anyone, and in essence, there will be lesser downtime. This plan is costly as it starts from $269/month. There are three plans to choose from:
Entry Server plan: This costs $269/month and offers Intel Exon EX-1230 SSD, 16GB DDR3 RAM, 8 CPU, 480GB SSD, 8MB CPU cache, 10TB bandwidth, and 4 CPU cores 3.20Ghz CPU speed.
Power Server plan: This costs $348/month and offers everything from the entry server plan, including 32GB of DDR3 RAM and 960GB SSD.
Super Power Server plan: This costs $729/month and offers everything from the Power Server, including an extra Intel Exon, 2.00Ghz clock speed, 2 x 960GB SSDs, 64GB of DDR3 RAM,15MB of CPU cache, 10TB of bandwidth, 2 x 6 CPU cores, and 2×12 CPU,
For this hosting, everything is managed for you, and you get 24/7 VIP support. You can also choose where you want your server to be located.
4. WordPress Hosting Pricing
This is a custom package that SiteGround offers. You can get special hosting for your WordPress website. There are three plans to select from, and they are basically the same pricing as that of the shared hosting. This means that while signing up, you will pay a fee of $3.95 for that first term and move to $11.95 for the following months.
One spectacular thing is that WordPress will recommend SiteGround to you as the website host to use. And the pricing for this WordPress hosting is an excellent value for money compared to other web hosts out there. Apart from WordPress, you can get custom hosting for WooCommerce with SiteGround if you are running an eCommerce business. Since this WordPress hosting plan is the same as shared hosting, you will get the same features. However, there are some extras, such as one-click installation and automated updates.
5. Reseller Hosting Pricing
As the name implies, this plan allows buying one year's hosting and then reselling to another person. This is great for people that need opportunities other than website creation. However, reseller hosting works differently from others. Here's how it works- you use the hosting to buy credits that work the same way a year of shared hosting works. You can then resell these credits for a monthly fee. In essence, you become an intermediary between SiteGround and the person using the credits.
There are three types of the pricing available, and they all depending on the number of credits you purchase. There is:
1-4 credits: This costs $49 each
5-10 credits: This costs $45 each
11+: This costs $42 each
You need to buy at least five credits to start the reseller hosting plan, and you can resell to anyone at all. The more you purchase, the more discounts you get.
6. Enterprise Hosting Pricing
SiteGround may not be the most affordable hosting provider, but its versatility will always keep them one step ahead. You can choose from several hosting options and find one that explicitly fits what you want. For this enterprise hosting, you can design your plan. This means you can pick the resources you want and choose exactly how you want your website to be hosted. SiteGround will then manage every other thing on your behalf. It ensures that your resources are tailored to suit your needs. There's no particular pricing structure for this since it is bespoke. You choose your specifications, and your pricing will be tailored to it.
Extra Expenses
After getting your suitable hosting plan, there are going to be other purchases. You will have to pay for a domain name. This means that there's no free domain name with SiteGround. For this web hosting provider, there are no extra expenses such as email hosting costs. However, you could pay an extra setup fee if you're looking to get a trial plan.
Tools & Features
SiteGround is a popular choice for people who need website hosts because, unlike others, they are committed to their customers' success. Normally, web hosts do not include virus scanning software that prevents an infected website from infecting another. However, SiteGround does this for any website it hosts, and this makes it a popular choice.
We'd be looking into the features and specs of SiteGround. So let's go straight to it:
This is one of SiteGround's best features that enables your website pages to load in split seconds. There's nothing better than a website with great speed. An average internet user expects a website page to load in less than 2 seconds. No one is ready to wait for more than 4 seconds for a site to load completely; they'll lose interest and move on to the next available website. Site speed is very important for any website, especially if you are running an online store. You don't want to chase your potential customers with slow loading.
SiteGround's SuperCacher is an innovative development that boosts up a site's loading speed by 4x. Also, it increases your site's hits by up to 100 times.
Every website is created for a different reason from the other. It could be a business website, blog, educational website, and so on. Of course, you may love to customize your website to fit its purpose. SiteGround offers customized hosting solutions to its users. It is done by choosing hardware and developing custom software. The reviews on this particular feature are very great to show that users appreciate it. SiteGround has made a name for itself as one of the leading website hosts and with game-changing technologies.
No one likes anything that stresses them out, or that is difficult to navigate. Another great feature of SiteGround is that the back end is effortless to use. You don't need prior practice to navigate around it, as your intuition will quickly help you. More so, you won't be confused with the pages or subpages. You can also customize it to fit your needs. By customizing, it means you can decide what sections you need and the ones you do not need.
SiteGround's backend is modern and easy to use. If you are looking towards getting a website, you may want to check it out.
With SiteGround, you can create as many sub-domains as possible. Note that with the start-up plan, you can have just one website and unlimited with other plans. Your website can be freely installed on a free SiteGround subdomain. To host multiple domains, you'll add them from your "client area" to the website and then add a new website.
However, if you choose to get a new domain name for your website, you must register it on SiteGround.
This SiteGround feature is helpful for new website owners or beginner users. If you're just starting a website, getting traffic to your page may not be all that easy. SiteGround's shared hosting feature allows you to share resources with other sites that are hosted on the server.
It doesn't matter if you are a new site user or not. Some sites have been on long enough but still don't have enough visibility. So, let's say this feature is suitable for low-traffic website owners that want visibility for their site.
SiteGround has a feature that enables users to download and install several applications. These applications include WordPress, Moodle, Drupal, and so on. More so, the entire installation process is very easy, straightforward, and without hassles. An added advantage is that you can easily install applications in a few minutes.
One thing that attracts and keeps a user on the site is the website layout. A beautiful website that can be easily navigated is sure to keep users coming back. SiteGround has several beautiful templates that one can choose from. Its goal is to create beautiful and fully functional websites that people will love.
The templates and theme installation are free for websites hosted by SiteGround. As a result, you can give your website a beautiful look and keep visitors awed by it.
Backups are an essential aspect of hosting as something could go wrong unexpectedly. SiteGround makes an automatic backup for your site every day. In this way, you can choose to restore any version of your site you want. Also, you can restore the entire website or restore specific parts that you need. Of course, these parts are so indicated. It could be emails, databases, or files.
Everyone might not love the same thing you love. In essence, everyone has different tastes and likes. Concerning SiteGround, not everyone may choose it. It is not the most affordable hosting provider out there, and so you will need a cut-out budget for it. You can go on a month's trial, and if you are not satisfied, you will be refunded.
This means that SiteGround has a 30-day refund guarantee. In addition, the host promises to deliver more than 99.9% uptime and will compensate you if they don't deliver.
SiteGround is very positive with assistance and support. If you encounter any issues while using them as a website host, you can easily reach out to them through email, phone, or live chat. This feature helps the users ease, knowing they can quickly be attended to if any problem arises.
SiteGround also has various support materials and guides for users to refer to.
Performance & Speed
For every second a website takes to load, your frustrations begin to pent up. Well, it doesn't only happen to you as a one-second delay can literally frustrate any internet user. Worse, you lose interest and look for another website that loads faster. So here's what happens if, as a website owner, your site takes time to load:
You'll lose customers
Decrease in general customer satisfaction
Lesser page visits
Fewer page views
Lesser conversations and conversions
No matter how excellent your site content is, you could ruin everything with a site that loads slowly. This is why you need to pay the utmost attention when choosing a hosting provider. No one is going to stick around with your slow-loading pages till you fix the issue. You can fix the loading time by compressing images, reducing site redirects, optimizing your plugins, and improving server response time.
The server response time is the duty of your web hosting provider. It would help if you got a hosting provider with speedy servers. A website's server response time is the amount of time it takes to get information from a server. The faster time it takes, the better. SiteGround understands the assignment and uses sleek hardware and software to make sites hosted by them fast. It uses SuperCacher, Cloudflare, and PHP to enhance speed.
Also, SiteGround keeps its software up to date, and this helps with the speeding process. Outdated software may lead to unnecessary slowdowns and downtimes. By maintaining and constantly updating to the latest software, SiteGround keeps your website running round the clock and with fast-loading pages. If you're looking for a web hosting provider to give your website that speed to help your business, SiteGround is your best bet.
The question of reliability in web hosting is, "will your website be up and running 24/7/365 without facing any downtime?" Then, how reliable is your hosting provider? If you are running a business website and you experience downtime, you will lose a lot of customers. It could be that your potential customers were trying to purchase at the time of the downtime. They may be frustrated and leave your website. When choosing a website hosting provider, you must do concrete research and read up reviews on the host you want to use. And I must say, SiteGround is a very reliable website hosting provider. The reviews on them are very significant. It offers 99.9% uptime, and this is excellent.
Because of how reliable SiteGround is, it is the official hosting provider recommended by WordPress. If you encounter any issues, you will be attended to as soon as you reach out to their support. Some hosting providers will make you wait hours before responding to you. In that space, you would have lost a lot of potential clients and business deals. In less than five minutes, SiteGround would react to you, making them all the more reliable. You can phone them, send an email or use live chat. Whichever one you use is sure to get a swift response. And so, the customer support and help show how reliable SiteGround is.
Another thing to point out in SiteGround's reliability is that what negatively affects a website connected to SiteGround won't affect other websites. Why? Because SiteGround has developed and implemented server isolation technology. So, even if you are using a shared hosting plan, you won't experience any problems.
There's also automatic backup for your website in case anything happens. This means you can quickly restore your previous data and information.
In all, SiteGround offers:
Website security is very paramount because if there are any mishaps, you could lose your website data and probably your website too. This is why SiteGround has gone the extra mile to make sure that users website is very secure. As a leading website hosting provider, it would be disheartening if the millions of websites connected to them were not secure. We talked about Isolation technology earlier. Yes, this particular development protects servers from being infected and affected by one vulnerable server. So, if you are choosing the shared hosting plan, you are completely safe. This is how SiteGround keeps websites secure:
They use the latest PHP 7 version and with the latest security updates
The servers have ModSecurity installed on them
Security rules are updated weekly, thereby preventing common attacks
SiteGround monitors vulnerabilities and develops firewalls to help shield websites
The use of IDS/IPS systems that block any malicious attack
Steady updates for WordPress
Keeping databases up to date with the latest security patches.
Also, SiteGround makes sure that any user's data is accessible to trusted personnel on request.
Help & Support
By the time you discover that those are just mere words, you may have paid upfront hosting fees. You find yourself waiting hours upon hours for them to attend to you and sort your website issues. SiteGround's customer support takes it one step ahead of other hosting providers. Why? Because they are swift to reply to messages.
Website users may encounter an issue or need advanced help for certain technical issues. Of course, not everyone is supposed to know even the basics. And that's why there are customer support channels. At this time of difficulty, you would probably love to reach out to your hosting provider to help you out. For SiteGround, you can easily give them a call, send an email, or use live chat by creating a ticket. In less than five minutes, you will be attended to. That's very fast. And this is what SiteGround's many users love about them. The reviews are there and reviews don't lie.
Overall, SiteGround has a great user interface and you may not encounter problems. But if in case you have any issues and you want assistance, it's good to know that there are agents to help you. For those using the GoGeek plan, you are automatically connected to expert SiteGround technicians that would help you out if you are facing any difficulties.
The support team is very helpful, well expertise, and knowledgeable too. It may interest you to know that there are tips and guides to help users while they find their way around SiteGround. These guides will let you in on everything you need to know to succeed with SiteGround. If issues come up, you can refer to this guide but if it is something advanced, you can then request support.
To request help and support, log in to the client area. Search for the question mark icon at the top right corner. Click on it and choose the view help center. Then go straight to the contact us option. Follow suitable instructions and you will be attended to. You will be required to provide information regarding the issue you are facing. Then, an appropriate channel will be recommended for you. It is best to use the channel suggested so you can get a faster response.
If you want the live chat option though, you will be directed to chat with an agent. If, on the other hand, you want your support through a phone call, a number to call for support will be displayed. If you also want to use a ticket, you'll fill in the form and send it in. Your ticket will then be sent to the appropriate authorities.
SiteGround's Value For Customer Service
SiteGround values their customers and they do everything to ensure that every user had something positive to say. They do this by making sure there is a great user experience and good customer support. There are values for customer service and here's how it is achieved:
SiteGround ensures that everyone who is attending to a customer is capable of directing them rightly and solving their issue. Of course, you cannot give what you don't have. Not everyone can attend to customers and help them solve an issue. This is why only capable experts are used for this job. They go through a lot of training under professional mentors. They also get a lot of evaluations. The training helps them know more about SiteGround than the primary users. Being ahead of the users, they can now offer support to them.
No one wants an agent that would be rude to them. They're paying for your service, so it is only right to treat them well. SiteGround's agents are very friendly and with a great attitude. They handle issues with utmost care and this results in a good client relationship. You can say that the support team works with their brain and heart.
The support team does not only help users to solve immediate issues. They also empower them to handle future problems on their own. How is this done? Well, they write articles and guides that help to educate users on how to become webmasters of their own. If you read the guides properly, you can solve issues on your own without contacting a customer agent. Of course, there may be technical issues that will need advanced technical knowledge, and this is when you can contact a support agent.
The system suggests the fastest channel for your issue. And again, that channel is fast to respond too. SiteGround aims to solve user's problems as quickly as possible without going back and forth. This is done with the multiple help channels available.
In all, SiteGround wants its clients to have utmost trust in them. In the end, you will get the best out of your website without any hassles. The customer satisfaction rate of SiteGround is at 98% and this is quite impressive.
Who Should Use
SiteGround may not have the cheapest hosting plans, but the plans available will give you value for your money. We'd be looking into who should use SiteGround and who should not use SiteGround. Don't get this twisted, though. Of course, anyone is open to use SiteGround if it meets your needs. So, this article will tailor down to the needs of users and if SiteGround fits those needs. This brings us to the first question.
SiteGround has over 95% rating in every aspect except their pricing. It is, therefore, not appealing to those with a limited budget. However, if you have the money to buy a hosting plan, there's a lot to benefit from. There are several hosting plans to select from that will suit your needs. Custom hosting is also available, and this makes it more exciting. Who then should use SiteGround?
1. You are a professional blogger:
If you are a popular or professional blogger, using SiteGround to host your website might just be the best thing you will do for your blogging career. Why? Because you'll need a host that can take the amount of traffic you bring to your website without crashing. It would help if you also had a host that guarantees up to 99.9% uptime, ensuring that your blog is running 24/7/365. SiteGround offers all these and more.
As a blogger, you must choose a host that will ensure your pages load very fast. If you don't do this, you will reduce traffic to your page as no one will wait around waiting for a page to load slowly. Also, bear in mind that there are other bloggers in the same niche as you are. So, they can easily get information from other blogs.
2. You are running a business/eCommerce store:
This is almost the same as the first. If you use a web host that experiences downtime now and then, you will lose a lot of potential customers. Imagine a scenario where a customer is trying to place an order, and your site is not responding. Such a user will lose interest and look for another vendor. You also need a web host that will guarantee fast loading. SiteGround is your best bet for this.
3. You are a reseller:
SiteGround offers reselling options to developers who buy a year's hosting plan in the form of credits and sell these credits to others. If you are into this, then you should use SiteGround. In addition, it would be very easier and more seamless for you to buy and resell to any other person.
4. You use WordPress, Magneto, Joomla, or Drupal:
SiteGround has features that enable users to download and install these applications easily. The installation process is quite straightforward. More so, you can complete it in minutes.
5. You are a developer or designer:
If you are a developer or designer who needs a quality web hosting provider with great support, you should use SiteGround. It has all the necessary software and hardware needed to give you a jolly good ride and a wonderful experience in general.
6. You need a great web hosting company:
If you need a great web hosting company, then you should use SiteGround. It offers several benefits such as excellent uptime performance, great security, beautiful themes, great user interface, customer support, fast loading pages, amongst others. All these benefits bring about a good user experience.
Others that can use SiteGround are:
People who need hosting and a free CDN from Cloudflare
Experts that need great customer service. SiteGround may just be the best in terms of offering customer support to its users.
Those that want access to NGINX SuperCacher with SSL support
Those that need features like Git repositories or SSH access
People who need a web hosting company that integrates plugins like SSL, Let's Encrypt, and SEO tools.
Those that need support for PCI compliant website building and private IP addresses
Big industries that need advanced server resources and server locations
Having noted all these, we'll go straight to the next question.
Who Should Not Use SiteGround?
SiteGround offers unbeatable web hosting services, and it is highly recommended. However, it may not just fit into some people's needs because of several reasons.
1. You are looking for cheap hosting:
There's no need to mince words as SiteGround is not all that cheap. The cheapest pricing goes from $3.95 in the first month to $11.95 in the subsequent months. Not everyone can fit this into their budget. So, if your budget cannot carry this plan or you are looking for a cheap hosting provider, don't use SiteGround.
2. You need a large webspace with a limited budget:
If you need a large web space but have a limited budget, then SiteGround is not for you. Even with the cheapest hosting plan, you may not really get a very large webspace as you so desire. Other providers may offer that, but it is not feasible with SiteGround. You will have to pay for a higher hosting plan to get a large web space with SiteGround.
3. You are looking for a free domain:
There's no inclusion of a free domain in SiteGround's plans. You will have to purchase it separately. However, their plans come with a professional business email account, if it helps.
