SiteGround Review: Still the Best (or Not-So-Good) in 2022?
SiteGround Review: Still the Best (or Not-So-Good) in 2022?
Let’s get down with a SiteGround evaluation.
If you’re buzzing and hawing over locating the web hosting company that’ll rock your socks off in 2022, you’ll be satisfied you stopped via.
That’s because SiteGround is like the fusion of a Clydesdale workhorse and an imposing unicorn — it’s a sturdy and dependable platform with fashion, grace, and creativity out the wazoo.
It’s also highly rated by bloggers, enterprise mavericks, and eCommerce gurus alike.
And you’ll find out why in only a few minutes.
So stick around…
You might even discover a candy discount along the way.
What is SiteGround?
Company Background & Overview
SiteGround (affiliate link) hit the scene in 2004 after a group of Bulgarian schoolmates recognized the need for an less complicated, quicker, and more secure net web hosting provider.
Since then, SiteGround has exploded with over six hundred+ employees, four office places, and now hosts over 2 million domain names worldwide.
Surprisingly, SiteGround is still privately owned, an extraordinary high-quality in nowadays’s corporate-cluttered net hosting marketplace.
As a long way as services cross, SiteGround runs the gamut, imparting:
Shared hosting plans
Cloud hosting plans
WordPress website hosting plans
WooCommerce website hosting plans
And heaps of different services, widgets, and gear we’ll cover during this SiteGround web hosting evaluation.
SiteGround’s Network
Siteground uses current, extremely-speedy information facilities in 6 countries round the world:
The United States
The United Kingdom
The Netherlands
Germany
Singapore
Australia
Undeniably, SiteGround makes use of a few surprising generation – the sort of stuff community directors rave about at the annual IT barbeque.
So, allow’s get down to the nitty-gritty about SiteGround’s Network and see why it’s so notable:
High Redundancy and Availability
Blizzard? Thunderstorm? Thanos?
SiteGround is ready for any threat.
You see, SiteGround uses redundancy exercises, and multiple energy feeds for all essential community additives.
In different phrases, it’s tough to carry the network down because all critical systems have back-ups, and their again-u.S.A.Have returned-ups.
The net result?
Ninety nine.Ninety nine% uptime.
Guaranteed.
Fast Connectivity and Low Latency
Speed and reliability are the bones of any well-to-do web web hosting carrier.
So, SiteGround teamed up with the huge weapons, Google, as its main statistics center accomplice, spotting the importance of a fast and solid community.
And as a result, the SiteGround network is constructed with brand new technology, ensuring ample server assets and speedy connections for hosted web sites.
Green-Friendly Hosting
SiteGround is devoted to inexperienced website hosting and sustainability.
And due to the fact they’ve partnered with Google, any power consumed by facts facilities is offset with renewable electricity as part of Google’s carbon neutrality mandate.
Believe it or now not, information facilities eat big amounts of strength, resulting in about 1% of world energy use and generating tonnes of greenhouse emissions in the technique.
And any commitment through internet corporations to remember their environmental impacts and deal with them with plans, regulations, and packages is a advantageous notice in our books.
CDN Network (With Over 2 hundred Locations Worldwide)
SiteGround makes use of the Cloudflare Content Delivery Network (CDN), which helps internet pages load quicker anywhere in the international.
Here’s the way it works:
A CDN caches website content and distributes it to shipping nodes around the globe.
Then, whilst customers visit your internet site, they’re linked with the closest CDN, and your content is plunked in front of their eyeballs as speedy as feasible.
(Source: Cloudflare)
As of January 2022, Cloudflare has over 200 distribution nodes in a hundred+ international locations round the arena.
SiteGround Performance: Uptime and Speed
Every Second Matters: A Primer in Page Speed
When it involves the internet, pace matters.
Think about it:
How frequently has even a 1-2nd put off annoyed you?
Well, you’re no longer alone due to the fact right here’s what happens for every greater 2d a website takes to load:
11% fewer page views
16% lower in purchaser satisfaction
7% loss in conversations
(Source: TruConversion)
And the cellular realm is even greater vicious:
Every 1-2d put off in page load time on mobile devices impacts conversion prices up to twenty%.
Reality take a look at:
If your website online masses like bloodless molasses flowing up a hill, humans aren’t going to stick around, no matter how wealthy and pretty your content is.
Now, in terms of improving your web page load speed, there are loads of minor tweaks like:
Image compression
Reducing redirects
Minimizing bloated plug-in use
Improving server reaction time
Tools, optimization plug-ins, and common experience help with maximum web page load speed troubles.
However, in relation to server reaction time, you’re on the mercy of your web web hosting corporation.
The solution?
Find a web hosting company with fast servers.
(Hint, hint..)
SiteGround Server Response Time
Server response time, also called the Time To First Byte (TTFB), is the amount of time it takes an internet browser to receive the primary byte of records from an internet server.
And the faster the reaction time, the better.
Google recommends a TTFB beneath 2 hundred milliseconds, however the average falls everywhere among 100ms – 500ms.
So, how does SiteGround stack up in terms of TTFB?
Well, in step with HostScore, the average aggregated response time for SiteGround servers is 174.60ms (primarily based on exams HostScore runs on their pattern websites each 4 hours).
Let’s put this benchmark to the take a look at:
We’ll use dollarGuild as our guinea pig as it makes use of the SiteGround shared hosting bundle.
A sample take a look at from Bitcatcha shows:
After walking numerous checks, the subsequent effects were found out:
On common, eight out of 10 locations had been clocked below 200ms
And any server reaction time above 200ms did no longer exceed 265ms
The verdict?
SiteGround server response time is rapid and satisfies Google’s speed guidelines.
Ninety nine.Ninety nine% Uptime Guaranteed
SiteGround promises 99.Ninety nine% uptime on all their hosted websites.
And they placed their cash in which their mouths are, promising unfastened carrier if downtime passes sure limits.
From the Service Level Agreement in the SiteGround Terms of Service:
Optimization Tools
SiteGround usually tinkers with optimization.
And it’s a interest that pays off.
Here are among the innovative gear that assist preserve SiteGround unique, competitive, and lightning-speedy:
SuperCacher
SuperCacher is SiteGround’s custom-constructed caching service that allows static, dynamic, and memory-caching across all website hosting plans.
In different phrases, with SuperCacher, your internet site content masses even faster.
How rapid?
50% – 500% faster, in keeping with SiteGround checks.
What’s extra, SuperCaching also maintains your web site strolling smoothly at some point of large traffic spikes (up to 100x your ordinary site visitors waft).
SG Optimizer
SG Optimizer is SiteGround’s WordPress optimization plugin.
The plugin comes conflict-prepared with:
SuperCacher controls
Environmental, frontend, and media optimizations
Gzip compression controls
And even a velocity take a look at device
Note that this plugin ONLY works on SiteGround hosted websites.
Pro tip: If making a decision to go with a SiteGround hosting plan, SG Optimizer is a advanced (and loose) alternative to WP rocket.
Ultrafast PHP
Available on GrowBig and GoGeek plans, Ultrafast PHP is SiteGround’s in-house, optimized PHP setup.
Now, until you’re jogging a internet site with heavy visitors, Ultrafast PHP received’t make a large distinction in web page load times.
However, consistent with inner SiteGround checking out, higher-site visitors web sites revel in a few dramatic outcomes:
30% boom in website pace
50% decrease in server reaction instances
20%-30% boom in server performance
15% lower in RAM use
Customer Support
In 2020, SiteGround had a consumer pleasure charge of 97.7% – and gained 2 Stevie Awards for customer service within the process:
And permit’s face it, in 2020, every person become domestic and a little greater cranky than typical.
So, accomplishing that degree of customer satisfaction is a testament to pro customer service.
Here’s an interior take a look at SiteGround’s customer support, detailing what they do right, and also a few areas where they will be better.
A Knowledge Base Like the Library of Congress
SiteGround affords an extensive choice of guidelines and publications in their Knowledge Resources and Tutorials sections.
These publications are constructed with the amateur in mind, giving step-by means of-step commands with clear screenshots to guide you alongside.
There’s no guesswork with those publications.
They’re clear, targeted, and well worth their weight in gold.
24/7 Customer Support: A Great Service in Almost Every Way
While knowledge bases are wonderful, once in a while you need a terrific ol’ common person to assist remedy your troubles.
Thankfully, SiteGround gives you around-the-clock customer support thru a ticketing machine, telephone traces, and stay chat.
However…
Contacting their customer service crew isn’t as clean because it as soon as turned into.
Instead of being a simple button, it’s hidden in a self-serve gadget.
Here’s how to contact the SiteGround customer service group:
1. In the Client Area dashboard, click at the question mark in the pinnacle-right nook and pick View Help Center:
2. In the SiteGround Help Center, click Contact Us:
3. Select a category that exceptional suits your problem (Note: there are greater classes than what’s displayed here):
4. Describe your difficulty within the textual content field:
five. And when you post your inquiry, you’ll receive a self-assist guide, or the option to touch customer support:
It’s a disgrace SiteGround buries their award-triumphing customer support touch channels.
That said, this customer support rabbit hole isn’t a complete deal-breaker.
Web-savvy humans will likely enjoy the self-serve options, however for all and sundry searching to talk with a representative, they’ll in all likelihood locate it frustrating the first time around.
The SiteGround Interface
Most web web hosting companies use cPanel, a control panel dashboard, to help manipulate your website.
Not to tear on cPanel (it does the trick), however SiteGround has taken user-friendliness a step further and evolved their own website online control dashboards: Client Area and Site Tools.
SiteGround’s Client Area
The Client Area has a simple format and is infused with eye-captivating visuals to bolster creativity.
It’s not like the bland, dull, and complicated clinical appearance of other net host dashboards.
No, this one’s were given some individual — and the video tutorials to help you navigate SiteGround are a pleasant onboarding characteristic:
The Client Area dashboard additionally includes a Success Tips and Suggestions characteristic, imparting brief hyperlinks to unique offerings you would possibly need to carry out along with your website like:
Backing up your website online
Staging
Adding collaborators and white-label get admission to
Transferring a domain
The up-to-date blog posts to be had at the dashboard are a homerun customer fulfillment characteristic too.
And these blog posts aren’t filled with thin content material either.
They supply the entirety from useful search engine marketing guides to in-intensity updates approximately the new and interesting candies SiteGround has been cooking up.
SiteGround’s Site Tools
Site Tools is an smooth-to-use, custom-advanced manipulate panel that replaces cPanel.
From Site Tools, you can whole routine website responsibilities like:
Creating emails
Adding FTP bills
Managing MySQL databases
Accessing and growing one-click on backups
Creating git repositories
Installing content management systems like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and Weebly
Adding buying carts on your on-line keep
Like the Client Area dashboard, Site Tools is intuitive and straightforward.
Everything is accessed thru a sidebar menu, so you don’t wander off attempting to find tools:
And device descriptions are displayed at the pinnacle of every web page, so you realize precisely what they’re for (and what now not to mess around with in case you don’t realize what you’re doing):
You can also pin tools on the dashboard domestic display screen for clean get admission to:
Every tool within the Site Tools manipulate panel is pre-set to most suitable settings, however you’re free to modify them to suit you better.
Security: SiteGround Has Your Back(ups)
SiteGround doesn’t skimp on security.
In fact, it’s certainly one of their top priorities.
Seriously:
The simplest difference between SiteGround’s steady facilities and the Batcave is a artful English butler and a flowery-rocket vehicle.
Let’s take a look at the diverse methods SiteGround keeps your website safe.
Multi-Layered Security Protocols
SiteGround keeps the whole thing jogging tickety-boo with a battalion of protection employees for protective and monitoring structures, as well as a set of strategic virtual safety features that’ll leave hackers shaking of their little booties.
Here’s just a partial list of the protocols in area:
24/7 security groups monitoring hack indicators
Video surveillance
Restricted, constrained server get entry to for trusted employees (they even use biometric scanners!)
Bulletproof lobbies
Phishing-resistant protection keys
Advanced intrusion detection/prevention systems to scan and block malware and viruses
Two-step verification login
A custom AI that protects towards brute force assaults
ModSecurity installation on all shared servers
Auto-updates for WordPress and plugins
Translation:
Unless Darkseid and The Elite defeat the Justice League and lay siege mainly to the SiteGround community, your website and records are secure and sound.
Free Daily Backups (And On-Demand Backups for Premium Accounts)
SiteGround has got your lower back, Jack, with the aid of imparting free every day computerized backups on all web hosting plans.
And the first-rate element?
It’s a one-click system.
SiteGround keeps 30 days’ really worth of copies for your website online, permitting you to roll again and repair in the occasion of a catastrophic boo-boo or malicious assault.
What’s greater, with the GrowBig and GoGeek plans, SiteGround consists of on-call for backups, which is like having an undo button, however for your complete website.
Pros & Cons of SiteGround Hosting
Like each web web hosting alternative in the marketplace, SiteGround has its pros and cons.
Here’s wherein we experience they stand out and wherein they fall a touch brief:
Pros
Google Cloud for Super-Fast Servers
SiteGround operates on Google Cloud and enjoys all the advantages of its state-of-the-art international community. Not handiest are their servers fast, however they’re also some of the first-rate within the global.
Daily and On-Demand Website Backups
SiteGround automatically creates day by day back-u.S.A.Of your web page so you can quick repair capability inside the event of something catastrophic. GrowBig and GoGeek plans allow customers to create on-demand backups.
24/7 Customer Support: Part 1
Customer assist is a massive reason humans gravitate to SiteGround. Whether via their know-how base, ticketing machine, or live chat, there’s constantly an skilled representative there to help.
Free CDN With Every Account
Cloudflare CDN comes free with each SiteGround account. With Cloudflare CDN, any part of your website loads quicker way to their distribution nodes spread across the world.
Free SSL With Every Account
SiteGround offers free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate with each account. This unfastened SSL certificates is robotically configured and renewed, leaving you with one much less hassle to cope with.
Unlimited Bandwidth for Shared Hosting
With limitless bandwidth, you’re free to host and develop nearly any kind of website you need with out the restrictions of a month-to-month information transfer cap.
99.Ninety nine% Guaranteed Uptime
SiteGround guarantees ninety nine.Ninety nine% uptime. And if it falls below ninety nine.Ninety nine%, you’re given a month of website hosting without cost and an additional 1 month of loose web hosting for every 1% below ninety nine% uptime.
Cons
Pricey Month-to-Month Billing
SiteGround’s annual pricing is corresponding to other internet hosting companies. However, if you choose the monthly billing cycle, the expenses take a vast jump – about 3 times as a whole lot.
Fixed Storage Space
SiteGround offers first-rate-rapid SSD garage, but that area is limited based totally on your hosting plan:
StartUp Plan: 10GB of area
GrowBig Plan: 20GB of space
GoGeek Plan: 40GB of area
24/7 Customer Support: Part 2
Although SiteGround can provide top-shelf customer service, attaining a consultant isn’t as easy because it once changed into. Instead of a simple button, there are a couple of pages you’ll want to click through before prompting stay chat or ticketing alternatives.
Which SiteGround Plan is Right For You?
SiteGround has an internet web hosting option for pretty much everyone.
Here’s the inside track on what they provide:
Shared and cloud web hosting plans
WooCommerce plans
And managed WordPress plans
See a website hosting answer that tickles your fancy?
Then let’s wreck these down:
SiteGround Shared Hosting: An Overview
Shared web hosting plans suggest which you’re sharing server assets with different web sites.
In other phrases, you don’t have a dedicated server.
As a result, shared web hosting plans are endorsed for web sites that don’t assume heavy site visitors loads, like private or smaller enterprise websites and blogs.
Shared Hosting Plans: Your 3 Options
SiteGround offers 3 kinds of shared hosting plans:
1. A General Plan (AKA the Fast and Basic Web Hosting plan): a barebones host plan with none content material management machine or eCommerce platform hooked up
2. A Managed WordPress Plan: a shared website hosting plan with WordPress and the SG Optimizer plugin pre-set up
three. A Managed WooCommerce Plan: a shared website hosting plan with WordPress and WooCommerce pre-established
Shared Hosting Plans: Pricing
Each of SiteGround’s three shared web hosting plans (indexed above) has three pricing levels:
StartUp
GrowBig
GoGeek
Let’s wreck them down:
1. StartUp
Pricing: $14.Ninety nine/month or $4.Ninety nine/month whilst billed annually
Ideal for low-traffic web sites with 10,000 month-to-month site visitors or much less.
StartUp includes:
10 GB of space
Unmetered bandwidth
Free WordPress installation
Free WordPress migrator
Automatic WordPress Updates
Let’s Encrypt SSL
Cloudflare CDN
Free e mail
SiteGround’s SuperCacher device
Unlimited databases
30-day money-back guarantee
2. GrowBig
Pricing: $24.99/month or $7.99/month while billed annually.
GrowBig is usually recommended for low-traffic web sites with around 25,000 monthly traffic or much less.
GrowBig consists of the entirety from the StartUp plan plus:
On-call for backups
Ultrafast PHP
WordPress staging
Collaborator login
3. GoGeek
Pricing: $39.Ninety nine/month or $14.Ninety nine/month while billed annually.
Recommended for websites with around a hundred,000 monthly site visitors or less.
GrowBig consists of everything from the StartUp and GrowBig plans plus:
White-label access
More server sources
Priority customer service
SiteGround Cloud Hosting: An Overview
Cloud website hosting is recommended for websites that generate massive amounts of site visitors and want the greater firepower from committed servers at the cloud.
But, except you’ve got an present high-visitors blog/on-line business or plan on scaling your website extremely fast, it’s no longer probably you’ll need the cloud web hosting plan.
That stated, permit’s review the options and pricing:
Shared Cloud Hosting Plans: Options and Pricing
1. Jump Start
Pricing: $a hundred.00/month
Includes:
4 CPU cores
8GB memory
40GB SSD area
5TB of statistics switch
2. Business
Pricing: $two hundred.00/month
Includes:
eight CPU cores
12GB reminiscence
40GB SSD space
5TB of statistics switch
three. Business Plus
Pricing: $three hundred.00/month
Includes:
12 CPU cores
16GB reminiscence
120GB SSD area
5TB of statistics switch
four. Super Power
Pricing: $four hundred.00/month
Includes:
sixteen CPU cores
20GB memory
160GB SSD area
5TB of facts transfer
5. Configure Your Own
Price: $a hundred.00 – $2090.00/month
Includes:
four – 33 CPU cores
8GB – 130GB memory
40GB – 1TB SSD area
5 TB of records switch
The Final Review on SiteGround Hosting
SiteGround is speedy, pleasant, and constantly enhancing its offerings.
Really, there are best 3 pink marks towards SiteGround:
Pricing: it’s not as cheap as other internet hosts
Reaching a customer support rep: it’s a more complex technique than it changed into before
Limited Storage: a cap on storage area is type of a drag, especially because you’d have to upgrade your hosting plan if you need extra area.
Despite all that, SiteGround remains an over-handing over innovator in the internet hosting enterprise.
Sure, it might not be as reasonably-priced as different net hosts.
But the greater candies SiteGround supplies, like a unfastened SSL, CDN, caching device, and WordPress optimization plugin, are constructed into that month-to-month cost.
What’s extra, the ultra-modern era used in their community, and award-prevailing customer support, emphasize the commitment to hurry, excellent, and customer fulfillment SiteGround guarantees.
Not too shabby, SiteGround.
Discounts and Deals for SiteGround Hosting
I’m satisfied you made it this a long way!
Keeping inside the spirit of gifting away freebies, we’ve got a special one for all Smart Blogger readers:
A SiteGround cut price really worth up to 62% off for the Smart Blogger community (affiliate hyperlink).
Frequently Asked Questions
Is SiteGround Good for a WordPress Website?
Yes!
In fact, SiteGround is WordPress advocated.
Does SiteGround Support WooCommerce?
Yup.
Not best does SiteGround assist WooCommerce, however it also has a website hosting plan particularly for it.
Is SiteGround Better than GoDaddy?
A few years ago, they could had been similar, however SiteGround leveled up in a large manner.
With the adoption of the Google Cloud infrastructure and unique performance-improving tweaks like extremely-speedy PHP, SiteGround is a superior desire to GoDaddy.
Also, SiteGround’s Client Area and Site Tools dashboard are trustworthy to navigate, unlike the confusing labyrinth that GoDaddy makes use of.
Is SiteGround Better than Bluehost?
BlueHost is owned by means of web web hosting mega-large, EIG, a organisation recognized for purchasing website hosting organizations and lowering the level of fine.
Having said that, Bluehost’s shared plans are cheaper and provide limitless space.
SiteGround has a higher network (in phrases of uptime and velocity) and is a privately-owned corporation, which means they’ve the flexibility to innovate as they see suit.
It in the end comes all the way down to advanced best (SiteGround) as opposed to higher pricing (Bluehost)
Is SiteGround Better than HostGator?
Although HostGator is less expensive, SiteGround is faster, greater reliable, greater stable, and has some distance better assist.
Unfortunately, HostGator is likewise owned through EIG.
Beyond the SiteGround Review: Is It The Web Host for You?
Whether you’re an skilled webmaster or a newbie ready to get their feet moist, you’ll find something to love about SiteGround.
It isn’t perfect (no internet host is), however SiteGround fares far better than the competition.
So, if you’re searching out an internet host with the proper fusion of energy, simplicity, and a pinch of creative magic, we endorse you are taking SiteGround for a spin.
