How can you tell whether a web host is reliable or not?
Web hosting is crucial for running websites. If your site goes down, you won’t get visitors anymore. In addition, being able to handle spikes in traffic requires high-performance servers.
To select the best web host for your requirements, you should consider these three questions: What kind of features does the provider offer? How much support do they provide? And how long has their service been around?
> You can take a 30-day, no obligation trial of SiteGround
About SiteGround
SiteGround was founded in 2004, based on the idea of providing excellent customer support and quality products. In 2005, we launched our shared hosting plans, which are still among the best in the industry today. We offer unlimited disk space, bandwidth, email accounts, MySQL databases, FTP accounts, and much more. Our mission is to provide you with the best possible web host experience.
Today, SiteGround operates over 200 servers located in 3 different data centers around the world. We employ over 500 people worldwide and serve more than 2 million domains per month.
What Makes SiteGround Stand Out?
SiteGround is one of the most popular web hosts out there because it offers great value for money. With unlimited disk space, unlimited bandwidth, free domain registration, a cPanel control panel, and 24/7 support, you don’t have to worry about anything.
You’re able to build your site quickly and easily without having to spend hours learning how to use FTP software. If you want to make sure your site is secure, SiteGround includes security tools like malware scanning and firewall protection.
The best part is that SiteGround uses SSD storage drives, which makes your site load faster than ever. In addition to being fast, SiteGround is affordable, too.
They offer three plans: StartUp ($3.95 per month), GrowBig ($4.95 per month), and GoGeek ($5.95 per month).
Each plan gives you access to over 40 features, including unlimited email accounts, unlimited domains, and automatic backups.
> You can take a 30-day, no obligation trial of SiteGround
Focus on Quality
SiteGround is one of the most popular web hosts around because of its focus on quality. They offer great support, a money-back guarantee, and a ton of features. But what makes them stand out above others? Let’s take a look at some of the things that make SiteGround different.
Money-Back Guarantee – This is probably the biggest reason why people choose SiteGround. If you aren’t completely satisfied with the services you receive, you can request a refund within 30 days. You won’t find this anywhere else.
Green Infrastructure – SiteGround uses green infrastructure to power its data centers. This means that it generates its own renewable energy rather than purchasing it from third parties.
Free CDN – When you sign up for SiteGround, you will automatically get access to a global Content Delivery Network. This allows you to serve your site faster across the globe.
SiteGround Speed Test Results
We ran a few different tests to see how fast our website was performing. First, we tested it without caching enabled. Then, we disabled all plugins and cached everything. Finally, we disabled all caches and let the server do its thing. Here are the results:
Speed Index: 93/100
Pingdom Page Speed Score: 90/100
Google Page Speed Insights: 89/100
Page Speed Timeout: 0.8 sec
Load Time: 2.3 sec
Overall Performance Metrics: 92/100
Siteground isn’t a discount hosting provider
One of the first things that visitors see when they land on a SiteGround website is a big banner claiming that the company offers “the best value in web hosting.” But what exactly does that mean? Does it mean that SiteGround offers the lowest prices? Or does it mean that SiteGround provides better customer support than other providers?
While we do believe that SiteGround is offering some of the best deals in the industry, we don’t think that it’s fair to say that the company is just trying to sell cheap hosting. In fact, SiteGround doesn’t even consider itself a discount provider. Instead, the company focuses on providing high-quality hosting solutions at affordable rates.
The company’s goal is simple: provide customers with the best possible experience while saving money over the long term. And there are several reasons why SiteGround believes that it can deliver on those promises. For starters, the company uses SSD drives in every server and uses enterprise-grade hardware. This ensures that every site hosted on SiteGround will load extremely fast.
Another reason why SiteGround is able to keep prices low is that it doesn’t charge extra fees for bandwidth usage. Most hosting companies add additional charges for each GB of data transferred across their network. However, SiteGround doesn’t make any such claims. So, if you’re looking for a reliable host without having to pay exorbitant amounts of money, SiteGround might be worth checking out.
> You can take a 30-day, no obligation trial of SiteGround
WordPress Web Hosting
> You can take a 30-day, no obligation trial of SiteGround
SiteGround provides WordPress hosting services. In addition, they manage your installation with optimized ManageWP Hosting, which includes enhanced security, automated daily backups, staged pages, and automatic CMS upgrades. They also offer 24/7 customer support through live chats, tickets, emails, and telephone calls.
The company offers one-click installation, a free account transfer, and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Its plans are similar to those offered by the company’s shared hosting plan in terms of pricing. However, you’re now limited to one-year contracts.
Your options include signing up for one-, two- or three-year contracts, depending on what you want to pay.
With GoGeek, you get 40GB of storage for free, plus you can add up to 10 additional domains at no extra cost. It includes pre-installed Git repositories so you don’t need to install any software.
You can host unlimited websites with this plan.
E-Commerce and SSL
I use WordPress because it offers me everything I need to build a great site. In addition to being free, it allows me to add plugins and themes to customize my site however I like. And best of all, it makes setting up an e-commerce site super simple.
The most important thing about building an e-commerce site is choosing a good web hosting provider. A good host will make sure your site loads fast, is secure and helps you manage multiple domains.
A lot of people think that having a secure connection is enough to protect their customers’ information. However, you still need to take extra steps to ensure that your site is protected against hackers. For example, you should install an SSL certificate to encrypt data sent over the Internet.
If you’re planning to sell products online, it’s important to choose a payment gateway that works well with your chosen e-commerce solution. There are several different types of gateways, each offering slightly different features. Here are some things to look out for when selecting a gateway:
– Does the gateway support recurring payments? This feature lets you automatically charge your customer every month without requiring them to reenter credit card info every time they buy something.
– Is the gateway PCI compliant? This refers to Payment Card Industry compliance standards, which require merchants to follow strict security guidelines to prevent fraud.
– What do you need to pay for? Some gateways offer free plans, while others cost money. Make sure you know what you’re getting into before signing up.
Excellent Uptime
SiteGround is known for offering excellent customer support, fast server response times, and 24/7 live chat. But did you know that SiteGround offers 99.9% uptime? This statistic surprised me because I thought that many web hosts offered better uptimes. However, according to the data collected by Pingdom, SiteGround had an average downtime of just 0.4%.
The reason why SiteGround had such a low downtime is due to their servers being located in multiple data centers around the world. In fact, SiteGround claims that their servers are always online, even though they are physically spread out across several locations.
To verify this claim, I used a website monitoring tool called Pingdom to check my test sites’ uptimes over a two-week observation period in December 2017. Here is what I found:
– During the entire two weeks, my test sites never went down.
– My test sites were able to reach each other every 15 minutes without fail.
– I received alerts whenever there was a problem contacting the site for at least 60 seconds.
– Overall, the uptime statistics showed that SiteGround is stable.
The total load time was 3.20s, we downloaded 1.2Mb and it got an overall score of 80/100.
Here are the results with the CDN enabled: Test with CDNRepeating the test with Cloudflare’s CDN activated (in its free version), we see how loading time improves by nearly half a second.
Customer Service
> You can take a 30-day, no obligation trial of SiteGround
SiteGround is one of the most popular web hosts in the world because of its commitment to providing excellent customer service. In fact, the company claims that its goal is to make sure every customer is happy with his or her experience. To do that, SiteGround offers a variety of tools and resources, including a Knowledge Base, FAQs, tutorials, and a comprehensive set of documentation.
The site includes a “Welcome Wizard,” which walks you through the process of setting up your account and choosing a domain name. You’ll find help with everything from installing WordPress to setting up email accounts. If you’re looking for information on how to migrate from another host, there are guides for both Windows and Mac computers.
I found the Knowledge Base easy to navigate and well organized. There are sections for general topics like security and backups, plus specific areas such as MySQL databases, PHP programming, and WordPress installation. Each topic contains multiple articles written by SiteGround employees, along with helpful tips from customers.
In addition to the Knowledge Base, you can access additional information via the Support Center. This tool provides step-by-step instructions for common tasks, such as creating a new database or changing your password. You can also use the Live Chat feature to speak directly with a SiteGround employee.
To test out the service, I used the free trial version of SiteGround’s Cloud Hosting plan. After signing up, I uploaded a copy of WordPress to my server. Then, I opened the Control Panel and clicked on the Import button to bring over my existing settings. Within minutes, I had a fully functioning blog running on the cloud.
I also tried calling the phone number listed on the website. A representative answered immediately and walked me through the process of importing my data. He even offered to send me a backup file containing my files.
Overall, I was impressed with SiteGround’s customer service. I didn’t encounter any problems during my testing period, and I never waited more than 10 minutes to talk to a real person.
You get 30 days of free backups, but you’ll have to call the customer service department to restore them. There’s no on-demand backup option.
After reading how Siteground speaks about its own customer support staff, their guarantees, availability, and speediness, I was impressed by them.
If you’re new, if you run a small business, or if you’re just starting out
SiteGround is clearly positioning itself to cater to small business owners. Their services, from their feature set and support resources to their pricing, are designed specifically for small business owners who don’t have much design experience or advanced web skills.
If you’re not expecting a huge influx of visitors to your site every single day, then you probably won’t be too concerned by SiteGround’s limitations in terms of storage space or bandwidth usage.
Furthermore, SiteGround’s impressive array of security features also shows that they’re concerned with the needs of small business owners.
Small businesses are highly susceptible to cyber attacks, and chances are they aren’t investing in security tools to scan their websites for malware or a cloud service to prevent a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack.
The fact that SiteGround offers it for them makes it an excellent choice for small businesses just getting off the ground.
SiteGround Hosting Plans and Features
Siteground provides shared, WordPress, VPS, Dedicated, and Resellers Hosting services.
Their shared hosting plan is ideal for new sites, blogs, small businesses, startups, and eCommerce stores. You can start with their starter package and later move up to larger packages as your traffic grows. They offer free domain name registration for one year.
Their shared hosting plan starts at $3.95 per month. This includes unlimited disk space, bandwidth, email accounts, MySQL databases, PHP versions 5.2+, and cPanel.
You can choose between three different data centers depending on where you live. These include Chicago, Dallas, New York, Los Angeles, London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney, Hong Kong, Beijing, Seoul, Taipei, and Mumbai.
They provide 24/7 customer support via phone, chat, ticket system, and email.
Offers shared, WordPress, cloud, dedicated, and reseller web server packages.
Their shared hosting plan is ideal for new sites, blogs, small businesses, startups, and eCommerce stores. You can start with their starter package and later move up to larger packages as your traffic grows. They offer free domain name registration for one year.
They provide 24/7 customer support via phone, chat, ticket system, and email.
> You can take a 30-day, no obligation trial of SiteGround
What Are the Pros and Cons of SiteGround?
SiteGround is one of the largest web hosts in the world. They boast over 2 million customers and $1 billion in annual revenue. This makes it a great choice for anyone looking to host a website. But what about those who want something different? What if you don’t want shared hosting? Or maybe you’re looking for a managed solution? Is SiteGround worth considering? We’ve compiled a list of pros and cons to help you decide.
Pros
+ Fast Hosting – SiteGround uses SSD drives which are faster than traditional hard drives. Their network is fast enough to handle millions of requests per second.
+ Reliable Support – SiteGround provides 24/7 support through live chat, email, and our ticketing platform. You’ll always find someone online to assist you.
+ Great Value – SiteGround offers unlimited bandwidth, storage, and domains. There are no hidden fees either.
+ Easy to use – the host offers its own WordPress migration tool to help you easily migrate from another host to SiteGround.
Cons
– Limited Disk Space – While SiteGround offers unlimited disk space, it doesn’t include a lot of features like cPanel. If you plan on running a database server, you won’t be able to use it.
Common questions about SiteGround hosting
1. Where are SiteGround servers hosted?
SiteGround servers are available in North America, Europe, and Asia. During signup, you can select where your site will be hosted.
2. What is a SiteGround SSL certificate?
SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer. An SSL Certificate encrypts data being sent over the Internet, ensuring it cannot be read by third parties. This ensures secure transactions such as online banking.
3. How much does SiteGround cost per month?
The price depends on the package you choose. For example, shared hosting starts at $4.95/mo while VPS starts at $19.99/mo.
4. Can I host multiple domains on one account?
Yes! Each account comes with 1 IP address and unlimited subdomains.
5. Do I need an SSL certificate when using SiteGround?
You must have an SSL certificate to ensure that all visitors see a green lock icon next to your URL. It’s recommended to purchase a premium SSL certificate from Let’s Encrypt.
Conclusion: Should you choose SiteGround?
SiteGround is one of the most popular web hosts among bloggers, small businesses, and big companies alike. Their prices are very affordable and their customer support is excellent. In addition to that, they offer many useful features such as unlimited domains, email accounts, bandwidth, disk space, etc.
If you’re looking for a cheap web host that provides great performance, reliability, and 24/7 technical support, then SiteGround should definitely be on your list.
> You can take a 30-day, no obligation trial of SiteGround
