SiteGround is one of the most recommended WordPress hosting companies. They are known for their top-notch customer support, reliable and fast hosting plans, and WordPress-optimized hosting, which includes everything you’ll need to create and grow a successful website or blog. Read our complete SiteGround review to find out if it is the right host for you.
In this detailed SiteGround review, we’ll put their promises to the test. These are the areas we will look into:
- Performance: Speed is crucial for the success of any website. How fast will your website load with SiteGround?
- Reliability: Will your website be available 24/7/365 without facing any downtime?
- Customer Support: Can you count on their customer support?
- Features: Do they offer all the features and tools you’ll need to build your website?
- Pricing: How much will it cost you? Are there any SiteGround deals that can save you money?
This is a comprehensive SiteGround review with a detailed analysis of SiteGround’s hosting service. If you don’t want to read the full hosting review, here is the quick scorecard with our verdict right below it.
SiteGround Review Summary | |
---|---|
Performance grade | A+ |
Average load time | 397 ms |
Average response time | 123 ms |
Free domain | Yes |
Free SSL | Yes |
1-click WordPress | Yes |
Support | Phone / Live Chat / Knowledge base |
Start with SiteGround |
Bottom line: We found SiteGround to be noticeably faster and extremely reliable. Their hosting plans are flexible, and their customer support is one of the best in the industry.
That’s why we’ve chosen to recommend SiteGround as one of the best WordPress hosting companies.
Now, let’s dive into our detailed SiteGround review so that you can see how we reached that conclusion and decide for yourself.
About SiteGround
Siteground was founded in 2004 and has grown into one of the most well-known hosting companies.
SiteGround is a holding of companies registered in the USA, UK, Bulgaria, Cyprus, and Spain, with data centers on three continents. Today, the company has over 500 employees and hosts over 2,000,000 domains.
![SiteGround website SiteGround website](https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/siteground-website-1.png)
Pros and Cons of SiteGround
Each hosting company has its pros and cons. Some advantages can overshadow the disadvantages, but some cons can be a total deal-breaker for your needs.
Before making a decision, you may want to review these SiteGround pros and cons.
Pros
Here are some advantages that make SiteGround one of the top-rated hosting companies in the world:
- Super fast servers: All SiteGround servers are highly optimized for speed. They use the Google Cloud platform, which is one of the fastest platforms on the market.
- Top Notch Customer Support: Their customer support is amazing, to say the least. They offer 24/7 phone support, live chat, and ticket-based support.
- Free CDN and SSL They offer an instant setup of Cloudflare’s free CDN and free SSL certificate from Let’s Encrypt.
- Multiple Server Locations They have data centers on three continents. During signup, you can choose the location you prefer.
Cons
As we mentioned earlier, every hosting company has some downsides. The following are some disadvantages of choosing SiteGround as your host:
- Limited Storage: Their plans come with fixed storage. However, this storage is quite ample, and if you are starting, you will most likely never need extra storage.
- Higher fee for monthly billing: The hosting service gets expensive if you choose monthly billing. But if you sign up for a longer billing period, then you’ll get a more significant discount and a lower rate. They offer a 30-day money-back guarantee anyway, so it’s a good idea to choose a longer billing period when you sign up.
SiteGround Performance Tests
While price often plays a significant role when choosing a web host, you cannot compromise on performance.
This is why we decided to run our tests to review SiteGround’s performance thoroughly.
SiteGround Speed Test Results
Speed is one of the most important performance metrics to look for. A faster website offers a good user experience and boosts your SEO.
In fact, a single-second delay can cause a 7% decrease in conversions, 11% fewer page views, and a 16% decrease in customer satisfaction.
![Strangeloop performance case study Strangeloop performance case study](https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/strangeloops-speed-study.jpg)
We created a WordPress-powered test site on SiteGround and filled it with dummy content for theme development with images.
After that, we used Pingdom’s website speed test tool to run our tests. These were the results we got:
![SiteGround speed test results SiteGround speed test results](https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/siteground-speed-test-mar2024.png)
As you can see, our test site loaded in less than a second (397 ms, to be precise) with a performance score of 95.
This is incredible, but this website had almost no traffic, so the Pingdom test alone is insufficient.
SiteGround Stress Test Results
We used K6, a stress testing tool by Grafana Labs, to test how SiteGround servers would respond to increased traffic.
This tool gradually sends up to 50 users to see how the server would respond to increased traffic from multiple connections.
You can see the results in the chart below:
![SiteGround stress test results SiteGround stress test results](https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/siteground-stress-test-mar2024.png)
The gray line is the number of active virtual users on the site, and the green line is the server response time. SiteGround performed consistently throughout the test without any hiccups.
This test shows that SiteGround is a perfect choice if you are looking for a really fast website.
One of the reasons why SiteGround performed exceptionally well in these performance tests is because of the recent innovations they’ve added.
SiteGround servers are hosted on the Google Cloud Platform. They’ve also added UltraFast PHP and created a custom WordPress plugin for optimization (SG Optimizer), which really puts them in a premium web hosting category.
SiteGround Uptime Test Results
Typically, websites hosted on shared hosting accounts slow down during top traffic hours. That’s because your site is sharing resources with other websites on that server.
Most shared hosting companies automatically kill the server process if your site is taking too many resources. This causes downtime on your website.
We tested our SiteGround site for downtime and got a 99.98% uptime result.
![SiteGround uptime test result SiteGround uptime test result](https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/siteground-uptime-test-result-mar2024.png)
SiteGround Server Response Time
Your website’s content has a huge impact on page load time. For example, if you have high-resolution images on a page, then it will significantly increase the overall page load time.
This means that speed test results may not accurately reflect how fast your hosting server really is.
Instead of analyzing page load time alone, we decided to test the actual server response time as well.
To do this, we used a tool called Bitcatcha. It ignores page content and only tests the server’s response time.
Bitcatcha also gives you average loading speed from different global locations. The speed for each location is measured three separate times, and then the results are averaged.
Take a look at the results in the screenshot below.
![SiteGround response time test results SiteGround response time test results](https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/siteground-response-time-mar2024.png)
As you can see, SiteGround is a great choice if your target audience is mostly located in the United States. The server responded in a fraction of a second in the United States.
It responded within less than a second for all locations.
SiteGround also allows you to change your server location. You can choose a data center closer to your target audience for even better response times in that particular region.
SiteGround Hosting Plans and Features
SiteGround offers shared hosting, WordPress hosting, cloud hosting, and dedicated hosting plans. If you are starting a new site, their shared hosting plans would be a perfect fit. However, your site will eventually grow, and you want to make sure that they have other plans that you can upgrade to.
Let’s check out SiteGround’s hosting plans and their features:
- Shared hosting: Shared hosting is recommended for new websites, bloggers, small business websites, or a startup online store. It is suitable for low-traffic websites as you will be sharing resources with other websites hosted on the server.
- WordPress hosting: This plan is the WordPress-optimized version of their shared hosting plan. It comes with SiteGround’s in-house WordPress optimizations to improve your website performance. See SiteGround WordPress hosting.
- WooCommerce hosting: This plan is a WooCommerce-optimized version of their shared hosting plan. It includes SiteGround’s optimizations, which greatly improve the performance of your online store. See SiteGround WooCommerce hosting.
- Cloud hosting: Cloud hosting plans provide a flexible upgrade to a shared hosting solution. They allow you to use resources of cloud architecture, including multi-core CPUs and bandwidth. Cloud hosting is suitable for growing websites, popular blogs, or businesses. It can also be an upgrade over VPS and traditional dedicated servers. See SiteGround Cloud hosting.
WPBeginner website is hosted on SiteGround’s Enterprise hosting infrastructure, which is an enhanced version of their Cloud platform for large sites.
Breakdown of SiteGround’s Shared Hosting Plans
SiteGround’s shared hosting options are the best way to build a new website. Their shared hosting packages are available in three levels to match different budgets:
- Startup: This plan is limited to hosting one website. It includes 10 GB disk space and is suitable for hosting a website with 10,000 monthly visitors. You’ll also get all essential features like a 1-click WordPress install, free setup, website transfer, daily backups, built-in caching (SuperCacher), free CDN, free SSL, and more.
- GrowBig: The GrowBig plan lets you host unlimited websites. It comes with 20 GB of disk space and is suitable for websites with 100,000 monthly visits. You’ll get all the features of the Startup plan, plus premium features like ultrafast PHP for even faster speed, on-demand backups, an easy staging tool, and the option to add collaborators to your sites.
- GoGeek: GoGeek plan is suitable for eCommerce websites. It includes 40 GB of storage and can handle websites with 400,000 monthly visitors. In addition to all GrowBig’s features, you’ll get access to priority support, more server resources, advanced features like one-click git repo creation, and the option to manage white-label clients on your sites.
Each Siteground plan includes faster disk storage, email accounts, support for the Cloudflare free content delivery network, and a free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate.
They also include several popular WordPress plugins like WPForms, OptinMonster, and All in One SEO to help you improve your website rankings.
![SiteGround pricing SiteGround pricing](https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/siteground-pricing-3.png)
SiteGround Support and Customer Service
You’ll see high praise for SiteGround’s customer support service everywhere. Their support team is remarkably good at offering quick, helpful, and knowledgeable support to their customers.
Their customer support includes 24/7 phone, live chat, and ticket-based email support. Response times for phone and live chat are almost instant, and for email-based tickets, the first response is within less than 10 minutes.
SiteGround offers an instant AI assistant for users who prefer to fix things themselves. Built on top of ChatGPT, this AI is trained to answer SiteGround customer questions.
![SiteGround AI support assistant SiteGround AI support assistant](https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/siteground-ai-support.png)
The helo resource center also includes a massive collection of knowledge base articles.
This includes step-by-step tutorials and troubleshooting guides with screenshots and videos.
![SiteGround support website SiteGround support website](https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/siteground-support-website.png)
Since we use SiteGround to host several of our websites, we can confidently say that their support staff is very knowledgeable.
Conclusion: Is SiteGround the Right Choice for You?
After reading our detailed SiteGround review, you might be wondering if SiteGround is the best web hosting company for your website.
If you want a fast and reliable web hosting provider with excellent customer support, SiteGround is perfect for you. They have hosting plans for every budget, and each plan offers a great set of features.
All their shared hosting plans include SSD storage, site tools, easy setup of Let’s Encrypt free SSL and Cloudflare CDN service, 1-click WordPress installer, and free migration.
Built-in security features protect your website against malware, and you can add additional protection by turning on Cloudflare CDN functionality.
If you are just starting a website for the first time, then you will certainly appreciate SiteGround’s customer support.
Ready to get started with SiteGround? Click here to choose your hosting plan today.
SiteGround Coupon
WPBeginner users get an exclusive 83% discount and free SSL with our SiteGround coupon code.
All you have to do is click on this link to purchase. The discount will be applied automatically.
Frequently Asked Questions about SiteGround Hosting
In this detailed SiteGround review, we looked at all aspects of their hosting services. The following are some of the most frequently asked questions about SiteGround by our users.
1. Where are SiteGround servers located?
SiteGround servers are located in the United States, Europe, and Singapore. You can choose the server location when signing up.
2. Why choose SiteGround for WordPress hosting?
SiteGround offers a highly optimized WordPress hosting platform. Each plan includes its own in-house security features and WordPress tweaks that boost your WordPress site speed and performance.
You can easily set up a WordPress website with their 1-click WordPress installation. You can also move existing WordPress websites using the SiteGround Migrator plugin.
3. Does SiteGround support WooCommerce?
SiteGround specializes in WordPress and WooCommerce hosting. If you are building a WooCommerce store, then you can rely on SiteGround’s optimizations for consistent performance and reliability.
They are one of the top WooCommerce hosting providers and make it super easy to start an online store without any special technical skills.
4. Does SiteGround offer a website builder?
No, SiteGround does not offer its own site builder. That’s because they want users to have the option to pick the best website builder for their needs.
This is why they allow you to easily install WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Magento, Weebly, and many other site builder platforms.
On the SiteGround platform, you can also create unlimited web pages without any restrictions.
5. Does SiteGround offer cPanel hosting?
No, SiteGround no longer offers cPanel hosting. Once cPanel raised its licensing fees, SiteGround decided to remove cPanel hosting and instead built a far superior web hosting control panel for both beginners and advanced users. This allows them to offer managed WordPress hosting-like features without the high costs.
6. Is SiteGround better than Bluehost?
SiteGround and Bluehost used to offer the same features, but with recent innovations, SiteGround has significantly improved its hosting technology.
SiteGround is better than Bluehost in terms of overall performance, technology infrastructure, and support quality. However, with all this innovation, SiteGround pricing is significantly higher.
So, when it comes to pricing, Bluehost is better than SiteGround because not only is it cheaper, but it also offers a free domain name with each account.
For more details, see our honest comparison of SiteGround vs. Bluehost vs. WP Engine.
7. How does SiteGround compare with other hosting providers?
Readers often ask us how SiteGround compares with GoDaddy, Hostinger, HostGator, GreenGeeks, DreamHost, A2 Hosting, and other web hosting services.
They all used to provide similar features and technology, but over the last year, SiteGround has really stepped up its innovation.
With all the managed WordPress hosting features, Google Cloud infrastructure, and custom performance optimization, SiteGround is now in a class of its own with its premium hosting.
8. Does SiteGround offer a free domain name?
No, SiteGround does not offer a free domain name. You can buy a domain name from another registrar and point it to your SiteGround account or buy one from SiteGround during signup at an additional cost.
9. Can I cancel my SiteGround account and get a refund?
SiteGround offers a 30-day money-back guarantee with all its shared plans. During this period, you can try out its services. If you cancel your account during this period, you are eligible for a refund. However, domain name registrations are non-refundable.
10. Which SiteGround plan is best for me?
Each SiteGround plan has different server resources. However, if you are just starting out, then their Startup plan would be perfect for that. You can upgrade at any time if you need more resources. Choose your SiteGround plan to get started.
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Rick says
Very patient and professional. I appreciated his help very much so.
Nouman says
Sales Rep was very friendly, helped to get everything sorted from start to end. he explained everything very well. I am more than happy from his service.
Thanks to him for being very helpful.
Con Kondonis says
Professional and friendly service as always…Thank YoU!!
Tyra says
This tech when the extra mile. Wow. This is why i have chosen to move all of my domains from ipage and bluehost to sg. Thanks
jerome says
excellent brief and effective response
Lui Lykholt says
Best live chat I’ve ever experienced
Peter says
Very responsive support chat. Better than phone support from other providers.
Kyle says
Super fast answers that got the problem worked out. Thank you!
Jane says
Kostadin was amazingly helpful with many different topics, and we got through them quickly and effectively. I highly commend this tech person, he was awesome!!
Chester Clark Yee says
As a long time subscriber with siteground, they never fail to amaze me. Very supportive tech support too.
SALMAN MADNI says
very very very good response if i m there i will hug you because the way of deal is very impressive
Janese says
Nikola was very helpful and prompt. He was able to resolve my problem very quickly. Thank you!
Daniel says
I was helped to configure my new email accounts for an old version of MS Outlook.
Rob says
Awesome was really helpful
Costa says
Pro and helpful service
Jaye says
Amazing customer service
Tracey Mulry says
Very helpful person who assisted me with reasons why no emails. Thank you Siteground!
Dave K says
Viktor You are awesome! Second time you helped me out big time. And that in such a quick reaction time.
Deepak Puri says
Great service from Martin S. at SiteGround.
Arpit Agrawal says
Goergi, were really helpful. Excellent customer support. If team Site Ground can work on price factor with Indian Consumer in mind like other players,,,,they really can do amazing as they already have extra ordinary customer support executives. A++
Naomi Moon says
Julian was super helpful and polite. I am used to waiting long periods of time for responses via chat but I believe I had his full attention. Very pleasant experience.
Cheryl May says
Thank you for helping today. The chat was fast, helpful, pleasant, and courteous.
Steve Duskett says
Honestly, I’ve been with you guys for a little over 7 years now and have never had a single complaint. Your servers are fast, your support is amazing, and all the tools available to me without owning an extremely expensive dedicated server are pretty incredible.
Top-notch, as always
Candace Goodson says
It was a quick and easy resolve! Appreciate the help from Beatriz!
Theophilus says
I am so impressed with the support provided by SiteGround
David Landesman says
The support was courteous and excellent. No beating around the bush. I was given the solution to my problem within minutes.
Tilden says
Great help. Stefan walked me thru the backup restore process that got my site back to the original design before things got messed up
Michael Fang says
Mr Martin was a real help. Thanks
Lidija says
Svetoslav was great! Super polite, answered quickly and provided me with all the info I needed. Well done, keep up the good work!
Kaylee says
SiteGround support is the BEST! There is no equal. They are patient and effective every time. Thank you, SiteGround!
M. Farai Willie says
I’ve been stuck with my Hosting renewal bill and I reach out to SiteGround team, and honestly they helped me out, understanding my situation, make some flexible adjustments and I can always reach out to them at anytime. This is such a great web service company out there! I love y’all guys
Rick Hymer says
I appreciate being able to get quick help when I have a problem or question.
Steve says
Excellent customer service!
Jeremy Hewitt says
Simple question; fast and simple response.
Excellent! Thank you!
Joel Morris says
The support technician answered my question quickly and accurately. Thank you.
Brian Dunlap says
Hello,
Just want to drop a note and say thank you. We always get such good support when we need it. This is why we have been customers for years.
Thank you again.
Brian
Lydia Ilarionova says
As always perfect.
Zaryab says
The website help/support was really good, immediate and helpful. 5 stars customer support.
Lulu Murphy says
Excellent service from the SiteGround rep today.
Abdulmajid says
If you want any issues to be solved in minutes then choose siteground
Jon Gomes says
I am SO happy with Siteground and recommend to everyone. Every time I find the support goes above and beyond, please give them all raises. Fast website speeds and easy backups as well!!
Jakub says
Kindly people, quick help. Thanks![:)](https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-content/plugins/classic-smilies/img/icon_smile.gif)
Juan Gerratana says
The support was incredible, Martin chatted me and everything went very fast. I had a little problem with verification
and it only took a couple of minutes to figure it out. Attention 10/10
Racha Hafez says
he was so helpful thank you
Amy Greer says
I ended up on SiteGround trying to find the answer to a big, stupid question about web hosting at 3am my time. I started a live chat mostly just to see what would happen. I was honestly expecting an error message, a reply in about 5 hours, or a robot. Instead I got Aleksandar Ts. He was friendly, fast, handled all my questions, and gave me some really helpful tips. I went from desperately googling something I barely understood to having a solid plan and a shiny new account to solve my problem in less than an hour. I’d like to give Aleksandar an A++, and I hope his bosses hear about it. It was a really awesome and fantastically easy customer service experience, and I hope it’s representative of the work SiteGround does as a whole!
Linda says
Diana was extremely professional, supportive and patient when we worked together on the 24 hour chat support line. If there was a way to get Diana’s support to continue with the set up of my website, which I am trying to get done as soon as possible, I would be extremely happy.
Thank you, Diana!
Jeff VerHoef says
Agop was a great help to me this morning. I’ve had several annoying issues and he helped me resolve one and pointed me in the right direction with the others. It is great having someone to help when the need arises. Siteground is great that way and I’m glad I made the switch last year.
Randy Stout says
Courteous, intelligent, expedient, and professional!
THIS is why I host at Siteground!
Sarah says
I had an issue with my site and the representative helped me troubleshoot and then gave me an assignment to do once we ended the chat to try to figure out where my problem was coming from. His suggestion worked and I was able to resolve my issue. Thank you!
Darnell says
Rep was fast and efficient.