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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Benjamin says
As usual superb services from the SG Team A1
Thanks again guys.
SiteGround says
Thank you for the positive feedback and for being a valued customer, Benjamin! It’s great to hear you’re happy with the service and we appreciate the A1 rating. Thanks again!
John Duncan says
I was having BIG flippin’ issues with another host (that I had been with for 10 years!) so it was time to switch. Thank God, at the same time, Site Ground was offering a HUGE limited time discount offer for new subscribers. The stars had aligned ! I’d been a fool not to grab the discount. Looking forward to a long relationship with SiteGround.
SiteGround says
Thank you for this review, John! We agree, it was definitely meant to be. Glad to welcome you aboard!
SiteGround says
Thank you for this review, John! We agree, it was definitely meant to be. Glad to welcome you aboard!
Chris Bachman says
i love the support form you guys. I never am disappointed.
Oleksii Segodin says
Very quick response and problem fix in a critical situation.
Michael Hargreaves says
The support staff are very professional, and are able to diagnose, fix and explain what the problems are to persons who are not highly technical.
SiteGround says
Thank you for sharing your experience, Michael! We really appreciate it, and we’re here to help if you need anything!
Mara says
excellent customer service !!Great support
SiteGround says
Thank you, Mara! We’re glad you’re happy with the service and we’re here whenever you need us!
Dan Coughlin says
I’m not exaggerating at all when I say that working with SiteGround in the past couple of days has been the easiest IT type interaction I’ve ever had. As a new employee in our organization, I needed to update our domain hosting contact info but did not have access to previous login data. I contacted the sales department who tackled my questions without forwarding me to another technician. Then when we had malicious code detected on our website, the support team quickly helped get things fixed for me. They quickly made me a huge fan of SiteGround!
SiteGround says
Thank you for the kind words, Dan! If anything else comes up, our team is here for you!
ian theobald says
excellent support and resolved problem quickly
SiteGround says
Thank you for the kind words, Ian!
Jeff Morales says
Excellent support. Thanks for the much-needed help transferring my site to Siteground.
SiteGround says
It’s always a pleasure to help, Jeff! Our team remains available if anything else comes up!
Breanne Smith says
Ivan Alexandrov was extremely helpful with my issue. He worked through it quickly and communicated very well. GREAT SUPPORT!! Thank you!
SiteGround says
Thank you for the positive feedback and kind words, Breanne! We’ll pass them on to our colleague!
Frank F. Lopez says
The technical support was very helpful. I delete by mistake some files and folders and I couldn’t go to my WordPress page and the technician fixed everything for me. I’m very glad,
SiteGround says
It’s great to hear our team was able to help you out in this stressful situation. We appreciate the positive feedback!
Karen Callahan says
Valerese and Todor helped me today. I received cordial, respectful, QUICK attention to my issue. They immediately understood what the problem was, took steps to fix it, and fixed it. GREAT customer service experience.
Atily Gunaratne says
Thanks, Great chat line with quick response
Nantana Taptamat says
SiteGround support teams are the best customer supports. Hands down!
Yasir Shabbir says
Really amazing customer support and services
maria xanthopoulou says
Every time they solve my problems. they are also very polite every time we have a conversation.
SiteGround says
Thank you for the kind words!
Yanisar says
Amazing company, amazing service. One of the very best hosting companies, period!
Mounir Ouanaimi says
Excellent and timely support. I lingered on a review for a while which allowed me to experience their consistency as well. Top notch.
SiteGround says
Thanks for the positive feedback, we really appreciate it!
Mario Flores says
Nice job on keeping our sites secure but still offering some flexibility for less frequent coding styles.
John Fogarty says
great quick support
James porter says
Great support and they go extra mile to improve the situation.
Bella Gardner says
I have been impressed and relieved by the excellent customer service and technical support at Siteground. I find their dashboard to be as easy or easier to use than Bluehost. My website was transferred nearly seamlessly — my error slowed some things down. Overall, a very easy migration process, and I definitely recommend SiteGround over competitors, at the moment.
Marty V. says
I had a great experience with Plamen Martinov of SiteGround Hosting!
He diligent kept trying to understand my issue and to find the problem, in which he succeeded and perfectly fixed the (in what turned out) the misunderstanding.
Thank you Plamen!
(SiteGround should be happy that you work for them )
Nitin Tyagi says
Awesome support
Joe Sandler says
amazing for hosting my 10+ sites at a very reasonable cost. Support is amazing and tickets get addressed in real time so no long wait to resolve issues.
Thanks!!!!
Austin R says
Out of the 100’s of vendors I’ve worked with in the past, Siteground support is the best vendor support I’ve ever worked with. They make customer success their mission and are willing to do what’s needed to make it happen.
Waqas says
I can’t say enough about how amazing it has been to work with SiteGround. The team is knowledgeable, professional, and friendly. Not only do you get what you pay for, but so much more.
Michael Massimino says
SiteGround customer support is fantastic, quick and efficient! Great work Ines and Stoyen!
Steve Divnick says
Thank you for your fast service getting my email working after I activated the free CDN.
Alan Wei says
very fast reply, very great job!
O says
I appreciated the expedited response on copying our website.
Greatly appreciated!
Matias Novoa says
I had a problem with my website’s theme (DIVI). It was creating a large amount of unnecessary temp files, which in turn was causing my inode quote to shrink.
My technical ability is very limited, so I reached out to the support team, and in 20 minutes or so, Ivaylo Stoyanov had solved my problem and provided recommendations to prevent it from happening in the future.
Awesome service!
Thank you,
Matias
Christine Crosby says
I am so very glad we have Siteground! They are always there to help me with fast, efficient service.
Gavin says
Very quick, friendly and professional response. Don’t hesitate to contact them even you’re not an expert!
Miguel Cristobal Alonso says
They detectad a malware in one of our websites and helped us to clean and protect it. Very professional and fast on their answers.
Peter Jackson says
We had an issue with Google Calendar and WPMF PDF Embed ceasing to work. The first line Chat quickly and professionally determined where the problem was and passed the issue on to the senior technical staff who (in only 7 minutes!) analysed, identified and corrected a problem with SF Optimizer blocking the two plugins.
First class service.
Brent Peak says
I can’t say enough about how amazing it has been to work with SiteGround. The team is knowledgeable, professional, and friendly. Not only do you get what you pay for, but so much more.
Mohamed Elagami says
Excellent technical support, always on time
Robert Porter says
I have used several hosts over the years, and Siteground has by far, been the easiest to work with. Is it perfect? No. That is the thing though, if it was perfect, I’d wonder what was wrong.![:)](https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-content/plugins/classic-smilies/img/icon_smile.gif)
I haven’t had many issues, but when help is needed, the support team is always available, always helpful, and always professional. I can’t say enough good things about this company and their employees.
Rick says
I appreciate the prompt and accurate resolution to solving my database issue. Great service!
George says
Great and timely customer support, very knowledgable
Rene G Faulcon says
The support team is on top of it right when I need them. Thanks
Robb Davis says
I’m fairly new to Site Ground. I’ve been developing websites for over 20 years. These guys are awesome. They truly care about site security and are super fast when I have a question or need anything. Miroslav Rangelov answered my questions today with light speed! And then there is the pricing. VERY VERY affordable. You get way more than what you pay for here. 5 Stars for sure.
Enji says
best as always!
Amberly says
Fast easy service!
Basheer Al-kafaf says
Very fast response
Thank you so much!
Sunshine Petrus says
Amazing customer service as always! Excellent customer service is a rare commodity yet, it is something you definitely get with SiteGround. Thank you!
Sara L says
Stoycho Velev went above and beyond to make sure my WordPress blog transfer worked perfectly. I so appreciate all of his help!
I am new to SiteGround and my experience so far has been so positive.
Brian Rossiter says
I’ve been with SiteGround since summer 2015. I’m grateful for the excellent service and customer service, helping me out of some jams at times. They keep adding more and more tools.
Davinder Singh says
Best Server in the market. High Speed Great caching plugins.
Friendly and valuable customer support.