Siteground WordPress Review
I decided to give Siteground hosting a try and moved one of my WordPress sites over there. I wanted to compare Siteground's loading speeds and other features to other hosts I've tried.
I have been using Siteground for two years now and I have been happy with the services provided. But I did experience some problems which I will describe in this review.
Before I get into the details I should give you some background on Siteground.
Background
Siteground was formed in 2003 by a group of tech professionals, focusing on Web hosting. Siteground is still privately owned and is doing well financially.
Siteground has several server locations, three locations in the US and offices in Sofia and Bulgaria. Their core customer base is comprised on small businesses and private individuals. Siteground claims to be hosting about 150,000 websites.
Rating
Siteground is not registered with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) but does hold an A+ rating with them. Not being registered isn't unusual as there are lots of great businesses that don't register. 31 complaints had been submitted and all seem to be resolved.
Plans and Prices
Siteground offers plans which cover different degrees of shared hosting, VPS, dedicated hosting and reseller hosting. These services are hosted exclusively within their severs which are Linux based. Siteground also offers e-commerce support for those who need help setting up their shops. Plans include free site building tools, unlimited email and a free domain.
Siteground has three tiers for their shared hosting packages. The most basic plan is called StartUp, then the features and services increase when upgrading to GrowBig and finally to the GoGeek plan. The exact features and prices for each plan change continuously, so it's best to click on our link to check out what's currently offered. The tiered system also applies to Siteground's three VPS plans and four dedicated server plans.
Siteground claims near 100% uptime, but it's my experience that this can only be known through direct and prolong testing. They do not provide any uptime guarantee. Customer support is handled through email and is available at any time.
Registration & Setup
Signup is easy and intuitive, takes about five minutes. You pick you plan after you register. At the end of your registration Siteground offers premium support for free for three months, I decided to try it out.
Be careful on any extras you choose as the total price can add up quickly. If you choose Daily Backup, Domain Privacy or HackAlert Monitoring then the final bill will be much greater than the advertised plan. None of these features are a must have, but if you do decide to pick them make sure you have a good reason to justify the price.
Once you register you will get a confirmation email with your login details. Customer support will also call you to ensure your all setup. Getting a personal call is great customer service, something Godaddy used to do but has since stopped.
Uptime
I've been using Siteground's WordPress hosting for the past two years. Since my signup I've had my site go down twice, each time under a half hour. Both of these times were around a scheduled maintenance period, but they did not line up exactly. Other than that Siteground's uptime has been great.
Interface
Siteground uses CPanel for managing your site. They have done a superb job at optimizing the layout to make it user friendly. Almost all features can be accessed through a single page.
Support
Siteground's support services seem to be quick and efficient. They claim 24/7 availability and whenever I've opened a ticket I've received a reply within a few minutes. There is also a large library of tutorials for getting your site up and running.
Pros
One of the main reasons I decided to switch to Siteground was their efforts to keep hackers at bay. If you attempt to access your CPanel directly you will be redirected to Siteground's encrypted login page. This ensures your login details aren't intercepted by any malicious scripts.
Siteground has taken the precaution of preventing plugins and themes from being activated directly. They add an additional layer of protection to ensure the clean and safe install of themes and plugins. Restrictions will be in place for any logins from your WordPress blog, and there is a max login attempt before the user is temporarily banned to prevent brute force attacks. All of these features will help protect you from hackers.
Siteground has enhanced caching features, and can be enabled during your WordPress installation. File caching will speed up your site significantly. A more advanced caching tool, SuperCacher, is available through their higher paid plans.
Server uptime has been great. I tested the plan for just over two years and I didn't experience any down time that wasn't schedule maintenance.
Siteground claims they don't store many shared hosting clients on the same server. This is ideal as you won't be competing for resources as much. They claim their ratio to users per server is the lowest in the industry. There isn't really any way to audit this claim, but your site speed should be a good reflection of this. WordPress does seem to load much faster on Siteground compared to other shared hosts.
These are the features that separate Siteground from its competitors. There are many more features but they are fairly common to all hosts.
Cons
The primary downside to Siteground would be their storage space limit. Their base plan provides 10GB, which is plenty if your just blogging. However this limit is fairly small when compared to major competitors.
Conclusion
Siteground offers great hosting at a competitive price. Customer support is some of the best I've encountered. The service is ideal for those with only a few websites. This makes it ideal for small businesses and individuals. Make sure you read the user comments and leave your own thoughts.
Disclosure: the reviews here are unbiased, be it good or bad. But if you do buy something the linked company pays us a commission. This helps keep the site ad free, thanks.
