Welcome to my SiteGround Review!
I’m glad you are on the hunt for some better hosting for your site, as it is a lot more important than you think.
For me, I had to learn the hard way, and that is ultimately what led me to SiteGround.
I’m no cheap-o when it comes to my business, but I’m also no idiot when it comes to investing.
For my websites, I once thought hosting was fine as long as you have the basics.
Decent speed, reliable support, and an uptime of well, 100%.
Thinking that all hosting providers are at least up there, I learned the biggest lesson of my online career.
They aren’t.
To make a long story short, I got hacked, and some idiot literally copied my entire site and published it under a whole new domain.
My traffic became his traffic, and I was left with nothing.
The main problem I was having before that was I couldn’t get down to how that happened and made all kinds of changes.
I took the necessary steps to try and bring my site back from the dead, but the process is tedious and almost not worth the time.
If this has happened to you, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
I cut my losses and threw away 1500+ blog posts that I almost could not let go.
Insert shocked face emoji here.
Someone mentioned that it could have been my hosting, so I immediately went looking for something better.
Finding the best hosting was also not an easy task, but it ultimately led me to pick SiteGround.
Why?
Well, there are actually many reasons why and I want to explain that through this review.
So before you go choosing your next hosting provider, let me tell you why I think SiteGround is the way to go.
It did take a lot of thinking but I’m 100% sure I have made a great decision.
SiteGround Review – Product Overview
Name: SiteGround
Website: www.siteground.com
Type of Service: Website Hosting
Price: $3.95/month (starting)
Overall Rating: 5/5 stars
I’m not one to throw around 5 stars like it’s cool, but I do believe these guys deserve it. With reliable and top-notch hosting, SiteGround is definitely one you should consider. From their awesome service all the way to their amazing support, you get everything you need for one of the best prices out there. I use them, and I definitely recommend them.
What is SiteGround?
SiteGround is a website hosting provider that offers its customers different plans to suite their needs.
They are definitely one of the best services out there, with some of the highest ratings, especially with WordPress users.
You have the option to choose from 3 different plans when it comes to hosting, but you can also opt for cloud hosting or even a dedicated server.
I have been using SiteGround for about a year now, and I would like to share my experience with you all.
I am not here to talk about the technical aspect of this service, as I am no nerd when it comes to this stuff.
However, I will be going over the main components of what makes a hosting provider worthy of hosting your business.
I’m not a fan of wasting time and nonsense, so let’s get right into things.
Why SiteGround?
There are many reasons why I think SiteGround is one of the best hosting providers but I’m going to go over the ones I feel make a big difference.
EVERY website needs some basic things, and SiteGround has checked all the boxes.
These basic things make a big difference when it comes to user experience, but they also matter a lot when it comes to pleasing Google.
Let me go over what I really like about SiteGround so you can see why I chose them to host all my websites.
Reliability & Security
There’s nothing more irritating than dealing with a site that is constantly going offline.
“John, your site is down…again”
That’s the kind of message I would get from my readers, and it is something that no website owner should ever have to deal with.
Not to say that any website or hosting provider is perfect but it should be up almost 100% of the time.
And in the event that it does go down, it should be up and running before you or anyone else notices.
I used to get emails from Uptime Robot telling me my site was down, but now that is a thing of the past.
Knock on wood, but my site has been live for 6 months now, and I have never found it to be down.
I’m not going to say it’s luck, but simply because I’m using SiteGround as my hosting provider.
I’ve heard that this is one of their strong points, and I am experiencing it firsthand.
SiteGround will have your site up and running almost 100% of the time, and I’m sure you will appreciate all the behind-the-scenes work that allows for such a thing to happen.
Site Speed
Google has clearly stated that a site’s speed is a huge factor when it comes to ranking websites.
That’s great for you SEO experts but it is even better for the people who will land on your site.
My previous hosting provider used terms like “site speed,” which made me think I was with the best.
Through a Google site speed test, my site was actually pretty fast.
Now, that was great and all, but there was one problem.
The real speed my site was performing at.
Going on my site myself was not the best experience, and I’m sure my readers thought the same thing.
You can feel this lag that came with my site, and there was nothing I could do to make my site faster.
Now that I have SiteGround, I have no problems with the actual speed of my site.
I’m sure you can feel the actual speed of my site, even without some site speed test telling me otherwise.
SiteGround will make your site fly, and this is a must for all website owners, whether you are into SEO or not.
Your viewers will thank you.
Pricing
Website hosting is not the most expensive thing out there, but prices can really go up there.
With a normal consumer mentality, you might also think that spending more means you are getting a better service.
That does apply to some things, but I beg to differ when it comes to website hosting.
If you go with any of the top 5 hosting providers, you can see the difference when it comes to pricing.
Some are affordable, and some are out-of-this-world expensive.
SiteGround hits the sweet spot, and anyone who uses it will tell you that you get what you pay for and a whole lot more.
For your first year, you can get started for as low as $3.95/month.
If that is too expensive for you, then you might be in the wrong line of work.
I’ll be going over more on that a little later in this review, as the pricing might be a little tricky for some.
Support
Every hosting provider will tell you that they have the best support out there.
They aren’t lying, but all of them take a different approach when it comes to helping their customers.
There is email-type support that most companies offer.
Although they have a quick response time, it still doesn’t give you that satisfaction of “great support.”
You give them your issue, and the response comes back with you having to ask more questions.
They give you the wrong answers, and you find yourself frustrated once again.
Some of you know what I’m talking about, and you know that it is very unnecessary when it comes to something like hosting.
With SiteGround, they have options.
You can always go the support ticket route, or you can browse through their archives of issues that are frequently asked.
Most of the answers are there, but of course, there are those problems that need real, human help.
That’s when something like a live chat or a phone call can come in handy.
I personally use their live chat feature, as it works great,
They tell you exactly what I want and need to hear without any run-around nonsense.
On top of that, they will get into your site and even fix any issues that non-tech-savvy idiots like myself can’t understand.
SiteGround’s support is absolutely amazing, and they will help you with any issues you may have.
And heck, they will even help you with issues that aren’t related to hosting!
Trust
As a blogger on a smaller scale, I always look to other big-name blogs for advice and knowledge of what works best in the given industry.
As a follower of sites like WPBeginner.com and a user of the Yoast Plugin, it’s always great to see that these sites also use SiteGround for their websites.
If you are familiar with any of the two, you will know that they are running some serious websites that get some serious traffic.
They trust SiteGround with their business, and I very much trust them as I trust myself.
This is something that was very comforting for me when I was sifting through the many website hosting providers, so this was very comforting.
If these guys use them, you can bet that SiteGround is one that you can trust.
Security
This is the same reason I went on the hunt for better hosting.
Getting a website hacked is not fun at all, and literally slammed my business without me even knowing.
Hosting is a big deal and one that you should not sacrifice pricing for.
SiteGround is beyond affordable, and the security behind it is absolutely amazing.
They have the technology to keep up with bots and scammers, so you can rest easy knowing your site is protected.
On top of that, they offer free SSL, which is pretty much necessary for all sites, even if you aren’t processing any payments.
Other Cool Features
On top of the must-haves come the other things that make life that much easier when it comes to hosting a website.
I guess you can call it a plus, but I’m sure almost every top hosting provider will provide these same features.
These tools and other services are great for newer online business owners, but they can still benefit anyone who is looking to consolidate their services.
There’s no need to have your domain here, hosting there, and all that nonsense unless there is a specific reason why you need to.
Website Building
Everyone has their claim for website building, and that’s cool.
We need it, or everything else will be useless.
However, WordPress allows you to do exactly that, even without your hosting provider.
Now, what makes this feature really worth mentioning is the fact that you can use some preloaded templates for your site.
Instead of loading a theme and having it all plain-Jane, you have the option to use a template that has pages already set up and ready to go.
Domains
Website domains are offered all over the net.
The problem is that some providers don’t offer hosting, or their service flat out sucks.
With SiteGround, you can use their awesome hosting as well as get your very own domain all in one place.
Domains are usually purchased on a yearly basis, so you can renew both services in one place as well.
This, of course, is a separate cost, and it will cost you $15.95.
Remember that this is for the year and will need to be renewed come that same time next year.
Website Transfer Services
Transferring hosting services is not the easiest thing to do, especially when you’re not the best when it comes to dealing with this kind of stuff.
If you have a site that you want transferred to SiteGround, you can get it done for free.
Dealing with existing sites is not the most fun thing to do, but we have to do it.
If changing your hosting provider is one of those things, why not have the professionals do it?
I was able to get my site transferred without any issues, thanks to the team behind the scenes.
Now, I did need to transfer to other sites, but there is a migration plugin that allowed me to do it fairly easily.
You can pay for them to transfer to any other site, but it will cost you $30 to get it done.
Getting Started With SiteGround
Coming from a different hosting company, I had the chance to go through the motions of setting up a completely new account along with migrating a website.
The transfer was easy because they did it for me, and the new site was even easier.
The process is as simple as picking a plan and setting up your SiteGround account.
Of course, I use WordPress, and that’s what this post is about, so I’m going to explain how to set your site up with WordPress.
First, you need to pick WordPress from the 4 options that you see on SiteGround’s homepage.
From there, you will need to select what plan works best for you.
- Startup
- GrowBig
- GoGeek
The Startup plan is best for newer website owners and those who ONLY plan on using just one site.
GrowBig is the most commonly used option for people like myself who own multiple sites but aren’t running anything that big.
Now, if you have multiple sites that are getting millions of visitors a month, then GoGeek is going to be your best bet.
You can always upgrade at a later date, so do go with what works best for you now.
Conclusion – SiteGround is Good to Go!
Picking a hosting provider can be a task and a half, but I feel your pain.
There’s BlueHost and even HostGator that work great, but I did my research and got advice from other bloggers as well.
Through some patience and some really hard thinking, I found that SiteGround would be the best fit for someone like myself.
They are great for every type of business, and I personally recommend them over most of the hosting providers out there.
If you want reliable and affordable, SiteGround is the way to go.
Well, that’s about it from me.
I hope this SiteGround review has helped you in one way or another, and I hope you can make a better decision as well.
Summary
Siteground is a great hosting provider that I have used for years. Although I have switched to WPX hosting, I still think they are top of the line when it comes to hosting services.