Starting a blog is an exciting adventure, but one that is not without its fair share of challenges. While many of the decisions about the blog structure, themes, and everything in between are purely based on personal preferences, hosting needs to be an objective decision. SiteGround has popular blog platforms such as WordPress, b2Evolution, and Nucleus upon which you can develop your blog.
Blog Hosting Plans
The following are the plans offered under the blog hosting package.
StartUp Plan – This plan can only accommodate one website, but gives you up to 10 GB of web space. It is appropriate for beginner blogs with a monthly traffic of approximately 10,000. This plan starts at $9.95 per month.
GrowBig Plan – When your blog starts growing, you need to scale up into more server resources. This plan accommodates multiple websites and gives you up to 20 GB of local storage. At a price starting from $14.95 per month, you get an environment that accommodates up to 25,000 site visits per month.
GoGeek Plan – This is the real deal in blog hosting. It is specifically made to handle powerful and heavily-trafficked websites of up to 100,000 visits a month. At $29.95 per month, you get 30 GB of web space and the opportunity to host multiple sites.
Pros
- Free site transfer
- Solid State Drive (SSD) storage
- 30 days money back guarantee
- Free CloudFlare content delivery network for protection and site speed
- Priority 24/7 technical support
- 1 year of free SSL certificate
The only factors which hurt the rating of SiteGround’s blog hosting are its restrictions to Linux-based servers, and limited storage bandwidth.
- Free site transfer
- Solid State Drive (SSD) storage
- 30 days money back guarantee
- Free CloudFlare content delivery network for protection and site speed
- Priority 24/7 technical support
- 1 year of free SSL certificate
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Money-Back Guarantee
30 Days
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Disk Space
10GB - 30GB
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Domain Name
FREE (1 year)
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See Plans
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Imagine hosting your website on a state-of-the-art dedicated machine managed by top experts in the industry. This is what SiteGround offers under its dedicated hosting package. To ensure that no one is left behind, there are three plans under dedicated hosting.
Entry Server – This gives you up to 3.20 Ghz of clock speed, 4 CPU cores, 4 GB DDR3 RAM, 8 CPU threads, and 500 GB SATA II hard disk drive. All these start at $229 per month.
Power Server – With a starting price of $329, this plan gives you 3.50 Ghz of CPU speed, 8 CPU threads, 4 CPU cores, 16 GB DDR3 RAM, and HDD of up to 1 TB SATA II.
Super Power Server – This is the highest plan under dedicated hosting and starts at $429 a month. It gives you 2 sets of 6 CPU cores, 2 sets of 12 CPU threads, 16 GB DDRM RAM, and 4 sets of 500 GB SATA III hard disk drive.
Pros
- Full Platform Management – The server is setup for you and its software updated. Your machine is also monitored round the clock and any issue is addressed immediately.
- High Performing Hardware – The selection of machines is exclusively based on performance and stability. Hosting is done on the best of SiteGround’s data center facilities.
- 24/7 VIP Support – There is a dedicated 24/7 customer support team available on phone, live chat, and tickets.
- 5 Free Dedicated IPs
- Free CloudFlare content delivery network
- Secure shell (SSH) access
This is by far the crème de la crème of SiteGround and is mainly dedicated to mission critical websites with numerous site visits.
- Full Platform Management
- High Performing Hardware
- 24/7 VIP Support
- 5 Free Dedicated IPs
- Free CloudFlare content delivery network
- Secure shell (SSH) access
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Money-Back Guarantee
30 Days
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Disk Space
500GB - 2TB HDD
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Domain Name
FREE (1 year)
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See Plans
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We have not yet reviewed a VPS Hosting option for SiteGround because they don't currenly appear to offer this type of hosting.
WordPress allows for fast development and ease of site management. When this is combined with the spectacular support of highly trained 24/7 customer service team, it becomes even much better. SiteGround has a customized WordPress hosting platform that is feature-rich and built for security.
Among the tools that will make your experience on this platform enjoyable include:
- 1-click installer – This helps launch your site and it is available on all plans
- Auto updates – This tool ensures that you always have the latest WordPress version
- WP-CLI enabled – This is a command line site management option available to subscribers on all plans.
- SuperCacher – This innovative tool is available on GrowBig and GoGeek plans. It offers you 3 levels of caching which translates into ultra-fast site speed.
- WordPress staging – If you want to taste and deploy changes with ease, this is the tool to make that happen and its available on the GoGeek Plan.
WordPress Plans
There are three plans offered under the managed WordPress hosting platform. These are:
- StartUp Plan – This is mainly for beginner sites that have an approximate visitor limit of 10,000 per month. It comes with 10 GB of local storage at $9.95 per month.
- GrowBig Plan – If you have a fairly busy website that has approximate monthly visitor count of 25,000 or multiple websites that can accommodated on 20 GB of local storage, this plan is suitable for you. It starts at $14.95 per month.
- GoGeek Plan – This is tailored for multiple websites or a heavily trafficked website with an approximate monthly visitor count of 100,000. Starting at $29.95 per month, you get access to 30 GB of web space, much larger server resources, and pre-installed Git customized for WordPress.
Pros
Reliable 24/7 WordPress Support – This is accomplished through live chat, telephone, and ticketing system. Wait times average at 10 minutes.
Blazing Speeds – Since this hosting option is built on one of the latest SSD hardware which also incorporates the SuperCacher and a free CloudFlare content delivery network, you can be assured of fly speeds.
Enhanced Web Security – Constant monitoring of servers for vulnerabilities make SiteGround’s WordPress hosting one of the safest.
If SiteGround can enhance their storage bandwidth and maybe consider introducing Window-based servers, the value they add to customers can more than double. All the same, their managed WordPress hosting platform ranks high in the industry.
- Reliable 24/7 WordPress Support
- Blazing Speeds
- Enhanced Web Security
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Money-Back Guarantee
30 Days
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Disk Space
10GB - 30GB
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Domain Name
FREE (1 year)
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See Plans
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SiteGround is risen to become one of the most loved web hosts over the past several years. They have data centers in Illinois, United States; Amsterdam, Europe; and Singapore in the Asia-Pacific region. This has enabled customers to choose where to host their website and address issues such as data privacy and retention law implications.
Overview of SiteGround
If you have decided to launch a website for your business and can’t seem to find a reliable and innovative web hosting provider, it can be intimidating. This is where SiteGround comes in. This company has a variety of hosting packages from shared, dedicated, managed WordPress plans to cloud hosting. It is more accommodating and for startups, it is one of the best choices.
One of the interesting features of SiteGround is that it gives you a whole month of hosting trial for its shared hosting so that you can experience what it feels like to have your website in their environment before you financially commit.
Data privacy and client preferences with regard to where they want their websites to be hosted are fully catered for. As a matter of fact, SiteGround is among the few web hosting service providers who let you choose the data center to host your site. If you come from Asia or your business is concentrated area, then the Asia-Pacific data center is appropriate for you.
For ecommerce businesses, SiteGround have built-in ecommerce software that customers can use to setup their online stores and even accept payment. Security features are topnotch as the company offers various security options such as HackAlert Monitoring, SpamAssassin, Leech Protect, and SpamExperts. With all these plus an unbeatable uptime record and 24/7 customer service, you may want to consider SiteGround for your hosting needs.
Hosting Plans in Review
The basic model employed by SiteGround in their conduct of business is to create an accommodative atmosphere for every website and business owner. Unlike their competitors, SiteGround have broken down and categorized their plans based on actual customer needs and their financial capabilities. Here, you pay for what you use. Below are the hosting plans offered by this company.
Shared Hosting
The shared hosting space provided by SiteGround is powerful and intuitive. Unless you really stretch it to the limits, you may not even notice that you are sharing the server space with other websites. To make it even more customized, the company has 3 plans under this hosting package so that you can scale up easily without having to pay loads of money for resources you are not optimally using.
- StartUp Plan – This is Linux based and includes a website, local storage of 10 GB, and can handle traffic of up to 10,000 visitors a month. What more, you get unlimited emails, exceptional 24/7 support, and CloudFlare for your web security. All these for $9.95 per month.
- GrowBig Plan – This shared hosting plan is targeted at much larger sites and can handle multiple websites. The size of local storage is twice that of the startup plan at 20 GB and traffic visits of up to 25,000 per month. Other features include a free SSL certificate for 12 months, CloudFlare support, and a capacity to handle up to 30 backups. This plan starts at $14.95 per month.
- GoGeek Plan – This plan supports multiple websites and it is intended for bigger and busier sites. The approximate traffic visit allowance for this plan is set at 100,000 per month. On top of this, you get 30 GB of local storage, a whole year of free SSL certificate, and a capacity for up to 30 backups. This shared hosting plan has fewer accounts per unit of server space which means better hardware to power your site activities without inconveniencing others.
Cloud Hosting
This is a new Linux-based hosting platform that auto-scales with surges in traffic. This means at no one time will your site go down because of inadequate resources following a traffic upsurge. This plan can host anything from a high traffic enterprise site to a small development project. There are 4 tailored plans under cloud hosting.
- Entry Plan – This plan gives you 4 GB of memory, 40 GB of SSD space, and 2 CPU cores. It is priced at $80 per month.
- Business Plan – This plan has 3 CPU cores, 60 GB of SSD space, 6 GB memory, and 5 TB data transfer. Its pricing starts at $120 per month.
- Business Plus Plan – At $160 a month, this plan gives you 4 CPU cores, 80 GB of local storage, 5 TB data transfer, and 8 GB of memory.
- Super Power Plan – This plan has 8 CPU cores, 120 GB of local storage, 10 GB memory, and 5 TB data transfer. The cost is $240 a month.
The cloud hosting platform as a whole has resource efficiency, auto-scalable resources to take care of traffic spikes, 24/7 VIP support, and fully managed servers. This sounds a deal for any business looking for a guaranteed uptime. You can also customize your own hosting plan in case you need a little bit more power.
Dedicated Hosting
SiteGround gives you an opportunity to host your website on dedicated servers which are setup and run by the best of experts. To ensure your website performs well, they have included quite a number of innovative proprietary software that gives you added functionality. Just like in the other plans above, dedicated hosting also has its own sub-plans as highlighted below.
- Entry Server Plan – This plan starts at $229 a month. It boasts of 4 CPU cores, 4 GB DDR3 RAM, 8 CPU threads, 8 MB CPU Cache, 3.20 Ghz of CPU clock speed, and 500 GB SATA II HDD.
- Power Server Plan – This plan has a much higher CPU clock speed than the Entry Server at 3.50 Ghz. Its DDR3 RAM measures 16 GB and its SATA II HDD is 1 TB. This hosting plan costs $329 a month.
- Super Power Server – This plan has 2 Intel Xeon E3-1270 CPUs, a clock speed of 2 Ghz, a pair of 6 CPU cores, and four 500 GB SATA III HDD. The cost per month is $429.
WordPress Hosting
WordPress being one of the most used content management system, many businesses prefer this platform to others. SiteGround has developed a command over this niche. It oversees the complete installation of WordPress-based websites using an optimized managed WordPress hosting platform.
Among the benefits of this hosting service is that your website gets enhanced security, staging, page caching, automatic content management system updates, and automated daily backups. That aside, you get a free domain name, a quick one-click installation, in addition to a free account transfer. The sub-plans under WordPress hosting are similar to those of shared hosting and include StartUp, GrowBig, and GoGeek.
Pros of SiteGround Web Hosting
Hosting your website on SiteGround comes with lots of benefits. The good thing about these benefits and other features the company rolls out is that they are regularly updated to give you a fresh experience each time. Among the notable features include:
Ecommerce Friendly
SiteGround has numerous proprietary ecommerce software such as CSCart, Magento, and PrestaShop. Through the control panel, you can access all of these software thereby making it easier for you to navigate your way around. Alternatively, through Softaculous, you can access over 30 ecommerce options including OpenCart, Showare, ZenCard, and Axis. Magento for example gives you the opportunity to create an attractive store through a drag and drop builder.
Solid Security Features
There is nothing as frustrating as hosting your website on a platform that is prone to hacking. While it is no one’s fault except the hackers, any reliable web hosting provider should put in place mechanisms to counter such malicious intrusions. SiteGround scores very well in this because it has several layers of security addons.
To name a few of the security features you will enjoy in SiteGround include HackAlert Monitoring that comes at a cost of $1 per month, state-of-the-art antispam tools such as SpamExperts and SpamAssassin. There is also an interesting security feature known as Leech Protect. This software allows administrators to bar users from giving out their passwords or publicly posting them on their websites. On top of this, you get an SSL certificate to safeguard the interactions of users on your website. Other helpful security tools include CloudFlare and SiteCheck.
Excellent Uptime Results
If you are a business with a busy website or a significant dependence on the activities on your site, then you wouldn’t want it to go down. Hosting your website with SiteGround enables you to enjoy a stable uptime. You can confirm this stability using a website monitoring tool which pings your website and emails you if it is unable to contact the website.
Knowledgeable 24/7 Customer Service
SiteGround values their customers and as such have prioritized customer service. Throughout the website, you will see tutorials, knowledgebase articles, and wizards. In addition to this, there is live customer support round the clock on telephone and live chat. There is also a ticket-based system you can use to raise a query. The response time is fairly fast, averaging 10 minutes of wait time.
Global Data Centers
This is one of the major investments SiteGround has done to cater for its customers. The data centers are located in Europe, United States, and the Asia-Pacific region. Depending on where you are, your choice of a data center is much simplified to give you value. When subscribing to your plan, you are also given the chance to choose the data center you want your site to be hosted on.
Money Back Guarantee
Within the 30 days of trial SiteGround gives you, you are free to cancel at any time and get back your money in case you found the experience not appealing. The advantage of this trial period and money back guarantee feature is that you stand no chance of losing anything in case you decide to pull out.
The Downside of SiteGround
Even with the above excellent features, SiteGround still lacks in other aspects such as storage where its bandwidth is somewhat limited. The lack of a month-to-month shared plan is quite limiting especially for startups who may not have the financial muscles to pay for lengthy durations. As you may have noticed, all servers are Linux-based meaning if you want to host on Windows servers then SiteGround cannot accommodate you.
The Bottom Line
With both sides considered, SiteGround still remains a web hosting provider that have clearly positioned themselves to serve small businesses. You don’t need fancy web skills or a lot of time in your hands to setup a website and get it running. The security features come in handy in an environment like today’s where security threats are flying right, left, and center. The only thing is that you have to choose the packages wisely so that you pay for what you truly use.
