Here’s my review of SiteGround web hosting services. I’ve used other web hosting but wasn’t satisfied with the service. Finding the best web hosting can be trial and error sometimes.
Some of my biggest concerns with web hosting are (no particular order):
- Easy to set up
- Web site speed
- Reliable up time
- Customer Service
- Cost
I’m sure you have your own concerns in searching for the best web hosting service for your blog. I decided to transfer one website to SiteGround as a test before making a decision about other websites.
It was easy to transfer my website from another web host. They do offer a web transfer service for FREE too!
This review of SiteGround web hosting will help you in your decision making.
What is SiteGround?
SiteGround is a web hosting company. Servicing over 500,000 domains, the company was founded in 2004 by some friends at a university. They worked out of their dorm rooms in the beginning. Now, the company has grown to over 400 employees and they are no longer working out of dorm rooms.
Their specialty is providing shared hosting, cloud hosting and dedicated servers, although they are also a domain registrar.
1. Get the Best SiteGround Web Hosting Plans at a Low cost
You can check out the three web hosting plans. They are very reasonable and pretty low cost!
Their packages are Linux-based, if you care about that. I know you might be thinking that even the SiteGround GrowBig plan seems like a lot. Am I right?
Here’s what I want you to do. Change your thinking.
If you are shopping around for a web hosting plan, I assume you are starting a blog. If yes, then I hope you plan to monetize it and make some money!
With that in mind, the monthly fee for your web hosting in an investment. In what? In YOU!
When you are making tons of cash every month, believe me you won’t flinch at the monthly cost. Remember, you are running a business and can deduct these fees on your income taxes.
OK. Back to the cost for SiteGround web hosting – which I think is very reasonable! Choose from these three SiteGround plans:
- StartUp: $3.95 (60% off from the regular $9.95/mo). This is the most basic shared hosting plan. Comes with 10GB Web Space. You can host one domain. This is more than enough for you if you are starting out. Grab your webhosting here.
- GrowBig: $7.95 (50% off from the regular $14.95/mo). This plan offers 20GB Web Space, and you can host unlimited sites.
- GoGeek: $11.95 (discounted from the regular $34.95/mo). This plan offers 30GB Web Space, and you can host unlimited sites.
Which one is most appealing to you? Even if you go for the SiteGround StartUp plan, it’s suitable for 10,000 visitors a month. You are covered!
I signed up with the StartUp plan for a single website as a test to see how it went for two months. After my self-imposed trial period, I was very happy with the ease of the use and the speed was amazing!
I since upgraded to GoGeek because I am a geek. OK, seriously it was because the plan hosts less domains on each server so each website shares less resources. It cost a little more but it’s worth it to me. My websites are important assets to my business so why not have the best?
2. SiteGround Web Hosting Makes it Simple to Setup
Do you have about 5 minutes to register and get setup? That’s about how long it took for me to register. After you choose your hosting plan, the Secure Sign Up for Web Hosting page appears.
Video: Setting Up SiteGround Web Hosting with WordPress
At the top, as seen in the image, you can Choose Service and Enter Domain. I love that you can either get a new hosting account or upgrade an existing one. For example, when I am ready to upgrade they made is so darn easy!
You can then either register a new domain name or if you already have one, just enter in the Domain Name field.
The rest of the information is easy-peasy. You’ll get two areas where you choose your plan, so there are no mistakes. There are some extra services that you can choose to add and then you enter your payment information.
I received my email pretty fast and was able to log into the website, install WordPress, and transfer my blog. The entire process took me about one hour.
Since I transferred my blog, I had to install a new WordPress theme from my favorite WordPress theme designer and then set it up too!
All in all the entire setup was pretty painless. I was happy to see they have tutorials on their website that answer most questions and show you how to get things done.
Transferring an Existing WordPress blog to SiteGround
If you want to transfer a WordPress blog from another webhost to SiteGround, they have you covered. You can also transfer from WordPress.com!
Stop settling for less than ideal performance for your WordPress blog! Switching to SiteGround has never been easier.
You can easily transfer your WordPress website with a new WordPress plugin! By installing the SiteGround Migrator plugin on your WordPress site, you can move your installation with a few clicks.
Of course at SiteGround, you always have the option to request a manual website migration by a support professional. This service is complimentary for your first site on GrowBig and GoGeek plans. I used the migration service one time to try it out and it was flawless.
If you decide to use the Migrator, it’s free and makes it possible for anyone to manage a site transfer. Yes, even if you don’t have a lot of technical skills.
Good News? Using the SiteGround Migrator plugin will move to your new host in a secure way using encryption.
They also provide complete tutorials on how to use the tool! Pretty cool, yes?
Get Your Website Hosting here at a huge discount!
3. Is Siteground Customer Service Very Responsive?
I have to say a big YES on this one. I had a small issue which I figured out on my own, but when I contacted the web hosting team, I got hold of them very quickly to explain the problem. They responded very fast but I already solved it.
They provide 24/7 customer support, which is a million times better than some other web hosting providers that I’ve used. You can contact them via:
- Phone
- Chat
- Support Ticket
4. Will My Website be FAST with SiteGround Hosting?
I could use a lot of fancy schmancy tech terms here but I won’t. All I know is the SiteGround’s motto is:
“If there is something that can make your website faster, we will be among the first to implement it.”
At my previous web host (that I will not mention here), my website was so slow! Not only that, every time I created a new post it slowed almost to a halt. I had to continue calling the customer support each time to fix it. Of course it was an issue on their end.
I was so fed up with the speed, or lack of speed! Here’s what my website speed was before I switched to my new webhost. As you can see, the load time is 6.25 seconds and my website was faster than 24% of sites. That did not make me happy at all.
After I switched to the SiteGround webhost, I saw a huge difference! I couldn’t be happier. As you can see, my load time is 954 ms and my site is faster than 90% of tested sites. Would such a difference matter to you? Check it out:
I did decide to go with the GoGeek plan. I had purchased their StartUp plan with a different website that I own. I tested it out for 2 months before I made the next move.
Before adding the second website I upgraded to SiteGrounds GoGeek because there is a limited number of users are hosted on each server. So they can provide up to 4 times more server resource than on the lower shared hosting plans.
I also want to add that when the first website was using the StartUp plan, it basically had a load time of about 1 second.
How do they do it? WordPress sites run super fast on SiteGround’s platform with the SG Optimizer plugin.
The SG Optimizer has powerful caching with front-end and image optimization features. Your WordPress site will be optimized with speed gains between 20% and 500% (depending on your site.)
There you go. Want to super fast WordPress website?
Get your website hosting here!
5. SiteGround is Reliable with 99.99% Uptime
SiteGround boasts a 99.99% uptime. This is super important because you will just cry if you discover your money making website is down for hours and not getting fixed. Yes, it’s happened to me with those “other” providers and I spent half the day freaking out and losing money.
Don’t let that happen to you!
With SiteGround you can check your own website’s real-time status and get this nifty report.

Final Thoughts about Hosting with SiteGround
If you are looking for a reliable web host at an affordable price, Site Ground is for you. For a blogger with less than 5 websites, it’s the perfect solution.
You get so much value for your money! I’m happy with their web hosting so far and plan to migrate my other websites over in the next few months.
Siteground tech support is TOP NOTCH! Always answer me right away and can solve my problem or at least point me in the right direction 🙂
http://www.insearchofsheila.com
Thanks Sheila for taking the time to comment. Yep, I agree – I think I finally found a home for my other blogs! Have an amazing day!