After doing digital marketing for over 8 years, I have tried almost every popular web-hostings in the market.
Be it Godaddy, Bluehost, Hostgator, a2hosting and many more.
Earlier I thought DigitalOcean was the best as it is a VPS so you get the benefit of the whole server for your site which makes it fast.
But I was certainly wrong.
In 2015, I read a lot of great reviews about SiteGround hosting so I thought to give it a try, and I must say, I was not disappointed.
And today all my sites are hosting on SiteGround(except the ones which drive massive traffic, for them I use Kinsta hosting, check my Kinsta hosting review here)
Disclosure: There are affiliate links in this article. If you decide to purchase a tool through one of those affiliate links, I will receive a commission at no additional cost to you. I only promote tools I personally use in my business.
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Other reasons why I love SiteGround:
Now you know that my websites are the primary source of my livelihood.
Even a few hours of downtime loses me a lot of money. So if I trust my business and many of my websites on SiteGround, then there must be a very good reason behind it right?
I started with a shared hosting plan and now I have multiple cloud servers with them (cloud servers are much more expensive than shared plans). I have spent thousands of dollars with them, check the image below of my invoices.
Its not just me, there are thousands of other experienced webmasters who have rated siteground as #1 host in various Facebook pools.
Here are all the reasons, why i recommend siteground to all :
15 Reasons Why You Should Opt For Siteground Hosting
Reason 1: Always Comes #1 in multiple Facebook polls
Siteground always comes at the top in various polls by online blogers, developers, entrepreneurs etc
Reason 2: Why I use them
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Reason 3: Your website becomes ultra-fast
For any website, speed is the need of the hour.
According to a research conducted in 2017, one full second can decrease conversion rates by 70%! So, it is not just about page ranking; site speed will also make the difference on how much time users spend on your page.
The longer time they spend on the page, the better it is for your business. This is where SiteGround's Cloudflare comes into play, as they also have their caching system to provide 4x faster websites with 100 times more hits.
This is also where the latest PHP and auto-updates comes into play, as the latest and best-optimized solutions help your site load faster. When you opt for SiteGround as your hosting provider, you are guaranteed top-notch website loading speeds owing to a plethora of reasons.
One such idea is the usage of SSD enabled servers, which enhances the performance and speed of the servers.
For the newcomers in this field, SSD is a type of hardware that is slowly finding its place in various computers owing to its exceptional rate of data transfer.
Apart from this, SiteGround’s data centres are located on three continents in various cities across the world. Therefore, a web visitor, can access their site from a data centre closest to their location, thereby rendering the website super fast.
Lastly, SiteGround’s website networks are amplified by Cloudflare CDN, and SuperCacher, their optimized caching system does the caching. All these lead to 4X times faster site loading speed.
Here are screenshot of people who migrated to sitegroud and posted their results on twitter.
Reason 4: They use latest technologies
One of the biggest reasons people choose them over others.
They use an extremely powerful combination of NGINX servers, Solid state drives (SSd's), PHP7, 1-click Cloudlfare CDN and HTTP/2 servers.
Also the use of SG optimizer plugin and SuperCacher will make your site lightning fast. (you save atleast $50 on expensive caching plugins being sold in the market)
They use the latest PHP version (which other companies have still not implemented)
SiteGround has PHP7 support, which is faster than all the other PHP releases. You are also given the option to enable HHVM for the cloud hosting plan that can help you to experience blazing fast speeds.
SiteGround has also employed a multitude of speed optimization software such as NGINX server setup, that can increase the loading speed of the static content of your website by streamlining the data.
Instead of making a separate account and then learning the complexities of implementing a CDN for your site, Siteground offers one click cloudflare implementation. This is benefitial especially for beginners.
Reason 5: Customer Support
After building hundreds of sites online, now I know the importance of skilled and prompt customer care.
SiteGround offers a 24/7, 365-days live chat support irrespective of the plans you choose, and they are available on the calls any time of the day in any time zone. But then, which hosting platform today doesn't provide the same?
Well, although most hosting platforms promise excellent support, the reality is that it is not always the case.
Some even use automated chats to give answers that aren't relevant. This has become a huge problem for companies around the world as more and more websites are hosted on sub-par platforms.
So, when times are tough, and you need help, SiteGround's customer executives have been known to be professional, always available, and prompt in getting the right solutions.
This is arguably the best reason why you should opt for SiteGround hosting solutions.
The technical support of SiteGround is world-class. The company has employed some of the best customer service agents who are not just super-responsive, but also extremely knowledgeable. The team approximately manages nearly 1500+ tickets, 800+ phone calls and 2000+ chats every day.
The 300-odd customer support team can assist in English, Italian, and Spanish, catering to a wide array of audiences. An official survey by the company states that nearly 98% of the clients were satisfied with the support team in 2018.
Reason 6: Quick Server Response Time & Guaranteed 99.99% Uptime
Server response time is nothing but the time taken by the server to respond to a request to deliver the data to the screens. The server response time recommended by Google is 200 ms. The worldwide average of websites hosted by SiteGround has an average server response time of 129.8 ms.
A weak server response time makes the HTML document load slower, which in turn will make the browser helpless to know what other resources will be required to load the page correctly. With such a quick server response time, the websites hosted on SiteGround will never face any loading issues.
Uptime is the amount of time a system or service is available for use. Higher uptime indicates an extremely robust system and also advanced error monitoring capabilities. SiteGround guarantees 99.99% uptime, but according to a report, since 2014, the uptime has been a staggering 100%.
They achieve such a high uptime by using a reliable Linux server to build their platform. They also have an excellent server monitoring system that keeps track of the server in real-time, unlike other companies that monitor only on an interval.
For individuals or businesses that rely on their website for leads or revenue generation, website uptime is a critical feature.
The longer your website is down, the more business you lose! Uptime is to ensure that your site is never down, and unreachable for your visitors so you can keep providing your services without interruptions.
Even the most professional websites in the market have an average downtime of 3-hours a month, and this has led to an average loss of business of $10.6M per year. In such a scenario, a premium hosting solution like SiteGround proves to be the differentiator.
Not only is the uptime great for boosting SEO, but it also assures you that your site is always open for your visitors, which could help save you from business losses. The platform has an uptime of 99.9990%, one of the best in the industry.
Reason 7: Secure & Use of Control Panel
If you haven't noticed it lately, you'll get a notification on most browsers about accessing a website that is HTTP. Most browsers recommend accessing only HTTPs pages since they are more secure, and it could result in losing out customers.
SiteGround SSL certificate will immediately activate the padlock and get your website the HTTPs version, ensuring it is highly secure and fully encrypted. This is essential if you are using the site to process the online transaction and to safeguard your customer's data from falling into the wrong hands.
Secure: Free SSL Encrption Certificate in SiteGround
SiteGround, additionally, also ensures hands-on safety from vulnerabilities by facilitating daily backup, auto-update of plugins, and prompt support in case something not in the alignment.
The sites hosted by SiteGround are incredibly secure, thanks to the various initiatives taken by SiteGround to keep the data and websites of its customers safe. One such initiative is the usage of AI in the form of a bot to tackle any brute force attacks.
It is believed that this bot stops anywhere between 500,000 to 2,000,000 brute force attacks on SiteGround sites every hour.
They also use a unique isolation system for all their websites that makes it impossible for hackers to break into your website even if another website on the same server is compromised. Each website works only in its instance, which increases server stability.
SiteGround also offers a free SSL encryption certificate, which is quite essential these days as cyber-attacks are on the rise. On top of it, Google gives a better score to those sites with an SSL certificate. Thus, your site can secure a higher page rank in Google than a website with no SSL certificate.
Control Panel
The cPanel is the heart of any web-hosting service, and the case is no different for SiteGround.
What differentiates a good cPanel from a bad cPanel is the ease of use and the availability of all the functions in it.
Considering that, the cPanel of SiteGround is one of the best in the industry.
Control Panel: cPanel Availability in SiteGround
It has an easy to use tabbed interface that has all the functionalities related to technical and billing support to manage your entire website.
Even beginners who do not have much experience with a cPanel can navigate around the cPanel of SiteGround with ease. The cPanel of SiteGround also includes Softaculous, which is a tool that lets you install hundreds of applications in a single click.
The tool also helps you to install a WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal site with ease.
Reason 8: Daily Backup
With most hosting platforms, you will get limited data backup or even be required to pay for the service. But with SiteGround, the cloud and shared hosting options come with daily backup for free.
This may not seem important initially, but in case of any issues, data backup is crucial as it ensures there is no data loss. Data is the most important commodity in digital business, so having a safety net to catch your website’s fall is foremost requirement for its smooth run.
The disaster recovery also helps to restore the website in case of any complications. SiteGround’s cloud and shared hosting options let you backup your data daily. So, customers need not to worry about the loss of data due to any server crash.
Also, there is no need to start everything from scratch, as you can use the backup to restore the data from the point of crash. The backup is done automatically, and the data of the past 30 days are stored. You can choose the day of restoration too in the cPanel.
For example, if you wish to restore the data of the 10th day from today, you can do that with ease. The best part is that you can backup data up to 7 days from a cloud-hosted account, which is considered quite a complicated process.
Many hosting providers haven’t implemented this functionality, owing to the difficulty in achieving it. The entire backup and restoration processes are free of cost. All you have to do is raise a ticket with the support desk, and the system will be restored in minutes.
Reason 9: Free Site Migration
If you are already using a hosting platform, migrating to a new one can be a very tough process! It is difficult to migrate a website from one web host to another, especially if you're not a tech-savvy person.
This is one of the major reasons why most people stick to their primary hosting platform even if it is not up to their standards. But with SiteGround, you can easily avail free site transfer facility.
The SiteGround Migrator plugin is excellent to migrate your existing site onto the platform and allows users to migrate as many websites as they want. Do you have an account with another web hosting provider and wish to transfer it to SiteGround? If so, then it is straightforward and simple.
The migration is also free for every new account that you create with SiteGround. To migrate, all you have to do is fill up a migration request form and provide access to the cPanel account to the customer support team and wait.
The SiteGround team will handle the rest and finish the migration in less than 24 hours. They log into your old cPanel and back up all the data and deploy the same in the SiteGround’s cPanel in the short time.
Reason 10: Transparent & Optimized for WordPress
Transparent
Every customer would like to work with a solution provider who is transparent in all aspects. SiteGround has kept transparency as one of its core principles and has thus kept the signup process extremely simple.
They have clearly displayed all their plans and their prices without any hidden charges, a trait seldom found with most service providers. They have even put the IP addresses of all their data centres on their site, which can help you test the speeds from your location.
This can be done even without signing up for an account. Only after you get the confidence in their service, you need to sign up for an account and make a payment.
Optimized for WordPress
If you are planning to build a website on WordPress, then look no further than SiteGround for your hosting needs. SiteGround’s infrastructure is completely optimized to host WordPress sites, and they understand well what works best for WordPress.
SuperCacher, which is an in-built WordPress caching solution, is an excellent addition to SiteGround features. SiteGround also helps you in installing WordPress in a single click and a few minutes in the cPanel.
Lastly, your WordPress will be auto-updated by SiteGround to ensure that the performance is never affected due to outdated software.
Reason 11: Money Back Guarantee & Easy for Beginners
Pricing and Money Back Guarantee
Though the pricing of SiteGround may be slightly higher than some of the counterparts, it is justified due to the exceptional quality of services and a wide array of features it offers.
The money-back-guarantee is also a good deal for those who want to try the service of SiteGround, and if not 100% satisfied, they will get the entire amount refunded. This is always better than offering a trial version with limited features that will not give you a perfect picture of how the service is.
Easy to Use for Beginners
Starting in the blogging industry can be a hugely daunting task, as it all looks very complicated almost like you have a whole new language to learn. If you are a new blogger or entrepreneur who is looking to set up the website on your own, SiteGround offers an experience like no other.
It provides one-click installation, website builder, automatic backups, free site migration services, and excellent support in case you need anything. The usability of the hosting platform is simple and can be easier to master, especially for non-techies who are novice to do hosting.
The best part is that it removes the hassles of maintaining and continuous monitoring with automated processes that are perfect for bloggers and business owners.
Reason 12: Quick Server Response Time
Server response time is the amount of time it takes for your server to respond to a particular request before it starts delivering content onto your device.
This becomes crucial when users come pouring in your website and each action they take puts pressure on the system.
With a worldwide average of 129.8ms, SiteGround's servers perform beyond expectations and use the closest data centres to pick information for maximum impact. This is where SiteGrounds data centres come into play. The hosting platform has data centres in multiple locations, such as:
With Google Cloud Integration, SiteGround allows you to even pick and choose the best servers off multiple locations based on your target audience, making it highly optimized for your ideal customers.
Reason 13: Officially Recommended by WordPress, Joomla, Drupal
If you are a WordPress user, using SiteGround will only make a lot more sense. The hosting platform is recommended by Joomla and Drupal as well, and provides excellent speeds and one-click installations.
This ability to offer a specialized installation and security features to websites that run on WordPress and other platforms makes it ideal for bloggers and businesses that are using these services.
Reason 14: Powered by Google Cloud
SiteGround adopted the Google Cloud platform on January 1, 2020, which offers robust and technically-superior hosting features.
Google's SSD persistent storage helps tackle multiple redundancies and on the rare occasions that the hosting server crashes, allows you to shift it to a new virtual machine or another hosting note within the cloud. This helps to have low down-time and restores backup easily.
The platform is also powered by 100% renewable energy and provides higher efficiency by maintaining a state-of-the-art network.
Reason 15: One of the Rare Non-EIG Company
For those who are unaware, Endurance International Group (EIG) is a Burlington, Massachusetts-based company, known for its silent takeovers of some of the largest web hosting companies in the industry.
To date, EIG has control of over 60 web hosting brands, that includes the top players like BlueHost, HostGator, HostMonster, and others.
Predominantly, this strategy is to keep a dissatisfied customer to continue doing business with the same organization without even realizing it(since if he shifts from one EIG host platform to another, EIG still makes money).
Such a practice creates a powerful monopoly that is the bane of a free market and prohibits the consumer from having any better options. It also makes it very difficult for new enterprises to enter the competition.
SiteGround is actively standing against such malpractice by staying independent and providing high-quality services that are even better than the competition!
Other Basic information about SiteGround:
SiteGround is one of the popular web hosting companies in the world currently.
It was formed in Sofia, Bulgaria, which is rightly called the ‘Silicon Valley of Europe.’
The company was launched in 2004, and today, they have grown into a company with employee strength of nearly 400 people and offices in various countries and data centres in 5 continents.
Over the years, the company has won various awards and rave reviews from popular sites, but their most remarkable achievement was its endorsement by WordPress.
They have become the official WordPress-recommended host providers, owing to world-class support, high speed, and security solutions.
Apart from their WordPress expertise, SiteGround is also known for its optimized hosting for Joomla and Drupal websites.
They also support e-commerce platforms like Magento and PrestaShop.
SiteGround offers three plans, called StartUp, GrowBig, and GoGeek, which typically cover all types of users and needs.
The three plans differ in terms of the storage size offered, cache service, and the availability of advanced features such as Git repositories, Payment Card Industry compliant servers, which are crucial for setting up an e-commerce store.
Starting a blog or a website of your own? Or you already have a functioning website but wish to shift it to a different hosting platform? In all such scenarios, the hosting platform plays a crucial role in the success of your site since it impacts Search Engine Optimization (SEO), uptime, performance, and more.
With a host of platforms available today, making the right choice and selecting the one that's best suited for your needs is tough. However, this is a hosting platform that can function optimally for almost any specification, whether it is a simple blog, a product website, or a large business page.
SiteGround a hosting platform is extravagant due to its innovative approach, as it comes with the latest PHP 7.3 and a free SSL certificate on offer (discover in the blog why these are crucial to your website ranking). The independent web-hosting company was founded in 2004 in Bulgaria.
The hosting platform serves audiences worldwide and has data centres in the USA, Amsterdam, UK, and Singapore. SiteGround also has a very active community and hosts many events that are known in the industry, and gives you 24/7 support.
Today, the company has more than 400 employees and hosts more than 500,000 domains. So, is this the ideal web hosting platform for your website? Here is a detailed review of the top 15 reasons behind selecting SiteGround for your hosting needs:
Conclusion
SiteGround is one of the best web hosting providers in the market currently. Especially, if you have a WordPress website, then SiteGround is the ideal choice. The features highlighted in this post are more than sufficient to come to that conclusion.
Out of all the above features, two features that catapult the SiteGround to the top of the list is the speed of the hosted site and the superior customer support. Most service providers offer only a few of these features and not all, due to the complexities and costs involved in implementing them.
SiteGround has kept customers at the core of their business and has invested significantly to keep them 100% satisfied with their service.
