Recently I had to change my hosting company to one that provided premium features suitable for websites getting around 5000 visitors a day. After days of research, I ended up selecting SiteGround that seemed pretty ideal for all my requirements. Unlike other hosting platforms, SiteGround is not meant for the casual blog owner, even though they provide a range of hosting plans.

The company primarily aims at the top 10-30% of the websites that get high traffic and therefore expect maximum server uptime with premium support. All the hosting plans also reflect their extensive attempt to help seasoned web administrators make the most out of their hosting plans.

Its target customers are small businesses and fast growing start-ups that expect a definite number of visitors every month. Although it doesn’t have a site builder, it makes up for it with its helpful guides and popups that lead you to build any type of website you want. Fortunately, it doesn’t complicate the whole setup process and is therefore ideal for the less tech savvy site owner or administrator.

How fast is SiteGround Hosting?

After moving from a shared hosting plan to one which seemed more like a plan for premium level websites, I was eager to test all possible features provided by SiteGround. I was surprised to find that SiteGround allowed users to embed the Google Page Speed module on their apache servers to ensure higher page speed in comparison to other web hosts.

Most web hosting companies did not allow this feature to avoid complications in setup and deployment. However, I have never encountered any problems with the page speed module since I deployed my website. However, developers and administrators must careful while setting up Page Speed as higher the aggressiveness they expect, the more is the probability of their site getting unstable in production environments.

SiteGround Performance Uptime and Tariff Plans

The performance of the server depends on the type of hosting plan. All its plans are highly priced and each of them offer exceptional services for website administrators all the while keeping the administration process easy enough for newbies. Its basic hosting plan i.e. the Start-up Plan generally costs $9.95 per month but is now available at $3.95.

It’s ideal for most beginner users as they can host a small blog, corporate website or any other less resource consuming website. Fortunately, SiteGround allows users to even run small ecommerce websites which most hosting companies disallow due to their high resource consuming configuration.

Your website can easily handle up to 10,000 visitors per day and still remain up for casual use. However you will have to upgrade to the next higher plan if the number of visitors increases beyond the threshold.

The next higher plan is GrowBig that allows users to host multiple small websites or one large website that get a lot of visitors. It costs only $7.95/month and is ideal for existing websites that have already gained a significant number of customers.

The next rung is GoGeek that is also the costliest shared hosting plan offered by the company. It costs $14.95 per month but comes with ideal features for any tech savvy programmer who needs compete control over his hosting plan. It is ideal for users who want to develop custom applications as it comes with numerous VPS level features that allow  development right on the server. All the hosting plans come with specially configured premium WordPress and Joomla CMS’s that already have the necessary plugins needed to run powerful enough websites.  The below benchmark tests demonstrate the performance of the server over a period.

Does SiteGround Hosting Have Any Security Features?

SiteGround unlike most hosting companies is popular for the varied types of security features embedded in its hosting platform. Along with server backups and SSL protection, the company utilizes numerous other security measures against DDOS attacks and SQL injection through external plugins and server scripts that lack in most hosting companies.

As the Google Page speed module increases the instability of the website, the server provides additional support through custom scripts in case of website downtime or any external attacks.  They also have a unique server script that minimizes server downtime while automatically carrying out necessary maintenance tasks including security reviews.

Their excellent customer support along with prescheduled necessary server maintenance downtime allows users to prepare for the worse even in case of high traffic websites.  Users can also enable HackAlert for $1 per month to remain updated about any attempts of spamming or hacking the website. Along with the above, SiteGround is integrated with Cloudflare for increased functionality and performance.

How is SiteGround Customer Support?

SiteGround is mainly popular for its excellent customer support. It offers both phone and email support that users in any corner of the world can avail.  The website also has a 24X7 live chat support that is perhaps the best in the industry. Users often face problems with hosting service support teams due to their lack of technical skills and inability to cooperate. However, the excellent cooperation and in-depth knowledge of the support team at SiteGround has often been praised by customers.

One customer has quoted the following on hosting review website WebHostingHero, “We do quite a bit of technically complex, optimization-centered work on our website. As a result, we probably rely on SG more than the average regular-website customer. Still, SG consistently provides excellent feedback and support, and works with us to address questions and resolves issues.” The support team is ideal for both beginners and website development experts and thus is ideal for all types of hosting customers.

What are SiteGround’s Advantages and Disadvantages over other hosting companies?

SiteGroud has numerous advantages over its competitors but with quality comes higher costs. Therefore their hosting plans are priced higher than most hosing companies. Although the company is providing discounted rates at present, there is no guarantee it will provide its services at cheaper prices in the future. Moreover, the company is particularly strict about usage limits and often forces users to upgrade when their resources cross their bought limits. This is often a problem with users who tend to have sudden spikes in the number of visitors while remain average or at the low end of resource consumption most of the hosting period.

The plans provide additional advertising credits and shopping carts so that users can easily start selling without any problem. Unfortunately, the company doesn’t provide any toll free number as Hostgator does in its high priced shared hosting plans.

SiteGround doesn’t charge for any domain migration fee but the cost of server setup is $14.95 per month is you are hosting for less than 12 months. For yearly or multi-year prepaid plans, users get a number of features like money-back guarantee and premium support for free.

SiteGround offers a 30-day money back guarantee which is often not that bad when compared to other hosting companies. Each hosting plan also comes with unlimited email address with an easy to use and configure interface.

Conclusion

SiteGround is one of the top hosting companies with an excellent customer support and easy to use website interface. However, the bunch of features provided by the company is hardly used by most beginners. Therefore the rise in cost could have been controlled by excluding these unused features. Its excellent security is ideal for any small or medium web based businesses that expect better security measures. Therefore, if you are a newbie to hosting and want to build a powerful blog or ecommerce website with enough features and page speed, SiteGround is the ideal hosting company for you. Others can also benefit from their services but the charges and strict constraints on resource usage may present a constraint for a lot of customers looking for flexibility.