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What is SiteGround web hosting? Features, Pricing, Plans and more

If you are looking to start a blog or a website, the first two things that you will be looking to invest in is

  • Reliable web hosting
  • Good domain name

And without these two, you cannot start building your website. If you are new to the online world and are wondering what is web hosting and domain name then let me tell you briefly about it.

A domain name is basically the name of your website followed by an extension that is relevant to your business like .com, .org, .net and more. When a user types in this domain name in the address bar of the browser, it will take them to your website.

For example- If you type bloggingunplugged.com in the browser’s address bar, it will take you to the homepage of this blog. And from there you can navigate to any part of the website.

Having said that,

Web hosting is a service that enables you to publish your website on the world wide web. When you buy this service, the company provides you with a rented space on its server where you can store all your website related files be it text, code or media.

Now, whenever a user makes a request, it is completed by the server by displaying the requested page.

Both web hosting and domain name go hand in hand and as mentioned above without one or the other you cannot build a website.

And this does mean you have to buy these services from the same company. The service providers can be different.

Having said that,

In this article, we will be discussing everything you need to know about a very popular web hosting company and that is SiteGround.

I’m sure you would have heard about this company a few times. SiteGround has been a top choice for many because of the performance and incredible support. And below is a list of topics we will be covering in this article.

Let’s start off with the article.

About SiteGround

SiteGround is one of the best web hosting companies in the market today and was founded in 2004 by Tenko Nikolou in Sofia Bulgaria.

The company had humble beginnings as it was started in a dorm room and since then SiteGround has grown leaps and bounds and is a front runner in the market.

Initially, SiteGround had over 33000 competitors offering the same product at a very similar price, and to become an industry leader SiteGround had to offer something better.

And this is exactly what they did. Currently, SiteGround hosts over 2 million domains, is home to over 500 employees and is rated as one of the best today.

On top of that, SiteGround is one of the three hosting providers on the WordPress.org recommendation list which is a huge accomplishment in itself.

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SiteGround Data Centers

When it comes to speed and performance of your website, the location of the data center where your site is hosted matters.

Why?

Because if your site is hosted on a data center in America and you are trying to target audience in Asia then users can face performance related issues while visiting your website due to high network latency.

And that is why it is always recommended that you choose a data center that is nearest to the user base you are serving.

Keeping this in mind, currently, SiteGround has 6 data center locations across the globe in

  • IOWA (USA)
  • London (UK)
  • Eemshaven (NL)
  • Frankfurt (DE)
  • Singapore (SG)
  • Sydney (AU)
siteground data centers
SiteGround Data Centers

Now, some of you may be thinking with so few data centers wouldn’t there be latency issues?

To solve this problem and to further optimize speed, performance, and security, SiteGround offers free Cloudflare CDN with its network spanning over 90 countries and 194 cities worldwide.

This will ensure better speed by completing the requests from the nearest locations. And the best part is you can enable Cloudflare in SiteGround with just a few clicks.

SiteGround Features

Now that you know a little bit about SiteGround and its data center locations, the next topic we are going to discuss is the features it offers.

And the first one on the list is

Speed and Performance

When it comes to running and managing a website, page speed plays an important role. It directly impacts the user experience and your rankings on search engines.

Having said that,

One of the USP’s of Siteground is the speed and performance it offers. Personally speaking. I have been using SiteGround for a while now and I can definitely say, just like me you will have no complaints when it comes to performance of your blog or website.

Also see- Blog vs Website

With SiteGround always searching for possible ways to improve performance, the company recently announced using Google Cloud to host a part of its infrastructure.

The Google Cloud locations that SiteGround is already using are

  • IOWA (USA)
  • Eemshaven (NL)
  • London (UK)
  • Singapore (SG)

If you have recently signed up with SiteGround and your site is hosted in the above-mentioned data centers then you are already hosted on Google Cloud.

Slowly SiteGround will be moving all of its infrastructure on Cloud and to keep up with the latest updates on this you can visit SiteGround’s blog.

On top of that, as mentioned above SiteGround offers free Cloudflare CDN that ensures better loading times by completing requests from nearest location.

Another part of SiteGround’s infrastructure that plays an important role in performance optimization is its SuperCacher technology.

SuperCacher is the caching solution developed by SiteGround exclusively for its customers and it helps sites manage the number of hits it can take seamlessly which helps boosts site speed.

According to SiteGround, if a website is using this service then it can handle 100 times more hits than a site without any caching.

In this service, there are 3 caching options

  • NGINX Direct Delivery
  • Direct Delivery
  • Memcached
supercacher in siteground
SiteGround SuperCacher

I’m using this service on one of my sites and the performance is better than I expected.

While we are discussing cache solutions, it is important to know SiteGround has its own cache plugin known as SG Optimizer that gives you access to features such as

  • Lazy Load
  • Defering render blocking JS
  • Optimizing loading of Google Fonts
  • Generating and managing copies Webp images

And more using which you can further optimize page speed.

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Security

Security is an important part of building a website. Think about a scenario where you visit a website and see NOT SECURED on the browser address bar or instead of showing you the actual web page it redirects you to a shady website or displays random gibberish on the page.

  • Would you like to stay and further browser this website?
  • Will you share your email or any other information?
  • What about its first impression?

I don’t think so any of us would like to stay or share any information on such a website and as far as the first impression is concerned, I don’t think there is much to say about it anyways.

Keeping this in mind, it important that you choose a hosting provider that prioritizes security.

And SiteGround is one such hosting company where there is a

  • Specialized securities team that addresses any security related concerns.
  • Devops team for creating security solutions
  • System Admin team to keep an eye on the platform 24/7

On top of that SiteGround offers features such as free daily backups, free SSL certificates, Cloudflare CDN, AI anti-bot for blocking malicious traffic and more.

Site Tools

In July 2019, SiteGround announced the release of its new and improved interface that will be used to build and manage websites.

This interface is known as Site Tools and is a huge upgrade over cPanel.

new user interface siteground
SiteGround Site Tools

The new interface is very systematically laid out and it makes the job of managing a website less daunting for beginners.

On top of that the new interface is a single page application built using React which makes it faster to work with and mobile friendly.

mobile friendly user interface by siteground
accessing SiteGround site tools using mobile device

This means you can manage your site and hosting using any device. Also, to help with accessibility, SiteGround has created high contrast themes for visual accessibility. Here you get 4 options to choose from.

visual accessibility in siteground
High Contrast themes SiteGround site tools

And you can select one depending on your requirements.

While we are on the topic of accessibility, it is important to know both the Client Area and Site Tools are compatible with popular screen reader software like JAWS, NVDA and Voice over.

Before we move forward, it is important to know SiteGround is currently in the process of moving existing customers to new interface.

However, if you sign up with SiteGround now, you will get access to the new interface instantly.

Uptime

Another factor that impacts your online presence is Up-time. Think about a scenario where you visit a website looking for some information and you find its down.

What happens next is it creates a negative impression as you were unable to find the information you were looking for.

And in worst case scenarios it can lead to loss of income.

In case you are wondering what causes a website to experience downtime then let me tell you there are a few reasons due to which this can happen. However, the leading contributor is using poor quality web hosting solution.

As web hosting is one of the foundational elements of your website, it is recommended that you go for a reputed hosting company like SiteGround.

SiteGround guarantee’s 99.9% network uptime on an annual basis and in case this falls below this point then you will be compensated

  • 1 month free hosting for 99.9% to 99.0% uptime.
  • An additional 1 month of free hosting for every 1% of uptime lost below 99%.

And all of this is mentioned on the SiteGround’s Terms of Service.

siteground uptime guarantee
SiteGround Terms of Service

Talking about reputation of SiteGround, as mentioned before it is recommended by WordPress and it has 4.8/5 stars on TrustPilot.

siteground reviews on trustpilot
SiteGround’s rating on TrustPilot

Personally speaking, I have been using and recommending SiteGround for around a year now and I can definitely say its worth the investment.

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Customer Support

One of the reasons behind SiteGround’s immense success is its customer support. SiteGround offers multiple channels for support such as.

  • 24/7 Live chat
  • Phone support
  • Help desk tickets

On top of that Siteground has a strong knowledge base that is pinned on top of every page you visit.

For example, If you are in the backups manager and are looking for a quick solution then all you have to do is click Question icon on top and it will automatically show you tutorials related to this section. See the below screenshot for referrence.

quick help in siteground
Quick help in Siteground

In addition to this, SiteGround has a Smart AI chat bot and automated solutions that will help you resolve issues in the fastest way possible by providing a ready solution that has been tried and tested before.

As mentioned before, SiteGround is known for its customer support and each year their customer satisfaction rates are close to 100% with 90% of problems being resolved in first contact.

I have been using SiteGround for a while now and the problems have been resolved in a few minutes. In my experience, the customer support staff is extremely helpful, patient and educating which is a huge plus.

See- Unbiased SiteGround web hosting review

Now that we know about SiteGround, the next topic we are going to discuss is

Siteground Pricing and Plans

SiteGround is a web hosting company that has been in the market for around a decade and a half. And with time SiteGround has diversified the services it offers. Currently SiteGround provides

  • Shared Web Hosting
  • Managed Web Hosting
  • Managed Woo-Commerce Hosting
  • Cloud Hosting
  • Reseller Hosting
  • Enterprise Hosting
  • Hosting for Agencies
  • Student Web Hosting

Below I have briefly explained what features are included in each of these services along with the plans.

Fast and Secure SiteGround Web Hosting

Fast and Secure web hosting is the shared hosting service offered by SiteGround for personal and business websites regardless of the platform or CMS you are using.

This means if your site is created using WordPress, Joomla, Magento or any other CMS or even if its just HTML/ CSS then this is the hosting for you.

SiteGround Shared Hosting Pricing and Plans
SiteGround Shared Hosting Pricing and Plans

SiteGround Managed WordPress Hosting

As the name suggests, the Managed WordPress hosting by SiteGround is specially crafted for self-hosted WordPress websites.

Unlike the general web hosting that we have discussed above, this web hosting solution is only for WordPress sites and comes with features such as

  • Fast WordPress launch
  • Easy website transfer
  • Managed security and updates
  • Powerful cache plugin

And more

SiteGround WordPress hosting plans
SiteGround WordPress hosting plans

WooCommerce Hosting by SiteGround

Just like Managed WordPress hosting, Woo-Commerce WordPress hosting by SiteGround is for eCommerce stores created using Woo-Commerce.

The plans offered are very similar to what we have discussed above. However, as this hosting service is meant for creating online stores, it comes with Woo-Commerce pre-installed.

siteground wordpress hosting plans
SiteGround WooCommerce hosting plans

SiteGround Cloud Hosting

If you have an established website or in other words have outgrown your shared or WordPress managed plans then Cloud hosting is for you.

With Cloud hosting, you get access to

  • Dedicated resources for better performance
  • Fully Managed service
  • Easy scaling with growth
  • Easy management of sub-accounts
SiteGround Managed Cloud hosting plans
SiteGround Managed Cloud hosting plans

Reseller Hosting by SiteGround

SiteGround reseller hosting lets you build and manage multiple websites. You can add collaborators to manage websites or in case you are reselling hosting solutions then you attribute your clients as users and give them white label access to the Site Tools.

SiteGround reseller hosting plans
SiteGround reseller hosting plans

SiteGround Enterprise Hosting

If you are in the market looking for customized web hosting solution for your business then Enterprise web hosting by SiteGround is for you.

In this service, you can get in touch with the SiteGround team by filling a form and they will design a custom solution catering to your needs specifically.

And the best part is it will be fully managed by SiteGround.

Web hosting for Agencies by SiteGround

If you offer website design and development services and want to build, ship and manage sites seamlessly then this is the service for you.

SiteGround’s web hosting for agencies lets you create and manage with easily from a single dashboard. This service also lets you add your team as collaborators and manage permissions easily.

As far as delivering sites is concerned, you can transfer the ownership with ease in just a few clicks.

Also, just like Reseller hosting, this service allows you to add clients as users and give them white label access to Site Tools.

Web hosting for Agencies by SiteGround
Web hosting for Agencies by SiteGround

Student Web Hosting by SiteGround

If you are a student and looking to create a WordPress blog, website, or upload your resume then SiteGround’s Student web hosting is for you.

The plans offered are pocket friendly and include all the features of a regular plan. To get started, all you need is a valid university email.

Kindly note: As of right now SiteGround has stopped this services

How to buy hosting from SiteGround

Now that you know everything about SiteGround’s pricing and plans, the next step is to sign up with SiteGround.

And for that, you need to visit SiteGround.com using our special link and get a 70% discount.

Once you are on SiteGround’s homepage, all you have to do is select the service that you want to go for.

hosting services offered by siteground
Web hosting services by SiteGround

And in the next step choose a plan based on your requirements. When you select a plan, it will take you to a new page where you will have to enter the domain name.

add a domain name in SiteGround
add a domain name in SiteGround

If you already have a domain name the select “I already have a domain name ” then add the domain name in the space provided and click Proceed.

In case you do not have a domain name then you have 2 options

I will suggest you go with the latter as it will save you money. After purchasing, add the domain name in the space provided, click Proceed and it will take you to a new page where

  • You need to create an account on SiteGround
  • Provide contact information
  • Complete the payment process

For a detailed tutorial on this you can visit How to sign up with SiteGround

Once you are done buying hosting the next step is to

What is SiteGround- Frequently Asked Questions

Is SiteGround legit?

Yes, SiteGround is a 100% legit company. As mentioned in this article several times, it is recommended by WordPress.org and an organization as reputed as WordPress wouldn’t recommended anything that is sub standard.

Also, I have been using SiteGround for a while now and I’m very satisfied with the service.

What is SiteGround used for?

SiteGround is one of the best web hosting companies in the market and it is used for launching/ publishing websites.

Does SiteGround offer free domain?

No, SiteGround does not offer a free domain name. However, you can buy one from SiteGround at $15.95/ year which is pretty steep.

It is important to know other domain name registrars offer domain names at better prices and for that, you can check this amazing 99 cents .com domain name deal.

Does SiteGround offer any discount?

Yes, you can get a 66% discount on SiteGround using our SPECIAL LINK. Keep in mind this is an introductory offer and that means the renewal costs will be higher.

Also, SiteGround offers up to 75% off on its plans during Black Friday and Cyber Monday and I will link it down below.

SiteGround Black Friday Deal
SiteGround Summer Sale
SiteGround Cyber Monday Sale

Having said that,

I hope you now know what is SiteGround and what exactly it does. In case you have queries related to this then feel free to reach out via comment section and social media and I will be happy to help.

Also, if you find this article helpful then share it with your friends and colleagues on social media.

Before you leave, feel free to check the best deals and discounts on Blogging tools and our WordPress Glossary. Also, to stay up to date with our content, Join our Facebook group, sign up for our newsletter below and follow us on social media.

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