SiteGround Hosting Review: High Renewal Prices Okay? ([year])

Ease of Use

I would rate the ease of use of SiteGround at 4.1 out of 5.

Here's why:

• Big icons and a clear menu on the left pane make navigation simple, even for beginners.
• While the setup process is straightforward, some users might find the number of steps to get started a bit overwhelming.
• This wizard balances between being a boon for beginners and a slight hindrance for advanced users.

Its user-friendly interface, combined with a well-designed setup wizard, makes it an excellent choice for both beginners and experienced users.

While the initial setup process may seem a bit extensive, the clear instructions and easy navigation more than compensate for this minor inconvenience.

User Interface

Darrel made a lot of videos in the past that feature SiteGround and how to set up everything from the start.

Anyway, the dashboard of the client area looks like this:

The interface looks good, with a modern accent, big icons, and menu items on the left pane, making things easy to find.

From this page, you will be able to:

• Open the pinned tools directly
• Check the site information
• Go to different features

For new websites, you can see the installation under the install and manage WordPress page in the client area.

Like in here:

This page will give you information about your installations, like the current version of WordPress, and to log in directly to the admin panel.

Hosting Environment/Setup

If you start from scratch, creating a new website is easy since SiteGround has a setup wizard that will walk you through the process.

Right after selecting a plan, you will be able to choose a domain for your website:

You will then need to complete and review your order and create an account as well.

SiteGround will provide you with instructions in every step of the process, which is perfect for newbies trying to set up their new website.

After logging in for the first time, you will be able to set up your site, which starts with confirming the domain name:

From there, you will be able to select the application to install, which obviously is WordPress, though you can skip this process entirely.

If you skip this process, you will be able to install WordPress easily through the dashboard with the install and manage WordPress tool. 🙂

Best Features

My rating here is 4.0 out of 5.

Here’s why:

• SiteGround offers an extensive range of features, even in the lowest plan.
• Some advanced features like ultrafast PHP implementation are only accessible on higher-tier plans.
• SiteGround's security features are strong, with automated daily backups, unique account isolation, and anti-hack systems.

The inclusion of many features in the lowest plan adds excellent value, making it a strong choice for beginners and budget-conscious users.

However, some advanced features being restricted to higher-tier plans slightly detract from the perfect score.

⚠️ Note: If you’re looking for what each hosting plan brings to the table, you can find them in the pricing section of this review as what I’ll be talking about here are hosting features.

Here are some notable features of SiteGround:

1. Essential features

SiteGround has a lot of interesting features, with most of them present even in the lowest plan available. 🙂

In terms of what they call “essential” features, I find it interesting that SiteGround offers free unlimited email accounts.

This comes with up to 10 GB of account space and provides you with the capability to use forwarders and aliases.

Besides that, they also offer other features like:

• Free email migrator
• Unlimited MySQL DB
• Friendly site tools

If you’re transferring from another web host and you’re worried about your emails, the migrator tool is great for transferring over your email accounts.

2. Security features

Security is one of the most important elements of a great web hosting service since naturally, we want to protect our websites.

Thankfully, SiteGround has a lot of such features, with my favorite being the automated daily backup feature.

The daily backups will run for 30 days back, so you have at least four weeks to restore your website in case something happens.

Besides this, they also have other security features such as:

• Unique account isolation
• Anti-hack systems
• Spam protection

SiteGround also has an advanced on-demand backup system where you can create an instant backup — though this is only available from the middle tier plan upwards.

3. Performance boosters

As you will see later on, SiteGround is indeed reliable and will give you some of the best possible performance.

This is thanks to its performance boosters, with all except for one, being available even in the lowest plan.

A good example of this is the free CDN that comes with each account:

This feature enables websites to load faster anywhere in the world by caching its content and distributing it over numerous data centers.

Besides this feature, SiteGround also offers:

• Customized server setup
• HTTP/2 enabled servers
• SuperCacher

The one I’m referring to that’s not available in the lowest plan is the ultrafast PHP implementation that can make pages load up to 30% faster.

Reliability

I would rate its reliability at 4.0 out of 5.

Here’s why:

• SiteGround boasts an impressive uptime of 99.99% over the past year, with only an hour of downtime.
• SiteGround doesn’t provide a system status page but instead, they send notifications in the client area about updates and maintenance.
• SiteGround's performance grade of 76/100 and average load time of 1.73 seconds are decent but not the best compared to competitors.

While the lack of a system status page is a minor drawback, the client area notifications help keep users informed about maintenance.

SiteGround's performance scores and load time are solid, even if not the highest, making it a highly reliable web hosting provider.

Performance

Before anything else, for the performance, I actually keep track of around 20 web hosts that Darrel uses in his hosting videos.

In terms of uptime, SiteGround was up 99.99% of the time for the past year — and it got a downtime of only an hour.

If you don’t know, that’s an amazing uptime and a super low downtime, and there’s only a handful of hosts that can do better.

For the page speed, SiteGround had an average load time of 1.73 seconds and got a 76/100 performance grade from Pingdom.

Now let’s compare SiteGround’s performance with the results from other well-known web hosting providers (1 year):

Web Host	Uptime	Downtime	Performance	Load Time
Siteground	99.99 %	1 hour	76/100	1.73 seconds
Bluehost	99.92 %	6 hours	75/100	6.72 seconds
Kinsta	99.99%	24 minutes	77/100	1.26 seconds
Hostinger	99.96 %	3 hours	84/100	1.32 seconds
Namehero	99.21%	1 day	77/100	11.25 seconds

You can see that SiteGround has some of the best scores around especially in uptime.

Its performance score and load time might not be the highest here, but its difference from the top ones is negligible in real life.

👉 Related: Hostinger Review: Budget-Friendly Hosting Powerhouse?

Updates and Maintenance

But how about updates and maintenance?

Unlike other web hosts, SiteGround doesn’t provide a system status page, but instead sends out notifications in the client area.

They specifically stated this in one of the articles:

These notifications will include:

• Details about the maintenance
• Expected duration
• What services are affected

There are two sides to this.

The first is that it’s convenient since in case there’s a maintenance, SiteGround will let you know directly in the client area.

On the downside, if SiteGround is down and includes the client area, having a system status page will help confirm which services are down.

Support

My rating here is a solid 4.0 out of 5.

Here’s why:

• SiteGround offers multiple ways to get in touch with customer service, including live chat, phone support, and helpdesk tickets.
• The process of contact support involves selecting a category and topic before being presented with contact options.
• The knowledge base and tutorials are well-written and include annotated images, providing valuable information for both beginners and advanced users.

The categorized contact flow, while organized, might feel a bit cumbersome for those seeking quick assistance.

Additionally, the comprehensive knowledge base and tutorials are excellent resources, though some content could benefit from more frequent updates.

Customer Service

SiteGround has some nice customer service options that are useful in helping solve issues that may arise.

If you log in to the client area, there’s a contact us page that looks like this:

The flow is a little different than what you would normally find from other hosts.

In SiteGround, you will have to select a category first, which can include:

• Transfer or set up a new site
• Domain
• Site is down
• Email

After you choose a category, you will have the select the most appropriate topic for what you’re requesting where SiteGround may also ask for more information.

They will then present you with some options to contact them:

There are usually three ways to get in touch with them:

• Live chat
• Phone support
• Helpdesk tickets

What I find unique about here is the fact that SiteGround offers phone support, which is great if you’re the type to panic.

Documentation/Knowledge Base

SiteGround’s knowledge base has two kinds:

• Tutorials
• Knowledge base

The tutorials deal more with setting things up and getting started with WordPress, email, and how to use some of their features.

Examples of topics here are:

• How to make a WordPress website
• How to install WordPress
• How to access SiteGround staging

On the other hand, the knowledge base deals more with answering some technical questions and how to fix some issues.

Some of the topics here are:

• How to point my website to SiteGround
• When will I be billed for renewal
• How to restore my database

As for the articles themselves, they’re all written well, with emphasis and links to other articles, and some of them include annotated images.

Here’s an example:

In the past, they used to publish podcast episodes as well in addition to tutorials and the knowledge base.

Their last episode though was on April 22, 2021, and they haven’t published anything new (though you can still access and listen to those episodes).

Pricing

My rating here is 3.9 out of 5.

Here’s why:

• SiteGround offers very attractive initial prices for its hosting plans.
• Renewal rates can be up to four times the discounted initial rates.
• SiteGround provides a wide range of hosting options, from shared and WordPress hosting to cloud and reseller hosting.

SiteGround stands out with its competitive initial pricing, making it a cost-effective choice for new users.

However, the high renewal rates are a significant drawback that users need to be aware of when planning for long-term use.

1. WordPress hosting

SiteGround’s WordPress hosting and web hosting share similar capacities and prices, and vary only in some WordPress-only features.

As you can see below, the lowest plan starts at a very low price:

The plans are:

• StartUp: Starting from $3.99/month
• GrowBig: Starting from $6.69/month
• GoGeek: Starting from $10.69/month

Except for the lowest one that only supports one website, the rest allow for unlimited websites to be hosted on SiteGround.

The websites though will share the storage, with the lowest having only 10 GB, the second twice that, and the highest having 40 GB storage.

Other freebies here include:

• Free SSL certificate
• Daily backup
• Free CDN and email
• Out-of-the-box caching

If you ask me, the best value is the middle plan (as usual) since it has middle capacities while being able to host unlimited websites.

⚠️ Note: Take note of the renewal prices. In this case, some of the renewal prices are easily 4x the discounted price.

2. Cloud hosting

If your website needs more resources, then it’s time to move out of shared hosting and on to cloud hosting.

The prices though are a little more expensive than what you can find from other hosts:

The plans are:

• Jump Start: Starting from $100/month
• Business: Starting from $200/month
• Business Plus: Starting from $300/month
• Super Power: Starting from $400/month

Cloud hosting in SiteGround starts from 4 CPU cores, 8 GB memory, 40 GB SSD space, and 5 TB data transfer.

On the bright side, the plans above aren’t set in stone since you can also build your own custom cloud according to the CPU, memory, and SSD space that you need.

For a quick reference on the prices, Hostinger’s cloud hosting starts at $8.89/month while in Nexcess, it starts from $52/month.

👉 Related: Nexcess Hosting Review: Justifying the Premium Costs?

3. Reseller hosting

If you’re a designer or a web developer and you want to resell hosting to your clients, SiteGround has some great reseller plans.

The price of the lowest plan is cheap during its first invoice:

The plans here are:

• GrowBig: Starting from $6.69/month
• GoGeek: Starting from $10.69/month
• Cloud: Starting from $100/month

Basically, the first two plans are similar to the last two WordPress hosting plans, with the same features and pricing.

The only difference here is that when you get the reseller hosting, you will be able to add collaborators who will get their own SiteGround accounts.

⚠️ Note: Take note of the renewal prices. In this case, some of the renewal prices are easily 4x the discounted price.

Money Back Guarantee/Refund

Does SiteGround offer any money-back guarantee?

Yes, they offer a money-back guarantee for their hosting services, and you can read about it on their knowledge base.

Here’s more information on their refund policy:

• Shared hosting plans have a 30-day money-back guarantee.
• For cloud hosting plans, the guarantee period is only 14 days.
• For renewal orders, you can receive a full refund within 30 days of payment as long as the new term hasn’t started.
• If the new term has begun, you may still get a partial refund for the remaining term, excluding the first month’s fee.

There are non-refundable items though like the domain name fees, paid support, and third-party services.

⚠️ Note: Domain fees may still apply even if they were initially waived as part of a promotion.

Final Thoughts

I can’t blame you if you want to try SiteGround, especially with all the benefits that you would get for the discounted price.

Make sure to opt for a longer initial term to maximize your savings, and then keep a close eye on the renewal prices.

Consider starting with the GrowBig plan to balance features and cost-effectiveness to get the best value with the ability to host multiple websites.

This approach allows you to fully utilize SiteGround's robust offerings while preparing for future cost adjustments.