SiteGround WordPress Hosting review – My sincere account of the #1 rated among the top hosting companies in several Facebook surveys/polls in 2016,2017 and currently leading 2018 poll as tons of users are migrating to this platform.

I often see this question over and over again on different WordPress Hosting Group on Facebook…

[su_highlight background=”#f9ff78″]”Which is the best WordPress hosting and reliable company? My WordPress is kinda slow on ABC platforms (mostly on EIG owned company)”[/su_highlight]

SiteGround WordPress hosting came first in 2016 , 2017 and 2018 Facebook polls and almost on every Facebook group where this question was asked, which to me, that’s quite a lot. SiteGround almost become a household name in the world of hosting. The name overshadows even the big boss in the industry (Blue Host) and keep spreading over social media and the entire internet like a wild fire as scores of subscribers are migrating to this platform daily.

They have an exceptional customer service support and technological speed that gets any website loading in as fast .5 in GTmetrix. This feature alone gives SiteGround edge over other hosting platforms as many users are always on the lookout for hosting platform that help make their sites load very fast.

There are lots of features you can see on their plan comparison chart (Start Up, GrowBig and GoGeek) which can help in making your choice. SiteGround is the only hosting platform listed on the TOP 3 recommended CMS platforms: Joomla, Drupal and WordPress. Also, couple with the free migrating service from your existing host to them with Zero downtime and 30-day money back guarantee, there is no reason not to check them out.

I’ve added quite some number of  evidences from different social media platforms to guide you in decision making and validate the fact that SiteGround is still the hottest and No1 in WordPress optimization guide. Below are few of the many reasons why I choose SiteGround WordPress hosting as my #1:

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1. My reasons for choosing SiteGround WordPress hosting

1. Siteground hosting rated as #1 host company in 2018 Facebook Top Hosting Companies Poll
2. Siteground hosting rated as #1 host company in 2017 Facebook Top Hosting Companies Poll
3. They were ranked as #1 host company in 2016 Facebook Top Hosting Companies Poll
4. Currently, Siteground is the most talked about in the different online social thread after thread.
5. Ranked as #1 again in the Ivica WordPress Speed up test he conducted.
6. A lot of people who migrated often experience superb load time improvement.
7. Extremely fast, with average load time of 3s.
8. The speed technology makes use of HTTP/2, SSDs, PHP7, and NGINX.
9. The only hosting company listed on three most popular blogging platforms (Drupal pages, WordPress and Joomla).
10. Automated daily backups.
11. It updates WordPress automatically. This saves me from the stress of doing the update myself.
12. Security email notifications every week.
13. Friendly and easy to navigate cPanel (see demo).
14. All their plans come with free HTTPS (Encrypt SSL).
15. 99% Uptime guaranteed. No fear of downtime.
16. Quick customer support response. The fastest in the industry.
17. Free migration of your current blog/ website from any hosting company to Siteground WordPress hosting platform.
18. Siteground is a not part of the EIG company which has a bad reputation in the industry.
19. Very helpful in Facebook Groups, WordCamps, community events.
20. Not one person out the people I referred to Siteground since I joined the platform cancelled their subscription.
21. 1-Click Cloudflare activation makes it more fun and easy.

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2. Ranked #1 in Many Facebook Polls in  2016, 2017 and 2018

More than 350 people who participated in the FB poll are consistent users of WordPress and active bloggers too. Therefore, this is not just a mere contest. You can see below the FB poll conducted by the WordPress Hosting FB group.

Already leading in 2018 Facebook poll created by Md Sadique Akhter

Rate #1 in 2017 FB poll…

SiteGround took the lead in 2016 too…

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I consider loading speed as No1 in WordPress Optimization. Though there are other factors that are important too.

3. Page Loading Speed

The speed technology of SiteGround is one of the major factors that make them stand out among others. A lot of people choose them because of the speed. The technology is a unique combination of the Solid States Drives (SSDs), PHP7, NGINX servers, HTTP/2 servers and 1-click Cloudflare CDN. Now, these are combined services that are rarely found in other hosting companies.  Likewise is the SG optimizer plugin and the Supercacher which improves load times tremendously. You can never regret using SiteGround WordPress hosting for your website/blog with them.

 

SiteGround has an average loading speed of 1.3s

Migration/Loading speed Reports…

Some social media reports on loading speed after migration to SiteGround

4. Always Leading In Updated PHP Version

PHP version is the soul of all CMS platforms. However, is not all about having PHP. Integrating the latest version is the key and that makes SiteGround WordPress hosting unique. Always up to date in integration of latest technologies ahead of others. The SG optimizer plugin constantly checks for the new version of PHP, verifies the compatibility with the current themes and plugins, and successfully update your account to the new version. What more can you ask for? This is DFY (Done For You) process which eliminates the manual update process.

You can use the Display PHP Version plugin to know the version of PHP you are running.

The SiteGround SG Optimizer plugins always check for new version of PHP, analysis it’s compatibility with your theme and plugins, then update you to the current version. This makes it easy and convenient as some host requires manual actions to upgrade your PHP.

5. SG Optimizer and Supercacher

These two forces work together to cache your site, purge dynamic cache whenever content is updated, ensure your website is constantly updated to the new version of PHP. They also, configure HTTPS to force SSL [if needed].

The SG Optimizer

As explained earlier. This plugin works with the Supercacher to give you an awesome experience. What I love most about this plugin is the automatic upgrade of PHP. Take your time to check the SiteGround’s SG Optimizer tutorial to see the plugin setting. You need to use both the SG optimizer and the Supercacher.

The Supercacher

Just like the other cache plugins like W3 total cache, WP rocket and fastest cache, supercacher is extremely good. Check out the cPanel demo to see this option.

SiteGround Hosting Super

6. Activating Cloudflare With 1 Click

You can easily activate Cloudflare with SiteGround. Login to your cPanel and activate it with 1 click.

Oh, does Cloudflare sounds strange to you? Cloudflare is a content delivery network (CDN)server which hosts your files on 115 data centers. One of the importance of a CDN is that it helps to reduce CPU consumption by uploading heavy files on their servers.

Even WordPress recommends it in their optimization guide

7. The Shared Hosting Plans (StartUp, GrowBig and GoGeek)

The StartUp plan can only host 1 site/blog. However, there are lots of other features that come with it like the GrowBig and GoGeek plans. The GrowBig plan on the other hand has more server resources, loads faster, can backup your site up to 30 times daily compare to StartUp that can only back up 1 time daily with priority support. GoGeeks is considered as semi-dedicated hosting server due to higher resources that comes with it. Below is the complete comparison chart of the 3 plans. Take your time to go through them before making your decision.

Here’s the full comparison chart…

 

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The difference in server resources can be seen on SiteGround’s feature page.

StartUp: Good enough for those with low budget and doesn’t want to host more than 1 site. It’s also OK for those who’s just starting out blogging and are budget conscious. And for those who will like to test the platform before upgrading to higher package. This plan comes with 10Gig storage. It is the cheapest which can only accommodate 1 website with approximately 10,000 traffic monthly. However, this package is better than most plans from other host companies which lack server resources in times of speed, priority support and storage. About 99% uptime with no internal server errors as they can be found in other hosts.

GrowBig: This plan allows you to host unlimited websites with server resources almost 2X the StartUp which results in higher speed and blazing load times. SiteGround designed this plan for those having either a single website with heavy-traffic or multiple average-size sites. This is usually good for users who prefer to host all their websites in one account. Below are other important features of GrowBig

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• Unlimited website hosting

• 20GB space

• 30 times daily backups

• Over 25,000 Visits monthly

• Exceptional customer support service

• Data backup & restoration

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• WordPress special cache

• $5.95/month (cheaper than competitors)

• 3 levels SuperCacher

• Wildcard SSL certificate

• Approximately 2x server resources

• Approximately 2x email resources

• And more

 

GoGeek: Also referred to as semi dedicated hosting server is about 4X faster than other packages. If you are a lover of super speed with higher consumption of server resources, then, the GoGeek is for you. Why paying $80/month for cloud hosting while GoGeek can handle all your data? GoGeek comes with staging facility which helps you to test your hosting before launching, unlimited daily backup and restore by SiteGround experts and e-commerce features like free 1 year wildcard SSL and PCI compliance to protect credit card fraud. Others are:

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• Unlimited websites hosting

• 30GB space

• Over 100,000 monthly visits

• Approximately 4x server resources

• WordPress 1 click Staging

• Unlimited Backup & Restore

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• $11.95/month

• SG-Git for repo creation

• Special WordPress cache

• 1 year wildcard SSL and PCI compliance

• Pre-Installed Git

• Approximately 3x email resources

• Fastest shared hosting package

 

 

8. Cloud Hosting Service.

SiteGround cloud hosting service is mainly for websites with huge traffic or sites that require large scale of resources so that it can load with superb speed. This plan comes with two CPU and 4GB RAM which it faster than using dedicated hosting. You can enjoy high speed, uptimes and high level of security with the resources of cloud hosting.

What Are Isolated Resources? These are resources that are available to you alone to use. Rather than hosting your site on one server where the resources are shared among many users like you, it’s hosted on a machine with unlimited resources which are allotted to you alone. What is the advantage of this to you? You guess is as good as mine. [su_highlight background=”#e6f017″]“Freedom”, Yes! Freedom from low loading speed, Server breakdown, overclocking of server with many users and more[/su_highlight]. Since cloud hosting is similar to dedicated hosting but with higher resources, you can be rest assured of better performance, security, reliability and scalability (auto-scaling). In addition to the above benefits, you never get to experience CPU overuse especially if you make use of the auto-scaling in the cPanel to compensate for traffic spikes. (image goes here)

9. Dedicated Servers

To be honest with you, I’ve not used the dedicated server of SiteGround, but you can get it at $229/month. Dedicated server is needed by high traffic sites or blogs that require a lot of server resources to load faster. Since I haven’t use it before, I can’t really give my honest opinion about it. I may do this in the future if I ever get to use it. (Image goes here)

11. 5 Data Centers

SiteGround have 5 data centers from which you can make your choice. The data centers are London, Singapore, Chicago, Milan and Amsterdam. It is recommended you choose the data center closet to your visitors. This helps your site to load faster and also reduces the geographical distance your content has to travel. SiteGround centers make use of redundant storage so your site won’t experience a downtime due to electrical issues. This is one of the major problems associated with other hosts like Bluehost and few others. However, the good news is that SiteGround WordPress hosting is all about security and taking preventive measures against any negative occurrences.

12. Customer Support Systems

This is another feature that makes SiteGround stands out among equals… Customers are always keen about the support system of their service providers. Unfortunately, many service providers have poor customer service. I’ve been privileged to use the support platforms of some providers; SiteGround beats their hands down… I’m sure you can feel me. The team responds to tickets in less than 10 minutes which is very rare with others. You can proof me wrong by stating in the comment box below any other host company you know that responds to ticket in less than 10 minutes. Or you can try them out. If you are not on their platform, you can subscribe for the STARTUP PLAN HERE and as soon as your payment is done, open a ticket and ask them to help in setting up your WordPress… then, watch out for their response rate. You will be amazed. Remember, this is my personal observation. Feel free to share your observation or experience with SiteGround using the comment box.

In addition, SiteGround provide free migration from your current host to their platform and without any hassles. This takes away the fear of transferring your data from your current host to SiteGround. All you need to do is open a ticket for free migration once you subscribe for any plan of your choice.

Fastest customer support service in the industry…

13. Security

SiteGround provides security feature that prevents other websites sharing server with you from affecting your data. They do it by using Linux containers and isolation of account. Although I will recommend you use Wordfence plugin or any other related security plugin to increase the security of your account. Also, avoid using the common “Admin” as your username when setting up your WordPress. SiteGround team is committed to ensuring that your website is not affected by the threat. I’m sure you don’t want to experience hackers or if your site has ever been attacked, you know how painful it is. Therefore, if you are security conscious, then SiteGround WordPress hosting is your choice.

See how SiteGround protects your site (listed on the features page)…

14. Unbeatable Uptime… 99.99%

What another unique feature from SiteGround. If you have ever experienced downtime with any host company before, SiteGround is exceptional. They have superb uptime technology with 99.99% guaranteed. You can use Uptime Robot to check the uptime of your site. Mine is always 100%.  There are lots of other hosts that promised 99% uptime but never deliver.

15. Automatic WordPress Updates

You can setup automatic update of  your WordPress and other important plugins in through cPanel…

16. SiteGround eCommerce Features

SiteGround eCommence features supports all major shopping cart. You can read up their merchant account solutions for more information about processing payments for eCommerce host.

Free Encrypt SSL –  You will get free Let’s Encrypt SSL with any of the plans in the cPanel.

PCI Compliance – For those interested in eCommerce, the GoGeek plan comes with PCI compliance (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) which  helps to prevent credit card fraud by unifying payments using 12 requirements.

17. SiteGround Hosting cPanel Demo

This SiteGround WordPress Hosting cPanel demo is cool because it helps you to see most of the features I explained above at glance thereby, enhancing your knowledge about them. Feature like auto-updates, Cloudflare CDN, backups, auto-installers, emails and more.You can check it out here

18. Free Host Migration

With SiteGround hosting, you can be rest assure of quick migration without any technical issues and long waiting time. They did this for me when I was migrating from my former host. It didn’t take long and there was no problem. I have confidence in their technical support service. That’s dam true

You can choose the “website transfer option” when opening a ticket for site migration…

 

19. Low Cancellation Rates

Believe me, If you are an affiliate, you will enjoy promoting SiteGround WordPress Hosting. Why? One of the major issues with many of these host companies is cancellation rate. Buyers cancelling after sign up. But ever since I’ve been promoting SiteGround, I’m yet to have my first cancellation because it seems all the subscribers are pleased with their service.

20. WordPress, Joomla, Drupal Recommendation

SiteGround remains the only company listed on the 3 major CMS platforms

Joomla

Drupal

And WordPress

21. Ivica Delic Recommendation.

Ivica Delic has been a client of SiteGround for many years. He’s not affiliate of SiteGround or sponsored by them. He is one of the admins of WordPress Speed Up Facebook Group and ranks them #1 on his resources page.

22. Issues With These Three (Bluehost, HostGator, EIG Companies)

You may not believe this, but it’s true and you can do your research. Are you aware that these hosting companies (Bluehost, iPage, HostMonster, Site5, Hostgator and many more) are owned by the same firm called EIG? So, when you migrate from any of the hosting companies to another ( for example, from Bluehost to Hostgator) due to poor service, you are still in the hand of the same owner. So, you aren’t going anywhere. You are just revolving within their network of companies. That means, you can’t expect something better from any of them since they all come from the same source. EIG is known for acquiring companies, packing users on the same server and the downgrading of resources. This may be good for EIG but not the best for you. See the full list here

23. A+ Feedback On Facebook And Twitter About SiteGround.

There are many posts like this about SiteGround. See the images. This day, when people ask about a reliable hosting, SiteGround is either first or second.

Feedback On SiteGround

Do you need a New Hosting Company

SiteGround Hosting Testimonial

SiteGround Support Testimonial

Would You Recommend SiteGround?

SiteGround vs. Godaddy

SiteGround vs. WP Engine

SiteGround vs Bluehost Cloud

SiteGround vs. Bluehost vs. HostGator

SiteGround vs. Godaddy vs. HostGator

DreamHost vs. SiteGround vs. GoDaddy vs. HostGator

Here are few of the threads on FB:

Commendation from Twitter users…

More threads from Facebook

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I trust I’ve been able to show you why SiteGround is the talk of the town. If you find this review interesting and helpful, your comment will be appreciated. I’ve tried to express my sincere opinion about SiteGround in this review. But if there is something I missed out, you can mention it in your comment.