Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links in which I receive commissions. The reviews and opinions expressed in this article are my own.
When it comes to web hosting, selection of the right service provider is crucial because your website’s performance and ultimately success will depend on it. There are a handful of hosting service providers I absolutely vouch for and SiteGround is one of them.
SiteGround is a company that dates back to 2004 when a few Bulgarian students created it in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria.
According to the most recent data, SiteGround services above 2 million domains all over the world.
Other features that it offers are shared hosting, cloud hosting, enterprise solutions, email hosting, and domain registration.
Their point of difference is their extremely professional and helpful customer support that is available 24/7d uring all the days of the year.
SiteGround has a lot to offer according to its website and online research, but how much of it is true, and what are the benefits and shortcomings?
In this post, I will dig into SiteGround, its features, the pros and cons, pricing, and their affiliate program.
SiteGround Overview
According to its website, SiteGround offers a few different types of hosting like shared, WordPress, cloud, and dedicated plans.
Additionally, they offer specialized plans as well.
There are free Cloudflare CDNs and SSL certificates. The plans are offering quite a few features that their customers seem to appreciate.
Another thing that is extremely important with hosting, is that their servers are very good with uptime that will impress you for sure.
The platform is powered by Google Cloud in order to create a powerful and technically superior hosting service as they have stated on their website.
Relevant: Is GoDaddy worth choosing as a web hosting service provider?
SiteGround Features and Prices
Web Hosting
SiteGround offers fast and secure web hosting for both personal and business use.
The key elements of web hosting that SiteGround takes care of are the following:
- Very fast sites: the fact that the platform is developed on Google Cloud and uses their networks along with the SSF storage makes the sites quite fast. Additionally, the SiteGroud team configures the servers and does speed optimization.
- Top security: security is one of the most important things in web hosting so SiteGround offers Let’s Encrypt SSL free of charge to keep all your data safe. Daily backups are done.
- Managing WordPress hosting: WordPress installation is included in all the planes with all its benefits. Additionally, they offer expert assistance on WordPress.
- Managing the domain: access to all the ways of managing the domain like registration, transferring, domain management panes, DNS services, and more.
The prices for web hosting are divided into three different plans that you can choose according to the features that you need or prefer.
The cheapest option is the StartUp plan with a price of €3.95 per month. For this price, you get quite a few functionalities like:
- 1 website
- 10 GB web space
- Suitable for ~ 10,000 monthly visits
- Unlimited data transfer
- Domain, SSL, CDN for free
- Free email account
- Unlimited MySQL databases
The second plan is the GrowBig plan and their best seller. The price for it is €6.45 per month
- Multiple websites
- 20 GB web space
- Suitable for ~ 25,000 monthly visits
- Unlimited data transfer
- Free email account
- Unlimited MySQL databases
- Additional features
The most expensive plan and the most extensive one is GoGeek for €11.95 per month. With this plan you get:
- Multiple websites
- 40 GB web space
- Suitable for ~ 100,000 monthly visits
- Unlimited data transfer
- Domain, SSL, CDN for free
- Free email account
- Unlimited MySQL databases
- Additional features like advanced priority assistance and more
WordPress Hosting
WordPress is extremely useful and can create top-notch websites that excel in speed, design, and eCommerce.
However, it is not the easiest tool to get around especially if you have no previous experience or connection with web development.
That is why SiteGround offers a complete WordPress hosting and service for all types of sites.
They offer to manage your WordPress to the best of their abilities. They can help you with the quick creation of WordPress site, WordPress mitigation, security and updates, and overall WordPress performance.
The price plans here correspond to the ones in Web Hosting. There are however some additional features offered in them like:
- Free WP installation
- WordPress Mitigator
- Auto-updates WP
- WP CLI and SSH
WooCommerce Hosting
WooCommerce is an extremely helpful plugin on WordPress that allows you to sell products online and do it like a professional.
The same problems arise here as with WordPress; people that are not that technologically savvy might have difficulty creating a good selling platform using WooCommerce.
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That is why SiteGround offers creation of WooCommerce stores and mitigation of WooCommerce for those who need it.
The functionalities and prices are the same here as well.
Relevant: You would also like to read the comparison between WooCommerce and Shopify here
Cloud Hosting
SiteGround offers to manage cloud hosting so you can take your business to the next level.
They offer guaranteed resources that are dedicated and optimized for being efficient to the maximum extent. Also, speed is another thing that is guaranteed so your site can have a great performance.
The most experienced developers will help you out with setting and managing the cloud account, and offer supports.
Another great thing about cloud hosting is that it is very scalable so your business can grow in the future without any problem.
You can add more CPU and RAM at all times and it’s just a click away. One extremely great feature is the automatic scaling option that will automatically add more resources when sudden spikes in traffic are detected.
This way, the loss of traffic and downtime are nipped in the bud.
Cloud hosting has four plans that vary in functionalities and prices.
The first one is Entry for getting started. The price is €64 per month and it includes the following:
- 2 CPU Cores
- 4GB Memory
- 40GB Disk Space
- 5TB Data Transfer
The second plan is the Business Plan with a price of €96 per month. It includes the following:
- 3 CPU Cores
- 6GB Memory
- 60GB Disk Space
- 5TB Data Transfer
Next, there is the Business + plan with a price of €128 per month and the following characteristics:
- 4 CPU Cores
- 8GB Memory
- 80GB Disk Space
- 5TB Data Transfer
And finally, the Super Power plan with a price of €192 per month and the following characteristics:
- 8 CPU Cores
- 10GB Memory
- 120GB Disk Space
- 5TB Data Transfer
Custom Cloud Hosting
If the previously presented plans for cloud hosting do not correspond with your needs and you need something more, or less, or some other ratio between the functionalities, you can use the Custom Cloud Hosting feature.
On the SiteGround website, you can go to the Cloud hosting managed, and into Create your cloud plan.
The four existing plans are offered up. If I need for example 11 Cores CPU, 70GB Memory and 260GB SSD space, with just dragging the blue buttons I can customize my own plan.
In this case, the price would be €752 per month. You can really get exactly what you need with this option.
Pros and Cons of SiteGround
I am all for fair and honest reviews, so it’s important we look at the advantages and disadvantages of SiteGround.
Pros
- High-speed hosting due to their software and hardware
- Some of the best available uptime out there
- Easy to use with integrated features
- Top-notch customer support and assistance
- Free mitigation
- Choosing a server location
- Unlimited traffic
Cons
- Not very cheap price according to the market
- Contracts that last for 12 months or more
- Plugin for mitigation
- No free domain name
- Free mitigation is only for one site
Affiliate program
You can become an affiliate with SiteGround which can earn you some commission money. If you are interested, you can visit their website and sign up.
The process of signing up as an affiliate and earning a commission is not too complicated and it can be learned quite fast.
The first thing you need to do to get started is obviously set up your affiliate account. It’s quite easy and straight-forward.
Click on the “Sign up now” button and fill out the form that appears. You will have to set up your payment preferences, via PayPal, and minimum payout amount.
Affiliates that generate high commissions, can do a wire transfer.
Another thing you will have to provide is tax information depending on the country you live in and the requirements there.
For US based affiliates, Form W-9 should be filled out, for EU citizens VAT or TAX ID, and for everybody else a Form W-8BEN.
After you’re all set up, you can start sending your affiliate link to potential clients. The link has a special tracking code which will track the sales made from your referrals.
This link can be found in My Account>Affiliate>My Campaigns>Default Campaign. Also, it will be sent to you in your welcome email.
You can copy and paste this link wherever you prefer, on your website, social media, other platforms, send it via emails, etc.
The more people purchase the products, the higher your commission will be.
If you are decided at this point to pursue being an affiliate for SiteGround, then I will share with you some tips for effective affiliate promotion from my personal experience:
Best channels to promote SiteGround
- Website: if you have a website with some following, using banners that promote SiteGround and send traffic to them is a good idea.
- Blogs: blogging is still one of the best ways to engage in affiliate programs. Write posts, reviews, comparisons, etc.
- Email: email subscriptions can be also used to make sure that your commission rises to higher levels
- Social Media: the opportunities to promote on social media are truly vast! You can get as creative as you want and even use ads to promote SiteGround.
- Videos: video content is on the rise lately and can be a great marketing channel.
- Courses: if you have courses that you are offering you can incorporate SiteGround into them or even do a course specifically for it
- Direct recommendations: for clients that you feel comfortable with and can let know that you are an affiliate with SiteGround while recommending their services
How to use banners to promote SiteGround
Using banners can be very successful, but you should know how to properly use them:
- Choose the proper placement: place them next to relevant content so they can grab the attention of the reader.
- Keep it simple: don’t do multiple, flashy banners all over the page. You want to suggest, not annoy.
How to write converting content
- Speak to the needs of the readers: quality content is all about looking at things from the perspective of the readers. Think about what you would like to hear if for example you experienced slow site speed.
- Personalize the content: tell your story, your experiences, your struggles. We all go through them, and people can sympathize easily if you are personal.
- Don’t write on one subject only: even though the content is targeting a specific industry or a few of them, try to write a wide range of content
Wrapping up!
SiteGround is truly a great hosting provider that excels in the things that are important in this aspect like uptime, speed, technical capabilities, etc.
Another extremely helpful thing about SiteGround that I have to repeat again is their extremely helpful customer support that is truly there for your every need connected to your difficulties and problems with SiteGround.
What more can you ask for? There are different plans that you can choose from according to your needs
SiteGround should definitely be taken into consideration for anybody that is seriously considering great hosting providers.
Head to SiteGround and find out if they are the right fit for you.
If you found this review helpful, you can check other reviews that I have written like:
- Surfer SEO Review: Features, Pricing, Pros & Cons
- BuzzSumo Review: Features, Pricing, Pros & Cons
- Generating Leads With OptinMonster: A 2020 Review
What would you like to read in my next review? Comment your suggestions below!
