I have been hosting websites for well over 20 years and have used most of the top companies out there. From starter packages to full blown dedicated server options, I have used them all. But, who should you choose as your next hosting company?
There are many questions you need to ask yourself. However, for many, the one factor that will influence their decision is cost!
I write this article after just dumping my previous host for some of my client sites due to the costs. With the improvements in CDN networks, caching capabilities, and network infrastructures I was not convinced that dedicated hosting was the way to go for some of my smaller clients.
I had heard good things about Siteground and decided to check out their response times and...I was impressed.
Siteground seems to base their marketing on 3 levels of hosting and, it seems, they always have a sale on. That's marketing I know! But, their prices do seem to be very competitive. At the time of writing their basic hosting plan is $4.95 per month. They state that this Startup package is suitable for sites with up to 10000 visitors per month.
Checking out their plans we see that they offer SSD across them all. That is something some of my other hosts wish to charge extra for. Come on...charging extra in a world where SSD is the 'norm' seems a little crazy. It makes sense for hosting companies to start offering SSD as standard and I am glad to see many, including Siteground, are doing just that.
DOES SITEGROUND SUPPORT WORDPRESS?
Some of you may be using Wordpress and it is good to see that Siteground has provided a full suite of support options for this hosting stream. These include caching, staging and auto-upate features.
They operate on the Cpanel backbone for their interface so most users should be familiar with that. Interestingly, some other companies charge $10+ per month for this option. It seems to be included as standard with all of Siteground's plans.
WHAT IS SITEGROUND'S SUPPORT LIKE?
I do not have much experience with their support. The one issue I had was resolved incredibly quickly. During the setup of one package the install seemed to fail. As I was typing up my support ticket a message came through to say they had identified an issue and it had been fixed...and that is before I had even submitted my ticket. Very impressed.
WHAT PACKAGES ARE AVAILABLE?
I have already mentioned their 'StartUp' package which is intended for smaller sites and personal blogs. The next package is their 'GrowBig' at $7.45 per month and then they have the 'GoGeek' at $14.95 per month. For what you are getting I think these are a steal.
WHAT ARE THE CONS?
As with all hosting companies and all packages there are things to watch out for. As yet, I have little to complain about. My one issuse is with their caching. When updating sites you will need to flush the cache or turn it off altogether. This is not hard to do but I do find that turning it off does not always work and I have to keep manually flushing the cache. This can be a little frustrating.
The cPanel interface is looking a little tired and outdated. But, that is just cosmetics. The functionality you require is still there.
ARE THERE ANY OTHER BENEFITS TO USING SITEGROUND?
There are not many things that differ from other hosting companies these days. I do like the fact that I can instantly relocate the server instance to another country. But, this is not something that needs to be done regularly.
I like having quick and easy access to multiple accounts under a single sign-on. It really does make switching and updating files easy if you are not using remote FTP or SSH to do that.
I would be really interested to hear about your experiences with your hosting company, be they Siteground or another. Please add your comments below so that others can learn about who to use and/or avoid.
