Honest SiteGround Hosting Review After Using It For 2 Years
Look, I’m just gonna be straight with you from the start. I’ve been using SiteGround for two years now, and I’m still with them. But before you think this is some rah-rah review where everything is perfect, let me tell you it’s not. There are things that piss me off about SiteGround. There are also things I absolutely love. And if you’re thinking about switching your hosting, you need to hear both sides.
Why I Even Tried SiteGround
Two years ago, my website was a mess. I was paying some budget host $5 a month, thinking I was smart for saving money. Turns out, I was being an idiot. My site would go down randomly. Sometimes I’d wake up and it would be offline. Other times, visitors would email me saying they couldn’t access it. And the worst part?
The hosting company’s support would take a full day to reply with some useless copy-paste answer. Then my site got hacked. Twice. In like three months. I was done. I asked in a WordPress Facebook group what people recommended, and like five different people said SiteGround. So I figured, why not? Can’t be worse than what I’m dealing with.
Moving My Site Over (This Part Was Actually Easy)
I was scared to move my site. I’d heard stories of people losing everything during migrations. But SiteGround offers free migration, so I gave it a shot. I filled out their form, and within a few hours, someone from their team contacted me.
They asked for my old hosting login info. I handed it over and basically just waited. Next day? Everything was moved. My site looked exactly the same. Nothing broke. I couldn’t believe it was that smooth.
Let’s Talk About The Money (Because This Is Important)
Here’s where I need to be honest with you, because this is the part that almost made me leave. When you first sign up, you get this amazing deal. I paid like $4 a month for my first year. I was pumped. Everything was working great, site was fast, I was happy.
Then my renewal came. $28 a month. I literally sat there staring at the email thinking “are you kidding me right now?” But here’s the thing I paid it. And I’ve renewed twice since then. You know why? Because compared to the nightmare I was dealing with before, it’s worth it.
I’m not rich. I’m not some big company with unlimited budget. But the difference between $4 and $28 a month? That’s about $24. For me, not having to deal with my site going down or getting hacked is worth $24. But I’m not gonna lie to you and say it doesn’t sting every time that renewal bill comes in.
They have three plans:
- Cheap one: starts around $3/month (but you can only have one site)
- Middle one: starts around $5/month (multiple sites, this is what I use)
- Expensive one: starts around $8/month (extra features I don’t need)
Just remember those prices are introductory. They go way up when you renew.
The Speed Thing Everyone Talks About
When I first switched over, I loaded my blog and just sat there refreshing it over and over. It was FAST. Like, noticeably faster than before. My old host? I’d click something and count “one Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi” before the page loaded. With SiteGround, it was instant.
I got nerdy about it and started testing. Here’s what I found:
My homepage loads in about 1.1 seconds now. Sometimes 1.3 seconds if there’s a lot of traffic. My old host was taking 3-4 seconds on a GOOD day.
I tested it from different locations too:
- From the US (where I am): super fast, like 180ms response time
- From Europe: still good, around 290ms
- From Asia: a bit slower at 410ms, but still way better than before
Google PageSpeed gave me scores in the high 90s. I don’t know if that matters to you, but apparently Google likes fast sites, so cool.
But here’s what really mattered to me people stopped complaining. Before, I’d get comments like “hey your site is really slow” or “is your site down?” Now? Nothing. People just read my stuff and that’s it.
My bounce rate went from 65% down to 48%. That means more people are actually sticking around instead of leaving immediately because my site takes forever to load.
Does It Actually Stay Online?
In two years, my site has been down maybe twice. And I’m talking about like 20-30 minutes total. I got paranoid after my old host kept going down, so I set up this monitoring thing called UptimeRobot. It checks my site every 5 minutes and emails me if it’s down.
My uptime over two years? 99.98%.
The only times it went down were:
- Once for about 25 minutes. No idea why, it just came back up.
- Scheduled maintenance they warned me about a week ahead of time.
Compare that to my old host where I’d have outages at least once a month, sometimes lasting hours. I’d be asleep and wake up to angry messages from visitors.
Now I don’t even think about it. My site is just… up. All the time.
The Actual Features I Use
I’m not gonna bore you with a list of 50 features. Most of that stuff is marketing nonsense anyway. Here’s what I actually use:
Setting up WordPress – It’s one button. Takes maybe 2 minutes. I’ve set up four different sites now and it’s stupid easy every time.
Daily backups – My site gets backed up automatically every day. I had to restore once when I broke something, and it took like 3 clicks. Saved my butt.
Testing area (staging) – This is where I test new plugins or design changes before making them live. I learned this lesson the hard way when a plugin update destroyed my homepage at 10 PM on a Friday night.
SSL certificate – My site has that little padlock in the browser. It was automatic, I didn’t do anything. Apparently this matters for Google and trust and whatever.
Email – I can make email addresses with my domain name. Like likhon@mysite.com instead of likhon.cto@gmail.com. Works fine, though I still mostly use Gmail.
Their Control Panel
They don’t use cPanel. They have their own thing called Site Tools. When I first logged in, I was annoyed because everything was in different places than I was used to. But after like a week, I actually liked it better. Everything just makes sense.
Want to make an email? Click the email section. Want to see your files? Click the file manager. It’s not complicated. My cousin asked me to help set up his website, and even he figured it out without calling me every 10 minutes. That tells you something.
When Stuff Goes Wrong (And It Does)
This is the best part about SiteGround, and honestly, it’s why I keep paying the higher price. Their support is actually good. Like, really good. I’ve contacted them maybe a dozen times. Usually late at night when I’ve broken something. And every single time, I get someone within a few minutes who actually knows what they’re talking about.
Here’s a real example: I was trying to be smart and edit some file on my server. I don’t even remember what it was. But I broke my entire site. Like, white screen of death, nothing worked. It was 11 PM. I panicked, opened their chat, and this guy named Peter helped me fix it. Took about 15 minutes. He even explained what I did wrong so I wouldn’t do it again.
My old host? I’d open a ticket and get a response 24 hours later from someone who clearly had no idea what they were doing. They’d escalate it to “Level 2 support” and tell me to wait another 48 hours. Meanwhile, my site is just down. With SiteGround, I’ve never waited more than 5 minutes to talk to someone. And they actually fix the problem.
The Stuff That Annoys Me
Okay, time for the bad stuff. Because nothing is perfect.
That renewal price – I’ve already complained about this, but seriously. It hurts every time.
Storage is limited – The basic plan only gives you 10GB. If you post a lot of photos or videos, you’ll run out fast. I’m using about 18GB across my sites, so I had to upgrade to the middle plan.
If you get really big, you’ll outgrow it – SiteGround is great for small to medium sites. But if you become super popular, eventually you’ll need something bigger. They have cloud hosting, but it’s expensive. At that point, you’d probably switch to something else anyway.
Email is just okay – It works, but it’s nothing special. If you’re running a business and sending tons of emails, you’re better off using Google Workspace or something.
They’ll try to upsell you – Not as bad as some companies, but they’ll suggest extra stuff you probably don’t need. I just ignore it.
How It Compares To Other Hosts
I’ve tried a bunch of hosting companies over the years. Here’s my take:
Super cheap hosts (like the $3/month ones) You’ll save money upfront. But you’ll hate yourself when your site is slow or down or you can’t get help. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.
Bluehost – I used them like 5 years ago. They were fine but nothing special. Lots of trying to sell me extra crap. SiteGround is better.
Really expensive managed WordPress hosts (like WP Engine) – These are probably amazing, but I can’t justify paying $30-50 a month for my blog. Maybe if I was making serious money from it.
Hostinger – This is probably the closest competitor. It’s cheaper than SiteGround, and I’ve heard good things. If you’re on a tight budget, go with Hostinger. If you want better support and performance, go with SiteGround.
Should You Actually Use SiteGround?
Here’s how I think about it, and this is just my opinion. If you’re broke and just starting out, SiteGround is probably overkill. Go with something cheap like Hostinger. You can always upgrade later. If you’re serious about your website and you’re tired of dealing with crappy hosting, SiteGround is worth it.
The peace of mind alone is worth the extra money. If you’re making money from your site, even just a little bit, the cost pays for itself. My site being fast and reliable has directly led to more visitors and more money. The hosting cost is just a business expense at that point.
For me personally? I’m staying. I’m happy. My sites work, they’re fast, and when something goes wrong, I can actually get help. That’s worth $28 a month to me.
My Final Thoughts
I’m not gonna sit here and tell you SiteGround is perfect. That renewal price still annoys me. The storage limits are frustrating. And yeah, there are cheaper options out there. But after two years, I’m still using it. My sites are fast, they stay online, and when I need help, I can actually get it from someone who knows what they’re doing.
Is it worth the money? For me, yes. For you? I don’t know. It depends on what you need and what you can afford. If you’re currently struggling with a host that’s letting you down, give SiteGround a try. You’ve got 30 days to decide if it’s worth it. But my guess is you’ll probably stick around like I did. Just remember that intro price is temporary.
Budget for the real price, not the promotional one. If you can afford it, you’ll probably be happy. If you can’t, there’s no shame in going with something cheaper. That’s it. That’s my honest take after two years of actually using it every single day.
