SiteGround is a web hosting company known for exceptional service and extremely reliable servers. It offers a selection of hosting options, including shared, WordPress, cloud, and reseller plans. Here I explore and explain the SiteGround pricing plans, and ways how you can save money.
SiteGround is one of the web hosting services out there (read my SiteGround review here). However, the SiteGround pricing structure appears to be quite expensive at first glance.
SiteGround Pricing Summary
SiteGround offers 6 different types of web hosting services.
- Shared web hosting ⇣: From $2.99 per month to $7.99/month.
- WordPress hosting ⇣: From $2.99 per month to $7.99/month.
- WooCommerce hosting: From $2.99 per month to $7.99/month.
- Cloud hosting ⇣: $80 – $240 per month.
- Reseller hosting ⇣: $9.90 – $80 per month.
- Enterprise hosting: $2,000+ per month.
In this article, I’ll take a deep dive into Siteground’s subscription model and help you to determine whether Siteground is the right option for you.
As you’ll soon see, not everything is as it appears on the surface. In fact, I uncovered some pretty big surprises that I’m going to share with you below.
How Much Does SiteGround Cost?
At first glance, SiteGround’s prices do appear to be a little on the high side. There are three shared hosting plans, which cost from $2.99/month to $7.99/month for your initial subscription term.
There is also a selection of managed WordPress, cloud, and reseller options, alongside managed WooCommerce and custom enterprise hosting for those with more specific needs.
SiteGround Shared Hosting
At the cheaper end of the SiteGround pricing range are three shared hosting plans. Prices start from $2.99/month for an initial subscription, but you will be forced to pay much more with shorter plans and on renewal.
For starters, the cheapest StartUp plan allows you to connect one website with 10 GB of storage, unmetered traffic, a free SSL certificate, and support for approximately 10,000 monthly visits. This isn’t much for the $2.99/month price tag, but things are actually much worse than they appear.
This price is only available for an initial 12-month subscription. Initial subscription prices are:
- $19.99 for one month.
- From $2.99 per month for 12 months.
- $9.99 per month for 24 months.
- $10.49 per month for 36 months.
And on top of this, your plan will renew at $14.99 per month – not ideal if you’re using shared hosting in an attempt to save money.
Upgrading from the StartUp to the GrowBig plan (from $4.99/month, renews at $24.99) allows you to connect unlimited websites with 20 GB of storage and approximately 25,000 monthly visits. You will also gain access to a staging environment, powerful caching, and more.
And finally, the GoGeek plan (from $7.99/month, renews at $39.99 per month) adds an extra 20 GB of storage and support for up to 100,000 monthly visits, along with priority support and high resource allocation.
StartUp | GrowBig | GoGeek | |
---|---|---|---|
Allowed Websites | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Monthly Visitors | ~ 10,000 | ~ 25,000 | ~ 100,000 |
Free Domain | No | Yes | Yes |
SSD Storage | 10 GB | 20 GB | 40 GB |
UltraFast PHP | No | No | Yes |
Subdomains | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Email Accounts | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Databases | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
FTP Accounts | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Free SSL | Let’s Encrypt | Let’s Encrypt | Let’s Encrypt |
SiteGround CDN 2.0 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
SuperCacher Caching | Static | Static, Dynamic & Memcached | Static, Dynamic & Memcached |
Daily Backups & Restore | Yes | Yes + on-demand backups | Yes + on-demand backups |
Staging Area | No | Yes | Yes |
Git Repository | No | No | Yes |
Add Collaborators | No | Yes | Yes |
Refund Policy | 30 days | 30 days | 30 days |
Priority Support | No | No | Yes |
Monthly Price | $2.99/month | $4.99/month | $7.99/month |
Ultimately, SiteGround’s shared hosting is quite expensive, and it doesn’t really add enough value for money. If you’re just looking for cheap, high-quality shared hosting, I’d recommend looking elsewhere.
SiteGround WordPress Hosting
Now, one of the things that SiteGround excels at is managed WordPress hosting. In actual fact, its shared plans are actually just its managed WordPress plans branded in a different way.
Because of this, the SiteGround prices for WordPress hosting are actually identical to its prices for shared hosting.
- Startup from $2.99/month, $14.99 on renewal.
- GrowBig from $4.99/month, $24.99 on renewal.
- GoGeek from $7.99/month, $39.99 on renewal.
And once again, you will have to purchase a 12-month subscription to access the advertised prices.
All three of SiteGround’s WordPress plans include a selection of management features, including:
- A free WordPress website migration app.
- Automatic WordPress installation.
- Regular automatic WordPress updates.
- A WordPress optimized content delivery network (CDN).
On top of this, the more expensive GrowBig and GoGeek plans come with a selection of additional tools for more advanced users.
StartUp | GrowBig | GoGeek | |
---|---|---|---|
Allowed Websites | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Monthly Visitors | ~ 10,000 | ~ 25,000 | ~ 100,000 |
Free Domain | No | Yes | Yes |
SSD Storage | 10 GB | 20 GB | 40 GB |
UltraFast PHP | No | No | Yes |
Managed WordPress | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Free WordPress Migration | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Automatic WordPress Installation | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Automatic WordPress Updates | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Free SSL | Let’s Encrypt | Let’s Encrypt | Let’s Encrypt |
SiteGround CDN 2.0 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
SuperCacher Caching | Static | Static, Dynamic & Memcached | Static, Dynamic & Memcached |
Daily Backups & Restore | Yes | Yes + on-demand backups | Yes + on-demand backups |
Staging Area | No | Yes | Yes |
Git Repository | No | No | Yes |
Add Collaborators | No | Yes | Yes |
Refund Policy | 30 days | 30 days | 30 days |
Priority Support | No | No | Yes |
Monthly Price | $2.99/month | $4.99/month | $7.99/month |
SiteGround Cloud Hosting
If you’re looking for something more advanced, SiteGround’s cloud hosting is a great option. Although it’s comparable to traditional VPS and dedicated server options, it’s more reliable and boasts better performance due to the decentralized cloud nature of the product.
There are four base SiteGround plans for cloud hosting, with prices ranging from $80 to $240 per month. However, you can also configure your hosting to fit your needs by selecting the number of CPU cores and the amount of memory, storage, and bandwidth you need.
At the cheapest end of the spectrum, the Entry plan will cost you $80 per month. With this, you will have access to three CPU cores, 6 GB of memory, 40 GB of SSD storage, and 5 TB of bandwidth. Each subsequent plan simply adds more resources.
One thing worth noting here is that the prices you see are the prices you get. There are no special “introductory” deals, and renewals are processed at the advertised price.
Entry | Business | Business Plus | Super Power | |
---|---|---|---|---|
CPU Cores | 3 Cores | 4 Cores | 5 Cores | 9 Cores |
SSD Storage | 40 GB | 60 GB | 80 GB | 120 GB |
Data Transfer | 5 TB | 5 TB | 5 TB | 5 TB |
CPU Cores | 3 Cores | 4 Cores | 5 Cores | 9 Cores |
RAM | 6 GB | 8 GB | 10 GB | 12 GB |
Fully Managed Cloud | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Free SSL & Premium CDN | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
SSH & SFTP | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Dedicated IP Address | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Free Private DNS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Daily Backups & Restore | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
24/7 VIP Support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Monthly Pricing | $80 | $120 | $160 | $240 |
SiteGround Reseller Hosting
Alongside its standard shared, WordPress, and cloud hosting plans, SiteGround also offers a selection of reseller options. Prices range from $9.99 to $80 per month.
Now, it’s worth noting that, once again, SiteGround has rehashed some of its plans here. The two cheapest reseller plans are simply the GrowBig and GoGeek shared/WordPress plans. And the high-end reseller options are based on configurable cloud hosting.
Really, the only thing that differentiates the reseller plans is that you get a selection of tools to help you manage multiple websites.
GrowBig | GoGeek | Cloud | |
---|---|---|---|
Websites | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
SSD Storage | 20 GB | 40 GB | 40+ GB |
White Labelling | No | Yes | Yes |
UltraFast PHP | No | Yes | Yes |
Free WP Migrator Plugin | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Free WordPress Installation | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Automatic WordPress Updates | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Free SSL | Let’s Encrypt | Let’s Encrypt | Let’s Encrypt |
SiteGround CDN 2.0 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
SuperCacher Caching | Static, Dynamic & Memcached | Static, Dynamic & Memcached | Static, Dynamic & Memcached |
Daily Backups & Restore | Yes + on-demand backups | Yes + on-demand backups | Yes + on-demand backups |
Staging Area | Yes | Yes | Yes |
WP-CLI & SSH | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Add Collaborators | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Refund Policy | 30 days | 30 days | 30 days |
Priority Support | No | Yes | Yes |
Monthly Price | $9.99/month | $14.99/month | $80/month |
How Can I Save Money On My SiteGround Subscription?
If you decide to use SiteGround, you may want to spend a little time trying to save some money. Below, I’ve outlined some of the best ways to do this.
Sign Up for Three Years
Those using SiteGround’s shared or WordPress hosting will benefit from impressive discounts with a three-year plan. Although the 12-month plans have the lowest monthly prices, they renew at full price. Overall, you can save money in the long-term by signing up for three years from the start.
The above graph shows SiteGround’s StartUp plan first-term (initial introduction pricing), versus the total contract cost.
Use Free WordPress Themes and Plugins
A lot of novice web developers spend a small fortune on premium WordPress themes and plugins. However, this simply isn’t necessary because there are countless free alternatives out there that, in most situations, will do exactly the same job.
How Do SiteGround Prices Compare to the Competition?
In general, SiteGround prioritizes quality service over rock-bottom prices. Because of this, it is slightly more expensive than most of its competitors.
For example, its cheapest shared hosting plan costs $14.99 after the introductory period, and it doesn’t even get you much more than Bluehost’s cheapest option, which comes in at $7.99 when full-priced.
I have compared SiteGround vs Bluehost here, however, SiteGround’s web hosting plans are great. They are fast, reliable, and offer impressive value for money.
If you’re looking for a reliable, trouble-free solution and are willing to pay slightly more for extra features and great support, SiteGround is a good option. If you’re looking for the cheapest prices, it’s just not.
Questions & Answers
Our Verdict
SiteGround isn’t the cheapest provider on the market, but it is certainly worth considering if you’re looking for a high-quality, reliable option.
If you’re after cheap shared hosting, you’re in the wrong place. But if you want competitively-priced WordPress or cloud hosting (which is comparable to traditional VPS and dedicated servers), SiteGround is a great choice.
The bottom line: SiteGround is a powerful hosting option for those who are willing to pay slightly more for added convenience and reliability.
- Check out my review of the StartUp plan here.
- Check out my review of the GrowBig plan here.
- Check out my review of the GoGeek plan here.
Recent Improvements & Updates
SiteGround constantly improves its hosting services with faster speeds, better security, a user-friendly interface, enhanced customer support, and eco-friendly initiatives. Here are just some of the recent improvements (last checked April 2024):
- Free Domain Name: As of January 2024, SiteGround now offers its customers a free domain registration for the first year.
- Advanced Email Marketing Features: SiteGround has significantly upped its game in the email marketing arena. The introduction of an AI Email Writer stands out as a game-changer, enabling users to craft compelling emails effortlessly. The feature is designed to aid in generating high-quality email content, streamlining the email creation process. Additionally, the new scheduling feature allows for better planning and timing of email campaigns, ensuring optimal engagement. These tools are part of SiteGround’s broader strategy to enhance digital marketing capabilities for its users.
- Enhanced Security with ‘Under Attack’ Mode: In response to the increasing sophistication of HTTP attacks, SiteGround has bolstered its CDN (Content Delivery Network) with an ‘Under Attack’ mode. This mode provides an additional layer of security, safeguarding websites against complex cyber threats. It’s a proactive measure that ensures website integrity and uninterrupted service, even under duress.
- Email Marketing Tool with Lead Generation for WordPress: SiteGround has integrated a lead generation plugin with its email marketing tool, specifically tailored for WordPress users. This integration is a significant step towards empowering website owners to capture more leads directly through their WordPress sites. It simplifies the process of converting website visitors into potential customers, enhancing the overall effectiveness of email marketing campaigns.
- Early Access to PHP 8.3 (Beta 3): Demonstrating its commitment to staying at the forefront of technology, SiteGround now offers PHP 8.3 (Beta 3) for testing on its servers. This opportunity allows developers and tech enthusiasts to experiment with the latest PHP features, providing valuable feedback and insights ahead of its official release. It’s an invitation to be part of the evolving PHP landscape, ensuring that SiteGround users are always ahead of the curve.
- SiteGround Email Marketing Tool Launch: The launch of the SiteGround Email Marketing tool marks a significant milestone in their service offerings. This tool is designed to boost business growth by enabling effective communication with customers and prospects. Its user-friendly interface and powerful features make it an indispensable tool for businesses looking to enhance their digital marketing efforts.
- Implementation of SRS for Reliable Email Forwarding: SiteGround has implemented the Sender Rewrite Scheme (SRS) to improve the reliability of email forwarding. SRS addresses issues related to SPF (Sender Policy Framework) checks, ensuring that forwarded emails are not wrongly classified as spam. This update is crucial for maintaining the integrity and deliverability of forwarded emails.
- Expansion with Paris Data Center and CDN Point: To cater to its growing global customer base, SiteGround has added a new data center in Paris, France, and an additional CDN point. This expansion not only improves service quality and speeds for European users but also signifies SiteGround’s commitment to global reach and performance optimization.
- Launch of SiteGround’s Custom CDN: In a significant development, SiteGround has launched its own custom CDN. This CDN is tailored to work seamlessly with SiteGround’s hosting environment, offering improved loading times and enhanced website performance. This custom solution signifies SiteGround’s dedication to providing a holistic and integrated web hosting experience.
Reviewing SiteGround: Our Methodology
When we review web hosts like SiteGround, our evaluation is based on these criteria:
- Value for Money: What types of web hosting plans are on offer, and are they good value for money?
- User Friendliness: How user-friendly is the signup process, the onboarding, the dashboard? and so on.
- Customer Support: When we need help, how quickly can we get it, and is the support effective and helpful?
- Hosting Features: What unique features does the web host provide, and how do they stack up against competitors?
- Security: Are essential security measures like SSL certificates, DDoS protection, backup services, and malware/virus scans included?
- Speed and Uptime: Is the hosting service fast and reliable? What types of servers do they use, and how do they perform in tests?
For more details on our review process, click here.