I’m not sure that I want to admit this, but I’ve been building websites since AOL generously gave you 2MB (yes megabytes) of space per screen name and I built an online Teen ‘Zine written by me and my pals. *cough* Needless to say over the last 20+ years I’ve had experience with a lot of different web hosts, good and bad.
I’ve been with Siteground since 2018 and they are by far the WordPress host I’ve been happiest with, and the one I now recommend to all my clients. Here’s why:
1. Full-featured
All of Siteground’s managed WordPress hosting plans include daily backups, SSL certificates, access to their CDN, and free domain emails. That means if you’re just getting started with a website for your brand or business, you won’t have to piece all of these things together.
Backups
While you can absolutely backup your WordPress site yourself, it’s nice peace of mind to know your web host is doing it for you as well. (Redundancy with backups is a GOOD thing!)
SSL Certificates
All hosting plans include Let’s Encrypt Standard and Wildcard SSL certificates. Even if you aren’t running an e-commerce site or collecting user information, it’s still important that your site has SSL (https). Google and other search engines favor SSL encrypted websites in their ranking algorithms.
Content Delivery Network (CDN)
A CDN speeds up your page load times significantly by caching your website content on servers around the world, then when someone visits your site, the cached files are delivered to their web browser from the server closest to them. Think of it as a package being delivered to your home from a warehouse 10 miles away as opposed to a few hundred miles. Page load times are another factor that Google and other search engines use to rank sites, so anything that speeds your page load times is a great thing!
Email Accounts
If you’ve made the jump to having your own domain for your business, it’s also time to ditch that Gmail email account and have a YourName@YourBusinessName.com branded email. There are pros and cons to using your web host for your email, but ultimately it’s nice to have the option to do so. It’s a quick and easy way to create email inboxes (or forwarders) for you, your employees or virtual assistants, your email newsletter, etc.
Check out Siteground’s full list of features for their Managed WordPress hosting for more info.
2. Site migration
If this is your first website or you hired someone to build it, you may not care about this one, but if you are migrating a WordPress website from another host to Siteground this one can be a lifesaver. Siteground includes their WordPress Migrator plugin so you can migrate your old site to their server in just a few clicks.
3. Support
I really should have made this number one. Because of working with so many different clients, I’ve had experience with most of the major WordPress web hosts out there. Some are better than others; a couple are so atrocious that I won’t take on a project if a client insists on using them. Why? It comes down to support. Siteground’s support team is available 24/7 and has always been outstanding any time I interface with them. I don’t have to jump through hoops or get transferred to multiple reps. They understand what I need and help me fix things quickly for my clients if the need arises, and that keeps me AND (more importantly) my client happy!
4. Price
Siteground is always running sales, so keep an eye out! In general, though, there are 3 tiers of plans: StartUp, GrowBig, and GoGeek.
For my clients just starting out, I recommend the StartUp package. For my clients with larger sites or multiple websites, I usually recommend GrowBig. You can always upgrade as your website grows and evolves.
When you initially sign up for Siteground, you pay a new customer discounted rate, so I also encourage my clients to pre-pay for as much time as they can when they initially sign up to take advantage of that discounted rate.
Even after renewing, Siteground’s pricing is extremely competitive given their features and support. That’s why I’ve stuck with them for 5 years and will continue to renew!
5. It just f$%*ing works.
Isn’t that all what it comes down to, ultimately? Don’t get me wrong-I love to hear from my clients, and I’m happy to work with them on maintenance/retainer plans well after our initial website build. But I want to spend that retainer time building new things and adding amazing new content – NOT fighting with your web host about uptime or site speed. Siteground JUST WORKS. When I get a client to put their website on Siteground, it gives me peace of mind.
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