SiteGround Review 2024: Honest Pros, Cons Compared
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Choosing the right hosting service is a pivotal decision for any website owner. This SiteGround review details the benefits, features, pros, and cons, and a special hosting discount. Plus, this article gives you step-by-step instructions on how to start a blog with Siteground today.
In this SiteGround review, we explore SiteGround’s features, performance, customer service, and pricing, providing insights to help you determine if it’s the ideal choice for your website needs.
Whether you’re launching a new site or considering a switch, understanding what SiteGround offers is essential in the crowded world of web hosting services.
Are you trying to find out which web hosting is best before you buy? Or maybe you have started a blog recently and are unhappy with your current website host?
As an affiliate partner of various brands and sponsored content, HerPaperRoute may earn commission on qualifying purchases. Disclaimer | Advertise With Us
Either way, this Siteground review will show you the impressive benefits Siteground gives its lucky users.
Let’s go!
SiteGround Review: How To Start A Blog With SiteGround
How to start a blog with SiteGround tutorial: How to start a self-hosted WordPress blog with SiteGround step by step.
Welcome to the world of blogging! Starting a blog is a whole lot easier than you may think.
Blogging is the ultimate way to make money online. Starting a blog is not hard, in fact, within just 10 minutes you will have a professional, self-hosted blog of your own.
As you will soon see, setting up hosting with SiteGround and installing WordPress is a cinch.
This is a newbie-friendly beginner’s guide to starting a blog with SiteGround, and this will only take a few minutes of your time, in fact!
Before I switched to a premium host, I used to use SiteGround as a newbie. I actually hosted with SG for a year before I outgrew it.
I found that the customer service was top-notch. It’s not just me either – Siteground clients give a 99.7% happiness rate of the service!
After doing a quick search on Google, you’ll be shown many articles talking about who is the best domain host.
Many of those articles will be written by people who have never even used the service though.
My Siteground review will go into detail about pricing options and discounts (get a 70% discount right here), plan options, customer support, speed of hosting, added extras, safety and much more.
Here are some reasons why you might want to use Siteground as a beginner blogger;
- 24-hour award-winning customer support
- They offer free website transfers
- Impressive page load times and free Cloudflare service
- Daily backups of your site
- 99.9% uptime reliability
- Affordable hosting and a 30-day money-back guarantee
- Advanced security outperforming other hosts
- Officially recommended by WordPress
Blog StartUp Kit
To get started, first grab yourself a free copy of our Blog StartUp Kit, by becoming a blogtips.com member below. It is packed with resources to help you blog like a pro from the start – with zero tech knowledge required!
Free Blogging Course
If you’d prefer to learn how to start a blog by taking my course, you can enroll for free here.
Bluehost vs SiteGround Prices & Services Compared
When choosing a host for your blog, you have many options, with BigScoots, Bluehost and SiteGround being the most popular web hosts.
For a step-by-step tutorial on how to start a blog with BigScoots, see this post right here.
To continue setting up your blog with SiteGround, read on.
SiteGround Web Hosting Sale!
Normally, you’d have to spend over $14 – $44 per month to get SiteGround’s web hosting but today you can get started for only $6.99/month for your first year!
With my special SiteGround web hosting discount, it is less than $7 per month to self-host your blog, including WordPress.org, a free SSL security certificate, and more.
Every New Blogger Needs The Profitable Blog Toolkit
Before we dive right into this ‘How To Start A Blog With SiteGround’ tutorial, make sure you sign up for access to my members-only Profitable Blog Toolkit.
It includes a ton of free resources that will help you develop your blog into a business.
Just let me know where to send your toolkit.
Now, let’s explore the pros and cons of hosting with SIteGround.
Siteground Review Pros: The Benefits of Hosting with Siteground
First, we will look at the main Siteground review looking at the advantages.
Siteground is a web host with an awesome reputation. It’s recommended by WordPress and is listed on its site as a preferred domain host.
Take a look at real Siteground reviews on Trustpilot and see they have been awarded 92% 5-star ratings.
Let’s go into more detail of the benefits of hosting with Siteground.
Unrivalled 24/7 Customer Support
Getting support with your website as a beginner blogger is essential.
If you’re anything like me, you may not be super techy and will run into problems occasionally. When I hosted with Bluehost, I was underwhelmed with their support and was often just left frustrated with no answers.
Siteground support are available 24 hours a day on chat, email and phone.
Because of Siteground’s affiliation with WordPress, you can get help with WordPress installations, plugins, themes and any issues you may have.
One point I love about Siteground support, is that they overstaff every shift! When have you ever heard of this?
They do this to ensure no customer in need is ever left waiting long.
I can vouch for this! I have never waited longer than a minute for them to reply to my chat ticket.
Each representative you talk to will be listed by his or her experience.
So, if for some reason you can’t get an answer to your question, you’ll be passed over to a senior support analyst.
Free Website Transfers
Sometimes the techy side of things is a bit tricky as a beginner blogger.
Luckily, Siteground is nice enough to offer a free website transfer service for you to take advantage of.
After you order your Siteground website hosting, simply jump onto the chat and ask them to help you out.
Impressive Page Load Times and Free Cloudflare Service
Siteground servers have been built with speed in mind. Speed is essential so your website doesn’t put off visitors as soon as they get there.
There’s nothing more annoying than a page just loading and loading right!
On any plan, you can take advantage of the free Cloudflare service.
This is easily activated in your C-panel and will help to increase site speed by distributing access to your site all over the world.
This means a user on your site will connect through a server closest to them, in the fastest amount of time.
Daily Backups of Your Site
Siteground backs up every website daily, regardless of what hosting plan you are on. This is a valuable service, which many other hosts don’t offer.
If someone manages to hack your site, or you make a huge error that you just can’t erase, you’ll realize how great this feature is.
It worked well for me when I tried to move my website to a new theme. I messed everything up and couldn’t go back. My site was literally destroyed!
A few minutes on Siteground chat later, I had my website restored to its former glory! And, yes I didn’t try to do the same thing again.
99% Uptime Reliability
Uptime is another important factor when choosing a reliable domain host. Siteground has a reliable 99.99% uptime rate which is one of the best in the industry.
Their uptime is so strong, due to the advanced technology they use.
They use Linux containers which stay stable during traffic surges and do not overload easily.
They also have in-house staff who are constantly monitoring the servers for any disruption. This means they can thwart any potential problems before they cause a disaster.
Another benefit of Siteground hosting!
Affordable Hosting Starting at $3.95 a Month
Siteground’s hosting fees are some of the most affordable in the industry for all the value you get. Yes, there is cheaper hosting, but you won’t find the same amount of benefits for the same price.
Remember you can get a 70% discount with this coupon link.
And of course, you get a 30-day money-back guarantee so you can try out their hosting risk-free.
Advanced Security and Constantly Updated Software
Siteground offers unmatched security on a shared hosting environment.
Staff are constantly updating its software and are watching what’s going on, unlike other domain hosts.
A recent survey of the top five shared hosting companies showed a large percentage using outdated software.
Officially Recommended by WordPress
Yes, this is the stamp of approval by WordPress. Not every domain host will be recognized by WordPress so this is not something to be sniffed at.
WordPress is not the only one that loves them.
They are trusted by the owners of over 2 million domains! I also checked their reviews on Trustpilot.
They had a 92% 5-star rating and thousands of great testimonials.
Siteground Review Cons: Are There Any Disadvantages to Hosting with Siteground?
As this is an honest Siteground review, you best believe we share the disadvantages of hosting with Siteground too!
Here’s what I experienced when I was a Siteground customer (which lead me to leave and switch to BigScoots hosting as a result):
Siteground cons:
- A low amount of storage space. Depending on the shared hosting plan you choose, you get either; 10GB, 20GB or 30GB of storage. I was on the middle plan with 20GB of space and QUICKLY went over it, and experienced a number of storage quota issues.
- So then I upgraded to SG’s dedicated hosting plan which was much more expensive and was supposed to fix this. But it didn’t, and my site would just randomly go offline because of it.
- Limited CPU. The limited CPU quota is another issue I faced at Siteground.
- No free domain name. Some hosting providers will offer you a free domain name on sign-up to entice you in. Siteground does not. This to me, doesn’t make that much difference as you can buy your domain name for a few dollars a year.
If your website gets significant traffic or you want to manage a portfolio of many sites under one hosting account, then SiteGround probably isn’t for you. In that case, I recommend this host as the very best option.
Who Is Siteground Domain Hosting Right for?
Siteground is a solid, supportive and feature-rich domain host.
In regards to uptime, speed, security and technical options, I believe there is no other budget host out there that can beat it for that price.
However, BigScoots is much faster, and only costs a few dollars more!
Here’s who Siteground is right for;
- Beginner bloggers who need extra support
- Website owners that are new to WordPress
- Ecommerce store owners
- Medium-sized bloggers looking for great features
- Larger, authority sites who value great security and fast load times
- Professional website designers and developers
If you don’t need much storage space or CPU and your site doesn’t get much traffic, then Siteground is an extremely affordable web host. And with this coupon below, you can get a huge 70% discount when you sign up.
Does Siteground Offer Discounts to New Sign-Ups?
Yes! Get 70% off for your first year.
Which Siteground Plan Is Best?
Siteground offers three main hosting plans. The biggest differences are; price and features.
Go to: SiteGround and choose your WordPress hosting package. That link will take you directly to the WordPress hosting area, and will give you my discounted pricing options off the regular price.
I recommend the GrowBig package as for just $2 more than the StartUp package, you get double the web space and visitor capacity.
The StartUp package is good, but it is limited at only 10GB webspace and 10,000 monthly visits.
10,000 monthly visits may seem like a lot to you now, but throughout this course, you will learn how to boost your blog traffic, and you will soon find that the number of your monthly visits will be well above that cap.
I had 10,000 monthly visitors just 6 weeks after launching my new blog, so it’s definitely better to choose the GrowBig package.
GrowBig also gives you the ability to host multiple websites which will be a big time and money saver if you want to run multiple money-making niche sites.
Here’s a rough guide to choosing the best Siteground plan for your blog;
- StartUp. This plan is self-explanatory and a good plan to choose as a beginner blogger if you just have one site. You get all the essential features, and performance boosters to keep your site fast, security and support. Suitable for up to 10,000 monthly visits and gives your site 10GB of space.
Cost: $2.99/month (normally $14.99)
- GrowBig. This is the next best choice if you have more than one website. Suitable for up to 25,000 monthly visits, you get 20GB of web storage and all the usual great features.
Cost: $4.99/month (normally $24.99)
- GoGeek. You get 40GB of web space, all the usual features plus a few extra.
Cost: $7.99/month (normally $39.99)
How To Start A WordPress Blog With SiteGround
Ok, now let’s start your blog!
This Is A 3 Part Tutorial
PART 1
- Set up a self-hosted website with hosting & domain registration with Siteground, including secure installation of https:// certificate.
- Install WordPress.org
PART 2
- Change the permalink structure
- Set up Google Analytics
- Set up Google Search Console
- Submit your sitemap to Google
PART 3
- Install a theme
- Set up website security
- Install plugins
- Create content
- Build your blog’s email list
- Begin a social media marketing campaign for your blog
- Monetize & make money from your blog
Want To Skip All Of This Set-Up Stuff?
You can! You can actually buy a blog that is established, from a seller who is letting it go!
The owner has already set up the WordPress site, and handled all of the hosting, domain registration, tech stuff. Plus they wrote blog posts, grew the social accounts and email list for you!
Learn more about buying a blog.
Rather Do It All Yourself? Cool, Read On!
How To Start A WordPress Blog With SiteGround: How To Set Up Hosting And Install WordPress
In this training, I will show you how to start a blog that is self-hosted.
Self-hosting means that you own your website and all of its content. You pay for hosting and use WordPress.org, not a ‘free’ host such as Tumblr, Wix, or WordPress.com.
Related: What’s the difference between WordPress.org and .com?
This is a step-by-step tutorial on how to set up hosting with Siteground and install WordPress.org.
For more in-depth training on blogging and more specifically how to make money blogging, enroll in The Blog Monetization Course.
This course covers everything you need to know to create, run, market and monetize a blog.
I cover affiliate marketing, sales funnels, list building, and literally everything for the business of blogging.
In that program, I share my decade of experience as a marketing strategist, and all of the strategies that help me earn over $40,000 per month from blogging in this self-paced newbie-friendly training.
1. Set Up Hosting & Register Domain Name
Go to: Siteground and choose your WordPress hosting package.
If you already have hosting elsewhere, you can still use that discount to switch. And they will even migrate your old site to the new one for free!
I recommend the GrowBig package as for just a bit more than the StartUp package, you get double the web space and visitor capacity. The StartUp package is good, but it is limited to only 10GB webspace and 10,000 monthly visits.
10,000 monthly visits may seem like a lot to you now, but if you follow any of my blog traffic guides you will find that the number of your monthly visits will be well above that cap.
I had 10,000 monthly visitors just 6 weeks after launching my new blog, so it’s definitely better to choose the GrowBig package.
GrowBig also gives you the ability to host multiple websites which will be a big time and money saver if you want to run multiple money-making niche sites.
Select the package that is right for you and then choose ‘Get a new hosting account.’
Then select either ‘Register a new domain’ or ‘I already have a domain’ if you want to transfer an existing domain.
If you are starting a new blog with a new domain, enter the domain name you want for your blog instead – and make sure you spell it correctly, it can’t be changed later!
Next, you can enter your account and payment information, along with selecting additional products.
I highly recommend you purchase private domain hosting. This will protect your personal information.
Then, select either ‘Register a new domain’ or ‘I already have a domain’ if you want to transfer an existing domain.
- Enter the domain name you want for your blog, and make sure you spell it correctly, it can’t be changed later!
Next, you can enter your account and payment information, along with selecting additional products.
Once you have paid, you will get a notification that your account has been successfully created!
Now you can proceed to the Customer Area where you will be able to choose a username and password for accessing your Siteground dashboard.
Now you will be logged into the SiteGround Customer Area. Here you will see a popup asking you if you want to have WordPress preinstalled on your account.
3. Install WordPress
Option One: If you already have a website with another host, and you just need to move it to SiteGround, this is what to do:
Once you are logged in to your new Siteground dashboard choose ‘support’ and then open a ticket to request to have your website transferred to the new host.
A Siteground support rep will transfer your website free of charge.
This can take up to 24 hours. You can skip the ‘option 2’ steps below, but scroll down to where I have listed the ‘tasks’ that you will need to do once your website transfer is complete.
How to start a blog with SiteGround step by step #startablog #siteground #newbloggers #bloggerswantedOption 2: If you are starting a completely new website with a new domain, this is what you need to do:
When you are logged into the SiteGround Customer Area, you will see a popup asking you if you want to have WordPress preinstalled on your account.
Select that option and click on the Proceed button.
The next page consists of two parts. In the first one, enter the login information for your new WordPress application. (‘Application’ is your blog.)
Choose a username and password, and make both something hard to guess.
Never use ‘Admin’ as your username, because hackers will have no problem getting into your site with such a simple username.
Next, scroll down and pick one of the free WordPress themes available in the Wizard and click on the Submit button once again.
Don’t worry, you can change your theme later.
Finally, you will see a quick summary of your WordPress installation, including from where to access your admin area, your username, and your password.
Click Submit and WordPress will be installed and configured for you and you will be given the login details.
You can access your WordPress dashboard and work on your blog anytime by going to https://yourdomain.com/wp-admin
But before you begin creating blog posts, there are a few necessary tasks we need to do to ensure your website is set up correctly.
Head on over to part 2 to complete the next steps.
You have successfully learned how to start a blog with SiteGround, congrats!
Now it’s time to get to work.
Read these essential guides below, which cover everything you need to successfully run and monetize your new WordPress blog.
Siteground Review – Conclusion
In conclusion, SiteGround Hosting offers a blend of reliable performance, excellent customer support, and user-friendly features, making it a strong contender in the web hosting market.
While it might not be the cheapest option available, its commitment to quality and customer satisfaction stands out.
This review should assist you in making an informed decision about whether SiteGround aligns with your website’s requirements and goals.
What do you think about this Siteground review?
Are you going to try Siteground as your domain host? Have you had an experience with Siteground already?
I’d love to know in the comments below…
Don’t forget to download my free Profitable Blog Toolkit below:
The HerPaperRoute Profitable Blog Toolkit is my members-only resource library of tools to help you start a blog and develop it into a thriving, income-earning business!
- Profitable Blog Cheatsheet!
- Styled Stock Photos!
- Social Media Marketing Planner! & More!
Read This Next:
- Tips For New Bloggers, From 21 Pro Bloggers
- Learn SEO in my free SEO course
- 10 Ways To Monetize 10 Niches
