Siteground
8.0
Our Score
Reputable.
Fully-managed hosting.
Independent team of cybersecurity experts .
Limited storage space.
More expensive.
Welcome to my Flywheel vs Siteground Review 2024.
I spent 24+ hours researching about Flywheel vs Siteground web hosting that are some of the most popular web hosting providers available.
In this Flywheel vs Siteground review, we’ll take a look at all the features and benefits of this software and see how it compares to other options.
I’ll also answer some of the most commonly asked questions about Flywheel vs Siteground.
So, without further ado, let’s get started!
Flywheel vs Siteground Review 2024
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Things To Consider Before Buying Web Hosting
Before we get into the main points of Siteground and why you should (or shouldn’t) use it over any other service, here are some things to think about.
Budget
How much are you willing to pay for web hosting? Cheaper deals aren’t necessarily better if you expect to have a lot of traffic. If you’re sharing space on a server, expect to pay $3 to $15/month, depending on the features you want. If you want a dedicated server, you might need to spend as much as $750/month, although you may want to buy your own servers at that point.
Host Specialties
Every host wants you to believe that they’re the perfect choice for all situations, but the reality is that most of them specialize in specific types of sites. For example, Siteground focuses on WordPress and commercial hosting needs, while Flywheel also does WordPress but caters more towards creative people and companies.
Tech Specifications
Tech matters when you’re running a site. For example, if your host offers RAM-based servers, they can offer faster response times than anyone limited to using hard disks. Also, how well does the company scale things up? Some companies can give you additional resources much faster than others, and that’s vital if you have a sudden surge of traffic.
Tech Support
How easily can you contact someone if there’s a problem with your site? If tech support is only available for a few hours in the middle of the night because it’s based halfway around the world, that’s not ideal for anyone.
Notably, Siteground offers 24/7 support through chat, phone, and tickets. Flywheel also offers 24/7 support but prefers chat to other contact methods.
Presenting Siteground
Siteground is one of the largest WordPress hosts on the internet, and it claims the distinction of being officially recommended by WordPress itself. That’s a distinction only shared by two other hosts right now, out of over a quarter-million web hosting providers. A company has to be special to stand out in a field this crowded.
While they’re most well-known for their WordPress services, Siteground also supports businesses running other types of software. They currently host over two million domains, which is large for a web hosting company but not in the top tier worldwide. They are a good choice for most users, but not for media-heavy users who want to host many videos.
(For context, GoDaddy – the largest web host in the world – hosts over 60 million domains.)
Pros Of Siteground:
- Extremely reputable compared to most other web hosts
- Uses Google Cloud, which is one of the top networks in the world
- Uses renewable energy
- Provides fully-managed hosting and migration services
- Maintains an independent team of cybersecurity experts who add new protections almost daily
Cons of Siteground:
- A little more expensive than some other providers, especially once you renew
- Limited storage space
- Requires higher tiers for some fundamental business features
Features And Benefits
Here are the main features and benefits that Siteground offers on all of its standard plans.
Weebly Site Builder
Weebly is a comprehensive website builder, and it comes standard as part of Siteground’s basic package. This is helpful if you want to create a website that’s beyond just WordPress, but you’re not in a position to code the entire thing from scratch yourself.
Outside of the drag & drop builder system, Weebly supports customized fonts, parallax and reveal for site animations, a built-in image editor, site search, and space for custom HTML, CSS, and Javascript coding.
Now, the inclusion of an image editor is slightly misleading. Sure, you can do some basic edits for photos, but it’s fundamentally not as powerful as a professional-grade tool like Photoshop. If you expect to do a lot of image editing, don’t rely on the Weebly system for that.
Unlimited Subdomains
This is a great feature, and it’s one some web hosts don’t offer. A subdomain is a prefix to your regular site name and essentially exists as a separate website within the domain. This is handy because Siteground usually only permits one website on its basic plan.
However, all sites under the domain name will share the same amount of storage on Siteground’s servers, ranging from 10GB to 40GB unless you get a customized hosting solution.
This range isn’t bad for a website. Frankly, many sites will never even vaguely approach this data cap. The only way they’re likely to run out of space is if they support user-made content or include a lot of videos that are permanently available.
However, if you need to create many subdomains for whatever reason, the space limits could end up coming into play. That’s worth keeping in mind as you design your site.
Free, Automatic SSL Certificates
This is relevant mainly for businesses and other sides that collect sensitive data, but they’re also nice to have even on regular sites. Unlike many other hosting providers, which demand extra fees for this, Siteground provides SSL certificates for all domains, automatically installs them, and automatically renews them free of extra charge to users.
Functionally, this is one less thing you have to worry about when you’re setting up a website.
Site Shipping
This is another surprisingly rare feature, though more web hosts are starting to use it. Shipping a website essentially means transferring complete control of the site to another account (in this case, another Siteground account).
In practical terms, this means that you can hire someone else to make a website, let them create it on their account, and take it over when they’re done. If you’re a site-building agency, this means you can make websites for others and without needing to share account information.
Google Cloud Support
Most web hosts don’t manage things entirely on their own, and that’s true even for services as notable as Siteground. They run primarily on the Google Cloud platform, which has three major benefits that not every web host can provide.
First, this allows distributed SSD storage. Even if a component fails in one area, which is rare, Siteground can use a backup from somewhere else and get things running again with only the briefest downtime. Google Cloud nodes are distributed around the world, which makes it nearly impossible for accidents or damage to take down the network and your backups.
Second, the network itself is state-of-the-art. Google has a massive capacity for processing requests for sites, which means the hosting network won’t be a problem for maintaining site speeds. Google Cloud is essentially the worldwide standard for powerful networks, so realistically, you probably won’t find anything better.
Finally, this support uses renewable energy, including a commitment to carbon neutrality. Google actively engages in energy-efficient practices, and with good reason: They’re so big that even small improvements can save them a lot of money. Financial motivators are the best motivators for companies, so we expect this to continue.
Fully Managed Services
Siteground prefers managed hosting, which is a fancy way of saying that they prefer installing updates and such themselves. I like this because it’s another area where you could spend a lot of time but shouldn’t have to.
If more people install updates themselves, then there are more chances for things to go wrong. If more people have errors, that slows down customer service times and ultimately drags on everything the company does. Managing updates on the hosting end is much simpler.
In case anyone thinks that’s an exaggeration, remember that Siteground hosts literally millions of domains, and even more when we count subdomains in that number. If just 1% of domains have problems with updates, that’s still about twenty thousand customer service requests.
In-House Security
This is one of the things that really sets Siteground apart from other companies. The internet is a constantly-changing web of threats that can take sites down, and only rigorous monitoring and software development can keep sites safe.
Unlike many other hosts, Siteground has a dedicated team of security personnel who keep track of new and ongoing software vulnerabilities. This team also codes patches and other updates for Siteground to protect websites from the threats they monitor, and those are added to sites as part of the managed hosting.
Siteground claims to add about 300 custom patches to sites each year, which is a rate of almost one every single day. Unlike smaller hosts, they don’t have to wait on anybody else to make solutions to problems. They can handle this entirely on the inside, which means they can update faster and, frankly, better than most of their competitors.
This isn’t as important for small websites that don’t collect user data or track valuable information. However, for any professional or business sites, security is one of the most important factors. The in-house security is the main reason I like Siteground over most of its competitors.
Reviews
I scoured the internet for some reviews of Siteground and found a few that seem rather positive. However, keep in mind that most people don’t talk about web hosts too much, so there aren’t as many user reviews in general of web hosts.
Alternatives
Here are some alternatives to Siteground. The statistics listed below are for each company’s basic plans and may vary based on the plan you choose.
Flywheel
The main focus of our Flywheel vs. Siteground review, Flywheel is a creativity-focused web host. This means that they support test environments without updating your live sites, provide help for collaboration, and provide dedicated resources.
However, Flywheel only hosts WordPress sites, so they don’t have the same level of flexibility as Siteground. In fact, as far as a Flywheel vs. Siteground review goes, that alone can be a deal-breaker. They’re also relatively expensive compared to other options, with smaller storage on their basic plan, so it’s tough to recommend Flywheel over Siteground.
- Storage: 5 GB
- SSL Certificates: Free
- Number of Websites: 1
- Subdomains: Unlisted
Hostgator
In the Hostgator vs. Siteground debate, Hostgator is well-known as one of the oldest providers of hosting services. They host about the same number of websites as Siteground, but a few things hold them back. Notably, they only provide a free domain for one year, but they also offer many types of hosting services to meet different needs.
Overall, Hostgator is a good choice for many people, but their top-level plans are fairly expensive.
- Storage: Unlimited
- SSL Certificates: Free
- Number of Websites: 1
- Subdomains: Unlisted
Dreamhost
When considering Siteground vs. Dreamhost, the main thing to remember is that Dreamhost is an employee-owned company that focuses on open source solutions. They specialize in smaller websites, which means they’re somewhat cheaper than the competition, but they do have a few (expensive) options for dedicated support.
- Storage: 50 GB
- SSL Certificates: Free
- Number of Websites: 1
- Subdomains: 5
What Next?
In my personal experience with Siteground, I’ve found their 24/7 support to be incredibly helpful and responsive. During a recent issue with my website’s performance, their live chat support guided me through troubleshooting steps promptly, ensuring minimal downtime. This level of availability and expertise eased my concerns and reaffirmed my trust in Siteground’s services. Additionally, their in-house security measures provided peace of mind, as I could focus on my content without worrying about potential threats. These experiences highlight Siteground’s commitment to user satisfaction and their dedication to resolving issues promptly, making it a solid choice for website hosting.
Click here to visit Siteground.
