(THIS POST PROBABLY CONTAINS AFFILIATE LINKS. OUR FULL DISCLOSURE POLICY IS REALLY BORING, BUT YOU CAN FIND IT HERE.)
The big blog host debate these days: Bluehost vs Siteground… what’s the best hosting company for beginner (or intermediate) bloggers?
There was no Bluehost vs Siteground debate when I started my blog on Bluehost. And for the first year I blogged, I recommended hosting with Bluehost to my readers. And I personally never thought I had any real issues with Bluehost. Their customer service had been ok and my site was only down three times in one year. (I figured that’s bound to happen once in a while.) Plus they seemed to be the cheapest option out there when I started my blog. And everyone was recommending them.
So why on earth would I switch hosting companies?
It started with page load speed. It seems like a pretty simple thing, but it was really getting to be a big deal for me. (With a faster load speed you will have a lower bounce rate and a higher ad income. I can not afford to allow my pages to take 13 seconds to load… and that’s where I was with my load speed on Bluehost.)
I contacted Bluehost and they said I would have to upgrade to a VPS service to gain any speed. I had been hearing a bunch of anti-Bluehost rumblings in blogging forums and decided to at least look into other hosts before I gave more money to Bluehost.
Siteground came very highly recommended by some bloggers I really respect (and also by my web developer), so I had them run a test on my page load speed…and they told me that my page load speed wasn’t just bad – it was unacceptable. 13 seconds! It’s a wonder I had any traffic at all at that load time. I asked Siteground if they could guarantee me a faster load time if I moved my blog to them. And they said yes, absolutely. They showed me the following graph:
(The results above are based on tests with real accounts on 12 of the most popular web hosts on the affiliate market: Bluehost, HostGator, iPage, Fatcow, Justhost, AsmallOrange, InMotion, WebhostingHub, Arvixe, GoDaddy, GreenGeeks and A2Hosting.)
Not only that, but siteground have the fastest issue resolution time via chat:
I was pretty impressed… but…
I was afraid I’d be paying a lot more for this better service
Because isn’t it true that you get what you pay for?
I had started my blog for $3.95 / month – right? That’s the price I see advertised EVERYWHERE for Bluehost, and I figured that’s what I had paid. BUT, it turns out, I had paid $5.45/month… because to get the price of $3.95 you need to purchase 36 months of hosting off the bat.
And who wants to commit to three years of hosting before they know if they even LIKE the host?!
With Siteground you’d actually pay LESS for a 12 month subscription than you would with Bluehost, because you can get an awesome discount for whatever period you choose – 12 month, 24 months, 36 months… it’s up to you! (The greatest savings over time, is of course, to purchase 36 months.)
So I was more or less sold…
But I wasn’t STARTING a blog, I was GROWING a blog. So I went with their GoGeek plan, because it can handle up to 100k visits / month (and actually handled far more than that for me – very well.) All their plans come with free daily back-up, so I canceled my back-up service and started saving 100$/year that way. The GoGeek plan also has the SuperCacher, which greatly improves WordPress and Joomla website speed, so my ad income increased, and bounce rate went down. Load speed is also a very important factor in Google ranking, believe it or not! (No one wants to hang around for a site to load, and Google knows that.)
Another super awesome feature that GrowBig and GoGeek plans have is that if anything with your site goes wrong, data is lost for some reason, you have access to 30 backup copies and free restore done by SiteGround technicians (while with the StartUp plan, the restore service is paid).
If you’re in the market for a new hosting plan these are the available shared plans –
- The StartUp plan – is perfect for people with one website that are just starting out. You do have to pay additional for site transfer with the StartUp plan (but this comes included with the GrowBig and GoGeek plan). It can handle up to 10,000 unique visits per month and comes with one click WordPress install, and free daily backup (although you do have to pay additional to restore a backup). Regular price USD 14.99 per month. (But you can get it for $6.99/month through this link!)
- The GrowBig plan – is a great value for money offer, including the option for multiple websites and the SuperCacher that greatly improves a WordPress and Joomla website speed. GrowBig is comparable in price to StartUp, but it also includes free site transfer, up to four times faster loading times, free backup restore, and priority customer support. This plan can handle up to 25,000 visits per month. Free daily backup & site restore. Regular price: USD 24.99 per month (Or 9.99/month here.)
- The GoGeek plan – is perfect for people with more traffic, and it’s what I used when I first came to Siteground. It can handle up to 100,000 visits per month, comes with free daily backup & site restore. Has all the features of the other two plans plus more. Regular price: USD 39.99 per month (Or just $14.99/month here.)
I was VERY happy with the GoGeek plan, and even though they advertise that it is only good to 100,000 visits, it held strong for me until over 300,000 visits. (At 300,000 I had to switch to a cloud hosting which is $80/month, but siteground had me back up and running in only a matter of hours. EXCELLENT customer service!)
Once I switched hosts my site speed improved DRASTICALLY, my ad income increase, and my bounce rate decreased. My site has not been down ONE TIME since I switched. Siteground made the swap easy for me, walking me through it step by step via chat.
SO what is the host switching experience like?
To be honest, I was terrified of the actual switch. I am the least technical person I know, and I was terrified that something would break and my blog would be lost forever.
And, I don’t mean to sound like I’m complaining here, but I have VERY limited computer time… so I didn’t want to sign up for something that was going to require hours worth of my efforts.
You can imagine how thrilled I was when I found out that Siteground offers 1 site migration for free with their GrowBig and GoGeek plan; and that a normal migration takes about 24 hours (which is a very short period compared to other hosts (e.g. A2 offers free migration but it takes up to 30 days; and Bluehost offers paid migration only, at USD 149.99 per site).
BUT the BEST part is that the WHOLE PROCESS IS DONE BY SITEGROUND TECHNICIANS and there is NO downtown! Hallelujah!
I did have to point my own nameservers to Siteground, (which means I had to go into my Bluehost account and copy and paste a code from Siteground) because I wasn’t moving the PRIMARY domain on my account over, just a subdomain. If you have only one domain, you probably won’t even have to do this. But that was very straightforward and the Siteground chat walked me through it.
All in all, the process was practically painless and 100% worth it.
But speed and downtime aren’t the only reason I chose Siteground over Bluehost
I believe that where there’s smoke, there’s fire. You’d be hard pressed these days to find a website developer who would recommend Bluehost anymore. This is because Bluehost has been bought out by a big umbrella company called EIG (and if you google ’em – you will find that they just aren’t that great at things). I am a member of a few blogging Facebook groups and there is A LOT of chatter about the poor service, the poor load time and other issues that people are running into with Bluehost. Bluehost vs Siteground is a HUGE topic of conversation.
Bluehost pays better commission than Siteground, and that’s too bad. (I think it’s especially too bad, now that I have re-written my how to start a blog tutorial to recommend hosting with Siteground, haha.)
Recently, I polled my readers and asked – where they hosted with Bluehost? And if they were… how was their experience?
The majority of the responses I got weren’t positive unfortunately.
Recently we (in the blog groups) had a discussion about why SO many bloggers are still recommending Bluehost, if it’s true that things are getting rough with them. As far as I can tell? It comes down to the dollars to be made.
But I could not, in good faith, recommend that anyone start their blog with a service that so many people are claiming to have trouble with. (That said, my blog hasn’t been down once since I switched, and I’m loving the new page load time – and increased ad revenue that goes with it.)
I would feel terrible if people started their blogs on Bluehost based on my recommendation and then had to go through the headache of switching hosting companies in the future.
I have updated my tutorial on how to start a blog for profit and my resource page to reflect my new hosting company, and I feel good about my decision, even if I’ll make less money.
Carly, thank you for your honesty. I started EBA in February and it was in that FB Group where I was first alarmed at the news and discussions about Bluehost. The entire time I thought I’d be signing up with Bluehost, and I was so confused why so many bloggers would recommend them if their service wasn’t that great. Then it was clarified (The commission) and it made a bit more sense. It made me sad though, but reading this is so refreshing! It’s rare to find people like you who will do the right thing, who won’t just go after the money. I want to be honest and trustworthy with my readers in the same way.
God Bless,
Gladys
It doesn’t mean that this article not accurate, but she is getting commission on this recommendation also. As she stated Endurance International Group (EIG) is the parent company to several hosting companies. You can see their list here:
https://www.endurance.com/our-brands
I am a web designer / developer. When I created my own website when I launched my business years ago I signed up with Hostmonster after going to several review websites. It wasn’t till a couple of years down the road that I learned that when I was calling Hostmonster support the same reps were answering the lines for Bluehost customers as well. So, that let me know that you get the same service – the price is just a marketing scheme based on who they are targeting (people tend to equate quality with price and Bluehost was more). I went with Hostmonster initially because it was cheaper and I knew exactly what I would need in terms of disk space, databases, etc…
When I setup my next website, I decided to give Bluehost a try and this was the reasoning behind it. It was the ONLY hosting that WordPress endorsed. That is why everyone was raving over Bluehost. No doubt commissions are incentives but the proof was that WordPress was saying “Hey, this is what will make life easier with WordPress”. To this day they still recommend Bluehost, but they have also added DreamHost & SiteGround.
The problem for the novice building their own website and judging a host, but not knowing how the code effects things, themes, etc… you could very well be blaming the host for things that had nothing to do with them. I’ve seen people complain about BlueHost & SiteGround.
With that being said. I say take the author’s advice and go with SiteGround because apparently they do have good reviews. However, be cautious that it will be a fix to all if you run into a problem and don’t blame them. Instead ask for a web developer to look into the problem first. Btw, I’m all for supporting review articles. The time that author’s put into them, they deserve a commission. If you want to support her and signup, clear your cache and then click on her link to SiteGround. Good job Carly.
YES! I am getting commission, but I 100% stand behind this recommendation for hosting. Thank you for sharing this Tinelle, very interesting!
This is interested. I have had a good experience with Bluehost so far – they have totally fixed my site after I broke it twice. But as I grow, I will probably consider switching to Siteground too as Ive heard great things.
After I read this post, it all made sense why my site was SO slow!! thank you so much for being honest!! I truly am thinking of switching over to siteground now too!! Could you write a post on how to switch hosting companies 🙂
Thanks for your blogs. I’m working on starting up and these are SO helpful! May I ask, in one of your links that you posted you said “With Siteground you’d actually pay LESS for a 12 month subscription than you would with Bluehost. $4.95/month. (Or $3.95 / month for 12 months if you use this link!)” is this $3.95 a deal that has timed out, or is this still available?
Thanks!
Hi Kim!! You didn’t find the 3.95$ available through that link? I just checked and I can find it there. I will email you 🙂
Thanks so much for this information! I am currently with Godaddy and have a very high bounce rate and I think it has a lot to do with the loading speed of my site. (I also can’t advertise Godaddy and make a profit off of it). But I’ve heard a lot of great things about SiteGround and will definitely think about switching over soon! I don’t know if I should wait until my year ends with Godaddy or not. But either way, the switch will definitely happen. Thanks for the advice!
Nicole
Godaddy is the same as bluehost! Both are owned by EIG, along with MANY others. You would love siteground!
Congratulations on your professional work. You really help me to decide ( finally, it’s near 6 months thinking) about a correct and professional Hosting company. We go definitely for SiteGround as our Hosting company.
I believe key advantages of Siteground over bluehost and the others is the custom server set up and the instant assistance. I am glad to say that yes they have best 24/7 customer support as well as excellent WordPress hosting features. I have got my website setup in no time and all the hurdles manage by Sitegound’s very technical team.
Thanks Carly for this information, i have Siteground for 1 year and no doubt, they have awesome support + they have secure servers. They have discounted price for 1 year, after that they charge full price, which is quite costly 🙂
Hi Carly! Thank you for this thorough post on why you switched. I have SiteGround hosting as well and really like it so far. I had a question for you please about signing up for being an affiliate for them. I was going to and then I see that it requires my social security number and entity type? I was wondering if you had to give them that information as well? I haven’t seen that talked about really and it made me a bit cautious – so I wanted to double check with someone who is already an affiliate for them and how it was when you signed up. Thank you!
I just write N/A where they ask for that info (mostly because I don’t have one!) BUT they are reputable and I’m sure your info would be safe 🙂
This was just what I was looking for! Thanks for your honest review and details of why. So helpful! I knew there was a reason why I didn’t commit to BlueHost the three times I went to sign up on their site. Decision made! Any tips of what is really needed when buying into Siteground?
Kim,
I am so glad you have decided to go with Siteground! They are an excellent host for when you are starting out! I have heard that their middle plan is the best deal right now – but you may not necessarily need it yet. I would recommend sticking with what you need and updating later. The rates are prorated and upgrading your plan is not difficult. Also – purchase as much time as you can on the promotional plan, as the price increases quite a bit after that time period. Good luck!!
I currently have BlueHost. Is it hard to switch? And does it cost to switch?
I’ve already spent 150$$$ between that and themes? I’m so torn/.
My biggest issue with them is importing affiliates.
Antoinette, I would recommend reaching out to them and checking. I think Bluehost only offers a refund for the first month (it could be a bit more) but after that, you may not be able to get a refund. Switching is usually not that hard, as they can do everything for you. There tend to be technical hiccups with a lot of things, but generally, it shouldn’t be too bad.
My site is quite slow, and the information here makes sense. Unfortunately, I paid for 36 months with Bluehost, but I am still considering migrating to Siteground anyways. I am afraid of the learning curve but super tempted to press the button for the GrowBig plan lol.