Looking for SiteGround alternatives for your website(s)? SiteGround is a major shared web host and the most popular independent hosting choice other than the EIG and GoDaddy empires.
However, many recent price increases, a new dashboard (and the end of cPanel), and various limits on support choices have lately driven many people looking for alternatives.
Fortunately, you have lots of options, which I’ve compiled in this piece, where I’ll present five of my favourite SiteGround alternatives. Two of these hosts are less expensive than SiteGround while still providing comparable quality and features; two providers provide higher quality hosting than SiteGround at a somewhat higher price; and the fifth host may be both cheaper and better depending on your scenario.
You may select the one that best meets your needs, and I’ll provide some suggestions at the end of this piece.
Why Siteground Alternatives?
Before we go into the negative aspects of SiteGround, let’s have a look at what they do well, because I still think SiteGround is a terrific host and one of the best alternatives for shared hosting:
- SiteGround provides amazing performance for shared hosting. This is particularly true for the GrowBig and GoGeek plans, which provide server-level caching. All plans also get access to the SG Optimizer plugin, which has many of the same capabilities as the premium WP Rocket plugin (our review).
- Despite some recent setbacks (more on that below), SiteGround continues to provide some of the best service in the shared hosting industry.
- SiteGround has done an excellent job of always enhancing their product. Moving to Google Cloud infrastructure, adding staging sites to additional plans, developing a bespoke hosting dashboard, and so on are examples. You can’t claim the SiteGround staff is just sitting around twiddling their thumbs, whether you think such upgrades warrant the price hikes or not.
However, although there is still plenty to appreciate about SiteGround, there are several drawbacks that have grown more evident as they make more modifications.
Pricing
The most important reason to seek for an alternative to SiteGround is the cost. SiteGround has undergone two significant price rises in the last few years.
SiteGround used to be priced similarly to other shared hosting like Bluehost and GoDaddy. However, SiteGround is now clearly a tier above those hosting. So, if you liked SiteGround because of their affordable costs, you may be looking for alternatives.
To make matters worse, SiteGround no longer allows you to receive the entire promotional price for three years if you pay for all three years in advance (which they used to allow). For example, the StartUp package is presently $6.99 on sale, with the typical price of $14.99. Previously, if you signed up for the first time, you could lock in that $6.99 pricing for the entire three years provided you paid everything up ahead.
You may now pay just $6.99 per month for a year. If you pay for two years, you’ll pay $8.99 per month; if you pay for three years, you’ll pay $10.49 per month. It’s still cheaper than paying full price ($14.99), but the deal is no longer as appealing as it once was.
No More C Panel
If you prefer cPanel to the new SiteGround Site Tools interface, there are some decent cPanel SiteGround options that are even less expensive.
Hard To Understand Resource Limits
However, understanding SiteGround’s restrictions remains difficult since SiteGround limits you using extremely technical terminology such as CPU seconds. If you’re a new user, it might be difficult to comprehend what those restrictions signify or how to lower your CPU seconds (SiteGround have some tips here).
Furthermore, there are many dissatisfied SiteGround users who are constantly warned that their ‘CPU consumption is too high’ (along with a proposal to switch to more costly hosting!).
Support Throttling
Personally, I’ve always had positive experiences with SiteGround support and believe that they provide one of the best support services in the shared hosting industry. However, SiteGround has begun restricting service for consumers that submit a ‘above average’ amount of support requests in the last year.
Again, I’ve never had this experience (I’ve been hosting with SiteGround for three years and have seldom required help). However, it’s a problem I’ve noticed in Facebook WordPress hosting groups.
If you often contact support, you may discover alternative excellent hosts who will not throttle support.
Siteground Alternatives -- Cheaper Than Siteground
In this first section, I’ll discuss competitors to SiteGround that are less expensive while yet providing a product of comparable quality. In terms of performance, several of these hosts may fall short of SiteGround. They are, nevertheless, quite close and far less expensive.
In the following part, I’ll discuss SiteGround alternatives that I believe are just better goods for the same pricing as SiteGround (maybe a little bit more).
DreamHost
DreamHost is a well-established host that has been in business since 1996. They provide exceptionally low-cost shared hosting options that are nevertheless ‘quite excellent,’ yet they fall short of SiteGround’s performance.
All of their plans provide the following benefits:
- Unlimited visits
- Automatic WordPress updates
- Automatic daily backups
- Custom hosting dashboard
- Free SSL certificates
- 24/7 live chat, phone and ticket support
DreamHost only provides two shared plans:
- Starter — one website for $4.95 per month with month-to-month paying or $6.99 per month with three-year billing ($2.59 per month with three-year billing).
- Unlimited — Unlimited websites for $10.95 per month with month-to-month billing or $11.99 per month with three-year billing ($4.95 per month with three-year billing).
SiteGround vs DreamHost : Pros & Cons
PROS
CONS
A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting is similar to what SiteGround used to be – a low-cost shared host that provides greater performance than their low costs imply.
All A2 Hosting plans have the following features:
- Unlimited resources (websites, storage, and bandwidth)
- cPanel dashboard
- Server rewind backups (you should still use a backup plugin though)
- Free SSL certificates
- Staging sites
- 24/7/365 support via phone, live chat or email/ticket
The entry-level plan has certain resource constraints.
A2 Hosting’s plans start at as $2.99 per month for a single site ($8.99 per month standard). If you care about performance, though, I’d recommend upgrading to the Turbo servers, which employ LiteSpeed server/cache to provide substantially quicker page load times. These plans start at $9.99 per month for unlimited websites ($19.99 per month normal).
SiteGround vs A2 Hosting -- Pros & Cons
PROS
CONS
Cloudways
Cloudways is an intriguing option that might just as well be classified as “better than SiteGround.” However, depending on your demands, they may be less expensive than SiteGround, which is why I included them in this category.
The most notable feature of Cloudways is that they do not have their own hosting infrastructure. Instead, you may pick your own cloud hosting VPS from companies like DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr, AWS, and Google Cloud.
When you make that decision, Cloudways will set everything up and function in the same manner as a traditional host. You’ll also receive a slew of useful features:
- One-click WordPress install
- Server-level caching for improved performance
- Free SSL certificates
- Automatic backups (extra fee)
- Staging sites
- 24/7 support
Cloudways’ pricing are determined by your underlying cloud hosting; a DigitalOcean server costs $10 per month. There are no arbitrary website or bandwidth restrictions in any of the plans; you’ll only be restricted by what your VPS can really manage.
I prefer the Vultr High-Frequency (HF) servers for significantly better performance, which start at just $13. I just converted some of my personal sites from SiteGround to Vultr HF and was blown away by the speed.
SiteGround vs Cloudways -- Pros & Cons
PROS
CONS
SiteGround Alternatives -- Far Better Than SiteGround
WPX Hosting
WPX Hosting is a low-cost managed WordPress host that is ideal if you require high speed and need to host several sites. Unlike many ‘premium’ managed WordPress providers, who only allow you to have one site on their entry-level plans, WPX Hosting’s starter package allows you to have five websites with the following features:
- Built-in CDN
- Automatic and manual backups
- Staging sites
- Free SSL certificates
- Firewalls, malware scans, and DDoS protection
- 24/7 support via live chat (or phone on higher-tier plans)
Their plans start at $24.99 per month and include the following:
- Five websites
- 10 GB storage
- 100 GB bandwidth
SiteGround vs WPX Hosting -- Pros & Cons
PROS
CONS
Flywheel
Flywheel is a premium managed WordPress host in the same vein as WP Engine or Kinsta. The reason I pick Flywheel above the other hosting is entirely due to cost.
Despite being premium managed WordPress hosting, Flywheel nevertheless offers a $15 monthly plan, albeit it is only suitable for low-traffic sites due to a 5,000-visit restriction. The next tier up is $30 per month, which makes WP Engine (our review) and Kinsta (our review) two more fantastic solutions to consider if you’re prepared to pay that much.
Flywheel are definitely the greatest option on our list in terms of the combination of features, performance, and ease of use. All plans have the following features:
- A well-designed custom hosting dashboard, including a custom database management tool
- Google Cloud infrastructure (same as SiteGround)
- Server-level caching
- A built-in CDN
- Automatic daily off-site backups and an option for manual backups
- Staging sites
- Firewalls and malware scans
- Free SSL certificates
- Automatic WordPress updates
SiteGround Alternativs -- Conclusion
The ideal option clearly relies on your needs, education level, and the reason you’re upset with SiteGround. To that end, I’ll go over a few possible situations, and you may choose the one that best suits your needs.
If you’re a casual user looking for something simple and less expensive than SiteGround, I’d recommend A2 Hosting or DreamHost. Both are low-cost shared hosts that provide decent performance, functionality, and support (for the price). Choose A2 Hosting for cPanel and the finest performance, or DreamHost for low-cost monthly payment.
If you’re a more experienced user, I’d prefer Cloudways instead. Cloudways are a little more technical, but still well within a non-capabilities. developer’s The advantage is that you’ll receive excellent performance at a lesser cost than SiteGround. However, I believe Cloudways can be daunting for complete newbies, therefore I’d advise them to continue with A2 Hosting or DreamHost.
Finally, if you want something that will just outperform SiteGround, WPX Hosting and Flywheel are also terrific solutions with amazing performance and are extremely beginner-friendly (without being too much more expensive than SiteGround). I’d recommend Flywheel if you only need to host one site, or WPX Hosting if you need to host numerous sites.
Have you tried or are you utilising any of these SiteGround alternatives? Thoughts?
