Tl;DR – Siteground is no longer a beginner-friendly web host, at least with its pricing. Your alternatives if you’re looking for affordable WordPress hosting are Hostgator, InMotion and GreenGeeks.
Recently I received an email from Siteground and here’s what they said:
Hello Aayush Bhaskar,
We would like to inform you that SiteGround’s shared hosting prices have been updated.
We believe that the new pricing strategy will better reflect the true value of our product and position us more accurately on the market compared to our competitors, while allowing us to keep running a sustainable business with a strong focus on quality of service.
Why make the change?
Over the past year we have seriously re-evaluated our marketing strategy. The research we ran showed that we had built a strong reputation of a host which offers a high quality of service and expert support and managed to achieve high brand recognition. However, keeping our prices in the low range of the hosting segment does not reflect accurately the worth of our offering and even impacts negatively our brand value. We are finally ready to move forward and make pricing adjustments because:
1. We have the strongest combination of performance, reliability, support and features included in the hosting market. This is creating a value of our product which is well beyond its current positioning and product pricing.
2. Our goal is to keep pushing high quality of service for a reasonable price, which requires achieving a better balance of revenue over cost.
3. Research shows that SiteGround brand recognition is currently at its peak and the demand for our service is not so dependent on the price.
What are the new prices?
Here’s an overlook at pricing before and after:
Before
After
| USD | EUR | GBP | AUD | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| StartUp | $6.99/mo. | 5.99 €/mo. | £5.99/mo. | $6.99/mo. |
| GrowBig | $9.99/mo. | 9.99 €/mo | £8.99/mo. | $9.99/mo. |
| GoGeek | $14.99/mo. | 13.99 €/mo. | £12.99/mo. | $14.99/mo |
New 1-month billing cycle
Due to popular demand, we’re introducing a 1-month billing cycle for all hosting plans. This will enable clients to start with a lower down payment and spread the hosting cost for their projects more evenly over the period of the service.
Of course, Siteground is jumping out of the cheap hosting market and trying to establish themselves as a real managed hosting competitor. Which ultimately they are.
SiteGround is known for their amazing support and solid servers.
Existing customers will keep using their services at the price they signed up for. They’ll be billed according to the new pricing plans when they renew once their service tenure ends.
The features are still same across all the plans. You still get the basic features such as:
- Free SSL
- Free CDN
- Free email accounts
- Unlimited database
- Daily backup
- 24×7 support
The new pricing is in effect as of 24 June 2020.
Let me know your opinions in the comments.
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