Dear readers,
As of June 18th, 2020, SiteGround’s intro prices increased to $6.99, $9.99, and $14.99 per month for StartUp, GrowBig, and GoGeek respectively.
Upon renewal, monthly pricing increases from $6.99 to $14.99 (StartUp), $9.99 to $24.99 (GrowBig), and $14.99 to $39.99 (GoGeek). Yearly, that’s $179.88, $299.98, and $539.98.
As many of you know, I’ve been a SiteGround fan and affiliate for quite some time.
But I have some major concerns about the direction they have gone the last couple years (specifically their ongoing price increases, decline in support, CPU limits, no cPanel, and moving priority support to GoGeek). To me, it looks as if they are doing everything with profits in mind.
The justification was their migration to Google Cloud servers and improvements to SG Optimizer. Speeds are faster, but they still haven’t fixed the other issues. In fact, when I go on Facebook and search “SiteGround” nearly half the posts are complaints. I can’t sit here, silent, pretending I’m doing what’s best for my readers. In fact, I already changed all my hosting recommendations to Cloudways. I’m writing this to warn you of what I think is happening in their company and how I don’t think they’re the best solution. SiteGround is just not listening.
I highly encourage you to join the WordPress Hosting Facebook Group to stay on top of this industry and see what real people (non-affiliates) are recommending. This whole affiliate marketing world is leading to misinformation and steering people in the wrong direction. While SiteGround used to be the “all in one” go-to hosting company, that’s not that case anymore and it really depends on your individual needs.
I’ve seen most people are moving to Cloudways (shameless affiliate link where you can get 25% off your first month with promo code OMM25) which is now my go-to WordPress hosting recommendation. I wrote them a Facebook review and yes, Cloudways DigitalOcean is who I use now. I tried to stay loyal to SiteGround. I really did, but this is a pretty big slap in the face.
Hristo is aware of what people are saying in Facebook Groups about SiteGround and that they’re losing a lot of business to Muhammed (their community managers).
3 months after this comment, they increase prices:
We’ll see how this plays out, but it looks like I will be referring my readers elsewhere. And it looks like Cloudways.
Sincerely,
Tom (after referring 3,000 people to SiteGround)
