WPX vs. SiteGround 2023: If I HAD To Choose Between The 2, It Would Be WPX

Don’t use WPX or SiteGround.

While I would choose WPX between the two, there are better hosts out there for roughly the same price (like Rocket.net). I’d also argue SiteGround is one of the worst hosts you can use.

WPX was a top performer in Kevin Ohashi’s WordPress Hosting Benchmarks and use fast LiteSpeed servers. This means you can also use LiteSpeed Cache + QUIC.cloud, although they recommend W3TC + XDN. There are 3 major cons with WPX. First, they only have 3 data centers in Chicago, London, and Sydney. Second, their response to a worldwide outage was awful and resulted in them blaming a dead CEO even though it was their fault for not having a redundancy system. Third, they don’t list resource limits and it’s at their “discretion” to cancel your account if you use too many. $20.83/month for shared hosting is just a little too expensive if you ask me.

SiteGround has had so many complaints they had to hire “brand ambassadors” to censor Facebook Groups and ban people who speak out about them. They try to hide issues with their slow TTFB, CPU limits, outages, and DNS problems. They’ve managed to make nearly every aspect of their hosting worse: from raising prices to taking away free migrations and reducing their support. SiteGround has become very profit-driven and constantly blames issues on third-parties and suppliers. Plus, SiteGround Optimizer does a poor job of addressing core web vitals.

	WPX	SiteGround
Hosting Type	Shared	Shared
Server	LiteSpeed	NGINX
Cache Plugin	LiteSpeed Cache or W3TC	SiteGround Optimizer
CDN	QUIC.cloud or XDN	SiteGround CDN
CPU Limits	At their discretion	Takes down website
Object Cache	x	Memcached/Redis
Uptime	1 major outage	2 major outages
Data Centers	3	7
Dashboard	Custom	Custom (Site Tools)
Migrations	Free + speed optimization	$30/site
Pricing	High (but monthly option)	High renewals (about 3x)
Email	Low limits	Average
Support	Excellent	Declined
Ethics	Average	Very poor
TrustPilot Rating	4.9/5	4.6/5
Facebook Feedback	Good	Censors posts
Winner	Yes (But Better Options)	No

 

1. Server – WPX (LiteSpeed) Is Faster Than SiteGround (Nginx)

WPX uses LiteSpeed servers which are faster than Nginx with less chance of CPU limit issues.

In Kevin Ohashi’s WordPress Hosting Benchmarks, WPX had the fastest average load time in WebPageTest while SiteGround’s load time was at least double of WPX. This was for WordPress hosting plans under $25. Kevin’s tests are known to be one of the most reliable in the industry.

SiteGround has a history of TTFB problems especially after migrating to Google Cloud servers. They originally used one of the slowest N1 machine families but have since upgraded to a “balanced” N2 family. This is one reason they had the slowest TTFB in Backlinko’s TTFB test.

LiteSpeed has become one of the most popular types of servers in Facebook Groups.

 

2. Cache Plugin – LiteSpeed Cache On WPX vs. SiteGround Optimizer

Since WPX uses LiteSpeed, you can use LiteSpeed Cache which uses fast server-side caching (not sure why WPX recommends W3 Total Cache). Both LiteSpeed Cache and SiteGround Optimizer use server-side caching, but LiteSpeed Cache does a better job addressing core web vitals. It also has better reviews while SiteGround Optimizer has a history of compatibility issues the developers blame on third-parties if you check the support forums. WPX wins this category.

	SG Optimizer	W3 Total Cache	LiteSpeed Cache
Price	Free	Free	Free
Server-side caching	✓	x	✓
Critical CSS	x	x	✓
Delay JavaScript	x	x	✓
Remove unused CSS	x	x	✓
Preload links	x	x	✓
Object cache	✓	✓	✓
Host third-party code locally	x	x	✓
Lazy render HTML elements	x	x	✓
Lazy load background images	x	In CSS Files	Helper class
Add missing image dimensions	x	x	✓
First time visit optimization	x	x	Guest Mode
Control preloading	x	x	✓
Advanced cache control	x	x	✓
ESI (edge side includes)	x	x	✓
Gravatar cache	x	x	✓
Limit post revisions	Delete all	x	Keep some
CDN	SiteGround CDN	N/A	QUIC.cloud
CDN PoPs	14	N/A	70 (standard plan)
CDN price	Freemium	N/A	$.02-.08/GB
Dynamic caching	Paid	N/A	✓
Image optimization	Kind of	N/A	✓
DDoS protection	x	N/A	✓

 

 

 

5. Uptime – Both Had Catastrophic Outages

Both SiteGround and WPX had major outages – neither took responsibility and instead, blamed someone else.

SiteGround’s DNS was blocked by Google for 4 days in 2011 which caused tons of customer sites to get deranked or completely deindexed in Google. They also had a major outage in 2022. In both cases, SiteGround either denied a problem ever existed or blamed it on Google/Amazon. They never told customers to move to another DNS (i.e. Cloudflare) and expected them to wait.

 
WPX’s outage was equally bad and you can read the Facebook conversation here. Although the outage only lasted about 5 hours, WPX’s own site went down, and blamed it on their partner (Steadfast) whose CEO died just months earlier. However, Steadfast’s other partners did not see an outage because they had a redundancy system in place. When asked about this, WPX’s CEO (Terry) claimed it was “extremely expensive and would 2x-5x the price of our hosting services.”

I couldn’t agree more with this response:

 

6. Data Centers – WPX Only Has 3 vs. SiteGround’s 7

A big con of WPX is they only have 3 data centers.

Using a data center close to your visitors has a large impact on TTFB which can be seen in tools such as KeyCDN’s Performance Test. SiteGround has 7 data centers, so there is more availability.

WPX Data Centers	SiteGround Data Centers
Chicago, IL (USA)	Council Bluff, Iowa (US)
London (ENG)	Madrid (ESP)
Sydney (ASTL)	London (UK)
–	Eemshaven (NL)
–	Frankfurt (DE)
–	Singapore (SG)
–	Sydney (AU)
View WPX’s Data Centers	View SiteGround’s Data Centers

 

7. WPX Dashboard vs. SiteGround Site Tools

Both WPX and SiteGround use a custom dashboard.

Both are easy to use but can have bugs. Whether it’s taking a staging site live or something usually simple, custom dashboards are usually not as reliable as something like cPanel/Plesk. One thing to note about WPX is that staging sites take up a “website slot” in your hosting plan.

SiteGround seemed to be built in a rush after cPanel raised their prices. SiteGround wanted to increase their bottom line by not paying for cPanel, so they created Site Tools. There have been many reports of bugs, but they seem to have most of them fixed now. Site Tools is hit or miss on whether you like it, but I can say many people preferred SiteGround’s old cPanel over Site Tools.

 

 

8. Migrations – WPX Has Free Migrations + Speed Optimization

SiteGround used to offer free migrations but now it’s $30/site.

WPX does free migrations with free site speed optimization where they optimize your site for core web vitals. I’ve never used this but I wouldn’t expect a miracle since core web vitals can be a lot of work. A couple hours usually won’t mean you’ll pass. But hey, it’s a little bonus to WPX.

 

9. Pricing – Both Are Overpriced Shared Hosting

Your “final price” completely depends on your hosting plan, whether you’re paying for a premium cache plugin/CDN, and whether WPX’s limits on email hosting are enough for you.

But when you look at WPX’s prices and SiteGround renewal prices (which are about 3x their intros which you only get for 1 year), both of these are way too expensive for shared hosting.

WPX Plan	Websites	Monthly	Yearly
Business	Up to 5	$24.99/mo	$20.83/mo
Professional	Up to 15	$49.99/mo	$41.58/mo
Elite	Up to 35	$99.00/mo	$83.25/mo

 

SiteGround Plan	Websites	Intro Price	Renewal Price
Startup	1	$6.99/mo	$14.99/mo
GrowBig	Unlimited	$9.99/month	$24.99/mo
GoGeek	Unlimited	$14.99/mo	$39.99/mo
Cloud Hosting	Unlimited	$100+/mo	N/A

 

10. Email – WPX Isn’t Suitable For Small Businesses

While neither host clearly lists their email hosting limits, there’s been several complaints that WPX doesn’t have good email hosting with low resource limits. This should be fine if you’re 1 person and don’t send a lot of emails. Otherwise, you’ll need something like Google Workspace.

 

11. Support – WPX Is Excellent (SiteGround Has Declined)

Here’s why SiteGround support has gotten worse:

• They buried the support button.
• Phone numbers, etc are buried too.
• They push upgrades while referencing CPU limits.
• They moved priority support from GrowBig to GoGeek.
• The added a large “scope of support” disclaimer limits what they do.
• Even if something is SiteGround’s fault (i.e. CPU limits), they may not help.

WPX’s support is significantly better. Live chat is at the bottom right of the screen or you can open a ticket. Live chat usually responds in 30s or less and they don’t push upgrades or make a mess like SiteGround. While support is usually something you have to experience yourself, I can tell SiteGround’s support is nowhere close to what it used to be. WPX is significantly better now.

 

12. Ethics – SiteGround’s Shady Business Practices

I will never support this company again because:

• Their community manager is an admin for the WP Speed Up Facebook Group.
• SiteGround’s brand ambassadors are admins for several major WordPress FB Groups.
• They use this to censor people who speak about them, ban people, and promote SG.
• They don’t take responsibility during outages or when SiteGround Optimizer has issues.
• They threaten to sue people who write bad reviews (I also got a cease and desist letter).

Any company who behaves like this is immediately thrown out of my recommendations.

 

13. TrustPilot Rating – Both WPX And SiteGround Are 4.7+

As of writing this, WPX has a 4.9/5 star rating while SiteGround’s dropped to 4.6/5.

 

14. Facebook Feedback – What People Say About WPX vs SiteGround

I suggest joining the WP Speed Matters Facebook Group to get unbiased feedback since other groups (WordPress Hosting/WordPress Speed Up) are controlled by people paid by SiteGround.

 

15. Winner – WPX (But Rocket.net Is Better)

WPX is OK, but you’re better off at Rocket.net if you’re paying $25/mo.

	SiteGround	WPX	Cloudways Vultr HF	Rocket.net
Hosting type	Shared	Shared	Cloud	Private cloud
Storage	SATA	SATA	NVMe	NVMe
CPU cores	Not listed	Not listed	1	32
RAM (GB)	Not listed	Not listed	1	128
Object cache	Memcached	x	Redis (Pro)	Redis
Server	Nginx	LiteSpeed	Apache	Nginx
PHP processing	FastCGI	FastCGI	PHP-FPM	LiteSpeed
Compression	Brotli	Brotli	GZIP	Brotli
CDN	SiteGround CDN	QUIC.cloud	Cloudflare Enterprise ($5/mo)	Cloudflare Enterprise
CDN PoPs	14	70	270	270
Full page caching	✓	✓	x	✓
HTTP/3	✓	✓	✓	✓
WAF	✓	✓	✓	✓
Argo smart routing	x	x	✓	✓
Load balancing	x	x	✓	✓
Image optimization	Limited	✓	✓	✓
CPU limits	Very common	At their discretion	Average	None
Cache plugin	SG Optimizer	LSC or W3TC	Breeze	x
Email hosting	✓	Very limited	x	x
Major incidents	Google blocked DNS for 4 days	Worldwide outage	None	None
Free migration	$30/site	5-35 sites free	1 free	Unlimited free
Renewals	Very high	Monthly	Monthly	Monthly
TrustPilot rating	4.6/5	4.9/5	4.5/5	4.9/5
Price	$3-8/mo (1 year) then $15-40/mo	$20.83 (yearly)	$13/mo + $5/mo for CF Enterprise	$25/mo (yearly)

 
They will blow both WPX and SiteGround out of the water with an average global TTFB of <100ms. This is due to their free Cloudflare Enterprise + full page caching, 32 cores + 128GB RAM, NVMe SSDs, Redis, and they were a top performer in Kevin Ohashi’s tests. They also have up to 25x more monthly visits than Kinsta and don’t limit PHP workers since only about 10% of traffic hits your origin. Feel free to check their TrustPilot reviews, my review, or reach out to Ben.

Cheers,
Tom