Managed WordPress Hosting are the three hottest words in the current web-hosting industry.
In its infancy, it was spearheaded by a few key providers – WPEngine, Page.ly and ZippyKid. Fast forward to 2015, the number of managed WordPress hosting providers skyrocketed to well over fifty.
People who are new to WordPress hosting find it increasingly difficult to choose a good WordPress host. Technical issues (however limited) prevent them from achieving their goals. Core updates, plugin conflicts and security loopholes – are just the tip of the iceberg.
Managed WordPress hosting resolves all these issues. You no longer need to worry about the technical side of things – you have all the time to focus on your content.
However, there is a problem – cost. Managed WordPress hosting is quite expensive. Quality comes at a price – and most people are willing to pay for it.
But for some people, it is economically inefficient and quite illogical to be spending ~$30+ per month on web hosting!
This is where I introduce SiteGround – quality WordPress hosting that’s easy on your pockets.
Awesome hosting features
- WordPress specific hosting with cPanel included, creating the perfect combination
- Free website transfer
- 10,000 visitors with 10 GB disk space
- Free CloudFlare CDN
- Unlimited sub-domains: this gives you to the ability to host other web-apps or projects
- Unlimited data transfer/bandwidth
- Unlimited email addresses
- Unlimited MySQL databases
- Daily backups
- Easy on the pockets: $95/month (for the first invoice), then billed $10.95/month
- 30 day money back guarantee
- Advanced hosting features: Varnish-Ready hosting, Cloud hosting, 3 level dynamic caching and many more
Developer-centric features
If you’re a developer, you’ll want to explore the additional features a managed WordPress host has to offer. SiteGround does not let you down.
- You get multiple PHP versions, a library of extensions (Zend Optimizer, ImageMagick, ionCube, etc.)
- Free SSH access
- Unlimited FTP accounts
- 2 database software: MySQL and PostgreSQL – both with unlimited databases
- Git integration (GoGeek plan)
- WP-CLI support in all plans
Advanced caching algorithms for performance
SiteGround takes website performance very seriously. They’ve got their own custom-built web site optimization solution called SuperCacher, powered by Varnish.
The SuperCacher works on three levels:
Static caching
Basic caching technique that caches static files such as images, CSS, JavaScript and HTML files.
Dynamic caching
This is an advanced technique that makes a dynamic CMS (like WordPress) load much faster. This is done by storing the cache in the server’s RAM.
Memory caching or “Memcached”
This feature reduces the number of queries to the database by storing or “caching” previous queries as “query objects” in the server’s RAM.
This technique speeds up applications that rely on frequent database queries (like WordPress) by reducing the number of database queries it needs to make.
By caching the “query objects” the query request is served from the server’s RAM rather than the hard disk.
How to activate advanced caching options in WordPress
The SuperCacher plugin is available in your (SiteGround hosted) WordPress dashboard and you can activate static and dynamic caching from the plugin.
Before you can activate the memcached option, you need to activate it first via cPanel.
Redundant failsafe measures to combat downtime
Whether you’re running a hobby website or a business website, downtime can be devastating. Fortunately SiteGround has you covered here too:
- Redundant power supply units and backup generators
- Server component spares are always available on-site, which guarantees the fastest hardware replacement
- Automatic server monitoring by industry-leading “Guardian by 1H” software
- Account isolation – SiteGround uses a home grown account isolation technique (details remain undisclosed) where if one account in the server is compromised, the rest of them aren’t affected by it
Setting up an account is easy as 1-2-3
SiteGround makes signing up an effortless process. Simply select your domain (we would urge you to use a dedicated domain registrar) and fill in the user details.
Once done, you can select the plan of your choice and the contract term – the annual plan is the best option in our opinion. After you signup, make sure to select the first option, as shown in the picture. This guarantees an effortless setup phase.
Please remember to not use “admin” as a username. Once the admin configuration is over, your WordPress account will be instantly created and the details emailed to you.
We also took a look at the list of installed plugins. Limit Login Attempts and their SG CachePress were the new ones.
Performance benchmarks
Here are three benchmarks from different sources. For a detailed inspection, you can check out the individual reports.
Benchmark environment specifics:
- WordPress 4.1
- Dynamic Caching disabled
- Memcached disabled
- Paige theme from iThemes
We’ve deliberately disabled the advanced caching features since they are only available in the higher plans. This gives you an unbiased review of SiteGround’s WordPress hosting package.
Plugins active during benchmarks:
- Limit Login Attempts
Pingdom
Pingdom score: 95/100
gtMetrix
- YSlow! Grade: 84%
- Page Speed Grade: 93%
LoadImpact
The scores will improve significantly once we incorporate certain image optimization techniques.
SiteGround’s affordable plans and final thoughts
What I like most about SiteGround, is that it offers WordPress optimized hosting at the cost of traditional hosting – sometimes even cheaper. It is important to point out that initial plans are offered at a 60% discounted rate, for the first invoice, billed annually. You can also opt for the biannual or triannual plan at the discounted rate, based on your future requirements.
SiteGround WordPress hosting bridges the gap between quality hosting and affordable pricing.
SiteGround’s StartUp plan ($9.95/mo) offers the best value for money in the current WordPress hosting market. However, when you require advanced features such as 3 level caching, staging area and Git control, they are only available in the GrowBig ($14.95/mo) and GoGeek ($29.95/mo) plans.
Regardless of its advanced features, SiteGround is an excellent WordPress host with superior support, a dedicated performance plugin, a plethora of developer options and pricing that just wins!
SiteGround is a pocket-friendly WordPress hosting service with excellent uptime, superior performance, advanced developer options that starts at $4/month.
Try SiteGround’s free trial and see how good they are for yourself.
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