Why did I move my WordPress web hosting to Siteground? (4min. read)

Last updated on July 23, 2020

I have chosen to move to Siteground for my web hosting ever since a trustable friend and publisher has recommended it a year ago. But, I have proscratinated the execution due to “fear” and “not wanting to complicate things”. Turns out, it was all imaginary.

I have moved all of my websites to Siteground, as quick as 30 minutes per site, completely hassle-free. The best thing is, I am saving 65% of my hosting cost in the next 2 years and my websites load way much faster visibly and by performance scores.

I am publishing this post as a customer as well as an affiliate just few days after my websites are moved over. This is one great web hosting solution I am relying on as one income stream.

Affiliate Disclosure
If you signup with Siteground via some of the links on BT MIG, it will cost you the same, but you will help BT MIG and be automatically qualified to receive BT MIG's future premium contents.

By now, you would have also probably read of many positive reviews online. You may jump straight to read through my experience transfering my website to Siteground, and start your own…

or read on to follow my thought process moments before actually charging my card with USD142.80 for 2 years straight.

3 Push factors:- Why did I discontinue Hostgator, my previous hosting solution?

I have been subscribing to shared hosting with Hostgator for over 7 years, mostly on 2 years cycle. Other than a responsive chat support, my websites have not improved on these areas

1. My websites were still on http without SSL. It means users’ connection to my sites were not secured.

It is nothing new that it is important to users and also ranking. My disappointment was when I found out Hostgator was offering it for free to new users, but did not do enough to proactively implement it for existing clients.

If this is your situation now, take advantage of special rate for customer plus free SSL Certificate to secure your website with https secured connection.

2. The resources allocated by its shared hosting did not meet basics.

I had only several websites with below average traffic and size. But clearly, the resources allocated are, to say the least, subpar.

There is enough information about how certain web hosting companies overly squeezed the resources on shared hosting. Google search “hosting companies owned by EIG” if you are really curious. 😛

3. All my websites were deleted and down for a week.

Yes, it was an ultimatum. It happened when I used a 3rd party installer Softaculous on cpanel to uninstall some WordPress of expired domains to clear out the tight space.

Turns out, it was my worst nightmare. It wiped every single websites I have along with its contents, in just a button click.

The installation and uninstallation path were not updated according to the current domain directory. If you are familiar about Primary Domain and Addon Domains nested under it, you will get the idea.

Always check your paths if you use 3rd party installation programmes especially if you have changed your Primary Domain.

Fortunately, this won’t be an issue with Siteground because every domain is given its own unique public_html file directory. (yes even with an equivalent hosting plan!). Yet to mention a much friendlier and safer user experience with their proprietary Site Tool!

The only credit I would give Hostgator is its supportive Customer Service Officers (yes several), whom managed to get the chargable restoration fee waived, after 7 followups. 😐

Pull Factors:- Why Siteground?

There are alot of affiliate marketing posts online promoting Siteground, including this post. It could be genuine, or another marketing script.

But 2 Facebook polls from 2 different users at 2 different time stamps… how about that? 🙂

Safer website file management design

If you work with multiple sites, having the peace of mind that one single action of yours (like my mistake) won’t cause all websites to sink, is really, really, important.

With such structure, your multiple websites are not put under the same directory and risk infection or mistakes all at once! (imagine one lightbulb in your home burns, all other lightbulbs get disconnected as well, ain’t cool eh?)

Siteground looks for long-term relationship

Its Web Hosting plan comes with 1 month trial, 1 year, 2years and 3 years of subscription period. There is no plan with a cycle of less than 1 year, unlike others. It impressed upon me that Siteground looks for long term relationship, with less price structuring gimicks.

Update: As of May2020, Siteground started offering new clients 1-month plan to help ease the challenges of commiting large lum sum by starters.

If you are not new to hosting, or if you are serious to invest in a blog for long run, would highly recommend to take longer cycle to capitalize on its new customer special rates, which is alot cheaper than the time of renewal (a common pricing strategy with most hosting companies).

On hindsight, here is what a good friend of mine have said…

Game changer WebP Next-Gen image format

Google PageSpeed Insights has long been recommending websites to be serving images in Next-Gen format like WebP (Web Pictures), which will greatly reduce image sizes and page loading performance.

Its SG Optimizer WordPress plugin allows such feature at just a button click. Such function alone would cost you easily $19/mth for a premium plugin like Smush.

With Siteground Hosting price rate as low as $3.95/month (1 website) or $5.95/month (unlimited website), it sure is a grab!

and yes… with Siteground Web Hosting, all my websites are loading optically faster and by performance scores, with SSL Certificate (secured https), 3x more file count (inodes) quota than previous, and super fast caching.