Siteground (aka SG) is a webhosting company that got very popular in recent years. What makes them awesome and how does JohnnyVPS (aka JVPS) compare to them?
*benchmark image coming soon*
SG/JVPS similarities:
- Both offer the standard stuff – free migrations, SSL certificates, server security. Basically all the usual stuff you would expect from any credible webhost.
- Both offer cPanel – this is great news if you want to migrate from one to the other without having to learn a new interface. Everything will look and function almost the same.
- Both are quite affordable – JVPS costs a little more but comes with better service. Neither are crazily-priced like WP Engine (5 sites and 100k monthly visits for $115/month).
SG advantages:
- SG is cost-effective – SG is especially cheap at the $12/month. Their $12/month GoGeek plan allows unlimited websites, 30GB of space, and 100k monthly visits. Unfortunately, all this comes with caveats. Their pricing jumps up to $35/month upon renewal which has angered many customers and cause them to leave.
- SG offers support – chat with a live human being any time, and they do solve most issues immediately. SG is a great option for newbies and non-technical users.
- SG has 1-click backup and staging – this is a really nice feature and especially convenient. In just one click, you can back up your site and/or also create a staging environment where you can test themes, plugins, and updates without breaking your live site. Creating backups and staging on JVPS is also possible but takes a few more clicks.
- SG allows email hosting – have as many email accounts as you want and also tons of space on your plan to use them. Great option if you need a lot of space for emails but don’t want to pay a premium for it.
- SG is popular – SG has an aggressive affiliate marketing campaign causing many bloggers to recommend them for affiliate commission. This may be a turnoff but it is nice that many people use Siteground and are familiar with them. They are definitely a much better alternative to Godaddy or Bluehost/EIG. If you don’t know anything about webhosting and want something cheap-ish, they are a safe bet!
JVPS advantages:
- JVPS is much higher-performance – JVPS servers are far better than Siteground. Siteground just really doesn’t compare at all. Siteground is typical shared hosting speeds and won’t compare well at all with any performance host. Their frontends and backends are slower. Even their internal caching features won’t make much difference. They are not a true performance host.
- JVPS is more reliable – Siteground is a large company, large servers with many clients. As with many large companies, they do get downtimes and weird issues every 1-3 months. It’s simply the nature of running such a large complicated operation.
- JVPS does not limit CPU usage – Siteground is commonly complained about for limiting users based on CPU usage and even preventing heavy sites from loading. You should absolutely pick JVPS if you don’t want to risk Siteground CPU issues.
- JVPS dedicated servers are also much higher performance – JVPS servers are many times stronger than Siteground’s VPS or cloud server solutions. They may claim “10 cores” or “12 cores” but will still be many times weaker than even a 2-core solution with JVPS.
- JVPS prices stay the same – Beware that SG prices go up more than 2x after the first year!
Reasons to pick Siteground or JohnnyVPS:
Pick Siteground (over JohnnyVPS) if:
- You’re coming from shared hosting and want super cheap pricing for “unlimited everything” plans.
- You have a smaller site and don’t mind the slower speed.
- Want to host many sites (over 20) for only $10-25/month and their total traffic is below 100k monthly visitors.
- Need tons of space and many email accounts.
- Need tech support.
Pick JohnnyVPS (over Siteground) if:
- You want the fastest performance possible.
- You have a serious production site and want top-notch stability.
- You have a heavier site, or WooCommerce site, and/or more traffic.
- You know what you’re doing and don’t need much support.
Ready to try JohnnyVPS? Sign up now!