NameHero vs. SiteGround – Who Offers The Best WordPress Web Hosting?

We get a ton of pre-sale questions here at NameHero asking us for a comparison against some of the other top brands within the web hosting industry.

Rather than trying to have our sales representatives do the comparisons I try to do blog posts and videos on our YouTube channel to help our customers decide:

• NameHero vs. HostGator
• NameHero vs. InMotion Hosting
• NameHero vs. Top WordPress Web Hosting

While the above post does compare NameHero to SiteGround I wanted to do a full post and video because they are one of the leading performance WordPress web hosts out there.

I’ll also try my best to give a complete comparison and be as non-bias as possible, leaving the ultimate decision up to you 🙂

SiteGround Web Hosting Packages

SiteGround offers three primary web hosting packages:

1. Startup
2. Grow Big
3. Go Geek

If you notice on their website, they have separate sections for Web Hosting, WordPress Hosting, and WooCommerce Hosting.

Looking at their comparison charts, I believe all three packages are the same as far as the technical features are concerned, but each respective page has branding towards the respective software.

For example, their web hosting is marketed towards general web hosting, but can also support WordPress.  The same for the other packages.

The main differences between their three web hosting packages are:

• The Number Of Websites You Can Host:
  • Startup – Host 1 Website
  • Grow Big – Host Unlimited Websites
  • Go Geek – Host Unlimited Websites
• The Amount Of Disk Space:
  • Startup – 10GB Web Space
  • Grow Big – 20GB Web Space
  • Go Geek – 30GB Web Space
• An Estimated Number Of Visitors Your Can Serve:
  • Startup – ~ 10,000 Visitors A Month
  • Grow Big – ~20,000 Visitors A Month
  • Go Geek – ~100,000 Visitors A Month
• Different Account Features:
  • Startup – Essential Features
  • Grow Big – Essential Features, Premium Features
  • Go Geek – Essential Features, Premium Feature, Geeky Advanced Features

Essential Features – Available On All SiteGround Hosting Packages

• Free Website Builder
• Free SSL
• Free Email
• Free CloudFlare
• Free Daily Backup
• 24/7 Support
• 30 Days Money Back
• Unlimited Bandwidth
• Unlimited mySQL
• cPanel/SSH

These features are pretty standard for all web hosts that use cPanel.  Some brands such as GoDaddy aren’t yet offering free SSL, but a lot of other hosts are starting to include it.  We switched over to free and auto SSL in mid 2015 as it’s now a requirement for people browsing using Google Chrome (if a site doesn’t have SSL, it shows a “Not Secure” Error).

Premium Features – Available On SiteGround’s GrowBig/GoGeek Packages

• Free Website Transfer
• Priority Tech Support
• Super Cacher
• Free Backup Resources

If you’re signing up for SiteGround’s Startup Package, they don’t include a free website migration.  Meaning if you’re moving over from another web host, you’ll need to move your website yourself.

They also give support priority to websites on the GrowBig/GoGeek packages. Personally, I’m not sure how they would do this on the phone/live chat, but I assume they answer tickets faster if you have the larger packages.

SiteGround also has their own custom “SuperCache” which has three levels of caching (Static Resources, Dynamic Resources, Database caching).  In order to have access to this feature you have to have one of their larger packages.

Finally, they offer “Free Backup Resources” with their larger packages.  While the StartUp does offer Daily Backups, if you want to restore your website, you must pay a fee.  You can also not generate a backup on-demand unless you have the GoGeek package.

Geeky Advanced Features – Available On SiteGround’s GoGeek Package

• Fewer Accounts On Server
• PCI Compliance
• WordPress & Joomla Staging
• One-Click Git Repo Creation
• Free Backups On Demand

Those who signup with SiteGround’s GoGeek package will be placed on a web server with fewer accounts.  While they don’t list the specifics on their website, this could mean a number of different things, but I’m going to assume they set a lower cap for the number of accounts allowed on a specific node.

PCI Compliance allows you the ability to store sensitive information on your account such as credit card details. A lot of merchants nowadays (such as Stripe and PayPal) store this information remotely, some processors do allow you to store this on your account which would require PCI compliance.

WordPress & Joomla staging is the ability to create a “test environment” which essentially is an exact replicate of your live website that gives you the ability to make changes to your website, that your visitors can’t see, and then push it back out live.  This is great for adding plugins, changing themes, or modifying key content pages.

One-Click Git Repo allows you the ability to create a repository of your website where you can make changes and push it back out live as well. In short, it does the uploads and revision control to automate parts of the development workflow.

Free Backups On Demand allow you to take backups whenever you wish as well as the ability to restore whenever for free.

SiteGround Account Limits

You have to dig a bit into the “fine print” to get all the technical limitations of each account.  These are important because if your account reaches them, you’ll find yourself needing to update to the next package:

Startup Account Limits

Server Limits

• Simultaneous Server Processes: 10
• Simultaneous Connections from Single IP: 10
• CPU Seconds / Program and Script Executions: 1000/hour, 10000/day, 300000/month
• Average Process Execution Time per Day: 2 seconds
• Shared Service CPU Usage: No more than 20% for a period longer than 10 seconds
• Server Memory per Process: 768 MB
• Inodes: 150,000 (number of files allowed on the account)
• Minimum Cron Job Interval: 30mins

Database Limits

• DB Size: 500 MB
• DB Table Size: 250 MB
• DB Queries: Up to 10% of Server Resources

Email Limits

• Mailbox Size: 2000 MB
• Email Sends per Hour: 400
• Recipients per Email: 40
• Attachment Size: 50 MB
• Emails Received per Minute: 20
• Undelivered Mail Retry Time: 11 Hrs

GrowBig Account Limits

Server Limits

• Simultaneous Server Processes: 20
• Simultaneous Connections from Single IP: 15
• CPU Seconds / Program and Script Executions: 2000/hour, 20000/day, 600000/month
• Average Process Execution Time per Day: 2 seconds
• Shared Service CPU Usage: No more than 20% for a period longer than 10 seconds
• Server Memory per Process: 768 MB
• Inodes: 300,000
• Minimum Cron Job Interval: 30mins

Database Limits

• DB Size: 750 MB
• DB Table Size: 250 MB
• DB Queries: Up to 10% of Server Resources

Email Limits

• Mailbox Size: 4000 MB
• Email Sends per Hour: 400
• Recipients per Email: 40
• Attachment Size: 50 MB
• Emails Received per Minute: 20
• Undelivered Mail Retry Time: 11 Hrs

GoGeek Account Limits

Server Limits

• Simultaneous Server Processes: 30
• Simultaneous Connections from Single IP: 20
• CPU Seconds / Program and Script Executions: 4000/hour, 40000/day, 800000/month
• Average Process Execution Time per Day: 4 seconds
• Shared Service CPU Usage: No more than 20% for a period longer than 10 seconds
• Server Memory per Process: 768 MB
• Inodes: 450,000
• Minimum Cron Job Interval: 30mins

Database Limits

• DB Size: 1000 MB
• DB Table Size: 500 MB
• DB Queries: Up to 30% of Server Resources

Email Limits

• Mailbox Size: 6000 MB
• Email Sends per Hour: 800
• Recipients per Email: 80
• Attachment Size: 50 MB
• Emails Received per Minute: 20
• Undelivered Mail Retry Time: 11 Hrs

While I appreciate SiteGround listing these limitations on their website, I feel like they’re a bit hidden for the novice customer.  Unless you specifically know what you’re looking for, you may not know your account has these type of limits.

Of course, in a shared hosting environment, these type of limits are completely necessary to maintain performance and stability.  Web hosts that claim “unlimited” everything have these limits hidden somewhere in their Terms of Service.  While SiteGround doesn’t do this, you still have to hunt around to discover these.

I do like the fact that SiteGround provides an “estimate” of suitable visitors for each package which helps breakdown these limits to simple terms.

SiteGround Pricing

The pricing on SiteGround’s website reflect their special promo rate for the first invoice only. They don’t have details on the special promo rate, so I’m going to assume it’s a static rate for new customers.

Much like NameHero, the longer you signup, the more you save.  If you sign-up monthly with SiteGround, you have to pay their setup fee, which doesn’t include the discount:

Startup Pricing – Domain Registration Not Included $15.95/year extra

• One Month – $18.90/first month / $18.90/recurring
• One Year – $47.40/first year / $143.40/recurring
• Two Years – $94.80/first two years / $286.80/recurring
• Three Years – $142.20/ first three years / $430.20/recurring

GrowBig Pricing – Domain Registration Not Included $15.95/year extra

• One Month – $30.90/first month / $19.95/recurring
• One Year – $71.40/first year / $239.40/recurring
• Two Years – $142.80/first two years / $478.80/recurring
• Three Years – $214.20/first three years / $718.20/recurring

GrowBig Pricing – Domain Registration Not Included $15.95/year extra

• One Month – $36.90/first month / $34.95/recurring
• One Year – $143.40/first year / $419.40/recurring
• Two Years – $286.80/first two years / $838.80/recurring
• Three Years – $430.20/first three years / $1258.20/recurring

Extra Fees

As noted above, the don’t provide a free domain registration or transfer, so you must pay extra for these. The .com TLD is $15.95/year but other TLDs will differ in price.

If you wish to purchase the Startup Package and have them migrate your existing from another web host, the fee is $30.  The other packages allow for a free migration.

Finally, they offer malware scanning on all packages for an additional $19.80 per year.

NameHero Web Hosting Packages

NameHero offers four primary web hosting packages:

1. Starter Cloud
2. Plus Cloud
3. Turbo Cloud
4. Business Cloud

We also have some software specific branding pages, but the core packages remain the same (Web Hosting, WordPress Hosting, Drupal Hosting, etc.)

The main differences between our web hosting packages include:

• The Number Of Websites You Can Host:
  • Starter Cloud – Host 1 Website
  • Plus Cloud – Host 6 Websites
  • Turbo Cloud – Host Unlimited Websites
  • Business Cloud – Host Unlimited Websites
• The Number Of Files You Can Have:
  • Starter Cloud – Unlimited SSD Storage / 250,000 Indoes (or files)
  • Plus Cloud -Unlimited SSD Storage / 250,000 Indoes (or files)
  • Turbo Cloud -Unlimited SSD Storage / 500,000 Indoes (or files)
  • Business Cloud -Unlimited SSD Storage / 500,000 Indoes (or files)
• The Number Of CPU Cores:
  • Starter Cloud – 1 CPU Core
  • Plus Cloud – 2 CPU Cores
  • Turbo Cloud – 3 CPU Cores
  • Business Cloud – 4 CPU Cores
• The Amount Of RAM:
  • Starter Cloud – 1GB Virtual/Physical
  • Plus Cloud – 2GB Virtual/Physical
  • Turbo Cloud – 3GB Virtual/Physical
  • Business Cloud – 4GB Virtual/Physical

Unlike SiteGround, we don’t limit on the actual GB usage of the disk space, but rather the Inodes (or files) allowed on the account.  As stated above, SiteGround has limits on both.

Since NameHero only offers packages on our high-speed Cloud, we specify the exact number of CPU cores and RAM you’re allowed to use on each package.  Rather than limiting a specific process, we have a grand total number of resources that your website can use.

Standard Features – Available On All Web Hosting Packages

Personally, I never liked the idea of getting my account online only to find I needed to buy more items to get my account the way I wanted it.

Because of this, all of our Web Hosting packages come standard with the following features:

• Free SSD Raid 10 Storage
• Free Domain Registration/Transfer (1st year / com, .net, .org, .mobi, .us, .biz, .co.uk)
• Free LiteSpeed Web Server
• Unlimited Bandwidth
• Free SSL/TLS
• Free LiteSpeed Cache
• Free Cloudflare w/Railgun
• Unlimited Parked Domains
• Unlimited Sub Domains
• Unlimited Email Accounts
• Free Daily Backup (Free Restore/On Demand Backup)
• 24/7 Support (Phone, Chat, Tickets)
• 30 Days Money Back
• Unlimited mySQL
• cPanel/SSH
• Free cPanel Migrations
• Free Priority Support (instant phone/chat, tickets answered in 15 minutes)
• WordPress & Joomla Staging
• One-Click Git Repo Creation
• Free Backups On Demand
• Instant Malware Scanning/Detection

All of our cloud web hosting nodes use Solid State Storage protected by Raid 10 and powered by LiteSpeed Web Server.  SSD drives provide a much faster read/write (I/O) than traditional hard drives and Raid 10 protection allows simultaneous replication of the data in real time in the event of a failure.  LiteSpeed web server is also up to 10 times faster than Apache and comes with its own PHP handler which offers high performance such as PHP-FPM.

Since late 2015/early 2016 all domains and subdomains hosted at NameHero come with free and automatic SSL.  As long as your DNS has propagated, the SSL module will run and generate a certificate for your website.  No manual action is necessary; the certificates also auto renew.

LiteSpeed cache works together with the LiteSpeed web server to ensure your website can cache all of its static and dynamic resources with ease (for faster page load time).  LiteSpeed cache has been compared against some of the most popular WordPress caching plugins with the highest performance.

All of our accounts have the ability to use Cloudflare’s global CDN and protection tools.  We also include access to their Railgun (which purchased directly is $200/month) which allows the elements from your website to be pulled from the data center closest to the visitor of your website.  This greatly decreases latency.

We run automated nightly backups for all Web Hosting accounts as long as the account isn’t over 100,000 Inodes or 20GB in storage.  All of these backups can easily be accessed from inside of cPanel with instant restore of the entire account, individual domains, email accounts, or files.

Recently, we added 1 Click Staging with 1 Click Push To Live for both WordPress and Joomla. This gives customers the ability to replicate their “live” website in real time, make changes in a separate directory/domain and push it back live without any manual coding/uploading necessary.

NameHero Account Limits

We believe transparency is key into a successful relationship working together. All of our web hosting packages have the following limits:

Server Limits

• CPU: Intel(R) Xeon(R)
• CPUs: Allocate from master plan
• Disk Space: Allocate from master plan
• Bandwidth: Allocate from master plan
• Virtual Memory: Allocate from master plan
• Physical Memory: Allocate from master plan
• Concurrent Connections: 25
• Number of Processes: 100
• I/O Limit: 2048KB/s
• I/O operations per second: 1024
• Inodes: Allocate from master plan

Please note: Accounts over 100,000 Inodes or 20GB disk aren’t included in daily backups

As with SiteGround, we specify an estimated number of monthly visitors that each package is best suited for (taking into account the mentioned limits). Your website may receive more or less depending on the setup of your website (i.e. how many plugins you use, database calls, theme, etc.).  We by no means limit the number of visitors you can receive.

Email Limits

• Maximum Hourly Email by Domain Relayed: 50
• Maximum percentage of failed or deferred messages a domain may send per hour: 25

mySQL Limits

• DB Size: Allocated From Master Plan
• DB Table Size:Allocated From Master Plan
• DB Queries: Allocated From Master Plan CPU

As displayed, the majority of the account limitations are initially selected when purchasing the plan.  Websites that need more resources should choose a package with more CPU cores / RAM.

NameHero Account Pricing

As with SiteGround, our packages are discounted on the first invoice only.  The longer you decide to signup, the more you’ll save.

Our promotional rates also depend on the sale we’re running at any given time.  We’re currently running our Fast Fall Sale but this changes from time-to-time.

Starter Cloud Pricing – Domain Registration/Transfer (first year) Included Free (.com, .net, .org, .mobi, .us, .biz, .co.uk)

• One Month – N/A
• One Year – $53.93/first year / $89.88/recurring
• Two Years – $100.66/first two years / $167.76/recurring
• Three Years – $129.38/ first three years / $215.64/recurring

Plus Cloud Pricing – Domain Registration/Transfer(first year) Included Free (.com, .net, .org, .mobi, .us, .biz, .co.uk)

• One Month – N/A
• One Year – $86.33/first year / $143.88/recurring
• Two Years – $158.26/first two years / $263.76/recurring
• Three Years – $215.78/ first three years / $359.64/recurring

Turbo Cloud Pricing – Domain Registration/Transfer (first year) Included Free (.com, .net, .org, .mobi, .us, .biz, .co.uk)

• One Month – $11.97/first month / $19.95/recurring
• One Year – $136.64/first year / $227.74/recurring
• Two Years – $258.48/first two years / $430.80/recurring
• Three Years – $366.12/ first three years / $610.20/recurring

Business Cloud Pricing – Domain Registration/Transfer (first year) Included Free (.com, .net, .org, .mobi, .us, .biz, .co.uk)

• One Month – $15.28/first month / $25.47/recurring
• One Year – $179.93/first year / $299.88/recurring
• Two Years – $331.06/first two years / $551.76/recurring
• Three Years – $431.78/ first three years / $719.64/recurring

Extra Fees

If you wish to register/transfer a domain besides .com, .net, .org, .mobi, .us, .biz, .co.uk it’s unfortunately not included with the free year.  Domains also renew at the regular rate posted on our website.

Automatic nightly backups are free for accounts that use under 100,000 Inodes and/or 20GB of space.  We also only include one day’s retention for free.  If you use more resources than this or would like to retain 30 days of data, you can purchase additional backup space at the following prices:

• 5GB – $1.99/Month
• 10GB  – $2.99/Month
• 30GB – $7.99/Month
• 60GB – $14.99/Month
• 100GB – $24.99/Month
• 200GB – $44.99/Month

You can always  start with 5GB and add more as your account grows.

If you’d like to have a dedicated IP address (best for email delivery) you can purchase one with any package for $29.95/year.  This gives the appearance that your website is hosted on its own server.

NameHero vs. SiteGround Uptime

Both NameHero and SiteGround promote 99.9% uptime on their respective websites.

At NameHero we actually provide several third-party uptime reports each year to help sustain this claim.

We have also had some independent tests to confirm this.  Popular review website HostAdvice actually signed up anonymously and provided their results.

Popular WordPress Youtuber, Darrel Wilson, also conducted a 30-day case study comparing many different web hosts, including NameHero and SiteGround where we concluded 100% uptime on both:

NameHero vs. SiteGround Performance

During Darrel’s 30-day case study shown above, he also monitored the server performance for both NameHero and SiteGround.  We feel that showing a non-bias third party is the best way to sustain these claims:

NameHero vs. SiteGround Web Browser Load Speed

NameHero: average 2.9 seconds

SiteGround: average 3.5 seconds

NameHero vs. SiteGround Hosting/PHP Server Response

SiteGround: average 0.231 seconds (231 msecs)

NameHero: average 0.377 seconds (377 msecs)

NameHero vs. SiteGround Customer Reviews

With everything said, if a company doesn’t offer quality customer service and support what do they have?

In my opinion nothing. 

You can have the fastest services, the best packages, but without a support team to back it up, the company is worthless. 

Many customers looking for web hosting don’t want to worry about technical stuff or paying someone to do it for them.

When they choose a web host they want to be assured that there questions are going to get answered when they have them (it’s not uncommon to work on your website in the middle of the night) and have a professional response to each.

At NameHero we have 24x7x365 support for all customers via phone, live chat, and our ticket desk.  All tickets are responded to within 15 minutes and the average case resolution being right around 30 – 45 minutes.

SiteGround also touts 24x7x365 support (with GrowBig and GoGeek priority) via, phone, live chat, and a ticket desk.  They claim all tickets are responded to within 10 minutes.  I’m assuming their average case resolution is also around 30 – 45 minutes, but they don’t have it published.

To sustain this, we let our customers tell the story:

• NameHero Support Reviews
• NameHero ShopperApproved Reviews

I’ve personally never dealt with SiteGround’s customer service/support, but I have heard good things around the Internet:

• SiteGround Support Reviews
• SiteGround ShopperApproved Reviews

NameHero vs. Site Ground Tutorial

To finalize my comparison, I’ve filmed a two-hour long tutorial where I break down everything mentioned in this post and explain it all:

NameHero or SiteGround – Who Offers The Best Web Hosting?

I’ll leave that question up to you, the customer.

Every individual and businesses needs are different.

I personally have a lot of respect for SiteGround and feel like they’re one company within the industry that is doing things right.  I hope they don’t change like so many other companies and sellout losing their core values.

Regardless who you decide on, I hope this post has provided the insight to help make your decision easier.  If I can help answer any of your questions or further clarify anything I’ve mentioned, please feel free to ask below!