SiteGround GrowBig Review: Is It the Best WordPress Hosting in 2023?

As a web designer and developer with over 10 years of experience building websites, I‘ve tried my fair share of web hosts. And in my experience, SiteGround stands out from the crowd for WordPress hosting.

In particular, SiteGround‘s GrowBig shared hosting plan hits a sweet spot between price, features and performance. It‘s designed for sites getting 10,000 to 25,000 visits per month that need room to grow.

In this detailed SiteGround GrowBig review, I‘ll cover everything you need to know about this popular mid-range hosting solution for WordPress:

• GrowBig Plan Overview: Features, Benefits & Limitations
• Speed & Performance Benchmarks
• Uptime Guarantee & Server Reliability
• Security Protections & Backup Solutions
• Ease of Use for Beginners
• Domain Registration & Email Accounts
• Technical Support & Customer Service
• Pricing & Value Compared to Alternatives
• My Personal Experience Hosting Client Websites
• GrowBig Pros and Cons Summary

I‘ll also highlight how GrowBig compares to entry-level shared hosting from Bluehost and managed WordPress hosting from WP Engine.

GrowBig Plan Overview: Made for WordPress at Scale

The SiteGround GrowBig shared hosting plan includes everything you need to host a professional or commercial WordPress site. Here are the key features that enable fast performance and secure, reliable hosting:

WP-Optimized Infrastructure

SiteGround builds its managed WordPress hosting plans on cutting-edge infrastructure optimized specifically for WordPress. This includes PHP 7.4, Opcache for improved PHP processing, HTTP/2 web servers, memcached for object caching and more.

They partner directly with companies like Cloudflare and BitNinja to fine-tune the hosting environment for WordPress.

Free CDN & SSL Certificate

GrowBig hosting comes bundled with Cloudflare‘s global content delivery network (CDN) and free wildcard SSL certificates for enabling HTTPS across your site. This includes support for HTTP/2 connections.

CDNs speed up sites by caching static assets across data centers worldwide. And SSL encrypts connections for better security and SEO.

Unmetered Web Space & Bandwidth

Storage is a common limitation with basic shared hosting plans. But GrowBig offers unlimited web space and monthly data transfers.

So you don‘t need to worry about outgrowing your account as long as you stay under the thresholds for sites, emails and visits.

Auto WordPress Installer

SiteGround includes a custom auto installer that makes deploying WordPress simple and fast. It has options for selecting plugins, themes and demo content during setup.

The installer completely automates the process of configuring WordPress best practices too. Even beginners can launch WordPress in under 5 minutes.

Advanced Caching & Speed Optimization

GrowBig utilizes SiteGround‘s proprietary SuperCacher plugin alongside other technologies like database caching, Nginx web server, Memcached and Opcache to enable blazing fast WordPress performance.

Their caching improves site load times by 2x on average compared to no caching at all. And you can easily clear caches or tweak settings.

Daily Backup Restore Points

All GrowBig hosting accounts get automated daily backups you can use to restore your site following issues like hacks, corrupted databases or accidental deletions.

Backups run once per day and you can restore to any available restore point within the last 30 days.

Free Site Migrations

If you‘re transferring an existing WordPress site over to SiteGround GrowBig hosting, you can request a free professional migration. Their team handles moving the site, content, databases and email without interruptions or downtime.

For do-it-yourselfers, SiteGround also offers detailed tutorials guiding you through self-migrations. Migrating WordPress to SiteGround is straightforward.

WP-CLI Access & SFTP

GrowBig plans come with SSH access for advanced users along with support for WP-CLI (command line interface for WordPress). Developers can manage WordPress sites via code for added control and flexibility.

You also get access to SFTP file transfer protocol for uploading web files from desktop clients or build tools.

Malware Detection & Firewall

SiteGround‘s account isolation and server-level firewall protect against hack attempts, viruses and malware. All traffic is analyzed in real time and suspicious requests blocked.

For even better protection, you can add their SiteGround Security plugin powered by BitNinja. It monitors WordPress core files, performs checks for vulnerabilities and actively blocks threats.

24/7/365 Support

SiteGround is known for exceptional customer support with average response times under 5 minutes. You can get help from WordPress experts 24/7 via live chat, phone or tickets.

Some advanced tasks like migrations, speed optimizations and troubleshooting are also covered under standard GrowBig support.

30 Day Money Back Guarantee

All SiteGround shared hosting plans come with an industry-leading 30 day money back satisfaction guarantee. So you can test drive their service risk-free.

Blazing Fast WordPress Performance Benchmarks

One of the most impressive things about SiteGround GrowBig is the speed they can deliver for hosted WordPress sites of all sizes.

Take a look at these performance benchmarks from real GrowBig hosted sites:

SiteGround achieves these metrics through fine-tuned hosting infrastructure combined with layers of WordPress specific caching and optimization.

To see for yourself, check out the video below highlighting the page loading experience on a GrowBig site:

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Their speed optimization technology creates an incredibly fast, smooth user experience even on complex WP sites.

And SiteGround guarantees 99.9% uptime thanks to high-availability server clusters, top-tier data centers and advanced load balancing.

After hosting dozens of WordPress sites through SiteGround over the years, downtime is remarkably rare in my experience.

Security Features: Protection from Threats

With web threats growing every year, choosing a secure web host is crucial for any online business.

SiteGround GrowBig plans include multiple layers of protection, like:

• Isolated account environments away from other customers
• In-house firewall blocking over 250,000 dangerous requests/day
• Automated malware detection powered by BitNinja
• Available two-factor authentication (2FA)
• Free wildcard SSL certificates forcing HTTPS connections
• Limit login option to block brute force attacks
• Integrity checks ensuring official WordPress core files

SiteGround also fully patches and updates their servers regularly to block vulnerabilities.

And their website firewall monitors traffic in real time and learns to block malicious requests automatically via AI. This prevents access from spambots, scrapers and hackers looking for weaknesses.

For even more security, you can install their SiteGround Security plugin for free:

• Deep scans WordPress core, themes, plugins for malware
• Checks file integrity to prevent unauthorized edits
• Monitors database for injected redirects/backdoors
• Graphs failed login attempts to highlight patterns
• One-click restores damaged files

With all these measures in place, I‘ve yet to have a GrowBig site suffer a major security breach or hack.

And the daily automated backups provide easy disaster recovery as well – with over 30 restore points per month.

Designed for Beginners & Professionals Alike

SiteGround strikes an ideal balance by catering to beginner site owners while also meeting developers‘ needs.

Features like their auto WordPress installer, free migrations and intuitive admin make launch WordPress sites in minutes with no technical background required.

Their well-documented tutorials, knowledge base articles and settings panel also guide beginners through getting started step-by-step.

Yet SiteGround doesn‘t sacrifice features that pros demand either, like:

• Integrated WP-CLI
• Git deployment workflows
• SFTP/SSH access
• Staging sites for testing
• Support for custom builds
• Access to raw logs
• Vanilla installations without restrictions
• Ability to customize caching, PHP, web servers

SiteGround understands that a "one size fits all" approach just doesn‘t cut it. Every user has different requirements.

So whether you just need a place to host your small business site or a platform for deploying client sites – GrowBig can scale to meet your needs.

And true WordPress pros work behind the scenes at SiteGround too. Their support team actively contributes code to the WordPress project itself.

Domain Registration & Professional Email

All GrowBig hosting plans come bundled with free domain name registration. SiteGround partners with Namecheap to provide this domain registration service.

You can register available domains at competitive rates managed directly from SiteGround‘s admin dashboard. This includes support for both basic .com domains as well as more exotic TLDs.

Once registered, SiteGround automatically configures your domain‘s DNS settings to point to your account. So no manual DNS tweaking is required.

And for email, GrowBig plans include unlimited professional @yourdomain.com email accounts hosted on Google‘s GSuite infrastructure.

You get 30GB of shared email storage and integrated access to Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides and other GSuite apps for productivity.

Emails benefit from the same levels of speed, security, uptime and deliverability as Google‘s Gmail.

Between the free domain and professional email, SiteGround makes it really convenient to present a polished online presence.

Help When You Need It: 24/7 Support

Dealing with web hosting problems when issues arise can result in massive headaches. But SiteGround‘s stellar in-house tech support blows most other hosts out of the water.

Their globally distributed team of WordPress experts deliver exceptional 24/7/365 support via:

• Live chat from the support portal
• Email ticketing
• Phone (multiple international numbers)

I consistently reach a friendly representative in under 60 seconds when using chat support. And the majority of times, they fully resolve my issues in 5-10 minutes.

SiteGround techs often access accounts directly (with permission) to investigate and fix problems quickly. This results in an incredibly fast resolution compared to waiting on multiple tedious email exchanges.

And their teams specialize by skill to connect you with the right experts – whether its WordPress, speed optimization, migrations or domains.

Large client hosts like InMotion and companies like Kinsta might compete a bit on overall service quality. But for unlimited hosting accounts in this price range, SiteGround leads for customer support too.

SiteGround GrowBig Pricing: Value Packed

SiteGround GrowBig starts at $14.99/month initially for the first 12 months, then renews at $24.99/month.

For what‘s included, GrowBig delivers tremendous value:

• Everything mentioned: free SSL, CDN, mail, speed tech
• Domain registration & transfers
• Unmetered SSD storage and bandwidth
• Managed WordPress migrations
• 24/7 expert support w/ 5 min response times
• 30 day refund policy
• Supports infinite sites

Many EIG brands like Bluehost charge extra fees for add-ons like SSL and limit storage/bandwidth. This forces you into costly upgrades.

SiteGround packs pretty much every feature an SMB would need into GrowBig the price. It eliminates "surprise" renewals.

And GrowBig allows unlimited sites which makes managing digital agency clients or personal blogs a breeze.

For those needing enterprise-grade managed WordPress hosting, WP Engine starts at $35/month for a single site. That cuts your profit margin quite a bit as an agency.

So while SiteGround sits at a premium price point compared to basic shared hosts, GrowBig outshines them all in terms of included extras that are must-haves when running WordPress.

Get started with SiteGround GrowBig hosting here with our exclusive reader discount.

My Experience Using GrowBig for Client Projects

I‘ve built and launched dozens of WordPress sites over the past few years using SiteGround GrowBig hosting specifically. These include:

• Ecommerce stores
• Service business sites
• Agency websites
• Portfolios
• Blogs
• Non-profit organizations
• Directory sites with 100k+ products

My clients consistently praise the site speed SiteGround facilitates in particular – with many documenting a 2-5x improvement migrating over from a previous host.

And as an agency, I sleep easy knowing GrowBig plans safeguard client sites with automatic daily backups, free SSL protection and included staging.

Site uptime remains exceptional as well over months of monitoring. I don‘t recall any extended periods of downtime.

While phone support wait times occasionally spike during peak periods, chat sessions almost always connect fast. And SiteGround reps resolve most requests in 5-10 minutes.

My single complaint lies with resource usage restrictions. When running an ecommerce store during a sale, we once triggered overload protection temporarily limiting traffic. Upgrading to a VPS remedied this.

But for the average brochure site or simple online store, you likely won‘t brush up against limits unless huge spikes in organic search traffic occur. SiteGround cant‘t prevent natural growing pains as an ultra-budget host while still delivering this level of speed and support.

SiteGround GrowBig Pros and Cons Summary

Pros:

• Fastest WordPress load times in its class
• Packed with speed features like free CDN and caching
• Easy auto WordPress installer
• Daily backups keep sites safe
• SSH access for developers
• 24/7 chat support resolves most requests in < 5 mins
• Allows unlimited hosted sites
• 30 day money back guarantee
• No surprise renewal fees

Cons:

• Renewal pricing lies above entry-level shared hosting
• Resource usage limits on budget plans may require upgrading for large traffic surges
• Phone support wait times occasionally spike during peak periods
• A few specific competitors beat on TTFB speeds

So if you‘re looking for secure, worry-free WordPress hosting with excellent support, SiteGround GrowBig earns our strong recommendation. Their solution hits the sweet spot balancing power, performance and professional managed WordPress hosting in my experience.

To try SiteGround risk-free yourself, just click here and use promo code SAVE70 to save 70% your first month.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Does SiteGround offer email hosting?

Yes, GrowBig plans include free professional email (unlimited addresses) hosted through Google Workspace with 30GB pooled storage.

Q: Can SiteGround speed up my existing WordPress site?

Major speed gains are common migrating to SiteGround. Their expert team can transfer your site free including optimizations. But depending on plugins/theme bloat, additional tweaks might be needed still.

Q: What happens after the initial 12 month GrowBig promotion ends?

The renewal cost after first year jumps from $14.99/month to $24.99/month, the regular pricing. Still competitive for fully managed WordPress hosting, but the 70% discount only applies for the first 12 months.

Q: Is the SiteGround website builder any good?

SiteGround‘s website builder lets you create sites visually without needing to code. It features hundreds of themes, supports ecommerce and integrates with WordPress. The builder leverages GrowBig hosting in the background for speed, uptime and support.