I recently migrated my WordPress blogs from SiteGround to Rocket.net and Cloudways. Before the migration, I tested some WordPress hosting services touted to have a better performance, including Kinsta and Pressable. So in this post, I will share some SiteGround alternatives that indeed have a better performance.
SiteGround used to be my favorite WordPress hosting service before I got to know Rocket.net, Kinsta, and Pressable. I used SiteGround since about 2020 to replace a super cheap hosting from a local web hosting service.
At the time, I had no serious concern about performance. What I saw when subscribing to a SiteGround plan was how many sites I could install.
Performance itself is a crucial aspect you need to look when picking a hosting service. The easiest way to test the performance of a web hosting service is by giving it a try. Some WordPress hosting services offer a money-back guarantee feature.
You can take advantage of it to try a hosting you like for a month or so. Never subscribe to a yearly plan for a testing purpose!
Why I Switched Away from Siteground? 6 Reasons
Moving to a new web hosting service is not an easy job, especially if your website already have a huge number of posts. But for a better future, sometimes you should do it.
Here are the reasons why I switched from SiteGround after about four years.
1. Terrible Support
This is one of the main reasons why I no longer recommend SiteGround. They don’t treat its users well. When you are trying to get help, no one will welcome you. Instead, bot AI will.
SiteGround now uses ChatGPT-based bot as its main support feature. All of your questions will be handled by an AI bot, which often provides useless responses. This is no different from solving your issues yourself.
2. Its CDN is Not Good Enough
A hosting service with CDN was my top priority during the search of a SiteGround replacement. I needed this feature to boost the performance of my site.
SiteGround itself has a built-in CDN feature (not enabled by default). However, after giving it a try, there was no significant performance score improvement when I tested my blog on PageSpeed Insights.
Also, its CDN has low capacity, only 10GB. If you need more capacity, it will charge an extra $7.5 per month.
3. I Need a Better Performance
Most of my WordPress projects are built with Elementor and Divi. As you know, most page builders, including Elementor and Divi, add extra CSS and JavaScript for the design purpose. The more complex the design of your website, the more CSS and JavaScript will be added. As a result, your website will be heavier to load.
Both Elementor and Divi (and other page builders) already have built-in optimization features. However, they are very basic and not enough. You need to make more advanced optimization tweaks for a better performance.
That’s the problem.
No matter how hard I tried to optimize my site, I got no signification performance improvement, until I tried Rocket.net. I got a 83% performance improvement after switching to Rocket.net, without making any optimization tweak.
4. Limited Resources
For your information, I subscribed to the GrowBig plan of SiteGround, which costed me about $30 per month. The plan offered unlimited WordPress installations, which met my requirements when I first subscribed.
While the plan said I could install unlimited websites, it offered only 20GB storaga capacity. 20GB is a huge number, actually. But there is another limitation I had to deal with: inodes. The GrowBig plan was limited to 400,000 inodes.
400,000 is a huge number, but it got me nervous every time I uploaded a new file to my website.
5. I Need to Download the Backup Files
Most managed WordPress hosting services have a schedule backup feature. SiteGround also has one, but only for restoring purpose. It doesn’t allow you to download the backup files in case you want to have copies of your site on your local storage.
As a comparison, Rocket.net, Kinsta, and Cloudways allows you to download the backup files of your website.
6. Too Many Plugins
I personally love something minimalist. When building a website with WordPress, I always avoid installing too many plugins.
When adding a new website on SiteGround, you will have two plugins installed on your website: Speed Optimizer and Security Optimizer. You need these plugins to use the optimization feature (cache) and security feature offered by SiteGround.
Rocket.net, Kinsta, and Cloudways offer better performance and security without needing to install any plugin. This is another reason why I decided to move away from SiteGround.
Top 5 Faster SiteGround Alternatives
As I mentioned earlier, I tested some hosting services during the search of a SiteGround replacement. The hosting services I tested are:
1. Rocket.net
As I said in the opening section, I use Rocket.net to replace SiteGround for my WordPress blogs. Performance is the main reason why I use Rocket.net. Also, Rocket.net is more affordable compared to other hosting services I tested during the searching of SiteGround replacement.
In general, the features that Rocket.net offers are not much different to SiteGround. It has built-in CDN, caching, scheduled backups, to file manager. The key difference is that Rocket.net has a cloud infrastructure powered by Cloudflare.
Also, Rocket.net requires no plugin to use all of the features, including CDN and caching.
Rocket.net is designed specifically for WordPress. No other CMS software can be installed on the hosting service.
Key Features of Rocket.net:
- Built-in CDN and caching
- Staging environment
- Scheduled backups
- WAF
- Free migration
- Built-in file manager
- Team collaboration
Pros and Cons of Rocket.net
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Designed specifically for WordPress | Lack of documentation |
| Excellent performance | No email hosting |
| Requires no plugin to use its features | |
| Built-in file manager | |
| Scheduled backups and manual backup |
2. Kinsta
Before deciding to use Rocket.net, I made a deep test of Kinsta. Everything was great. From performance to features. I didn’t use Kinsta as Rocket.net is a bit more affordable, although I need to solve some problems myself since Rocket.net has no good enough documentation like Kinsta.
Kinsta, on the other hand, has an excellent documentation which you can read before you contact its technical support to solve a certain issue.
Same as Rocket.net, Kinsta also has en excellent performance.
Kinsta has an intuitive control panel to make site administration super fun. You can invite your team members to join the administration job. Kinsta also uses cloud infrastructure, which is powered by Google Cloud.
Key Features of Kinsta:
- Built-in CDN and caching
- Staging environment
- Scheduled backups
- Super clean and intuitive control panel
- Team collaboration
- Image optimizer
- Free migration
- Comprehensive analytics
Pros and Cons of Kinsta
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Intuitive control panel | No file manager |
| Excellent performance | No email hosting |
| Second-to-none documentation | Pricey |
| Requires no plugin to use all features | |
| Scheduled backups and manual backup | |
| Great CDN |
3. Rapyd Cloud
Rapyd Cloud is a hosting service designed specifically for dynamic sites. If you have a dynamic site like LMS, membership or e-commerce, then it is a great fit solution.
Rapyd Cloud can also be a great solution if you have a growing site and need more reliable hosting. It is a managed VPS like Cloudways, but designed specifically for WordPress.
Being a hosting service designed for high-traffic sites, Rapyd Cloud comes with useful features like CDN and multi-layer security.
All of Rapyd Cloud features are available as the core features. No add-on required to use them.
Rapyd Cloud offers a clean, easy-to-use control panel. You can use the control panel to manage either your server and your application (website).
Read this in-depth review to learn more about Rapyd Cloud.
Key Features of Rapyd Cloud:
- File manager
- Built-in CDN and caching
- Staging environment
- Scheduled backups
- Team collaboration
- WAF
- Free migration via plugin
Pros and Cons of Rapyd Cloud
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Isolated resources | No domain registration |
| Designed specifically for WordPress | No email hosting |
| Excellent performance | |
| All features are available as core features | |
| Scheduled backups and manual backup | |
| Ideal for dynamic sites |
4. Pressable
I also tested Pressable when searching for a new hosting service to replace SiteGround. Unfortunately, I forgot to write the review. All I can remember is that I got a high enough performance score when testing a Divi page on the service. So, I put Pressable on the list too.
Pressable also offers cloud hosting infrastructure just like other services on the list. It is worth trying if you look for a cloud service other than Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, AWS, or DigitalOcean.
Pressable uses the same hosting infrastructure as WordPress.com as it is owned by Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com.
An interesting thing about Pressable is that it is bold enough to offer a 100% uptime warranty.
Key Features of Pressable:
- Built-in CDN and caching
- Staging environment
- Scheduled backups
- Team collaboration
- Free migration
- WAF
- Hack recovery assistance
Pros and Cons of Pressable
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Designed specifically for WordPress | No file manager |
| Intuitive control panel | No domain registration |
| Requires no plugin to use its features | |
| Scheduled backups and manual backup | |
| More affordable plans |
5. Cloudways
Cloudways itself is technically a VPS. So, you will have isolated resources for your hosting plan. From hardware to software.
Managing your VPS on Cloudways is not that hard thanks to its simple control panel. It has everything you need to run WordPress websites.
Being a VPS, you can install as many WordPress websites as you want, as long as the resources on your account are still sufficient.
One pitfall about Cloudways is that it has no built-in CDN. Instead, CDN is available as an add-on. Cloudways itself is owned by DigitalOcean. It offers a 3-day trial you can take advantage of. No need to enter your credit card info.
Cloudways is way better than SiteGround. I have published a comprehensive review of Cloudways in case you want to learn more about it.
Key Features of Cloudways:
- Staging environment
- Scheduled backups
- Firewall
- Vulnerability scanner
- Isolated resources
- Team collaboration
- Clean control panel
- Cloudflare Enterprise integration (requires add-on)
Pros and Cons of Cloudways
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Unlimited websites | No file manager feature |
| No plugin restrictions | Registration requires manual approval |
| Isolated resources | |
| Offers trial without credit card | |
| More affordable | |
| Great CDN powered by Cloudflare Enterprise | |
| Better support than SiteGround | |
| Advanced features for developers |
FYI. You can use the following promotion code to get 10% discount for three months on Cloudways (first three invoices). Code: WPBDEAL
Summary — Which Hosting Service is the Best to Replace SiteGround?
SiteGround is a good hosting service, actually. But for a certain reason, it may no longer accommodate your expectation. Especially if you use a page builder to build your websites like me.
I used it for about 4 years before migrating to Rocket.net. The main issue I always faced with my websites was the performance. No matter how hard I tried to optimize my sites, I never got a significant performance improvement until I migrated to Rocket.net.
I tried every single hosting service on the above list during the search of a SiteGround replacement. All provided a way better performance than SiteGround. So, before you make a choice which hosting you want to use, look at every detail.
One thing I can suggest. Never subscribe to a yearly plan to minimize the risk. Instead, start from a monthly plan and make a deep test. If it meets your expectation, you can upgrade your plan.
