SocialMaharaj Technology, Travel, Food et al
Related Articles
Rs 1500 is the amount that I had paid for a year of hosting for my first website atulmaharaj.com in 2007. Having no clue about it but just one that I wanted my own website. My school New Era High School Panchgani, did the rest of getting the domain name and web hosting. Back then it was with Manashosting, a rather pathetic hosting provider based out of Bangalore which I realized quite late.
13 years to today, this blog is was hosted on Siteground. Which is by far one of the most recommended web hosting providers. However, after my 3-year relationship with Siteground, Iโve decided to leave it. Why? Well, itโs all about high Siteground renewal charges.
Why I love Siteground
Over the years Iโve changed a lot of web hosting providers (like every other blogger/webmaster) and with every web hosting provider, there are some pros and cons associated. However, with Siteground there were more pros than cons basis my experience. I remember moving to Siteground after being with Hostgator for around the same time. Hostgator was good too, just that had a few downtimes in the 3 years. (Just realized that I donโt have a post on my experience with Hostgator) Anyways, so let me tell you Why I love Siteground.
Top-notch Customer Service
I think one of the reasons, I moved to Siteground was for their customer service. (also the price back then) Over my tenure in web hosting with Siteground, I must say that I always witnessed top-notch customer service. Be it a normal billing query or a technical query to migrating a website, they were quick to resolve everything.
Good Server Uptime
For any web hosting provider, good server uptime is THE most important considering factor. After all, you donโt want your users to see a blank page when they visit your site. If I had to recollect any time my blog was down while with Siteground, I probably cannot recollect any instance that Iโm aware of. Keeping the marketing bit of 99.99% uptime guarantee, Iโd say at least I didnโt face much downtime. Even if there were any maintenance planned, they were quick to inform.
Basket of integrations
Most of the web hosting providers provider quite a few integrations/services along with your hosting service. In the case of Siteground, apart from having the one-click installation for WordPress, Joomla, and other such applications, it had quite a few other services that are worth noting. It provided its own caching mechanism called SG-optimizer. It supported native integration with Cloudflare and also provided one click Free SSL certificate by Letโs Encrypt. So it was great for any rookie to get some advanced things set up with just one click.
Why Iโm moving away from Siteground?
One of the vicious cycle that every web hosting provider tries to get you in is by offering cheap initial offers and then asking for very high renewal charges. If you were to opt for a new web hosting provider today, youโll probably find the basic plans to start anywhere at $2.50 per month upwards. However, the fine print reads โRenews at $10 per monthโ and thatโs the worst part.
Even with Siteground, I remember joining in at $3.5 per month for a period of 3 years and Siteground Renewal Charges were around $7.99 (If I remember correctly) Now that I was nearing the end of term, I was shocked to see high Siteground Renewal Charges.
The reason was that they now hosted their entire infrastructure on Google Cloud. What was supposed to renew at $7.99 was not renewing at $14.99 โ close to $330 for 3 years! With no offers available on Siteground renewal charges (except 30% on 3-year purchase) Siteground renewal charges are too high (at least for a small blogger like me)
What should you do ?
Well, the choice is entirely yours. On one side you have ease of everything going smoothly by paying the high Siteground renewal charges or move to a new web hosting provider and pay a low amount to start with. That in fact is a trick followed by many small website/blog owners โ change hosting provider after exhausting the first term which renews at a higher price. But it involves moving the entire website to a new host, changing DNS, ensuring correct configuration, etc.
However, most of the web hosting providers provide free migration servers with almost all of their plans thus this shouldnโt be a worry for many. (especially if itโs a small website/blog) But for me, the Siteground renewal charges are extremely high, and being good with website setup and configuration, I donโt mind moving to a new host. Nonetheless, I do recommend Siteground to anyone who can afford the charges.
Are you a webmaster too? What are your thoughts on web hosting renewal charges? Should have I continued or moving on is a good choice? Mention your thoughts in the comments below or tweet to me atย @Atulmaharajย or DM me onย Instagram
I am taking my blog to the next level withย Blogchatterโsย #MyFriendAlexa.
Yes this tactic my jiju who is a web developer told me. He said first they lure u by offering cheap price & then high.
Hi Jenniferji, yes it’s that vicious cycle they want you to get in. Thanks for dropping by.
Not at all my subject of understanding.. but I tried catching few known terms.. hope will learn more with time.. here’s a beginning..
Uh oh. No issues, if you have any such tech issues in the future, DM me on Twitter and I’ll be happy to help you out:) Thanks for dropping by.
Well Atul I know your are an expert, so I will not dare to give you any advise. I am newbie and learning from guru’s like you. But my opinion is there are so many web hosting providers available so we should not let any one dictate and have their monopoly. And as you said most of the web hosting providers provide free migration servers..so not to worry.
Thanks Swatiji, absolutely, there is a sea of web hosting service providers out there, all of them pretty much the same in terms of hardware and service offerings, price and customer service is what sets them apart. Siteground takes pole position when it comes to customer service based on my experience.
Nice one Sirji. I believe almost all the service providers from this space whether domain or hosting or other services have high renewal charges compared to the initial buy in charges but the charges you are telling if they arent what they said it would be when you signed up then you made the right decision. I still remember I went for Siteground on your recommendation and now I will have to think too. So lets see. Nice timely post. Keep the good work going.
#MyFriendAlexa #ContemplationOfaJoker #Jokerophilia
Thanks Manasji for dropping by. I would still recommend Siteground to anyone who can afford it and doesn’t want to take any hassles of hosting a website. In fact, I did an FD to fund my hosting but they increased the prices and that FD wasn’t enough anymore ๐
I have heard a lot about siteground, but that renewal fees is crazy, especially if you’re not running an ecommerce website or earning a full-time income from your blog!
Correct Shinjiniji, not everyone can renew at these costs. Thanks for dropping by.