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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, I’ve decided to leave it. Why? Well, it’s all about high Siteground renewal charges.
Why I love Siteground
Over the years I’ve 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 don’t 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 don’t 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 I’m aware of. Keeping the marketing bit of 99.99% uptime guarantee, I’d say at least I didn’t 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 Let’s Encrypt. So it was great for any rookie to get some advanced things set up with just one click.
Why I’m 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, you’ll probably find the basic plans to start anywhere at $2.50 per month upwards. However, the fine print reads “Renews at $10 per month” and that’s 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 – 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 – 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 shouldn’t be a worry for many. (especially if it’s a small website/blog) But for me, the Siteground renewal charges are extremely high, and being good with website setup and configuration, I don’t 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 at @Atulmaharaj or DM me on Instagram
I am taking my blog to the next level with Blogchatter’s #MyFriendAlexa.
Oh no! Mine will expire next year and I’m already paranoid. As you said, their customer service is top-notch and it would be heartbreaking to move to another hosting platform. Will DM you for your choices/alternatives.
They are good at it for sure. And you know, I’m just a DM away:) Thanks Shaliniji for dropping by 🙂
Commenting on a totally different point, I saw your school New Era in Panchgani it caught my attention, had been there for a one week summer camp and it was one of the best experiences I had so when you mentioned it totally stuck my brain.
NEHS is an amazing place indeed and in fact, Panchgani is just perfect. Glad you had an amazing time there. Thanks for dropping by Mahekji:)
I had the same experience with Siteground. I shifted to Siteground from GoDaddy. Awesome service. But I had to upgrade to Growbig Plan due to data size and the renewal was also expensive. But I am still with Siteground. I just love it. Here my take on it.
Siteground is amazing as I told, they’ll probably take care of everything you ever need. Heading to your blog post now! Thanks for dropping by Swiddleji:)
The pricing is very tricky, most places. Thats why I think sticking to top 3 players is a good idea. There is no mis-selling.
Exactly my point! Thanks for dropping by:)
So have you decided a new hosting provider yet? Just wondering what will be your final decision.
Yes I have and in fact I’ve moved already. New post coming soon:)
Good to know that!