Life with SiteGround
We are going to look at our experience between SiteGround vs Cloudways in 2022.
Excelbuddy has been hosted at SiteGround since early 2017. Before Siteground, we used Site5 and Bluehost. We originally left Site5 and Bluehost due to downtime issues and server problems. Like most shared web hosts, the uptime and speeds tend to vary dramatically. As ExcelBuddy began to grow, we began looking at alternative options. After significant research, we landed on SiteGround.
When we joined SiteGround in 2017, we went with the GrowBig package before moving up to the GoGeek package later in the year.
Pricing – SiteGround vs Cloudways
Our direct Annual Hosting Costs with SiteGround has been roughly $160-180/yr. This does not include additional costs like cdn, emails, plugins, etc.
In 2020 and 2021, pricing on all SiteGround packages began rising significantly. Our annual renewal costs went from a max of $180 to over $480.00 for the GoGeek package. At the same time, we started noticing significantly slower speeds. After reading on Reddit, several other users were complaining about over capacity servers and slow TTFB (Time To First Byte) response times.
We decided to move forward with Cloudways and their $13/mo Vultr High Frequency with Enterprise Cloudflare CDN ($5/mo).
Speed Difference between Siteground vs Cloudways
TTFB (Time to First Byte) was a huge factor in moving to Cloudways. Take a look at the speed difference using the same exact site. With SiteGround, our TTFB was 1.2 seconds while the same site was loading at .154ms on Cloudways.
The one thing to note is Cloudways is not as user friendly as SiteGround. Cloudways also does not offer the same features in a customized Cpanel format like SiteGround. However, they do offer a free migration if your running a WordPress site to get you started.
In regards to support, both Cloudways and SiteGround have good customer support. In my opinion, SiteGround’s support staff offers more personalized assistance where Cloudways provides a less hands on approach.
If you have any other questions regarding Siteground vs Cloudways, join our Community Discourse Forum or contact us.
