SiteGround is one of my most recommended web hosting plans for my clients. I love how secure, fast, and easy to use their hosting platform is. I can rest assure that my website will always be up to speed on everything. However, I know what a learning curve it was for me at first so I will be creating a series of guides to help you get started with using SiteGround today.
In this guide you will learn how to setup a SiteGround hosting account correctly. I will go over step by step guides on how to setup your SiteGround hosting account, how to choose the best hosting plan for your business, and more.
About SiteGround Web Hosting
SiteGround has a top quality team and excellent customer service for their clients. They remain on top of the latest updates to help make sure that your website hosting is top-notch! I love that they also have plugins available for WordPress to make sure that your website is also optimized, secure, and has optimal performance at all times. Though I do recommend using iThemes for security, having the SiteGround plugins is a great option for those just starting out or that can’t afford the extra expense for iThemes.
Disclaimer: There are affiliate links in this post. This means that I would receive a small commission when you make a purchase through my link at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your trust and support. You can learn more about how affiliate links work on my Terms and Policies page here.
Hosting Plan Options with SiteGround
There are three main hosting plans for you to choose from. These include:
- Web Hosting
- WordPress Hosting
- WooCommerce Hosting
However, I only recommend WordPress or WooCommerce to my clients. This just depends on the type of business that you have as well.
For both of these SiteGround hosting account options you can choose the plan that fits your business best. I will go more into details about these now.
GrowBig SiteGround Hosting Plan
With the GrowBig web hosting plan from SiteGround you can have peace of mind that you will have enough storage to run your website and not run into any issues. You can also have unlimited websites. You just have to add the cost of the domain to your account which is less than $20 per year per domain.
Included with the GrowBig Hosting Plan is:
- Unlimited Websites
- 20 GB of Web Space
- ~ 100,000 Monthly Website Visitors
- Unmetered Traffic
- Free WP Installation
- Free WP Migrator Free Email Migrator
- WordPress Autoupdates
- Free SSL
- Daily Backup
- Free CDN
- Free Email
- Enhanced Security
- Ecommerce Enabled
- WP-CLI and SSH
- Managed WordPress
- Caching
- Unlimited Databases
- 100% Renewable energy match
- 30-Days Money-Back
- Option to add collaborators to your account
- Staging Site Option
- On-demand Backup Copies
- 30% faster PHP
GoGeek SiteGround Hosting Plan
If you have a small woo-commerce shop that this can be a good option too but for larger shops and websites I would recommend the GoGeek Plan. The reason is because it can hold larger web traffic coming in and out and also hold has a large amount of web space storage.
Here is what’s included in the GoGeek hosting plan:
- Unlimited Websites
- 40 GB of Web Space
- ~ 400,000 Monthly Website Visitors
- Unmetered Traffic
- Free WP Installation
- Free WP Migrator Free Email Migrator
- WordPress Autoupdates
- Free SSL
- Daily Backup
- Free CDN
- Free Email
- Enhanced Security
- Ecommerce Enabled
- WP-CLI and SSH
- Managed WordPress
- Caching
- Unlimited Databases
- 100% Renewable energy match
- 30-Days Money-Back
- Option to add collaborators to your account
- Staging Site Option and Git
- On-demand Backup Copies
- 30% faster PHP
- Free Private DNS
- Highest Tier of Resources
- Priority Support
Creating Your SiteGround Hosting Account
Now that you have chosen the plan that fits your business best, now you can start setting things up for your account. Let’s get started. Below I will show you a step-by-step guide to get everything setup right for your SiteGround hosting account. It’s pretty easy!
Step-by-Step Guide on Creating Your SiteGround Hosting Account
Let’s dive in to getting your SiteGround hosting account setup.
- Choose the plan that you want here.
- Now you are going to choose a domain. If you need to register a new domain you will enter the domain you want here. It’s $17.99 for your 1st year. If you already have a domain click “I already have a domain” and enter your domain. Then click proceed and Yes, I would like SiteGround to register this domain name.
- Fill out all the areas needed to create your account. Under Purchase Information you can choose to pay your hosting for the year (best option) or monthly (the discount doesn’t apply to the monthly option but you can change it to monthly payments after your first year). For extra services this is optional. You can choose to pay for this yearly or not. As long as you have a good security in place such as iThemes then you don’t have to pay extra for another place that will monitor your website.
- Click the first checkbox at the end of the form and then click “Pay Now” to complete in creating your account.
You may have to verify your account with your email to finish the process so make sure to check your emails for important information about your account.
** Note: Your payment after the first year will go up to the original price so keep that in mind. For the GrowBig plan it is $24.99 and GoGeek is $39.99 per month paid in full for the year. May be a little more for monthly payments. Just make sure that if you choose monthly payments that your payment information is up to date at all times.
For My Website Maintenance Clients
If you are one of my website maintenance clients this is the part where you would add me to as a contributor to your account so I can finish migrating everything over to your new hosting plan. This way I can also make sure everything is setup right. It will also give me access to your hosting incase something goes wrong with your website that it goes offline.
Having access to your hosting is important since not every error or issue that comes up may be web related but instead host related. I’ve never had issues with SiteGround before but it’s good to have that access just to be safe. You never know!
Adding a Contributor to Your SiteGround Hosting Account
Yayy! Your hosting account with SiteGround is created. Now let’s add me as a contributor. Here’s how to add a collaborator to your SiteGround hosting account:
- Login to your new SiteGround Hosting Account here.
- Click “Websites” on the menu.
- Click “All Site Options” under the website you need to add a contributor too.
- Click “Users”
- Click “Add Users”
- Click “Collaborator”
- Select “New User” and add my information in as mentioned in our email.
I will then receive an email with information so I can access your SiteGround hosting account through my own SiteGround hosting account. No need to share personal information with me or grant me full access to your SiteGround hosting account.
Role of a Contributor on Your SiteGround Account
According to SiteGround’s website, a collaborator is “a user with access to the Site Tools of your site (without the email management options). Has their own SiteGround hosting account and does not log into yours. Can request support from SiteGround. Recommended when you wish to give access to developers, designers or others to collaborate on your site.”
Role of a Client on SiteGround
The role of a client is the other way around. This would be when you sign up for my website maintenance plan that offers hosting and I grant you access as my client to your SiteGround account.
According to SiteGround’s website, a client is “a user who gets a white-label version of the Site Tools of the site (all sections). Cannot request support from SiteGround. Recommended if you are a reseller and wish to give your client the Site Tools not branded as SiteGround. Feature available on GoGeek or higher plans.”
This type of setting is offered to developers, designers, etc. that manage their client’s overall accounts under their own white labeled SiteGround accounts.
**Note: Please do NOT use this user option if this is not the intention of your website and overall business.**
Summary of Setting Up Your Own SiteGround Hosting Account
SiteGround is so far one of the best hosting providers I have used. I love how easy to use their platform is so you can manage your website. And their customer service is amazing and very helpful. If I ever run into any hiccups, which as humans we all run into, I know I can rely on their top reps to help me find any errors or fix any issues along the way.
Ever since I switched to SiteGround I found peace of mind that my websites and my client’s websites are going to be safe and secured. With a little love from website maintenance and a good hosting plan in place, you can rest assured that your website will be running smoothly at all times.
As you can see, setting up your own SiteGround hosting account is fairly easy to do. Just have to make sure you choose the right hosting plan for your business first. Even if you choose the wrong one or need to upgrade down the road, you can also do that at any time.
Hope that this guide has given you the clarity and guidance to find a good hosting plan that fits your business and your website’s needs and how to properly setup your SiteGround hosting account.
