Hosting Package Comparison

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Through a number of hosting packages, SiteGround provides web site hosting for:

• Joomla
• WordPress
• Magento (Now an Adobe Company)
• Drupal
• WooCommerce
• Prestashop

• Shared Server Hosting
  • StartUp
  • GrowBig
  • GoGeek

• Cloud Hosting
  • Jump Start
  • Business
  • Business Plus
  • Super Power

• Reseller Hosting
  • GrowBig
  • GoGeek
  • Cloud

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In this article we go through features offered at SiteGround - and the ways some of those benefits can be utilised.

Shared hosting versus Cloud hosting:

Shared hosting

Is widely used and is an affordable type of hosting service.

In shared hosting, many websites and user accounts share a physical server along with the server's resources.

Cloud hosting

If your website needs a more powerful hosting solution, compared to shared hosting, cloud hosting is a great option.

By providing you with an autoscaling option, which adds more resources to the server, cloud hosting is very powerful and flexible.

Cloud hosting is much more powerful as you get a full server on your own and you do not share your resources with anyone else.

You have the freedom to create and manage hosting accounts on the server and perform other server configurations.

Cloud hosting tends to be more expensive than shared hosting.

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Customer Survey Results - 2022

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Shared Server Hosting

The preferred Joomla!^® hosting provider of usingjoomla.com provides three shared server hosting package options:

• StartUp
• GrowBig
• GoGeek

Which package you select depends on your website hosting requirements.

Each hosting package in-a-nutshell:

StartUp - This hosting package option gives you all the hosting essentials you would require for a "getting started" website or an average sized blog or personal website.

GrowBig - This hosting package would be suitable if you require more resources than a StartUp package, or a greater degree of features.GrowBig package would be suitable for a single more heavily visited website or multiple average sized websites. Ideal for people who want to host multiple sites in one hosting account.

GoGeek - If you have a resource-intensive or heavily-visited website GoGeek would be a good choice. GoGeek customers are hosted on a server with fewer customers - therefore fewer customers share the available resources - meaning each customer is able to utilise a greater proportion of those resources.

Below we show you a more detailed comparison table of SiteGround's shared server packages.

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Secure Shell - SSH

Secure Shell (SSH) is a cryptographic network protocol for operating network services securely over an unsecured network by using a client-server architecture.

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Free SSL Certificates

Free Let's Encrypt Standard and Wildcard Certificates.

The Standard Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Certificate is pre-installed for your website.

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Performance Boosters

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eCommerce

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Free SSL Certificates

Free Let's Encrypt Standard and Wildcard Certificates.

The Standard Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Certificate is pre-installed for your website.

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Caching

1) NGINX Direct Delivery

With NGINX Direct Delivery SiteGround will serve most of the static resources of your website (for example: images, javascript, Cascading Style Sheets) directly through NGINX to achieve the fastest possible loading time.

NGINX Direct Delivery works for all kind of applications without additional customisation.

2) Dynamic Data Cache

Dynamic Cache is a full-page caching mechanism for non-static resources.

Dynamic Cache prevents unnecessary database queries, processing of each page visit, and more tasks - highly improving your website loading speed and so the time-to-first-byte (TTFB) of your pages.

3) Memcached Caching

Memcached caching is an object caching mechanism designed to improve the connection between your application and its database.

Memcached caching greatly improves the load speed of dynamic content that cannot be served by the Dynamic Caching ( for example: checkout pages, dashboards, and backends ).

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Inodes

An inode is a record in a disk table.

This record contains information about a file or folder - such as:

• file / folder size
• file / folder Owner
• file type
• access permissions (for example: read, write, execute)

Each folder, and each file, will have an inode.

The inode record does not contain the file-name or file / folder data content.

Therefore, the number of inodes on your account equals the number of files and folders you have on it.

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DNS Zone Editor

The Domain Name System (DNS), sometimes called Domain Name Service, is a system (service) that converts human-readable domain names into Internet Protocol (IP) addresses.

To achieve this convertion, the DNS reads from the DNS zone file which consists of a number of zone records.

Zone records instruct your domain name where to look for your site and email, set up domain aliases, add rules or additional information to your domain.

The following DNS Zone records can be edited / created through the SiteGround Site Tools "DNS Zone Editor"

• A
• AAAA
• CNAME
• MX
• SRV
• TXT

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Manage CRON Tasks

A 'cron job' or 'cron task' is a service that schedules script execution at specific dates and times, usually used to schedule recurring / repetitive tasks.

The cron command-line utility, also known as cron job or cron task, is a task scheduler on Unix-like operating systems typically automating system maintenance or administration.

The general-purpose nature makes it is useful for things like carrying out backups (such as triggering an Akeeba Backup).

Cron tasks can be set up to run on days and times outside of your core working hours or monthly / weekly / yearly at a specified date / time of the month.

A cron task can do tasks which means that you do not forget to do the task manually.

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CDN - Content Delivery Network

SiteGround CDN (Content Delivery Network) is a tool that speeds up your website when you have geographically dispersed traffic across multiple countries and continents.

SiteGround CDN will cache your website content and distribute it over multiple data centers around the world.

When someone visits your website the content will be delivered from the server closest to the visitor rather than, potentially, several thousand miles away.

SiteGround CDN Plans and Features

SiteGround CDN is an optional extra which is available in two plans:

• Free
• Premium

SiteGround CDN Plans
Feature	CDN Free Plan	CDN Premium Plan
Cost	Free	For a fee
Domain(s)	Primary Domain Only	All
Bandwidth	10GB	Unmetered ∞
Caching	Static	Dynamic
Cache Duration Setting (TTL) (TTL = Time To Live)	No	Yes
Keep Site Online	No	Yes
Development Mode	Yes	Yes
Cache Purge	Yes	Yes
CDN Servers in five continents (CDN = Content Delivery Network)	Yes	Yes
SSL Support (SSL = Secure Socket Layer)	Yes	Yes
HTTP / 2 Support	Yes	Yes
Brotli Support	Yes	Yes
HTML, CSS and JS Minification	Yes	Yes
Image Compression and Lazyload	Yes	Yes
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PostGre SQL

PostgreSQL is an open-source object-relational database system that uses and extends the Structured Query Language language (SQL) combined with many features that safely store and scale the most complicated data workloads.

PostgreSQL allows custom functions developed using different programming languages such as C/C++, C#, Python, Ruby, Perl and Java.

PostgreSQL is known for its stability, reliability, integrity and scalability.

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MySQL

MySQL is a database management system based on Structured Query Language (SQL).

A popular language for adding, accessing and managing content in a database, MySQL is known for quick processing, proven reliability, flexibility as well as ease of use.

MySQL is an essential part of PHP applications, for example, Joomla!.

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Parked Domains

Parked domains are additional domains that can be used to reach your site.

Parked Domains can be used in the cases where you want to have different spellings of your domain opening the same site, or you want to make sure that you do not lose any misguided visitors by having all TLDs of your primary domain name (e.g. yoursite.com, yoursite.net, yoursite.org).

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Domain Redirects

Domain redirects are used for forwarding one URL to another.

This can be useful in several cases, such as:

• Redirecting the URL of a page that no longer exists to a new URL
• Temporararily redirecting traffic from one page, or category, to another page or category
• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) purposes

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e-mail Forwarders

You can set up and use e-mail forwarders to easily redirect e-mails from one mailbox (e-mail address) to another.

You can also set up discard rules.

Discard rules can be used in preventing e-mails from reaching a specific e-mail box or setting up automatic reply messages for unattended e-mail addresses.

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E-mail Autoresponders

You can set up e-mail autoresponders to notify senders that you are:

• Unavailable
• Out of the office
• Need some time to reply

Auto-responders can be permanent or can be scheduled for a specific period of time.

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e-mail Filters

You can automate e-mail management by setting up e-mail filters.

e-mail filtering enables you to quickly set up different rules for e-mail processing both on domain level (all emails under one domain) and user level.

You can create custom e-mail filters for

• Automatic e-mail forwarding
• e-mail sorting
• Discarding e-mails
• plus other tasks

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E-mail Authentication

e-mail Authentication enables you to set up rules preventing e-mail spoofing.

The options below are used to equip e-mail messages with verifiable information so that servers can automatically detect the origin of incoming and outgoing messages and make sure that e-mails are sent and received from authorized sources.

Authentication methods: SPF

Sender Policy Framework - (SPF) - is an e-mail validation protocol used to prevent e-mail spoofing by telling the e-mail receiving mail exchanges if a certain e-mail is coming from an IP or host authorised to send e-mail for the sending domain.

Having an SPF record can be essential to prevent e-mail phishing and spam.

You can:

• Approve Hosts
• Approve MX (mail exchange) Records
• Approve / Block IPs

Authentication methods: DKIM

Domain Keys Identified Mail - (DKIM) - is an e-mail authentication method used to prevent e-mail spoofing by allowing the receiver to check if an incoming e-mail claimed to have come from a specific domain, was indeed authorised by the owner of the domain.

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E-mail Migrator Tool

When moving your web hosting provider from another provider, not only do you need to move your website, but you could well need to also move, or transfer, your email messages from the same host to your SiteGround account.

This provides for no loss of existing messages as well as continuity of email service.

SiteGround's email Migrator tool provides for transferring your emails and email account from another server to SiteGround servers - fast, easily, and just as importantly: Securely.

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Spam Protection

SiteGround has developed their own in-house built Spam Protection tool which filters your incoming and outgoing e-mails and helps to eliminate spam.

The system can be taught to recognise suspicious messages, based on user settings and previous behavior, helping to give a spam-free inbox.

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SiteScanner

The SiteScanner is a malware detection and early warning system.

This system enables you to perform on-demand scans of your website and performs comprehensive daily scans to detect domain blacklisting and malware.

The malware database is constantly updated enabling the SiteScanner to detect even the latest threats.

The SiteScanner helps you protect your website by constantly crawling and analysing your files, pages and domain.

SiteScanner can identify the latest Malware threats, and when it does, it notifies you immediately so that you can take actions and clean your website.

SiteScanner scans your files, URL and domain names on a daily basis and detects the latest malware and potential threats.

For your peace of mind you can receive daily reports - informing you about your website status so that you can take actions and avoid downtime, data breach or other potential issues.

SiteGround SiteScanner Plans and Features

SiteGround SiteScanner is an optional extra which is available in two plans:

• Basic
• Premium

SiteGround SiteScanner
Feature	Basic SiteScanner Plan	Premium SiteScanner Plan
Cost	Basic / Budget	Premium
URLs scan	Daily	Daily
Domain blacklist scan	Daily	Daily
Comprehensive files scan	No	Daily
File upload scan	No	Yes
File upload quarantine	No	Yes
Site protect mode	No	Yes
Email threat notifications	No	Yes
Email weekly reports	No	Yes
On-demand manual scan	No	Yes
30-days scan history	No	Yes
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Application Installer

Using the SiteGround Site Tools Application (app) Installer you can install the following Applications

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Site Tools Interface

Site Tools Interface.

Commonly used tools can be "pinned" into this area for ease of access.

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Viewable Site Visitor / Traffic Statistics

The SiteGround Site Tools extracts visitor information from your server logs and visualises it in easy-to-read graphics.

You can get valuable information about unique visitors, pageviews, visitors browsers and preferred search engines, as well as keywords that have been used to bring traffic to your website.

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Traffic Summary - Chart View

Traffic summary.

Chart view.

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Traffic Summary - Table View

Traffic summary.

Table view.

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Unique Visitors - Chart View

Unique visitors.

Chart view.

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Pageviews - Chart View

Pageviews.

Chart view.

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Average Number Of Pages Per Visit - Chart View

Average number of pages per visit.

Chart view.

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Site Bandwidth - Chart View

Site bandwidth.

Chart view.

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Audience (Countries) - Chart view

Audience (countries).

Chart view.

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Audience ( Countries ) - Table view

Audience (countries).

Table view.

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Technology - Chart View

Technology.

Operating Systems and Browsers used by site visitors.

Chart view.

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Technology - Table View

Technology.

Operating Systems and Browsers used by site visitors.

Table view.

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Traffic Sources - Search Engines

Traffic sources.

Search Engines.

Chart view.

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Traffic sources.

Search Engines.

Table view.

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Account Resource Statistics

Hosting Account Resource Overview.

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Web Space Statistics

Hosting web-space used per website, and web-space used in total, hosted under the account.

Web-sites hosted within the account are listed to the right.

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Inode Use

Inode usage by site and account.

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Program Executions

Viewable / selectable by hour or by day for the chosen date.

Program executions.

Selectable to view by the hour or the day for the chosen date.

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CPU Seconds

Viewable / selectable by hour or by day for the chosen date.

CPU seconds used.

Selectable to view by the hour or the day for the chosen date.

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Visitor Behaviour

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Cloud Hosting Server

There are four pre-configured Cloud hosting packages:

• Jump Start
• Business
• Business Plus
• Super Power

Below are two feature comparison tables showing the difference between each of those four pre-configured packages.

Not see what you want in the above Cloud packages ?

You can also build your own custom cloud by choosing between the minimum and maximum CPU Cores, Memory (RAM), and SSD (Solid State Drive) size - the cost per month / year will depend on how much you need / choose of each feature.

What is more important to you ? CPU cores ? Memory (RAM) ? or perhaps Solid State Drive (SSD) size ? Or a combination of any of those ?

Below we show 4 examples of what you can achieve through custom cloud - the number of possibilities are enormous.

 

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Cloud Autoscaling

The cloud server autostaling can be ustilised to meet an event such as increases in traffic.

From your User area you can set your cloud’s Central Processing Unit (CPU) (cores) or memory (RAM) to autoscale when the CPU (cores) or RAM (Memory) consumption reaches certain levels.

This is an excellent way to avoid downtime or website slowness at times of increased traffic.

By default the option to utilise autoscaling is NOT turned on.

The creation of an event which requires autoscaling - setting the levels when the autoscaling occurs - is easy.

SiteGround will only bill you for the additional CPU (Cores), RAM (Memory), and / or Disk space when and if the scaling actually happens.

When you add more RAM (memory), CPU (cores), or disk space, any two, or all three together the extra resources are added immediately and without downtime associated with the procedure or rebooting - this is applicable to both the autoscaling event or when you scale your server manually.

When an autoscaling event is triggered, the additional resources RAM (memory)and / or CPU (cores) are added for a period of one calendar month. If you want to keep the extra resources for longer, you can set them to auto-renew.

Pricing note

Pricing shown in the image above may not reflect current prices, discounts and promotions.

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