This is a plug for the good folks who host this website – SiteGround. They just started an affiliate program, so if you buy their web-hosting service from this site, you’ll be buying me a meal.

There’s also a permanent link up on my homepage: www.sheffnersweb.net

I’ve used this company for years and have no complaints.I used to use GoDaddy, but got tired of their tireless marketing campaigns, and found their tech-support wasn’t as good as SiteGround’s, and personally I found their account management interface a little less intuitive than SiteGround’s, but that’s probably just me.

Why use SiteGround? I’m glad you asked!

First, they have servers in different continents: the US (Chicago), Europe (Amsterdam) and most recently Asia (Singapore). Choose the location of your server for best connections for you and your customers and visitors. (Read more in the Hosting Comparison PDF).

Second, their tech support is extremely helpful and fast. I’m no geek, and I have frequently needed help, such as when updating WordPress . Well, now it’s all automatic and very smooth. But back in the day, it all had to be done by HAND! I’d carefully read the tutorials (SiteGround has tutorials on just about everything you’d need, including how to install and update WordPress, Joomla or other blog and website-management software). Then I’d watch the tutorial video. OK. Got it. Everything would go swimmingly and I’d finally click on my website in my browser and find… nothing! Or “This website does not exist” or “Please check your database reference”.

Help! But with SiteGround’s tech support, I’d be back in action within a few minutes or an hour at the most. I mostly use their ticketing support (that’s where you send them an email via their online form, and they reply to that), but I’ve also used their online chat, and their telephone support (once each) and was very satisfied with all of them. My only complaint is that, a couple of times my problem is “none-of-the-above” help categories and is not answered in any tutorial or FAQ, and then, how do you contact tech-support?

For example, I recently got an email from Google telling me my website was suspected of being a phishing site, and please contact Google to resolve the issue. Before I did that, I wanted to check with SiteGround. I wasn’t even sure if the Google email was genuine. Perhaps THAT was a phishing scam?

But there was no category for my problem among SiteGround’s list of “What is your problem?” I chose the first one on the list (Domain problems, I think). I got a reply to my “ticket” within a few minutes, telling me the problem had been resolved (it was caused by another user on the same shared server). So choosing an inappropriate category did not result in any delay or confused back-and-forth time-wasting.

Most of my support requests have been about WordPress (read a WordPress Hosting Review of SiteGround here; the review points out that SiteGround is not there to hold your hand – they won’t manage your website for you, so if that’s what you need, better look elsewhere). I used my own installation of WordPress for all my blogs. Although SiteGround ask you to contact WordPress for tech support, they have been very kind and done things for me like tell me the name of the database associated with one of my blogs when I forgot which was which (when you have 10 blogs, it can be easy to lose track).

Full marks for SiteGround’s tech support!

SiteGround supports WordPress, Joomla and Drupal and has tutorials for how to install and manage all these. I’ve been able to get everything done that I need to do using these tutorials (and when I couldn’t, my support requests got answered within hours, and usually within 10 minutes). Plus email accounts, webmail service, domain transfer and purchase, Cloud VPS hosting, dedicated hosting, and lots more.

Check them out.

Related articles

• SiteGround Interviewed by Joomla Hosting Reviews
• SiteGround Reviewed by WordPress Hosting Reviews
• How to explain phishing to your Grandma [VIDEO]

Tags: WordPress