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Looking for a SiteGround alternative for WordPress hosting , WooCommerce hosting , or other CMS like Drupal, Joomla, PrestaShop, or Magento ? Managedserver.it is the right solution for you.
Created by expert Linux systems engineers and WordPress developers since 2005 we offer high performance hosting to the most important and busy Italian sites.
Introduction
You often ask us why we are different from SiteGround, and it is this question that we want to answer with an honest comparative analysis of the two solutions in comparison. Let's find out why Managedserver.it is an excellent alternative to SiteGround for hosting your WordPress site!
SiteGround, founded in 2004, was an early pioneer in the hosting industry and set the bar for all of us, thanks primarily to its excellent marketing within the WordPress community, as well as its questionable affiliate and referral marketing initiatives, which we analyzed and praised in our negative reviews in this article on “ Fake Reviews in the Hosting World .”
Needless to say, a few months later we also received a warning from their legal team with an intimidation and intimidation to remove some content that highlighted SiteGround's low performance compared to our services:
Obviously as a practice we replied that the information reported was correct in comparative analysis and that legally we were not violating any European law.
Simply put, SiteGround pays good commissions to those who sell their products with affiliate codes , and many website owners write technical articles about WordPress and Hosting, directing users to SiteGround's website not because they truly trust and respect the brand, but with the sole aim of collecting the commission.
They have discussed it at length on Giorgio Taverniti's Forum at this link where the user ricsca5 seems to be asking the same question as us.
Mara's response speaks volumes about SiteGround's upselling practices, which encourage customers to purchase a larger, higher-performance, and therefore more expensive, plan for even the smallest issue. Today, Mara is our customer, and her website https://www.notizieinvetrina.it, in addition to being extremely fast, achieves this PageSpeed score on the mobile version, while still spending less than the cost of using SiteGround.
As happened to Mara, therefore, it often happens that a demanding customer adopts Hosting SiteGround but shortly after is not satisfied with the performance or assistance and therefore decides to move towards more professional solutions like ours.
Every day, we encounter disappointed SiteGround customers looking for an alternative WordPress hosting solution that offers better performance in terms of speed, CPU load management and resources, and superior support. These solutions are often fully managed, meaning the user simply does their job without worrying about technical aspects such as caching, compression, refresh rates, CPU load, and the like, which are delegated to our technical department.
Unlike Siteground which recognizes very high commissions for each sale to the affiliate (find the commission table taken from their website below), and investments in Advertising and Facebook ADS and Google AdSense campaigns, as of November 7, 2021, Managedserver.it exclusively bases its business and its important and legendary customers only on the basis of word of mouth among the sector insiders (webmaster, devops, SEO, Marketer in primis).
This does not mean that in the very near future we will not start advertising or we will not use referral or affiliate marketing systems, but regardless of the future, today's present is based on skills chosen by the major high traffic Italian sites.
Some known and known SiteGround issues.
In wanting to analyze SiteGround we are going to review mainly what are "known things" (or you can find many discussions on the net) focusing on what many SiteGround users consider them as such generating a conspicuous discontent.
Price increase on renewal after the first year.
Among the main problems of SiteGround circulating on the net we cannot fail to mention the variation of costs in renewal phases after the first year, (which in our opinion is not a real problem but a policy agreed and communicated to the customer), which however we we do not apply. In fact, we prefer to be clear immediately on the value of our services and with the relative prices that do not change for years (we are in 2021 for example and we still adopt the 2018 price lists).
As mentioned, even if it is not a real problem but an erroneous perception of the discount during the purchase phase, this procedure (absolutely legitimate) still generates discontent and a deterrent to the renewal of many users.
Excessive CPU consumption on SiteGround
This problem is also very frequent based on what we see reported online, in the reviews and in the FaceBook comments. We have covered this aspect in the past with two specific articles from our customers who have solved performance and CPU overuse issues by switching to our Hosting.
You can read more specifically about the two cases in question regarding a Slow Magento Hosting and a Slow WordPress Site.
You can also rely on and trust these screenshots recovered on the net which demonstrate in an absolutely super partes way that these problems are more frequent than you can imagine.
Directly from the "pricey" review on the very famous Puntoinformatico.it https://www.punto-informatico.it/hosting-siteground/ a user points out in the comments:
In indicating the cons you have omitted a "big cons" of Siteground hosting plans, linked to the CPU usage limit. In fact, for the GrowBing plan there is a CPU usage limit of 2000 seconds and for GoGeek 4000 seconds. The presence of these limits, made artfully, obliges the user to move to a higher floor, since if this quota is reached the connected site / s are blacked out until the end of the month !!! Considering that hosting plans can accommodate more sites and that thanks also to those who try to hack the site (s) it is extremely easy to reach these limits even with a modest traffic of users! for the sake of clarity and honesty, this information should be disclosed. It is certainly a good service but it is not cheap and it is not transparent !!!
March, 27:
Obviously Punto Informatico participates in the SiteGround affiliate program and is therefore in no way free of conflicts of interest nor truthful.
In fact, by clicking on their link in plain sight we are redirected to the SiteGround site with a nice affiliate code in sight:
https://it.siteground.com/index.htm? afcode =83b730f8cbab4387dd0e65e9750ad1cf&campaign=Guide+Hosting
We wanted to record a video about it to show and demonstrate this previous statement as truthfully as possible.
We consider this practice ethically and morally incorrect, although not legally illegal (but we hope it will soon become).
In short, it's not nice to see your site down due to excessive CPU usage just when your site is generating traffic (and perhaps generating revenue), yet it happens. SiteGround doesn't care about your business, the loss of traffic and revenue; they simply respect the "limits" you set, not hesitating to take your site offline right when it's most critical.
Server technologies adopted.
Our Stack Hosting is mainly based on software technologies and acceleration systems currently adopted by the largest and most important websites in the world.
It is not enough to adopt only excellent hardware and excellent connectivity, but it is necessary to know how to use the software to the best of possibilities in order to optimize the use of hardware resources and therefore maximize results and profits while managing to contain costs.
We have talked about it in more than exhaustive detail in this post: What do CNN, BBC, ESPN, Daily Mail, Forbes, USA Today, NY Times, The Guardian and our hosting have in common?
So let's take a look at the software difference that sets us apart from SiteGround starting from a backbone of every busy website worldwide.
Varnish cache
In computer science, Varnish Cache is defined as a web accelerator (or HTTP accelerator), a request accelerator that makes the site experience faster and more dynamic. This tool is so popular and effective that it is commonly used even by highly trafficked sites, such as Wikipedia, Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, Corriere della Sera , and many other well-known names on the world wide web. Varnish Cache is an "open source" project, meaning it is freely accessible and open to external modifications, created specifically for the HTTP protocol.
We talked about it specifically in this post Varnish Hosting and we are really excited and proud to use (and use well) such a caliber software oriented to enterprise and professional markets.
Basically, just do a search on Similartech.com and enter some of the cutting-edge technologies we use like Varnish Cache to understand how we actually use excellent and well-tested technologies.
Obviously Varnish SuperCache is an extremely professional cache that requires due manual tuning and specific technical knowledge to avoid major problems inherent in the refresh of contents, feeds, sitemaps with problems for both users and search engines like Google.
Of course, we at Varnish use it and use it to the fullest, with a custom configuration tested and proven over 10 years. Suffice it to say that we do it for clients with millions of unique visitors per month, in some cases even hundreds of millions of page views per month, as we've documented in these posts and case studies for well-known brands such as Laleggepertutti.it, Fattoincasadabenedetta.it, Kontrokultura.it , and many others.
Siteground obviously doesn't use it. And he does not use it justifying in his own way the motivation as reported by their site to the question:
Do you use Varnish on your servers?
We use Nginx as a reverse proxy for the Apache service instead of Varnish . Nginx offers better stability, better customization options, and better performance, which is why it's our choice.
It goes without saying that talking about NGINX's Reverse Proxy functionality without mentioning Varnish's Cache features is a completely inaccurate answer to the question posed. But let's assume that the correct answer was as we imagine it wanted to be: “No, we don't use Varnish but we use Nginx in Reverse proxy with NGINX FastCGI Cache enabled to Apache Server”.
But do they really want to compare Varnish's speed versus NGINX's Cache? Do they really think they can equate the two by making NGINX Cache a worthy replacement?
This makes no sense, neither in terms of performance nor in terms of features and functionality, since Varnish actually has a specific VCL language that allows for very customized configurations that are vitally important on high-traffic sites.
For example, we all know that links to external sites when we click on a Facebook link, come out with a parameter appended to the url which is called fbclid followed by an individual alphanumeric string that has tracking functions.
The same thing goes for Instagram which in turn appends outgoing strings, and the same thing goes for the UTM tag which are tags contained in links, useful for analyzing traffic coming from Google marketing campaigns.
These outgoing tags with seemingly random parameters are not easily normalized and stripping attempts with NGINX often only lead to incorrect 301 redirects to the initial URL with the parameter excluded, which results in an extra roundtrip (i.e. a Location: redirect) as well as the exclusion of tracking features.
In other words, if you need to track how many users have arrived on the site directly and how many have reached you from a Google ADS campaign, you will lose the tracking of Google ADS and Google Analytics will count the accesses as direct accesses, leaving you no way to measure the performance of the campaign and therefore decide on any future budget investments.
With Varnish Cache instead you have the possibility to do an intelligent stripping of the parameter, that is not to pass it to the internal cache engine or possibly to the server side process (normally in the backend such as, for example, a PHP-FPM Pool) but without going to break the functionality of the related tracking TAGs.
Furthermore, with Varnish Cache it is much easier to set specific rules on the cache TTL and obtain a beneficial and persistent HIT RATIO.
Obtaining a high HIT RATIO close to 100% means in a nutshell having the ability to fetch data in the cache very frequently instead of having to access the backend by running PHP and MySQL because the cache has expired or has been invalidated.
Among the other obvious benefits of Varnish compared to NGINX is the ability to completely PURGE the Cache , an eventuality that is also possible on NGINX with third-party and unofficial Workarounds such as the purgeall module, unless you decide to rely on the commercial version of NGINX called NGINX Plus at a price that is certainly fair and deserved, but not exactly cheap starting from 2500 dollars per year per instance.
More specifically, Enterprise Support is available 24/24 with 7-minute SLAs, for $ 7 per year per instance. They also provide basic support for $ 30 / year and professional support for $ 5.000 / year for less critical deployments.
Managedserver.it and SiteGround in comparison
Managedserver.it has always been an independent vendor. We do not use proprietary datacenters and are not absolutely tied to any specific brand of datacenter, hosting or specific Cloud solutions.
We have always reiterated that we develop our complete service and software stack tailored and based on customer needs and preferences.
We can use Datacenters in Italy upon request, Google Cloud, Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure or by default we use datacenters in Germany like many hosting providers using machines with high clock frequencies (minimum 4Ghz).
On languages such as PHP at the base of almost all CMS we have in fact noticed how a better and higher CPU frequency can lead to better speed (and a lower TTFB) compared to Cloud solutions with CPUs with a frequency of 1.7 or 2 Ghz.
In addition, all sites hosted on Managedserver.it also enjoy free Cloudflare protection, which includes a secure firewall, HTTP / 3 support, DDoS protection and a host of other benefits.
Let's take a look at some of the main differences between Managedserver.it and SiteGround:
- ManagedServer.it offers optimized Dedicated Servers based on minimum AMD Ryzen 5 6cpu / 12 threads far faster and more powerful than any Cloud Siteground instance.
- ManagedServer.it manually migrates the customer's site from the old provider to its hosting system, configuring the optimal settings of the cache levels at the backend and frontend level. Siteground does not perform this important operation, delegating any choice to the customer who is often not a technician.
- ManagedServer.it takes care during the onboarding of the customer on its systems to optimize the MySQL database by checking the presence of indexes, the correct configuration of the tables from the old MyISAM to the performing InnoDB or Percona XtraDB. Siteground does not perform these checks, limiting itself to running your site not necessarily in the optimal possible mode.
- Managedserver.it performs MySQL automatic optimization weekly on all your sites to optimize database performance. SiteGround does not offer automatic database optimizations.
- All Managedserver.it customers are protected by aFree Cloudflare integration that does not require a personal Cloudflare account (although it is still compatible if you have your own account) which supports both non-www and www domains. Our integration includes a high-performance CDN and enterprise-grade firewall with DDoS protection. SiteGround also offers Cloudflare integration with CDN and firewall capabilities, but requires the creation of a personal Cloudflare account and is only compatible with www domains (non-www domains are not supported).
- All ManagedServer.it plans includefree access to our integrated application performance monitoring tool (xDebug APM) for debugging WordPress performance issues. We also support New Relic for customers who prefer it. SiteGround does not have a free built-in APM tool, nor does it provide support for New Relic on all plans.
- Managedserver.it offers four types of backups: free automatic / daily, optional schedule, downloadable and external backups automatically sent to your account on external machine via SSH, Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage. SiteGround offers nightly backups and downloadable backups, but does not offer support for external backups.
- The Managedserver.it support team is available 24/7/365. Our average response time to support requests is less than 15 minutes and we offer support in Italian and English. Also, we don't have tiered support, which means you'll always be in touch with a WordPress-savvy Linux system administrator who can solve your problem. SiteGround also offers 24/7/365 support, but they don't have multilingual support. Unlike Managedserver.it, SiteGround has a tiered support system, which means you may face an escalation to more experienced engineers.
Performance and Scalability
If you are looking for a high performance and scalable WordPress hosting, which is suitable for agencies of all sizes, ManagedServer.it is the solution for you. Our bespoke hosting platform is optimized for incredible speed, performance and scalability, for both personal blogs and high-traffic ecommerce stores, generating millions of euros in revenue.
Our high performance software stack consists of painstaking configurations for NGINX, PHP, Varnish Cache, REDIS, PHP and MariaDB / MySQL / Percona Server.
SiteGround alternative: PHP process resource limits
Inodes
An Inodes is considered a file. SiteGround has the following limitations:
- 150.000 on the StartUp plan
- 300.000 on the GrowBig plan
- 450.000 on the GoGeek plan
With ManagedServer you have no limit on the number of Inodes. Since we don't limit this parameter, the disk space you can use with us is real, and not limited by the number of files on your account.
Simultaneous processes
The number of concurrent processes indicates the number of concurrent requests your account can handle. SiteGround has the following limitations:
- 10 simultaneous processes on the StartUp plan
- 20 simultaneous processes on the GrowBig plan
- 30 simultaneous processes on the GoGeek plan
With Managedserver.it the limit of simultaneous processes for all shared or semi-dedicated hosting accounts is 64, regardless of the plan you choose.
backups
With all plans we give at least 30 days of daily backups. That is to say that we backup your account per day and keep it the last 30 days of backup on two storages geographically separately. By geographically separated we do not mean in different cabinets or rooms, but for example if your site runs on a datacenter in Germany, the data backup and storage will take place both in Germany and in Finland and always within the European borders according to the GDPR regulation. .
More advanced options
In addition, on all plans we also offer:
- SSH connection always available.
- GIT present on all plans, SiteGround offers it only on GoGeek plans which cost € 36 per month
Expert Support for WordPress
At Managedserver.it, we treat every customer and every site as a strategic priority, whether you are an independent entrepreneur, an agency or a global company. Our WordPress expert support team is available 24 hours a day all year round, including holidays, weekends and night hours (wherever you are).
With Managedserver.it, you don't have to worry about being left hanging if you are faced with an urgent problem, regardless of your plan. At Managedserver.it we do not resort to a tiered support system like SiteGround, which means that we will not waste time with escalations and transfers. Whether you subscribe to our Basic or enterprise plan, you will always have access to the same group of WordPress experts.
With SiteGround you have support in Italian only from 08:00 to midnight. If a problem occurs outside these hours you must necessarily speak in English. With us this problem does not exist.
Free Migrations by Experienced and Real People
Whether you want to move just one site or 100, Managedserver.it provides you with hassle-free migrations handled by our WordPress experts. You won't have to deal with any complicated technology or risk losing critical data.
If you're interested in moving your site to managed WordPress hosting, we offer unlimited free migrations from SiteGround ! Finally, unlike SiteGround, which uses a free migration plugin, our free migrations are performed by an experienced migration engineer.
Switch to ManagedServer.it You too
Managedserver.it offers the fastest and most advanced technology. We are constantly evolving and are constantly adapting to take advantage of the most innovative solutions available.
If you are looking for an alternative to SiteGround in 2021, ManagedServer.it's managed WordPress hosting solution is the best solution for you.
We are proud of our solutions and want you to be 100% satisfied with your hosting, which is why we offer a 15 day money back guarantee and free migrations from SiteGround. If you are ready to make the leap from SiteGround and switch to our managed WordPress hosting platform, try Managedserver.it risk-free.
