Arvixe vs. SiteGround: Which One Should You Use?

Perhaps the most important decision you can make regarding your website is finding the right hosting company and plan. However, so many businesses, from which to choose. You can use this one-on-one comparison between Arvixe and SiteGround to help you narrow down your choices.

SiteGround is even newer, being established in 2004, but it hosts nearly 500,000 sites on its servers. Arvixe and SiteGround both provide shared hosting, managed WordPress hosting, and VPS and dedicated server plans. Arvixe has both Linux and Windows options, while SiteGround is Linux only.

Arvixe was named PCMag Editor’s Choice in 2015 and was named by Inc.com as one of the fastest growing companies in the U.S. SiteGround has won many “best of” awards, but many are from sites they have created for self-promotion – something that is all too common with web hosting companies. SiteGround has won legitimate awards for uptime and customer service.

Arvixe was purchased by Endurance International Group (EIG) in 2014. There are many web hosting companies under the EIG banner, but all operate under their own original names.While EIG companies are not clones of each other, if you had issues with one, they are similar enough that you may have the same issues with another.

SiteGround was founded in 2004 and is a privately owned company with its main headquarters in Sofia, Bulgaria, though it has a worldwide presence.

Arvixe vs. SiteGround: Uptime and Reliability

Uptime. Arvixe has a 99.9% guarantee, with a free month’s refund if a monthly average falls below that percentage. SiteGround has a similar guarantee for an uptime of at least 99.9%. If the site falls between 99.9% and 99%, you get one month of hosting free; for each 1% below 99%, you receive an additional month free.

Performance. Arvixe places much of the website related data on SSDs, including databases and email servers, for speedy performance. SiteGround doesn’t just sit on the same technology for years.

When new methods or faster tech rolls out, SiteGround will update its data centers – for all its users, not just newcomers. SiteGround uses Supercache for all their plans, not just managed WordPress hosting like most companies.

An Arvixe hosted website yielded a load time of 1.05s, faster than 89% of the sites tested. A test of a comparable SiteGround site resulted in a load time of 1.2s, faster than 87% of the sites tested.

Reliability. Arvixe has data centers across the globe – in North America (Dallas, Texas), Europe (Amsterdam), and (Hong Kong). All the data centers are fully redundant, with multiple power and cooling options. The data centers are monitored onsite for security and reliability.

SiteGround has data centers across the globe as well. There are data centers in Chicago, London, Amsterdam, and Singapore. The data centers have redundant power and cooling, with diesel-powered backups.

In 2015, the shared servers were upgraded to use Linux containers, which pools servers to speed up access and provide more reliability. All their plans have been switched to SSD for storage, as well as MySQL databases.

Opinion

Either one of these will provide fast, reliable service. Both have exceptional uptime guarantees, and both have a very quick response and load times.

Compare Key Features

Note: While every web hosting company uses “unlimited” or “unmetered” when describing features, it is a little misleading. This marketing term does not mean “use as much as you want.” Instead, the terms refer to what hosting companies “deem reasonable usage.”

Hosting companies will penalize sites they feel go beyond that, sometimes without warning – though most users will never go beyond reasonable usage.

Domain Registration. Both hosts are domain registrars. Arvixe differs from the industry standard – it offers a free domain for as long as you have the plan. Arvixe also offers a free transfer if you already have a domain elsewhere. SiteGround offers one free year of domain registration.

Website Builder. Arvixe provides RvSiteBuilder, a feature-rich builder with a WSYWIG editor and over 600 web templates. SiteGround offers Weebly Basic free – though it is limited in the number of pages you can create. For an additional monthly fee, you can upgrade to more feature-rich versions of Weebly.

Databases. Arvixe offers unlimited MySQL databases, and it supports PostgreSQL databases. SiteGround offers unlimited MySQL databases.

Email Accounts. Arvixe and SiteGround both provide unlimited email accounts and email forwarding. Unlimited accounts are an advantage if you are a large company with many employees since it allows separate accounts to be set up for each one. Plus every department in your business, such as sales, support, and info, can have a separate account.

WordPress Hosting. Both Arvixe and SiteGround offer managed WordPress plans. Usually, managed WordPress plans will cost more than a standard shared plan. Part of the extra cost is because managed WordPress plans are typically placed on optimized servers with caching and extra security to enhance performance and stability.

Another benefit of managed WordPress hosting is that automatic backups of your WordPress sites are done for you, as well as scheduling and installing updates. This allows you to focus on what’s important – your content.

Both Arvixe and SiteGround are unique in that they don’t charge extra for their WordPress plans.

eCommerce Solution. Arvixe and SiteGround support some free and commercial eCommerce options, many with 24/7 support and automatic installation.

Backups. Arvixe does daily snapshot backups of its servers using R1Soft, which is accessible by customers through the control panel. Backups are hosted on a separate server for redundancy. SiteGround does daily backups that are kept 30 days.

Hosting Security. Arvixe scans and proactively acts against DDoS threats, as well as providing protection against brute force attacks. Arvixe plans come with SpamAssassin and Spamhaus filtering for email.

SiteGround provides SpamExperts through the control panel. SiteGround also has custom software that can isolate accounts that have issues, which keeps your site protected, even if the bad site is on the same shared server. SiteGround monitors servers in real-time and its software can react automatically to most issues without human intervention.

Arvixe used to provide shared SSL for its Linux shared plans, but now it appears Shared SSLs are no longer available for Linux or Windows PersonalClass plans. However, the Business plans have free SSL as long as you have a plan with Arvixe, and private SSLs are available for purchase. SiteGround provides a free SSL certificate for a year for all but the lowest tiers.

Control Panel. Arvixe and SiteGround use the industry standard cPanel.

Affiliate and Reseller Programs. Arvixe’s affiliate program pays from $70 to $135 per referral, depending on the number of referrals you have per month. Arvixe also has a reseller program for both Linux and Windows. SiteGround has a reseller program that provides volume discounts, and its affiliate program pays from $50 to $125 per referral, also depending on the number of referrals per month.

Extras. Arvixe comes with a total of $200 in ad credits to Google and Yahoo. Arvixe offers “Priority Support” for an additional monthly fee. SiteGround offers email-only accounts for a small monthly fee. SiteGround also supports Joomla and Drupal hosting.

Opinion

Both are full-featured web hosting companies. However, Arvixe’s support of PostgreSQL, its “free domain for as long as you have a plan,” support for both Linux and Windows, and its better website builder, gives Arvixe a slight edge over SiteGround for features.

Hosting Plans & Pricing

Note: Web hosting is a competitive industry. As a result, there are constant changes in pricing and a great deal of promotional pricing. Since promotion pricing typically is limited to the first term of service, signing up for a long run means more significant savings. Even without promos, longer terms of service usually result in price breaks. The prices below are current for the time of this comparison.

Arvixe. Arvixe offers four shared plans – two in PersonalClass and two in BusinessClass. For speedier load and response times for your main customer base, you have the option of choosing the U.S., European, or Asian data centers at checkout.

All the PersonalClass and BusinessClass tiers offer unlimited space, bandwidth, emails, and databases. PersonalClass is $4 per month, and BusinessClass is $22 per month. PersonalClassPro is $7 per month, and BusinessClassPro is $35 per month. The Pro tiers allow an unlimited number of sites, while the regular tiers only allow six.

The difference between PersonalClass and BusinessClass is that BusinessClass has fewer users on the server, making it basically shared hosting with VPS features. The ASP (Windows) option runs a few dollars more for each plan and tier. Arvixe’s shared plans provide for unlimited MySQL and PostgreSQL databases. Also, BusinessClass plans have a free SSL certificate for as long as the site is hosted with Arvixe.

Arvixe offers two managed WordPress plans, at $4 and $7 per month, the same as the shared hosting. Unlimited bandwidth, unlimited storage, and an unlimited number of databases comes with all the plans. The $4 plan is limited to 6 websites, while the $7 plan allows an unlimited number.

The WordPress sites are easily scaled from shared to VPS and dedicated hosting, though Arvixe’s pricing goes up for the VPS or dedicated servers.

SiteGround. SiteGround offers three shared plans. The startup allows one site, 10 GB of storage, and is priced at $3.95 per month. GrowBig, at $7.95 per month, and GoGeek, at $14.95 per month offer unlimited websites, and 20 GB and 30 GB of storage, respectively.

All the plans come with a free year of domain registration, unlimited email accounts, unlimited traffic, daily backup, and free CDN. The GrowBig and GoGeek plans add priority technical support and a free SSL for one year. The GoGeek plan adds fewer accounts per server, PCI compliance, and Git.

While SiteGround does not count visitors against your bandwidth usage, it does measure CPU usage and will issue warnings for what it deems excessive usage of CPU resources.

SiteGround has three managed WordPress plans; Startup, which is limited to one site and 10 GB of storage, GrowBig with 20 GB of storage, and GoGeek with 30 GB. The GrowBig and GoGeek plans provide unlimited sites, free SSL for a year, and priority status on support tickets. The GoGeek plan adds Git and has fewer users per server.

All three plans come with a free domain, free CDN, WordPerfect support, and unlimited traffic. As with the shared plans, SiteGround doesn’t limit the number of visitors. Instead, CPU usage is measured by SiteGround, and warnings are issued for excessive usage.

SiteGround’s managed WordPress plans are priced the same as their shared plans at $3.95, $7.95, and $14.95 per month.

VPS and Dedicated Plans: Arvixe offers two VPS tiers in both Linux and Windows. Arvixe plans are $40 and $70 per month for the Linux option. The two Windows VPS tiers are $60 and $100 per month.

All four Arvixe plans have unlimited bandwidth, and they come with a free SSL certificate for as long as you have the plan. SiteGround’s four VPS plans are found under cloud hosting on the site and are priced from $60 to $140 per month. They are limited to 5 TB of bandwidth and 20 to 80 GB of storage. They are fully managed and are on SSDs for speed and reliability.

Depending on the configuration, the six single processor dedicated server tiers from Arvixe are priced from $128.70 per month to $227.50 per month. For those needing more performance, Arvixe has two multi-processor tiers priced at $357.30 per month.

Arvixe also offers cloud options, starting at $108 per month. All of the Arvixe dedicated plans are managed for you. SiteGround has three dedicated plans from $229 to $429 per month.

Money-Back Guarantee: Arvixe’s 60-day money-back guarantee is better than the industry standard. SiteGround has the industry standard 30-day guarantee. If you have the free domain registration on Arvixe or SiteGround, they will withhold a domain registration fee from any refund, and you will keep the domain name.

Opinion

WordPress users will find either hosts’ pricing attractive. However, SiteGround’s top tier, which is equivalent to the top tier of Arvixe, is twice the price. If you require Windows, Arvixe is your only choice between these two, as SiteGround does not have any Windows plans. Arvixe’s pricing and features are better than SiteGround’s offerings in VPS and dedicated server options.

Ease of Use

Control Panel. Arvixe and SiteGround both use the user-friendly, icon-based interface of cPanel, which is the industry standard for a reason.

One-click Installer. Both Arvixe and SiteGround use Softaculous as the one-click installer for hundreds of applications.

Website Navigation. Both Arvixe’s and SiteGround’s sites are well laid out. Both have convenient comparison charts for comparing tiers in their plans.

Opinion

These two hosting companies are nearly identical as far as ease of use, with both being very user-friendly.

SiteGround vs. Arvixe: Technical and Customer Support

Arvixe had an outstandingly stellar reputation for customer support, until recently. Since the EIG buyout, customer complaints about service and support have risen. However, it still rates above average in customer support.

Based on customers’ reviews, SiteGround has excellent support. SiteGround says wait time on support tickets is only 10 minutes.

Arvixe and SiteGround have a phone, email, and live chat 24/7. Both have an extensive knowledge base with tutorials and videos, and both have an active blog.

Opinion

Up until 2014, either one of these companies would have been equally impressive for support and service. Today, SiteGround, based on customer reviews, has an edge in this department.

User Reviews

Note: A review should never be what decides which host to choose. Reviews are generally posted by those who feel very strongly, which means reviews are either strongly negative or strongly positive. However, when something is constantly mentioned, it may be something to look into.

Negative Reviews for Arvixe and SiteGround

Arvixe. Until recently, there were few negative reviews of Arvixe. Lately, however, reviews are complaining about poor customer service and long wait times.

SiteGround. Most negative reviews of SiteGround complain about some of their policies. There is dissatisfaction about how auto-renewal is handled, as well as the lack of warning before shutting down a site for CPU usage overages.

Positive Reviews for Arvixe and SiteGround

Arvixe. Arvixe gets high praise from its customers for all the features available at budget pricing. Windows users are pleased to find hosting at an affordable price.

SiteGround. Positive reviews from customers of SiteGround consistently mention the speed and helpfulness of support and the reliability of SiteGround servers.

Opinion

Overall, both of these hosting companies are well received by customers. However, due to recent support complaints about Arvixe, SiteGround gets more positive reviews.

Conclusion: Which hosting is best for you?

Arvixe and SiteGround have features that set them apart from each other.

Reasons to choose SiteGround over Arvixe:

• Transfer website free from another host
• Hosting Security
• All plans use caching
• Free CDN

Reasons to choose Arvixe over SiteGround:

• Free domain registration as long as plan is hosted
• Pre-installed WordPress
• Windows server options for all plans

Arvixe’s full-featured managed WordPress plans priced the same as shared hosting is a plus for WordPress users. Arvixe’s pricing also makes it a better choice for larger sites or those that have a significant number of visitors.

SiteGround’s shared plans are attractively priced but somewhat limited in storage and bandwidth. If you are just starting out, or have a smaller site, the plans would be suitable.

Both of these hosting companies offer good prices for the number of features they provide.

These are just two of the many web hosting options you have available. Another host that would appeal to WordPress users is InMotion Hosting, due to its excellent managed WordPress plans.

Do you have any questions about Arvixe or SiteGround? What have been your experiences with web hosting in general? Leave your comments and let us know.