In this comprehensive GreenGeeks review, I’ll delve into all aspects of this hosting provider, including pricing, user-friendliness, performance, security, customer support, and more.
In the competitive landscape of web hosting, standing out is no small feat. GreenGeeks, however, seems to be making an impact, and much of it can be attributed to its commitment to eco-friendly hosting. GreenGeeks is known for its maximum resource utilization and minimal waste, along with its practice of purchasing 3 times the electricity it consumes in the form of Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) to offset carbon emissions.
Beyond its green initiatives, GreenGeeks has garnered attention for its hosting services, making bold claims of being the fastest, most secure, easiest to scale, and offering exceptional support. In this GreenGeeks hosting review, I aim to determine if these claims hold up, so let’s dive right in.
Rating: 3.8 ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Price: From $2.95/month
Uptime guarantee: 99.99%
Hosting types: Shared, WordPress, VPS, and reseller hosting
Server locations: The US, Canada, Singapore, and the Netherlands 24/7 live support: Yes
Coupons: GreenGeeks coupon 73% OFF
Pros and Cons of GreenGeeks: GreenGeeks Review
Things we like:
- Easy to use cPanel integration
- Robust security package
- Datacenters in the US, Canada, and the Netherlands
Things we don’t like:
- SSL certificate is not activated automatically
- Customer support is not very helpful
GreenGeeks Pricing & Plans:
GreenGeeks offers affordable pricing, with its cheapest shared hosting plans starting at just $2.95/month. In addition to shared hosting, GreenGeeks provides other hosting options like WordPress, VPS, and reseller hosting.
Hosting type Best for:
- Shared hosting: Beginners, small businesses, bloggers, and more looking to build small to medium-sized websites.
- WordPress hosting: Those looking for a managed WordPress-optimized hosting solution for small and medium-sized websites.
- VPS hosting: Experienced users in search of better resources, control, and performance.
- Reseller hosting: Developers, web designers, agencies, and more who want to resell websites.
Check GreenGeeks Pricing Now
GreenGeeks has three shared hosting plans with prices ranging from $2.95/month to $25.95/month. All these plans come with unmetered transfers, unlimited bandwidth and databases, managed WordPress convenience, caching plugins, and multi-user access. Additionally, GreenGeeks offers various freebies such as an SSL certificate, a domain for a year, daily backups, and a Content Delivery Network (CDN).
Here’s a breakdown of the plans:
- Lite: Can host 1 website and includes 50GB storage, as well as 50 email accounts. Price: $2.95/month
- Pro: Offers unlimited disk space and websites, as well as unlimited email accounts. Also comes with on-demand backups and WordPress repair. Price: $4.95/month
- Premium: Includes everything in Pro, as well as a free dedicated IP, AlphaSSL, and object caching. Price: $8.95/month
GreenGeeks is generous with its resources and features, even in the entry-level Lite plan. The Pro plan, which costs just a bit more, provides excellent value with on-demand backups and a WordPress repair tool. It’s worth noting that GreenGeeks offers an unconditional 30-day money-back guarantee, providing peace of mind for dissatisfied customers.
GreenGeeks is a cost-effective hosting service with ample server resources, advanced features, and a comprehensive security package.
Hosting Management: Is It User-Friendly?
In terms of user-friendliness, GreenGeeks offers a straightforward and modern-looking dashboard paired with the powerful cPanel. This combination provides an intuitive and functional management experience for users of all skill levels, from beginners to experienced webmasters.
GreenGeeks’ dashboard is contemporary, clean, and user-friendly. Users can set up email accounts, activate SSL, manage domains, access and control databases and files, monitor resource usage, and even use it for site staging. Moreover, the dashboard provides access to the cPanel, where users can install a CMS of their choice, such as WordPress.
For users who need to perform more advanced tasks, GreenGeeks offers a customized cPanel that remains intuitive, organized, and suitable for even complete beginners.
Adding an SSL certificate with GreenGeeks is a straightforward process. While GreenGeeks doesn’t activate SSL certificates automatically, users can easily enable them through the main control panel. The available options include a free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate or the premium AlphaSSL certificate for an additional fee.
Overall, GreenGeeks’ hosting management is user-friendly, with an intuitive interface and a user-friendly cPanel that covers both basic and advanced hosting needs.
GreenGeeks Performance:
GreenGeeks maintains impressive performance, combining reliability and speed. Even on its most affordable plan, the servers can handle substantial traffic without issues.
GreenGeeks Uptime and Response Time:
Over a two-week monitoring period, GreenGeeks demonstrated a remarkable 99.98% uptime, despite two brief outages. This uptime performance is impressive, especially considering GreenGeeks’ 99.99% uptime guarantee.
Regarding server response time, GreenGeeks averaged at 773ms, slightly higher than the market’s average of 600ms. However, the response time improved over time, making it a non-issue.
In summary, GreenGeeks is a reliable hosting provider with uptime performance that exceeds its guarantee, while the response time remains within an acceptable range.
GreenGeeks Website Speed:
GreenGeeks excels in website speed, as demonstrated by a speed test for both an empty and fully-built website. The Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) for an empty WordPress site was an impressive 530ms in the US, while results were slightly less impressive in the UK and India, which is expected.
When testing a fully-built site, the LCP increased to 1.2s, still well below the 2.5-second benchmark set by Google. The Fully Loaded Time for the fully-built site was just 1.6 seconds, well below the recommended maximum of 3 seconds.
To maintain good page load speed, GreenGeeks offers three datacenter options, allowing users to choose the server location closest to their target audience.
In summary, GreenGeeks demonstrates outstanding speed, with both LCP and Fully Loaded Time surpassing industry benchmarks.
GreenGeeks Stress Testing:
GreenGeeks impressively handled a stress test with 50 virtual users, equivalent to 50,000 monthly visitors on a shared server. It maintained a stable response time, demonstrating its ability to handle significant traffic spikes without performance issues.
Overall, GreenGeeks passes all performance tests with flying colors, offering reliability, speed, and robust capacity to handle traffic surges.
Security: Is GreenGeeks Secure?
GreenGeeks prioritizes security and provides a comprehensive suite of security features. Some of the notable security measures include:
- SSL certificates: All shared hosting plans include a free Let’s Encrypt SSL Certificate, with the option to upgrade to the more advanced AlphaSSL certificate.
- Automatic backups: All plans include free nightly backups, with on-demand backups available in the Pro and Premium plans.
- Server monitoring: Servers are monitored every 10 seconds by automated software and every 30 minutes by a human server engineer.
- Malware scanning and cleanup: Real-time security scanning and site cleanup in the event of a hack.
- Website Application Firewall: AI-based WAF for protection against application-layer attacks.
- Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection: Free DDoS protection with in-house network-level mitigation services.
- Other security measures: Hardware and power redundancy, container-based technology, hosting account isolation, spam protection, and automatic app updates.
GreenGeeks’ security is robust and well-rounded, making it a strong contender for one of the most secure hosting providers. It offers a wide range of essential and premium security measures to protect against various vulnerabilities.
Customer Support: Will GreenGeeks Help Me?
GreenGeeks offers three support methods: 24/7 live chat, email support with an approximate 15-20 minute response time, and phone support available from 9 AM to 12 AM EST. Additionally, GreenGeeks provides an extensive knowledge base.
Live chat is the primary support option, typically offering quick assistance from professional and helpful agents. However, there may be occasional instances where response time falls short of expectations.
GreenGeeks’ knowledge base is a valuable resource, featuring numerous well-written articles covering a wide range of topics. It’s a go-to source for answers to common hosting questions and issues.
In summary, GreenGeeks’ customer support is generally efficient, with knowledgeable agents and a comprehensive knowledge base.
The Final Verdict:
In conclusion, GreenGeeks impresses on multiple fronts. It’s an affordable, user-friendly, fast, and secure hosting provider that offers great value for its pricing. Its commitment to eco-friendly hosting adds to its appeal, and the variety of hosting plans cater to different user needs.
GreenGeeks delivers on its promises, providing reliable performance and impressive speed. Its security measures are comprehensive and effective in safeguarding websites. While there may be occasional support delays, the overall customer support experience is positive, with readily available resources in the knowledge base.
Based on this GreenGeeks review, GreenGeeks earns high marks as an all-around hosting provider that meets the needs of a wide range of users.
