Comparing SiteGround vs AWS is kinda weird.
Seriously, these are two entirely different types of services.
AWS is meant for either seasoned developers that know how to set up and run technical hosting, which SiteGround is super user-friendly and built for small to medium-sized businesses.
So to cut to the chase. Developer? Choose AWS.
Entrepreneur or marketer? Choose SiteGround.
We’re comparing a lesser-known option and a hosting powerhouse, both of which have received fantastic reviews and met the needs of many satisfied customers.
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Run by Amazon.com, the powerhouse in online retail sales and entertainment, Amazon Web Services began as a department in 2006 with information technology infrastructure services. Now, we call that cloud computing. By being able to forego on-site servers, many companies have found that they prefer cloud computing because of its flexibility and results-driven performance.
- Pricing: Creating an account with Amazon Web Services is free, and offers users a free tier for 12 months after the sign-up date. They also provide other free services that continue after the year. After that, they offer pay-as-you-go pricing for more than 50 cloud services. For the first 12 months, users receive:
- Amazon EC2: Resizable compute capacity that includes 750 hours per month of Linux, RHEL or SLES t2.micro instance usage, or 750 hours per month of Windows t2.micro instance usage.
- Amazon S3: Scalable, low-latency data storage infrastructure that includes 5GB of storage, 20,000 get requests and 2,000 put requests.
- Amazon RDS: The Relational Database Service offers five different databases, and includes 750 hours of Amazon RDS Single-AZ db.t2.micro instance usage, 20GB for backups and 10,000,000 I/Os.
- AWS IoT: This allows 250,000 published or delivered messages per month.
- Amazon EC2 Container Registry: 500MB of storage each month.
- Customer Support: Amazon Web Services offers four levels of service, with 24/7/365 basic support included in all accounts. These support services include tech support, product frequently asked questions, self-help centers, and a support form. For increasing fees, Amazon Web Services also offers developer, business and enterprise classes of support.
- Speed: The speeds are not readily available, and can vary greatly between regions.
- Value: Many Amazon Web Services users appreciate that the program allows them to pay as they go, for the services they are actually using. Charges are per gigabyte and per transfer in and out of the data storage bucket.
- Features: Many users are happy with the extras that Amazon Web Services provides, including delete requests, Glacier data restores, free inbound data transfer, as well as outbound to Amazon EC2 in North Virginia. Everyone else receives the first 1 GB of outbound transfer for free.
- Downtime/Uptime: Each day, Amazon Web Services publishes up-to-the-minute service availability for its regions. They also show the service interruptions that have taken place over the past year.
- To explore all of your hosting options check out our AWS vs. GoDaddy post.
SiteGround Hosting
Launched in Bulgaria, SiteGround has been providing hosting for more than 12 years, not only building affordable packages that meet a wide variety of needs, but building a team environment with a handcrafted philosophy, which means that they create their own high-quality solutions. They provide added value for employees and customers alike, giving staff a fun, creative environment, and giving users 10GB of disk space, unlimited bandwidth, high speeds, and award-winning service
- Pricing: SiteGround’s plans may come in a little higher than other Web site hosts, but most customers rave about the details that SiteGround has included in each level.
- Shared Hosting: Regularly priced at $9.95, coupon codes lower that down to $3.95.
- Cloud Hosting: Starts at $60 monthly.
- Reseller Hosting: A credit plan, which equals one year of hosting, is as low as $42 each credit when you purchase 11 or more credits.
- Dedicated Hosting: U.S. dedicated server plans start at $229 per month.
- Customer Support: There is not a single second that customer service representatives aren’t available for instant chat, instant phone responses, and tickets that are answered within about 10 minutes. Service representatives are able to, and often do, troubleshoot technical problems, complete customer requests promptly, and exceed expectations.
- Speed: All hosting plans include solid state drives, as well as enhanced performance with NGINX, HTTP/2, PHP7 and free CDN. SiteGround has written at least 800 WAF rules to fix zero-day vulnerabilities, and improves speed by caching WordPress and Joomla sites.
- Value: There are so many details and features, as well as a high level of customer support, that SiteGround more than makes up for a slightly higher cost for monthly packages.
- Features: SiteGround provides themes and tutorials for WordPress, Magento, and Joomla sites, and offers free daily backups. No matter which site theme you choose, SiteGround provides an enhanced, user-integrated cPanel with extra functionalities, assisted Website creation and migration, and hassle-free setup.
- Downtime/Uptime: The company boasts of a 99.9965 percent yearly uptime rate and a 99.999 percent monthly uptime rate. SiteGround also has a speed test that lets you check your site’s real-time loading speeds. Users from around the globe can choose from data centers in Amsterdam, Chicago, London, and Singapore. More than 90 percent of server performance issues are resolved instantly, SiteGround says, thanks to their software developments that feature automatic real-time detection and an automated instant reaction that typically doesn’t require any human interaction.
View all Siteground options here
What’s Best for You?
Comparing Amazon Web Services and SiteGround is really like comparing apples to oranges. At its core, Amazon Web Services is a low-cost, cloud storage option that helps users manage data. The hosting service helps you to keep costs down, as you’re only paying for what you need, but it’s very important to know, and understand, all aspects of Web development. It’s great for Web and app developers who know what they are doing, but other fields that would prefer to work with templates and themes might find it to be a challenge. SiteGround is a more traditional Web hosting company, making it a better choice for e-commerce companies, marketers, and small business owners who don’t work in Web development on a regular basis. The company is also a solid option for developers who appreciate flexibility and customization options. For a web hosting comparison between similar hosting providers check out our Siteground vs. GoDaddy post.
Last Updated on May 17, 2018 by Joe