SiteGround vs Liquid Web
SiteGround and Liquid Web compared on measured uptime, response time, pricing and features from our own tests. SiteGround scores higher overall.
By Jennifer T. · Updated
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Verdict
8.0 out of 10
SiteGroundWins overall
Managed-feel shared hosting on Google Cloud with daily backups and staging; the renewals are the price
7.7 out of 10
Lansing's managed host since 1997: WordPress plans from $9 with Cloudflare edge CDN and a 100% network SLA, no refunds
SiteGround wins 4 of the six sub-scores and comes out ahead overall (8.0 vs 7.7).
How do the scores compare?
SiteGround leads on 4 sub-scores, Liquid Web on 1. Higher is better.
| SiteGround | Liquid Web | |
|---|---|---|
| Performance | 8.0 (better) | 7.5 |
| Uptime | 8.5 (better) | 8.0 |
| Support | 8.5 (better) | 8.0 |
| Features | 8.5 | 8.5 |
| Value | 6.5 | 7.0 (better) |
| Ease of use | 8.0 (better) | 7.5 |
Which one is faster and more reliable?
| SiteGround | Liquid Web | |
|---|---|---|
| Overall score | 8.0 (better) | 7.7 |
| Uptime (published)HostingStep 243 d vs HostingStep 365 d; methods differ | 99.97% | 99.99% (better) |
| Response time (published)HostingStep vs HostingStep; methods differ | 745 ms | 496 ms (better) |
Which one costs less?
On renewal, Liquid Web is cheaper ($9.00/mo vs $17.99/mo). Intro prices need the listed term.
| SiteGround | Liquid Web | |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest plan | StartUp | Essentials WordPress |
| Intro price | $2.99/mo (better) | $9.00/mo |
| Renewal price | $17.99/mo | $9.00/mo (better) |
| Required term | 12 months | 1 months (better) |
| Websites | 1 | 1 |
| Storage | 10 GB | 15 GB |
| Money back | 30 days (better) | 0 days |
What does each include?
| SiteGround | Liquid Web | |
|---|---|---|
| Free domain | First year only; regular renewal fee after that | No |
| Free SSL | Yes | Free SSL certificates on the WordPress plans |
| Daily backups | Kept for 30 days; on-demand backups on GrowBig and GoGeek | Not stated |
| CDN | SiteGround CDN on Google Cloud, 170+ edge locations | Not stated |
| Email hosting | Unlimited accounts with webmail and spam protection | Not stated |
| Staging | GrowBig and GoGeek; GoGeek adds Git | Staging sites with visual comparison on Pro and Elite; not on Essentials |
| Free migration | Automatic WordPress migrator on every plan; expert transfer by staff | A self-serve migration tool and migration by a person on every WordPress plan |
| Caching | Multilevel caching with the Speed Optimizer plugin | Object Cache Pro on every WordPress plan |
| WP-CLI and SSH | Yes | Not stated |
| Fair-use limits | CPU seconds per hour 1,000 / 2,000 / 4,000; inodes 200k / 400k / 600k; 768 MB RAM per process; databases up to 1 GB | Not stated |
| Uptime guarantee | 99.9% per month; 5% of that month's fee as a service-extension credit | 100% network uptime in the SLA with credits up to the monthly charge, claimed within days of an outage; the managed VPS page states 99.9% server uptime |
| Choice of data center | 11 locations on Google Cloud, chosen at signup | Not stated |
| Phone support | No | 24/7 by phone, chat and ticket |
| Windows hosting | No | On VPS and dedicated servers |
| Backups | Not stated | Daily backups kept 7, 14 or 30 days by tier; Acronis backup storage on managed VPS |
| Free CDN | Not stated | Edge CDN powered by Cloudflare on every WordPress plan; CDN overage is usage-billed |
| Security | Not stated | DDoS protection, WAF, Kadence Security Pro and daily malware scans on every plan; Patchstack virtual patching on Elite |
| Resource limits | Not stated | WordPress plans are sized by visitors (50,000 a month on the entry tiers), shared storage and bandwidth; managed VPS plans state vCPU, RAM, SSD and bandwidth |
| Data center choice | Not stated | Lansing, Phoenix, Ashburn and Amsterdam, selected on the purchase screen where a plan offers it |
| Managed VPS | Not stated | Fully managed from $72 a month for 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 80 GB SSD and 3 TB; cPanel, InterWorx or Plesk; Windows available |
Company facts
| SiteGround | Liquid Web | |
|---|---|---|
| Control panel | Site Tools (SiteGround's own panel) | Liquid Web's own platform for WordPress plans; cPanel, InterWorx or Plesk on VPS |
| Data centers | 11 (better) | 4 |
| Support channels | chat, ticket, knowledge-base | chat, phone, ticket, knowledge-base |
| Founded | 2004 | 1997 |