SiteGround vs. WordPress.com

Last verified 34 days ago · 27 sources · Updated automatically

SiteGround and WordPress.com compared across Company facts, Pricing, Performance & infrastructure, WordPress management, Support & security and Platform & integrations — every fact sourced and re-verified from each vendor's public material.

SiteGround

Popular managed WordPress and shared hosting with in-house performance and security tooling, on Google Cloud.

HQ Sofia, Bulgaria

Visit SiteGround Full profile

WordPress.com

Automattic's hosted WordPress service, from a free tier up to managed, plugin-enabled business plans.

HQ San Francisco, CA

Visit WordPress.com Full profile

Attribute

SiteGround

WordPress.com

Company facts

Headquarters

Sofia, Bulgaria Headquartered in Sofia, Bulgaria

San Francisco, CA Automattic (WordPress.com's parent); a fully distributed company.

Employees

600 Roughly 600+ employees

1.5k Automattic (parent company) headcount, ~1,450 across 80+ countries.

Pricing

Starting Monthly Price (USD)

$17.99 StartUp plan regular renewal rate; intro promo $2.99/mo on first term

$9 Personal plan, the cheapest paid tier; bandwidth is unmetered on all plans.

Entry Plan WordPress Sites

1 sites StartUp hosts 1 website

1 sites Personal plan hosts a single WordPress site.

Entry Plan Storage (GB)

10 GB 10 GB Premium Google storage on StartUp

6 GB Personal plan includes 6 GB of storage.

Free Trial Length (Days)

0 days No free trial; 30-day money-back guarantee instead

0 days No free trial; WordPress.com offers a money-back guarantee instead.

Money-Back Guarantee (Days)

30 days 30-day money-back guarantee on shared/WordPress hosting

14 days 14-day refund window on annual plans (7 days on monthly).

Performance & infrastructure

Underlying Cloud

Google Cloud Runs on Google Cloud

own datacenters Automattic-operated infrastructure, 28+ data centers across 6 continents.

Datacenter Locations

11 11 hosting datacenter regions across 4 continents (CDN edge network is separate and larger)

4 4 site-placement regions: US West, US Central, US East, EU West.

Free CDN

Built-in CDN included free on all plans

Global edge cache / CDN included on all plans at no extra cost.

Web Server

NGINX NGINX front-ends Apache (NGINX Direct Delivery enabled by default)

NGINX NGINX-based stack.

Built-in Object Cache

Persistent object cache (Memcached) available on all plans incl. entry, via Site Tools / Speed Optimizer

Persistent object cache (Memcached) enabled by default on all plans.

Latest PHP Version

8.4 PHP 8.4 generally available

8.4 PHP 8.4 selectable (8.2, 8.3, 8.4 supported).

Free SSL Certificate

Free SSL included on all plans, auto-renewed

Free SSL certificate auto-provisioned on all plans.

WordPress management

Automatic WordPress Updates

Managed automatic WordPress core/plugin updates

WordPress core and security updates are managed by the platform automatically.

Staging Environments

Staging not on entry StartUp plan; unlocks on GrowBig and above (GoGeek adds Git)

Staging sites require the Business plan; not available on the entry (Personal) plan.

Automatic Daily Backups

Free automatic daily backups on all plans, one-click restore

Automated real-time backups/restore (VaultPress) require the Business plan; not on the entry (Personal) plan.

Backup Retention (Days)

30 days 30 days of backup history retained

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Free Site Migration

Free site migrations (Migrator plugin self-serve; free expert migrations on higher tiers)

Free 'Do it for me' expert migration plus free content import; full plugin/theme site migration needs the Business plan.

SSH & WP-CLI Access

SSH and WP-CLI on all plans including entry StartUp

SSH and WP-CLI require the Business plan; not on the entry (Personal) plan.

WordPress Multisite Support

WordPress Multisite officially supported (subdomain and subdirectory), documented setup

WordPress Multisite networks are not supported; each site needs its own plan.

Support & security

Uptime SLA (%)

99.9% Marketed 99.9% (no contractual SLA)

99.999% 99.999% uptime SLA.

24/7 Support

24/7 expert support on all plans (live chat, tickets, phone); GoGeek adds priority support

24/7 priority support requires the Business plan; Personal gets email + weekday/extended live chat, not full 24/7.

Malware Removal / Hack Fix

Malware cleanup is a paid service, not a free hack-fix guarantee

Daily malware scanning with automatic fixes, built into every site.

WAF / DDoS Protection

Custom in-house WAF + DDoS protection on every server, included free on all plans

Web Application Firewall and DDoS protection built into every site at no extra cost.

Platform & integrations

Control Panel

custom Custom Site Tools control panel (SiteGround's own, not cPanel)

custom Custom WordPress.com dashboard (Calypso); no cPanel.

White-Label / Agency Features

White-label access (GoGeek), collaborator/client roles, custom client packages, reseller program

Automattic for Agencies: unified multi-site dashboard, consolidated billing, client referrals, bulk discounts.

Email Hosting Included

Free unlimited email accounts at your domain on all plans

No mailbox hosting on the entry plan; Professional Email / Google Workspace is a paid add-on (free for 1 year only on Business/Commerce).

The verdict

SiteGround

Best for developer access and self-managed sites on the entry plan

SiteGround unlocks the most on its cheapest tier: SSH and WP-CLI, daily backups with 30-day retention, Multisite, and 24/7 support all ship on the entry plan, where WordPress.com gates each behind its Business plan. It also bundles email hosting and serves from 11 datacenter regions versus 4. The tradeoff is a $17.99 starting price against WordPress.com's $9.

Full profile

WordPress.com

Best for low-cost, hands-off hosting with the strongest uptime guarantee

WordPress.com starts at $9 versus SiteGround's $17.99 and backs a 99.999% uptime SLA against SiteGround's marketed 99.9% with no contractual SLA. Built-in daily malware scanning with automatic fixes is included on every site, where SiteGround treats malware cleanup as a paid service. The cost: no SSH, Multisite, daily backups, email, or 24/7 support until the Business plan.

Full profile

Sources · 27 verified references

careers.siteground.com automattic.com siteground.com wordpress.com developer.wordpress.com

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