Data centers in the U.S., Canada, and the Netherlands, GreenGeeks has an impressive 300,000 websites under management (launched in 2008 by Trey Gardner). Among Trey's experience is his work with eight separate web hosting companies, including iPowerweb, iPage, StartLogic, Dot5Hosting, Globat, Lunarpages, HostPapa, and GreenGeeks. This is why we decided to provide you with a GreenGeeks review.
GreenGeeks asserts two things on their website:
Which way do you lean? Are they able to provide excellent uptime and support using wind power? Do they really mean what they say, or are they just blowing smoke?
Learn whether GreenGeeks earned our recommendation.
There are a lot of positive things to say about GreenGeeks. Among these are good uptime, excellent support, and mission-driven services. What we know so far:
Choosing a web host according to uptime is very important. Solid uptime is not only a sign of a reliable web host, but it has a direct bearing on your visitors' experience and bounce rate (which can result in reduced profits).
In this regard, GreenGeeks was outstanding. Throughout the 12-month testing period, the uptime average was 99.95%.
When selecting a host, it's important to pay attention to their server speed. If the site doesn't load in one to three seconds, there's a 32% chance that the bounce rate will increase. A slower-loading page will result in fewer visitors. A website's speed is just one of the things that can impact it.
As usual, GreenGeeks delivered. A 487-ms response time is faster than the industry average.
In general, GreenGeeks has consistently had fast loading times throughout the year, which is one of the reasons we recommend them.
A significant part of the review focuses on customer support. GreenGeeks has a live chat feature, and when we tested it we were connected within a minute, and customer support answered our questions promptly and efficiently.
A large knowledge base is also available at GreenGeeks where users can find answers to their questions. Having that option is wonderful if you prefer to do things yourself rather than ask for customer service help.
In total, you can select from a wide range of article categories and subcategories at GreenGeeks, including sales, general hosting, reseller hosting, VPS hosting, billing, and video tutorials.
If you cannot find your solution in any of these categories, you can use the search bar. In this way, you will always be able to get in touch with GreenGeeks for assistance, regardless of whether the live chat feature is available.
Furthermore, GreenGeeks provides phone support in addition to live chat and knowledge bases.
Registration and transfer of domain names are free at GreenGeeks. When you get a domain name, they will keep it for you for the duration of your use of their services - sort of. Please refer to the Cons section for more information.
The domain name is free, however, the first year is the only time the name is offered for free. Your renewal fee will be starting at $13.95 per year for the .com, .net, and .org domains.
You can also receive free assistance with the transfer of your website if it has already been hosted elsewhere.
According to its website, GreenGeeks is green. That sounds kind of weird, doesn't it?
The company explains:
As a compensatory measure, GreenGeeks will purchase three times the amount of wind energy credits as your website uses.
In a given year, they replace more than 615,000 kWh of electricity. American households consume an average of 12,000 kWh of electricity each year, making that a very significant number.
In addition, GreenGeeks has been recognized by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a Green Power Partner.
Almost all GreenGeeks hosting plans come with a 30-day, 'no questions asked' money-back guarantee. Exceptions to the rule exist, however. Check out the cons section for more information.
The world can be harsh at times. In other words, your site can crash sometimes.
Perhaps you did it on purpose, or maybe someone maliciously tried to hack you in. In any case, GreenGeeks offers free backups every night (in addition to SSH access). This allows you to rest easy knowing that your data is regularly backed up, even if something unfortunate happens.
Besides such security features as real-time scanning and automatic brute force detection, they also offer Spam Assassin protection, SSL secure server, and the option to password-protect each directory.
The following locations house GreenGeeks' data centers:
You can dramatically improve your website's SEO ranking by choosing the right server location. A closer server will also mean quicker speeds for you.
GreenGeeks also promises to keep their servers in good working order with these specifications:
Therefore, you can be certain that GreenGeeks will store your data on high-quality, state-of-the-art servers.
Whether you are surfing the web, doing social media, or shopping online, you interact with a Content Delivery Network (CDN) daily. Cloudflare is used by GreenGeeks for its CDN. If you've got a worldwide audience, that's excellent news for the SEO of your site.
What's your favorite part? There is no cost to use this.
To provide content to website visitors, Cloudflare uses servers closest to customers. Therefore, users of your website will have a much faster browsing experience.
Despite appearances, not everything is gold. Before taking the plunge with GreenGeeks, you should know a few things. Continue reading our GreenGeeks review about its downsides.
A more common practice followed by GreenGeeks is that they advertise a very low monthly rate of $2.49 only to have you discover later that you have to pay three years in advance.
Additionally, the shorter the term of the subscription, the more expensive the subscription is:
When creating a new account with a web host, many of them include a free domain name. Also, GreenGeeks provides a free domain name with their service.
But remember:
If you ask for the aforementioned money-back guarantee and in the end decide to go ahead with the ‘free’ domain name, you will have your refund reduced by the amount you paid for registering the domain name.
In short, a free domain will not be truly free and the money-back guarantee will not truly be unconditional. Most other hosts employ a similar tactic.
Here are some of their plans:
WordPress Hosting: They offer the same shared hosting plan as their WordPress hosting, but they have added some WordPress-specific features. Our team hasn't tested the software yet, but we'll do so soon.
Providing web hosting isn't GreenGeeks' sole mission, and we appreciate that. The company does not necessarily rank among the best, but they provide good uptime, speed, and customer service. They are worth checking out based on those reasons.
The best rate could only be obtained by signing up for the long-term. You might find that the 'free domain' and the 'money-back guarantee' aren't so rock-solid if you decide to ask for a refund.
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