Site5 Hosting

Site5 Web Hosting Review 2017

In this review, we’ll take a look at Site5 shared hosting. Though Site5 targets primarily web designers and web developers, anyone can use their hosting services.

Originally founded in 1999, Site5 Web Hosting is another company that Endurance International Group recently gobbled up. In case you’re not familiar, Endurance International Group is the conglomerate behind other massive web hosts like HostGator and Bluehost.

Site5 markets their hosting services towards web designers and developers, which means they offer some advanced features like SSH access. But in actuality, anyone can use Site5 Web Hosting – it’s not limited to designers and developers.

Keep reading to learn more about Site5’s features and get a glimpse at our real-world testing data.

Overview of Site5 Web Hosting Features

Here are the features you can expect when you go with one of Site5’s hosting plans.

• Unmetered storage
• Unmetered bandwidth
• Unlimited websites on higher plans, one website on basic plan.
• Automatic backups
• Free migrations
• 99.9% uptime guarantee
• One-click WordPress installs

Site5 Web Hosting Performance – Real Testing Data

We never like relying on marketing claims, so we decided to put Site5’s plans to the test using our own site. We hosted our site on Site5’s Austin, TX server and ran it through the paces.

First, we looked at Time to First Byte, a general measure of how fast a server responds. Site5 clocked in at 0.69 seconds. This result ranked right about in the middle of all of the shared hosts we tested. Not as fast as HostGator or A2 Hosting, but not the slowest host we tested, either.

Next, we looked at the average page load time for our test site. This is how long it took our site to completely load on Site5. At 2.28 seconds on average, Site5 again ranked in the middle of the pack. HostGator and A2 Hosting again carried the day, but Site5 still beat out many of the slower shared hosts that we tested.

Finally, we looked at the average uptime for our test site. We were looking to answer two questions. First – does Site5 meet their 99.9% uptime guarantee? And second, how do they stack up against other shared hosts?

Unfortunately, Site5 was not very impressive in our tests. Our test site’s uptime was 99.855%, which both fell short of their 99.9% guarantee and ranked near the bottom of the hosts we tested.

While a .045% difference might not seem like a lot at first glance, consider that it adds up to an extra ~30 minutes of downtime per month. If those 30 minutes happen at a crucial time, you’ll be wishing you had better uptime!

Overall, nothing in our testing data was especially impressive. While not horrible, Site5 didn’t rank near the top for any of our speed tests. Additionally, while again “not horrible”, their uptime was still disappointing.

Site5 Web Hosting Data Centers

Your data center is the actual physical location where your website is hosted. It’s important to consider because you want your data center to be as close as possible to the location of your target readers. A closer data center will generally lead to increased performance (though there are many other factors also affecting performance!).

Site5 definitely excels in this area – they offer an impressive number of data centers for a shared host.

They offer multiple data centers at: North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. They even offer an Australian data center!

Site5’s variety of data center locations is definitely a stand out point. When compared to other shared hosts, no one else really comes close to the number of locations offered by Site 5.

How “Unlimited” is Unmetered Storage and Bandwidth?

Site5 is fairly transparent with how they handle their unmetered storage and bandwidth. They even have a full page explaining the process! Essentially, like with other hosts, your site is still limited by CPU processes, even if storage and bandwidth are unmetered.

Site5’s cheapest plan is suitable for an estimated 10,000 monthly visits, while their most expensive plan can handle approximately 100,000 monthly visits. Again, those numbers are estimates. The exact number will depend on how process-intensive your site is.

We like that Site5 is transparent about these estimated limits. That’s not always the case with shared hosts.

Site5 Web Hosting Support

Site5 offers support via phone, email, and chat, which is a solid variety of contact options.

They also have a decent-sized knowledge base with around 563 different articles if you like taking advantage of self-service.

Site5 Web Hosting Shared Hosting Plans and Prices

Site5 offers three different pricing tiers for their shared hosting.

The cheapest tier is their hostBasic plan. This plan supports one website with unmetered bandwidth and storage. For the cheapest plan, you can only pay annually (no monthly billing). Prices start at $5.95 per month when billed annually.

The middle tier is their hostPro plan, which offers everything in the hostBasic plan plus support for unlimited websites. It also supports monthly billing. Prices start at $10.95 when billed monthly or $9.95 per month when billed annually.

Finally, their hostPro + Turbo plan offers everything in the previous two plans plus improved performance and a dedicated IP address. Prices start at $13.95 per month when billed monthly or $12.95 per month when billed annually.

Site5 Reseller and VPS Plans

Site5 also offers both VPS and reseller plans. Their VPS plans start at $23.95 per month for 50GB storage and 500GB bandwidth. Their managed VPS plans start at $65 per month for 1GB RAM and 50GB storage.

Should You Choose Site5 Web Hosting?

Site5 performed adequately in our tests. We know that’s not a ringing endorsement, but there’s not much else to say. They have adequate speeds and below average uptime. While not a horrible choice for a web host, HostGator, A2 Hosting or SiteGround all offer better performance for similar prices.

Site5 does offer a 45-day money back guarantee, though, so you can get started at no risk to yourself.