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As of October 2026, SiteGround’s entry plan, StartUp, costs $2.99 a month prepaid for 12 months and then renews at $17.99 a month, for 1 website and 10 GB of storage. The main SiteGround alternatives by need are Hostinger for lower-cost shared hosting ($2.99 a month on a 48-month prepay, renewing at $10.99), Cloudways for several sites on one managed cloud server ($24 a month for the 2GB size it advises for live sites), and Kinsta, WP Engine or Liquid Web for managed WordPress ($19 to $35 a month for one site).
This guide is built from each host’s published plans, help docs and terms, checked in October 2026. Web Host Training has not tested these hosts, so there are no speed or uptime results here.
Our Web Hosting Price Index lists 22 plans from 20 hosts, SiteGround StartUp included, with intro and renewal prices side by side.
In this guide
SiteGround alternatives at a glance
SiteGround’s entry plan next to sites like SiteGround, as each host lists them:
| Host and plan | Intro price (USD) and term | Renewal | Sites | Storage | Staging | Money-back | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SiteGround StartUp | $2.99/mo, prepaid for 12 months | $17.99/mo | 1 | 10 GB | No; GrowBig and GoGeek | Free, unlimited accounts | 30 days; renewals too |
| Hostinger Premium | $2.99/mo, 48-month prepay ($143.52) | $10.99/mo | 3 | 20 GB SSD | No; upgrade prompt | 2 per site, free for 1 year | 30 days; renewals too |
| Cloudways, DigitalOcean 2GB | $24/mo, billed hourly (1GB from $11, for testing) | Same price | Unlimited | 50GB SSD | Free | Add-on, $1.50 per mailbox | None published; 3-day trial |
| Kinsta Single 35k | $35/mo, or $350 a year | No intro rate listed | 1 | 10GB | Free | No | 30 days, first-time customers |
| WP Engine Essential | $35/mo, or $336 for the first year | Not published | 1 | 10 GB | Yes | No | None published |
| Liquid Web Pro | $19/mo, or $17.10/mo billed annually | No intro rate shown | 1 | 15 GB (shared) | Yes | Not listed | Terms: non-refundable |
| 10Web AI Starter | $20/mo, or $120 for 12 months | Regular price $240 a year | 1 | 10GB | Yes | Not listed | Pricing page and terms conflict |
What SiteGround’s StartUp plan includes
On SiteGround’s web hosting page, StartUp is $2.99 a month, “Prepaid for 12 months” ($35.88 up front), and renews at $17.99 a month, 6 times the intro price. GrowBig is $4.99 a month for 12 months, renewing at $29.99.
StartUp hosts 1 website with 10 GB of storage. The card says “unlimited traffic,” while SiteGround’s FAQ says StartUp “supports around 10,000 visits” a month. Every plan includes a domain free for the first year, free SSL, a built-in CDN, daily backups with up to 30 days of history, free email with unlimited accounts, SSH and WP-CLI, and managed automatic updates.
What StartUp leaves out:
- Staging. The staging tutorial limits it to GrowBig and GoGeek.
- On-demand backups. The backup guide gives 5 free manual backup slots on GrowBig and higher.
- Backup downloads. These need the paid Premium Backup service. Otherwise, the full backup guide has you archive files in File Manager and export the database in phpMyAdmin.
- More sites and priority support. GrowBig and GoGeek list unlimited websites; priority support is a GoGeek feature.
SiteGround’s Terms of Service refund new shared hosting in full within 30 days of activation. A renewal is refunded in full within 30 days of payment if the new term hasn’t started, or minus the first month if it has. Domain fees aren’t refundable, and a free domain’s standard fee may be deducted. Plans renew automatically at “the then current renewal fees,” charged 15 days before expiry on 12-month or longer shared plans.
Lower-cost shared hosting: Hostinger
Hostinger is the closest match to StartUp: managed shared hosting on LiteSpeed servers, run from its own hPanel with SSH and WP-CLI. Its web hosting page lists Premium at $2.99 a month only on a 48-month prepay ($143.52), renewing at $10.99, $7 a month below StartUp’s renewal.
Premium hosts 3 websites with 20 GB of SSD storage, a domain free for a year, 2 mailboxes per website free for the first year, and unlimited free migrations. Its backups are weekly, though, where StartUp’s are daily. Hostinger’s plan table marks CDN and priority support “No” for Premium; both start on Unlimited, at $3.99 a month for 48 months, renewing at $16.99. For staging, the docs say “entry-level plans see an upgrade prompt.” The refund policy covers new purchases and renewals for 30 days, but may deduct the free domain’s standard price.
Fits: 1 to 3 small sites, if a four-year prepay suits you: the whole 48 months cost $143.52, against $251.76 for StartUp’s first two years at listed prices. See our Hostinger review, or see Hostinger’s current plans.
Several sites on one server: Cloudways
Cloudways manages a server for you on DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS or Google Cloud and charges per server, with unlimited websites. On DigitalOcean Standard, its pricing page starts at $11 a month ($0.0164 an hour) for 1GB of RAM and 25GB of SSD storage, with no prepay and no intro rate.
That $11 server is a test size. Cloudways’ getting started FAQ says 1GB servers are “primarily intended for testing and staging purposes” and advises 2GB or more for live sites: $24 a month ($0.0357 an hour) with 50GB of storage. It says a 2GB server can handle 4 to 5 small sites with up to 110,000 combined page views a month, for about $6 a month more than StartUp’s renewal.
Staging is free, backups run daily with one week of retention by default, and offsite backup storage costs $0.033 per GB. Cloudways doesn’t host email on its own servers; Rackspace mailboxes cost $1.50 each a month. One managed migration is free. There’s a 3-day free trial with no credit card, but the pricing page publishes no money-back guarantee.
Fits: several sites, if you are comfortable choosing a server size. See our Cloudways pricing, review and alternatives guides, or try Cloudways free.
SiteGround alternatives for WordPress: Kinsta, WP Engine, Liquid Web
These hosts sell WordPress-only plans priced by site and monthly visits. None lists mailboxes on its entry plan, so email at SiteGround needs a new home.
Kinsta
Kinsta’s pricing page lists Single 35k at $35 a month or $350 a year, for 1 site, 35,000 monthly visits and 10GB of storage. Backups run every 24 hours with 14 days of retention, staging is free, and its team handles unlimited free migrations. Each extra site costs $30 a month. New customers get a first month free on select plans, then a 30-day money-back guarantee for first-time customers. Kinsta doesn’t provide email. See our Kinsta pricing and review pages, or see Kinsta’s plans.
WP Engine
WP Engine’s plans page prices Essential for 1 site at $35 a month, or $336 for the first year for new customers, and says renewal pricing is “subject to change.” It includes 25,000 monthly visits, 10 GB of storage, 1-click staging, backups kept 30 to 60 days and a free automated migration plugin; an extra site costs $20 a month. Its scope of support says it doesn’t provide email servers, and its terms say fees aren’t refundable except as stated there. See our WP Engine pricing and review pages, or see WP Engine’s plans.
Liquid Web
Liquid Web’s managed WordPress page lists its entry Pro plan at $19 a month, or $17.10 a month billed annually, for 1 site, 50,000 monthly visitors and 15 GB of shared storage. It includes 14-day daily backups, staging, automatic WordPress updates, a self-serve migration tool and a Cloudflare-powered edge CDN. At $19 it costs about $1 a month more than StartUp’s $17.99 renewal, and Liquid Web’s terms say all fees are non-refundable. See our Liquid Web pricing and review pages, or see Liquid Web’s plans.
If you want a site built for you: 10Web
10Web pairs an AI website builder with managed WordPress hosting. Its pricing page lists AI Starter at $20 a month, or $120 for 12 months against a regular $240, for 1 website, 10,000 monthly visitors, 10GB of storage and 100 AI credits a month, with daily backups and staging. Check refunds first: the pricing page offers a 30-day money-back guarantee “until you claim your free domain,” while 10Web’s terms of service say “At 10Web we do not offer refunds for Platform subscriptions” and point to a 7-day free trial instead. See our 10Web pricing guide, or see 10Web’s plans.
How to switch from SiteGround
- Keep your own copy. SiteGround’s backup guide warns that deleting a site ends access to its backups, so download files and the database first, as described above.
- Migrate with the new host’s tools, listed in each section above, and test the copy before touching DNS.
- Move email before you cancel. SiteGround says that when a website is deleted, its content “will be lost, including the emails.” Its IMAP transfer guide describes the method: create the same accounts at the new provider, copy folders across in a mail app, then update MX records, allowing up to 72 hours.
- Repoint DNS. For a domain registered at SiteGround, nameservers change under Client Area, Services, Domains, Settings. SiteGround’s nameserver guide warns that all records, A and MX included, then resolve from the new provider’s zone, so add them there first; propagation takes several hours.
- Cancel at the right time. SiteGround’s cancellation guide offers cancellation at expiration or immediately; immediate cancellation removes the sites and their data at once. A copy of a shared account is kept for up to 60 days, and domains stay yours until they expire. Turn off auto-renewal before the 15-day pre-expiry charge.
How to decide
- 1 to 3 sites on shared hosting, lower renewal: Hostinger Premium, renewing at $10.99 after a 48-month prepay, with weekly backups and no CDN.
- Several sites, no long term: a 2GB Cloudways server at $24 a month, with email elsewhere.
- One WordPress site, managed: Liquid Web at $19 if non-refundable fees are acceptable, or Kinsta at $35 for a money-back window.
- A site built for you: 10Web, after checking its refund terms.
- Staying with SiteGround: staging and on-demand backups need GrowBig, $4.99 a month for 12 months, then $29.99.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good alternative to SiteGround?
On published prices, Hostinger Premium is the closest shared plan: $2.99 a month on a 48-month prepay, renewing at $10.99, with 3 sites against StartUp’s 1. Cloudways suits several sites from $24 a month on its 2GB server. Kinsta, WP Engine and Liquid Web sell managed WordPress from $19 to $35 a month for one site.
Is SiteGround more expensive after the first year?
Yes. StartUp costs $2.99 a month prepaid for 12 months ($35.88) and renews at $17.99 a month, 6 times the intro price, or $215.88 a year at that rate. SiteGround’s terms say renewals are charged at the then-current renewal fees, which may differ from the first term, and plans renew automatically for the same period.
Which hosts are cheaper than SiteGround?
After year one, Hostinger Premium ($10.99 renewal) lists a lower monthly price than StartUp’s $17.99; Liquid Web’s entry managed WordPress plan, at $19, costs about $1 more. Cloudways’ 1GB server costs $11, but Cloudways calls that size a testing server. In year one, StartUp’s $2.99 matches Hostinger’s intro rate on a 12-month term instead of 48 months.
Last checked: October 2026. Prices and plans change; check the vendor’s page before you buy.