Site5 Review

Founded in 1999, by Rod Armstrong and Matt Lightner, Site5 is a California-based hosting company named so because they wanted to be a little different and didn’t want to use the word “hosting” in the title, they have servers in about 9 countries and pride themselves in stating that they are a serious choice for developers and web designers. 

Now co-owned by Joel Brown and Ben Welch-Bolen, Site5 is billed as a 100% green company and does not have a physical office; but has its employees spread out evenly and has them working from their homes. This is one of the reasons they have kept their rates low because they can keep their overheads low. And the fact that Site5 has been around for nearly 20 years is a good reason to believe that they have kept up with the technological evolution the industry has seen.

Site5’s servers are spread across the United States and Canada, the United Kingdom, Romania, France, Netherlands, China, Singapore and São Paulo, and is a part of hosting giant Endurance International Group (EIG) which also owns other big brands (over 83) such as Hostgator, iPage, Justhost and Bluehost, to give you an idea. The company offers several services that include Site5 web hosting, Site5 reseller hosting and fully managed VPS.

Just like what you would expect from a Site5 hosting review, we will look at some key features of the host such as customer support, pricing plans, uptime, security features and other factors.

Customer Support 

Supported by EIG’s scale and resources Site5, is not known to outsource their customer support. This essentially means it is in-house and consists of professionals that are highly skilled, well trained and proficient in troubleshooting. A lot of Site5 reviews have praised the company’s excellent after sales service, customer support and their dedicated nature.

Live Chat/Email/Telephone

Site5’s customer support is apparent when they display a “Chat with Us” button prominently displayed on their homepage. To access this section, you will have to log in using your details (name, billing username and password and the hosting package that you are using). Within minutes, you will be greeted by a helpful technician who will then proceed to address your query and solve it as quickly as possible. 

But since Site5 prides itself on being a top choice for web designers and developers, do not expect the handholding if you are a beginner in the field. This could be a drawback for you if you do not have much knowledge about it. But if this is the case, Site5 has other sections that you will find handy.

The phone support () is pretty good and you will be connected to an executive who will answer your queries promptly and accurately. Customer reviews about this have been varied, but they have been mostly positive. 

Knowledgebase

Site5’s customer support page features a lot of attractive sections such as the knowledgebase which at first glance looks quite exhaustive and well-designed and PHPMyAdmin, SSL, Python, shell access and many more. They also have a Q&A section, which is made up of categories such as domains, IP addresses, custom nameservers, scripts, control panels, cron jobs and so on.

Uptime

On this page, Site5 claims that they have drafted their own unique 99.9% uptime guarantee. They say that if your server is not available for the guaranteed amount of the time within a certain month, the company will provide a prorated credit for the time. They say that you should not be paying for any lapses in the service. 

Unlike other hosts that offer such guarantees but have no intention of mentioning what happens if the uptime figure is met, Site5 provides a prorated credit. They make it clear that this guarantee applies only to unscheduled outages. In case it’s a planned server maintenance, they will send out emails to customers informing them about it. Overall, Site5 has an excellent reputation when it comes to uptime. 

Key Features

Unmetered Disk Space/Bandwidth

Site5 is one of the few companies that offers unmetered disk space for all your hosting needs. This essentially means that you are not billed according to the disk space or bandwidth you use. You can use the bandwidth and disk usage as you like, and you will be notified by the company only if this usage causes them any concern.

Free Migration

Site5 will help you with moving your databases, emails and website files, and more if you have your website hosted with another web hosting company. The company understands that moving a website from a host you have been using for years can be a painful process and their migration experts can take care of this for you for free. They will take care of all the processes such as scheduling the moving time, backing up your website/content and other such processes.

45-Day Money Back Guarantee

Site5 guarantees you a 45-day money back guarantee, which means you have plenty of time to test them out. This means that the company will refund your money if you are not 100% satisfied with the service. You can read more about this guarantee here. 

Nightly Backups

Site5 understand how important backups are and hence provides nightly backups for your peace of mind and the knowledge that your data is safe. They provide a backup functionality with each hosting account and also lets you download your backup with a few simple steps and have access to your archived files.

One-Click Installs 

You can have your website up and running in no time with Site5’s one-click installs of the most popular software such as eggBlog, Drupal, Serendipity, WebCalendar, Geeklog, SilverStripe, MyWebSQL, osCommerce, Moodle and many more. 

DNS Support

With Site5, you have total control of your domain name using the DNS Zone File Editor. This comes in handy for stuff such as pointing a subdomain to a static IP address or redirecting mail to third-party servers.

Pricing Plans

For a company of its repute, Site5 is expected to offer a ton of plans and it does. Let us take a look at their pricing plans of web and reseller hosting and fully-managed VPS. 

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