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They don’t even compare.
SiteGround, ChemiCloud, and NameHero are superior when it comes to shared hosting.
(You can use the same list of criteria to see for yourself.)
Every hosting company offers various “packages” so I’ve selected the “Best Value” package for each of these three hosting companies to compare apples to apples.
Technically, SiteGround also offers a “better” GoGeek plan, but it renews at $44.99/month!!, and even the GoGeek plan doesn’t perform as fast as the other two companies below.
ChemiCloud and NameHero offer less expensive packages as well, but they won’t be as fast-loading or as powerful as the specs listed in the table below. So, if website loading speed isn’t important to you (for example), or if you don’t need to host multiple sites, you could select an even more affordable plan.
This table is meant as a starting point for your own research so you can choose the right company for your needs.
*The table contains affiliate links but this is my honest opinion after researching many popular options and reviewing website speed optimization results for most affordable hosting companies.
Red icons indicate a lower (relative) score for a specific feature. It doesn’t mean it’s “bad” per se.
Hover over the information symbol for more details.
GrowBig
Free migration plugin works well. If you're moving to Siteground and are scared of anything technical, you may need to pay the $30/site migration fee.
Multiple domains can be hosted on the same account. Perfect for authors with multiple pen names who need multiple WordPress sites.
For all hosted websites combined
.com, .org, .net registration included for first year only
Limited On-Demand Backups also available
While SATA drives are faster than HDD drives, SATA drives are still about 10 times slower than NVMe drives, impacting your website speed.
I've reached their CPU limits in the past.
The number of inodes reflects how many files, emails, folders, etc. you can have.
To get the little padlock (HTTPS encryption). Free Let's Encrypt certificates are easy to install with a couple of clicks.
Look professional with free email addresses associated with your domain like Bob@penname.com. Unlimited accounts and 10 GB of storage space
They removed servers from India, New Zealand, Singapore, Philippines, and other parts of the world. Customers in these countries can't purchase hosting from SiteGround anymore.
Includes a free firewall
Cloud hosting distributes server data across redundant servers, which protects against single server failure
LiteSpeed is faster than Apache or Nginx. MariaDB is faster than MySQL
Memcached Object cache, Server-side caching, SG (Speed) Optimizer plugin with limited controls, there's a free CDN, but it doesn't offer noticeable results
For those who want to play around with a duplicate version of their site for testing/redesign purposes and easy deployment to overwrite the live site
They take responsibility for their environmental impact and have worked tirelessly to minimize the carbon footprint of their own and their clients' websites.
Used to be great.
As of Oct 28, 2023, 13664 US TrustPilot ratings with a TrustScore of 4.8. My opinion on this? They USED to be great. When was the last time you went back and modified an old review you posted online? I've never done that myself.
*Affiliate link. GrowBig is significantly faster than the StartUp plan.
WordPress Hosting - TURBO
Looking to switch hosting companies? They will move your website and email accounts for free.
Multiple domains can be hosted on the same account. Perfect for authors with multiple pen names who need multiple WordPress sites.
For all hosted websites combined.
You will be charged for domain renewal after the first year
If your website were to get hacked, or if something goes wrong, you can one-click restore your site to what it used to look like before.
NVME drives performs 300% better than regular hard drives. 40 GB is a TON of space and you have the options to pay extra to gain 20 GB more.
The more RAM/CPU cores, the more processes can run simultaneously, and the faster your site can respond to visitors. This could be extended to 6 Cores/6 GB RAM for extra cost, if needed.
The number of inodes reflects how many files, emails, folders, etc. you can have. This plan offers an add-on for an extra 200,000 inodes.
To get the little padlock (HTTPS encryption)
Look professional with free email addresses associated with your domain like Bob@penname.com. Unlimited accounts and unlimited storage space. Forwarders included. Spam filters included, auto-responders included
Servers closer to your visitors make the site faster. Dallas, London, Sidney, Frankfurt, Bucharest, Singapore, Mumbai. CDN included free with has tons of servers around the world.
FREE Firewall, Malware Detection, Malware Removal, Isolated Account, Proactive Defense, Server Monitoring
Cloud hosting distributes server data across redundant servers, which protects against single server failure
LiteSpeed is faster than Apache or Nginx. MariaDB is faster than MySQL
LiteSpeed WordPress Cache, HTTP/3, Free Cloudflare CDN, Redis/APC/OP Cache, QUIC Protocol, GZIP compression, Keep-alive, CSS/JS/HTML Minification
For those who want to play around with a duplicate version of their site for testing/redesign purposes and easy deployment to overwrite the live site
They pride themselves on being environmentally responsible.
Live chat typically answers within 10 seconds, median solving time for tickets is 35 minutes.
As of Oct 28, 2023, 581 US TrustPilot ratings with a TrustScore of 5.0
*Affiliate link. Consider the TURBO PLAN for 3-years to maximize your initial deal, get a fast site, and 30-days worth of backups.
TURBO WordPress
Looking to switch hosting companies and only have one website? They will migrate it for you
Multiple domains can be hosted on the same account. Perfect for authors with multiple pen names who need multiple WordPress sites.
For all hosted websites combined
Only available for one domain on 2+ year plans and only for .com, .net, .org, .mobi, .us, .biz, or .co.uk.
Only one daily and one weekly backup is available, but 30-days worth of backups can be purchased, starting at $1.99/month (price depends on how many GB you need)
NVME drives performs 300% better than regular hard drives. If your websites require a lot of storage AND you are in the US, this is one feature that makes this plan better than ChemiCloud's.
The more RAM/CPU cores, the more processes can run simultaneously, and the faster your site can respond to visitors.
The number of inodes reflects how many files, emails, folders, etc. you can have.
To get the little padlock (HTTPS encryption). Automatically installed for all domains.
Look professional with free email addresses associated with your domain like Bob@penname.com. Unlimited accounts and unlimited storage space
Servers closer to your visitors make the site faster. CDN included free with has tons of servers around the world.
Protect your site from attacks with web application firewall and automated real-time virus scanning. Always-on DDOS Protection
Cloud hosting distributes server data across redundant servers, which protects against single server failure
LiteSpeed is faster than Apache or Nginx. MariaDB is faster than MySQL
LiteSpeed WordPress Cache with Turbo, QUIC.cloud CDN, Redis/APC/OP Cache, QUIC Protocol, GZIP compression, Keep-alive, CSS/JS/HTML Minification
For those who want to play around with a duplicate version of their site for testing/redesign purposes and easy deployment to overwrite the live site
They are taking enormous green initiative to be extremely efficient to help protect our environment.
Phone support (9 am - 5 pm CST), Chat, or Tickets
As of Oct 28, 2023, 1031 US TrustPilot ratings with a TrustScore of 4.6
*Affiliate link to 3-year WordPress Turbo hosting so you can maximize your initial deal. NOTE: they offer a “Email starter” during checkout, but you don’t need it. You get free email addresses included with the Turbo plan.
If your budget is limited and/or if you need speed AND a LOT of space (more than 40GB), then NameHero (Turbo WordPress) would be my recommendation. For limited budgets, they offer $4.99/month on a one-year plan (Black Friday 2024). No need to pay for anything extra during checkout (except backups if that’s important to you, but you can use a free plugin like Updraft to export backups to your Dropbox at no extra cost.) NameHero checkout process includes paid extras for “Starter Email” or “paid SSL” but you do NOT need these. You will get free SSL certificates and free email accounts included with Turbo cloud.
If you need speed AND want 30-days worth of backups, and can afford to prepay for 3 years, then go with ChemiCloud. (40GB should be plenty for most authors.) They have a one-year plan but it’s more expensive than the other two.
If you can’t afford more than $60 right now and need to get hosting for one-year only, Siteground GrowBig would be an option. You get more backups with SiteGround compared to NameHero (which offers a $60/year during Black Friday season), but the SiteGround server isn’t as powerful/fast and will renew to be much more expensive.
