There are many hosting plans out there, but which one is right for you? Could it be Greengeeks? In this hosting review, we’ll go over the pros and cons, and see what real people are saying.
Table of Contents
Is Greengeeks Good: The Bottom Line Up Front
Pros
A great benefit that comes along with using Greengeeks is the fact that they are environmentally friendly and try to lower their carbon footprint. This is very rare and important to note, especially since the web hosting industry itself is teeming with environmental pollution. They use wind energy.
Greengeeks hosting plans claim that they offer “300% Green Web Hosting that is controlled or powered by Renewable Energy”.
Furthermore, they purchase 3 times the amount of energy that their data centers use in a bid to lower their carbon footprint. Another amazing pro to using Greengeeks web hosting is their promise to customers when it comes to user speed. Greengeeks is a web hosting provider that claims that when you sign up with them, you will be placed on a hosting server with not only the latest technology but also the most energy efficient program setup that is possible.
Fast Technology
Greengeeks web hosting invests in the fastest technology. So, in return, your websites will run at lightning speed. Greengeeks has 5 data centers for you to choose from. This aids in making sure that your target audience receives the content found within your website as soon as possible.
Their web hosting service data centers are located in Toronto (CA), Montreal (CA), Chicago (US), Phoenix (US), and Amsterdam (NL). Using Greengeeks is not only structured for those who have worked with hosting service companies before. It’s also very simple to use for those who are new to hosting companies.
There is even a free WordPress site migration service. Many other hosting service companies charge quite an amount for this. Greengeeks takes customer service and real-time security very seriously and takes a two-pronged approach to ensuring account safety.
For real-time security, Greengeeks web host makes great use of account isolation and Secure vFS. By doing so, they are able to protect you from resource over-users within your own server environment. Lastly, each account is heavily secured with its very own real-time malware scanning. This is a great protection setting because it will prevent anything from affecting your account that may be already affecting another.
Cons & Problems
Although there are many good benefits that come with using Greengeeks web host, there are also some negatives that come with using it, too. For starters, their uptime reputation has produced mixed results. While the uptime has scored rather high for the first month, with a score of 99.9% uptime service delivery, the uptime score dropped to 99.58% in the months of March and April of 2018.
Greengeeks does have an uptime guarantee, but it is set up in a way that the hosting company does not incur any penalties for not meeting this uptime guarantee. This results in the uptime guarantee not really meaning anything. The only thing that customers are offered is a 30-day money back guarantee.
Refunds
Unfortunately, if you want your guaranteed refund, domain and setup fees are not included in that refund. To make matters worse, this fact is not told to customers in the Greengeek terms of service.
Another negative is the fact that the company utilizes misleading price statements in order to get customers. The company offers a seemingly shockingly low price. However, upon further inspection, customers will learn that they can only have access to paying that low monthly price if they agree to 3 years of service.
Real Customer Reviews: What People are Actually Saying
Good Things People Are Saying
Most people love that this hosting website is efficient and fast. A user says that every single time she has ever required customer service assistance, she has enjoyed a super quick, almost instantaneous response time from their live chat agents.
Bad Things People Are Saying
A user mentioned that the IP blocking rules as well the firewall regulations are kind of strict for those people who are using shared or reseller hosting. As a good example was when one of his customers required access into their website. However, there are no serious issues with performance when it comes to hosting. But bear in mind that the firewall did keep refusing access to their IP addresses. When contacted, Greengeeks could not help to cancel out this rule.
Website Set Up and Development
Does Greengeeks Offer WordPress Hosting Specifically?
Greengeeks makes hosting WordPress websites as easy as possible. With an automatic 1-click install, enhanced security, and managed updates, you’ll be up and running in no time.
Do You Get a Free Domain Name When You Sign Up? (Some Hosting Providers Offer This)
Greengeeks offers free domain name registration for as long as you decide to use their services.
Do They Have Nameservers or Offer DNS Services?
Greengeeks offers primary and secondary name servers, both of which have company assistance if users run into any problems.
Migrating a Site To [hosting provider] (and Transferable Installs): How Easy Is It?
Greengeeks offers customers an opportunity to let them transfer websites for them. And you are able to request this service in the GreenGeeks Account Manager.
Greengeeks Control Panel (Cpanel): Do They Offer One To Manage Your Hosting?
Greengeeks offers cPanel hosting with numerous features that they say customers should be familiar with. Even better, their cPanel hosting even comes with additional tools such as CDN, SEO tools, 1-click auto installers, and spam protection.
FTP & SFTP: How Easy Is It to Connect?
Greengeeks offers step-by-step guides on how to connect FTP & SFTP. With only a few steps, customers are able to easily connect.
Do They Offer Staging Environments and Temporary Urls?
Greengeeks offers customers temporary URLs to allow them to see their sites before they are switched to DNS. Furthermore, customers are able to build staging areas within their sites.
Templates & Blueprints: Do They Offer Site Setup Templates?
Greengeeks does offer you site setup templates. They also have about one hundred different templates that you can customize as needed. Furthermore, they have different colors, styles, and fonts to give you the perfect template of your dreams.
PHP Versions: Do They Support Legacy and The Latest Versions?
They do support the latest PHP versions. Also, there is a forum that helps you to better understand how to update and make changes to your version of PHP so that you’re getting the latest version.
Do They Support Git or Command Line Tool Integrations?
Greengeek does support Git. They also use isolation tools to protect the data that you submit through Git.
SSH Connection: Do They Support It?
Greengeek has supportive, powerful SSH hosting and the access is completely free. Its activation process is extremely simple.
Greengeeks Speed & Load Time
Not only is Greengeeks’ server speedy, its setup is fairly energy efficient. When the server is setup, SSD hard drives are used to store files and databases much faster than you would be able to with HDD (Hard Disk Drives). What’s more, Greengeeks also presents you with LiteSpeed and MariaDB, granting you fast data access which will allow you to serve your pages up to fifty times faster than normal.
Their load time has been tested to be fifty percent faster their biggest competitor. The ratio is 530ms:890ms.
Services and Goodies Offered With Hosting
Uptime, Outages & Down Time
While Greengeeks has a decent uptime of 99.7% on average, their down time comes up to seven entire hours. Their down time has been measured over the course of twenty-one different mishaps that lead to the downtime. They’ve been cut some slack because of their environment-friendly hardware which may not work as effectively as fewer green companies.
Do They Offer a CDN With Hosting?
CDN is offered with Greengeeks at no cost. You can get it for free along with CloudFlare as they’re in a partnership together. This will allow you to enable CloudFlare from inside of your account. With CloudFlare, your sites will move faster, and they’ll be more secure.
Does Greengeeks Offer Shared Hosting Plan and Dedicated Servers?
Greengeeks offers you a nice, affordable option for shared hosting plans. They have shared hosting plans that can give you nice features like Perl and Python support, Free CDN integration, scalable resources, and more. They also come with unlimited bandwidth, emails, and storage.
Though they offer shared hosting, Greengeeks does not offer you Dedicated Servers.
Https: Do They Offer SSL Certificates or Letsencrypt?
SSL Certificates can also come with your plan from Greengeek. SSL Certificates are a key factor in ensuring that the websites you’re using are secure. Any website without the “https” ssl certificate that isn’t secure is marked as such, lets you know that that website might not be the safest or smartest option.
It took them a while to get it, but Greengeeks website builder also offers Let’s Encrypt as well. Their delay was a result of websites crashing due to failure to renew certificates, and they didn’t want to deal with that chaos nor put their clients through the trouble at that time.
How Do Site Backups Work?
There are two simple steps to nightly backups. The first step is backing up your website files. You want to download “mail” and “public HTML” and move this from your hosting account to a file on your local computer. The second, and final step is you need to back up the databases.
After logging in to your Greengeeks account, you can go to “Databases” where you will find the “phpMyAdmin” link. By clicking on that link, you will be taken to your databases. From there, you choose the database that you wish to download, and then you’ll be all set for nightly backups.
Redirects: Do They Support Server Level Redirects?
Server Level Redirects are supported. One way to set it up, if your domains are registered through Greengeeks, is to set up the domains by naming them “Redirects.” This will direct them to the desired location.
Do They Support Multisite & Subdomains?
Greengeeks site builder supports Multi Sites for convenience purposes. This is because they feel like you, and the rest of their clients, would appreciate the ability to create websites and blogs on WordPress all at the same time.
Subdomains are also supported and can be created with Greengeek’s simple subdomain creation tool.
Does Greengeeks Offer Email Hosting?
Not only do they offer email hosting, but their service also comes with advanced capabilities such as unlimited personalized email accounts and secured aliases. This way, you won’t have to worry about spam because Greengeeks gives you e-mail spam protection. If you need assistance with the email hosting, there have 24/7 expert technical support.
Security & Past Hacking Incidents
Greengeeks has multiple different measures they take for the security of their hosting service plans. They consistently update their servers and search for any weak spots that leave them open to hackers. There are incidents where people have been hacked.
Greengeeks Pricing, Plans & Money Back
Pricing, Packages & Plans
If you pick a longer term, your shared hosting service price will be cut up to seventy percent. If you start out with a regular monthly rate, you’ll be started at about $9.95 for Ecosite Starter.
Ecosite Pro is five dollars more and Ecosite Premium is ten dollars more. If you go with a year term, you’ll start at $4.95 for Ecosite Starter, four dollars more for pro, and fourteen dollars more for premium.
At twenty-four months, you’ll start at $3.95, go up four for pro, and go up fourteen for premium. The starting rate for Ecosite started at thirty-six months starts at $2.95 and moves up at the same rate as the twenty-four-month term.
Do They Have a Monthly and Annual Plan Payment Option?
Yes. As stated, you can pay by month for $9.95, by twelve months starting at $4.95. By twenty-four months starting at $3.95. And by thirty-six months you can start at $2.95.
How Does Canceling a Plan Work?
If you wish to cancel your plan and your money refunded, cancel your plan within the first thirty days of opening up the account. Any plan canceled outside of the thirty days will not be refunded.
Before you decide to cancel your plan, make a copy of all files and websites beforehand. Then, submit a cancellation request form with the email address attached to your Greengeeks account. After they receive the cancellation, a ticket will be sent to you. This is confirmation for security purposes. After the confirmation clears, your plan will be canceled.
Promo Codes & Discounts: Do They Have Special Offers?
Like most eco-friendly web hosting service, Greengeeks has a variety of promo codes that you can find on retailmenot.com, hostingadvice.com, coupons.com, and offers.com.
Does Greengeeks Have a Satisfaction or Money-Back Guarantee?
Greengeeks has a one hundred percent money back guarantee as long as your plan is canceled within the first thirty days of its opening.
Customer Service and Support
Greengeeks Phone Number: Do You Get a Real Person?
You do get a real person on live chat with Greengeek’s customer support and quick response time. Their phone number for customer support is 1-877-326-7483. You can contact them Monday through Friday from 9am-12am eastern time and from Saturday through Sunday you can contact them from 9am-8pm eastern time.
If you’re not keen on talking on the phone or you need customer support outside of the time window, you can have a live chat with their customer support specialists, get email tech support, watch web tutorials, or read through FAQs and forums posted on their site.
Greengeeks Alternatives: What We Would Recommend Instead
Try Justhost, Inmotion Hosting or DigitalOcean if you’re looking for Greengeeks alternatives.
Sign Up
If you’re looking for a greener, more energy efficient, eco-friendly web hosting server that’s better for the environment, Greengeeks is the perfect server for you. Their load times, speed and customer service happen to be very good. So, if you’re an impatient person, look no further. You can also count on a variety of payment plans to keep more money in your pocket in the long run.