Site5 Introduction:

Site5 are a web hosting solution created for designers and developers. They promote a no-gimmick attitude with no hidden fees. Their pricing structure is simple, proving high-end performance servers for their customers.

Our current hosting philosophy is based on guaranteed performance. Each top-of-the-line server we now use could easily handle an insane number of clients, but we still keep the numbers low. It helps us sleep easier at night.

Visit Site5.com £5.50/Month)

Site5 has been established for a little over 16 years. With plenty of experience in the hosting market, I wanted to find out what they were really like. Like many hosting companies, there were mixed reviews online about Site5. Site 5 is based in California, but they offer plenty of server locations to ensure the best performance for your website.

Site5 seem to be very active on social media. They’re willing to help their customers when they’re in a spot of trouble. However, it does seem quite consistent that people are unable to contact them via their website. Of course, we’ll find out more and see what’s really going on.

Though there have been a few technical difficulties looking through their Twitter page, they do seem very responsive. What I noticed about Site5’s attitude is that they’re very friendly and on the ball when it comes to their customers.

Site5 Server Speed & Uptime

Site5 have a 99.9% uptime guarantee on their shared/reseller hosting packages. Their fully-managed VPS servers have an uptime guarantee of 99.99%. Obviously I wanted to check whether their uptime SLAs are met by purchasing my own hosting from them. I signed up to their shared hosting and started recording my website’s performance.

Site5 have their own status page which shows any downtime they’re experiencing. It has a full history of any outages or issues. They also announce any planned or scheduled maintenance ahead of any work. This is very helpful and is a great tool to explain any outages that might occur.

If Site5 cannot meet their uptime guarantee, they offer service credits. For shared hosting, credit is awarded when their uptime is between 99.9%-99.5%. For VPS servers this starts between 99.99%-99.95% uptime. I think it’s great that Site5 actually display this information as most web hosts say they will ‘compensate’, but don’t actually detail what the compensation is.

I recorded my website’s performance over a space of 6 months. I felt this would give me a really good overview of what to expect. I was pleased to see my overall uptime was 99.98% (so no need for any credits), which amounted to 2 hours of outages. So far, so good!

My site’s response time was also recorded. I had an average response time of 679 ms (under 0.7 seconds). The maximum response time was 1042 ms which was a singular spike that occurred. If I were to permanently use Site5 for my web hosting, the results suggest I would be very happy indeed!

Visit Site5.com (£5.50/Month)

Site5 Features

Site5 have 3 shared pricing plans, all with their own features. You can choose from a variety of server locations to ensure the best speeds for your target audience. This in itself is a GREAT feature which most web hosts actually don’t have. All plans include free migration from another host to Site5 (again, something which some hosts charge almost £100 for).

Let’s take a look at some of the features that are included in ALL of Site5’s pricing plans:

Unmetered bandwidth
Unmetered disk space
Free migration
Backups
Backstage access (control panel)
45-day money-back guarantee
Malware protection

So far I am finding it hard to point out any negatives to Site5. Their performance was great in my own tests, and their features are really inclusive. Whether you’re paying for their cheapest plan or most expensive plan, there are plenty of tools available to everyone.

I’ve explored more of Site5’s features which include:

• eCommerce: Plenty of eCommerce tools including shopping cart scripts, CubeCart, OS Commerce and Zen Cart. Access to Softaculous means you can 1-click awesome CMS platforms like WordPress, Joomla and Drupal.
• Email Accounts: You’ll have a choice of Webmail applications for your email accounts. You can create as many email accounts as you need, accessed through POP or IMAP.
• Customer Support: Site5 have plenty of ways you can get in touch with their support. There’s a community forum full of information and helpful questions/answers. Site5’s web hosting experts are available 24/7/365 as well as a live chat team.

Site5 Customer Support

Given my positive experience so far, I felt it was time to test out Site5’s customer support. I set up a new live chat and asked a few questions to test the ‘experts’ knowledge. I opened the chat window and was connected to an agent within 5 seconds which was great. The agent introduced themselves and assured me they’d be helping me.

I found Site5’s customer support portal really useful. They had all the ways in which you could contact them all in one place (very handy). I often find that companies make it difficult to contact live chat, or send a support request. Site5 openly invites you to contact them via live chat, email, support ticket, or use their resources. It was simple to use their search function and most of my questions could be answered without having to contact someone.

If you don’t have time to search for answers or don’t want to speak to someone, they have plenty of email options. Whether you want to report abuse or speak to their billing team, there’s an email address for most issues. This is another great option and fab that they offer so many methods of contact.

Site5 Pros and Cons

When I first researched Site5, I found a lot of mixed reviews. People were saying it wasn’t the best host, but it wasn’t the worst either. Of course, I had to try them for myself to give you my own unbiased opinion. When I signed up to Site5, I didn’t encounter any issues. I started monitoring my website and was pleasantly surprised.

My site’s uptime and performance was pretty spot on, and the unlimited features were a delight. Aside from their customer support live chat being a little slow to respond, I can’t find too many complaints. I test all the hosts I sign up to for at least 6 months to give you a REAL picture.

Pros

Fast Servers: My website with Site5 had an average response time of just over 600 ms. This is well below 1 minute, and even further below the recommended 2-3 seconds. My experience with Site5 displays fast and reliable servers with a stable uptime of 99.98%.

Helpful Support: There are plenty of ways to get in touch with Site5. Their live chat service is easy to use and quick to connect. Whilst the agents may not respond as fast as other hosts, they do respond and they’re polite and helpful (what more can you ask for).

45-day money-back guarantee: Site5 offer a massive 45-day money-back guarantee. On top of this, they guarantee a full refund within 15 days for VPS servers too. There are absolutely no catches to this, just a full refund if you don’t like their services.

Cons

Pricing: Whilst Site5 do offer unlimited hosting, their price is a little steep compared to their competitors. At £5.50 per month, this may not seem that bad. However, you’re required to commit to at least 2 years (24 months) and pay up front if you want that price.

Slow Customer Support: Although their support was good and helpful, it was a little slow. The chat was initiated very quickly, however, the responses took quite a long time to come through.

Site5 Pricing

Site5 offer a wealth of features across their pricing plans. They have 3 plans which are easy to understand, where all bandwidth and disk space is unlimited. However, they do complicate things a little when it comes to actually signing up to a plan. If you want to pay monthly, you’ll have to sign up to either their hostPro or hostPro+Turbo plans. The cheapest price is only available if you sign up for 2 years.

Let’s discover a few more features each plan has to offer:

• Free migration
• Malware Protection
• One-click installs
• eCommerce features
• Email accounts
• MySQL databases
• FTP accounts

Do I Recommend Site5?

This is a really tough decision to make. Although this may seem strange at this point, I’m going to say no to recommending Site5. Although they have more pros than cons in my review, I’m finding it tough to recommend them. Their pricing structure is expensive compared to other hosts who offer the same great features at cheaper prices.

Whilst their features are good, and it’s great that the majority of them are included in ALL plans, I don’t think I could justify spending £5.50 for 2 years. Their uptime and performance in my results was fab, but again, there are other hosts who are offering more at a more affordable cost like SiteGround.

Here’s a quick summary of Site5:

Great uptime results (99.98% in my own tests across 6 months)
Fast servers (just over 600 ms on average which is well below 2-3 seconds)
Friendly customer support (their live chat agents were friendly and helpful)
Unlimited features on all plans (regardless of price, you’ll get unlimited bandwidth and storage)
Ease of use (their dashboard is easy to use, and makes use of Backstage which is their own skin for cPanel)

Slow support (I found their support was slow to respond even at non-peak times)
Price is too expensive (considering there are other hosts offering more for less, I can’t recommend signing up)