GreenGeeks Review - Is this Web Host Reliable?

There are over 8 million data centers globally, with almost 37.5% located in the United States. About 40% of the energy they consume goes to cooling the equipment. As a result, the entire hosting industry accounts for 2% of the world's carbon emissions.

The good news? 

GreenGeeks hosting is out to make a difference - a big one! The company has various commitments in place to help clean up the planet. These include: 

• Using electricity from eco-friendly sources.
• Purchasing 300% renewable energy credits for every unit of power the company uses. 
• Planting a tree for every hosting account created on its platform.

In this GreenGeeks review, I'll evaluate the vendor's hosting features, reliability, performance, and pricing. That way, you'll be able to determine whether it's worth your money. 

Let's get started.

What Is GreenGeeks?

GreenGeeks is a nature-friendly web hosting provider founded by Trey Gardner in 2008. The company currently has 55,000+ customers with over 600,000 websites on the platform.

The vendor has tons of awards and recognition for being green energy compliant. It works closely with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to make this possible. In addition, it partners with the Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF) to plant trees.

Away from that, GreenGeeks shared hosting plans are among the best on the market. They come with adequate resources for powering businesses of any size. Additionally, its fully-managed services offer fast tech support 24/7. 

You'll receive a free domain for the first year as a customer. And if you're planning to switch hosts, this host will migrate your website at no extra cost. It also provides colorful badges that you can display on your site to show its earth-friendly. 

But will it live up to the hype? 

Let's find out.

Network and Infrastructure

GreenGeeks network has data centers in:

• Chicago 
• Montreal 
• Amsterdam 
• Phoenix 
• Toronto

These facilities have servers hooked to the internet via gigabit fiber optic cables. In addition, it uses Juniper and Cisco routers for stable connectivity as well.

The locations employ a dual-power grid setup to enhance the availability of services. Generators are on standby to further cut the chances of interruptions. Automatic climate controls are also present to keep things cool.

LiteSpeed technology powers the hardware on top of a Linux operating system (OS). Both blend well with the industry-leading Intel processors to provide exceptional performance. The storage space is SSD-based RAID 10 standard for higher redundancy.

There's more: 

GreenGeeks infrastructure is constantly under 24/7 monitoring by technicians and engineers. They are usually ready to jump into action whenever issues on the network arise. Furthermore, security personnel and man-traps keep the company's premises safe from intruders.

GreenGeeks Hosting Features

Here’s what you get:

Ease of Use

GreenGeeks user dashboard makes it easy for everyone to jump onboard. A clean and straightforward interface greets you after purchasing a plan. You can renew your subscriptions, order services, and request support from here.  

The company offers cPanel out of the box for handling server tasks. It can also help you manage: 

• Domains and DNS
• Databases
• Webmail
• Backups

GreenGeeks cPanel also comes inbuilt with a Softaculous library. It gives you access to over 300 commercial apps, both free and premium. All it takes is a single click to install a script of choice.

The host also provides managed plans that include free support round the clock. Its technical team will migrate your website if you're ditching a bad host too. 

Sounds cool, right? 

Hosting Resources

All customers get Xeon-powered hardware with SSD space, as I mentioned earlier. The allocation varies depending on the plan that you buy. We'll come back to this later, though.

You know what's exciting? 

Traffic!

GreenGeeks bandwidth has unmetered usage on shared and WordPress packages. You can take advantage of it without the risk of attracting extra charges. Still, the other plans offer over 500GB/month, enough to serve millions of visits.

There are no limitations on the number of databases that you can create. The same goes for webmail accounts if you opt for Pro or a higher plan. 

Also - unlimited websites.

At present, two out of the five GreenGeeks server locations are full. You can only order services from Chicago, Montreal, and Amsterdam data centers. I hope that the company beefs up capacity in the other regions soon.

Domain Registration

GreenGeeks gives free domains to customers when they purchase a hosting plan. This only applies for the first year of service. Once this time frame expires, it will cost you from $13.95/year to keep it.

You can also transfer a website address from another vendor. However, transfer charges equal to that domain's worth will apply. The rule affects all URLs regardless of extensions like .com, .net., .org, etc. 

GreenGeeks domain pricing includes an optional $9.95/year for privacy protection. The premium feature shields your personal details from ever leaking on the web. While that's good, hosts like Namecheap, Porkbun, and NameSilo offer it for free. 

Website Builder

GreenGeeks does not offer a website builder at present. Even without one, this vendor understands how complex it is to create sites from scratch. As a result, it provides third-party solutions from Weebly and SitePad.

Both software have striking similarities to the industry-leading solution, Elementor. Apart from having a drag-and-drop tool, they have other features like:

• Free prebuilt professional templates
• Multimedia functions
• Multisite support

Customers appreciate mobile-responsive pages that these apps create, according to their GreenGeeks reviews. Moreover, they support custom scripts for enhancing your websites. The common ones include HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. 

Content Delivery Network (CDN)

A fast-loading website is necessary if you value user experience. And you don't need Google-level resources, thanks to the free GreenGeeks CDN and-on. When enabled, it routes traffic through Cloudflare's vast content delivery network.

The service provides acceleration by compressing your website's static resources. It caches content from your pages in over 200 data centers globally. With this approach, your visitors will always experience shorter loading times. 

But there's a hidden gem, which even GreenGeeks hosting company doesn't mention. The vendor's servers run on LiteSpeed. So, what does this mean for you?

Well:

LiteSpeed's developers have a more robust CDN called QUIC.cloud. To use it, you'll need to be on WordPress and install the LSCache plugin. Once done, you can follow instructions inside the app to activate it. 

Users of this service benefit from: 

• Content caching in 70+ data centers worldwide
• Image optimization
• Fast delivery of dynamic pages
• Low latency across North America and Europe

Altogether, it complements GreenGeeks hosting performance alongside the use of Cloudflare. 

The exciting part? 

It's free!

Backups

You can avoid any unwanted loss of files using the GreenGeeks backup feature. The service runs automatically at night daily. If necessary, you can manually create an image of your server on demand.

But there's a big problem: 

GreenGeeks backup option is strictly for use in the event of an emergency. The company doesn't even have an off-site facility for storing the archives. Moreover, it keeps files created by customers for 24 hours only. 

You can only restore one backup for free every month. Additional use of this feature costs $25 for each recovery task. To be honest, this is a turn-off.

Developer Tools

This host offers developer tools for advanced users to make merry. Top of that list is SSH and WP-CLI for root access. The two are ideal for using one-line commands to customize your server.

Next is the GreenGeeks staging option for testing changes before updating your website. It's a must-have for experimenting with new apps and working on client projects. You can also use FTP/sFTP to upload files remotely without accessing your account.

You can also work in a team, thanks to the multi-user access. You can use it to invite as many users as you want to manage your hosting services. Unfortunately, there's no way to limit what your peers can do.

Security

GreenGeeks security features are pretty much what you find on other hosts. The usual one is DDoS for blocking bad guys from gaining control of your server. Besides, you get a website application firewall (WAF) that protects your site from hackers.

Immunify360 is available for providing all-around defense against advanced threats. It has an antivirus, malware shield, spam bot protection, advanced Captcha system, etc. Together, they prevent malicious activities from messing up with your business.

And one more thing:

Customers on Lite and Pro plans get GreenGeeks Let's Encrypt SSL for free. But if you're on Premium, you can use AlphaSSL with a $10,000 warranty at no extra cost. Unlike its peer, it's more trusted and ideal for ecommerce websites.

Uptime

GreenGeeks uptime guarantee of 99.9% is standard across the industry. Others like Webdock.io promise a perfect zero-downtime experience. That's because a 0.01% outage can cost your business $5,600/minute.

Don't worry. This service is solid.

I didn't experience any interruptions during the entire period of testing. A little digging also shows that it hasn't had any major issues since 2018. I kid you not!

The vendor promises to compensate customers if it fails to meet its promise. If it happens, you'll have to contact GreenGeeks support to make a claim. 

GreenGeeks Hosting Speed

GreenGeeks LiteSpeed servers are well-built to deliver good performance. First, you'll get uplink/downlink speeds of up to 1Gbit/s for speedy access to your website. 

• Canada - 20ms
• USA - 38ms
• London - 90ms
• Germany - 100ms
• Japan - 150ms
• Sydney - 180ms
• India - 200ms

Visitors from North America and Europe will have the best experience. Those coming from the rest of the world may experience delays, but those are hardly noticeable. 

The vendor has resource usage limitations on the Shared plans. When performing stress tests, the disk read/write speeds were terrible. On average, I got about 20MB/s, which defies the logic of using SSD hardware.

You should consider enabling GreenGeeks CDN to boost content delivery. QIUC.cloud also comes in handy for dynamic sites like ecommerce, multimedia, WordPress, etc.

Customer Support

You can reach the GreenGeeks customer support team at any time. You'll get quick responses through live chat. But it takes 2-3 hours to get replies from queries submitted via tickets and mail.

The agents are friendly, responsive, and help fix technical issues quickly. You can also look for solutions to common problems from the company's knowledge base. That's about it.

Hosting Services

Let's take a closer look at GreenGeek’s hosting solutions one by one: 

Shared

GreenGeeks shared hosting is for beginners and startup businesses. It's ideal for managing personal and non-demanding projects. Small-time developers can use it for testing and working on client gigs. 

There are three plans to choose from:

• Lite
• Pro
• Premium

The packages above offer almost similar features but with different resource allocations. For example, you get unlimited SSLs, bandwidth, and MySQL databases. But disk space, RAM, and CPU cores may vary.

Pricing starts at  $2.95/month if you commit for three years. It will cost you $10.95/month if you prefer to go monthly. But the month-by-month tiers are the only ones of GreenGeeks plans with a $15.00 setup fee. 

WordPress

GreenGeeks WordPress plan is another alternative for small-scale projects. It's prebuilt with an industry-leading content management system (CMS) that's easy to use. You'll find it ideal for hosting websites that require frequent updates. 

With this tier, you get a shopping cart perfect for an ecommerce platform. There are multiple PHP versions to maximize compatibility with third-party apps. Moreover, you can access themes and plugins from independent developers like MyThemeShop.

The pricing is similar to what you get on ordinary shared plans. Again, setup fees will apply if you prefer to pay monthly. But you get a free domain for the first year saving you at least $13.95. 

VPS

GreenGeeks VPS option targets users with demanding apps and projects. Servers come with more resources than what you find on shared plans. Furthermore, you'll have more control over what you host on your system.

Unlike most hosts, you get free cPanel, backups, and monitoring. Softaculous applications installer is also on that list of freebies. To top it up, the vendor provides migrations from other hosts at no extra cost.

Sadly, bandwidth and storage aren't unlimited like in shared plans. The allocation for CPU, RAM, and SSD space is also insufficient. Furthermore, the high starting price of $39.95/month is hardly ideal.

Dedicated

If you think GreenGeeks VPS tier is costly, try the dedicated plans. The pricing starts from $169/month for a dual-core server with old hardware. You'll get the following at that cost:

• 2GB DDR3 RAM
• 500GB SSD space
• 10TB monthly bandwidth

Not to throw shade, but the features, compared to pricing, is a rip-off. You'll also be in complete control because it doesn't offer managed support. But GreenGeeks gives you five free dedicated IP addresses as a compliment.

Reseller

You can make quick bucks thanks to the GreenGeeks reseller program. It offers up to 80 cPanel accounts and a WHMCS billing system. The starting price of $19.95/month is fair for first-timers in this trade.

Your customers stand to benefit from:

• Unlimited domain/subdomain hosting
• Custom business emails
• Softaculous applications installer
• Free SSL certificates
• Content optimization via CDN

On the downside, the storage and bandwidth allocation can only serve a few customers. You might need to impose limits to prevent the services from worsening. Alternatively, you can consider other reseller hosts that have better deals.

Pricing 

Below is a round-up of GreenGeeks pricing plans:

GreenGeeks refund policy of 30 days is adequate for testing the service. The company will return your money if you feel unsatisfied within this period. This rule, however, doesn't cover set up fees and costs relating to domain services.

So, how does it compare against rivals?

GreenGeeks vs. GoDaddy

GoDaddy is a well-known host and a leading alternative to GreenGeeks. Both vendors provide exceptional services without a doubt. But which one of these two stands out? 

Let's find out.

First of all, these rivals offer a long list of fully-managed plans. They range from basic tiers to more capable VPS and dedicated servers. You'll also find WordPress packages, website builders, one-click app installers, etc. 

But GreenGeeks email hosting makes it stand apart. The feature is available for free across the board. Its rival, however, requires you to sign up for long-term contacts to access mail features.

GoDaddy's pricing is a bit on the higher side as well. But it doesn't charge new customers setup fees like its competitor. You'll also get a free domain for the first year when you purchase a plan.

On the opposite, GreenGeeks data center has five locations. Only three are available to customers, with the other two filled to the brim. Its rival has nine regions with more than enough servers to accommodate everyone.

These two vendors almost sit at the same level. You can go with GoDaddy if you need basic hosting. Its rival here is an excellent choice for users that require email services.

GreenGeeks vs Bluehost

Bluehost is another name on the market. It offers WordPress packages alongside VPS and dedicated server plans. Currently, it powers around 2.5 million websites on the internet.

In contrast, there are about 600,000 sites on GreenGeeks web hosting platform. The company offers excellent services backup with a 99.9% uptime guarantee. Moreover, its affordable shared plans are ideal for customers with a tight budget. 

Speaking of prices, Bluehost positions itself as the crème de la crème of the industry. As such, it charges a premium based on a yearly pricing model. The company additionally has many upsells that make its services unreachable to many. 

The high cost is an advantage if you're looking for top-notch performance. Tests consistently prove that Bluehost's service is fast and stable. Besides, its uptime is solid despite the company lacking a service level agreement.

GreenGeeks pricing plans are cheaper than Bluehost’s. You'll get decent server output for your websites and apps. Of course, it can't match up to its competitor, but it's still worth it.

Either option is great for beginners and small businesses. Bluehost, however, is better for hosting demanding projects. That's because it offers customers the latest hardware.

GreenGeeks vs SiteGround

SiteGround is a big name in the industry. It offers WordPress-only plans with features such as webmail, ecommerce, and SSL security. Furthermore, the company commits 5% of its resources toward WordPress development.

On the other hand, GreenGeeks directs its efforts to planet-saving projects. It plants a tree for every hosting account created on its platform. The company also partners with the EPA to make the world cleaner for future generations.

Here's how both compare: 

First, the GreenGeeks cPanel dashboard is available to all customers by default. It has lots of features like domain, webmail, and DNS management. The software has backup, FTP, and security tools to safeguard your website as well.

SiteGround offers users an in-house solution for day-to-day server tasks, unlike its rival. It has a more appealing interface and tons of convenient functions. Additionally, you can use it to operate websites with scale without sacrificing performance.

GreenGeeks is the clear winner when it comes to hosting resources. It offers both unlimited bandwidth and storage space. Customers also have access to many developer toolkits for performing advanced functions. 

But wait, there's more!

The GreenGeeks performance is two times better than SiteGround. That's because it uses LiteSpeed technology tuned to deliver excellent performance on WordPress. It also does an outstanding job for static sites and scripts like Magento.

SiteGround's pricing costs twice as much as what its rival offers. On a positive note, it provides customers with unmetered bandwidth and top-notch support 24/7. 

GreenGeeks Review - Verdict

GreenGeeks is an incredible host that values environmental protection. The company matches 300% of the power it uses in renewable energy credits. It's also the only provider that plants a tree for every new account registered on its platform. 

The vendor offers a great mix of managed plans on shared, VPS, and reseller packages. As a customer, you'll get a cPanel dashboard, Softaculous app installer, email hosting, etc. Customers that need more control and power can take advantage of dedicated servers. 

Users appreciate this host's support service, as seen in GreenGeeks customer reviews. The agents are friendly, responsive, and always fix issues fast. You can also refer to the company's knowledge base for insightful tutorials.

Overall, you can choose this host if saving the planet is your top priority. And remember to display a badge that shows your business is carbon neutral!