GreenGeeks Review

Finding a good website hosting provider is equally important for eCommerce site owners, professional bloggers, and amateurs alike. To avoid having your website plagued with ads, spammy links, and downtimes, stay away from free hosting services and apply to a proven one. GreenGeeks is a great option, being an affordable yet fast solution.

This is the most popular eco-friendly hosting provider nowadays. For every amperage of electricity the company uses, it invests three times more via renewable energy. Let’s see how GreenGeeks has gained such a good reputation.

What Is GreenGeeks?

GreenGeeks is an eco-friendly website hosting service established in 2008. It uses renewable energy (solar and wind) to power the servers and perfectly eliminates the carbon footprint.

The company ensures a 99.9% uptime guarantee and has a 30-day refund policy. The solution is catered to both beginners and professionals. And yet, the suggested hosting services are more appropriate for small businesses and individuals rather than enterprise-level businesses. GreenGeeks offers standard Web hosting, along with WP, WooCommerce, Reseller, and VPS hosting packages.

It’s a decent option for those searching for a reliable and environmentally conscious green hosting solution.

GreenGeeks Pros

GreekGeeks stands out for its environmental protection commitment and sustainability. However, these are not the only benefits of the service. Other advantages GreekGeeks users are provided with include:

• 300% renewable energy match for carbon-reducing sites;
• Free site transfer carried out by the company’s specialists;
• 99.9% uptime guarantee;
• Exclusive speed thanks to the use of in-built caching, PHP7, HTTP/2, SSD etc.;
• Unmetered bandwidth, email accounts and SSD storage;
• Free domain;
• Several hosting solutions;
• Reliable security features (SSL certificates, daily backups, real-time security scanning etc.);
• Website builder with customizable themes.

GreenGeeks Cons

Nevertheless, some features of GreenGeeks might not be worth praising. The important-to-note cons of the hosting solution are as follows:

• Though claimed to be high, the delivered uptime is lower than average;
• Only one restore per month is free;
• High renewal prices;
• Set up and domain expenses are not refundable;
• Insufficient functionality for basic subscriptions;
• No Cloud and Dedicated hosting packages are suggested.

Understanding these cons in the context of your specific hosting needs is crucial when making the decision regarding further hosting use.

GreenGeeks Features

GreenGeeks offers a range of hosting plans to cater to various needs, from personal websites to large-scale business applications. I have compiled a brief overview of hosting packages the provider is ready to suggest. Here they go.

Hosting Solutions

1. Shared Hosting

GreenGeeks’ shared hosting plans are ideal for individuals and small businesses looking for cost-effective and reliable web hosting solutions. These plans provide ample resources and features to get your website up and running quickly. Users can currently choose from 3 subscriptions, the most affordable of which costs $2.95 per month. This, however, is the starting price, which will increase up to $11.95 per month upon the end of the term.

2. WordPress Hosting

These plans are optimized for WordPress sites by default, offering enhanced security, performance and features tailored specifically for WordPress users. Just like shared hosting plans, WordPress subscriptions come with a number of freebies like website builder, domain for one year, nightly backups, Cloudflare CDN etc. There are three plans included in this group and their cost also starts at $2.95 per month.

Read also: Best Hosting Providers for WordPress Website
3. Reseller Hosting

GreenGeeks’ reseller hosting plans are developed for entrepreneurs and agencies looking to offer web hosting services to their clients. These plans provide robust features and resources to help you build and grow your hosting business. There are three packages you can choose from here. The most cost-effective solution is the RH-25 plan, the cost of which currently constitutes $19.95 per month (initial price) that grows up to $34.95 per month upon the renewal.

4. VPS Hosting

Are you going to start a large-scale project that requires more reliable and feature-rich hosting? Then it’s time to consider all the possibilities included in VPS hosting. The plans you can choose here all come with the list of free features meant for shared/WordPress hosting. Additionally, the host offers a dedicated IP address, Intel Xeon processors, a free Softaculous License and other perks like the ability to migrate the ready-existing cPanel to GreenGeeks for free, advanced security tools, managed monitoring and support etc.

5. WooCommerce Hosting

This group of subscriptions was created with the only purpose in mind – development of hosting of eCommerce projects via the use of the WooCommerce plugin. These plans offer enhanced performance, security and features designed to support online stores, ensuring that your sales business runs smoothly and efficiently. WooCommerce hosting plans are not only optimized for eCommerce, but they also come with free SSL Certificates and domain names, free CDN, daily backups, free WP installation and other niche advantages. All in all, there are 3 plans included in this group. The most affordable of them is the Lite plan, which costs $2.95 per month ($11.95 upon renewal).

Control Panel

GreenGeeks interface is hassle-free and pretty clear. Logging into your account, you can get a listing of all the purchased hosting plans and a support ticket section in your Accounts section in the dashboard. The Manage section allows controlling all your hosting plans and access to the cPanel account. The centralized cPanel provides email hosting service users easy access to multiple settings and features, like auto-responders and email forwarding, as well as install WP and manage domains.

GreenGeeks features a standard cPanel to ensure easy management and organization of the site and email. Although plenty of other website hosts have already incorporated their brand control panels, and cPanel is pretty basic, it’s still highly functional and convenient to use. With cPanel, GreenGeeks users can manage and edit websites and handle the security, databases, email accounts, domains, and files.

Also, extra software, like WP, is installed and managed through the cPanel. You can also find all the available security tools here, check how many available server resources have been already used, etc. So, a GreenGeeks user will find all features and functions within the scope of the chosen hosting package in the cPanel.

GreenGeeks for Developers

As a developer, you may be looking for a trusted web hosting. GreenGeeks can help you with that, offering a range of high end features. These include a PHP Selection Tool available in your cPanel that lets you choose from various PHP versions like 8.0, 7.4, 7.2, 5.6 etc. to comply with your specific needs.

Additionally, you will get free SSH Access and Secure FTP Access, enabling you to create an unlimited number of FTP or SFTP accounts, staging tools for testing and development, Git for version control, WP-CLI for managing WordPress installations from the command line, PhpMyAdmin for database management along with the latest version of MySQL databases.

Website Building Tools

Even though GreenGeeks offers a seamless WP migration, it has its brand website builder – the Weebly site builder. The latter is a comprehensive tool to help users create fully-functional and professional sites without applying a single line of coding. The site builder provides access to hundreds of premium class templates classified by industry. Most of the suggested templates look professional and attractive. They will definitely serve great in establishing a solid online presence.

Additionally, using the site-building tool, you are provided with multiple design elements and widgets that will help you enhance the brand feel of the site. Note that all templates are mobile-responsive. Accordingly, your website is sure to look equally great on any device.

What’s more, Weebly comes with the drag-and-drop editor, smooth integration with over 250 extensions for business and eCommerce, online store – focused features, mobile optimization and other advantages.

Overall, the GreenGeeks website builder is a handy and pretty effective tool for creating a website quickly without coding.

Note that the site-building tool becomes available once you pay for the chosen hosting plan. It is not priced separately, yet it isn’t offered for free, either.

Integrations

With GreenGeeks, you can explore, pick and install various integrations to boost your project functionality. The choice mostly depends on the type of website you run and parameters that require improvement. Among the most well-known extensions available for download, the following ones are worth your attention most:

1. CMS

GreenGeeks supports popular CMS platforms, making it easy to build and manage your website with familiar tools.

• WordPress: Seamless integration with WordPress, including one-click installations, automatic updates, and managed services.
• Joomla: Support for Joomla installations, offering robust tools for building and managing dynamic websites.
• Drupal: Integration with Drupal, providing powerful features for developers and advanced users.

GreenGeeks offers integrations with leading eCommerce software, enabling you to create and manage online stores efficiently.

• WooCommerce: Optimized hosting for WooCommerce, with features designed to enhance performance and security for WordPress-based online stores.
• Magento: Support for Magento, providing a powerful e-commerce solution for larger, more complex online stores.
• PrestaShop: Integration with PrestaShop, offering an easy-to-use platform for setting up and managing an online store.

GreenGeeks integrates with popular website builders, allowing users to create professional-looking websites without needing extensive coding knowledge.

• Weebly: A drag-and-drop website builder that enables you to create a website quickly and easily.
• SitePad: An intuitive website builder with a wide range of themes and widgets to help you design your site.

GreenGeeks provides a suite of tools for developers, ensuring you have the resources needed to build, test, and deploy your projects effectively.

• Git: Version control integration, allowing you to manage your code repositories.
• WP-CLI: Command-line interface for managing WordPress installations.
• SSH Access: Secure Shell access for secure and efficient server management.
• PHP Selection Tool: Allows you to choose the PHP version that best suits your needs, ranging from PHP 5.6 to the latest versions.

To ensure your website remains secure and protected, GreenGeeks offers various security integrations.

• Let’s Encrypt: Free SSL certificates to encrypt data and secure your website.
• SiteLock: Optional security service to protect your site from malware and cyber threats.
• Spam Protection: Tools to keep your email and website free from spam.

GreenGeeks integrates performance-enhancing tools to ensure your website loads quickly and runs smoothly.

• Cloudflare CDN: Content Delivery Network integration to speed up your website by distributing content across global servers.
• LiteSpeed Web Server: High-performance web server integration for faster page loading times.
• HTTP/2: Support for the latest HTTP protocol, improving website performance and security.

GreenGeeks offers integrations to help you manage your email and marketing efforts effectively.

• Email Hosting: Professional email services with custom email addresses, spam protection, and webmail access.
• Google Workspace: Optional integration with Google Workspace for advanced email, collaboration, and productivity tools.
• MailChimp: Integration with MailChimp for email marketing campaigns and audience management.

Website Migration

If you own a ready-made website and need a better hosting for it, then GreenGeeks is actually worth trying. The software provides the opportunity for quality website migration. Its team is ready to arrange your project migration, taking care of all the steps. Just buy a suitable plan and enjoy the opportunity of free site migration as this option is included into each subscription.

Performance, Security and Protection

GreenGeeks claims to deliver an impressive uptime of 99.98% which can lead to only two hours of downtime during a year. It owes its speed to some of the top-of-the-line software and hardware used. The company’s platform is powered by Solid State RAID-10 Storage Arrays, MariaDB, LiteSpeed, HTTP/3, LSCache, PHP7, and a free CDN. And since solid-state drives are palpably faster than standard hard disks, GreenGeeks ensures boosted speed and better performance.

The traffic of a website hosted by GreenGeeks is cashed with an in-house system PowerCacher. Such a system saves pretty much server resources as the queries to the site and the database get reduced.

Furthermore, GreenGeeks supports Cloudflare integration to help users boost their site speed, increase its performance, keep it secure, and save some bandwidth. CDD also serves well as a protection against DDoS attacks.

And finally, what affects the speed and overall performance of a site hosted by GreenGeeks is the demography of the target audience. You see, two of the company’s four data centers are based in Chicago, US, and Montreal, CA. The other two servers are in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and Singapore per one. If most of your website visitors are expected to be from the mentioned regions, your web pages will load much quicker.

On the other hand, visitors from Australia, Africa, or South America, will definitely experience slower page loading.

GreenGeeks appears average when it comes to security measurements. Although not superb, the basic means are ensured. The company packs all hosting plans with a free SSL certificate with an automatic renewal every three months. Furthermore, automatic app updates for Drupal, WP, and Joomla are available.

GreenGeeks delivers daily backups to keep a user’s data safe. And if any situation leads to site data loss (phishing or malware attacks), you can rest assured there’s a copy saved in the company’s servers to be restored. However, be aware that GreenGeeks offers only one free restoration for a month. Any more than specified will cost an extra $25 per restore. Also, the company doesn’t backup VPS servers.

Other than this, such security measures as stellar protection against spam and proactive server monitoring are ensured. GreenGeeks conducts periodic audits to ensure its security measures are up-to-date and meet industry standards.

How Expensive Is GreenGeeks?

Prices at GreenGeeks start at $2.95/mo for Shared hosting and reach $39.95/mo for VPS hosting. Within this range, there is definitely a best-fit plan for any user’s budget. Let’s see which hosting tier and plan fits your requirements most:

• Web Hosting: Starts at $2.95/mo for the Lite plan. This tier is catered to small sites, blogs, and startups. It’s intended for hosting a single site and covers 50GB storage, 50 email accounts, in-built cashing, and a bunch of freebies via CDN, domain, and SSL. To increase the power of your Shared hosting, you can upgrade to Pro or Premium plans, priced at $4.95/mo and $8.95/mo, respectively.
• WordPress and WooCommerce Hosting: WP Hosting and WooCommerce Hosting have the same plans as Shared hosting. Here, too, the cost varies from $2.95/mo to $8.95/mo for Lite, Pro, and Premium tiers.
• VPS Hosting: Managed VPS hosting tiers are all fast, reliable, and scalable. The entry 2GB plan costs $39.95/mo and provides 2GB RAM, 4 vCPU, 10 TB Transfer, etc. The highest 8GB VPS Hosting plan costs $109.95/mo and involves 8GB RAM, 6 vCPU, 10 TB Transfer, Free Softaculous License, Managed Support, and plenty of other staff.
• Reseller Hosting: If you intend to do business by reselling your hosting, GreenGeeks Reseller plans will serve the purpose well. The entry plan RH-25 is $19.95/mo. It ensures 60 GB SSD storage, 600 GB Transfer, 25 cPanel accounts, as well as free cPanel migrations, and a free SSL certificate. The highest Reseller hosting plan is RH-80, priced at $34.95/mo. It delivers the ultimate power within the hosting type.

All hosting tiers come with a standard 30-day refund. All the prices are for annual subscriptions, while the renewal prices drastically differ from the introductory ones. For instance, the cheapest Shared hosting entry plan, Lite, is priced at $2.95/mo if purchased for a year. And once this term ends, the price goes up to $11.95/mo. Such a significant rise in the price is somewhat disappointing, especially when you draw lines with other hosting providers.

Customer and Tech Support

GreenGeeks offers several means of contacting its customers and tech support. Notably, the available support gateways include:

• Live Chat: Accessible 24/7, Live Chat is great for getting assistance right away. It’s available for both GreenGeeks users and visitors.
• Email and Ticket Form: Depending on the subject of your email, you can use one of the three email addresses:
• sales@greengeeks.com (for sales);
• affiliates@greengeeks.com (to contact the affiliate team);
• abuse@greengeeks.com (for reports of abuse).
• Phone Call: Customer support is available daily from 9 AM to 12 AM EST. The company provides two phone numbers, one for local customers (877-326-7483) and one for international calls (+1 310 496-8946).

Note that the average response time for emails and ticket forms is 15 to 20 minutes.

Before contacting the support team, it’s also worth checking the Resources page. Here you can find multiple articles on how to make the most of your GreenGeeks hosting plan and articles-guides on enhancing your online business.

Is GreenGeeks Worth Trying?

GreenGeeks is the best provider available if green hosting is your priority. Other than this, it’s pretty average. The hosting solution is decent as long as you need Shared hosting for your startup or personal site with little traffic. In terms of performance, it does well; the customer support is friendly and responsive; there’s an impressive array of tools and features like one-click WP installation and a full-fledged website builder.

However, the claimed affordable pricing refers only to the first subscription for one or three years. Once the period is over, the renewal prices will strike you unpleasantly. That’s the major downside. Also, users complain about the quality of GreenGeeks VPS hosting. The company’s backup policy leaves room for thoughts. You see, backups are done on random dates, and only one free restore is available monthly.

Considering all this, whether to try GreenGeeks or not is up to you: in all cases, there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee.