FastComet is a San Francisco-based rising star in the web host industry, while Siteground is an unlikely success story from Sofia, Bulgaria. The two companies are quite different, but both Siteground and FastComet stand above the industry average as leading-edge web host companies. However, you can only choose one to host your sites. We're here to help you make the right choice by comparing Fastcomet vs SiteGround on these important aspects:
- Performance
- Usability
- Capabilities
- Support
- Uptime
- Price
Keep in mind, different factors might matter more to you. If you have an existing website that's had consistent, low traffic, affordability may be your top priority. A basic website still needs free SSL certificate support and basic security, but it doesn't need much more.
On the other hand, a site that's central to company success needs extra capability. Better speed, solid uptime, and premium features like free backup-as-a-service at multiple data center locations and good security.
With that said, let's jump in!
Performance – FastComet vs Siteground
Performance is a wonderful indicator and a core component to look into when checking out a hosting service. First, we tested both over several months at a regular ping interval using Pingdom. In the meantime, we also researched site speeds and customer feedback on each company.
On their site, FastComet claims to have around 395 MS ping. However, the stats don't back that up. FastComet ironically isn't as fast as it seems; according to our research, their speed hovers around 500 – 600 MS Ping. Other user reviews and accounts back this up, as well.
On the other hand, Siteground has an incredibly fast average ping of 250 MS! There's a clear winner in this category, and it's not the company with "fast" in its name.
Usability – FastComet vs Siteground
Ahh, usability. Even if you have the greatest features in the world, that won't mean much if they're not accessible. Making a site pretty and easy to use is a huge boon to users and website owners alike. In the competition of Siteground vs FastComet, this is where FastComet strikes back.
FastComet Usability Overview
FastComet has a remarkably clean, simple user interface. It's not only the winner compared to Siteground, but stands as a true industry leader.
Fastcomet Dashboard
For one, it's super easy to view all of your overall information such as:
- Billing
- Domains
- Hosting Services
- Support
From there, you can dive in and view any of the options in extreme detail. This smart, neat layout makes the service effortless to manage. FastComet offers one of the most convenient ways to run multiple sites from a single, centralized provider.
When it comes to general website management, though, they still use cPanel. There's nothing wrong with that, it's just nothing we haven't seen before. Still, the ease with which you can handle account management makes FastComet a real star when it comes to useability.
Click here to visit FastComet
Siteground Usability Overview
Unfortunately, you'll have to deal with a dated interface if you choose Siteground. Navigating through accounts, domains, billing, and resources is much slower and more awkward than it needs to be. Like FastComet, Siteground still uses cPanel for site management.
Siteground Dashboard
Usability is absolutely the weakest point of Siteground. That being said, it's really not too bad once you've gotten used to it. It's not as usable as some competitors, but it's still easy enough to wrap your head around that it's not a make-or-break thing.
Nonetheless, FastComet wins on usability.
Click here to visit Siteground
Capabilities – FastComet vs Siteground
Capabilities is a catch-all category for services, unique features, etc. This is absolutely one of the most make-or-break factors when making a comparison like Siteground vs FastComet. Both of them offer a full range of features such as free Cloudflare CDN, the ability to encrypt SSL certificates, and unlimited emails. Beyond that, there are many unique features that separate them from each other and their competitors.
FastComet Capabilities
FastComet has some of the most unique capabilities in the industry. Some of these features and additions are so unique that I've never seen another host that provides them.
Fastcomet Features
One of the most unique features provided by FastComet is their free domain for life. After you register a plan, you will be able to register a domain name. Then, you keep it free of charge, for life, on their platform. This is a wonderful convenience and a great quality of life feature that can save you hundreds or thousands of dollars.
Other beneficial features you will find with using FastComet are, Unmetered traffic (basically unlimited bandwidth), custom-optimized server setup, and guaranteed resources.
Unmetered traffic is a great feature, but it's also paired with their traffic guidelines which state how many unique visitors per month the site could potentially handle. This seems relatively small next to other similar services, but it's very decent for the price.
FastComet prides itself on customization factors for setting up servers. Depending on your needs, you can use one of their tailored web servers that are optimized for WordPress, Drupal, and other popular options.
Guaranteed resources are a great feature that gives you peace of mind during heavy web traffic. Basically, it guarantees that at any given time you have a certain amount of CPU and RAM. Even on a shared hosting plan, your loading speed won't crater just because traffic increases on another site on the same server.
In short, FastComet offers an outstanding lineup of quality-of-life features.
Siteground Capabilities
Siteground offers capabilities that mostly focus on the technical side rather than fancy quality-of-life features. As such, Siteground has a reputation as the powerhouse of web host solutions.
- Siteground Features
- Some of the features Siteground boasts include:
- Unlimited data transfer
- Free drag & drop website builder
- Free email accounts
- Unlimited MySQL databases
- Access to cPanel and Softaculous
- AI anti bot system
- Custom web application firewall
You have unmetered data transfer here, just as with FastComet. If you pick the GrowBig or GoGeek plans, unlimited websites mean you can comfortably power multiple projects. For the most part, these qualities maximize technical output more than quality of life.
That said, there are some more unique features such as the drag-and-drop web builder and unlimited MySQL Databases. If you want to start a forum or store a lot of user data, those unlimited databases are a great asset.
Outside of those features, each plan has a fairly similar estimate for the number of visitors as FastComet. This estimates the number of unique visitors that each tier should be able to handle. It's not a hard-and-fast rule, but it's a good guideline to follow to upgrade your hosting plan as your site grows.
Click here to visit Siteground
This is an area where the two services are neck and neck. FastComet has some wonderful quality-of-life features and is more accessible, but Siteground wins in raw potential. Both have solid security with options to encrypt SSL certificates, but SiteGround takes a slight edge on security. Overall, capability is roughly a tie between these two.
Customer Support – FastComet vs Siteground
Both FastComet and Siteground offer first-rate customer support from their data center locations. Let's see if there's a clear winner when it comes to customer service.
FastComet Customer Support
FastComet's customer support line is one of the best in the industry. Users can choose between live chat, email, and phone. Their data center locations boast 24/7 support and claim to resolve 93% of all issues in under 10 minutes!
This is slight hyperbole, but only slightly. Based on personal experience and customer opinion, FastComet truly does offer round-the-clock support with smart, helpful professionals. In particular, they're great at helping both beginners and developers with technical issues. Their live support team is familiar top content management systems and technologies, which means they can quickly resolve in-depth technical issues.
I would have to give FastComet the #1 spot in customer support out of every hosting service that I've personally used.
Siteground Customer Support
Siteground also offers 24/7 support through live chat, email, and phone. The company has a great support team, but issues take a little longer to get resolved. Mainly, the problem is that there are multiple pages to jump through to get to the portal you actually need. This ticketing system is quite inefficient next to FastComet and contributes to SiteGround losing on this metric.
On the other hand, Siteground has a wonderful set of readily available help resources that you can read. These are quite exhaustive and instantly available, but sometimes you just need a real person to help you. This is where FastComet comes out on top.
FastComet is the clear winner on customer support. Siteground has a pretty great customer support line, but it's just not above and beyond in the way that FastComet is.
Click here to visit Siteground
Uptime – FastComet vs Siteground
Uptime is another key factor to look at when checking into web hosting solutions. Many companies these days boast a very high uptime, as it's pretty crucial to have your sites up and running at all times. So let's see what each of these hosts has to offer.
FastComet Uptime
FastComet has around a 99.98% Uptime, in which they have had about 3 hours of downtime in almost a year of time recorded. This is a pretty good uptime, even when compared to much more popular solutions.
Siteground Uptime
Siteground claims to have a 99.99% Uptime and our research backs this. Time and time again, Siteground proves its reputation as a leader in the power of its tech. They don't just edge out FastComet but have better uptime than almost all companies in the industry.
Both of these web hosting sites pass the uptime test with flying colors. While Siteground is slightly better, it's almost too small to matter.
Pricing – FastComet vs Siteground
Pricing can be a major deciding factor when it comes to finding the best hosting solution. Luckily, in this case, both FastComet and Siteground have very similar price structures and great deals.
FastComet Pricing
FastComet has quite a few different hosting solutions depending on what type of server you are looking for. In this case, we'll look at their shared cloud hosting. FastComet has three different hosting plans, StartSmart, ScaleRight, and Speedup each stronger than the last. StartSmart starts at $2.95 a month, Scaleright starts at $5.95 a month and Speedup starts at $9.95 a month.
As with most hosting services, pricing changes depending on the length of the term contract. For this case we will look at ScaleRight and how much it costs depending on the contract length.
- 3 Year Plan – $5.95 / Month
- 2 Year Plan – $6.95 / Month
- 1 Year Plan – $7.95 / Month
- Monthly Plan – $8.95 / Month + $19.95 Setup Fee.
These prices are pretty competitive when it comes to web hosting. That said, the only downside here is their monthly plan. For those looking for a smaller upfront cost, it's a blessing and a curse. Most other companies charge higher monthly rates for short-term plans, but the $20 setup fee goes a long way to offset that.
Overall, FastComet has a competitive pricing structure that offers lower prices than most of the competition. When you take the lifetime free domain into account, FastComet becomes one of the cheapest hosting options out there!
Siteground Pricing
Siteground conforms to the standard pricing tiers, with three options of relatively average price.
Siteground has three different hosting packages: The Startup Plan, GrowBig, and GoGeek. These are almost the same type of tiers you saw above with FastComet. There is a bit of a price difference, though.
Overall, Siteground tends to be a bit more expensive than FastComet. For the GrowBig plan, the pricing comes out to be the following with each term length.
- 3 Year Plan – $5.95 / month
- 2 Year Plan – $5.95 / month
- 1 Year Plan – $5.95 / month
- Monthly – $5.95 / month + $25 Setup Fee
This is where Siteground breaks out of the standard mold. Normally, hosting solutions charge an increasing amount per month the lower your contract term is. With Siteground, you pay the same monthly price no matter what your term length is, with the exception being the setup fee for the monthly plan (which is a one-time charge).
This sets Siteground far apart when it comes to pricing and can be great for anyone wary of long-term commitments. On the other hand, Siteground isn't as economical with long-term plans as some competitors. The company justifies this, though, with their powerhouse technical statistics. Whether the StartUp Plan or GoGeek is right for you, you get your money's worth.
Overall, FastComet and Siteground are in close competition when it comes to price. If you buy a long-term plan and use your lifetime free domain, it wins on price hands-down. However, those gains come with a loss of flexibility. Siteground offers a much better value if you want a flexible, short-term plan.
Click here to visit Siteground
Where FastComet Shines – Single Website, Easy User Interface, Free Domain for Life, GREAT Support
FastComet is a great choice for beginners. It provides one of the best user interfaces of any hosting solution I've ever seen and one of the best customer support teams.
They give you a free domain for life, which is a tremendous money saver for those just starting out. So overall, this is one of the absolute best hosting solutions for newcomers and those who are looking to focus on a single site.
Where this services loses out in Siteground vs Fastcomet is performance. Whether its uptime, loading speed, security, or technical capabilities, Siteground has a small-to-major advantage.
Siteground – Single/Multiple Websites, Powerhouse Performance, Great Pricing
Siteground is a superb choice for both advanced users and beginners looking for raw performance. Siteground has some of the leading performance statistics of most hosting solutions out today. Furthermore, they have a wonderful pricing structure that provides unbeatable flexibility for those who want short term lengths.
The drawbacks of Siteground come from its user interface and long-term cost. Compared to FastComet, it's nowhere near as easy to use and it's considerably less economical long-term.
Click here to visit Siteground
The final conclusion for FastComet vs Siteground is that they're both outstanding choices for different types of websites and site owners. Leave a comment below if you have any questions, and follow BoundLeap for the latest insights in the world of web hosting and digital marketing.