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GreenGeeks: the verdict
GreenGeeks is a solid mid-market shared host with two things that set it apart from the Newfold-owned crowd: daily backups and a free CDN included at the entry price, and a commitment to match 300% of the energy it uses with renewable credits.
It is not the fastest or the cheapest, but it is well-provisioned for the money and the renewal, while still a jump, is lower than Bluehost's.
Best for: Small sites that want daily backups and a lighter carbon story.
Strengths
- Daily backups included at the entry tier
- Free Cloudflare-backed CDN and caching
- 300% renewable-energy match
Watch-outs
- North America and one EU datacenter only
- Renewal roughly triples
- Storage is modest on the entry plan
Who runs it, and since when
Founded in 2008. Privately held and independent, headquartered in California with datacenters in North America and Europe.
Ownership: GreenGeeks LLC, independent.
Worth calling out:
- LiteSpeed caching and a free CDN at the entry price.
- Daily backups included, free SSL, free email, free domain for year one.
- cPanel on shared plans, and a 300% renewable-energy match.
Plans, the renewal price and the hidden fees
The Lite plan starts around $2.95 a month on a 36-month term for one site, with a free domain for year one, daily backups and a free CDN. Pro and Premium add more resources and performance.
Lite renews at roughly $10.95 a month, close to a 3.7x increase, in line with the mid-market and below Bluehost.
A 30-day money-back guarantee applies.
Not in the headline price:
- The free first-year domain renews at the standard rate.
- The entry plan's web storage is modest; a media-heavy site moves up a tier.
- Phone support is limited-hours, not 24/7.
Speed and uptime, from independent tests
GreenGeeks runs LiteSpeed with LSCache and a free CDN, so a well-built site is fast. Independent comparisons put it slightly behind Hostinger on raw speed but ahead of Bluehost and HostGator, with uptime meeting its 99.9% guarantee.
Datacenters are in the US (Chicago, Phoenix), Canada (Toronto) and the Netherlands (Amsterdam), so North America and Europe are covered but Asia and the southern hemisphere are not.
The support experience
Support is 24/7 live chat and tickets, plus phone during business hours. Independent tests generally rate it above Namecheap and roughly level with Bluehost for helpfulness. There are some user reports of a support mistake causing an email outage, so it is not flawless.
Migrating a site in and out
One free migration. cPanel-based, so moving in or out is a standard transfer.
Security, backups and account isolation
Free SSL, daily backups, real-time security scanning, automatic account isolation, and a custom firewall. DDoS protection is at the network level.
Who it suits, and who should look elsewhere
Use GreenGeeks if
- A small North American or European site that wants daily backups and a CDN included without paying up a tier.
- Buyers for whom the renewable-energy commitment matters.
- Anyone who wants cPanel and a familiar shared-hosting workflow.
Look elsewhere if
- Sites with an audience in Asia, Australia, Africa or South America: no datacenter is near them.
- Anyone optimising purely for speed (Hostinger) or purely for the lowest renewal (DreamHost, Namecheap).
GreenGeeks alternatives worth a look
If GreenGeeks is not quite right, these are the hosts we would look at instead:
- Hostinger: Faster and cheaper to renew, with far wider datacenter choice.
- DreamHost: A gentler renewal and a 97-day guarantee, also with daily backups.
- SiteGround: The premium step up for speed and support.
The bottom line
GreenGeeks is a competent, fairly-priced shared host that includes things (daily backups, a CDN) that rivals charge extra for or reserve for higher tiers. The renewable-energy angle is a genuine bonus rather than the main reason to choose it.
It is held back by a North-America-and-EU-only datacenter map and by not being the best at any single thing. For a small site in those regions, it is a safe, reasonable choice.
Specs and features at a glance
| Starting price | $2.95/mo (36-month term) |
|---|---|
| Renews at | $10.95/mo |
| Storage | 10 GB (web) |
| Bandwidth | Unmetered |
| Sites (entry plan) | 1 |
| Free domain | Year 1 |
| Free SSL | Yes |
| Free migration | Yes |
| Backups | Daily |
| Money-back | 30 days |
| Support | 24/7 live chat, Ticket, Phone (limited hours) |
| Datacenters | USA, Canada, Netherlands |
Sources
Pricing and specs on this page were checked against: