GreenGeeks Review – Do Their “Green Hosting” Worth It?

With more than 12 years in business, GreenGeeks is a pretty experienced small business. The company boasts over 500,000 hosted websites and a ton of hands-on experience with web development. From small site owners to developers managing 50 or more client websites, GreenGeeks caters to every hosting need.

The founder, Trey Gardner, has built seven other web hosting companies. But what’s probably the most impressive about the company is that GreenGeeks offers a 99.9 percent uptime guarantee and maintains a commitment to keeping as green as possible.

Their focus on renewable energy and offsetting their impact on the environment is pretty cool. GreenGeeks also ensures 100 percent customer satisfaction, so it seems like you can’t go wrong by choosing this web host.

That said, our GreenGeeks review will look at the ins and outs of the company. We include the perks and drawbacks of selecting one of their hosting plans and honestly reviewing their services. Let’s get started.

GreenGeeks Overview

The Upsides to Using GreenGeeks

You’ve probably heard that GreenGeeks is easy to use and responsive with their customer support. Here are all the upsides to choosing them as your website builder, including how well their claims stack up.

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1. Bold Uptime Claims Are True

A lot of hosting companies claim almost unbelievable uptimes. But in GreenGeeks’ case, it’s apparently true. Tons of their customers offer positive feedback, highlighting how few website outages they’ve experienced.

The generator backups at their server locations likely help with the impressive uptime. Of course, individual results may vary, and some downtime is to be expected. But with this host, you can expect it to be supremely low.

2. Page Loading Time Is Tops

No matter how great your web hosting company is, page loading time is one accurate measure of its value. You want a site that loads fast—and GreenGeeks delivers. Especially with WordPress, the host promises super-fast loading and claims they’ve received global recognition for their performance.

The actual test is to run page loading analyses on your website (once you sign up). For now, you’ll have to take our word for it that GreenGeeks is certifiably fast.

3. 24/7 Support Is a Perk

You might not need comprehensive customer service or a live chat option if you’re an expert developer. But for anyone who has many questions about getting started with their website, email, VPS hosting, or domain registration, access to a live person, is invaluable.

Accessing customer support is as easy as initiating an online chat, sending an email, or dialing up the phone. Anytime you jump onto the website, you can open a chat window and get your questions answered.

At the same time, you’ll also find comprehensive resources on the GreenGeeks website. If you’re a self-help guru, this is the place to find how-tos and guides on just about everything hosting-related.

Whether you’re running WordPress or another app on your site, the experts at GreenGeeks have probably written an article or created a video tutorial with the answers. From how to install your free SSL certificate in WordPress to how to add weight-based shipping to WooCommerce, all the answers are searchable and easy to understand.

4. Moving? GreenGeeks Makes It Easy

Free domain name registration and website migration are two more perks with GreenGeeks. If you need to bring your site from elsewhere, experts can make the transition seamless. This is a must if you’re not technically inclined (or even if you are).

Customer service handles every step for you, and all you need to do is provide login information and other details.

5. GreenGeeks Is Pretty Green

Are the Green Geeks green? Apparently so. But what’s a green web host? According to GreenGeeks, they use green energy to run their organization. They are recognized as a Green power partner by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and have been since 2009.

Not only that, but GreenGeeks also works to reduce its carbon footprint. The company collaborates with the Bonneville Environmental Foundation in Portland, Oregon, to calculate the company footprint each year. Then, they purchase three times that amount of Renewable Energy Certificates to offset their energy usage.

Such a purchase covers GreenGeeks and two other companies of a similar size—helping reduce energy consumption and reduce the negative impacts of web hosts the world over. We have to agree it’s an excellent effort toward helping the environment and staying eco-conscious.

If consciousness for the planet is essential to you, you may want to choose this company based on that merit alone. Then again, there are plenty of other reasons to sign on with them.

6. Money-Back Guarantee: Need We Say More?

Knowing that you can get your money back is a highlight when you’re signing on with a web host. With GreenGeeks, you have 30 days to request a no-questions-asked refund on your services.

Of course, there is a bit of a catch—but more on that later.

7. Backups Happen Around the Clock

GreenGeeks hosting is well-loved for many reasons, but one is that it helps customers feel secure. One way that customer service achieves this is by running routine backups daily. Actually, they take place each evening. Additional security measures continue protecting your site all day and night, too.

Instead of worrying over losing information off your site, you can rest easy knowing that backups are automatic. Security is built-in, too, with optional password protection, security scanning, spam protection, and more.

8. Global Server Locations

Green Geek hosting uses global server locations in four places:

• Chicago, US
• Phoenix, US
• Montreal, CA
• Amsterdam, NL

You choose your dedicated server to know where your data is stored (and that it’s secure). Not only does each server run on renewable energy, but it also involves high-level security and multiple hardware and software protections.

For example, each data center has climate control, 24/7 security, fire suppression, water detection systems, and generators. The server parts are name-brand, and minimum specifications include gigabit connectivity and RAID-10 SSD storage arrays for heightened performance.

9. The CDN Is Free

Web hosting with GreenGeeks involves a Content Delivery Network (CDN) that’s free. Why does this matter?

Well, everyone who uses the web uses a CDN. A free CDN helps optimize your site, cache content and allows servers near web visitors to deliver said content. In short, the CDN improves your site visitors’ experience—at no extra charge.

The Downsides to Choosing GreenGeeks

Hosting on GreenGeeks sounds like a great deal. But there are a couple of downsides to choosing them as your web host.

1. The Pricing Isn’t Perfect

While pricing begins at $2.95, per their advertising materials, you only receive that rate when signing up for a longer-term service. You’ll need to sign up for three years of hosting to get that low monthly rate. Choose a more expensive plan, and the same long-term lock-in applies.

Of course, this is similar to the pricing strategies employed by countless other web hosts. Still, it’s worth noting since low prices are always attractive to anyone looking to start a website from scratch.

2. Refunds May Not Be Complete

GreenGeeks offers a money-back guarantee. But according to GreenGeeks reviews, you may not get all your cashback if you take advantage of the guarantee.

Despite what their customer support may advertise, you won’t get back your setup fees, domain registration amounts, or transfer costs if you take advantage of the cashback policy. However, you will retain rights to your domain, so the domain registration fee withholding does make sense.

That said, it’s not a complete money-back guarantee, which could rub some users the wrong way.

GreenGeeks Pricing & Plans

Along with the basic plans above, there are a few other options for hosting with GreenGeeks.

Web Hosting

GreenGeeks’ basic shared hosting plan falls under their standard shared web hosting category. There are three primary options. The Lite package goes as low as $2.95 when you sign up for the ‘special offer’ of three years of hosting. Standard pricing is $10.95 each month if you don’t take advantage of long-term pricing.

The Pro package costs $5.95 when you sign up for three years of service. Otherwise, Pro costs $15.95 for a regular one-year term. Premium packages start at $10.95 per month, or $25.95 if you forgo the longer-term contract.

All the packages include:

• Unlimited webspace
• 1-click app installer
• Unlimited data transfer
• Free domain name for the first year
• Free Wildcard SSL
• PowerCacher

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Reseller Hosting

Reseller hosting is available for anywhere from 10 to 50 hosting accounts. Prices start at $19.95 (regularly $32.95) and go up to $34.95 (regularly $67.99) for each month when billed as part of your special long-term deal.

Reseller hosting is what you’ll need as a professional developer managing clients’ websites. Unlimited SSD web space and bandwidth are highlighted, and a WHMCS license is included.

WordPress Hosting

WordPress hosting is similar to the basic web host packages, only specialized for WordPress users. Under the Lite, Pro, and Premium plans, you’ll find the same capabilities as the standard web hosting options. The pricing is also the same.

But with the WordPress option, you also get perks like:

• 1-Click WordPress Install
• Automatic WordPress Updates
• Free WordPress Migration
• Super-Fast Page Loads

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VPS Hosting

GreenGeeks also offers VPS hosting for those who are serious about a dedicated, virtual server. Packages range from $39.95, billed monthly, to $109.95 each month, depending on the amount of disk space you choose. With these packages, you get managed support from the GreenGeeks team, plus cPanel, 10TB transfer, and 50 GB SSD Disk Space.

GreenGeeks: What’s the Bottom Line?

If going green matters to you, you can’t argue with GreenGeeks’ logic. The fact that they invest so much in offsetting the company’s carbon footprint is admirable. But we also like their commitment to keeping their customers happy.

The company clearly cares about its subscribers from responsive customer service to money-back guarantees (even if it’s not a full refund). Plus, the competitive uptime and site speeds are some of the best we’ve seen.

We’re not huge fans of the pricing bait-and-switch, but if you’re looking for long-term hosting and support, signing up for a three-year term isn’t a bad idea. At least you can lock in the cheap rates—and still get great support whenever you need it.