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GreenGeeks Review: Is this REALLY Eco-Friendly?

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Why Trust Us

“We have been a paying customer for GreenGeeks since April 2017.

We are monitoring GreenGeeks’s shared hosting servers for Uptime and Performance through our Test Website.

This review of GreenGeeks is based on actual testing done on their servers.”

Think fast: why don’t you do more for the environment?

Okay, well, assuming you think it’s important. The question stands: what stops you?

Convenience is a big one. Cost is usually the other.

What if I told you that you can actually help the environment in your hosting and that you can do this without much extra cost OR loss of convenience?

And what if I told you that on top of not being bad, it’s actually GOOD?

Enter GreenGeeks. GreenGeeks is a web hosting company that has grown in popularity to the point of becoming a reputable name in the hosting world.

GreenGeeks was founded in United States by Trey Gardner in 2008.

I even added this as my favorite host in my list of the best web hosting providers.

GreenGeeks stands out, particularly for its environmental friendliness. GreenGeeks invests in renewable green energy to make green web. But it doesn’t just invest a small amount:

greengeeks platformGreenGeeks calculates how much it invests in renewable energy by TRIPLING whatever it takes out of the electricity grid.

The result is that you’re not just using less energy, but you’re actually REDUCING carbon emissions when you use GreenGeeks’ servers.

But…hey, I’m a realist. I love the environment like all of you. But we all know that can’t be the only reason you look into GreenGeeks, nice as it is.

So when push comes to shove, is GreenGeeks more a gimmick, or an effective host?

It’s great.

I’ve been testing GreenGeeks for months, so in this GreenGeeks hosting Review, I’m going to tell you about my experience right now, and why I just said it’s great. Let’s jump in.

Uptime

Alright, so it’s good for the environment. That’s great…for the environment. But what about me? I’m not running a charity!

Guess what? GreenGeeks, by my measurements, has GREAT uptime:

greengeeks review

Uptime
99.52%
Response Time
509ms
Here’s the average Uptime:
  • Sep 2021: 99.99%
  • Aug 2021: 99.99%
  • July 2021: 99.99%
  • June 2021: 99.96%
  • May 2021: 99.98%
  • Apr 2021: 99.99%
  • Mar 2021: 99.98%
  • Feb 2021: 99.96%
  • Jan 2021: 99.99%
  • Dec 2020: 99.99%
  • Nov 2020: 99.99%
  • Oct 2020: 100%
  • Sep 2020: 99.99%
  • Aug 2020: 99.62%
  • Jul 2020: 99.97%
  • Jun 2020: 99.78%
  • May 2020: 99.95%
  • Apr 2020: 100%
  • Mar 2020: 98.97%
  • Feb 2020: 99.87%
  • Jan 2020: 100%
  • Dec 2019: 99.96%
  • Nov 2019: 100%
  • Oct 2019: 100%
  • Sep 2019: 100%
  • Aug 2019: 99.75%
  • Jul 2019: 100%
  • Jun 2019: 99.98%
  • May 2019: 100%
  • Apr 2019: 99.96%
  • Mar 2019: 100%
  • Feb 2019: 100%
  • Jan 2019: 100%
  • Dec 2018: 100%
  • Nov 2018: 100%
  • Oct 2018: 99.96%
  • Sep 2018: 99.99%
  • Aug 2018: 100%
  • Jul 2018: 99.96%
  • Jun 2018: 99.96%
  • May 2018: 100%
  • Apr 2018: 100%
  • Mar 2018: 99.89%
  • Feb 2018: 100%
  • Jan 2018: 100%
Here’s the average Response Time:
  • Sep 2021: 618ms
  • Aug 2021: 609ms
  • July 2021: 541ms
  • June 2021: 531ms
  • May 2021: 536ms
  • Apr 2021: 553ms
  • Mar 2021: 554ms
  • Feb 2021: 532ms
  • Jan 2021: 533ms
  • Dec 2020: 517ms
  • Nov 2020: 495ms
  • Oct 2020: 499ms
  • Sep 2020: 504ms
  • Aug 2020: 528ms
  • Jul 2020: 515ms
  • Jun 2020: 504ms
  • May 2020: 513ms
  • Apr 2020: 508ms
  • Mar 2020: 509ms
  • Feb 2020: 517ms
  • Jan 2020: 285ms
  • Dec 2019: 439ms
  • Nov 2019: 285ms
  • Oct 2019: 299ms
  • Sep 2019: 321ms
  • Aug 2019: 581ms
  • Jul 2019: 305ms
  • Jun 2019: 413ms
  • May 2019: 373ms
  • Apr 2019: 402ms
  • Mar 2019: 366ms
  • Feb 2019: 347ms
  • Jan 2019: 424ms
  • Dec 2018: 406ms
  • Nov 2018: 424ms
  • Oct 2018: 327ms
  • Sep 2018: 270ms
  • Aug 2018: 378ms
  • Jul 2018: 327ms
  • Jun 2018: 352ms
  • May 2018: 366ms
  • Apr 2018: 269ms
  • Mar 2018: 235ms
  • Feb 2018: 268ms
  • Jan 2018: 242ms

Do you SEE that? In five years that we’ve formally measured it, the uptime has been near perfect. 

This already makes GreenGeeks one of the highest performing hosts we’ve ever used. But it doesn’t stop there.

Look at those response times.

There really isn’t much more I can say here: the numbers speak for themselves. Of all the hosts we’ve measured, GreenGeeks is one of the best simply for its outstanding uptime and response times.

Suffice it to say, performance is not affected by the ethical choice AT ALL…but what about your convenience?

Ease of Use

Yeah, that’s the other thing to worry about. Especially if you’re not super familiar with hosting, it’s reasonable to expect a company with a pro-environment niche might be a little difficult.

This hasn’t been true at all, for me.

Let’s start with the basics. Here’s how straightforward the dashboard is:

greengeeks dashboardSeriously, you just login and everything you need is right there.

Need to view your account or purchases? Just head to the top.

Need to access customer support? Same thing.

Need to do some more complicated stuff? Click the button at the bottom to quickly head to your cPanel (Control Panel).

greengeeks cpanelSo actually, the GreenGeeks hosting dashboard is cleaner than most hosts I’ve used.

This is a point of complaint for me, believe it or not…

Personally, I prefer to have a clean interface (check) that also compactly puts a lot of different functions together. GreenGeeks is a bit too spread out for me.

But, if ease of use is important to you, I don’t think GreenGeeks will disappoint.

So far, things are looking decent. Let’s talk about how much ease of use costs, and what else you get for those prices:

Pricing and Features

Let me start with some of the most popular options: the shared hosting plans.

Details Lite Pro Premium
Space 50 GB Unlimited Unlimited
Bandwidth Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited
Panel cPanel cPanel cPanel
Number of Sites One Unlimited Unlimited
Price $2.95/mo. $5.95/mo. $10.95/mo.
  More Details More Details More Details
 Free Domain is included when purchasing any service from GreenGeeks hosting

Server Locations: Chicago Phoenix Toronto Amsterdam Montreal

I won’t lie to you. GreenGeeks shared hosting plans are feature rich. That’s why GreenGeeks is one of our favorite hosting in Godaddy alternatives.

I look first at the entry level. Usually, you can’t expect too much out of the entry-level, even if things look good on paper, because that’s just the nature of shared hosting.

But even if resources are naturally constrained, GreenGeeks’ shared hosting plans are insanely well-featured from the first tier upwards.

For Lite, you have 50 GB SSD space—which is better than traditional HDD storage and thus usually more restricted on shared plans.

Bandwidth is unlimited (which really means unmetered), as are email accounts…the number of domains you can host.

That’s a big one, actually: a person can host a ton of domains for an affordable price cheaply, as long as they’re not running the shared server to its capacity.

So unsurprisingly, you also get unlimited MySQL databases. Again, assuming your sites aren’t too resource-heavy, you could effectively host a lot of sites on the cheapest shared plan.

That’s really unique, especially if you just need a quick placeholder for an experiment.

But even aside from that, you get free Wildcard SSL, one free domain included a free site builder, a free website transfer, cPanel, Cloudflare CDN, and nightly backups.

Some of those are common, I’ll admit. But nightly backups and Cloudflare CDN (which boosts performance for your traffic) are unique. Having them included by default for the lowest tiered plan is KILLER.

You can also get PCI compliance with add-ons. The main thing that happens as you upgrade shared hosting plans is your performance gets boosted: the latter two tiers get better computing resources, plus PowerCacher technology.

Plus, more emails and the highest tier gets PCI compliance included by default. On paper, the list of things you get as you upgrade isn’t high in quantity…but believe me, QUALITY is definitely boosted on the higher tiers.

So all in all, these are some of the most feature-packed shared hosting plans I’ve EVER seen.

As far as price goes, things are pretty normal: the first-term prices are normal, but on the lower side, and the renewal prices are pretty standard.

So all things considered, GreenGeeks shared plans (especially its first tier) gives you a ton of features and resources, and for pretty normal prices.

Obviously, that’s not all GreenGeeks has to offer. Let’s check out their VPS hosting:

Plan Name Space RAM CPU Price
2 GB 50 GB 2 GB 4 cores $39.95
4 GB 75 GB 4 GB 4 cores $59.95
8 GB 150 GB 8 GB 6 cores $109.95
         
         

On the face of it, these plans are on the pricier side.

When you take a more holistic approach, they’re pretty average as far as price goes.

Keep in mind that you’re starting out with 4 cores and 1,000GB of premium bandwidth, so there’s a lot of quality going into these plans from the get-go.

SSD RAID-10 storage is super high-quality storage: in short, it improves both security and performance. So it makes sense that $39.95 a month gets you 50GB of storage because it’s super high-quality storage.

Though, I still think it’s a tad low for the price, personally. And I’m not sure if 1GB of RAM should be that expensive, EVEN IF you’re in pursuit of quality.

Anyway, upgrading VPS tiers just add to your resources. For the most part, this is good, but the only problem is you can never get past 6 cores even if you’re paying for the most expensive option.

GreenGeeks’ also has a pretty straightforward process for upgrading VPS resources.

vps scalableBut the thing is…

That’s not unusual. In fact, a lot of hosting companies offer scalable VPS hosting plans that let you pay per resource overage instead of dealing with preset plans, at affordable rates.

So basically, because of the prices and some resource limitations, I can’t say GreenGeeks’ VPS options are a great deal for a lot of smaller businesses. And yes, even though they’re scalable.

A lot of small businesses can get VPS hosting plans that provide a little more storage and resources for similar or lower cost with GreenGeeks’ competitors.

Don’t doubt the quality of these plans though.

If security and performance are absolute top requirements for you, and the resource allocations of these plans aren’t too little for you, then GreenGeeks provides top-tier VPS quality for RELATIVELY reasonable prices.

It’s a similar story for GreenGeeks’ dedicated server options.

Details ENTRY STANDARD ELITE PRO
RAM 2 GB 4 GB 8 GB 16 GB
CPU Intel Atom 330 Dual Core Xeon E3-1220 3.1Ghz Xeon E3-1230 3.2Ghz w/HT Xeon E5-2620 2.0Ghz w/HT
Space 500 GB 1000 GB 1000 GB 1000 GB
IP Addresses 5 5 5 5
Price $169/mo. $269/mo. $319/mo. $439/mo.

The good news:

Prices are decent. You know, as far as dedicated servers go, which are always the priciest options.

The better news:

The quality of the dedicated servers is, as the VPSs, pretty top notch. Plus, upgrading to pricier servers adds real technical improvements.

Do note, however, that you might not necessarily want to upgrade to a more expensive plan right away. Not everyone will need the high-end specs of the latter two plans, like 16 GB DDR 3 memory.

Plus, some of the lower plans provide a higher GHz at the cost of a lower-end processor. For a lot of people, these “lower-end” models aren’t effectively that low-end, and will get the job done just fine.

And there’s a problem that makes me hesitant to give GreenGeeks two thumbs up for the dedicated plans:

Other hosts offer similarly priced dedicated plans, or even cheaper plans, that have more resources allocated. They might be lower quality, but probably not enough to really affect you.

So as you’d expect, whether these dedicated servers are right for you depends a lot on your own business needs. Speaking generally, GreenGeeks’ dedicated servers are good and priced reasonably.

We’re not done yet! GreenGeeks has one last line of hosting products up its sleeves:

GreenGeeks Reseller Plans

Yep, reseller hosting: for people who need multiple hosting accounts. Typically, these people are—you guessed it—using their reseller space to sell to third parties, clients.

Now after the VPS and dedicated plans, you might expect some pricier reseller options.

Nope. GreenGeeks has a lot of tiers, but when you consider how many accounts you can hold per plan, they’re seriously great deals.

First of all, these prices are about normal for reseller plans. But secondly, they’re quite capable.

You start with 25 accounts (25 cPanel accounts) and get 60 GB SSD storage. You can increase that to 80 accounts max.

The more accounts you purchase, the better off a deal the price is, even the price technically increases.

Plus, you get free website migration, free email accounts, unlimited MySQL databases, the drag-and-drop website builder, wholesale domain purchases/transfers, and 24/7 support just for resellers.

Importantly, you get special security protection and the tech for your plan has some great specs (SSD RAID-10 storage, CDN, PHP7, etc).

And best of all?

resellerYou can control how to allocate your plan’s resources between your accounts.

None of this is totally uncommon for reseller hosting, but GreenGeeks has all the essentials for great specs, all the necessary features, and decent prices.

Wait, doesn’t GreenGeeks have to suck somehow?

Nope. The worst thing you can really say about GreenGeeks’ hosting services is that some of them are too high quality and pricy for those with more relaxed needs.

But for anyone who needs top-tier specs and servers, GreenGeeks’ VPS and dedicated options are pretty good.

And if you want reseller or shared hosting, then GreenGeeks’ plans are actually a GREAT deal.

But of course, those who are less familiar with hosting may feel a little put off by the number of features and specifications I’ve talked about. Fear not…

GreenGeeks Review: Customer Support

Fear not, because GreenGeeks has invested in customer support.

If you’re in need of help, you can hit up GreenGeeks’ onsite information:

support The first time I checked out the website tutorials, I was SUPER impressed.

tutorialsThat’s because there were a ton of tutorials covering a range of topics. Each category has a lot of articles under it, and I like that some of the more difficult things—like Joomla or Drupal—get a lot of attention.

But then I realized that these tutorials would be part of a single knowledge base with other hosts.

So it’s not that the tutorial section is equivalent to the knowledge base, it’s realistically more like a separated half of the knowledge base.

As for the knowledge base section?

knowledgebaseIt’s not bad. It’s not as large as some other knowledge bases, but it’s very clear, well-organized, and practical.

In my opinion, if you take both the knowledge base and tutorials into account, you’re looking at a pretty solid set of on-site information that can rival most other hosts’. Plus it’s a little easier to find what you need, in my opinion.

If you’d prefer to speak to someone, there are three ways you can do so:

support contactEmail support is the surprisingly fast. I know that GreenGeeks’ says the average time is 15-20 minutes, but I’ve had a lot of hosting companies tell me email is fast.

Luckily, GreenGeeks lives up to its expectations. Don’t count on 15 minutes, but you’ll still get a response much more speedily than anywhere else. Unless you’re unlucky.

The phone support is good, but I’ll admit to being a bit disappointed by the limited hours.

It’s not the end of the world. You can’t expect 24/7 support from everyone, and at least the lines are open during the weekend, too. Plus, it’s beyond normal business hours. Unfortunate, but minor.

And the live chat? Um…see for yourself:

chat Seems simple. Wait, there’s a twist coming up:

chat Yep. Look, I’m not going to hammer a customer service rep for a simple mistake like that. Having said that, waiting 2 minutes to get the wrong answer and 5 minutes to get a confirmation to a simple question, is not really ideal.

Now, usually, my experiences with GreenGeeks’ reps via live chat are…not too different.

I usually get the right answer. Buttttt…

Sometimes the right answer takes a little. Sometimes reps don’t know or don’t communicate super clearly. Ultimately, it’s not a major concern, but good to know.

So what’s the takeaway for GreenGeeks’ customer support?

In short: representatives’ customer service skills are so-so, depending on a mixture of luck and the method you’re using to contact them.

And the on-site information and resources are pretty solid, but nothing exceptional. All-around, customer service with GreenGeeks is good, but not excellent.

GreenGeeks Review: Security

Alright, friends. It’s time we take on that last, crucial aspect of hosting: security.

If you’ve read this far, you know that some of GreenGeeks’ plans offer good specifications and tech, plus security add-ons and features like: regular backups, SSL, PCI-compliance, and so on.

And you also know that GreenGeeks has got some great performance. But what’s the state of GreenGeeks’ security, aside from how things look on the customer’s end?

Here’s something that sounds basic, but is really important:

data center locationsWhat’s so special about having multiple data centers? Well, without being too complicated, it’s good to not put all your eggs in one basket.

You’d think that’s common sense, but some companies can be incentivized to stuff as much as they can into as few data centers as possible, and neglect the security in those data centers.

This is something Endurance International Group, a hosting conglomerate that owns some of the most popular hosting companies (like Bluehost and HostGator) has been accused of and suffered negative press for.

But GreenGeeks is independently owned and very transparent about its security, unlike some bigger competitors.

I mean, at least GreenGeeks will tell you about this:

securityCompared to hosts that just brag about security and performance without even mentioning specific security measures, GreenGeeks is doing okay.

But as far as the actual stuff GreenGeeks has in place, I can’t complain. It looks like they’ve got a lot of security measures that keep up-to-date and protect customers.

Not to mention, there are add-ons and extra tools available for GreenGeeks’ customers to add extra layers on of protection on their own end.

All-in-all, GreenGeeks has good security.

I’ll add it to the list of positive things GreenGeeks has going for it:

Pros

Yep. Here’s what GreenGeeks is good at.

  • Shared web host pricing is decent overall. When you look at all the resources that come with shared hosting, it’s a great deal.
  • Building on that, you also get good features with shared hosting plans, in addition to solid resources.
  • Performance, by my measurements, has been REALLY freaking good.
  • Reseller plans on GreenGeeks are a pretty good deal, as they incorporate good specs as well as good features for pretty standard pricing.
  • Overall, GreenGeeks is pretty easy to get started with and to use regularly. Nothing special, but it’s still a strength.
  • Aside from the security GreenGeeks has for its data centers, some of the VPS and dedicated hosting plans have nice specs, and are reliable plus secure.
  • BUT on that note, GreenGeeks also has good security for its datacenters!

Hm. I feel like I’m forgetting something.

Ohhhhhhhh, right.

  • ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY! Again, instead of just causing less harm to the environment, you’re HELPING the environment by using GreenGeeks’ servers.

Cons

Let’s be real though. GreenGeeks has some weaknesses:

  • If you want to get the best deal on shared hosting, you’ll probably need to commit to a certain length of time (which means a higher upfront cost). This isn’t unique to GreenGeeks, but still SUCKS.
  • GreenGeeks’ VPS and dedicated hosting plans are good, but probably overkill for small businesses, without enough bang for the buck.
  • GreenGeeks customer service can be iffy when it comes to living chat. Not exactly bad, but not great either.
  • GreenGeeks offers 30 day money back guarantee, which I personally believe, is pretty standard. I was expecting more.

GreenGeeks Review: Do I Recommend GreenGeeks?

Do you know what happened the first time I heard about GreenGeeks?

I tried to justify it, mentally. I heard Greengeeks was environmentally friendly, and started immediately thinking about what is worth compromising for a clear conscience.

But after learning more about it and eventually testing it, there’s something I’m a little embarrassed to say:

I don’t even think about GreenGeeks and the environment that much anymore. Why? Because I just think of GreenGeeks as an all-around strong host, with great performance.

And then sometimes I remember the “Green” in GreenGeeks and feel good about that nice bonus.

But that should tell you the gist: GreenGeeks has a lot of strengths that make it a great option, even aside from its most unique feature.

So here we go: do I recommend GreenGeeks?

If you prioritize performance, yes. GreenGeeks has one of the BEST uptime and response time records of all the hosts I’ve tested.

As an added bonus, the shared prices are pretty normal. I wouldn’t call them cheap, so if you’re prioritizing affordability, GreenGeeks may not be as ideal. Nonetheless, proportionate to performance, they’re pretty good.

The main strength of GreenGeeks is in the shared web hosting plans, because they perform well, are decently priced, and have tons of features/resources. Plus, higher quality resources, like SSD storage instead of regular HDD storage.

The reseller options are also a fairly good deal, though it doesn’t stand out as much as the shared plans.

The VPS and dedicated options are not for everyone: if you don’t mind paying more for good quality, go for it. HOWEVER:

Small businesses should keep in mind that there may be some resource constraints on some plans that may not make the price worth it.

It can be a better idea to take a VPS or dedicated option with another host that is more affordable but still decent quality.

Aside from that, GreenGeeks’ flaws aren’t too serious. GreenGeeks is an all-around solid host, and it’s ESPECIALLY great for shared web hosting.

Don’t take my word for it. See for yourself: you can try GreenGeeks for 30 days, risk-free!

Still, if you are not convinced by the green power & wind energy, then you can checkout these GreenGeeks alternatives: Bluehost, A2Hosting or FastComet.

FAQs


Is GreenGeeks any good for WordPress?

The short answer is yes.
The longer answer: yes, but depending on your needs, it might not be the best choice possible.

GreenGeeks will do fine with WordPress. Its web hosting is generous and, again, has great performance.

But if you prioritize easy setups and site migration, or solid managed WordPress plans, some other hosts might be better suited. Primarily: Bluehost, DreamHost, and HostGator are all great options. Plus, they have good performance too.

You can check out more in-depth info on the best WordPress hosts here.

Is a domain name included in any of the shared hosting plans?

Yes, a free domain is included for every shared plan, but only one. This means that you can do one domain registration for free or transfer a domain you’ve already registered for free.

Also, you can only do this if you commit to 1, 2, or 3-year terms.

Does GreenGeeks have cloud hosting?

No, GreenGeeks does not directly offer a cloud-hosting-only set of plans.

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Feb 21, 2022

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We have been using GreenGeeks server in the past and it has good speed and reliable uptime performance. Pricing wise it is good but the renewals are pretty high. Still you can use them for initial 3 years period without any issue. Also, their support is fast and prompt.
David Fønsbo
http://greenlytica.com/


Sep 12, 2021

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I got tricked by their inode limitation which are NOT available when you sign up! During the transfer of my 5th domain i got a message saying I used all my inodes! I signed up for Unlimited Webspace and Unlimited Domains. But there is a very long way from 5 websites to Unlimited... After talking to their chat support and getting nowhere - they wanted me to upgrade, and they cancelled my account a few days later. You can find a lot of Green companies out there. GreenGeeks is the only company who use blatantly it in their marketing. Besides, most companies have 99.99% uptime. But new hosting companies are able to offer 100% uptime because of redundancy. Because of Goolge's new fantasies about user experience we need servers with a ttfb time less than 250 ms! GreenGeeks can't handle that!