SiteGround hosting in 2026: what StartUp really costs over three years

The short version

• Cheapest plan for one WordPress site: StartUp, $2.99 a month for the first 12 months, prepaid ($35.88). It hosts one website with 10 GB of storage.
• What renews: after year one, StartUp costs $17.99 a month on a 12-month term, or $14.99 a month if you renew for 24 months. That is five to six times the intro price.
• 3-year cost: $467.64 with yearly renewals, or $395.64 if you renew once for two years. Keep the free domain at SiteGround and add $45.98.
• Who it is for: one-site owners who want managed WordPress hosting with daily backups and a free first move, and who budget for the renewal.

Web hosting is the rented server space where your site’s files and database live. New to how it works? Our encyclopedia entry on web hosting covers the background.

What the cheapest plan really costs over three years

SiteGround’s sales pages show the StartUp intro price only as “Prepaid for 12 months.” Its current-rates help article lists regular StartUp terms of 1, 12 and 24 months. No 36-month term is listed, so you cannot lock in the intro price for three years.

The arithmetic:

• Year 1: $2.99 × 12 = $35.88.
• Yearly renewals: $17.99 × 12 = $215.88 a year, so $215.88 × 2 = $431.76. Total $35.88 + $431.76 = $467.64.
• One 24-month renewal: $14.99 × 24 = $359.76. Total $35.88 + $359.76 = $395.64. You pay the $359.76 in one go at the end of year 1.

For year 4, you renew again at the regular price: $17.99 a month on a 12-month term or $14.99 a month on a 24-month term. Paying month to month costs more, $24.99 a month. Prices exclude sales tax.

The free domain. For a limited time, all plans include a free domain for the first year. If you keep it at SiteGround, a .com renews at $22.99 a year, so years 2 and 3 add $45.98. SiteGround has not published a new .com price for the November 1, 2026 .com wholesale increase on the pages we checked. That makes the 3-year totals $513.62 (yearly renewals) or $441.62 (24-month renewal). Domain privacy is free for 12 months only, and SiteGround does not publish the price after that. A cheaper domain registrar can lower that part of the bill.

The plans in one table

SiteGround says new signups may get a discount for the first period only. Regular prices apply to every renewal after that.

What is included

• SSL: free on all plans, so your site loads over HTTPS.
• Backups: automatic daily backups. On shared hosting, SiteGround keeps up to 30 daily copies. Its help article lists restore options for all backups but does not state a restore price. GrowBig and GoGeek add 5 free on-demand backup slots. StartUp does not.
• Email: free email on all plans. The sales page describes “unlimited email accounts at your own domain.”
• Site migration: your first migration is free, and WordPress users can use the free SiteGround Migrator plugin. A price for further professional moves is not published on the pages we checked.
• CDN: included on all plans. SiteGround says it has 170+ edge locations.
• Staging: GrowBig and GoGeek only (GoGeek adds Git). It is not listed for StartUp.

The uptime promise

SiteGround’s uptime page refers to “our 99.9% uptime guarantee.” Uptime is the share of time your site is reachable. Treat this as a promise, not a measurement.

That page does not say what you get if SiteGround misses 99.9%, and we could not read the credit terms in its Terms of Service. Ask support before you rely on a credit.

Leaving later

• Full backups: on any plan, you can zip your site’s files in Site Tools’ File Manager (or download them by FTP) and export the MySQL database with phpMyAdmin. Downloading SiteGround’s own backup copies as files needs the paid Premium Backups service. Its price is not published on the pages we checked.
• Refund window: 30 days from activation on shared hosting plans. A renewal is fully refunded if you cancel within 30 days of paying and before the new term starts. If the new term has started, cancelling within those 30 days gets you the renewal fee back less the first month.
• The free domain: domain fees are not refundable, and SiteGround says a domain fee waived in a promotion “may be due upon cancellation.” The amount is not stated.
• Cancellation fee: none is mentioned on the pages we checked.
• Moving the domain: ICANN rules let a registrar block a transfer for 60 days after you register a domain. SiteGround’s own transfer-out steps were not on the pages we checked. Our domain transfer guide and moving your website guide walk through the general steps.

Who it is right for, and who should look elsewhere

Right for:

• One WordPress site owner who wants daily backups, free SSL, email and a free first move in one place.
• People who will pay $215.88 a year after year one, or $359.76 for two years, for a managed host.
• Anyone needing staging, if they choose GrowBig or higher.

Look elsewhere if:

• Your budget is set by the 3-year total, not the first-year price.
• You want the intro price locked for three years. SiteGround does not list a 36-month term.
• You want staging or on-demand backups on the cheapest plan.

To compare SiteGround’s 3-year cost with a website builder, see what a website costs or try the cost calculator.

Sources

SiteGround: WordPress hosting pricing, web hosting plans, current rates of shared hosting plans, domain prices, backup service, download a full backup, refund policy, uptime page. ICANN: Transfer Policy.