SiteGround vs BigRock – Hard to Choose, but I Did [2024]

BigRock is one of India’s leading web hosts who offer ridiculously cheap hosting packages. However, I was amazed at how limited its features were in comparison to SiteGround.

To evaluate BigRock and SiteGround, I tested both services across multiple parameters, including; features, pricing, performance, and security. BigRock scored well on performance, but SiteGround turned out to be better value for money by offering a boatload of features with its web hosting plans.

Click here to see SiteGround’s latest deals or keep reading to see what makes SiteGround the winner of this comparison.

1. Plans and Pricing

BigRock Is Cheaper, but SiteGround Offers Better Value for Money

SiteGround provides managed shared/WordPress hosting, WooCommerce hosting, cloud, reseller, and dedicated server hosting. On the other hand, BigRock offers unmanaged shared/WordPress hosting, e-commerce hosting, cloud hosting, VPS, and email hosting.

With SiteGround, you can choose to be billed monthly, annually, biennially, or triennially. BigRock allows you to subscribe quarterly, annually, biennially, or triennially, depending on the plan you choose.

Price-wise, BigRock’s initial web hosting cost is a lot cheaper than SiteGround. However, SiteGround has several inclusive features that BigRock either don’t provide or charge you for (more details in the features section).

Both hosts offer a 30-day money-back guarantee, and neither of them provides a free domain. You can get free website migration with SiteGround (except with the smallest shared/WordPress hosting plans), but not with BigRock

If I were to base my verdict on pricing alone, then BigRock would be the winner. However, SiteGround comes packed with more value-added features and better technology. That’s why SiteGround wins the pricing round.

2. Features

More Freebies and Premium Features with SiteGround – BigRock Covers the Basics

SiteGround has three shared/WordPress hosting plans. While BigRock offers four shared/WordPress hosting plans for Linux and four shared hosting plans for Windows.

With SiteGround, you get from 10 GB to 40 GB SSD storage, unlimited email accounts, unlimited databases, 1 to unlimited websites, and managed WordPress. You also get several freebies, including an SSL certificate, daily backups, the Weebly site builder, and a CDN with all plans.

SiteGround no longer provides cPanel. Instead, it has developed an in-house control panel called SiteTools, which is more user-friendly and efficient than cPanel.

SiteGround’s GrowBig and GoGeek plans include free premium features such as speed-boosting caching and site staging. The GoGeek plan also comes with free White-Label Clients, more server resources, and pre-installed Git.

BigRock gives you 10 GB to unlimited disk space (traditional disk drives), 200 to unlimited email accounts, cPanel, Softaculous installer, and SSH access. You can also host from 1 to unlimited websites.

Discover more differences between SiteGround and BigRock in the comparison table below:

The winner? SiteGround. SiteGround dominates this round by offering more features and free extras with its plans compared to BigRock, which only has standard web hosting features.

3. Performance

BigRock Has Faster Page Loading Speeds – SiteGround Offers More Performance-Boosting Features for Free

SiteGround has a strong global presence with servers in the U.S.A, the U.K., the Netherlands, and Singapore, whereas BigRock only has servers in the U.S.A and India.

While BigRock only uses SSD storage with its VPS plans, SiteGround provides SSD as standard with all its plans. SSD boosts the loading speed of your website and improves its stability compared to traditional disk drives.

You can get free Cloudflare CDN (Content Delivery Network) with all of SiteGround’s plans, but BigRock only include it with its cloud hosting plans. A CDN places your website on a global network of cloud servers, boosting its loading speed from different locations worldwide.

Using Sucuri to test SiteGround’s loading speeds, it showed some fast times from most locations, but a few others were less than impressive, leading to an overall score of B. Check all the results in this in-depth SiteGround review.

On the other hand, BigRock scored A+ with only two slow locations. See the full BigRock review for more details.

Even though SiteGround offers several performance-boosting features, BigRock delivered faster page loading speeds. In this case, BigRock wins the performance round.

4. Security

SiteGround Offers More Security Features Than BigRock

SiteGround has an impressive set of security features, including a web application firewall (WAF), an artificial intelligence (AI) anti-bot system that protects against malicious attacks including DDoS and Brute-Force, 24/7 server monitoring, and access to the Sucuri-developed SG Scanner for anti-malware.

BigRock’s security features are limited to DDoS protection unless you’re willing to pay for add-ons such as SiteLock and CodeGuard.

BigRock uses CloudLinux OS with its Linux-based shared hosting plans, and SiteGround uses a similar technology called Unique Account Isolation. Both technologies securely isolate your account from other users on the same server to protect it from unwanted external threats. They also ensure that all the server’s resources are allocated fairly between accounts.

SiteGround provides free automatic daily backups with all accounts, whereas BigRock only offers free automatic weekly backups with specific plans.

The winner? SiteGround. As you can see, SiteGround has way more security features than BigRock, making it a safer option to use for your website.

5. Support

BigRock Has More Support Options and Is More Responsive

Both SiteGround and BigRock have comprehensive knowledgebases with articles and tutorials covering the essential topics. SiteGround also has a blog and a large active community forum.

SiteGround’s customer support is available 24/7 through live chat, phone, and support tickets, although sometimes it can be slow to connect to a live chat agent. Once I connected, the agent was helpful and answered all my questions thoroughly.

Like SiteGround, BigRock’s support is also available 24/7 through live chat, phone, and support tickets. Unlike SiteGround, you can contact the support team via email as well.

I went for the live chat and was connected quickly to an agent who promptly answered all my questions.

Even though both hosts provide reliable support, BigRock has more communication channels and is slightly more responsive. Therefore, BigRock wins the support round by a slim margin.

BigRock Loses Out to SiteGround

Even though BigRock offers affordable prices, improved performance, and more supportive customer service, it couldn’t compete with a robust hosting provider such as SiteGround. Despite the higher cost of SiteGround, it delivers top-notch features, additional complimentary services, and enhanced security. This combination ensures that SiteGround offers superior value for your investment. See all SiteGround’s pricing plans.

SiteGround is also recommended by our experts as one of the top 10 web hosting services.

FAQ

Is SiteGround better than BigRock?

Yes. Even though BigRock appears to offer significantly cheaper prices than SiteGround, you get your money’s worth with SiteGround, thanks to its rich feature set, inclusive freebies, and advanced security levels. SiteGround is also listed among the best web hosting services.

Does SiteGround use SSD?

Yes. You get SSD storage with any hosting package from SiteGround by default. The smallest SSD storage amount that you can get is 10 GB, which is enough for a startup website or small online store with light traffic. SiteGround is also recommended as one of the best cheap and fast SSD hosting services.

Does BigRock offer a free domain?

No. BigRock doesn’t offer free domain name registration with its hosting plans. However, it sometimes has free domain coupons. Looking for a good domain name, but don’t know which one to choose? Take a look at this ultimate guide to choosing and buying a domain name.