Our rating: 4.9 (Excellent). GreenGeeks offers a variety of web hosting options. Is this green web hosting company right for your website? Read our expert’s unbiased GreenGeeks review before you sign up.
When you use our special GreenGeeks promo link, you can get 70% off your monthly hosting fee.
[wp-review id=”11107″]TL;DR: The Best Option for Those Who Want Eco-Friendly Web Hosting without Sacrificing Quality
Table of Contents
I’ve been using Cloudways since January 2016 for this blog. I happily recommend Cloudways to my readers because I am a proud customer.
GreenGeeks Overview
Launched in 2008, GreenGeeks is a Los Angeles, California-based company offering eco-friendly/environmentally-friendly web hosting options. The company offers several state-of-the-art data centers featuring raised floors, climate control, fire suppression and water detection systems, generators, and more to keep their servers safe. All sites are monitored 24/7 for peace of mind.
Today, GreenGeeks serves over 40,000 customers from over 150 countries. These customers have put up over 500,000 websites. These websites are hosted in data centers located in:
- Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Phoenix, Arizona, USA
- Montreal, Canada
- Toronto, Canada
- Amsterdam, Netherlands
Hosting Features
GreenGeeks offers a variety of hosting types, but there are several things that the company consistently offers, regardless of which hosting type you choose. The following are some of the things that GreenGeeks bundles with its hosting options
- Data Centers: GreenGeeks operates five data centers located around the world, and when you purchase your hosting package, you can choose where your website is hosted. The closer your data center is to your viewers, the faster your pages will load due to the shorter distance required for the data packets to travel.
- Scalable Resources: For its Web Hosting plans, GreenGeeks hosts websites on a “scalable hosting platform” that allows you to easily upgrade when your usage exceeds your resource allocation (and without having to upgrade to a more expensive virtual private server (VPS) plan)
- SSD hard drives: even shared hosting plans use servers featuring SSD hard drives, which offers read/write speeds much greater than that offered by traditional hard disk drives (HDD)
- LiteSpeed Web Servers and MariaDB databases for fast read/write speeds, which means that your web pages will load faster than they otherwise would using the more popular and commonly-available alternatives of Apache and MySQL
- PowerCacher: GreenGeek’s custom, in-house caching solutions means that your website and apps are served as efficiently as possible. This means optimal web server resource usage for you and faster page load speeds for your users (note that this is an option that is available to all users except those with the most inexpensive shared, Web Hosting plan)
- Cloudflare CDNs: Content delivery networks help your sites perform better by caching as much as possible and serving the requested assets from a proxy server located close to the browser that requested the asset. It integrates well and is easily enabled via the cPanel Control Panel included with most packages. This complements the PowerCacher system GreenGeeks has in place
- HTTP/2 Enabled: Use of the HTTP2 protocol means that your web pages are faster, and safer. The latter is of importance, both in terms of keeping your visitors’ data safer and ranking well in search engine results, since security is one of the criteria used when determining which sites to return to users
GreenGeeks Pricing and Payment Options
GreenGeeks’ pricing structure is similar to many of its competitors. There’s a regular rate, but depending on the length of your contract and whether you use a coupon code, you may find that you pay significantly less than the posted price.
One major difference when it comes to GreenGeeks, however, is that you can pay on a month-to-month basis for shared hosting. Many of GreenGeeks’ competitors require shared hosting customers to sign a lengthy contract (typically one year or longer) and pay upfront for all of the services to be rendered. The downside, however, is that the monthly fee is highest for month-to-month contracts, and you will have to pay a setup fee.
Those who want to save on their hosting packages can opt for a longer contract. GreenGeeks offers contracts lasting one year, two years, or three years, and the longer your contract, the bigger your discount off the regular rate/lower your monthly rate (though your upfront cost will be higher). GreenGeeks also waives the setup fee for those choosing a yearly (or longer) contract.
You should also know that coupon codes for hosting solutions do not typically apply to those who opt for monthly billing.
If you are looking for more premium web hosting options, note the contract lengths available:
- Reseller: monthly, three-months, annual
- VPS: monthly (no long-term contracts on offer)
As with shared hosting, coupon codes and the waiver of the setup fee applies only to those with longer contracts.
Those seeking dedicated hosting/servers will need to reach out to the GreenGeeks sales team for further information.
GreenGeeks Web Hosting Plans
GreenGeeks offers a variety of hosting types to meet the needs of a variety of customers. These options range from entry-level shared hosting (which GreenGeeks simply calls Web Hosting) to high-end dedicated servers for those who need the most in terms of security, power, and performance.
Web Hosting
Web Hosting, which is GreenGeeks’ entry-level hosting option, is analogous to others providers’ shared hosting option. Despite being the most inexpensive plans available, the Web Hosting plans are more than sufficient for most users. Furthermore, there’s the expectation that those using the Web Hosting plan are either novices when it comes to all things web hosting or aren’t interested in fully managing their environments. This means that these products are easier to use.
All Web Hosting plans come with free website migration services. If you have a website that is currently hosted elsewhere, GreenGeeks’ website migration specialists will help you move your website over free of charge. If, however, you do not already have a website, you can build one using the included drag-and-drop website builder.
GreenGeeks offers three different Web Hosting plans that you can choose from. Prices begin at $2.95 per month with the purchase of an extended, three-year contract.
GreenGeeks shared hosting plans starting at $2.95/month. See plans.
Lite
Per GreenGeeks, the Lite plan is best for “small websites or blogs that are just getting started.” With the Lite plan, you’ll get support for one website, as well as a one-click app installer so that you can install extras for use with your website/blog. You’ll also get unlimited web space and data transfer, as well as a free wildcard SSL certificate. GreenGeeks will also cover your domain name registration for the first year.
How to Start a Blog – A step-by-step guide for beginners
Pro
If you are working with “growing websites that need more speed and resources,” the Pro plan is the best fit for you. You’ll be able to support an unlimited number of websites, and you get a one-click app installer to install extras for use with your website/blog.
You get unlimited web space and data transfer, a wildcard SSL certificate, and a free domain name for you one. The Pro plan includes the PowerCacher tool developed by GreenGeeks, as well as double the performance as that offered to customers with the Lite plan.
Premium
The Premium option is aimed at those with “very business websites or online stores.” In most respects, the Premium option is similar to the Pro plan, but you get a premium wildcard SSL, a dedicated IP address for improved security, and performance that’s four times better than that offered to Lite users.
WordPress Hosting
Those who have chosen to build their website using the world’s most popular content management system (CMS), WordPress, can choose one of the specialized GreenGeeks WordPress hosting plans.
GreenGeeks’ WordPress hosting plans are very similar to its Web Hosting Plans. The biggest differences, however, are that the WordPress plans also come with:
- One-click installer for WordPress
- Automatic updates to your WordPress core (done by GreenGeeks’ staff members)
- Daily backups
- Advanced security featuring custom rules and zero-day vulnerability fixes
- Hosting on infrastructure optimized for WordPress usage
In short, there is nothing that prevents you from hosting your WordPress site or blog using the general-use, all-purpose Web Hosting plans. However, for a slightly higher monthly rate, the WordPress hosting plans come with additional services that help make it easier for you to manage your websites.
GreenGeeks WordPress hosting plans starting at $2.95/month. See plans.
App Hosting
GreenGeeks offers app-specific hosting, which is great for those using the following products to build their websites:
- Drupal
- Joomla
- Magento
- Any content management system (CMS)
The App Hosting options are very similar to the Web Hosting and WordPress plans in terms of number of plan options available, features and resource allocation, and pricing. The primary differences, however, are that the App Hosting plan come with specific features the user will find helpful, such as one-click installers and other optimizations.
Do note, however, that the advertised GreenGeeks cPanel Hosting plan is identical to the general-use Web Hosting plan we reviewed above.
Why & When to Choose Magento for Your Ecommerce Store?
Reseller Hosting
GreenGeeks’ reseller hosting plan is perfect for those who are in control of multiple hosting accounts. They may be looking to start their own web hosting business, or they may be looking to add web hosting to their existing suite of products (e.g., a web designer and developer who wants to offer their customers a full website, not just the design and build).
GreenGeeks offers five different reseller hosting plans that you can choose from. They all include:
- Unlimited SSD web space
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Deployment of websites on GreenGeeks’ platform
- WHMCS license included (WHMCS is a billing system you can use to manage and invoice your clients)
- Security features including custom rules, zero-day vulnerability fixes, and real-time, 24/7 security monitoring
- Nightly backup services
The biggest difference is the number of cPanel accounts you can host on the plan itself (i.e., the Reseller 10 plan allows you to set up 10 accounts, the Reseller 20 plan allows you to set up 20 accounts, and so on). If you need additional accounts, you can purchase them with wholesale pricing that is as low as $2.00 per month. If you have any particular account that needs a larger resource allocation than others, you can also purchase resources for just that account as well.
If you are currently working with another host for your reseller accounts, GreenGeeks offers free website migration services. The GreenGeeks’ website migration specialists will help you move your accounts over free of charge.
Other features that you can opt for include:
- Access to wholesale-priced domains that you can purchase and sell to your customers
- Private nameservers and white labelling for the cPanel Control Panels your customers will see
GreenGeeks Reseller hosting plans starting at $19.95/month. See plans.
Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting
For users who need more power and performance than that which is offered with the Web Hosting plans, GreenGeeks offers Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting.
VPS hosting is similar to shared hosting in that multiple websites share a single server. However, with the assistance of virtualization software, VPS plans maintain strict delineation between sites. Your site cannot use the resources allocated to another website, but other websites cannot cannibalize your resources either.
GreenGeeks offers four different VPS hosting plans to its customers, with the primary criterion being the RAM allocation:
- 1 GB RAM: 25 GB of SSD RAID-10 storage, 1 TB of premium bandwidth, and 1 CPU core
- 2 GB RAM: 50 GB of SSD RAID-10 storage, 2 TB of premium bandwidth, and 1 CPU core
- 4 GB RAM: 100 GB of SSD RAID-10 storage, 4 TB of premium bandwidth, and 2 CPU core
- 8 GB RAM: 150 GB of SSD RAID-10 storage, 5 TB of premium bandwidth, and 4 CPU core
All VPS servers come with full root access, which offers you flexibility and control over your server. GreenGeeks has developed a proprietary VPS management portal that allows you to manage your DNS servers, as well as starting, starting, restarting, and reinstalling things on your web hosting environment easy.
Other features of GreenGeeks’ VPS hosting plans include:
- Provisioning on a blacklist-free IP address; GreenGeeks scans such lists regularly to make sure that you aren’t using an IP address that’s problematic (i.e., been flagged as one that sends spam email)
- 99.9% uptime guarantee
- Seamless upgrades and downgrades to your service available by contacting the customer support team (which is available 24/7)
GreenGeeks offers quick provisioning, which means that your VPS instances will be ready to use less than sixty seconds after your order has been verified.
VPS vs Shared Hosting – which should I use?
GreenGeeks VPS hosting plans starting at $5/month. See plans.
Dedicated Servers
Dedicated servers offers users the best in terms of power, performance, and security. Whereas all other hosting types feature multiple website sharing the resources of a physical server, dedicated servers means that only your website is using the resources of that particular box.
GreenGeeks offers four dedicated servers that you can purchase:
- The Entry Server features the Intel Atom 330 Dual Core processor, 2 GB of DDR 3 memory, a 500 GB SATA drive, 5 dedicated IP Addresses, and support for 10,000 GB of data transfer
- The Standard Server features the Intel Xeon E3-1220 3.1Ghz processor, 4 GB of DDR 3 memory, two 500 GB SATA drives, 5 dedicated IP Addresses, and support for 10,000 GB of data transfer
- The Elite Server features the Intel Xeon E3-1230 3.2Ghz w/HT processor, 8 GB of DDR 3 memory, two 500 GB SATA drives, 5 dedicated IP Addresses, and support for 10,000 GB of data transfer
- The Pro Server features the Intel Xeon E5-2620 2.0Ghz w/HT processor, 16 GB of DDR 3 memory, two 500 GB SATA drives, 5 dedicated IP Addresses, and support for 10,000 GB of data transfer
Unlike all of the other hosting options offered by GreenGeeks, you will need to get in touch with the company’s sales team for additional information, including features and pricing.
GreenGeeks dedicated server hosting plans starting at $169/month. See plans.
GreenGeeks’ hosting plans come with email services.
You can set up an unlimited number of personalized email addresses/accounts, all featuring the same domain name that your website uses. You’ll be able to set up forwarders, so you never miss a message, and you can access your email online using GreenGeeks Webmail or via IMAP or POP3. Any outgoing email messages is handled by Sendmail or SMTP.
In short, you can use almost any email program in conjunction with GreenGeeks’ services.
GreenGeeks Website Builder
If you do not already have a website, one of the tools you can use to build one is the GreenGeeks Website Builder.
To help you get started, the website builder features hundreds of fully-customizable templates that you can choose from. You can modify as much (or as little) as you’d like, and getting a website up and running can be as easy as changing the text and updating the images.
WordPress Theme Vs. Custom Web Design for Your Blog
If you want to make more extensive changes to your website, the website builder features a drag-and-drop editing tool that allows you to move things around, add features and elements, and more.
All of the templates provided by GreenGeeks are responsive, which means that your site will look good no matter which device the visitor is using. The underlying code that GreenGeeks generates is SEO-friendly, meaning that the search engines should be able to index your site easily.
The GreenGeeks Website Builder comes with hosting services, which means that it is a one-stop shop for you when it comes to getting a website online with as little hassle as possible. Conversely, if you have a Web Hosting package already, you can activate your website builder at any time.
GreenGeeks Customer Service and Technical Support
GreenGeeks’s support team is available 24/7/365. The company recommends that you reach out via Live Chat, but you can also do so via email or telephone (though the phone lines are only staffed Monday through Sunday from 9 AM to 12 AM Eastern Time). Live Chat offers near instantaneous responses, as does phone support, while you may find yourself waiting about 15-20 minutes before you get a response to your email.
In terms of self-help resources, GreenGeeks offers several website-related tutorials, a knowledge base, and other how-to guides (e.g., How to Make a Website and How to Start a Blog). There are quite a few resources, which means that the provided search functions are key to finding the documentation that you need.
Refunds and Money Back Guarantees
GreenGeeks offers an unconditional, no-questions-asked 30-day hosting money back guarantee. If you purchase a hosting plan and decide during this time period that you want to cancel, GreenGeeks will offer you a full refund, less any setup, domain registration, or website transfer fees. (You will, however, own your domain name even after you cancel your hosting plan).
Uptime and Performance
GreenGeeks boasts a 99.9% uptime guarantee, though the company is not responsible for any downtime caused by hardware or networks outside GreenGeeks’ control, nor any downtime caused by customers’ actions.
If GreenGeeks does not meet its uptime guarantee, they will be compensated for the downtime at a rate that is based on their hosting rate. For scheduled maintenance, the customer will be compensated at 1x the rate, while unscheduled or emergency maintenance will be compensated at 3x the rate.
The caveats, however, are as follows:
- Only GreenGeeks’ monitoring services are acceptable when determining the length of the outage; third-party tools are not allowed
- Credits must be requested within seven days of the outage
- VPS plans and dedicated servers are excluded
That said, we were impressed that GreenGeeks includes maintenance in its downtime calculations. Many other web hosts offer SLAs/uptime guarantees but specifically exclude planned maintenance from their calculations.
GreenGeeks User Reviews
In this GreenGeeks hosting review, we’ve spent a lot of time discussing what comes with (or doesn’t come with) a GreenGeeks hosting plan. However, when gathering information, don’t neglect real user reviews in favor of strictly reading GreenGeeks hosting reviews. They can provide you with knowledge you’d be hard-pressed to find anywhere else, along with long-term experiences that can help you decide if GreenGeeks is a company you want to work with for the years to come.
I’ve been with GreenGeeks for years with multiple domains. Their uptime is fantastic, and the very few times I’ve ever needed customer support, they have been responsive, efficient, and nice. All and all an outstanding service. I would never consider switching.
ALEX
wpbeginner.com10 years with Green Geeks. Never an issue, always up. Best customer support and service. Highly recommended!
OYVIND BORNES
I’ve been with Greengeeks for years now, both personally and for other clients… they have been flawless in my humble opinion. Their customer service is fantastic and very accessible from different time zones.
I am writing this purely because of how helpful their staff have been as my sincere thanks for helping me, once again, when in a bind. I highly recommend them!
Mitch Grace
derebtheambassador.comGreenGeeks Review: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What payment methods are accepted?
GreenGeeks accepts all major credit cards, as well as PayPal. The company does not, however, accept checks, money orders, wire transfers, or payments made via Western Union.
Can I work with GreenGeeks even if I don’t have a credit card?
Yes, you can pay for your hosting plan with PayPal if you do not have access to a credit card.
Does GreenGeeks offer free backups?
For many hosting plans, GreenGeeks offers free, daily backups, though you should verify this (especially if you purchase an entry-level hosting plan). You can also create and manage your own website backups using the cPanel.
Is GreenGeeks a good web host for WordPress sites?
If you are using WordPress to build your website, you will find GreenGeeks’ hosting plans sufficient for hosting your websites and/or blogs.
How many applications and websites can I host on a single server?
It depends on your hosting package. Some packages limit you to a single application or website, while others can be used to host an unlimited number of either entity. More premium options come with fewer restrictions on what can be placed on your server.
Is GreenGeeks Right for You?
Regardless of what type of web hosting you need, GreenGeeks offers it. The company seems to focus mostly on its Web Hosting, WordPress Hosting, and Reseller Hosting products, but they do offer VPS hosting and dedicated servers, as well as a variety of app-specific options.
All of the plans offered by GreenGeeks are full-featured options, featuring things like SSD drives, unlimited bandwidth and storage, and more. There is very little that GreenGeeks omits from their plans.
The biggest differentiator between GreenGeeks and the hosting companies with which it competes is its commitment to being eco-friendly and sustainable. Per GreenGeeks, the energy required to sustain a web hosting company is enormous, which makes the company’s commitment to putting back three times the energy it uses in via renewable sources all the more commendable.
Best GreenGeeks Alternatives
Was GreenGeeks not quite right? We recommend:
| Web Host | Starts at | Our rating | Visit Host |
| Bluehost | $2.95/mo | 4.9 (Excellent) | Visit Host |
| A2 Hosting | $3.92/mo | 4.8 (Excellent) | Visit Host |
| HostPapa | $3.95/mo | 4.7 (Excellent) | Visit Host |
| InterServer | $4/mo | 4.8 (Very good) | Visit Host |
- InterServer Review: A Variety of Options, But the Host for You?
- HostPapa: Is This Small Business Solution for You?
- A2 Hosting: Fast and Developer-Friendly, but Is It for You?
GreenGeeks Review: Wrapping Up
GreenGeeks offers a variety of web hosting options, ranging from shared hosting to dedicated servers. All of the company’s hosting plans are fairly robust, and they do not seem to cut any corners when it comes to the features and functionality they offer their customers.
The company backs all of its products with a around-the-clock customer service and technical support, as well as a 30-day, no-questions-asked money-back guarantee. If what you are looking for is quality hosting offered by an eco-conscious, environmentally-friendly web hosting company, GreenGeeks might just be the company for you.
Done reading GreenGeeks reviews and are ready to get started? Take advantage of Woblogger’s exclusive discount to receive 70% off hosting!
