AccuWeb vs. GreenGeeks (2023)

Narrowing down your web hosting options is almost as dizzying as switching between services after committing.

That’s why it’s wise to compare different hosting services before choosing one.

As someone with over ten years of experience in the tech world, I’ve had the opportunity to become knowledgeable about many industry-leading web hosts and understand how to make this process easier for you.

Whether you’re beginning from scratch or setting up a site for the first time, making an informed decision when choosing your host is key. With proper research and patience, that dizzying feeling will be replaced by assurance and hope for your hosting endeavors.

To begin finding the right web host for you, keep reading this in-depth analysis of AccuWeb vs. GreenGeeks web hosting services.

How Did We Test GreenGeeks and AccuWeb Hosting?

Tweak Your Biz only uses the highest testing standard and the most trusted software. We also depend primarily on lab testing and data, as well as hands-on research, rather than our objective point of view.

To conduct these tests, we set up two test sites: one for AccuWeb, and one for GreenGeeks. We then measured results in the following areas:

• Hosting Types & Features
• Performance & Speed
• Ease of Use
• Pricing & Value
• Website Security
• Help & Support
• WordPress Features
• Extras

GreenGeeks vs. AccuWeb Winner: 

So, who fared the best during our tests?

When choosing between AccuWeb and GreenGeeks, we realized that each hosting provider offers generous perks. The one you choose should depend on your web hosting needs.

As such, we compiled a list of the best possible uses for each hosting provider.

Use AccuWeb If

• You need a top-notch VPS hosting solution
• You run a larger-scale website
• You prefer as many security precautions as possible and are willing to spend extra for security add-ons

Read this AccuWeb review if you are considering using this web host for your business.

Use GreenGeeks If

• You’re looking for an eco-conscious host
• You’re a beginner
• You prefer expert-level and engaging customer support
• You’re running a small-to-medium-sized website

For more information about this hosting provider, check our GreenGeeks review.

GreenGeeks vs. AccuWeb Pricing & Plans:

First things first, let’s compare pricing between GreenGeeks and AccuWeb.

Each hosting provider offers multiple different kinds of hosting with unique pricing plans. To best understand each pricing structure, I compared the pricing by hosting type rather than across the board.

Shared Hosting

AccuWeb’s shared hosting plans start at $3.99/mo. for a Basic plan, then scale up to $5.99/mo. for their popular Premium plan, and finally, stop at Enterprise Pro for $7.99/mo.

These plans include SSL, email hosting, SpamExperts, site migration, cPanel, LiteSpeed with LSCache plugin, and free daily backups. The prices scale according to storage and the number of websites you can host.

GreenGeeks’s shared hosting plans start at $2.95/mo. for a Lite plan, $4.95/mo. for a Pro plan, and $8.95/mo. for a Premium plan.

Each plan comes with at least 50GB of disk space, unmetered transfers, 50 email accounts, Managed WordPress functionality, unlimited databases, free CDN and SSL, and built-in caching.

WordPress Hosting

AccuWeb WordPress hosting begins at $3.99/mo., then scales to $5.99/mo. and $7.99/mo. This is for managed hosting, which tends to be a bit more expensive than these price plans. Each comes with five websites (for the cheapest) or unlimited sites, at least 50GB SSD storage, at least 100k monthly visits, and all of the additional features of their shared hosting kits.

GreenGeeks WordPress hosting starts at $2.95/mo., then scales to $4.95/mo. and $8.95/mo. The cheapest plan comes with one site, 50GB of space, and 50 email accounts. You can easily scale up for $2/mo. if you want unlimited sites. On this plan, you’ll also get faster performance, unlimited web space, unlimited email, and unlimited transfers.

VPS Hosting

AccuWeb VPS hosting is extremely affordable at $5.99/mo., $11.99/mo., and $22.99/mo. Each plan has ample storage space, at least two vCPUs, at least 250GB bandwidth, free weekly backups, and enterprise tech support. 

These are for fully-managed VPS plans. AccuWeb offers self-managed ones for cheaper pricing. However, self-managed VPS requires advanced tech maintenance and isn’t beginner-friendly. Check out our guide to VPS hosting for more information about the different types.

GreenGeeks VPS plans are more expensive, starting at $39.95/mo. for 2GB, then 4GB for $59.95/mo., and finally 8GB for $109.95/mo. These costs are likely higher because of additional features like managed support, free site transfers, and a free Softaculous license on any plan.

Reseller Hosting

The last hosting type that greenGeeks and AccuWeb have in common is reseller hosting.

AccuWeb reseller hosting starts at $11.99/mo. and comes with ample space (30GB and 100GB bandwidth) for five sites and a cPanel for each. This plan offers unlimited email, FTP, sub-domains, MySQL, and PHP support. You can scale up for additional storage to $29.99/mo. or $49.99/mo.

GreenGeeks reseller hosting costs $19.95/mo. for 60GB SSD storage, 600 GB site transfers, and 25 cPanel accounts. This is an excellent value pack. From there, you can scale up to 50 cPanel accounts and additional storage at $24.95/mo. or 80 cPanel accounts and extra storage at $34.95/mo.

GreenGeeks vs. AccuWeb Shared Hosting

All of the GreenGeeks and AccuWeb testing we conducted was a comparison of apples to apples. In other words, we only compared shared hosting against shared hosting, and VPS against VPS. 

Shared Hosting Speed

Shared hosting speed is often slower than other hosting types like dedicated and VPS. Nevertheless, it can get the job done for small sites. Here are our results for both AccuWeb and GreenGeeks.

AccuWeb Hosting Speed

Despite AccuWeb being a fantastic and super-speedy hosting provider, it’s nearly impossible to get away from the slowness of shared hosting. This is almost always going to be the case with shared hosting.

During our tests, AccuWeb shared hosting load times averaged around 1.75 seconds.

GreenGeeks Hosting Speed

GreenGeeks shared hosting speeds were about the same as AccuWeb, with an average load time of 1.68 seconds. This service offers built-in caching that helps slightly with load time times.

Shared Hosting Uptime & Reliability

Uptime and reliability are also important when it comes to web hosting. Like speed, shared hosting comes with limited resources that can negatively affect uptime.

AccuWeb Hosting Uptime & Reliability

We didn’t experience any downtime while running our AccuWeb test site. The site got minimal traffic, so this is likely why. AccuWeb also promises 99.99% uptime.

GreenGeeks Hosting Uptime & Reliability

GreenGeeks offers impressively consistent uptime across the board, especially for small-scale sites. We didn’t experience any downtime with their services.

However, based on online reviews, GreenGeeks does have a history of failed uptime on their shared hosting plans. This presents potential issues for high-traffic sites.

Shared Hosting Features

Added features can make or break a hosting plan. So, what features come with GreenGeeks and AccuWeb hosting beyond the obvious (storage, SSL, etc.)?

AccuWeb Hosting Features

AccuWeb offers a fully-managed hosting environment. This means their team will take care of site and plugin updates and be alert for other site issues.

Furthermore, AccuWeb hosting comes with a free site builder (which I’ll discuss in more detail later), fast LiteSpeed servers, free SpamExperts, Softaculous, free migrations, and the choice between 6+ server locations. These server locations are in the US, Australia, England, Germany, Singapore, South Africa, and India.

GreenGeeks Shared Hosting Features

GreenGeeks offers the unique addition of eco-friendly efforts with each of their hosting plans, hence the “green” part of the name GreenGeeks.

Some of these efforts include a tree planted for each site hosted and a “positive energy footprint.” They accomplish the latter promise by replacing 3x your site’s energy with wind power credits, even better than carbon offsetting.

Beyond eco-consciousness, GreenGeeks offers additional hosting features that help your site’s performance. Their shared hosting package includes managed features like daily backups and 24/7 network security. Their cPanel has a 1-click installer to make setting up your site a breeze.

For advanced techies, GreenGeeks offers developer-friendly options like selecting multiple PHP versions and MySQL databases, the latest versions of Perl and Python, and access to Git and other developer tools.

Like AccuWeb, GreenGeeks offers a selection between multiple data centers. They are in Phoenix, AZ, Chicago, IL, Toronto, Montreal, and Amsterdam. These data center locations are more limited than AccuWeb, but GreenGeeks does this purposefully. Data centers placed in cooler climates produce less energy used to run servers.

Shared Hosting Stress Test

Finally, let’s see how AccuWeb and GreenGeeks shared hosting services performed under a stress test. To measure this, we flooded each of our test sites with 150 visitors at once to see if they’d go down or not.

AccuWeb Shared Hosting Stress Test

During our stress testing, AccuWeb’s response time was inconsistent. Furthermore, about a fifth of the requests for site visits failed. It could have been more stable during our stress testing, but 150 simultaneous visitors are extraordinary for any average shared hosting site.

GreenGeeks Shared Hosting Stress Test

Like AccuWeb, GreenGeeks could have performed better during our stress testing. AccuWeb could handle slightly more traffic, and GreenGeeks had a slower-loading response time.

AccuWeb vs. GreenGeeks VPS Hosting

To get a more comprehensive understanding of AccuWeb and GreenGeeks, we also put their VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting services head to head.

We conducted these tests in the same manner as our shared hosting tests. We set up two websites for AccuWeb and GreenGeeks hosting, then ran them for a month. We also conducted a stress test.

VPS Hosting Pricing

Before we get into performance, let’s see how AccuWeb and GreenGeek’s pricing compares to each other.

AccuWeb VPS Hosting Pricing

AccuWeb is well-known in the hosting world for its large selection of VPS hosting packages. The platform offers Cloud VPS hosting, which means you’ll have full root access to cloud servers.

They offer multiple types of cloud hosting:

• General Purpose Clouds (for large-scale websites)
• Memory Optimized Clouds (for business apps and databases)
• CPU Optimized Clouds (for big data or extensive applications)
• Storage Optimized Clouds
• Windows OS Clouds

AccuWeb also offers unmanaged and managed VPS hosting. We compared their managed hosting services to GreenGeeks’s. AccuWeb provides four options for managed hosting: Lite++ at $5.99/mo., Premium ++ at $11.99/mo., Elite ++ at $22.99/mo., and Exclusive ++ at $43.99/mo. These prices are for the first year. From there, they nearly double.

These plans start with features like 1 GB of RAM, two vCPUs, 25 GB storage, and 250 GB bandwidth, then scale up from there. They also include additional features like enterprise-grade technical support, weekly backups, free SSL, and free email hosting.

GreenGeeks VPS Hosting Pricing

GreenGeeks offers three different VPS hosting plans: 2GB for $39.95/mo., 4GB for $59.95/mo., and 8 GB for $109.95/mo. These plans come with the amount of RAM storage in the title, 4vCPU (or six on 8GB), a minimum of 50Gb SSD space, free Softaculous, 24/7 managed support, cPanel, and 10TB of transfer storage.

It’s important to note that these plans are only available in North America and Europe.

GreenGeeks’s VPS hosting is significantly pricier than AccuWeb’s, even after AccuWeb’s yearly renewal fee. It isn’t easy to justify this significant price difference, considering that the price plans don’t vary much in features. Let’s see if their performances differed.

VPS Hosting Speed

VPS hosting tends to be much faster than shared hosting. How did AccuWeb and GreenGeeks stack up against each other?

AccuWeb VPS Hosting Speed

AccuWeb’s VPS hosting was much faster than their shared hosting plans, with an average response time of 164ms and an average load time of 1.15 seconds. It’s not without reason that AccuWeb is well-known as one of the best VPS hosting providers out there. These results were blazing fast.

GreenGeeks VPS Hosting Speed

GreenGeeks’s VPS hosting wasn’t as impressive as AccuWeb’s, but it beat their shared hosting performance. Our site’s average response time over the course of the month was 186 ms, while the average load time was 1.57 seconds. This was on their most affordable plan, which offers more storage and bandwidth than AccuWeb.

VPS Hosting Uptime & Reliability

We also tested VPS hosting uptime for both AccuWeb and GreenGeeks. Here are the results.

AccuWeb VPS Hosting Uptime & Reliability

AccuWeb maintained its 99.99% uptime guarantee. The VPS hosting site we monitored went down only once during the month of testing. Of course, if it did, the AccuWeb team would be right there to fix any issues. That’s the benefit of managed hosting!

GreenGeeks VPS Hosting Uptime & Reliability

GreenGeeks’s site also didn’t go down during our month of testing. GreenGeeks’s VPS hosting is also managed, which means that if our site did go down, we would’ve received enterprise-grade support from tech experts at GreenGeeks.

VPS Hosting Features

We’ve briefly covered the pricing and essential features of AccuWeb and GreenGeeks price packages, but what about their additional features?

AccuWeb VPS Hosting Features

Beyond storage and bandwidth, AccuWeb VPS hosting comes with high connectivity through a 1Gbps port connection, constantly updating server processes, RAID 6 optimized storage, and easy scalability.

AccuWeb also does well when it comes to security. I’ll get more into their security features later in the article, but for now, I’ll mention that their regular audits and security monitoring are top-tier and match all the expectations for a managed web host.

Finally, AccuWeb offers the fantastic benefit of root access, even on a managed VPS plan. You’ll receive a dedicated IP address, full admin access via SSH, and a simple VPS management panel. This latter feature is only available for management plans out of Denver.

GreenGeeks VPS Hosting Features

GreenGeeks offers just as impressive of a featured kit as AccuWeb. There’s the choice between multiple data centers, 24/7 monitoring, a dedicated IP, advanced security features, simple cPanel migration, RAID-10 SSD, and fresh Intex Xeon processors to ensure fast speeds and reliable uptime.

VPS Hosting Stress Test

We conducted our stress tests for VPS hosting as we did for shared hosting. To no one’s surprise, neither website went down.

VPS hosting is more reliable than shared hosting. Furthermore, each web hosting service takes its VPS hosting seriously, as serious hosts tend to go for it over shared or WordPress hosting.

GreenGeeks & AccuWeb General Overview

When researching a web host, it’s of primary importance to consider the performance of each provider. Our previous section was intended to offer a head-to-head look at the types of hosting AccuWeb, and GreenGeeks provide so you can know how they did in our lab testing.

However, it’s also important to review other features, such as:

• Customer service
• Ease of use
• Security
• Site Builders
• Email hosting
• Site migrations

These features are also essential parts of performance. 

Customer Service Review

Customer service is a crucial component of web hosting.

If your website experiences any downtime, attacks, or other errors, your hosting provider’s customer service team should be your first resource. As such, you want a customer service team that’s highly responsive, backed by experts, and available 24/7.

I also recommend avoiding customer service teams immediately directing you to a knowledge base when answering questions. Knowledge bases are helpful but can be time-consuming to read through. The point of a customer support team is that they can give you streamlined help so you can get your site up and running as quickly as possible.

So, did AccuWeb and GreenGeeks match these requirements?

How Good is AccuWeb Customer Service?

AccuWeb offers around-the-clock web chat and telephony support.

Their chat support team did redirect me to a knowledge base for nearly every FAQ-type question I asked, including whether SSL is immediately activated on purpose. I preferred a direct answer here, but none of the issues were urgent, such as a case of downtime.

The support team was able to respond exceptionally quickly over chat, but the phone wait times took up to 10 minutes.

Overall, AccuWeb’s customer support wasn’t sorely lacking, but it could certainly be better. I didn’t get the sense that I was talking to enthusiastic tech experts as I did when chatting with Kinsta’s support team.

AccuWeb offers extra-responsive and problem-solving support for their VPS plans, but I ultimately preferred my experience with GreenGeeks.

How Good is GreenGeeks Customer Service?

GreenGeeks’s complete team offers over four decades of experience in the hosting world. This level of expertise is apparent in their customer support services.

They offer quick and engaging replies over chat, usually with a brief-yet-understandable explanation for any question rather than immediately directing you to a database. Chat replies also are very quick on average.

GreenGeeks also offers phone support, but it’s not available 24/7. Their chat support is so quick and comprehensive that this shouldn’t be a significant issue.

The GreenGeeks team also monitors site performance and uptime 24/7 for many of their hosting plans, which gives you a fully-managed feeling without the additional cost.

Finally, if you are in the market for a knowledge base, GreenGeeks’s is extremely easy to navigate. Most of the articles are beginner-friendly, as well.

Hosting Management & Ease of Use

Ease of use is an essential factor to consider, particularly if you’re a beginner web host. For this section, I’ll recount the usage experience with AccuWeb and GreenGeeks’s shared hosting plans.

I chose this route because VPS hosting is an option for more advanced site owners who are likely less concerned with a beginner-friendly hosting platform.

How Easy Is AccuWeb to Use?

AccuWeb offers an easy-to-use interface, automatic SSL activation for any price plan, and a simple account setup. I didn’t see any complications when dealing with their hosting services. I also loved their sleek and intuitive custom cPanel, as it was much easier to use than a traditional cPanel

How Easy Is GreenGeeks to Use?

The only complicated issue I’ve experienced with GreenGeeks is domain transfers. GreenGeeks doesn’t offer custom domains through their service, so you must transfer any existing domains. This process is a bit slow and convoluted, but even so, they have helpful articles on their support page.

Otherwise, GreenGeeks hosting has a super-simple interface that maintains a sleek appearance. Your account setup should be a breeze. Once it’s set up, GreenGeeks offers management functionality that keeps site maintenance manageable.

Hosting Security Review

Website security, along with customer service, is arguably one of the most important parts of site performance. You want to choose a web host that cares about site security to avoid experiencing hacks, malware, or other threats to your website’s health.

Here’s how trustworthy we found AccuWeb and GreenGeeks to be:

Can We Trust AccuWeb? Is AccuWeb Secure?

AccuWeb offers multilayer security protection on every price plan. Every AccuWeb server is set up with a CSF to protect from security threats. Each hosting account also has a pre-installed antivirus scanner to remove malicious files. The AccuWeb team regularly installs security patches and updates to their host servers, along with regular audits.

Beyond these features, AccuWeb offers safeguarding options such as a 256-bit SSL certificate and SpamExperts to ensure your site is as safe as possible.

Can We Trust GreenGeeks? Is GreenGeeks Secure?

GreenGeeks offers advanced firewall protections to block attacks, daily backups, and help with malware cleaning from the GreenGeeks support team. SSL renews each year automatically, which also helps with maintaining a secure website.

GreenGeeks also offers network security in the forms of both DDoS and AI protection.

I have to note, though, that GreenGeeks offers fewer security add-ons than AccuWeb. They do have an advanced security specialization for online stores through WooCommerce.

Website Builder Comparison

AccuWeb and GreenGeeks offer easy access to their website builders, so let’s compare their features.

Does AccuWeb Have a Website Builder?

AccuWeb offers a website builder called RVSiteBuilder that comes with many templates to help you quickly build a unique site. This site builder is designed specifically for users who don’t have any tech experience or do not enough to code their website.

Using the RVSiteBuilder templates, you can design a sleek and professional website just as easily as a fun and lighthearted one.

RVSiteBuilder can be accessed from your AccuWeb control panel.

Does GreenGeeks Have a Website Builder?

GreenGeeks also offers a site builder with a design and features comparable to AccuWeb’s RVSiteBuilder. GreenGeeks offers hundreds of templates, drag-and-drop functionality, as well as SEO integrations and tools.

The GreenGeeks site builder is powered by Weebly, so it isn’t wholly unique to their service. Nevertheless, it’s easy to use and does the job for various site appearances.

Email Hosting Review

Email hosting refers to a web host’s capacity to run email servers for your business. That way, you can send emails from your website domain rather than from a separate or personal account.

Often, web hosts include email hosting functionality and access to your email through their cPanel.

Does AccuWeb Offer Email Hosting?

AccuWeb doesn’t offer email-specific hosting, but they do offer add-on email features to their web hosting packages. With their functionality, you can send up to 500 emails/hour and host up to 1000 mailboxes.

Does GreenGeeks Offer Email Hosting?

Like AccuWeb, GreenGeeks offers email hosting add-ons to their web hosting plans. With their plans, you can have unlimited email accounts that can be securely accessed. There is one limit, though — attachments sent from your GreenGeeks email must stay under 50 MB.

Do GreenGeeks or AccuWeb Assist with Website Migration?

Site migration is the best way to transfer web hosts without worrying about negatively affecting your website rankings. A good site migration will keep your URLs, titles, meta descriptions, and HTML markups intact.

AccuWeb Website Migration Services

AccuWeb offers free site migration via a beginner-friendly support desk. You’ll receive a support ticket if you request a site migration, and from there, their customer service team will take care of the request.

Not only will AccuWeb migrate your site, but they’ll also migrate your entire cPanel account if you have cPanel with your previous hosting provider.

GreenGeeks Website Migration Services

GreenGeeks offers one free site migration, one cPanel migration, and one manual migration for their shared hosting services. For reseller hosting, they offer 30 site and cPanel migrations — the same is true for VPS hosting.

They also offer migrations within GreenGeeks if you want to transfer your data from one server location to another.

AccuWeb vs. GreenGeeks: Final Verdict

Both AccuWeb and GreenGeeks offer advantages in different categories. Ultimately, it’s unnecessary to choose between the two. Instead, we can acknowledge that each has pros and cons that should impact your decision.

Feel free to refer to my earlier section on which to choose in which scenario, but for a quick recap, remember these key elements of this review:

• AccuWeb offers more extensive VPS features
• GreenGeeks offers better value and more reliability for small-scale hosting
• AccuWeb can support enterprise-level sites
• GreenGeeks offers eco-conscious features

I hope this article gave you a good sense of the next steps in your web hosting journey. Best of luck in finding the right fit for you.

Thanks for reading, and until next time!

If you have any questions or feel that I missed anything crucial, please leave a comment!

AccuWeb Hosting Alternatives

If you’re interested in AccuWeb but want to quickly compare their services to another host, here are a couple of options.

Cloudways

Cloudways and AccuWeb are not particularly similar, as Cloudways offers only cloud hosting. For an in-depth look at Cloudways, check out our Cloudways review.

Hostinger

Hostinger is a cheap alternative to AccuWeb. It’s great for shared web hosting for smaller websites, though it does have the capacity to entertain more significant sites as AccuWeb does. However, AccuWeb tends to do better regarding customer support and security features.

GreenGeeks Hosting Alternatives

Finally, here’s a brief idea of how GreenGeeks stacks up against other major web hosting providers.

HostGator

HostGator is less expensive than GreenGeeks but also tends to be less reliable. I’d recommend GreenGeeks for better uptime and customer support between the two. It’s hard to beat the fact that GreenGeeks offers managed hosting features for a highly affordable price.

Bluehost

Bluehost is a fantastic hosting option if you’re looking for a cheap WordPress host. It definitely offers better WordPress integrations than GreenGeeks does.

Now You Decide

AccuWeb and GreenGeeks each have their pros and cons, so it’s up to you to decide which host is best for your web hosting needs. Whichever web hosting provider you choose, make sure that you’re confident in their customer service capabilities. After all, reliable customer support can make the difference between a successful website and a frustrating experience.

Are you a small business owner? Do you need help finding a web hosting provider for your website? Do you have any questions about our AccuWeb vs. GreenGeeks comparison? Let us know in the comments below!

The post AccuWeb vs. GreenGeeks (2023) appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.