Green Geeks vs Hivelocity: guide for 2024

Green Geeks vs Hivelocity: Final verdict

Looking over GreenGeeks vs. Hivelocity, both hosting providers have their unique strengths and cater to different types of users and needs.

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  GreenGeeks (Overall grade: 8.4)
  
  
  offers a versatile range of hosting plans including shared, VPS, and specialized WordPress hosting, making it a suitable choice for individuals, small businesses, and agencies. Its eco-friendly initiatives, such as matching energy consumption with renewable energy credits and planting a tree for each account, are significant selling points for environmentally-conscious users. GreenGeeks stands out with performance-enhancing features like SSD storage, LiteSpeed WebServer, and LS Cache Plugin, ensuring rapid website speeds. The user-friendly interface, free website builder, email hosting, and easy migration services provide excellent value. However, the provider lacks dedicated server options, which may limit its appeal to sites experiencing high traffic or those needing advanced scalability.
  
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  Hivelocity (Overall grade: 7.7)
  
  
  excels with its high-end dedicated server options and cloud hosting services, making it an ideal choice for enterprises and multimedia-heavy websites. Hivelocity’s robust infrastructure ensures superior uptime reliability, thanks to features like high-end diesel generators and multi-tier network carriers. They provide a variety of customizable solutions, extensive security measures, and compliance with strict regulatory standards. Their managed services and advanced hardware specifications offer top-tier performance and security. However, Hivelocity lacks beginner-friendly features like a free website builder and initial domain registration, and it does not offer shared hosting or dedicated email hosting, which could be a disadvantage for smaller businesses or users new to the hosting world.
  

Hosting types offered

Both platforms provide a variety of hosting types, each designed to meet the different needs of users.

Although both offer a variety of hosting plans tailored to different needs, in
certain cases, one platform may prove to be more suitable.

Detailed comparison

🏆 Winner Hivelocity: Hivelocity offers superior uptime reliability and enhanced network performance.

GreenGeeks provides a ‘99.9% uptime guarantee’ with no compensation if uptime falls below this threshold. Tests by Uptime.com and UptimeRobot showed 100% uptime over specific periods, highlighting its reliability. GreenGeeks features data centers in the US, Canada, Netherlands, and Singapore, aiming to serve a global audience with competitive response times and performance metrics. However, the lack of strict compensation for downtime might be a consideration for some users.

Hivelocity stands out with a 99.99% uptime guarantee and offers a 5% credit if they fail to meet this promise, excluding scheduled maintenance. Their network has achieved 100% uptime since 2011, supported by robust redundancy measures like high-end diesel generators and multi-tier network carriers. With data centers in key locations and extensive compliance certifications, Hivelocity is an optimal choice for users needing premium reliability and enterprise-grade performance.

🏆 Winner
GreenGeeks: Comprehensive hosting plans with a focus on eco-friendliness and advanced features.

GreenGeeks and Hivelocity provide excellent hosting performances, but GreenGeeks offers more in terms of website speed and performance-enhancing features. GreenGeeks leverages SSD storage, the LiteSpeed WebServer, and the LS Cache Plugin to ensure fast load times. It also supports HTTP/3 and the latest PHP versions. Hivelocity, though equipped with high-end hardware and extensive Tier-1 carrier support, doesn’t emphasize website speed as GreenGeeks does. GreenGeeks further offers built-in caching and a free CDN, enhancing performance through various global data centers in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. Hivelocity offers a self-healing network and significant data center reach, but its CDN options aren’t highlighted.

Website Speed

GreenGeeks shines with its speed capabilities. The use of SSDs, LiteSpeed WebServer, and LS Cache Plugin substantially boosts website performance. Features like built-in caching and a free CDN further contribute to rapid load times. Hivelocity, with its advanced hardware like Intel and AMD processors, also guarantees good performance but lacks the specific on-site speed-boosting features that GreenGeeks provides, such as built-in caching and specific web server optimizations.

Scalability

GreenGeeks offers both flexible hosting plans and on-demand backups for easy scaling. You need to upgrade plans manually to scale your resources. They don’t provide dedicated servers as part of the usual plans, and specific scaling costs for those aren’t detailed. On the other hand, Hivelocity excels in this area by offering dedicated servers, custom solutions, and various high-end hardware options. The cost of scaling isn’t specified, but the service includes performance optimization and security enhancements, suggesting a focus on maintaining quality as you scale.

🏆 Winner: Hivelocity Hosting: Offers a highly reliable and secure environment supported by comprehensive audits such as SSAE-16, HIPAA, and PCI compliance.

Both GreenGeeks and Hivelocity, have notable differences in their approaches to technical and operational
security, as well as in their compliance with regulations.

Technical security measures:

GreenGeeks offers a variety of security measures, including Wildcard SSL, free SSL certificates, 24/7 network security, and AI-powered WAF and DDoS protection. Hivelocity, on the other hand, provides a range of SSL certificates, such as Basic, Business, and Premium, along with advanced encryption technologies, proactive malware scanning, and firewall hardening. While both platforms emphasize robust technical security, GreenGeeks stands out with its container-based technology which adds an extra layer of scalability and isolation.

Operational security measures:

GreenGeeks features include 24/7 network security monitoring, daily backups, free malware cleanups, and SSH & Secure FTP access. Hivelocity’s operational measures encompass 24/7 monitoring and support, brute force detection using cpHulk, load balancing, and active antivirus monitoring with ESET. Both hosting providers offer DDoS protection, but Hivelocity adds an extra layer with regular security audits and authentication controls, offering enhanced operational security.

Compliance and certifications:

GreenGeeks indicates GDPR/PCI compliance standards but recommends direct contact for specific details. Conversely, Hivelocity has completed SSAE-16, HIPAA, and PCI audits, ensuring strict adherence to various regulatory requirements. This established compliance provides higher assurance for businesses requiring stringent data protection standards.

🏆 Winner: GreenGeeks: An eco-friendly hosting provider that combines performance with sustainability initiatives.

GreenGeeks offers a range of plans tailored to different user requirements, making it appealing to both individuals and businesses. They include free WordPress installation and migration, offering an easy start for beginners. GreenGeeks provides essential services like a free domain name for the first year and an integrated website builder, ensuring user-friendliness with a plethora of customization options. Adding to these attractive features is the 300% green energy match and the planting of a tree for each account, appealing to environmentally-conscious users. GreenGeeks’ plans also boast free SSL certificates, daily backups, and advanced security measures like DDoS protection and malware cleanups at no additional cost. SSH access with WP-CLI and built-in caching make it developer-friendly.

Hivelocity stands out with its robust managed services, ensuring high-level performance and security. It includes RAID monitoring, proactive malware scanning, and instant reactive remediation efforts during service or hardware failures. However, it lacks some of the beginner-friendly features found in GreenGeeks, like a free website builder and initial domain name registration. Hivelocity supports multiple control panels and operating systems, catering well to advanced users who need specific setups or extensive control over their hosting environment. The hosting provider includes necessary features like FTP/SFTP and SSH, along with cloud storage and hardware firewalls. Hivelocity’s managed services provide continuous monitoring and performance optimization, making it ideal for businesses demanding high uptime and security.

Email services:

GreenGeeks provides email hosting with up to 50 email accounts on the Lite plan and unlimited accounts on higher tiers. Users can set up email campaigns and manage their communications effortlessly. Hivelocity, on the other hand, does not offer dedicated email hosting services but focuses on robust managed services and extensive control panel support. While you can resell third-party services like Google Workspace or Outlook with Hivelocity’s hosting, GreenGeeks provides a more integrated and straightforward approach to managing email directly from their platform.

🏆 Winner
Hivelocity: Hivelocity scores slightly higher overall, mainly due to the robust features included in their plans and the transparency of what’s included.

Evaluating the pricing of plans among various hosting providers can be complex due to their differing pricing and renewal strategies. Additionally, certain plans require annual commitments, which adds to the difficulty of making comparisons. The prices listed are based on monthly commitments; plans requiring annual commitments are indicated. Additionally, although some providers offer identical plans for WordPress and shared hosting, we have created separate tables for each to enhance clarity.

GreenGeeks offers various affordable WordPress, WooCommerce, and cPanel hosting plans with strong emphasis on green energy. Meanwhile, Hivelocity provides robust dedicated server solutions and game server hosting. Their offerings include unique plan features and competitive pricing across multiple server specifications. GreenGeeks’ plans emphasize standard web hosting features, whereas Hivelocity focuses on dedicated and game server solutions, catering to different hosting needs.

Enterprise plans

GreenGeeks doesn’t have enterprise plans, but their VPS and dedicated hosting plans may be suitable the needs of larger businesses or enterprises. Hivelocity does not have dedicated or VPS hosting options, however the platform offers Reseller Hosting and plans for specifically for agencies, which can be suitable for enterprises.

🏆 Winner: GreenGeeks: Providing an eco-friendly hosting solution with user-friendly features and comprehensive support.

GreenGeeks employs the popular cPanel for website administration, which is known for its intuitive interface. Setting up WordPress through GreenGeeks is simplified with a few questions and a click of a button, making it an ideal choice for non-technical users. The onboarding process is streamlined, with 24/7 support to guide you through the setup. In addition to this, GreenGeeks’ cPanel comes with a wide range of tutorials and guides, enhancing its accessibility for various users. This balance of simplicity and technical support makes GreenGeeks a strong candidate for beginners and seasoned admins alike.

Hivelocity, on the other hand, offers a variety of control panels including cPanel, DirectAdmin, and Plesk, among others. This flexibility is advantageous for those looking for a customized environment and who have specific preferences. Hivelocity’s array of options caters well to technically adept users, but may present a steeper learning curve for beginners. The managed services they offer for different control panels and operating systems help mitigate this issue, ensuring that less technical users can still benefit from their robust offerings through expert assistance.

In terms of migration tools, GreenGeeks offers free WordPress migration services. The migration process is straightforward; users need to log in and request the migration service via the support section. This simplification eliminates the hassle of manually transferring files and databases. Conversely, Hivelocity provides a more flexible approach to migration, with tools and support for various control panels and operating systems. Their custom solutions and consultation services indicate a more hands-on, potentially complex migration process, which might not be entirely automated and could involve extra fees.

The help center resources of both providers are comprehensive. GreenGeeks features hundreds of WordPress-specific tutorials, a beginner’s guide, and numerous cPanel guides, making it accessible for users with differing levels of expertise. Hivelocity’s knowledge base is extensive, covering various topics like coding, databases, and security. Regularly updated articles and robust support ensure users have access to the latest information. Both providers excel in support offerings, with GreenGeeks providing a more streamlined and user-friendly experience overall.

🏆 Winner GreenGeeks: Efficient user management features and streamlined account access.

Both GreenGeeks and Hivelocity have user management systems, but GreenGeeks offers a more detailed and structured approach. With GreenGeeks, you can add new users by navigating through a clear sequence of steps, which involve inviting users by email and assigning specific services. They allow the assignment of roles such as Collaborator or Client, providing flexibility in access rights. On the other hand, Hivelocity lacks detailed documentation about its user management features, which limits a comprehensive comparison.

GreenGeeks makes managing users intuitive with its structured Account Manager. You can easily access profile settings, navigate to “Account Access,” and manage user permissions. The interface clearly delineates steps for inviting or removing users, and multi-user access is supported without needing to share credentials. Hivelocity’s tools for user management are not detailed, so the comparison focuses mainly on GreenGeeks’ well-laid out process.

Access control in GreenGeeks is efficient, allowing for easy addition and removal of users. The clear distinction of roles like Collaborator or Client helps in accommodating a range of user needs. With multi-user access and direct support interaction, it’s equipped to manage a growing number of users efficiently. Hivelocity’s access control measures are not explicitly defined, suggesting a potential gap in handling complex user management scenarios as effectively as GreenGeeks.

GreenGeeks User Roles Table:

🏆 Winner
Hivelocity: Offers great support, impeccable uptime, and customizable server solutions at competitive prices.

Both GreenGeeks and Hivelocity offer 24/7 customer support and multiple channels for assistance. GreenGeeks provides customer help through live chat, email, and phone, supplemented by a rich knowledge base and video tutorials. They excel in migration services, offering free cPanel and WordPress migration, which can be a huge plus for users switching their hosting provider.

Hivelocity, with a slightly higher customer rating, also offers round-the-clock support via live chat, phone, and ticketing system. They boast of an impeccable uptime record and multiple data center locations worldwide. Hivelocity’s flexibility in custom server solutions and a variety of operating systems, as well as comprehensive billing and sales support, make it a strong contender in the hosting market.

Green Geeks vs Hivelocity: User feedback

Users generally appreciate the hosting provider for its excellent customer support, fast and reliable performance, and user-friendly dashboard. The eco-friendly aspect of the service is also a significant plus for many users. However, there are recurring concerns regarding the pricing, which tends to increase after the initial years, and the performance during high-demand scenarios. Additionally, some users have experienced issues with strict resource usage policies and limited plans for specific hosting needs.

Hivelocity is highly praised for its exceptional customer service, reliable server performance, and knowledgeable technical support. Long-term users, some with over a decade of experience, commend the company for its personalized support and rapid response times, often highlighting near-instant ticket resolutions and a proactive approach to addressing issues. Additionally, the infrastructure and network reliability receive strong accolades, with many users experiencing minimal to no downtime. While a few noted the increasing prices and occasional variability in support quality, the consensus is that Hivelocity offers an outstanding hosting service marked by dependability and top-tier customer support.

Green Geeks vs Hivelocity: FAQ