Green Geeks vs Leaseweb: guide for 2024

Green Geeks vs Leaseweb: Final verdict

Looking over GreenGeeks vs. Leaseweb, both offer solid hosting solutions but cater to different types of users and needs.

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  GreenGeeks (Overall grade: 8.4)
  
  
  excels with its eco-friendly hosting solutions and a variety of plans designed to accommodate different needs, from personal blogs to multimedia websites. Its hosting services are characterized by a near-perfect uptime record, fast response times, and an array of user-friendly features such as a free website builder and domain registration, making it a great option for beginners and small businesses. The focus on eco-conscious initiatives, with 300% green energy match and tree planting for each account, adds substantial value. However, its plans may seem more attractive initially, but the renewal prices can be higher, and resource allocation during high-demand periods might be limited.
  
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  Leaseweb (Overall grade: 8.0)
  
  
  targets users with higher performance requirements like agencies and high-traffic websites through its powerful VPS and dedicated server offerings. Its robust infrastructure, extensive network capacity, and high bandwidth options make it ideal for businesses that demand scalable, high-performance hosting. The detailed and versatile user management capabilities through various control panels and an API also cater to more technical users. Despite this, Leaseweb’s general web hosting plans are less favorable for non-technical users, with no built-in website builder or free domain registration, potentially making the initial setup and scaling more challenging. Nevertheless, Leaseweb’s comprehensive support, including dedicated agent options and detailed SLA levels, ensures businesses can count on reliable service and assistance.
  

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
GreenGeeks: A strong hosting provider with consistent uptime performance and excellent response times.

GreenGeeks offers a near-perfect uptime, maintaining a 100% record over multiple testing periods. Although its 99.9% uptime guarantee is not backed by compensation, the reality is that GreenGeeks rarely experiences downtime. Reliable response times are another highlight, averaging 0.302 seconds, making it a dependable option for many users. Furthermore, GreenGeeks has data centers in multiple regions, allowing users to select a location that best suits their audience.

Leaseweb provides a slightly lower performance with a 99.999% core uptime guarantee but falls short in shared hosting. Even though it has extensive network capacity and global data centers, its performance metrics, including a full load time of 3.3 seconds, are less impressive. Although Leaseweb is well-equipped with monitoring and support, its uptime and performance metrics do not quite match up to GreenGeeks.

🏆 Winner: GreenGeeks: GreenGeeks offers a more eco-friendly and feature-rich hosting service suitable for a variety of website needs.

When comparing general performance, GreenGeeks utilizes SSDs with its hosting plans, promising blazing fast speeds with LiteSpeed WebServer and LS Cache Plugin. This combinations should lead to faster load times and high PageSpeed scores with built-in caching. Their CDN is included for free and enhances performance. Global data centers in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific ensure faster page loads. On the other hand, Leaseweb offers high bandwidth servers with powerful CPU options and significant memory capacity, suitable for heavy workloads. Their 43 points of presence and 29 Internet Exchanges deliver impressive bandwidth and connectivity.

Website Speed

GreenGeeks boasts fast website speeds with its use of SSDs, LiteSpeed WebServer, and the LS Cache Plugin. It comes with built-in caching for improved load times. Leaseweb, providing high bandwidth and powerful single-tenant physical servers, ensures uncompromised performance. Standard ports start at 1Gbps and go up to 100Gbps, making them adept at handling high traffic without performance dips. Both services prioritize speed but GreenGeeks offers excellent optimization for a wider range of user needs.

Scalability

GreenGeeks offers different plans—Lite, Pro, and Premium—each with varying levels of performance and website capacity. Upgrading involves moving to a different plan rather than automatic scaling. Dedicated servers are not mentioned for GreenGeeks. Leaseweb features flexible configurations and attractive pricing, essential for scaling as needed. Their high bandwidth capacity and dedicated servers offer more elasticity, but the cost details for scaling aren’t specified.

🏆 Winner
GreenGeeks: Superior security features and eco-friendly commitment.

Both GreenGeeks and Leaseweb, 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 comprehensive range of technical security measures, including Wildcard SSL and free SSL certificates. They support multiple PHP versions up to PHP 8.2, and provide 24/7 network security with AI-powered WAF and DDoS protection. Leaseweb also offers robust technical security like SIEM SOC service and DDoS IP protection but does not specify the PHP versions they support. GreenGeeks provides free malware cleanups and uses Immunify360 for threat detection, whereas Leaseweb offers penetration testing through Northwave collaboration.

Operational security measures:

GreenGeeks excels in operational security with daily backups, on-demand backups for certain plans, and SSH & SFTP for secure file access. They enhance site performance and security via CDN integration and container-based technology. Leaseweb’s operational measures include 24/7 SOC monitoring and customizable security profiles and rules to mitigate threats effectively. Leaseweb also provides enterprise-grade backup solutions with Acronis Backup, covering a broad range of storage needs from 25GB to 500GB.

Compliance and certifications:

GreenGeeks emphasizes data protection and security, suggesting adherence to GDPR and PCI standards, although specific details are not provided. Leaseweb states compliance with GDPR and ensures PCI compliance for secure handling of credit card information. HIPAA compliance details are not specified for either hosting provider.

🏆 Winner: GreenGeeks: An eco-friendly hosting provider with comprehensive features and excellent value.

GreenGeeks and Leaseweb both offer reliable hosting solutions, but they cater to different types of customers. GreenGeeks stands out with a variety of plans that encourage eco-conscious decisions, including their commitment to 300% green energy match and planting a tree for every hosting account. This makes them a compelling option for environmentally aware users. GreenGeeks also provides a user-friendly website builder with free domain registration for the first year across all plans, which can be particularly appealing to individuals and small businesses. Their plans include generous resources, such as unlimited websites and web space in their higher-tier offerings. The inclusion of free SSL certificates, daily backups, and advanced security features without any extra fees add considerable value.

Leaseweb, on the other hand, is geared more towards users who need robust VPS hosting. Their web hosting plans are solid, offering SSD storage and a variety of operating systems for VPS hosting like Ubuntu, CentOS, Debian, and even Windows. Leaseweb provides excellent control through their customer portal and root/admin access, making it ideal for technical users who require greater server control and customization. While they do support FTP/SFTP and SSH through Plesk for file management, they do not offer a built-in website builder or free domain registration, which might be a deal-breaker for less experienced users looking for an all-in-one solution. Leaseweb is more suitable for developers and businesses needing scalable and high-performance hosting options.

Both providers support a range of users from beginners to experts with user-friendly website builders and WordPress staging areas. However, in terms of developer tools, both GreenGeeks and Leaseweb offer robust options including SSH access, support for multiple programming languages, and Git for version control, thus appealing to developers looking for advanced capabilities.

Email services:

GreenGeeks offers up to unlimited email accounts depending on the plan, which cater to both transactional and campaign-related needs. There’s built-in support for standard email hosting without third-party enforcements. Leaseweb offers email hosting that varies by plan, with the highest plan providing up to 250 mailboxes, suitable for basic emailing needs rather than extensive marketing campaigns. Neither provider mentions specialized email campaign services or reselling third-party email solutions directly, focusing more on reliable standard email hosting.

🏆 Winner GreenGeeks: An excellent choice for affordability and eco-friendly features.

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.

Comparing GreenGeeks and Leaseweb, GreenGeeks offers lower introductory prices and rich feature sets across its WordPress, shared, and WooCommerce hosting plans. GreenGeeks’ plans also emphasize environmentally friendly initiatives by matching 300% of their energy usage with renewable energy credits and planting a tree for each plan purchased. On the other hand, Leaseweb provides competitive web hosting options with a variety of domain registration choices and extensive dedicated server plans, although they come at a higher cost. Both providers offer robust backup and migration support, but GreenGeeks’ lower pricing and eco-friendly focus make it a standout choice.

Enterprise plans

For enterprise hosting, GreenGeeks presents highly competitive reseller plans that are ecologically responsible and feature rich. Leaseweb offers substantial dedicated server plans with robust computing power suitable for large-scale operations. GreenGeeks stands out with its pricing and green initiatives, while Leaseweb excels in offering diversified server configurations and advanced backup solutions.

🏆 Winner
GreenGeeks: Provides user-friendly tools and superior customer support for ease of setup.

GreenGeeks offers an intuitive cPanel hosting experience, making it easy for users to manage their websites regardless of their technical proficiency. The onboarding process is straightforward, and 24/7 support is available to assist with any issues. GreenGeeks provides numerous helpful tutorials, ensuring that even beginners can navigate their admin panel without hassle. On the other hand, Leaseweb utilizes a custom customer portal. While it provides comprehensive functionalities, the setup process might be less user-friendly compared to GreenGeeks’ cPanel. The customer portal setup involves multiple steps such as account creation and password setting, which might be challenging for non-technical users.

GreenGeeks on the other hand, offers a dual interface that combines a custom dashboard with full cPanel access, catering to both beginners and technically advanced users. The platform includes a comprehensive help center filled with a wide variety of guides and tutorials, aimed at assisting users in managing and optimizing their websites effectively.

Both GreenGeeks and Leaseweb offer migration services for websites, but their approaches and costs differ. GreenGeeks provides free automated migrations for WordPress sites specifically within the first 30 days after purchasing a new shared hosting plan. For non-WordPress sites, however, GreenGeeks charges $149 for migration services, although users have the option to undertake manual migrations, which demand considerable technical expertise. On the other hand, Leaseweb offers both automated and manual migration options for WordPress and non-WordPress or custom sites alike. Their paid migration service is considerably more affordable at approximately $30.

The platforms provide extensive knowledge bases filled with guides, how-to articles, and instructional content. GreenGeeks offers a wide range of resources alongside 24/7 chat and phone support. Leaseweb also boasts a detailed help center with an intuitive search function and around-the-clock support via live chat, phone, and ticketing, ensuring comprehensive user support.

🏆 Winner Leaseweb: Offers versatility in user management through multiple control panels and a robust API.

Both GreenGeeks and Leaseweb offer user management capabilities, but they differ in their approaches. GreenGeeks provides a detailed and slightly more structured process for adding and managing users. It allows you to invite users and assign roles such as Collaborator or Client directly through their Account Manager. In contrast, Leaseweb relies on its various control panels—Plesk, cPanel, and Vesta—all of which have standard user management features. While GreenGeeks offers more specific guidance, Leaseweb’s flexibility through multiple control panels and a customer portal provides a more versatile environment for user role definitions and permissions.

GreenGeeks features a user-friendly interface that guides you step-by-step through managing user roles within their Account Manager. The process involves inviting users via email and selecting services to grant them access. On the other hand, Leaseweb leverages popular control panels like Plesk, cPanel, and Vesta, which are widely recognized for their user management tools. These control panels often have intuitive interfaces, making it relatively easy for users to manage access and permissions even if the explicit guidelines from Leaseweb are less detailed.

GreenGeeks does well in providing clear access control measures through its Account Manager interface, ensuring users can easily add or remove access while maintaining control over different service aspects like cPanel. Leaseweb’s advantage comes from its scalability. The availability of a customer portal and modern APIs means it can handle a growing number of users more efficiently. While GreenGeeks’ approach ensures detailed control, Leaseweb’s API and multiple control panels offer broader capabilities for managing infrastructure and users as needs expand.

GreenGeeks user roles table:

🏆 Winner Leaseweb: Offers faster response times and extensive support across various SLA levels.

GreenGeeks provides 24/7 customer support through phone, live chat, and email, ensuring assistance is always available. Their support team is highly lauded for swift problem resolution and expertise. Additionally, GreenGeeks offers free migration services for cPanel and WordPress accounts, comprehensive self-help resources, and a quick launch wizard for easy setup. Their service encompasses both general customer help and specialized reseller support.

Leaseweb also offers 24/7 support accessible via phone, live chat, email, and support tickets, alongside a broad SLA-driven response time range. They include robust enterprise support options with dedicated agents for priority support under higher SLA levels. Self-help is supported through a detailed knowledge base, API documentation, and a status page for issue tracking. Leaseweb customers benefit from flexible billing cycles and multiple payment options, catering to a wide array of user preferences.

Green Geeks vs Leaseweb: 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.

The hosting provider excels in offering comprehensive services with impressive billing and contract flexibility, making it easier for businesses to manage their finances. Users appreciate the choice between “Volume” and “Premium” network options, which cater to different performance needs, and find the support and user interface to be intuitive and straightforward. However, customers have raised concerns about high charges for excess traffic, restrictive password policies, inconvenient login procedures, limited payment gateways, and a lack of variety in available system distributions. Overall, while the service is robust and user-friendly, there are areas in need of improvement to enhance the customer experience.

Green Geeks vs Leaseweb: FAQ