Category: Product Updates

You either love or hate AI by now. Most of us are stoked by its capacity to resolve problems and cut our workload. Yet, we often hate it when we need actual assistance from an empathetic human being, but instead we are stuck with… a chat bot. 

For us at SiteGround, adopting AI in our Customer service is an exciting and ongoing journey that started back in 2017 and evolves with the natural evolution of AI itself. 

Our team loves AI and is convinced in its capacity to efficiently resolve complex challenges of all sorts. It already hugely contributes to improving our customers’ experience in many different ways and we are about to share with you how we have integrated it so far and some of the exciting new applications we’ve initiated. In case you, as a customer, have not yet experienced any of those, we would love you to give it a try and see for yourself. 

At the same time, despite all our passion for AI, we believe that for more years to come the true value of any service business like ours will be defined by the expertise and experience of the humans behind it. That is why, as much as we invest in AI integrations, we also invest in growing the expertise and capacity of our Customer service team. 

Our philosophy is that smart AI applications paired with human support is the key to maximizing customer care quality. By letting AI handle routine tasks and allowing human agents to focus on complex issues, we’ve elevated our service efficiency while maintaining the personal touch.

Pioneering AI at SiteGround

Our adventure with AI began back in 2017, when we introduced our groundbreaking AI-powered anti-bot system — the first of its kind in our industry! Today, this very system blocks a whopping 95% of malicious traffic before it even reaches our customers’ sites. Fast forward to 2019, when we integrated custom AI-powered real-time translation into our customer care systems, enabling us to serve clients in multiple languages and scale like never before. These early AI innovations worked their magic behind the scenes, dramatically boosting customer experience without direct interaction from clients.

With AI technology advancing at lightning speed, we took a bolder step into client-facing AI integration with the launch of our AI HelpDesk Assistant in 2023. It is designed to slash support response times for our most common inquiries, providing direct responses and how-to instructions from our extensive internal documentation, Knowledge Base and Tutorials. The results? Our instant AI Assistant nails the correct answer in 96% of responses, with 85% meeting our rather high customer service standards. Naturally, we couldn’t wait to build on that and take our AI applications to new heights!

Exciting Agentic AI Applications at SiteGround

In 2025, we added a brand new task-focused element to our AI assistant in our website control panel, Site Tools. On a daily basis, our clients perform a variety of website management tasks, some of which we’ve trained our AI assistant on. Now it analyzes our users’ intent in Site Tools and suggests performing certain actions on your behalf. 

If, for example, you’re looking to clear the cache on your website, you can ask our AI assistant in Site Tools to help you do that. It will describe the steps you need to follow in detail, but will also conveniently suggest doing it for you. Just a simple confirmation on your part, and voilà! The task is completed in seconds, with a confirmation to boot!

At this stage, our AI task-oriented agent handles only carefully curated low-risk operations like website cache purge, country blocking, enabling CDN services, fixing WordPress permissions, checking SSL validity, and resetting DNS SPF records. Since these are all website-specific, it works only when engaged in SiteTools. But we’re already working on expanding its capabilities to tackle more tasks, including backup restores, and integrating AI agents into other areas like the SiteGround Customer Area, Email Marketing, and Website Builder interfaces.

Enhanced Efficiency

The biggest strength of our AI technology lies in its ability to tackle repetitive tasks and massive inquiries with speed and precision. Our AI-powered systems swiftly process and respond to customer queries, cutting response times even further and boosting our support availability. This efficiency frees up SiteGround’s human agents to tackle more complex issues, supercharging overall productivity.

Since its launch, our instant AI assistant has tackled over 1,500,000 questions and requests! By handling straightforward inquiries, it ensures that complex technical questions reach our support crew faster, resulting in quicker resolutions of higher-level inquiries as well. 

In just the first month of operation, 15% of all chats with our assistant involved operations performed on behalf of customers. While this may seem modest, it’s a testament to our careful selection of risk-free processes, ensuring nothing goes awry.

Even Higher Availability

Having said all that SiteGround’s human support isn’t going anywhere! Available 24/7, our average resolution time is just 15 minutes. But for those small requests, our instant AI chat assistant spares even that! It’s available round-the-clock, unaffected by occasional load peaks on our support channels.

But beyond mere stats and numbers, our focus is on enhancing customer experiences. That’s why we have a built-in grading system for every AI assistant chat and closely monitor feedback from clients across all channels, both internally and via trusted third-party review systems like Trustpilot.

Trusted Privacy 

We also understand that AI in customer service can raise data privacy concerns. This is especially true if you’re giving away sensitive information to AI models yourself. But SiteGround’s AI assistant, powered by GPT-4o by OpenAI and customized by our in-house AI engineering team, works under our strict data protection, encryption, and security policies. Your privacy remains intact, with no sensitive information disclosed to OpenAI. Even if you enter sensitive data in our AI chat engine, our system ensures it remains obfuscated, safeguarding your privacy.

Handling Complex Queries with Care

While our AI assistant shines in managing simple inquiries, we recognize its limitations with complex or unique customer issues for now. In these cases SiteGround’s human judgment and expertise is irreplaceable, highlighting the indispensable role of our human support. But even in some of these intricate cases, our AI assists by narrowing down problems and gathering data, streamlining the work for our operators.

Where SiteGround Humans are Irreplaceable

By automating routine tasks, SiteGround’s AI assistant optimizes operational times and allows us to allocate human resources more effectively. Given our high volumes of customer interactions, our human support remains irreplaceable. AI handles simple tasks effortlessly, but nothing beats human expertise, connection, and empathy.

In fact, while developing our AI technology, we’ve not only retained but expanded our nearly 200-person in-house support team. We’re actively onboarding new members and upskilling experienced ones, ensuring top-notch service.

Striking the Perfect Balance

We’re firm believers that integrating smart AI with human support is the key to maximizing customer care quality. By letting AI handle routine tasks and allowing human agents to focus on complex issues, we’ve elevated our service efficiency while maintaining a personal touch. Our staff is trained to work seamlessly alongside AI technologies, enhancing customer interactions, as our clients can attest.

To sum up, for 8 incredible years and counting, AI technology at SiteGround has been creating exceptional customer experiences—with a human touch always at the ready. If we had to answer THAT question, AI did take our job — only to the next level!

The AI era is here and already changing the way we live, work and do business – especially online. Businesses need infrastructure that can keep pace with the demands of advanced AI applications and adapt to the new ways that modern websites are built, optimized, and experienced. From real-time personalization to intelligent automation, these advancements demand hosting that’s faster, smarter, and built to scale.

At SiteGround, we are proud to offer a server infrastructure powered by Google Cloud Platform (GCP), designed to meet the needs of this transformative age. By combining Google’s innovative networking capabilities and global connectivity with SiteGround’s own in-house performance, security, and scalability enhancements, we’ve created a platform ready for the intelligent web — and whatever comes next.

Global Performance and Connectivity 

Over five years ago SiteGround switched to Google Cloud Platform as our infrastructure provider. One of the reasons for the switch was their networking capabilities and global availability, which dramatically improved the speed, uptime, and reliability of the websites we host.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) spans over 202 points-of-presence (PoPs), 2+ million miles of fiber, and is backed by a 99.99% SLA. This reduces the distance and the number of network hops between your site and your users, so your website load times improve — especially for international audiences who might otherwise face slower connections.

Thanks to smarter routing and Google’s expanded private backbone, SiteGround-hosted websites deliver content faster to visitors all over the world. This is the same network that powers services like Google Search and YouTube, so SiteGround clients are tapping into technology used by billions any second.

Google Cloud’s recent advancements in networking emphasize their enhanced performance and security, crucial for modern AI applications that require real-time data processing and low-latency communication. With software-defined networking (SDN) and edge computing, our infrastructure ensures fast and efficient data handling.

And we don’t stop there. By adding our own in-house performance enhancements on top — such as our own free built-in CDN, advanced multi-level website caching, our award-winning built-in performance plugin for WordPress and a fully managed hosting stack — we turn that solid foundation into a high-speed website hosting platform ready to grow with you.

For eCommerce businesses, bloggers, agencies, and anyone targeting a global market, this tremendously improves user experience, lowers bounce rates, and helps website conversion rates.

Security and Reliability

In the AI era, data security and reliability are paramount, as threats evolve and website users and restrictions become even more demanding. SiteGround’s infrastructure is built with a security-first mindset, incorporating multiple layers of protection to safeguard your data. 

From the bare minimum, like a free SSL certificate, through numerous application-level security optimizations for WordPress, to the most sophisticated, dynamically-updated server web application firewall and proactive server-level security measures.

Combining Google Cloud Platform’s advanced encryption settings and threat detection, along with SiteGround’s modern DDOS protection and state-of-art AI anti-bot system, which blocks over 90% of malicious traffic before it even reaches your site, you have peace of mind knowing your website data is secure.

SiteGround vs. Regular Hosting: What’s the Difference?
Feature	SiteGround Hosting (Google Cloud-Powered)	Regular Hosting
Powered by Google Cloud	✅ Fully integrated for superior speed, uptime, and scalability	❌ Standard servers without Google Cloud integration
Global Infrastructure	✅ 202+ PoPs (Points of Presence), 2+ million miles of fiber	❌ Limited global presence, usually regional servers
Uptime Guarantee	✅ 99.99% uptime SLA	❌ Varies; often lower than 99.9% uptime
Speed Optimization	✅ Built-in CDN, advanced caching, and network optimizations	❌ Basic caching, no CDN, slower speeds
AI-Ready Hosting	✅ Optimized for AI-driven features and applications	❌ No specific AI optimizations
Security	✅ Advanced security with isolated traffic, real-time upgrades	❌ Basic security features, less frequent updates
Performance Enhancements	✅ Continuous performance optimizations	❌ No performance layer optimizations
Traffic Management	✅ Real-time traffic surge management, automated failover	❌ No automatic surge management
Support	✅ 24/7 premium support with SiteGround expertise	❌ Limited support, often only available via ticket
Server Management	✅ Fully managed with automatic updates and optimizations	❌ Typically unmanaged or requires user intervention
Backup and Redundancy	✅ Automated daily backups, geo-distributed for extra redundancy	❌ Limited or no automated backups

The SiteGround Advantage: More Than Just Hosting

We don’t just rely on a great foundation — we build on it. SiteGround adds custom layers on top of Google’s infrastructure, fine-tuned for performance, security, and scalability — with zero extra complexity for you.

We’re often among the first to adopt and implement new innovations that benefit your site. SiteGround’s Google Cloud Award for Performance and Innovation is just one example of our dedication to operational excellence.

Optimized for Smarter Websites and AI Tools

From smart search and content personalization to AI-generated designs, SEO, and support tools — websites are starting to rely on AI features that demand more from their hosting environments. Running these tools efficiently requires low latency, stable connectivity, and strong backend performance. 

The latest innovations from Google, such as their Cloud WAN and software-defined networking, for example, represent the future of intelligent, responsive infrastructure. While currently these technologies serve complex enterprise use cases, they reflect the sophistication already at play beneath SiteGround’s infrastructure. They showcase what’s possible with real-time, software-defined traffic management and signal that we’re investing in the kind of infrastructure where AI thrives. 

Ready for the Future

As AI continues to transform industries and redefine possibilities, SiteGround is ready to support your online journey. Our Google Cloud-powered infrastructure provides the robust foundation needed to explore and implement AI technologies, ensuring your online presence is future-proof and ready to capitalize on the opportunities that AI brings.

SiteGround’s server infrastructure, powered by the innovations of Google Cloud Platform, is perfectly positioned to support the demands of the AI era. We are excited to help our clients harness the power of AI, driving innovation and success in their digital endeavors. 

Ready to experience hosting that’s built for what’s next?

Last year, we proudly announced our partnership with Google Workspace, bringing the ultimate collaboration and productivity toolkit to SiteGround customers. Today, we’re excited to share the next chapter in this journey: Gemini AI is now part of all Google Workspace plans offered by SiteGround, unlocking a new level of productivity, creativity, and efficiency for your business.

This major enhancement brings cutting-edge AI features to businesses of all sizes, making productivity, collaboration and communication easier than ever. Now, with Gemini AI woven into the very fabric of Workspace apps like Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Meet, and more, the way you work is about to transform dramatically.

What Is Gemini AI?

Gemini AI is Google’s next-generation artificial intelligence toolkit, designed to boost your productivity effortlessly. Whether you’re drafting emails, summarizing documents, analyzing data, or generating creative content and media, Gemini AI acts as your always-on productivity partner – built right into the tools you use every day.

AI Assistance Across All Your Favorite Apps

Empower Your Daily Workflow with Smart Automations 

At its core, Gemini AI transforms how you handle everyday tasks across Google Workspace. In Gmail, you’ll experience smarter email management that goes beyond basic automation.

Draft professional responses in seconds, get instant summaries of lengthy email threads, and quickly surface important information from your inbox. For busy professionals, this means less time managing emails and more time focusing on what matters.

Supercharge Creativity and Analysis with Built-in AI Assistant

The real power of Gemini AI lies in how it enhances your creative and analytical work.

• In Google Docs, writer’s block becomes a thing of the past as the built-in AI Assistant helps you generate fresh content and media, develop ideas, and summarize complex documents with ease. 
• When working with data in Google Sheets, Gemini AI becomes your personal data analyst – creating tables, generating formulas, and uncovering insights from large datasets without requiring advanced technical expertise.
• And across all your work in Google Drive, Gemini AI’s intelligent search and quick document summaries ensure you can find exactly what you need, exactly when you need it – making collaboration seamless and efficient.

Elevate Collaboration with Easy Summarization

Gemini AI transforms how teams work together. 

• During Google Meet sessions, it acts as your virtual assistant, capturing detailed notes and key points so you can focus entirely on the conversation. 
• In Google Chat you can use Gemini to draft quick responses, set up meeting notes, or even create to-do lists.
• When preparing presentations in Google Slides, it helps you create compelling content and suggests optimized layouts that capture your audience’s attention.

Security and Privacy First

Google has implemented robust security measures to protect the data you share with Gemini AI. All AI interactions are protected by Google Workspace’s enterprise-grade security, ensuring that your data remains confidential. This is specifically important for HIPPA-compliant businesses. Learn more about Gemini’s privacy measures here.

This integration marks a major leap forward in making AI accessible to businesses of all sizes. Whether you’re drafting emails, crunching numbers, or leading team meetings, Gemini AI is designed to help you achieve more with less effort. These capabilities could vary based on the user’s plan.

Ready To Experience The Future Of Productivity?

Start leveraging the power of Gemini AI today. Whether you’re running a small business, leading a growing team, or managing complex projects, Google Workspace with Gemini AI is designed to help you work smarter, not harder.

From celebrating our 20th anniversary to unveiling new features and bringing our service to a new high, 2024 was a year of growth and transformation. But more importantly, it was a year of staying true to our mission—empowering businesses to succeed online.

Every milestone we reached was driven by you—your needs and your success. Because when you grow, we grow. And we build it all, together.

20 Years Of SiteGround: Building A Legacy Together

In 2004, we started with a simple goal: to make web hosting easy and reliable. Twenty years later, we’ve grown into a global leader, trusted by millions of websites.

The numbers tell part of the story: over 3 million domains hosted, 500+ employees worldwide, and countless innovations that changed the hosting landscape. But those numbers don’t tell the whole story. The real milestone? The trust you’ve placed in us—trust that your site will perform seamlessly and that every decision we make is designed to help you succeed.

True to our commitment, this year, we kept building and adding tools and solutions empowering your online presence and growth. Here’s a snapshot of some of the things we did–inspired by you and for you in 2024.

2024 Highlights 🎉

Business-Critical Services, Built For You

We launched and integrated new business-critical services like our Premium Backup, Premium Site Scanner, Google Workspace, and Expert Care, and you were quick to see their value and make them part of your toolkit.

Premium Backup: Your Favorite New Feature 🛡️

Instantly loved by our users, our new Premium Backup service added hourly backups, on-demand slots, and multiple restore and download options to keep your data secure and conveniently quick to access. In just a few months, we have generated over 45TB of premium backups and completed over 3,000 downloads. For our clients this meant confidence that their work is always secure and the convenience of quick recovery in the face of unexpected challenges.

Expert Care: A New Level Of Service For Your Website 🧑‍💻

While our hosting support continues to define industry standards, we recognize that our clients often face challenges that extend beyond hosting itself. That’s why 2024 marked the launch of Expert Care—a specialized service providing professional help for all your website needs. Our clients loved it instantly and its adoption rate is constantly growing, showing how valuable this service is to our community, helping countless webmasters enhance their websites and save time with our expertise.

Upgrades That Add Value, At No Extra Cost

We’ve enhanced key existing services this year to offer you more functionality, all without adding to your costs.

The New And Improved Site Scanner 🕵️‍♂️

Our Site Scanner tool has been a long-time favorite among our clients. This year, the service advanced into a comprehensive security solution with weekly file scans in the Basic plan and unlimited 1-click malware cleanups in the Premium plan. Now, the scanner safeguards your site against threats from every angle. From FTP uploads to software updates, the Site Scanner proactively detects issues and helps you resolve them in real time—giving you peace of mind with no extra effort.

Email Marketing Packed With New Features 📣

This year, we supercharged our Еmail Мarketing service to help you create impactful campaigns, better engage your audience, and measure success – all in all, empowering your business to grow with less effort. We added automations,  detailed performance stats, integrations with popular WordPress lead-generation plugins, and many more small but mighty features. As a result, our email marketing clients sent more than 12 million emails through our service!

Proactive Security – Keeping Your Business Safe

Threats don’t stop. Neither do we. This year, we continued advancing our security systems to deliver even stronger protection to your websites. And the numbers speak for themselves:

• Our new DDoS mitigation system blocked 411 major attacks – including a massive 6.2Mpps surge at 340MB/s running for over 4 months – the biggest we’ve ever seen (and handled!).
• Our brute force defence blocked an average of 1.4 billion malicious requests every single day.
• We upgraded our Web Application Firewall (WAF) for faster, sharper security preventing even more threats before becoming an issue for you.
• With 3,400+ new malware rules, our Site Scanner caught threats before they could reach your website.

Taking Care Оf Maintenance, So You Don’t Have To

Deciding when to upgrade a website’s PHP version or MySQL database is typically a webmaster’s responsibility—often complex, risky, and time-consuming work. At SiteGround, we take this hurdle off your hands because we believe every website deserves to benefit from the latest technologies for improved speed and security. We upgraded millions of websites to PHP 8.2 and MySQL 8—writing custom scripts, running extensive tests, and addressing any issues—all seamlessly and without disrupting your workflow.

We do all of this for you because we care about making your websites faster, safer, and easier to manage.

Support That Feels Human—Because It Is 🤝

Тhis year our AI chatbot has successfully resolved thousands of issues for many clients. But when things go wrong, nothing compares to reliable, knowledgeable support from a real person. At SiteGround, we’re committed to providing exceptional support by continuously enhancing our team’s skills and knowledge. In the past year alone, our support team completed over 400 training and feedback sessions to ensure you always receive the most knowledgeable and friendly assistance – аvailable 24/7 and as reliable as ever.

But don’t just take our word for it.

Constantly Innovating for Your Success 🏆

In 2024, SiteGround was honored with the prestigious Google Cloud DORA Award, recognizing our excellence in development, operations, and reliability. This award reflects the cutting-edge technologies and practices we’ve implemented to deliver high performance and platform scalability. This formal recognition of excellence only adds to the praise and love we hear from the people we value most – our clients.

Thank You For The High Ratings – 98% Satisfaction!  ♥️

The most important achievement for us remains your recognition of our work. All year round we have steadily held the highest Trustpilot score in our hosting segment – 4.8 out of 5 stars. But what is more, in our annual survey 98% of you said you were happy with our service. We’re proud and humbled by this number and will continue raising the bar for ourselves even higher in 2025.

Here’s to another year of growth, innovation, and collaboration—thank you for being part of the SiteGround story. Let’s keep building together. 🎉