There is no SiteGround free trial for its web hosting plans: StartUp, GrowBig and GoGeek must be paid upfront for 12 months, starting at $35.88. What SiteGround offers instead is a 30-day money-back guarantee on shared hosting, which works like a paid trial: you pay, try the hosting, and cancel within 30 days for a refund. The only free trial is for SiteGround’s Website Builder and Ecommerce builder: 14 days with no credit card, but you cannot publish the site or connect your domain until you buy a plan.
Plan prices were checked on October 22, 2026 on SiteGround’s US web hosting page and its knowledge base article on current shared hosting rates (updated October 12, 2026). Refund and trial rules come from SiteGround’s refund article (updated October 7, 2026) and its Website Builder free trial article (updated March 5, 2026).
SiteGround free trial vs money-back guarantee
| SiteGround product | Free trial? | Refund window |
|---|---|---|
| Shared hosting (StartUp, GrowBig, GoGeek) | No | 30 days from activation |
| Cloud hosting | No | 14 days from activation |
| Website Builder and Ecommerce builder | Yes, 14 days, no credit card | Not needed until you buy |
| Domain names | No | Not refundable |
For anyone who wants WordPress hosting, the money-back guarantee is the trial. The builder trial is a different product: a drag-and-drop site builder, not the hosting plans most SiteGround reviews compare. Our comparison of cheap hosting with a website builder shows how its paid Build plan compares with Hostinger and Namecheap.
How the 30-day money-back guarantee works
SiteGround’s refund article counts the window from the day the service is activated. You request the refund by canceling the service in the Client Area, not by email or chat. Three conditions decide how much comes back:
- Domain fees are kept. The policy says domain name fees are not refundable and may be charged when you cancel, even if the domain was free in a promotion. The policy does not name the amount. The domain stays in your account until it expires.
- Add-ons are excluded. Paid support and third-party services are not covered by the guarantee.
- Renewals are covered too. Cancel within 30 days of a renewal payment and SiteGround refunds it in full if the new term has not started yet. If it has started, you get the renewal fee back minus the first month.
In practice, a StartUp buyer pays $35.88 for the first year and can cancel inside 30 days, minus any domain fee. That is a small risk for a month of real use, with your own domain, email and live traffic, which a builder trial cannot give you.
What the SiteGround Website Builder free trial includes
The free trial gives full access to the builder for 14 days from activation, with no credit card. SiteGround’s trial article lists these limits:
- You cannot publish the site, use a custom domain or create email accounts.
- Ecommerce features that rely on outside services, such as payments, shipping and tax, run in test mode.
- Each trial site gets 5 GB of storage and 100,000 inodes, with CPU limits of 1,000 cycles an hour and 10,000 a day.
- You can keep up to 10 trial sites at once.
If you do not buy a plan, the trial site expires and is deleted within 14 days, and SiteGround says its backups can take up to 60 days to be removed. To keep the site, you add a paid builder plan. SiteGround’s US page lists four, Build, Sell, Grow and Scale, each prepaid for 12 months, with 5 GB, 10 GB, 50 GB and 100 GB of storage. SiteGround also lists free trial projects for Coderick AI, its AI app builder, capped at 5 projects.
What SiteGround hosting costs if you keep it
| Plan | Intro price | Paid upfront | Renewal | Renewal per year | Websites |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| StartUp | $2.99/mo | $35.88 for 12 months | $17.99/mo | $215.88 | 1 |
| GrowBig | $4.99/mo | $59.88 for 12 months | $29.99/mo | $359.88 | Unlimited |
| GoGeek | $7.99/mo | $95.88 for 12 months | $44.99/mo | $539.88 | Unlimited |
The 30-day window limits the risk of the first bill. The bigger cost decision comes at the first renewal, when StartUp goes from $35.88 to $215.88 a year, six times as much. SiteGround’s current-rates article also shows that a shorter term costs more: StartUp’s regular rate is $24.99 a month on 1-month billing, against $17.99 on 12 months and $14.99 on 24 months. Our article on why SiteGround is so expensive breaks down that renewal jump, and the SiteGround StartUp vs GrowBig comparison helps you choose the plan before the 30 days start.
Hosts that do offer a free trial
If trying before paying matters most, two other hosts on this site have one:
- Namecheap: its shared hosting page offers Stellar, Stellar Plus and Stellar Business free for 30 days, then $2.28, $2.98 and $4.98 a month. The catch: the 30-day money-back guarantee applies only to first-time customers who did not start with a trial, so taking the trial removes the refund option.
- Cloudways: a 3-day free trial with no credit card. After you upgrade, it bills monthly for the previous month’s usage, with no prepaid year. Our Cloudways free trial guide covers what fits in those 3 days.
I run my own sites on Namecheap shared hosting with many domains on one plan, and the price and fast online support are the reasons I stay.
Check Namecheap plans Check Cloudways plans
Who should use which option
- You want WordPress hosting from SiteGround: buy the 12-month plan and treat the first 30 days as your trial; StartUp risks $35.88, minus any domain fee.
- You want a simple site without WordPress: the 14-day Website Builder trial lets you build it free before paying.
- You want to pay nothing upfront: Namecheap’s 30-day trial or Cloudways’ 3-day trial, accepting that Namecheap’s trial removes its refund.
- You already have a domain you want to keep elsewhere: use your existing domain with SiteGround hosting, so there is no SiteGround domain fee to hold back if you cancel.
Verdict: is the missing SiteGround free trial a problem?
Not much. There is no SiteGround free trial for hosting, but the 30-day money-back guarantee gives you a month of real use for $35.88 on StartUp, refunded if you cancel in the Client Area in time. Watch the two costs that the guarantee does not cover: a domain fee if you took the free domain, and the renewal at $17.99 a month from year two. Our full SiteGround review covers whether the hosting itself is worth it.
SiteGround free trial FAQ
Does SiteGround ask for a credit card for the free trial?
Not for the Website Builder trial. SiteGround’s trial account article says you cannot even add a payment method before your first order; payment details are added when you buy a plan.
Can I get a refund on SiteGround cloud hosting?
Yes, but only within 14 days of activation, half the shared hosting window. Cloud hosting has no free trial either.
Can I contact SiteGround support during the free trial?
Only through the knowledge base and SiteGround’s AI chat assistant. Its trial account article says phone, live chat and support tickets require a paid plan, so test support during the 30-day refund window instead.