If you are looking for a web host for your website, you have probably heard the name SiteGround a thousand times by now. After all, they are one of the best web hosts for beginners.
If you’re signing up for SiteGround, you are probably wondering what SG Site Scanner – the paid add-on SiteGround offers on their sign-up page – does and if it’s worth getting…
In this article, I will talk about what SiteGround’s SG Site Scanner is and if it’s worth getting for your website…
What is SG Site Scanner?
SG Site Scanner is a paid add-on SiteGround offers when you buy web hosting. It scans and removes malware from your website.
If your website gets hacked, a hacker might install a virus/malware as a “backdoor” so they can gain complete control over your website.
SG Site Scanner regularly scans your website’s files to detect and remove malware. But that’s not all that it does.
It also has many other security features that protect your website from hackers.
SiteGround offers SG Site Scanner when you buy any of their web hosting products:
SG Site Scanner costs $2.49 per month per site. If you are just starting out, it may seem a little expensive.
But think about how much time and resources you will lose in case your website gets hacked.
If you are confused about SiteGround’s pricing plans or can’t decide which plan is best for you, check out our review of SiteGround’s pricing plans.
Site Scanner is a steal if you are running a serious online business. It can protect your website from falling into the hands of hackers.
It also prevents your website from getting delisted from Google by removing malware as soon as it’s found.
What’s Included In SG Site Scanner
Daily Scanning & Immediate Alerts
SG Site Scanner scans your website’s pages and files every day. This ensures that no malware remains on your website for more than a day.
The best part about this tool is that it immediately sends you an email alert if it finds malware on your website. This lets you take action before this malware can affect anything on your website.
Malware needs to be removed from your website almost as soon as it is found.
If a search engine finds malware on your website, your site will lose a lot of search engine traffic or might even get dropped completely.
SG Site Scanner removes malware automatically as soon as it is found on your website. This prevents malware from making any changes to your content or harming your website users.
- Detected security incidents – Checks if your site currently has any security issues detected.
- Malware prevention – Checks if you are using all malware prevention options available.
- Malicious bot traffic protection – Checks how many malicious attempts have been mitigated by SiteGround’s brute force prevention system.
- Software vulnerabilities exploit prevention – Checks how many software vulnerabilities attacks were mitigated for your specific site by our smart WAF (web application firewall).
- Secure visitors’ connection to the site – Checks if you have an active SSL certificate issued for your site.
- Data redundancy and failover – Checks how many backups you have. Every day, SiteGround performs an automated backup of your website and the space used for backups is not counted toward your account’s space quota.
- PHP security – Checks if you are taking advantage of our managed PHP updates.
- Account login security – Checks if you’ve enabled 2FA for your SiteGround account.
- WordPress application security – Checks the overall security of your WordPress application – if you are using our managed update service, if you have outdated plugins and themes, and if you have activated our WordPress security plugin.
Weekly Emails
Every week, SG Site Scanner sends you a simple email that tells you if any malware was found on your website. Most of the time this email will have detected nothing, which is a good thing!
This email is only a summary email that tells you what has happened on your website in the past 7 days. You will receive email alerts immediately if malware is found on your website.
This email will also let you know if any action is required on your end, which rarely is the case:
This email also tells you if your website’s domain name has been found in any domain blacklists. Domain blacklists are the worst fate for a domain name.
When a domain is blacklisted, browsers display a full-page warning when users try to visit the domain. Not only that, users have to accept a warning before visiting your website.
SG Site Scanner will remove any malware from your website before it results in your domain getting blacklisted. And it will let you know if your domain has already been blacklisted so you can take appropriate action.
Really Simple Interface
SiteGround Site Scanner’s interface is designed with beginners in mind. It’s really simple and makes it really easy to manage all the security-related settings.
You will probably almost never need to use this interface/dashboard because Site Scanner is a set-it-and-forget-it tool.
Once you enable it, you will most likely never need to change anything or manage it.
The only time you will need to use it is if you want to force a scan for your website. If you think your site is acting weird, you might want to scan it for malware.
The interface also shows you the results of previous scans:
This gives you an idea of what’s going on with your website. Most of the time you will never need to visit this page because Site Scanner will send you a weekly email with a summary of what it found (if anything at all)…
Prevent Your Site From Getting Infected With Malware
Malware isn’t always a .exe file. It can be anything. It can be a document file that looks harmless or even an mp3 file.
If a hacker somehow uploads malware to your website, then chances are you will never find out on your own.
If your website gets infected with malware, the hacker who installed it will gain complete access to your servers.
They can then change the contents of your website or use it for nefarious purposes such as phishing and scams. They might even add code to your site that asks your customers to download viruses.
This is where a site scanning tool like SG Site Scanner can help. It regularly scans your website pages and files for malware and removes it if found.
Pros and Cons
SiteGround Site Scanner has many pros and cons. It’s not for everyone.
Here are some of the things you need to keep in mind before getting a subscription:
Pros
- Peace of mind: With this tool on your website, you can rest assured that malware will be found and removed in a couple of days after it is uploaded to your website. Hackers can install malware on your website without you ever finding out. This tool automatically scans your website regularly for malware.
- Prevent getting delisted from search engines: Search Engines absolutely hate malware-infected websites. If Google finds out that your website is infected with malware, then they will drop your site like a stone. This tool will remove malware before it becomes a problem.
- Prevent getting your domain blacklisted: If your website gets infected with malware and remains infected for a couple of months, then it might get listed in domain blacklists. If your domain gets listed in domain blacklists, browsers will display a huge warning page when someone visits your website. This can destroy the reputation of any online business.
Cons
- Can be a little expensive if you’re just starting out: It costs $2.49 per month per site for the first year. If you’re on a budget, then there’s no need for you to get this tool.
- The renewal price is double the first-year promotional price: Siteground will charge you $4.99 per month per site for this tool when you renew it. This is double the first year price.
- Doesn’t do a lot: Unlike other website security tools such as Wordfence, this tool doesn’t do a lot. To be fair, it also doesn’t cost as much as premium security tools like Wordfence. If you are hoping for this to be a panacea for all of your site’s security issues, then you’re mistaken!
Is SG Site Scanner Worth The Money?
SG Site Scanner may not be the most powerful security tool to secure your website.
But it is a good tool if you want peace of mind knowing that malware can’t survive on your website for longer than a couple of hours.
If you are still on the fence about SiteGround in general, check out my review of SiteGround’s web hosting.
It will clear all your doubts and help you make an educated decision. And if you’ve already decided on going with SiteGround, then check out our guide on how to sign up with SiteGround and how to install WordPress.
If you are on a budget, I would highly recommend going with a free WordPress plugin such as Wordfence rather than SG Site Scanner.
And if you’re using WordPress, there’s not much to worry about anyway! WordPress is a secure content management software that is actively being developed by thousands of developers around the world.
And one of the only ways a hacker can hack your WordPress site is if you do something wrong, or install a vulnerable plugin or theme.
If you keep your plugins and themes updated, then there’s very little chance that anyone can hack your website.
