Overview
Website security is one aspect of site ownership that leaves many small to medium sized business owners scratching their heads. There’s just so much to know and so much that we don’t know, that you almost have to be a hacker yourself if you plan to outsmart anyone. It’s a virtual arms race to try and secure your site against people that have a malicious intent. Since you can’t dedicate you full-time attention to keeping up with full-time hackers, you need to find the next best solution.
The Claim
Sitelock claims that they can remove malware that’s been uploaded or added to your servers. they can also get you taken off a black list if someone has been sending spam on your behalf. They can also help lock down your database so that it’s harder to hack. If you work in network they can shore that up for you too. If your site runs on a blog management system like WordPress, they can make it more secure. If you sell your products via a shopping cart, they can make sure that this process runs smoothly and that there aren’t any exposed weaknesses that can be taken advantage of. They can also help design your website, making it more hacker-proof from the start. And once they’ve got you secure, they can help keep it that way with maintenance programs.
They also state that showing their seal on your site can improve your conversion rate by up to fifteen percent. Depending on how much traffic you get to your sales page, this could definitely pay for itself with just a few extra sales, and then help you make more profit just be building credibility.
The Hype
The hype is that as far as a percentage goes, very few sites end up getting hacked. So while it is a concern to be aware of as a website owner, you shouldn’t get paranoid, or get scared into thinking you have to pay money to protect your site. No matter what sort of precautions you take, if someone wants to hack your site bad enough, they can find ways to do it. Think of all of the high profile sites like Google and Twitter that end up in the new regularly for getting hacked.
The Cost
If you simply want to display the Sitelock badge on your website to build customer trust, they have plans that start at $10 per month and go up to $50 a month. They claim their most popular price point is the $30 per month Premium service. You can try any of the levels free for 30 days. just remember to cancel before that 30 day mark or your card will be charged.
IF your site has been tampered with and you’re currently blacklisted, you have to get a quote from Sitelock because they don’t offer a one-size-fits-all pricing structure for those services. It all depends on what sort of website you have, what the problem is, and how many of their services you want to go with.
The Commitment
No matter which service you go with, there is never any long-term commitment to using Sitelock. You can cancel at any time, and there is very little hands-on action that you need to take. You will need to follow any instructions given, but they have 24 hour customer service if you get stuck. Overall it’s a low commitment level, and compared to going at it on your own it’s much less of a time thief.
Evaluation
Unless it’s your profession, website security is something that most of us don’t really understand. If you end up the target of a malicious attack, you might not know where to turn. A service like Sitelock is nice because that’s all they do is monitor your site and identify where it’s weak, and then make improvements to help strengthen it. The alternative is to do it yourself, find free plugins and resources, and hope that you’ve covered all of your bases.
As the website owner, it’s basically your responsibility to keep the site as secure as possible so that there isn’t any down time. If you don’t have the time or desire to learn about website security, and your budget an afford a dedicated web security guy or gal, you need to have some sort of system in place that handles the biggest vulnerabilities and allows you to getting back to other pressing matters related to your business. So perhaps the biggest draw to Sitelock is the time it frees up from having to do it yourself.
Even though it would be hard to single out Sitelock as the sole reason why sales conversions go up, some consumers out there do like to see the badges, and even those that don’t consciously know they like it might like it. It just makes a site seem more legit when it’s got a few badges on the bottom showing that it takes an extra step in the security process.
Our Recommendation
If you’ve already been hacked and are looking for a way to bring your site back to its pre-hack days, definitely get a quote from Sitelock to see what they can do for you and how much it will cost. If you are looking for ways to increase your sales and have been thinking that a Sitelock badge might be the way to go, there’s no reason not to give the 30 day trial a go and monitor your sales numbers to see if you notice a boost in your conversions.
Official Website: Sitelock
If you have problems with saving money and keeping track of your spending habits then…
When you are looking for space-saving multi-purpose shelving products, you may want to purchase the…
Today's innovative advanced technologies have created many conveniences. The ability to read on the go…
Experiencing the luxury of owning a wireless speaker is a favorite of many people. The…
Home decor is a very individual and personal choice. A new product like Chasing Paper…
Keeping track of events and goals may be difficult for some people. Purchasing a product…
View Comments
They are really shady. Too expensive with a lot of hidden fees and they charged my cc without my authorization. Not recommended.
They will show false positives for Google Analytics tag, then charge you to remove it, then send you an email saying they were wrong and it was a false positive and that they didn’t actually remove any malware, but won’t refund your money.
simply put - we have been continuously hacked for two years whilst using sitelock. i have cancelled their service and replaced it with a competitor. hacking disappeared after an effective firewall was installed.
I am also victim of the SiteLock scam. I have virtually NO TRAFFIC to my site, maybe 1 to 3 hits a MONTH! Suddenly this week, I surf to my site and get the "Deceptive Site Ahead" message. They claim I have links on my site that might get a persons password or personal info by tricking them into downloading something? What??? I sell eBooks, of course the user has to download.
The smoking gun? I have a 149.00 subscription to SiteLock, the ultimate scam. My site has less than 10 pages on it. They cant scan that few pages and keep them clean for 149.00??? I am going to cancel SiteLock and also migrate away from BlueHost hosting service, because they are in the scam with SiteLock.
Now get this, I CANT EVEN LOGIN TO MY OWN WordPress Console!! These jokers have superceded government control. I am talking about Google and SiteLock, et. al.
Who gave Google regulatory and security authority over the entire internet is my question?
Keep the posts and complaints coming, and spread the word.
really the comment i see is frm 2012 , that is 6 years old. so now my comment here, sitelock is a simple scam , oh i am sure they do some service and might be able to be even good at this but the fact of the matter is that once you signed with them they won you for the next year , their contract only benefits them and their cancellation policy is extortion. stayaway from them you can find better
when you sign with sitelock which hostgator is pushing you for you sign a total one sided contract that only benefits them .
their sales is smooth and promises the world , delivery not so much , they are very expensive and when you decide you want to cancel then agreement which you sign for a year ( which service today signs an agreement for a year?) you can cancel but that is a cancellation fee of 50% of your annual fee. so they took me for 6500 usd
you are not able to downgrade the amount of sites just increase. in short they are a scam , a company that offer you a one sided contract and are going for your money ,
stay away. is like a a marriage you cannot get out of . and there are better alternatives
they are scammers... DO NOT USE SITELOCK!!!!
I would definitely stay away from SiteLock. Their support team is very poor. We had an issue and several times when we sent emails, they did not respond back. We had to email more than once several times just to get a response back. In fact, we have had more than one issue with this company. We were so fed up with them this time that we decided to cancel our subscription. We are losing money by cancelling early. This makes me feel very ripped off but that's the way it goes. That is the last money they will ever get from me. I have also just cancelled the other services I was using with them for another site. Very incompetent company. Think carefully before purchasing anything from them. SITELOCK IS NOT WORTH HASSLE!
Hi Mitzi,
I am gonna be really honest with you and I want you to trust me that what I say it isn't about the money I payed to SiteLock but the service they provide and the lousy customer service I have experienced.
SiteLock is indeed a shady company and all they about care is money.
I contacted SiteLock because my webpage was down due to malware.
On the 1/13/2018 I spoke with Naina Arora and she told me I had a malware. I was chatting with her through my BlueHost chat and she said I had a nasty malware that could be removed with the SECURE STARTER plan. I had two website so the contract was $80 a month and she sign me up for 12 MONTHS CONTRACT.
After a week I receive and email from SiteLock saying that the malware wasn't removed because it needed an upgraded subscription that it would cost more and it would remove the malware and prevent the malware to come back.
FIRST QUESTION: Why Naina Arora sold me a 12 months subscription for a service that wasn't suitable for my malware. She told me that she scanned my webpage and to clean the type of malware the Secure Starter was good but it was a lie. She only cared about signing me up with a 12 months contract.
I call SiteLock again (from the Philippines) and I speak with Brianna Cartier. She said that yes indeed I am paying 80 dollars a month but SiteLock is now on standby because of the Malware so I either Upgrade and pay more or I cancel and pay $480 cancellation fee. If I keep the same Secure Starter package I basically pay for a service that it isn't running.
How can SiteLock assume that I can afford paying more?
I tell Brianna that the service was sold to me by her colleague and she failed to understand my problem and sold me the wrong package. I also tell her that if I knew the service I needed was going to cost me $110 a month I would have never signup with SiteLick. She didn't care. I have a contract so you need to upgrade to the Premium scan and True Shield Premium and pay $110 a month but only 6 months long.I signed the contract on the 1/20/18
She said she will ask an engineer to manually clean the malware and as soon as I sign the contract and send it to her the phone call was cut.
On the 21st of February I receive an email from Brianna again saying that they need info about my host so I call again and tell them my password and username. They start cleaning my website and install the shield and I receive and email saying that everything was clean and the malware was removed.
I scan the website with another software and I still see the malware plus my webpages is now down because of the Shield firewall and DNS pointing to a different host. The engineer messed up my website. I call BlueHost and ask them to remove it! (another phone call).
SECOND QUESTION: How is it possible that from the moment SiteLock worked on my webpage I had a ton of login problems as well as webpage down, DNS changed and pointing to a different host and websites not indexing on Google? They don't know how to work and clearly don't care about it.
On the 27th of February 2018 I call SiteLock again and I ask to close the account. I am willing to pay the cancellation fee to get rid of the service. I am speaking with Ronni Chambers and she said that if I want to cancel I will have to pay $480 cancellation fee. I remind her that I have a new contract signed a week after so my cancellation fee is now $330 but she said THAT BRIANNA CARTIER HAS PROBABLY LOST MY NEW CONTRACT SO I HAVE TO PAY THE CANCELLATION FEE ACCORDING TO THE FIRST CONTRACT I SIGNED. I tell her that the documents are stored inside the DocuSign system they use but she can't access it.
I tell her that I will send the new contract again and without even apologize she put me on hold and after 15 minutes she said that the contract was cancelled then the phone call was cut.
She cut the call same stile as Brianna Cartier. They are probably trained like that by SiteLock so that they don't waste time with clients who want to cancel and they are back on the phone trying to scam the next poor victim.
I find the whole thing to be a real scam.
SiteLock is a legalized criminal who steal money from poor customers who have no knowledge about malwares and firewalls.
This whole game costed me $410 plus a ton of money of phone calls and time wasted.
After the whole story I go online and I found hundreds of reviews that look like my story.
Clients tricked to sign up a contract in the first place then ask to upgrade and then having problem with DNS and firewall. Without mention the fact that my contract was "lost" and I was lucky to have it in my email.
SITELOCK IS A LOUSY COMPANY with the worst customer service trained to STEAL as much money they can from customers who are clearly desperate to have their webpage back.
I am happy I learned and asked BlueHost to delete everything from them. I don't even want to free service they provide.
I had sitelock over three domains for few months now. in the first attack the whole system collapsed. I got simple DDOs attack on my server and the whole website went down. I lost 2 days of business. reporters were calling to ask me what happened to the website.
I called sitelock to help they assured me all was ok. However, website was down. My team checked logs and we were under DDos attack from China. Firewall couldn't even stop it although i am paying for premium firewall.
I called sitelock for a refund cuz their system didn't work and i was nice didnt claim any damages for lost business. The representative was so rude to me and said at the end the service doesn't cover DDOs. I told her i didn't know attacks come on a la cart that i get to chose from. Save your money. They are the worst company u could deal with.