Bluehost vs HostGator: The Ultimate Comparison In 6 Steps
Whether you’re looking for your first web host or already have a website and want to switch providers, the process can be pretty daunting. There are many options, so it’s no wonder it can be challenging to decide.
Bluehost and HostGator are two of the biggest hosting companies on the market. We signed up for both to create this 6-step comparison of what they offer. So that you can choose the best hosting option.
Let’s get started…
Basic Features of Bluehost vs HostGator
As of April 2020, Bluehost was the host of choice for 1.2% of all websites on the internet, and HostGator got 2%. While they may appear to be very similar, these two big guns have different things to offer.
Before we go too in-depth, let’s compare their basic features and the price tags they attach to them.
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You can see that while they start at a very similar basic rate of just under $4 per month, their top-tier options are very different, with Bluehost’s pricing topping out at $13.95 and HostGator’s just $4.48.
Apart from that, though, they look pretty much the same on the basics. So, let’s dive a little deeper.
Pros and cons of Hostgator vs Bluehost
Like anything in life, Bluehost and HostGator have their strengths and weaknesses. Let’s look at some of the main ones in this side-by-side comparison.
Bluehost Pros & Cons
Pros
- Affordable pricing
- Very easy to use and suitable for beginners
- Recommended by WordPress
- Free SSL certificate
Cons
- The shared hosting plan offers limited storage
- Add-ons and extras at checkout, including some which are pre-selected
Bluehost has very limited server options. This is the primary reason why I now have an idle Bluehost account that I no longer use. I moved my site because Bluehost unfortunately only offers US-based servers, a far cry from what other providers are offering right now!
General Manager @ Leap Digital
Note: Bluehost has country-specific services such as Bluehost India, Bluehost China, etc. So, if you’re looking to host your server in a specific country, you’ll have to register at their country-level site. Bluehost.com offers servers only in the U.S.
HostGator Pros & Cons
Pros
- Great 24/7/365 customer support
- Free domain included
- Unmetered Storage and bandwidth
- 45-day money-back guarantee
- HostGator’s own Website Builder included
Cons
- Advertising credits are only available to residents in the U.S. and Canada
- Only 2 data centers in Utah and Texas
Bluehost & HostGator Customer Support
When you sign up for any kind of service, especially a technical one like web hosting, it’s crucial to have a solid support network around you. Things can go wrong when it comes to technology; they are often things you can’t fix yourself.
For me, a web host that offers 24/7 support and live chat is a winner. It’s 2020, and frankly, I don’t want to wait around for 12 hours for my questions to be answered.
Thankfully, both Bluehost and HostGator offer many options for support. You can see from the table below that the only real difference is that Bluehost provides both U.S. and international telephone support services. In contrast, HostGator only offers this to U.S. customers.
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While my expectations of customer support are high, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be. There are certain things in life you cannot buy without reassurance. You wouldn’t buy a car with no seatbelts or ride a bike with no wheels, and web hosting should be no different.
Bluehost offers an in-depth knowledge base that is easy to use. You can simply search for the answer to your question or narrow your search down by category. Similarly, with HostGator, you can see how many resources are in each category, like 55 topics in the domains section.
Bluehost & HostGator’s Cheapest Plans
This section will focus on each provider’s shared web hosting packages. They are both very similar in price, but do they match up with advanced features?
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On the face of it, Bluehost and HostGator’s cheapest hosting plans offer similar features. However, it’s clear from the table above that HostGator pips Bluehost to the post on their basic plan’s features.
All of HostGator’s shared hosting plans offer unmetered storage, whereas Bluehost’s Basic plan has a limit of 50GB. Some may see this as unfavorable. However, on average, most eCommerce sites (which tend to use the most storage) only need 4 G.B. of storage.
I can guarantee you won’t have a website exceeding 50 G.B. of storage.
Both providers’ advertised prices are based on a 36-month term. This is true of many web hosts, where signing up for longer will net you the most prominent discounts.
When it comes down to it, HostGator does offer more features than Bluehost. However, it depends on what features you want for your website. For example, if you’re hosting a WordPress website, Bluehost is one of the few hosting providers recommended by WordPress. But, if you’re not hosting a WordPress website, HostGator seems to offer more.
Performance (Uptime & Speed) of Bluehost & HostGator
Performance is an essential feature of any web host. Whether you’re hosting a small business website or running a large enterprise, you’ll need to know your host’s server response time and uptime are decent.
In 2019, Littledata surveyed over 3,500 websites and concluded that the average server response time was 553ms. Bear in mind that anything less than 302ms would place your website in the best 20% of sites on the web, and a response time of more than 998ms would place it in the worst 20%.
Many web hosts offer an uptime guarantee, which can be reassuring. However, this means nothing unless they adhere to their SLAs, so it’s vital to run actual tests to accurately analyze the data presented.
As I said at the start, I signed up to Bluehost and HostGator to crunch some actual numbers. I monitored my websites using UptimeRobot so you can see how both hosts fared.?
Bluehost Uptime Test
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Bluehost offered a solid 100% uptime for 30 days. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to provide any kind of compensation or reward scheme if they don’t adhere to their SLAs, but they say that most issues will be resolved within 15 minutes.
Based on a fresh install of WordPress on my Bluehost server, with no optimization, my test server response time returned an average of 502ms. While this doesn’t put my Bluehost site in the best 20% of sites, it does put it pretty much bang on average, which is reassuring.
HostGator Uptime Test
Like Bluehost, HostGator also came up with trumps on their uptime promises. HostGator says that if your site isn’t up an average of 99.9% in a given month, they’ll issue a service credit on your hosting account for one month.
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I did the same test with HostGator as with Bluehost, which gave me an average server response time of 671ms. This isn’t as good as Bluehost’s speeds, but it isn’t anything to stick your nose up at.
Pricing Comparison of Bluehost & HostGator
Bluehost and HostGator offer similar pricing packages at the lower end. They are both easy to understand, and it’s clear to see which features are available across their plans. Let’s take a look at these two titans of Web Hosting offers.
Bluehost Pricing
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Bluehost’s Plus and Choice Plus plans are almost the same prices, costing just $5.95 and $6.95 per month, respectively. I reckon that’s pretty good value considering you’ll get unlimited websites, storage, bandwidth, and a free SSL. The Choice Plus plan includes domain privacy and protection, site backup, and 1 Office 365 mailbox, free for 30 days.
Bluehost’s Pro plan seems pretty expensive, considering the only real difference it offers compared to its cheaper plans are the dedicated I.P. and extra Spam Experts. However, the Pro plan provides high performance, which allows for a 300,000 file count, and is deployed with fewer users and more resource availability per user.
HostGator Pricing
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All of HostGator’s pricing plans are very reasonable, in my opinion. Their most expensive shared hosting plan is only $4.48 per month and offers plenty of features suitable for most individuals and businesses.
Unlike Bluehost, HostGator’s Business plan offers almost the same features as Bluehost’s Pro plan, without the performance upgrade. While both hosts offer 1-click installs for WordPress via their cPanel, it’s worth reminding ourselves that – Bluehost is the only host in this comparison recommended by WordPress.
Conclusion
Comparing two big names in the hosting industry is always an exciting exercise. This comparison has been difficult because both hosts are similar and offer like-for-like features in many cases.
Bluehost and HostGator offer affordable, shared web hosting with 1-click software installs, a free domain name, and a free SSL certificate. They also allow you to sell online by installing shopping carts and scalable pricing plans. However, I did discover a few key differences.
Bluehost is recommended by WordPress, and I can safely say I understand why. Testing their services using a WordPress website, I enjoyed a solid uptime of 100% and fast server response speeds.
Bluehost is accessible to beginners and advanced users, and their cPanel is clear and concise. However, their basic plan has a storage limit of 50GB. And, while not a danger to more website owners, in comparison to HostGator, it is a little disappointing.
HostGator is a highly well-known web host with a good reputation. Their plans cost the same price as most people’s daily lunch and come packed with many features.
HostGator offers an uptime guarantee and hands out credits if they don’t meet their SLAs, which Bluehost doesn’t provide. However, if I had to be picky, I’d pull up HostGator on their customer support, which isn’t as good as Bluehost’s.
That said, if you’re looking for a reliable web host that offers excellent speed and performance, as well as cracking customer support for the price of a bit of pocket change per month, I highly recommend Bluehost.
$This is an affiliate link
Frequently Asked Questions
Some of the frequently asked questions regarding Bluehost and HostGator are:
Bluehost is a free WordPress hosting service?
No. Bluehost is an affordable WordPress hosting service for beginners. As of today, they are not offering free web hosting for clients.
HostGator is a free web hosting service?
No. HostGator is another premium WordPress hosting company in the market. Compared to the competitors, they offer affordable web hosting packages for their clients.
How about security?
Both platforms offer high-end security features. You can focus on your content writing and forget about security. You can also rely on a WordPress security plugin like Sucuri or Wordfence for better optimization.
When looking for more powerful WordPress hosting, you need to check W.P. Engine. It is one of the most popular managed WordPress hosting companies available.
Support for Affiliate Customers:
If you consider purchasing Bluehost through this affiliate link, the BlogHeist team can offer you support services like WordPress installations, website setup, fixing Web Hosting issues, etc., in return.
All you have to do is use our link while purchasing Bluehost and forward us the email receipt.
Opportunity to share your experience:
This comparison article on Bluehost vs HostGator was written by Georgie Peru. If you have a helpful comparison resource like this and are interested in contributing to our site, check our Guest Posting Guidelines.
References
- Usage statistics of Newfold Digital as web hosting provider – W3Techs
- What is the average server response time? – LittleData
- Shared Web Hosting Plans – Fast & Secure Shared Hosting – Bluehost
- Shared Website Hosting – Easy and Affordable – HostGator
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