HostGator vs. Bluehost: Two Top-Class Hosts Compared

Web hosting is a crowded field. Names like GoDaddy, DreamHost, and SiteGround are probably familiar to you. But just because they buy tons of advertising doesn’t mean they are the best web hosts. If you’re looking for high-quality web hosting services at an attractive price point for shared, VPS or WordPress hosting, you can’t go wrong with either Bluehost or HostGator. 

Bluehost and HostGator are both web hosting providers with a similar customer base, but there are some key differences in their domain and hosting services. Let’s start with a brief overview of both hosts before we take a deep dive into the various options on offer. 

HostGator vs. Bluehost 

The Newfold Digital Group owns Bluehost and HostGator. HostGator was founded in 2002 and currently hosts over two million domains. Bluehost was founded a year later and quickly gained traction as the best hosting choice for many. It now hosts over two million websites. 

While both brands provide similar services, customers seeking the newest features in WordPress often prefer Bluehost. Known for its automatic WordPress installation and WonderSuite, Bluehost has established itself as the preferred hosting platform for WordPress users. 

Both providers also offer shared, VPS, WordPress and dedicated hosting. 

In terms of popularity, there isn’t much to separate Bluehost from HostGator. Of all the customers who use Newfold Digital for hosting, 27.9% chose Bluehost, and another 27.9% opted for HostGator. 

HostGator vs. Bluehost: Feature comparison 

Choosing the best web hosting company for you is about more than just price and speed. While those are both important considerations, other features can be even more important when choosing a hosting provider, such as: 

• Performance and availability 
• Security 
• Dashboard and control panels 
• Website builders 
• Customer support 
• Marketing and eCommerce features 

Performance and availability

For online businesses, poor website performance, slow response times, and long periods of downtime can seriously hurt profits. 

Downtime can cost small businesses an estimated $137 to $427 every minute. So even a single hour of downtime can cost over $25,000. While some downtime is inevitable, choosing a host that can minimize downtime is good for your bottom line. 

We recommend that you check a web host’s speed and availability statistics on independent websites like Pingdom. But bear in mind, these tools will show planned outages as well as unplanned problems. 

Bluehost     

Bluehost users can count on reliable uptime and availability for their websites. According to website monitoring firm Pingdom, Bluehost had an average uptime of 99.88% over the six months from June to Nov. 2023. 

While uptime is important, your website also needs to work properly and respond quickly. One keyway to boost the performance of your website is through a content delivery network (CDN). It’s a group of connected servers in different locations aimed at speeding up the delivery of web content to users in different regions. 

Bluehost includes a free CDN on all of its shared hosting plans to ensure higher performance and availability, regardless of where your customers are located. 

Bluehost also recognizes that concern over shared resources is a top worry for website owners and includes resource protection on all of its shared plans. Even though you might be sharing a server, Bluehost prevents a single website from overusing the resources of that server, so every tenant gets stable and reliable performance. 

HostGator 

HostGator offers a 99% uptime guarantee for both shared and reseller hosting and backs it up with a one-month hosting credit if they miss that mark. As you might expect with that guarantee, HostGator had an impressive average uptime of 99.97% over the six months from June to Nov. 2023. 

That means HostGator’s servers were down on average for less than 13 minutes each month. However, location-related issues between servers and users could be an issue. 

Similar to Bluehost, you can enjoy a free CDN with all hosting plans, including shared, dedicated, and VPS. 

Security 

Website security continues to be a major challenge, and events like data breaches and distributed denial of service attacks (DDOS) require increased spending to protect your website. According to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2023, over 50% of companies are planning to increase security spending due to a data breach.   

Many website owners use SSL certificates to encrypt data transferred between their website and a visitor’s browser. In addition to data encryption, these certificates let website visitors know your website is secure. 

Before you spend big on cybersecurity, check out the options offered by your chosen web hosts. On its basic shared hosting plan, Bluehost provides a free SSL for the first year, while higher plans provide a free SSL for the plan duration. 

Bluehost 

Bluehost offers a free SSL for the first year on its Basic shared plan package and a free SSL for the life of your plan on the higher plans. Bluehost also offers additional security features, depending on your hosting plan. 

Bluehost offers daily website backups, domain privacy, and malware scanning on all shared and WordPress hosting plans above its Basic package (i.e., Choice Plus, Online Store, and Pro). Malware scanning is a big plus if you have multiple team members working on your website, as it acts as a nice failsafe if a team member accesses your dashboard from an unsecured personal computer at some point. 

HostGator 

Similarly, HostGator provides free SSL certificates on all shared plans (Hatchling, Baby, and Business), helping keep customers information safe while browsing the web. 

Additional security features like daily automated backups and malware scanning are available with Codeguard and SiteLock. 

Website builder 

Building a great website from scratch takes time, but some of the best web hosts make it easier with a website builder, either free or as paid extra. 

Bluehost 

WonderSuite is Bluehost’s recently released WordPress website builder suite and is free with all WordPress plans. Perfect for beginners with great ease of use, WonderSuite quickly gets you started through the included WonderStart feature that guides you through the basics. 

Then, the WonderBlocks builder provides easy block editing to create your website quickly. And if you need more content, WonderAssist lets you leverage AI to create SEO-friendly web content. For eCommerce, WonderCart provides specialized features like promo options to ensure your online store is full featured. 

HostGator 

HostGator also offers a website builder, but only as a paid extra through a partnership with Web.com. The website builder’s pricing starts at $4.95 per month on top of your hosting fees.   

Support 

Sometimes, things go wrong, or you need help with a feature. When considering Bluehost vs. HostGator, or another host, knowing which has the support you need is vital. In this case, support is fairly even. 

Bluehost 

Help from Bluehost support is available 24/7 via chat, and plans above the entry-level option for hosting include phone support as well. A knowledge base and tutorials are also available for self-service help. 

HostGator 

Like Bluehost, HostGator’s support team offers 24/7 chat support, and phone support is an option for essential issues and concerns. HostGator also has a knowledge base and tutorials. 

HostGator vs. Bluehost: Hosting plans 

In a perfect world, no one would have to think about budgets. But in the real world, balancing features and pricing is a must. Comparing plans is essential to ensure you have the features and support you need at a price you can afford. 

Shared hosting plans 

Shared hosting is usually the first choice for website beginners and those who need a budget-friendly option for running a simple website and a few email accounts. There are concerns, like sharing resources with other server tenants, but the pricing usually outweighs the issues. 

Both HostGator and Bluehost have similar shared hosting packages, including unmetered bandwidth. However, neither has unlimited storage, and Bluehost has more generous disk space. While HostGator has a better deal on SSL certificates, Bluehost’s CDN means you get better performance with geographically distributed data centers. 

WordPress hosting 

WordPress is the content management system of choice for approximately 43.1% of all websites, so the best hosting companies all have plans in place to optimize WordPress websites. 

While HostGator doesn’t have an official WordPress seal of approval, Bluehost is the longest-running host recommended by WordPress (since 2005).  

VPS hosting 

A virtual private server (VPS) provides fixed server resources through virtualization. In essence, your web host uses special software to divide a dedicated server into multiple virtual servers. Because it provides dedicated resources, this option is more expensive than shared hosting. 

However, that extra cost gives you more reliability and control over your hosting. It’s also good for running multiple websites on a single account. 

Dedicated hosting 

Dedicated hosting plans provide a physical server all to yourself, whether for one website or multiple websites. Traditionally, this is the next step up from VPS hosting, but for operational reasons and scalability, some customers prefer a move to cloud hosting.    

Nevertheless, dedicated hosting is a great option for website owners who value loading speed, security, and storage space. As you’d expect, it’s a higher-priced option than shared and VPS hosting. 

Cloud hosting  

Cloud hosting leverages a network of servers to distribute resources effectively, ensuring reliable performance and the capability to handle spikes in website traffic.  

This type of hosting is often chosen for its ability to scale resources dynamically—across multiple servers—making it a robust alternative to dedicated hosting for those requiring operational flexibility and high availability.  

Cloud hosting at Bluehost assures scalability and flexibility, exceptional performance, and robust security measures. It includes features like a global CDN, 100% network uptime SLA, DDoS protection, and reliable customer support with direct access to Level 3 technicians.  

HostGator vs. Bluehost: Pricing 

Bluehost and HostGator are both budget-friendly options, especially for shared hosting plans. However, included services vs. add-on costs vary considerably. 

To get the best web hosting rates, sign up for a long-term plan of more than a year. And you should be aware that most web hosts have different introductory and renewal prices.  

Note: Web hosting prices are subject to change. Please check the current hosting offers on the Bluehost and HostGator websites. 

Verdict: Bluehost is less expensive for most plans over a 12-month contract, and its introductory pricing of $2.95/month will appeal to customers looking for shared or WordPress hosting.   

Final thoughts: HostGator vs. Bluehost: A head-to-head comparison 

While Bluehost is preferable for most scenarios, it is most attractive to beginners and WordPress enthusiasts. 

Novices will fare well with either host, but HostGator is geared towards web professionals, who make up 30% of its customer base. And if you want reseller hosting, HostGator is your only choice between the two. 

For WordPress users, WonderSuite is an excellent, cost-free add-on feature that makes website building a breeze. 

If you’re ready to migrate to Bluehost or create a new website with WonderSuite, have a look at our current hosting options. And if you need further guidance on the best plan option for you, get in touch with our support team today. 

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