Bluehost vs. WP Engine: Which Web Host is Better for Your Business?

Choosing the right web host to power your online presence requires evaluating multiple critical factors, like ease of use, performance, security, and customer support.

Even with user-friendly platforms like WordPress, you’ll want to choose a provider who can help you with technical issues.

Without ample speed, performance, and security, your website’s user experience may falter — leading to potential losses in traffic and visibility if loading speed is low.

In this honest web hosting comparison, we’ll objectively lay out everything from pricing to performance across both top WordPress hosting providers, so you can confidently decide which platform best fits your specific needs and budget.

You’ve probably heard of hosts like SiteGround, GoDaddy, DreamHost, and HostGator. But no list of hosts is complete without Bluehost and WP Engine.

Keep reading as our Bluehost vs WP Engine comparison, as we break down key hosting plans criteria into digestible takeaways, carefully considering pros and cons and ideal use cases to help you choose between WP Engine and Bluehost.

Ease of use

Both WP Engine and Bluehost are optimized managed WordPress hosting services that tailor infrastructure specifically for high-performance WordPress websites at scale. However, each takes a different approach to how they handle website management. Let’s take a look at each web hosting company’s ease of use:

WP Engine

While catering to agency and enterprise use cases, WP Engine incorporates multiple options for simplified management.

For instance, WP Engine allows secure shell (SSH) and GIT access for developers to test and customize their websites in practice or virtual environments. For standard users, knowledge of WordPress can assist in the onboarding process. WP Engine’s platform is built around the WordPress platform and has many similarities.

WP Engine’s optimized container-based EverCache system for streamlining web hosting services adds a slight learning curve but improves website speed by letting you compartmentalize excess RAM.

Ultimately, WP Engine enables users at different levels of expertise to efficiently scale complex managed WordPress hosting infrastructure, but it skews toward the more advanced know-how needed.

Bluehost

As the oldest recommended WordPress hosting service, Bluehost has earned its reputation for continually honing its intuitive user experience to make website management accessible for everyone — website technicians and newcomers alike.

Now, with Bluehost Cloud, Bluehost has taken its commitment to ease of use even further. This advanced hosting solution offers unmatched speed and reliability, meaning your website stays operational and fast, regardless of traffic spikes.

Typically included on all plans, Bluehost’s integrated cPanel facilitates one-click installs of WordPress itself, optimized plugins, custom themes, and even a native website builder suite with integrated WordPress editing. This inclusion makes it easy for beginners to manage their websites on Bluehost.

Combined with Bluehost’s effective integrations, caching, and content delivery network (CDN) capabilities activated post-WordPress setup, this comprehensive suite reduces backend complexity. For an affordable price, Bluehost delivers one-stop, simplified launching and customization.

Bluehost understands small website owners can benefit from power without unnecessary complications–which is why we have incorporated advanced functionality like easily accessible staging sites.

Performance and uptime

When looking for the best web hosting companies, performance and uptime can’t be ignored. Every second of downtime costs money and customers. Let’s put WP Engine vs Bluehost to the test to find the best performance and uptime.

WP Engine

WP Engine customizes its platform to maximize WordPress hosting website speed and stay online 24/7 with no lag. Its EverCache tool uses multiple caching types, like CDNs to instantly deliver page content globally.

Plus, App Servers are fine-tuned per website, and processing power focuses only on hosting needs. This enables precisely tailored configurations to boost performance, which is especially useful for developers and other advanced users.

WP Engine also builds failover safeguards, ensuring uptime stays locked in at a guaranteed 99.95% monthly. If one part of the WP engine infrastructure goes down, backup systems automatically activate in seconds, so visitors never witness issues.

Between optimized servers, global delivery centers placing data nearer readers, and resilient stability features, websites stay speedy and accessible.

For businesses depending on fast page loads for success, like eCommerce, WP Engine’s infrastructure explicitly caters to bandwidth, traffic, and response requirements.

Bluehost

As an industry leader in WordPress hosting for over 15 years, Bluehost has continued to outpace competitors in optimizing affordable shared WordPress hosting capabilities for companies and bloggers alike.

This experience has allowed Bluehost to balance price with strong website speeds and server reliability. Uptime generally hits better than 99.9%, and Bluehost promises to resolve issues within 15 minutes.

Further, Bluehost’s introduction of Bluehost Cloud demonstrates its commitment to delivering top-notch performance and uptime. With this enhanced managed WordPress platform, businesses and bloggers can expect a 100% uptime SLA, making it ideal for high-traffic sites and performance-intensive applications. This new offering ensures customers can rely on Bluehost for even greater speed, reliability, and scalability.

Its optimized infrastructure configurations, PHP offerings, integrated caching layers, and global CDN integration deliver consistently competitive page load times for the majority of WordPress hosting website traffic levels.

Specifically, Bluehost actively monitors resource demands and response metrics across Plane Servers and Worker Servers. Planes absorb traffic bursts without impacting website neighbors, while Worker Servers allocate more baseline resources to busier websites with advanced caching needs.

Security and protection

Security can mean the difference between getting hit by a DDoS or doing business as usual. When comparing WP Engine vs Bluehost, security is a top priority.

WP Engine

WP Engine centralizes enterprise-grade security optimized specifically for hosted WordPress sites handled by its specialized infrastructure. This includes an application firewall using AI to block threats, full backend encryption, and isolated containers securing access integrity.

WP Engine also safeguards websites via inclusion in its content delivery network, which absorbs heavy traffic spikes that could potentially create crashes.

For attack resilience at scale, WP Engine offers upgraded DDoS mitigation protection and global traffic routing designed explicitly to repel malicious efforts to overload websites.

Some plans also incorporate advanced features like two-factor authentication, IP access rules, and vulnerability monitoring. Additionally, WP Engine performs daily automated server-level backups.

Lastly, WP Engine states that support staff can fully reinstate prior known-good websites generally within an hour if unforeseen issues ever occur.

Bluehost

When comparing WP engine vs Bluehost, Bluehost includes well-rounded essential security capabilities to protect shared hosting and WordPress websites at affordable prices suitable for anyone. They focus on providing a strong base level of protection and then offer additional security, so you only pay for what you need but still have the flexibility to protect any size website.

Standard packages incorporate anti-spam filtering, managed firewall services, encrypted free SSL certificate and basic malware detection. More advanced protections like backups come at added cost, so you don’t pay for items you don’t need.

Plus, with the CodeGuard option, Bluehost natively integrates Domain Privacy and CodeGuard Basic website backup needs with Cloudflare content delivery and DDoS attack shielding.

Owners can also upgrade to SiteLock malware scanning. For more robust daily backups or priority support, Bluehost offers higher tier plans that balance costs and features for ultimate affordability.

For instance, Bluehost Cloud plans include automated defenses against DDoS attacks, web application firewalls, and one-click restoration from backups for quick recovery. Every plan also features a ‘Let’s Encrypt SSL’ certificate for encrypted data transmission and offers 2-factor authentication to secure account access further.

Overall, Bluehost’s basic security features are more than enough for the average WordPress website. Unless you’re receiving high volumes of organic visitors who are inputting sensitive information, you’ll do great with the basic plan.

Support and customer service

The most frustrating thing for most people is not being able to reach customer service when they need it. So, in a Bluehost vs WP Engine comparison, you need to consider each web hosting company’s customer support.

WP Engine

As a managed WordPress hosting provider catering to agencies and high-traffic websites instead of average WordPress users, WP Engine focuses heavily on the technical support capabilities of WordPress experts.

Support channel options include 24/7 live chat, email ticketing, and phone support, depending on the plan chosen. Support is designed specifically for handling issues related to managed WordPress hosting infrastructure at scale.

For new customers, WP Engine only offers white-glove onboarding with the more expensive Custom plan, setting up hosted accounts, installations, and configurations.

WP Engine also offers a knowledge base with answers to queries regarding basic questions as well as advanced technical questions.

Bluehost

Bluehost’s longevity with WordPress makes them experts at troubleshooting WordPress problems. Bluehost Cloud provides specialized support for cloud hosting environments.

Bluehost is one of the largest web hosting companies, offering extensive customer support for users of all skill levels, serving over two million customers globally.

The 24/7 customer support team, based in the US and consisting of over 200 people, offers quick response times across multiple contact channels such as live chat, email ticketing, community forums, and phone support.

Real Priority Support is also available, providing direct access to Level 3 technicians who are experts in WordPress and trained in Bluehost Cloud’s nuances. This ensures customers receive instant assistance and guidance.

Customers can expect expert help for their WordPress and Bluehost Cloud-related queries via phone or chat. Chat support is available round the clock, and phone support is available during business hours from Monday to Friday.

Unlike managed WordPress providers offering higher-tier infrastructure management services to technical experts alone, Bluehost aims to provide easy omnichannel access regardless of customer experience level. Bluehost provides prompt answers to non-technical questions for developers troubleshooting complex configurations.

Beyond sheer response scale for our diverse customer base, Bluehost also takes pride in its team’s breadth of web hosting topic mastery, ranging from basic WordPress assistance to advanced DNS, caching, security, and resource optimization.

For new customers, Bluehost also offers free and paid full migration service options for transitioning websites onto its high-powered platform, plus tailored onboarding like setting up accounts, installations, and CDN configuration. Altogether, Bluehost feels like a responsive extension of skilled internal IT and web teams that are reachable at any hour.

Bluehost vs WP Engine WordPress hosting options

When deciding on the best WordPress hosting for you between Bluehost vs WP Engine, the variety of hosting plans available can help steer your decision. Bluehost offers diverse shared hosting options that are appropriate for most small business websites, even non-WordPress options.

Bluehost also has tailored managed WordPress packages, reseller accounts, VPS hosting, dedicated hosting plans and specialized WooCommerce infrastructure. Regardless of what your web hosting needs are, Bluehost likely has you covered, from entry-level to advanced.

WP Engine, however, only provides WooCommerce-managed and headless WordPress hosting across tiered plans that scale for website traffic, capabilities, and resources.

As we compare each of the plans and align them to specific needs, consider what you’re looking for in a web hosting plan. First up is the most common type, shared hosting. For example, do you need an included free domain name, a low entry price, plenty of storage, or a website builder?

Managed wordpress hosting

Let’s dig into the details of the entry-level shared hosting plans.

WP Engine

WP Engine specializes specifically in managed WordPress hosting catered to moderate-traffic websites needing added infrastructure capabilities, starting at $20 monthly. Its managed WordPress providers directly administer environments tailored for smooth WordPress performance, security, scaling, and support.

With WP Engine, costs are higher overall for the managed WordPress hosting that comes with every plan — which includes automatic updates, maintenance, speed and security.

Lastly, WP Engine’s built-in site speed and security capabilities absorb unstable traffic influxes while locking sensitive data down. That gives you the time to focus on your website’s content and strategy without worrying about the technical side.

Bluehost

With multiple entry-level shared hosting plans priced affordably for getting small websites started, Bluehost’s Basic managed WordPress plan includes features at only $1.95/month initially and provides unparalleled value catering to most young website needs.

The starter Basic plan bundles domain registration, unmetered traffic allowances, an unconstrained growth room, five email accounts, and 10 GB of SSD storage. In short, Bluehost tops WP Engine at nearly tenfold lower prices.

Bluehost has also expanded its offerings and introduced managed cloud hosting plans as well. You’ll receive expertly designed websites, built for high traffic and high-performance. The best part? All plans come with a 100% network uptime guarantee!

Also, Bluehost’s essential security capabilities help beginner website owners establish protection fundamentals without demanding expertise. Shared plans emphasize convenience, helping balance expenses for early-stage ventures, and not adding unnecessary burdens.

Plus, Bluehost bandwidth is unmetered. So, if you grow your website visitors, you won’t have to worry about paying extra for additional bandwidth to handle the extra traffic.

The dashboard even incorporates automated installation assistants, expediting spin-up times to mere minutes. Altogether, Bluehost offers purpose-built hosting with intuitive, cost-conscious hosting head starts.

WooCommerce hosting

For eCommerce stores built on WordPress, both Bluehost and WP Engine offer tailored WooCommerce infrastructure and support.

WP Engine

WP Engine’s managed WordPress hosting solutions can readily power WooCommerce stores, given backend optimizations for smooth order processing, security, speed, and scaling capabilities.

Namely, WP Engine architecture ensures shops stay online, fast, and protected, including features like application firewalls, isolated environments, failover clustering, multiple CDN caching layers, and traffic load balancing.

WP Engine also offers white-glove onboarding, establishing a properly configured WooCommerce architecture, and factoring in projected sales volumes and growth. The WP Engine support team helps store owners avoid mistakes.

Bluehost

Bluehost’s Woocommerce hosting plans are designed to provide an optimal environment for WooCommerce-powered websites. It offers features that specifically cater to the needs of online stores.

When comparing Bluehost vs WP Engine plans, our plans come with WooCommerce pre-installed, saving you the time and effort of setting it up yourself. This allows you to start building your online store right away.

Also, our online store plans offer capable core eCommerce hosting essentials like security, speed, and reliability with careful value to empower entrepreneurs and small businesses to sell online successfully.

For most merchants, Bluehost presents a very reliable WooCommerce hosting solution to power stores forward confidently. And the architecture remains ready to scale when the time comes, so that your store can grow without switching hosts.

Bluehost vs WP Engine pricing

When comparing Bluehost vs WP Engine plans, Bluehost shines over WP Engine for affordability, given its longtime WordPress specialization at scale.

Namely, Bluehost managed WordPress sites packages start at only $1.95 monthly — nearly 10 times cheaper than WP Engine’s starting $20 monthly rate.

Plus, Bluehost’s managed WordPress hosting services match WP Engine’s core features like speed optimizations, security, dedicated resources, and expert management. Yet Bluehost pricing remains much lighter on budgets.

Final thoughts: Bluehost vs WP Engine: Which web hosting is better for you?

For most websites, whether personal blogs, small shops, or eCommerce websites focused on easy WordPress management and growth, Bluehost stands out as the more affordable, well-rounded web hosting choice. It’s equipped to scale websites gradually without demanding technical expertise upfront.

Our intuitive interface, breadth of plans, integrated caching/CDN, and stellar 24/7 support seamlessly cater to website owners’ needs.

Conversely, WP Engine focuses on high-traffic websites at significantly steeper premiums. Bluehost’s superior value and affordable pricing make them the best fit for users in most cases.

Get started with effortless WordPress hosting on Bluehost with shared hosting plans priced from just $1.95/month.

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