Bluehost and HostGator are two of the most well-liked and widely-used web hosting services. In this check we pitted them in opposition to each other and located that, whereas each platforms have their flaws, there are actually conditions the place these internet hosting suppliers might show to be a very good choice.
In our Bluehost vs HostGator comparability, we take a better have a look at each hosting options, serving to you establish if and when every one may very well be a very good match for you.
The finest Bluehost and Hostgator offers proper now
Bluehost: Inexpensive, high performance hosting
Shared internet hosting with Bluehost begins at simply $2.75 a month (for a 24-month plan) with 50GB of storage and unmetered bandwidth. Sites are hosted on high-performance servers, so load pace is rarely a difficulty, whereas free automated backups are included.
HostGator: Excellent support and additional website builder
HostGator’s shared hosting plans begin at $2.75 a month for limitless bandwidth and storage, with assist for MySQL, cPanel, WordPress, and ecommerce. There’s heaps extra too, together with the superb Gator Website Builder and pleasant, useful assist workers.
Bluehost vs HostGator: Features
Security is an important consideration when deciding on a hosting supplier and, sadly, HostGator would not do an awesome job right here. Its DDoS safety instrument and firewall are respectable, and you’ll get a free SSL (safe sockets layer) certificates, however there are not any malware scanning or removing instruments and multi-factor authentication isn’t accessible.
Meanwhile, Bluehost claims to supply full safety to your website however it offers little or no details about its safety practices. You will profit from a free SSL certificates, SiteLock malware scanning and removing, and supposed 24/7 community monitoring, however the firm would not say precisely what this entails.
HostGator’s native Gator Website Builder is great. It’s some of the highly effective choices we’ve used, and it allows you to create extremely enticing websites with none tech abilities. Only the essential model is included with the internet hosting packages, however there’s a extra highly effective model accessible to buy if required.
Bluehost affords a really primary builder for WordPress, however don’t count on to have the ability to do very a lot with it. You can use it to create easy websites, however you received’t be capable of add a weblog or a web based retailer.
HostGator seems to supply wonderful automated backup companies, however issues aren’t fairly nearly as good as they appear. Automatic every day backups are marketed with the shared internet hosting plans, however a better look reveals that you’ll really solely get these if you buy a CodeGuard subscription, which begins from $2 a month.
Bluehost additionally allows you to join CodeGuard to your website. It’s barely higher than HostGator, although, as free automated backups are included for the primary 12 months with the higher-end shared internet hosting plans.
Despite being two of the world’s hottest internet hosts, neither Bluehost nor HostGator provide a notable choice of superior options. Both are fairly primary and each have some severe safety omissions, although HostGator’s wonderful web site builder is a good further profit.
Bluehost vs HostGator: Performance
To check the efficiency of Bluehost and HostGator, we created a easy static web site with every supplier’s primary shared internet hosting plan. We then monitored long-term efficiency with Uptime.com and examined short-term efficiency with Bitcatcha and Dotcom-Tools.
Bluehost’s efficiency was respectable, however not spectacular. Over the week of monitoring with Uptime.com, our website had a 100% uptime, which was wonderful to see. However, that is to be anticipated, and most different suppliers can provide the identical.
The common server response time was 332 milliseconds (ms), which is actually acceptable, though not fairly adequate to be wonderful. The minimal and most have been 257ms and 629ms respectively, and it’s good to see a comparatively tight vary.
With the Dotcom-Tools’ web site pace check, the common web page load pace for Bluehost was a wonderful 748ms. On prime of this, Bitcatcha gave our website an A+ score, which is principally nearly as good as you will get.
Meanwhile, HostGator additionally returned a 100% uptime over per week of monitoring. Its common server response time was a barely slower 378ms, which nonetheless isn’t horrible. On the plus facet, although, the utmost was simply 556ms, which is best than Bluehost’s.
The common web page load pace from Dotcom-Tools was 870ms, which is barely barely slower than Bluehost’s. Our easy HostGator website additionally obtained an A+ score from Bitcatcha, which is nice to see.
Now, there are some things price noting right here. For one, we solely in contrast the efficiency of the 2 corporations’ shared internet hosting, and it’s possible you’ll get very totally different outcomes with different choices. Page load speeds will range in response to the scale and complexity of your web site, and also you received’t all the time expertise 100% uptime.
Bluehost vs HostGator: Support
Bluehost and HostGator each provide respectable dwell and self-help assist sources, which is likely one of the explanation why they’re each favored choices for novices.
HostGator has dwell chat and telephone assist, and it’s identified for its pleasant and educated brokers. Email service is notably absent, however the nice vary of tutorials, how-to guides, and different sources accessible by means of the information base is a serious optimistic.
Bluehost is arguably even higher on this entrance, with 24/7 telephone, e mail, and dwell chat companies. The dwell chat is great, and also you shouldn’t ever have to attend quite a lot of minutes for a response. There’s additionally an awesome information base that’s akin to HostGator’s, together with a system alert web page that you should utilize to watch the present community standing.
Bluehost vs HostGator: Pricing and plans
Both Bluehost and HostGator provide a set of internet hosting choices, which may make it a bit tough to check their costs.
For one, Bluehost’s four shared hosting plans vary from $3.95 to $13.95 a month. These are beneficiant, with all plans together with a free area, a free SSL certificates, and numerous different instruments, however you’ll have to pay for 36 months upfront to entry the marketed costs.
Unfortunately, HostGator isn’t any higher. Base prices vary from $2.75 to $5.25 a month, however once more, you’ll want to join 36 months to entry these costs. All three plans include unmetered bandwidth, limitless storage, and a free SSL certificates, however superior options and safety instruments are notably absent.
HostGator additionally affords virtual private server (VPS) hosting from $19.95 a month, dedicated servers from $89.98 a month, the aforementioned web site builder from $3.84 a month, and numerous different area of interest choices.
On the opposite hand, Bluehost’s superior internet hosting choices embody VPS servers from $19.99 a month, dedicated hosting from $79.99 a month, and managed WordPress hosting from $9.95 a month. However, there’s no web site builder, which is actually price making an allowance for.
Bluehost vs HostGator: Verdict
Although it won’t seem prefer it on the floor, Bluehost and HostGator are literally two very related internet hosting platforms. Both provide a variety of shared, VPS, devoted server, and different internet hosting choices, however neither comes with superior options or standout instruments.
One flaw with each is their abstruse pricing and steep renewal charges. On prime of this, each will attempt to upsell largely pointless add-ons and upgrades, which may get costly if you happen to’re not cautious.
At the top of the day, HostGator is the cheaper of the 2 choices, however Bluehost affords higher safety so is our total suggestion. That stated, we would additionally encourage you to take different web hosting providers (or certainly website builders with internet hosting) into consideration relying in your particular person or enterprise wants. If you’d like to seek out out extra about these two platforms earlier than getting began, check out our Bluehost review and our HostGator review.
