Bluehost vs HostGator: Here is the winner

Disclosure: This content material is reader-supported, which implies when you click on on a few of our hyperlinks that we might earn a fee.

Web internet hosting is important for any enterprise – no matter the dimension – seeking to set up an internet presence, attain new prospects and develop. However, discovering the finest host on your web site might seem to be a frightening job as hundreds of corporations in the market are providing internet hosting companies.

Before signing up with any website hosting firm, you have to contemplate just a few elements that can have an effect on your web site’s on-line presence and efficiency and subsequently, your corporation. These embody server uptime, pace, safety, web optimization instruments and buyer help, to call just a few.

In this publish, we will probably be evaluating two common website hosting corporations – Bluehost and HostGator – to make it simple so that you can select the finest amongst the two hosts on your web site.

In case you’ve been residing beneath a rock, Bluehost and HostGator are sister corporations – each are owned by the Endurance International Group (EIG), a Massachusetts-based IT companies firm specializing in website hosting.

Both Bluehost and HostGator supply varied types of website hosting to suit your enterprise wants.

Types of Web Hosting

Bluehost

Founded in 2003, Bluehost powers over 2 million web sites globally and supplies the following website hosting companies:

  • Shared internet hosting
  • VPS internet hosting
  • Dedicated internet hosting
  • Reseller internet hosting
  • WordPress internet hosting
  • Managed internet hosting
  • Woocommerce internet hosting

Notably, Bluehost not provides cloud internet hosting and its reseller internet hosting plans are powered by ResellerMembership that provides over 800 merchandise with varied customization choices and 24/7 help.

HostGator

Founded in 2002, HostGator at the moment hosts over 2 million web sites globally and provides:

  • Shared internet hosting
  • Cloud internet hosting
  • WordPress internet hosting
  • Reseller internet hosting
  • VPS internet hosting
  • Dedicated internet hosting
  • Application internet hosting
  • Windows internet hosting

1.Domain Registration

2.Site Transfer

3.Security

4.Site Builder

5.Interface

6.Money-Back Guarantee

7.Customer Support

Domain registration

At the time of internet hosting signup, each Bluehost and HostGator present free area title registration with qualifying plans for one yr. However, the area renews at a daily price after the preliminary time period.

Site switch

Bluehost web site switch

For Bluehost, You should pay practically USD149.99 for web site migration.

HostGator web site switch

HostGator supplies free migration companies with all of its website hosting plans. HostGator provides a restricted variety of free web site and cPanel to cPanel transfers – relying upon the plans you’ve bought – to new prospects inside 30 days of signup.

Here is a breakdown of the variety of free transfers supplied by HostGator with every internet hosting account:

Hosting account Free web site transfers cPanel to cPanel transfers Max. handbook transfers
Shared /Cloud 1 1 1
WordPress 1-3 Blogs
Reseller 30 30 30
VPS Unlimited Unlimited 0-90
Dedicated Unlimited Unlimited 100
Windows 1 1 1

Security

For web site safety, Bluehost and HostGator supply a free SSL certificates for all website hosting plans. The Secure Socket Layer (SSL) is a cryptographic protocol answerable for establishing safe communication between a consumer and its server.

Bluehost Security

For further safety, Bluehost’s top-tier internet hosting plans additionally embody free Domain Privacy, free automated backups powered by CodeGuard and free devoted IP. For superior safety, you can too buy add-on merchandise like SiteLock that protects your web site from malware and malicious assaults.

HostGator Security

On the different hand, HostGator prospects should buy upgraded SSL certificates -Positive SSL, Multi-Domain SSL and Extended Validation (EV) SSL – for extra options together with as much as USD1,750,000 guarantee stage and TrustLogo Site Seal. Further, the firm provides non-compulsory further companies, together with CodeGuard-powered web site backup and SiteLock that may be bought individually throughout checkout.

Site builder

Bluehost provides Weebly, a well-known drag-and-drop web site builder, on each internet hosting account totally free. You want to tug varied desired web site components reminiscent of photographs, texts, movies and so forth. and design your web site very quickly.

On the different hand, HostGator is an easy-to-use drag-and-drop web site builder from HostGator that mechanically creates a web site in an optimized structure and industry-specific design as per your wants, with out you needing any coding expertise. The intuitive web site builder comes with greater than 200 mobile-friendly skilled design themes, a picture library, LogoMaker, built-in analytics, eCommerce performance, an SSL certificates, one free area title registration and different options. Gator plans begin at USD 3.84/month, and every bundle comes with free cloud internet hosting included.

Interface

HostGator and Bluehost internet hosting accounts function cPanel management panel, one in all the hottest Linux-based graphical interface (GUI) that allows you to handle your account. The easy-to-use management panel permits you to handle your web site’s technical features – like monitoring useful resource utilization, managing electronic mail accounts and plugins, backup and updates, file administration, and so forth. – all from one place.

HostGator dashboard / Image Credit: HostGator

Bluehost has custom-made its cPanel to make it simple to make use of. The firm supplies two interface choices for managing its internet hosting accounts- the authentic management panel referred to as ‘Legacy’ and the up to date one – Rock – with optimized design and options.

Bluehost dashboard / Image Credit: Bluehost

Money-back Guarantee

Bluehost Money-back Guarantee

Bluehost supplies a 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee on its internet hosting plans. If you cancel the service inside the first 30 days of enroll, the firm claims to give you a full refund in your internet hosting service.

HostGator Money-back Guarantee

HostGator offers you a 45-day money-back assure on its managed shared, VPS, and reseller internet hosting companies, an extra 15 days over Bluehost to attempt its companies with none threat. This means if at any level of the supplied time period -30 or 45 days- you are feeling the internet hosting companies aren’t an excellent match on your web site, the corporations will totally refund your internet hosting charges.

Notably, the refund coverage doesn’t apply to the add-on services and products (e.g. web optimization instruments, Premium SSL, Domain Privacy, SiteLock Security and so forth.) you buy from the corporations.

Customer help

Customer help is a key issue to consider whereas on the lookout for a dependable website hosting firm. Both Bluehost and HostGator specialists can be found to resolve your entire hosting-related points by way of reside chat, electronic mail, and over the telephone, relying in your plan. Both corporations have an enormous data database containing articles, guides, how-tos, directions, and solutions to the most FAQs and a search perform that makes it simpler to look or reply a particular matter.

Bluehost additionally supplies non-compulsory skilled companies like Blue Sky, whereby the firm specialists offer you pleasant {and professional} steerage to construct, develop, and preserve a WordPress web site. The Blue Sky primary plan begins from USD29/month and consists of on-demand ticket help, Account Access Assistance, web site backup help and design steerage. Full-Service Website Design is one other such service whereby the firm supplies a workforce of web site builders that can assist you create a full-fledged, custom-made WordPress web site. However, Bluehost’s skilled companies are at the moment restricted to US prospects solely.

Uptime is merely the period of time your web site is out there to guests and is one in all the key indicators of an internet site’s efficiency. It is to be famous that ‘uptime’ can fluctuate with the internet hosting plan you’ve bought on your web site. For occasion, devoted internet hosting plans present extra glorious uptime than shared internet hosting plans as server assets aren’t shared.

A assessment of 6-month (August 2020-Jan 2021) web site check information on Pingdom (via) means that Bluehost delivered a mean uptime of 99.94% over this era whereas HostGator’s common uptime was discovered to be 99.90% throughout the identical interval.

Month Bluehost uptime HostGator uptime
August 2020 99.99% 99.99%
September 2020 100% 99.50%
October 2020 99.67% 99.99%
November 2020 100% 99.99%
December 2020 99.98% 100%
January 2021 100% 99.97%
Average 99.94% 99.90%

Further, HostGator supplies a 99.9% uptime assure for Shared and Reseller website hosting accounts. If the server falls wanting the assure, the firm guarantees to provide one month of credit score in your account. Further, if in case you have a devoted or VPS internet hosting account with HostGator, the firm prorates the credit score for the period of time the server goes down, as a part of the community assure.

Unlike Hostgator, Bluehost doesn’t supply an uptime assure with shared and reseller internet hosting, however it does promise glorious uptime of 99.9% for its Managed WordPress, aka WP Pro internet hosting accounts.

Verdict: When it involves uptime, HostGator and Bluehost stand on an equal footing. Based on the above stats, Bluehost is little forward of HostGator, however the latter has a plus with an uptime assure they provide on internet hosting plans, and in the event that they fail to ship it, chances are you’ll request one month of credit score on your bundle.

The pace of an internet site impacts the visitors and impacts the web site’s Google search rating. If your web site responds slowly, guests will get upset and spend much less time there.

Here is a breakdown of Bluehost and HostGator’s web page response time over the final six months (via):

Month Bluehost (response time) HostGator (response time)
August 2020 724 ms 798 ms
September 2020 628 ms 836 ms
October 2020 670 ms 738 ms
November 2020 655 ms 659 ms
December 2020 698 ms 701 ms
January 2021 770 ms 696 ms
Average 691 ms 738 ms

An internet site might get gradual on account of many points reminiscent of visitors density, web site optimization and configuration points. An ultimate net host supplies a number of options and methods to repair slow-loading web sites and deal with a sudden spike in visitors.

Bluehost Speed

Bluehost has built-in methodologies like a content material supply community (CDN), a world community of servers that retailer copies of internet sites to serve guests primarily based on their geographic location, thereby decreasing the bodily distance between the server and the person and permitting websites to load sooner.

HostGator Speed

HostGator additionally supplies a premium service referred to as SiteLock TrueSpeed CDN which serves pages from proxy servers worldwide. HostGator claims that, on common, websites load 50% sooner and use 40-70% much less bandwidth when utilizing TrueSpeed.

Verdict: With a mean web page load time of 691ms (decrease is higher), Bluehost outperforms HostGator by way of web site pace.

WordPress is one in all the most widely-used and user-friendly content material administration system (CMS) that powers over 30% of the web. WordPress internet hosting is tailored to cater to WordPress websites, which means you get entry to extra WordPress-specific options with this type of internet hosting.

Both Bluehost and HostGator supply managed WordPress internet hosting with 99.9% uptime and a bunch of options.

To know the pros and cons of each type of hosting and which form will be best for your site, read our previous post onTop 10 Best Web Hosting for Small Businesses“.

Bluehost for WordPress

Bluehost has been advisable by WordPress since 2005, all because of its dependable and reasonably priced WordPress internet hosting and glorious customer support. Bluehost supplies ‘one-click set up’ function, which implies you can begin creating your web site inside a couple of minutes of your enroll.

Bluehost provides commonplace in addition to managed WordPress internet hosting, also called WP Pro. The WordPress internet hosting is out there in three tiers- Basic, Plus and Choice Plus. Here is what the plans embody:

  1. Basic (USD2.95/mo): 1 web site, 50GB SSD storage
  2. Plus (USD5.45/mo): Unlimited web sites, limitless SSD storage, free Office 365 for 30 days
  3. Choice Plus (USD5.45/mo): Unlimited web sites, limitless SSD storage, free Office 365 for 30 days, free Domain Privacy, free automated backup (1 yr)

Bluehost provides customized themes, 24/7 buyer help, free Domain title registration for one yr, free CDN and a free SSL Certificate with all WordPress internet hosting plans.

As for Bluehost’s Managed WordPress or WP Pro internet hosting, all plans include a ton of options together with:

  • 99.9% uptime
  • Built-in scalability to satisfy sudden visitors calls for
  • 200+ edge servers
  • Multi-layer caching to make sure most pace and effectivity
  • Free SSL Encryption
  • Auto-backups
  • Daily automated malware detection and elimination
  • Spam safety
  • Multi-tiered safety -Web Application Firewall (WAF), DDoS, brute drive assault safety and bot blocking

Bluehost Build managed WordPress internet hosting is supplied in three ranges:

  1. Build – 1 WP web site, finest for as much as 50,000 guests/mo, 20GB net storage
  2. Grow – 1 WP web site, finest for as much as 150,000 guests/mo, 40GB Web storage
  3. Scale – 1 WP web site, finest for as much as 500,000 guests/mo, 80GB net storage

Other key options of Bluehost Managed WordPress embody free WordPress web site migration, reside help, WP-CLI/SSH entry and PayPal integration. Furthermore, all WP plans embody Jetpack plugin for enhanced web site search, one-click advert creation and different advantages.

HostGator for WordPress

On the different hand, HostGator’s managed WordPress internet hosting packages embody the following perks:

  • Free web site migrations
  • Free area title registration
  • Simplified management panel
  • USD150 Google Ads spend match credit score
  • One-click WordPress installs
  • Advanced safety features

The firm supplies managed WordPress internet hosting in three ranges:

  • The ‘Starter Plan’ permits for internet hosting 1 web site with as much as 100k visits per thirty days and free migration of 1 web site by HostGator specialists. This plan will value you USD5.95 per thirty days.
  • The ‘Standard Plan’ prices USD7.95 per thirty days, and it consists of internet hosting for 2 web sites, every with 200k visits per thirty days.
  • The ‘Business Plan’ permits for internet hosting 3 web sites with 500k visits per thirty days.

HostGator additionally supplies entry to a few free top-notch safety options together with SiteLock Fix, CodeGuard for day by day automated backups and SSL certificates.

Verdict: Bluehost is one in all the high three website hosting suppliers which are formally advisable by WordPress. Its top-tier managed WordPress internet hosting plans embody superior options like web optimization Tools, limitless video compression, skilled reside chat help, Elastic Search, limitless backups, and restore. However, Bluehost’s WordPress internet hosting plans are costlier as in comparison with HostGator’s WordPress internet hosting plans.

HostGator’s reasonably priced plans make it a superb selection for freshmen and small companies. If you are on a decent funds, HostGator will probably be an excellent selection so that you can host your WordPress web site.

Both corporations present limited-time promotions and particular provides to new prospects. The discounted introductory charges aren’t legitimate for successive phrases, which means your renewal value will probably be considerably increased after the preliminary interval. All internet hosting plans get mechanically renewed until you cancel them manually.

Below are the introductory costs for every internet hosting service supplied by Bluehost and HostGator:

Price Bluehost HostGator
Shared Hosting USD3.95-USD13.95/mo USD2.75-USD5.25/mo
VPS Hosting USD19.99-USD59.99/mo USD19.95-USD39.95/mo
Dedicated Hosting USD79.99-USD119.99/mo USD89.98-USD139.99/mo
WordPress Hosting USD19.95-USD49.95/mo USD5.95-USD9.95/mo
Cloud Hosting USD4.95-USD9.95/mo

Both corporations present a number of fee choices, together with all main bank cards (Master Card, Visa and so forth.), PayPal, Check or Money Order.

Verdict: In phrases of pricing, HostGator has a slight edge over Bluehost.

Your selection for the finest net host is dependent upon your corporation wants and funds. As already mentioned, ‘efficiency and buyer help’ are two of the most vital elements to contemplate when selecting an online host on your web site.

While HostGator and Bluehost are dependable hosts, Bluehost outshines Hostgator on the subject of efficiency (primarily based on the web site check information), making it a transparent winner.

On the different hand, HostGator is a budget-friendly host that gives ultra-reliable internet hosting companies,and a 45-day money-back assure, enabling you to attempt their companies fully risk-free.

In case, you want to change your net host, HostGator is your go-to possibility as the firm will migrate your web site from the previous host to the new one without charge.

Lastly, each corporations are equally spectacular on the subject of offering glorious buyer help.

Last Words :-

If you’re a newbie or on the lookout for Free Site Transfer and wish to go along with some pocket-friendly plan with dependable internet hosting, go along with HostGator.

And if the value doesn’t bar for you, your predominant give attention to efficiency then undoubtedly go along with Bluehost.

Also Read:-

Related Posts