Bluehost Vs. HostGator (2023 Comparison) – Forbes Advisor Canada

Bluehost offers three categories of hosting: shared, virtual private server (VPS) and dedicated. Each of those categories has several plans ranging in price from $3.95 CAD to $187.54 CAD per month. When you commit to a full year, you get the best price per month compared to paying month-to-month or for a 36-month term. Several hosts price it this way so you have to renew after a year at a much higher rate.

HostGator will migrate your WordPress or cPanel site for free, and Bluehost is temporarily offering free website migration for just WordPress sites under 2 GB. Otherwise, contact sales for professional migration costs. HostGator supports both Linux and Microsoft servers, whereas Bluehost only uses Linux servers. Thankfully, not many sites require Microsoft, but if yours does, you’ll have to choose HostGator.

One of the more significant complaints from customers about Bluehost is occasional downtime, which isn’t unheard of with shared hosting companies. There weren’t many complaints about this with HostGator in comparison. HostGator does have several complaints about slow customer support response, although both hosts have 24/7 support. This support comes via phone, email and chat.

However, only HostGator has an uptime guarantee with its shared and reseller accounts; if a server doesn’t meet its 99.9% uptime guarantee, you receive one month of credit on your account. VPS and dedicated servers have a network guarantee; receive a prorated credit for the amount of time the server was down.

WordPress endorses three web hosts, and one of those includes Bluehost. That’s not to say HostGator doesn’t work well with WordPress, just that it considers Bluehost to be one of the best—since 2005. Bluehost provides WordPress-specific training and support, so it’s ideal for people running their sites via WordPress—there’s an entire community of support for your platform.

It’s important to regularly back up your site if anything breaks, and Bluehost does that automatically, so you don’t have to—no matter which plan you have. HostGator backs up your site using CodeGuard, but not if you have a VPS or dedicated server.

Both Bluehost and HostGator have security tools included in every plan; SSL certificates, malware scans and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) protection come standard, and both hosts use SiteLock. However, Bluehost’s SiteLock includes spam monitoring, a site verification certificate, business verification and blocklist monitoring. You can even set up notifications to know when it blocks attacks if you want to block IP addresses manually.

Securing your website is essential, which is why SSL certificates come standard with most web hosts—Bluehost and HostGator included. An SSL certificate will help protect you and your customers during online transactions because it encrypts data travelling between your computer and the server.

Bottom Line

Either web host will provide you with near-perfect uptime, 24/7 customer support and security features your site needs. Forbes Advisor recommends using Bluehost if your site runs on WordPress and HostGator if you need Microsoft-based servers.

Canadian specific editing and research (including pricing) conducted by Anna Rey.