Bluehost vs Hostgator Review [Updated 2023]

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Bluehost vs Hostgator Review

Name: Bluehost vs Hostgator

Description: We analyze both Bluehost and Hostgator and provide our opinion on the best of the two.

Provider: Aaron

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Summary

Performance-wise, both web hosts are robust and has powerful servers. Bluehost runs on AMD power centers while HostGator is on Dual Xeon. Both are strong and reliable in their own way. However, Bluehost is more innovative and uses smart intelligent control over the CPU and it’s very consistent. Also, it keeps your hosted site safe from spammers. Lastly, Bluehost provides additional security features including unique IPs, SSL, and SiteLock protection.

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Bluehost vs Hostgator: Which web hosting is better?

The key difference between Bluehost vs Hostgator are their pricing plans and features. Bluehost is best for starters and beginners as its features are easy to use. HostGator is a better option if you have businesses with existing sites who are looking for upgrade or you want to migrate to a high-speed and contract-free provider.

If you want to start a website and can’t decide which web hosting is the best for you. Here are two of the popular web hosting services you might want to consider. In this Bluehost vs Hostgator review, we compare both of these web hosting and their features to help you decide which one is better for your business.

Overview: Bluehost vs HostGator

HostGator

HostGator boasts an easy-to-use cpanel, 99.9% uptime guarantee, and 24/7 customer support availability. Moreover, it excels in areas including customer support, hosting flexibility, uptime and shared hosting.

hostgator intro

You can start building your website using their drag-and-drop website builder. With over 4,000 templates, you can design your website instantly. And it has flexible hosting packages for their users, whether large or small businesses.

Check out this video to learn how to set up an Online Store with HostGator.

You can also check out the Hostgator Youtube channel for more helpful tutorials.

Bluehost

Bluehost is one of the leading web hosting solutions out there today. It keeps providing continuous innovation empowering its users to fully harness its features. Moreover, it provides comprehensive tools to millions of users to help them get on the web and thrive with its web hosting packages.

From web hosting to website builder tools, Bluehost offers a range of solutions to help you get started with your WordPress site or online store.

bluehost wordpress

You can use their easy DIY website builder to develop your own website. They even provide SEO, advertising, social media marketing and content creation for your site. You also get to monitor your ROI because they always measure your progress. Lastly, you get domains, email and helpful video tutorials and how-tos on their website, covering hosting to marketing topics.

woocommerce

It has a versatile WooCommerce to help you get started. You can create your online store and launch it in no time. Plus, you also get additional benefits like shopping carts, inventory management, Paypal processing options, and more.

Here’s how to launch a WordPress website in less than 5 minutes with Bluehost!

Even if you are a beginner or starter, you can install your WordPress with Bluehost and build your own website fast.

Bluehost has been helping thousands of website anywhere to boost their performance and capability. It uses world class technology, secured database and even ecommerce features. Overall, it provides oustanding support, flexibility, performance and functionality which is why many users enjoy using it.

Features: Bluehost vs HostGator

Ease of Use

In terms of registering domain names, HostGator doesn’t include a free domain name, however the domain transfer is always free. On the other hand, Bluehost gives you a free domain once you decide to sign up with their hosting plan. The domain name is registered for a year and you will have to renew your web hosting plan when you renew the domain.

If you want to install WordPress, Bluehost and Hostgator offers the MOJO Marketplace to help you install WordPress sites quickly. Bluehost allows you to install your WordPress straight from your cPanel dashboard. There are also other available options in the MOJO Marketplace to help make your installation process smoothly.

Here is a quick overview of the all new Mojo Marketplace powered, QuickInstall using HostGator

Bluehost also lets you do exactly the same. Using Mojo Marketplace, you can seamlessly install WordPress with only a few clicks.

Wordpress

If you need a web host offers value and security, Bluehost is a great option. You can install WordPress on any of its hosting plans for absolutely free. It’s easy to use and get started with WordPress through Bluehost hosting. It offers a cost-effective web hosting plan from $2.95 monthly and a VPS powered and fully managed WordPress plans starting from $19.99 monthly. HostGator offers WordPress Cloud Hosting starting at $5.95 monthly. Also, HostGator is not recommended by WordPress.org

Bluehost is recommended by WordPress.org, and it has worked with WordPress for many years. It comes with a free SSL certificate, a WordPress custom designed cPanel and CloudFare CDN is built directly into your account for free without necessary coding. HostGator doesn’t have SSL certificate but global CDN and malware removal is included with their plans.

Speed and Uptime

These are the foundation of any web host’s key features. Having a fast loading website is an important factor that you would want to consider when choosing a web host. Not only does it make the users happy but also website’s load speed, but also it affects conversions and your Google ranking.

Bluehost shared hosting plans don’t come with solid state drives (SSD), but their server infrastracture is powered by enterprise level SSD database storage. Hostgator shared hosting plans also don’t come with solid state drives but its Cloud and WordPress hosting plans all come with SSD included.

Its managed WordPress hosting is built on a VPS platform with custom architecture. Bluehost is designed to deliver amazing performance, including VPS powered platform, advanced NGINX architecture, and custom PHP-FPM configuration.

Security

You need to take into consideration the security feature of any web hosting that you use. It’s important to keep your website information and other sensitive data in your site safe and secured.

Bluehost offers complimentary adhoc automatically generated backups for their customers. You can schedule these to take place anytime you want. However, it doesn’t guarantee the backups and recommends that all customers should create their own backup through cPanel or other options.

As with Bluehost’s website backups, Hostgator doesn’t give you option to create automatically generated backups. You can manually backup your files to restore your account on servers if necessary. Like Bluehost, Hostgator also has partnered with SiteLock to provide reliable malware scans for their users. They scan your website daily and immediately notifies you when a malware comes or if your website has been hacked.

Hostgator hosting

Web App Hosting

Whether you want to create a blog or sell online with an eCommerce store, you can do so quickly and easily through HostGator. It fits for WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Magento and more. You can develop your website using any of these app hosting services. They are compatible and runs efficiently on Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP.

Reseller Hosting

A HostGator reseller plan is a great way for you to earn money on the side, or even become your own full-time web hosting company. If you are a web designer, you can use a reseller web hosting plan to add value for your existing and future customers.

This plan gives you complete control over every aspect of your hosting business, from resource allocation to payment methods and what (if any) additional services you choose to provide your clients (domains, SSL certificates, etc.).

Its features include reseller hosting, WHCM control pannel, cpanel control panel, programming and databases, and email features. You can even use your brand name and company logo. It also comes with a free WHMCS client management and billing software.

Windows Web Hosting

The Windows hosting solution includes the flexible and easy-to-use Parallels Plesk control panel, as well as unlimited subdomains, FTP accounts, and email addresses. There are additional unlimited features including MySQL, Microsoft SQL, and Access Databases that you can use for your site.

All Windows hosting plans also include free website building tools, over 4,000 free website templates, one-click installs of many popular scripts, and so much more.

Bluehost hosting

Wordpress Hosting

Wordpress hosting allows for unlimited WordPress installs and customization. It features advanced security, analytics, and social media integration. Moreover, it increases your WordPress performance and optimize the load time of your site with its solid state drives (SSDs) and a lower server density. There are a wide range of themes and templates that you can use to personalize and customize your website. If you want to track your website performance, Bluehost provides detailed analytics so you can view and review your website traffic performance.

Reseller Hosting

With Reseller Hosting, you can become a web hosting provider and you can host multiple clients and let them manage their own orders independently. You can even create your own custom hosting plans, use your own brand name and sell it to your customers!

Bluehost is dedicated to providing incredible Shared, VPS, Dedicated and Optimized hosting solutions. For customers interested in Reseller hosting, you can check out the ResellerClub which is a trusted platform by many Bluehost reseller hosting users.

Inside this hosting plan, there are over 800 products that can be configured and resold directly to your customers. You can even create as many packages as you need with unlimited control panel accounts, all sold under your brand.

Pricing: Bluehost vs Hostgator

Hostgator

Hostgator provides servers for your website and make it live and accessible. It offers 4 major hosting options including cloud, VPS, WordPress and your dedicated hosting. From small businesses to enterprise, you’ll surely find the right hosting for you.

Cloud Hosting

hostgator cloud

There are 3 plans and different pricing of the cloud hosting. The Hatchling plan or basic plan for cloud hosting starts at $4.95 monthly; the Baby plan starts at $7.95 monthly; and the Business plan starts at $9.95 monthly.

Wordpress hosting

wordpress hostgator

If you have a WordPress site, you can choose from among these 3 levels. All of them share great performance like supercharged speed, convenient simplicity and advanced security features. Plus, you get to enjoy its free website migration and domain.

Hostgator starter plan starts at 5.95 monthly. You can also upgrade it to Standard plan which starts at $7.95 monthly or choose the Business plan starting at $9.95 monthly.

VPS Hosting

hostgator vps

Upgrade your site with a Virtual Private Server. If you need more space, there are 3 hosting plan level. Snappy 2000 is the basic plan which starts at $19.95 monthly. You can upgrade it to Snappy 4000 at $29.95 monthly or choose the more advanced plan or Snappy 8000 which starts at $39.95 monthly.

Dedicated Hosting

dedicated hostgator

The basic Hostgator plan for dedicated hosting starts at $79 monthly and the Standard plan starts at $89 monthly. You can upgrade to Elite plan which starts at $109 monthly or choose the more advanced plan or Pro plan which starts at $129 monthly.

Hostgator offers a 45-day money back guarantee for the services that you want to try out. It is included with every plan you will choose. This gives you a chance to try out their services and see how it works for you.

You can create as many email accounts and email forwards as you like. There’s also an easy-to-use control panel and free advertising credit and WordPress blog tools.

HostGator allows you to subscribe to their shared hosting plans on a monthly basis as well as on a half-year basis in addition to the one-year, two-year and three-year subscription plans. With Bluehost, you do not have the flexibility to subscribe to any of their shared hosting plans for a short term.

You can only use the one-year, two-year or three-year subscription options with them. For other VPS and dedicated plans, you have similar flexibility offered by both in terms of subscriptions.

Bluehost

Bluehost has top tier packages, the Choice Plus and Pro packages which includes an SSL certificate, dedicated IP address, site backup and unlimited websites and email accounts. Its complete hosting solutions start at $2.95 monthly.

bluehost price

Shared Hosting

This is the most popular solution and provides everything you need to get started. It has easy to use customer dashboard which is great for a starter and beginner users. This is also the cheapest Bluehost plan, which starts at $2.95 monthly and renews at the rate of $7.99 monthly.

VPS

This plan gives you control and flexibility. It is great for moderate to high traffic. Also, it is scalable with on-demand resources. This is the most expensive out of all the Bluehost plan, which starts at $18.99 monthly.

Dedicated

Dedicated hosting provides improved security and complete customization. At $79.99 monthly, you get ultimate security and performance.

Here’s the starting prices of each type of hosting, from cheapest to most expensive.

  • Shared hosting: $2.95 monthly, renews at $7.99 monthly
  • Shared WordPress hosting: $2.95 monthly, renews at $7.99 monthly
  • WooCommerce hosting: $6.95 monthly, renews at $13.99 monthly
  • VPS hosting: $18.99 monthly, renews at $29.99 monthly
  • Managed WordPress hosting: $19.95 monthly, renews at $29.99 monthly
  • Dedicated hosting: $79.99 monthly, renews at $119.99 monthly

For one year of shared hosting, prices actually start at $4.95 monthly, billed annually making it $59.40 for the full year. If you’re not sure which plan to go with, choose the basic shared hosting plan, and see if that meets your needs to start.

All Bluehost plans come with a 30-day money back guarantee. However, it doesn’t extend to domain names.

How to install WordPress with Bluehost?

1. Visit the bluehost website

Sign up to a Bluehost account by visiting the site. Hit ‘Get Started Now’.

visit bluehost

If you already have a Bluehost account, head to step 5.

2. Pick a hosting plan

The next step you need is to choose a Bluehost plan.

hosting plan

If you are just starting out, the Basic plan is right for you. You can also upgrade to Prime plan as your site grows or if you need more advanced features.

3. Choose a domain name

Once you have chosen a plan, the next step is to enter your domain name.

domain name

If you already have a domain name, you can enter it into the box on the right.

4. Create your Bluehost account

The fourth step is to connect Bluehost to WordPress. Make sure to fill out the information asked on Bluehost form.

create bluehost

Review your package information.

review bluehost
5. Launch your WordPress site with Bluehost

Congrats, you’re almost finished! Now that you’ve signed up with Bluehost and installed WordPress, it’s timme to make use of the one-click set-up.

Your website isn’t live yet. It will just show a ‘Coming Soon’ page. Once you have finished setting up and designing your WordPress site, you can launch it through Bluehost.

In your control panel on the left hand side, select ‘My Sites’

launch site

From here, you can login to your existing WordPress site or you can select ‘Create Site’ and build a new site using WordPress.

If you don’t have a WordPress.com account, you can create one for free at this stage. Sign up with WordPress plugin Jetpack for a more secure and seamless installation.

Launch your site and go back to the WordPress control panel and click Bluehost in the top left corner.

Finally! Hit ‘Launch’ and share your site to the world.

Product Quality Score: Bluehost vs Hostgator

In this Bluehost vs Hostgator review, I’d recommend you use Bluehost. Clearly, I choose it in terms of security, customer support, pricing and overall performance. It is a flexible hosting, reliable and easy to use.

Product Quality Bluehost Hostgator
Pricing 5 4
Performance 5 5
Speed 5 4
Security 5 5
Ease of use 5 5
Total 5 4.6

If you are looking for the best web host for your business, you’d want to look at every aspect and features of the hosting plan and see if it is reliable and worthy of your money.

Why Bluehost is a better web hosting than HostGator?

Bluehost is the best choice for starters or beginner businesses. Bluehost distinguishes itself from Hostgator and other competitors by focusing on innovation and value; providing incredible customer support, functionality, security, and integrations. Not only it is more cost-effective, but also it provides incredible overall performance and reliable customer support.

Price

The lowest price for any Bluehost hosting plan is $3.49 per month (for the Starter shared hosting plan on a three-year subscription). You can actually get it cheaper at $2.95 per month.

At the same time, the cheapest price for a HostGator hosting plan is normally $5.56 per month (for the Hatchling shared hosting plan on a three-year subscription). But you can get it for $3.95 per month with this link. Bluehost is a cheaper option. This is especially of concern for starters and beginners and doesn’t expect as much traffic initially.

Performance

Performance-wise, both web hosts are robust and has powerful servers. Bluehost runs on AMD power centers while HostGator is on Dual Xeon. Both are strong and reliable in their own way. However, Bluehost is more innovative and uses smart intelligent control over the CPU and it’s very consistent. Also, it keeps your hosted site safe from spammers. Lastly, Bluehost provides additional security features including unique IPs, SSL, and SiteLock protection.

Hostgator has a nice website and an intuitive interface. Also, it’s easy to use and you can integrate third-party softwares fast. However, some sites on Hostgator has slow or average-at-best speed and uptime than competitors. Its uptime and speed aren’t always as quite advertised.

In terms of uptime and speed, both hosts provide an uptime that is extremely close to 99.99 percent. And this is the reason why many webmasters and users choose these hosting services.

Customer Support

Most people and businesses needs to consider customer support as a crucial factor in choosing a web hosting. You have to choose a web hosting service that is efficient, they have to be responsive. Both web hosting services offer almost same quality of customer support. They provide tech support 24/7 around the clock for all their hosting plans.

If you have any concerns or questions, or if you experience any issues with their service, you have a lot of options to address them and get solutions quickly. You can either call them, email, or use their live chat option. They provide a very comprehensive knowledge base and quick solutions in case you experience any issues or problems with the hosting. There are plenty of forums and tutorials out there that are available and you just have to maximize them.

Have you tried using Bluehost or Hostgator? How was your experience? Feel free to share them in the comments below!

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