If you’re new to building websites, then the idea of finding the right hosting can seem overwhelming. There is no shortage of options, and it’s hard to tell all the differences between them. One may be better for small businesses, another may be better for scaling your business, etc.
What you care about is having the best hosting for your site, and we want the same for you. That’s why we took two popular hosting services and did some research to see which is better. Because when you’re looking at two of the most well-known web hosting services in the industry, it may be difficult to decide which one is best for you.
While both Bluehost and HostGator offer some great benefits, when it comes down to it, Bluehost takes home the blue ribbon.
HostGator is a close second, but Bluehost’s price point and their ease of use are the two things that really brought this one to the number one spot.
Read on to see more in-depth information about why Bluehost wins the battle over HostGator.
Bluehost Compared to HostGator
Bluehost is the most popular web hosting service out there. More than 2 million websites across the entire world use Bluehost, making it the most widely used service. One of the reasons why it is so well-loved by people all over the globe is its customer service. In addition to that, Bluehost has a clean, modern, and easy-to-use dashboard that allows access to all the features included with Bluehost’s service. If this sounds like what you are looking for, take advantage of the current Bluehost special and sign up for hosting that starts at just $1.99 per month.
HostGator is known to shine when it comes to scaling your business on a budget. It is an ideal choice for those looking to start their first website and for those who have small businesses. Rather than claiming to be multiple times faster or more scalable than everybody else, HostGator now focuses on giving you an easy path to grow from shared hosting into WordPress, cloud, VPS, or even dedicated hosting without switching providers. Its current shared plans start around $3.75 per month on promo (and you’ll sometimes see limited-time coupons lower than that), which still makes it a strong budget option. They offer a 99.9% uptime promise, which we love to see. In addition, their customer service is also excellent and works quickly to help you with any issues.
More Top Web Hosting Services
If you’re on the hunt for the right web hosting service for you, it’s important to note that Bluehost and HostGator aren’t the only two you have to choose from. While they are some of the best, there are many others that we researched, tried, and compared to competitors. With this research, we were able to put together a list of the best web hosting services. Eight different web hosting services made it on our list, all for different reasons that may be the right reason for you. See all of our top picks.
Where Bluehost Shines
Endorsed by WordPress: If you are looking to build your website on WordPress, then you likely want to go with a hosting service that you know works well with WordPress. Of all the different hosting services out there, WordPress only endorses a small handful of them — and Bluehost is one of those few, still sitting right at the top of WordPress’s recommendation list. This makes things much easier for you when it comes to making your decision about web hosting, and which service is best for your WordPress website.
High Uptime: If you aren’t sure what uptime is, or you’ve forgotten, here is a quick reminder. Uptime is the amount of time that your site is online. When your site is offline, people cannot access it. In other words, you want a high uptime so that you know your site is online as much as possible. Bluehost now advertises 99.9%+ uptime on its shared plans and even offers a 99.99% uptime SLA on newer “websites & hosting” tiers, which means the vast majority of the time someone goes to your site, it will be up and running. This is a very important factor to consider when looking at web hosting, as you don’t want people to have issues accessing your website.
If you upgrade to a VPS or cloud/managed WordPress plan with Bluehost, you’re looking at an even more stable uptime, near 100%.
Customer Support: Bluehost offers several different ways to get support when you need it. With Bluehost, you have a toll-free number for phone support, the ability to submit tickets, as well as a live chat. And if you have issues with account management, sales, or tech support, help is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. In addition to that, they offer support via social media as well. So, if X (formerly Twitter) is your thing, turn to Bluehost’s X account when you have questions.
If you want to see if you can find the answer without having to talk to a person, then Bluehost also has a support library that has all sorts of questions with detailed answers that can walk you through common problems.
Security: When it comes to web hosting, security is not something you want to take lightly. It is imperative that your web hosting service is one that you can trust, and that people who come to your website can trust as well. Bluehost now includes a free SSL on every plan, plus automatic backups and basic malware scans on current shared/WordPress plans. This keeps all information on your website secure, including the customer/client information they put in such as credit card numbers and other personal things.
For higher-level plans, Bluehost still offers advanced backup options and extra protections — but unlike older versions of the service, you don’t have to rely only on paid CodeGuard just to get regular backups. You can still manually back up via cPanel whenever you like.
SiteLock-style protection is still available as an add-on if you want business verification, deeper malware cleanup, blacklist monitoring, or extra spam protection.
Fast: How quickly your site loads is a very important piece of how well your site succeeds. If people have to wait a long time for it to load, they won’t — they will go onto another page. This will do a number on your bounce rate, too. So, if you want to have a website that does well and that serves your clients and customers, you need a hosting service that offers a fast loading speed. Bluehost does just that with its NVMe storage, modern PHP versions, and built-in CDN.
Well-optimized sites hosted through Bluehost are regularly loading well under a second in US tests, which is exactly what you want for SEO and user experience.
Flexible Plans: The different plan options available through Bluehost are flexible and cover almost every possible need.
If you start with a lower-tiered plan and realize that it isn’t enough for you, Bluehost makes it easy to upgrade to something that is better suited. You don’t have to worry about changing to a different hosting provider — Bluehost can give you the plan you need. And the best part about an upgrade or transition in plans is that your site won’t have any downtime during the switch.
Free Features: Some of the free features included in hosting plans seem like fluff that may not have any real importance to you. However, Bluehost is an exception to that. The free features that are included in Bluehost plans are ones that you actually care about. These include things such as a free domain for an entire year, free CDN, and a free SSL certificate. Current plans also bundle automatic backups and a free WordPress migration tool. These are all important to your website, and they are free with all Bluehost plans.
The free domain exists for the first year, and then you pay an annual fee for use of the domain thereafter. The free CDN ensures that the servers work together to provide fast web loading and ensure minimal delays. And the free SSL certificate keeps your website secure and safe from potential hackers. This includes not only your information but also any information visitors to your website enter (such as credit card numbers, addresses, etc.).
Where Bluehost Falls Short
Limited Uptime Guarantee: Older Bluehost shared plans didn’t come with an uptime guarantee at all. Newer plans now advertise up to a 99.99% uptime SLA, but not every single legacy or discounted plan is covered the same way. If your site absolutely requires credits for downtime, you’ll want to double-check the exact plan terms you’re on.
Costly Renewal: While we love the intro prices of Bluehost that are low and make it one of the most affordable options for web hosting, those prices increase quite a bit when it comes time to renew your subscription. This is fairly typical for a hosting provider to do, but be mindful of the big increases in price that Bluehost has.
Migration Is No Longer a Big Gotcha: Bluehost used to charge $149.99 to move your sites over, but that’s not the case for most new WordPress customers anymore. Bluehost now offers a built-in free WordPress migration tool and regularly runs promos that include free expert migrations for at least one site. You can still pay for hands-on or non-WordPress moves, but the old flat $149.99 barrier isn’t the default experience now.
Where HostGator Shines
Uptime Guarantee: As mentioned above, uptime is a very important thing to consider when choosing your web hosting. And HostGator offers not only a quick uptime speed but also a guarantee for that speed. If the uptime speed drops below 99.9%, HostGator will give you an entire month of credit.
Great cPanel: While cPanel is pretty typical for running anything with your hosting, the interface and usability of HostGator’s cPanel blow the others out of the water.
While it has the typical tools of a cPanel including:
- File manager
- FTP with user management
- Backup wizard
- Disk usage
- Domain manager
- DNS
- File upload
- File download
- And much more
It shows them in a way that is easy to navigate and clear to see. HostGator’s cPanel makes it incredibly easy for you to manage all parts of your site from one place.
Site Transfers Still Available: If you are looking to transfer your site from another hosting provider to HostGator, you can still have them move a site for you — but unlike years past, many accounts will now see this as a paid migration or as a limited-time promo rather than an automatic freebie. The actual process is still quick and easy once you sign up.
Free Features: Everyone likes some freebies and HostGator offers some good ones. With the purchase of a hosting plan, they provide you with a free SSL certificate for all the users and hosted domains in your account. This takes the weight off your shoulders of using a third-party site to get the SSL certificate and getting it set up on your site.
In addition to that, HostGator gives you a free domain for your first year if you sign up for a 12, 24, or 36 month plan that is either HostGator Shared, WordPress, or Cloud hosting. After that first year, you pay the regular rate for domain renewal.
Where HostGator Falls Short
Standard Features: Though HostGator does offer a number of free unlimited features, many of them are standard and aren’t anything to get excited about.
Backups Still Need Attention: Having a backup of your website is an absolute must. HostGator still positions automated daily backups and one-click restores behind its CodeGuard/backup add-ons. If you don’t pay for those, you’re relying on courtesy backups and may have to pay to restore — so it’s not as generous as what some competitors are including by default now.
Customer Service Is Not Always the Fastest: One of the things we like about HostGator is their great customer support, but it does not come without some waiting. Though their service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week via phone, chat, and email, the responses are known to be slower than what you’ll typically experience on Bluehost’s live chat. If you’ve ever had issues with your website, you know the last thing you want to do is sit around and wait for someone to answer your call. Other hosting providers do a much better job of providing customer service support in a timely manner.
The Final Verdict on Bluehost Compared to HostGator
Bluehost’s hosting plans offer a variety of different things, depending on you and your website’s specific needs.
Basic. This plan is great for those who are looking to run one, fairly basic site. This plan will get you:
- 1 Website
- 10–50 GB NVMe/SSD Storage (varies by promo)
- Custom Themes
- 24/7 Customer Support
On top of that, you also get:
- Free Domain – 1 year
- Free CDN Included
- Free SSL Certificate
- Automatic Backups
Choice Plus. This plan is the Bluehost recommended plan, as it gives you additional privacy and security features. The Choice Plus plan has everything that the Plus does as well as:
- Free Domain Privacy
- Free Automated Backup – 1 year or longer, depending on offer
Pro. This plan gives you more power with web resources and includes everything that the Choice Plus plan does as well as:
- Optimized CPU Resources
- Free Dedicated IP
- Higher resource limits for busy or ecommerce sites
As for HostGator, it offers some great plans at a low price.
Hatchling. This plan is a good place to start for those who are new to websites and need some basics. This plan will get you:
- Single website
- One-click WordPress installs
- Unmetered bandwidth
- Free SSL certificate
- Free domain included (annual terms)
Baby. This plan is HostGator’s recommended plan. It includes everything that the Hatchling plan has as well as unlimited websites.
Business. This plan is great for those who are running a bigger business via their website. It includes everything that the Baby plan has as well as:
- Free upgrade to Positive SSL
- Free dedicated IP
- Free SEO tools
Though HostGator still comes in with cheaper introductory pricing overall, the extra money you spend on Bluehost will get you better built-in backups, a smoother WordPress experience, more modern hardware, and an officially recommended host for WordPress.
