It's difficult to choose between Bluehost and HostGator for web hosting, but we believe Bluehost is the better choice for most people.
These are two of the most well-known names in the web hosting industry.
They're both very similar in terms of the functionality they provide to website owners of all ages, from novice to expert.
We know a lot about comparing and contrasting the functionality of a various web hosting companies to find the ones that provide each site with the resources it requires. This was an extremely close match! When it came to comparing Bluehost and HostGator, we looked at features like uptime, controlled hosting, traffic volume, and customer service.
In a few main areas, such as traffic volume, speed, and higher-tier hosting plans for large websites and businesses, Bluehost ultimately beat out HostGator. Learn where each hosting company excels by reading our comparison guide below.
Bluehost Pros and Cons
Pros
- Reliable uptime
- High-level security features
- Unmetered bandwidth
- Easy for beginners
- CPU protection
- Free domain
- Excellent storage space
Cons
- Lacks pricing flexibility
- Costly upgrades
- US-only servers
- Customer service needs improvement
HostGator Pros and Cons
Pros
- Affordable, flexible pricing
- Several data centers
- Guaranteed 99.9% uptime
- Responsive customer support
- Free domain
- One-click app installation
- Simple interface
Cons
- Expensive renewals
- One standard backup
- Customer service upsells
- Pricey for large sites
Site Uptime: Tie
One of the most critical aspects to look for in a web hosting business is site uptime. Your guests expect your website to be up and running when they need it.
What happens if anyone tries to find an answer to a question on your web but is unable to do so? They'll go somewhere else, and depending on your website's target, you'll miss out on potential traffic, leads, or sales.
Bluehost and HostGator are two of the most reliable web hosts.
With a 99.9% uptime guarantee, HostGator is one of the companies that guarantee uptime. And if their uptime falls below 99.9% during that month, Hostgator will offer you a month of free hosting.
Unlike several other hosting providers, Bluehost does not offer an uptime guarantee. However, its uptime efficiency is comparable to that of companies that do provide uptime assurances, such as HostGator. Bluehost's servers almost always achieve at least 99.9% uptime per month, negating the need for a guarantee.
Site Speed: Bluehost
A slow-loading website can drive away tourists more quickly than almost anything else.
Few people are able to wait for a page to load for more than a few seconds. They'll expect your site's navigation to be fast as well.
At any given time, no hosting company has flawless servers with lightning-fast speeds. Instead, we place a greater focus on constant speeds rather than a month or two of high speeds per year.
In terms of speed, Bluehost and HostGator are nearly tied, but Bluehost's loading speeds are generally faster and more stable than HostGator's. Bluehost's speeds have recently slowed slightly, but you can still anticipate a response time of about 692 milliseconds, which has been the average over the past nine months.
HostGator has an average response time of 731 milliseconds, which is higher than normal recently.
At first glance, the difference isn't important, but when you consider the broad range of numbers over several months—798, 836, 738, and 659 ms—you can see that its speeds aren't as consistent as Bluehost's. Bluehost's speeds for the same months are 724, 628, 670, and 655 ms, which is much more reliable.
December 2021 Bluehost speeds
December 2021 speeds from HostGator
Customer Support: HostGator
Both Bluehost and HostGator have robust support programs in place to help customers with any queries, complaints, or problems they may have with their hosting and other services. Each company provides customer service 24 hours a day, seven days a week, as well as a knowledge base with answers and tutorials for common questions and issues.
In terms of customer service, HostGator has a slight advantage over Bluehost, owing to its responsiveness and commitment to resolving issues as soon as possible. While you can have to wait a few minutes in a phone or live chat queue for a response, once your session begins, you may expect to receive an answer or resolution quickly.
Customers appreciate HostGator's peer support forums, which are a unique feature. Join in to ask a question that other group members might answer. You could also get a quicker response there than contacting customer service, particularly for minor issues like adding protection to your site or answering web design questions.
Traffic Volume: Bluehost
Also, small website owners must understand traffic volume. Your site can increase in size over time, necessitating more bandwidth to maintain a steady flow of traffic without jeopardizing its efficiency or user experience.
Both Bluehost and HostGator have unmetered bandwidth, which means they won't throttle your traffic or charge you more if you use a lot of it. However, if there is a lot of traffic, your speeds will slow down to avoid slowing down the servers.
By choosing a virtual private server (VPS), a dedicated server, or a WordPress hosting plan, you can avoid slower speeds that might damage your traffic. These are available from both providers, but Bluehost's plans are among the best.
You may expect your WordPress platform to manage up to 450,000 monthly visits if you use Bluehost's optimized starter WordPress plan. On HostGator, a similar strategy allows for 100,000 monthly visitors.
On Bluehost, you can get up to 450,000 monthly visits with a non-WordPress standard VPS hosting package. With up to 360,000 average monthly visits, even an upper-tier HostGator VPS plan—Snappy 4000—lags behind.
Price: HostGator
When it comes to web hosting, there's no such thing as one-size-fits-all. People's and businesses' hosting requirements differ, so web hosting companies typically tailor their plans to suit those requirements.
HostGator offers some of the most cost-effective plans available, as well as plenty of flexibility to enable you to grow your business at your own rate. You will get unmetered bandwidth, one-click WordPress downloads, a free SSL certificate, and a free domain for as little as $2.75/month for shared hosting and $4.95/month for individual hosting when you sign up for at least 12 months.
There's something for everyone with a wide range of WordPress, shared, VPS, cloud, committed, and reseller plans. If you're looking to scale quickly, start with the Baby Cloud plan, which comes with unlimited domains and subdomains, 4 GB of RAM, and unmetered bandwidth and storage. It's built for simplicity and scalability.
Bluehost's rates are reasonable, but they aren't as low as HostGator's. More significantly, HostGator provides more pricing flexibility. In comparison to Bluehost's 12, 24, and 36-month options, you can pay in 1, 3, 6, 12, 24, or 36-month increments. If you just want to test out a new web host on a smaller scale, HostGator is the place to go. However, keep in mind that 1-month and 3-month plans are much more expensive than long-term plans.
If you aren't happy, HostGator offers a 45-day money-back guarantee, enabling you to cancel within the first 45 calendar days of your order and receive a complete refund. Bluehost allows you to do the same for 30 days, but the additional 15 days can be useful for testing out the full range of functionality included with your package.
It's also worth mentioning that both companies offer discounted rates for the first term you purchase. Following that period, your price would increase to the normal renewal rate, which is significantly higher than the introductory rate. Particularly for shared hosting, HostGator's introductory and standard prices are generally lower than Bluehost's.
Migration Features: HostGator
Both Bluehost and HostGator provide one free migration of a WordPress website from its current location on the internet to their new host.
Customers of Bluehost would be disappointed to learn that their free service ends there. Bluehost charges $149.99 for all additional site transfers for sites built on platforms other than WordPress, which requires relocation for up to five websites and 20 email accounts. Bluehost also doesn't have migration assistance for sites that aren't shared, such as VPS or dedicated hosting accounts.
HostGator offers one free transfer for mutual and cloud accounts, 30 free transfers for resellers, and unlimited free transfers for VPS and dedicated hosting accounts, in addition to free transfers for WordPress accounts.
Managed Hosting: HostGator
If you're not a website whiz or just want to free up some time, managed hosting is an important consideration. As required, your hosting company will assist you with server problems, updates, configuration, and administration tasks.
With its fully run WordPress plans, Bluehost excels at this. When you sign up for a WordPress plan, you'll get a dashboard that's personalized to WordPress, as well as customized protection and pace, WordPress installations, and general WordPress upkeep.
👉 Also, you can read: HostGator eCommerce Review 2021
These services are also available with HostGator's WordPress plans. However, its professionally controlled non-WordPress plans for shared, reseller, VPS, and dedicated hosting accounts go a step further.
Kit installs, speed optimizations, e-mail configuration, backup management, and firewall setup are all included in HostGator's professionally controlled help. It can also be used to set up Google Workspace, upgrade apps, and configure DNS configurations.
Virtual Private Servers: Bluehost
For sites with large traffic volumes, a VPS is preferable to shared hosting, as we previously said. If you have a WordPress or non-WordPress domain, Bluehost is the obvious winner when it comes to managing traffic on a VPS plan.
Bluehost also offers a few other benefits to VPS users. 2-4 CPU cores, up to 120 GB of storage, and 2-8 GB RAM are all included in the plans. Ultimate, the top-tier package, gives users 3 TB of bandwidth. All of your data is stored on solid-state drives (SSDs), which means faster load times for you.
While HostGator's plans include unmetered bandwidth and more SSD storage space, the cost of renewal is substantially higher. When you renew for a year, the cheapest Bluehost VPS plan costs $24.99/month, while HostGator's promotional plan costs nearly $80/month. The Ultimate plan from Bluehost renews for a year at a slightly higher price of $83.99/month.
Dedicated Hosting: Bluehost
When it comes to dedicated hosting, flexibility is crucial. You shouldn't feel obligated to follow a scheme that claims to work for everybody. Having scalability add-on options will help you tailor your plans to your specific requirements. Bluehost's dedicated hosting plans come with a lot of features out of the box, but you can customize them to meet your specific needs.
If the standard SSD SAN storage quantities aren't enough for you but the rest of your plan is working, you can add up to 4 TB of additional storage for $50-$400 per month. Some of Bluehost's add-ons include expert mail filtering, domain privacy, SiteLock, and an additional dedicated IP. HostGator also has a few add-ons, but they are limited in comparison to Bluehost's.
Add-ons for Bluehost dedicated hosting
WordPress Hosting: Bluehost
WordPress sites perform better when they are hosted on optimized hosting plans with streamlined code. The controlled WordPress plans from HostGator and Bluehost include free installation, free site migrations, an optimized control panel, and advanced security.
Bluehost, along with SiteGround and DreamHost, is one of the companies that WordPress recommends. Bluehost's WordPress plans are completely handled by platform experts who can take care of any problems with your account.
Bluehost also offers an eCommerce package for online stores that include protected payment gateways, unlimited product additions, product review functionality, and other WooCommerce features.
Final Verdict
Bluehost and HostGator both have a lot going for them, as this comparison shows. They both offer a variety of hosting plans with a wide range of features, whether you need a low-cost site to start with or a powerful plan designed for high traffic and storage.
Bluehost is still our top option. You can't go wrong with Bluehost's controlled WordPress plans if you have a WordPress account. You'll also benefit from a high permissible traffic rate, consistent speeds and uptime, and excellent scalability with other sites.
No comments:
Post a Comment