Bluehost vs HostGator

(Image credit: HostGator / Bluehost)

Bluehost and HostGator are ii of the nigh pop and widely-used of the best web hosting services, and both offer two of the best website builders. In this test we pitted them confronting i another and plant that, while both platforms have their flaws, in that location are certainly situations where these hosting providers could show to be a adept option.

In our Bluehost vs HostGator comparison, we take a closer look at both web hosting solutions, helping you lot identify if and when each one could be a good fit for you lot.

Bluehost vs HostGator: Features

HostGator's webpage discussing security features — HostGator's security is basic at best (Image credit: HostGator)

Security is an essential consideration when selecting a web hosting provider and, unfortunately, HostGator doesn't exercise a corking task here. Its DDoS protection tool and firewall are decent, and y'all will get a costless SSL (secure sockets layer) document, but there are no malware scanning or removal tools and multi-factor authentication isn't bachelor.

Meanwhile, Bluehost claims to offering full protection for your site only it provides very lilliputian information about its security practices. Yous will benefit from a free SSL certificate, SiteLock malware scanning and removal, and supposed 24/7 network monitoring, but the visitor doesn't say exactly what this entails.

HostGator'southward native Gator Website Builder is excellent. Information technology's one of the most powerful options we've used, and it enables you to create highly attractive sites without any tech skills. Only the basic version is included with the hosting packages, but in that location'due south a more powerful version available to purchase if required.

Bluehost offers a very bones builder for WordPress, just don't expect to be able to do very much with information technology. You tin can use it to create simple sites, but you won't exist able to add a blog or an online store.

HostGator appears to offer first-class automatic backup services, only things aren't quite every bit good every bit they seem. Automatic daily backups are advertised with the shared hosting plans, but a closer look shows that yous will actually but get these if you purchase a CodeGuard subscription, which starts from $two a month.

Bluehost also enables you to connect CodeGuard to your site. Information technology's slightly better than HostGator, though, as free automatic backups are included for the first year with the higher-end shared hosting plans.

Despite existence two of the earth'due south most popular web hosts, neither Bluehost nor HostGator offering a notable selection of advanced features. Both are quite bones and both take some serious security omissions, though HostGator's excellent website builder is a not bad additional benefit.

Bluehost vs HostGator: Functioning

a graph displaying Bluehost's response time — Bluehost's performance is slightly ameliorate than HostGator'southward (Paradigm credit: uptime.com)

To examination the performance of Bluehost and HostGator, we created a simple static website with each provider'south basic shared hosting plan. We and so monitored long-term performance with Uptime.com and tested curt-term performance with Bitcatcha and Dotcom-Tools.

Bluehost's performance was decent, merely non spectacular. Over the calendar week of monitoring with Uptime.com, our site had a 100% uptime, which was excellent to encounter. However, this is to exist expected, and about other providers can offer the same.

The boilerplate server response time was 332 milliseconds (ms), which is certainly acceptable, although not quite good enough to be first-class. The minimum and maximum were 257ms and 629ms respectively, and it's overnice to encounter a relatively tight range.

With the Dotcom-Tools' website speed test, the average page load speed for Bluehost was an splendid 748ms. On top of this, Bitcatcha gave our site an A+ rating, which is basically as good as you can go.

Meanwhile, HostGator also returned a 100% uptime over a week of monitoring. Its average server response fourth dimension was a slightly slower 378ms, which notwithstanding isn't terrible. On the plus side, though, the maximum was just 556ms, which is better than Bluehost'south.

The average page load speed from Dotcom-Tools was 870ms, which is just slightly slower than Bluehost's. Our simple HostGator site too received an A+ rating from Bitcatcha, which is nifty to encounter.

Now, at that place are a few things worth noting here. For one, we only compared the performance of the ii companies' shared hosting, and y'all may become very dissimilar results with other options. Page load speeds will vary co-ordinate to the size and complexity of your website, and you won't always experience 100% uptime.

Bluehost vs HostGator: Support

Bluehost's knowledge base webpage — The Bluehost knowledge base is splendid (Image credit: Bluehost)

Bluehost and HostGator both offering decent alive and cocky-aid support resources, which is one of the reasons why they are both favored options for beginners.

HostGator has live chat and telephone support, and information technology's known for its friendly and knowledgeable agents. E-mail service is notably absent, but the great range of tutorials, how-to guides, and other resource available through the knowledge base is a major positive.

Bluehost is arguably even ameliorate on this forepart, with 24/7 telephone, electronic mail, and live conversation services. The alive chat is excellent, and you shouldn't ever take to wait more than than a few minutes for a response. In that location's also a great knowledge base that's comparable to HostGator's, forth with a arrangement alert page that yous tin can use to monitor the electric current network condition.

Bluehost vs HostGator: Pricing and plans

HostGator's pricing plans — HostGator's introductory prices are lower than Bluehost's (Image credit: HostGator)

Both Bluehost and HostGator offering a suite of hosting options, which can make it a lilliputian difficult to compare their prices.

For one, Bluehost's 4 shared hosting plans range from $2.75 to $13.95 a month. These are generous, with all plans including a free domain, a free SSL certificate, and various other tools, but you volition have to pay for 36 months upfront to access the advertised prices.

Unfortunately, HostGator is no better. Base of operations prices range from $ii.75 to $5.25 a month, merely again, you'll need to sign up for 36 months to access these prices. All 3 plans come with unmetered bandwidth, unlimited storage, and a free SSL certificate, but advanced features and security tools are notably absent.

HostGator as well offers virtual private server (VPS) hosting from $xix.95 a month, defended servers from $89.98 a month, the aforementioned website builder from $3.84 a month, and various other niche options.

On the other hand, Bluehost's avant-garde hosting options include VPS servers from $nineteen.99 a month, dedicated hosting from $79.99 a month, and managed WordPress hosting from $9.95 a month. However, there's no website builder, which is certainly worth begetting in mind.

Bluehost vs HostGator: Verdict

Although it might not appear like information technology on the surface, Bluehost and HostGator are really two very similar hosting platforms. Both offer a range of shared, VPS, dedicated server, and other hosting options, but neither comes with advanced features or standout tools.

1 flaw with both is their abstract pricing and steep renewal fees. On top of this, both will attempt to upsell largely unnecessary add together-ons and upgrades, which tin can get expensive if yous're not careful.

At the finish of the day, HostGator is the cheaper of the two options, but Bluehost offers better security so is our overall recommendation. That said, nosotros'd also encourage you lot to take other web hosting providers (or indeed website builders with hosting) into consideration depending on your individual or business needs.

Farther reading on web hosting

Take a await at our other hosting comparison, pitting Bluehost vs GoDaddy. Learn how to choose a web hosting service, and detect out what spider web hosting is in our features outlining the process of choosing a web host, and the nuts and bolts of what hosting is likewise every bit how it works.

Daniel is a freelance copywriter with over six years experience writing for publications such as TechRadar, Tom'due south Guide, and Hosting Review. He specializes in tech and finance, with a particular focus on website building, spider web hosting, and related fields.