If you’re looking for hosting for your website, then two companies that you’re going to come across often are Bluehost and Hostgator. They both provide lower cost hosting packages, so it’s fair to directly compare them to each other.
But out of these two brands, which one of them is best? Or is there another hosting provider that you should be considering? Well, whilst both of these are well known, they might not always be the best choice. Let’s have a look at the two and compare them to one another.
Bluehost vs Hostgator
Both Bluehost and Hostgator are considered to be budget hosting companies for those building their first website. Bluehost is the better of the two, but there’s really not too much in it.
They both provide the basics pretty well, including an SSL certificate which is a necessity nowadays. Neither of them are what I’d consider to be premium hosting though.
Bluehost is definitely one of the best hosting companies if you’re looking to host a WordPress website and you’ve never set one up before. But as you become more experienced, you’ll likely want to switch to another host that can support your website a little better.
Either way, we’ll look at these two in a little more detail to find out more about them and what they can offer you.
Bluehost
Of the two, Bluehost is probably the better option in my opinion. If you’re making your first WordPress website, then it’s definitely the better option out of the two.
Bluehost is really designed for beginners – we can see this from the website navigation itself. It’s very easy to use the website to find what you want, and for most people a shared hosting package will be perfect.
One thing that I will say that I dislike about Bluehost is that like GoDaddy, they have a ton of different add-ons that you can get with this hosting. They come up all through the checkout process, and many of them are useless, or twice as expensive as you can get them elsewhere.
So although the Hosting product itself is fine, be sure not to get dragged in bu their additional offers. Most of them are just trying to get you to spend a little more than you need to.
HostGator
HostGator are another company that really specialise in WordPress hosting, and their main target audience is beginners too. They have a lot of different packages to look at, with the most popular being that shared hosting or their WordPress hosting packages.
You can choose between their Hatchling, Baby and Business shared hosting plans and for the first year, they offer really great value for money.However, at the end of the year when the prices go up, you will end up paying a little bit more than other hosting companies.
Of course, you could switch later down the line, but it can be a long process and it’s usually better to just find a good hosting package straight off.
HostGator do have some good options if you’re looking to get your own dedicated hosting too. This generally starts at around £70 a month (or $90ish) and for what it’s worth, it’s pretty good.
Obviously for most people looking for hosting this is going to be overkill, but it’s there if you are looking for dedicated hosting instead. All in all, HostGator are a fine option to go for, but they’re not as good as Bluehost in my opinion, especially for beginners.
Common Questions about Bluehost and HostGator
Are Bluehost any good?
If you’re looking for a good hosting company, then Bluehost are not a bad choice at all. They offer a good variety of hosting packages, with a high percentage of uptime, at a pretty reasonable rate. So yes, they’re pretty good.
Is Hostgator a good web host?
Like Bluehost, Hostgator is also a perfectly good webhost too. In fact, Hostgator actually have quite a few more customers than Bluehost, so they must be doing something right! However, personal preference lead me to pick Bluehost as the better of the two.
Which is cheaper; Bluehost or HostGator?
It really depends on what you’re looking to host. For most people, they’ll just be looking to host a simple WordPress website. And if this is you, then the better option of the two is Bluehost. They offer a free SSL and a free domain name, as well as a discounted hosting package too. So, it’s the perfect place to get started.
Why is HostGator so slow?
I’ve seen quite a lot of people online complaining about HostGator being way too slow for them. The reason for this is that they they’ve probably gone for the cheapest package, which doesn’t have a lot of capacity. Then when you load a website and install a ton of plugins, it can’t cope with it all. The cheapest HostGator plan should only be used for very basic WordPress websites.
Are Bluehost and Hostgator the same company?
No, Bluehost and Hostgator are not the same company. However, they are both owned by the same parent company, which is called EIG. Despite this, they don’t offer the exact same product as each other, and there are many differences between the two.
Conclusion
All in all, I don’t think that either Bluehost or HostgGator are a particularly bad option to go for. They both offer pretty low initial prices for a beginner to get started with a website, so if you’re after a shared hosting package, they’re both fine.
However, I’ve had a better experience with Bluehost’s customer service and their renewal fees are lower, too. So out of these two brands specifically, I’d probably go for them out of the two.
For more advanced websites getting a decent amount of traffic, you’ll definitely want to upgrade from one of the two hosts. They’re a good choice if you’re just starting out and learning the ropes, but they aren’t the best when it comes to speed.
