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Bluehost or Hostgator which is better? Which is the best web hosting for starting a WordPress blog? Then let me help you to make this clear with this detailed Bluehost vs Hostgator comparison.
As a blogger, I am a huge fan of WordPress and if you want my recommendation, then you should start your first blog on WordPress platform only (self-hosted WordPress.org platform), compared to free blogging platforms.
The reason is simple, WordPress is awesome, easy to play around and there are plenty of WordPress bloggers available who are working hard to make your WordPress journey smooth.
In that case, which host will do the best for you? Hostgator or Bluehost? Let’s find out. Besides that, I have also shared Bluehost Vs GoDaddy, Bluehost Vs HostMonster, Bluehost Vs iPage, Bluehost Vs DreamHost, Bluehost Vs WPX Hosting etc.
Hostgator VS Bluehost: Why Bluehost Is The Clear Winner?
Yes, in the beginning only I have declared Bluehost as a winner in this comparison with Hostgator. You will understand as I will be sharing my complete Bluehost review from my own experience.
I am using both Hostgator & Bluehost for different blogs and from my own experience. I can say that Bluehost is comparatively a better web hosting company in terms of features & reliability. But, when you compare them closely, you will understand that both hosting companies offer almost similar features.
In simple terms, it’s a tie between Bluehost vs Hostgator in many areas. But still, I found Bluehost has a little edge as they offer some extra features which will save your money and give your website the extra security features.
Let’s find out why Bluehost is a better hosting compared to Hostgator. I am considering below points to make this Hostgator Vs Bluehost comparison complete.
- Popularity & brand value
- Uptime report
- Speed test
- Free domain name
- High security with Free SSL certificate
- Ease of using cPanel
- Pricing & discounts (where you can save maximum)
- Speed test
- Customer Support
- Money-Back Guarantee
#1 WordPress Recommended Web Hosting
Bluehost is the #1 WordPress recommending hosting provider. They are specialized in WordPress hosting and accordingly create a very much user-friendly experience for their customers. One can easily follow the step by step guide to set up the complete website after signing up with Bluehost.
HostGator is also a very good hosting company for beginners. They provide very good shared hosting plans for a long time. But form the below picture it is clear that Bluehost is much more popular and recommended by professional.
BlueHost vs HostGator – Uptime
Bluehost & Hostgator is the very good name in the space of shared hosting. So when we talk about Uptime, both have almost similar performances. Here is a comparison of uptime report between these 2 web hosting companies. These screenshots are taken from the research done by hostingfacts.com.
Bluehost uptime report.
Hostgator uptime report.
Page Speed test – Bluehost Vs Hostgator
As per the data shared by down.com, you can see that the speed test results between Hostgator & Bluehost are almost similar. Although Hostgator has little better performance.
Free Domain Name Hosting (Bluehost VS Hostgator)
You will get a free domain name with every Bluehost sign up. A domain name will cost you around $15/year, and with Bluehost, you can save that amount for 1 year. With every Bluehost web hosting plan you will get a domain name free of cost for the first year. You have to renew your Bluehost domain from 2nd year onward.
Sign Up Bluehost with a Free Domain Name
While in the case of Hostgator, there is no such free domain registration offer. You can either buy a new domain with Hostgator or you can try for GoDaddy 99 cent domain coupon or NameCheap 0.48 Domain Coupon.
Free SSL Certificate (Bluehost VS Hostgator Comparison)
Do you know that Google started preferring HTTPS websites while ranking content? Or in other words, SSL certificate is one of the top 200 ranking factors now. Check out a few of the awesome resources to understand everything about SSL certificate and impact on SEO of your website.
- Do SSL Certificates Affect Search Rankings?
- The Big List of SEO Tips and Tricks for Using HTTPS on Your Website
But SSL certificate will not come as free. With Bluehost, you can enjoy FREE SSL Certificate for all the domains on your hosting package.
But HostGator doesn’t offer any free SSL certificate. In case you want that, you have to buy SSL certificate and the cost will increase.
And not only that, the installation process of SSL certificate is not that easy and if you don’t know how to do it properly, it may mess up your website. With Bluehost cPanel, you can simply install SSL certificate using their 1-click installation service in few minutes. Even if you don’t have any technical knowledge, it’s not an issue.
Bluehost VS Hostgator – Ease of using cPanel
Both Bluehost & Hostgator have almost similar cPanel having all the key features like unlimited emails, MySQL databases, disk space, and bandwidth, plus 1-click installs of popular open-source projects, in addition to a 99.9% uptime guarantee on their shared hosting plans.
Comparatively, Bluehost cPanel comes with very easy to follow user interface using which one can perform various activities seamlessly.
Pricing & Discounts (Who provide the cheap hosting)
Bluehost offers the cheapest shared hosting plan compared to Hostgator. If you 36-month plan, you can grab $2.65/mo plan and save maximum. You can save up to 66% Off using special Bluehost Coupon.
- 36-Month Plan: $2.95/month (Now $2.65/mo using Bluehost Trick)
- 24-Month Plan: $4.95/month
- 12-Month Plan: $5.95/month
Hostgator also offers 3 types of plan and their basic plans start at a very cheap price. But remember that HostGator doesn’t offer a free domain and a free SSL certificate. You can get updates about more HostGator coupon code here.
- Hatchling” Plan: $2.64/month
- Baby” Plan: $3.78/month
- Business” Plan: $5.68/month
One good thing about HostGator is that they offer many promotions throughout the year and if you can keep a track, you can easily get the cheapest hosting plan from HostGator.
High Speed, Fast Loading hosting (Key Point of this Bluehost VS Hostgator)
Bluehost has revived the shared hosting plan features to provide more good experience to their users. Bluehost offer FREE Cloudflare CDN service through their cPanel. You can simply log in to Bluehost cPanel and then activate Cloudflare in few clicks to make your website load faster.
But HostGator shared hosting plans don’t come up with such features to speed-up your website.
Live customer support (Almost similar for both)
Live chat support is the much-required support for any blogger as web hosting related issues can come at any time. And everyone expects a faster resolution too.
Bluehost live chat support is comparatively better than Hostgator live chat support. Although Bluehost faced many criticisms due to their long wait period issues. But it’s a history now. I had a very good experience with Bluehost live Chat and got responses from them always in less than a minute, sometimes in seconds.
Money Back Guarantee (HostGator is better)
Money Back guarantee is a very crucial feature to attract the customer and giving them the opportunity to avail the service without any cost. Both these companies offer a money back guarantee.
Earlier, Bluehost offered anytime money back guarantee. But now they offer a 30 days money back guarantee. When HostGator offer a 45 days money back guarantee.
Is Bluehost & Hostgator Same Company?
Technically speaking both the 2 popular hosting companies are from the same umbrella company EIG Group. That means they are running by the same organization only. That doesn’t mean that both are having similar servers or technical settings behind.
EIG Group has acquired many web hosting companies and out of them, Bluehost is the top most popular hosting companies. In this comparison between HostGator & Bluehost, we have clearly observed that how Bluehost provides many quality features at the cheapest price, which is very good for a beginner to start a blog on WordPress.
But if you want to explore non-EIG hosting companies, then you can opt for SiteGround and A2 Hosting plans.
HostGator VS Bluehost Comparison 2020 – The Winner is Bluehost
Both Bluehost and HostGator comes under best cheap web hosting providers, best reliable WordPress services. But when you compare feature by feature, it is clear that Bluehost provides many other benefits which actually help you to save huge money compared to HostGator.
As a beginner, it is a very big plus point to get a free domain name, free SSL certificate, free Cloudflare integration etc. Not only that, they are #1 WordPress recommended hosting providers.
So, if you are new to blogging and want a stress free journey then you should start with Bluehost WordPress hosting plan. At the same time, if you have multiple websites and need more than one host, definitely HostGator is the 2nd best choice without any debate. I am using both the hosting providers and it’s a good journey with both so far.
- Save 66% Off on Bluehost
- Grab latest HostGator Coupon
Do share your experiences here about this Bluehost Vs HostGator comparison by writing a simple comment below.