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Bluehost vs SiteGround – who is a better web host in 2020? There are hosting providers that are vastly popular and then there are some you can only know about once you start digging deeper. As a matter of fact, a lot of companies that belong to the latter category have been in the business for more than a decade. But they are still fairly unknown as long as you are not into website building and hosting professionally.
For instance, Bluehost was founded in 2003 and is a widely popular hosting company. If you ask about Bluehost to people looking for a hosting service for the first time, chances are that the majority of them would have heard the name. Similarly, SiteGround has been around since 2004 and is also fairly popular.
Bluehost vs Siteground Comparison 2020
Now, Bluehost vs Siteground – who actually is a better web host between these two? Are the hosting services of Bluehost better than that of SiteGround? The best way to find out is through a detailed Bluehost vs SiteGround comparison.
1. Hosting Infrastructure
Bluehost is part of EIG (Endurance International Group) that owns more than 20 hosting brands. It was acquired by EIG in 2010 and it is since then that it has considerably grown in popularity. Bluehost is known to have one of the best datacenters in the industry. It is definitely a major reason why more than 2 million websites on the internet are powered by Bluehost.
It has two world-class data centers in Utah (USA) along with smaller data centers at locations like London, Mumbai, and Hong Kong. All the Bluehost servers have SSD storage and it also supports Cloudflare CDN for improved hosting speed and security.
Just like Bluehost, SiteGround also has SSD storage on all of its hosting servers. It currently has 6 data centers spread across locations such as the USA, UK, Netherlands, and Singapore.
SiteGround also says that all the data centers have high-end security with biometrics, video surveillance, bulletproof lobbies, and more. So, with regards to hosting infrastructure both Bluehost and SiteGround are in line with the industry standards.
2. Hosting Services
We are now living in an age where products/services are customized as per the needs of the consumers. Same is the case with hosting services too. There are now many different types of hosting services to suit the needs of different users and websites. Talking about Bluehost, it offers Shared, VPS, Dedicated, WordPress, WP Pro, Reseller, and eCommerce hosting.
Siteground, on the other hand, offers Shared, Dedicated, WordPress, Cloud, Reseller, and WooCommerce hosting. There is also something known as Student Hosting offered by SiteGround. As per the company, this hosting service is exclusively designed for students, educators, and educational organizations.
While both the hosting providers offer all the popular types of hosting services, SiteGround offers additional options like Student hosting.
3. Siteground vs Bluehost Pricing
Pricing is one of the biggest differences between the two hosting providers. The cheapest hosting plan from Bluehost, Basic plan, costs $2.95/month for the initial term. The cost for the same after the initial term expires is $7.99.
Must Check: Which Bluehost Plan is Best for You?
While there is no denying that this is not really the cheapest shared hosting plan in the hosting industry, it does come with great features. For instance, the plan comes with unmetered monthly visitors, 50GB SSD storage, unlimited data transfer, free domain name for 1 year, and up to 25 sub-domains for a single website.
The cheapest plan from SiteGround is the StartUp plan and it costs $3.95/month for the initial term and renewals are priced at $11.95. Apart from being more expensive, the inclusions of the plan are not as impressive as Bluehost.
The plan comes with a 10,000/month visitor limit and 10GB SSD storage. While it does include unlimited data transfer and unlimited sub-domains and parked domains, there is no free domain for a year like Bluehost. So, Bluehost is not just cheaper as compared to SiteGround, it also offers more value for money.
4. Uptime and Speed
One of the easiest ways to analyze a hosting provider is through its hosting performance, namely its hosting speed and uptime. We created a dummy website with some content and a few pages to test both the hosting providers for a period of 30 days. The average TTFB (Time to First Byte) of Bluehost during the period was 450ms and the same for SiteGround was 560ms.
With regards to uptime, both the hosting providers were able to fulfill their 99.99% uptime guarantee. So, if we talk about hosting performance, both Bluehost and SiteGround are great choices. While Bluehost has better speed, SiteGround too is not very far from what Bluehost offers.
Also check: Bluehost vs Hostinger – Who is a Better Web Host?
5. Security
An increasing number of website owners now lay a major emphasis on the security features offered by the hosting providers. To meet these expectations, Bluehost and SiteGround offer a number of security solutions. For instance, Bluehost offers SpamExpert, Cloudflare CDN, and SSL certificate for free. There are also a number of paid add-ons such as malware scan and reports, web application firewall, and CDN caching.
To better protect the websites from brute force attacks, SiteGround has recently developed its own AI-powered security solution. It also offers Secure Account Isolation for enhanced safety of the website. Basic safety features like SSL, SSH, and daily backups are included in every SiteGround plan. However, there are not many paid security features offered by SiteGround.
While the basic security features of both the hosting providers are adequate for smaller websites, the paid add-ons of Bluehost can come in very handy for larger websites and online stores.
6. Daily Backups
For added security, it is important to regularly create backups of your website. Most hosting providers charge an additional fee for this backup and restore service and Bluehost is no different. It uses the 3rd party CodeGuard tool for offering backup and restore service to the customers. However, this is a paid tool and costs $3/month.
SiteGround offers this facility for free. It creates a daily backup of your website which you can restore anytime you like. It also offers backup on-demand service. Note that even the cheapest StartUp plan of SiteGround offers this free backup and restore facility.
7. Domain Registration
Both the hosting providers also offer domain name registration services. But as mentioned above, Bluehost offers free domain name for a year while SiteGround does not offer any such facility. However, you can purchase domain names from the SiteGround website. It offers standard, country-specific, and even special domain names such as .online, .xyz, .photos, and more.
A basic .com domain name from SiteGround would cost a minimum of $15.95/year. If you want to purchase the same .com domain from Bluehost after your initial free year, it will cost $11.95/year.
Must Check: Bluehost Coupon Code 2020 – Upto 50% Discount+ FREE Domain
8. Siteground vs Bluehost Customer Support
Bluehost and SiteGround offer 24×7 support through live chat, phone, and email. As per the customer reviews, both the providers have excellent support agents who are quick, knowledgeable, and friendly. SiteGround also offers something known as Advanced Priority Support but it is only available from the GoGeek plan which starts at $11.95/month.
Bluehost treats all of its customers in the same manner and offers the same level of world-class support to all of them irrespective of their hosting plan.
9. User-Friendliness
If you are new to web hosting, user-friendliness should be one of your major concerns. Bluehost offers cPanel for account management which is now a standard in the hosting industry. It has customized the user interface to make it easier to use for someone new to hosting. The backend is highly intuitive and you can easily enable Cloudflare anytime you like.
SiteGround also used to offer cPanel but has recently shifted to its custom panel known as SiteTools. While it does offer a host of basic and advanced features, people who are used to cPanel might find it a little confusing. Apart from this, SiteGround too is high on user-friendliness and its website also has hundreds of e-books and tutorials to help you begin.
10. Additional Features and Benefits
Apart from hosting and domain registration, Bluehost also offers professional online marketing services, including SEO, PPC, website migration, and more. It also offers a professional live support service for WordPress known as Blue Sky. It is a paid service that starts at $29/month and can be a great choice for someone planning to build a professional WordPress website for the first time.
Bluehost and SiteGround offer 30-days money-back guarantee on all of their plans. As a matter of fact, SiteGround also promises to compensate you with a free month of hosting if at all their uptime in the year falls below 99.0%. Also, the GoGeek plan from the provider comes with a host of geeky features like Git integration, adding collaborators and white-label clients, SuperCacher, and more.
SiteGround vs Bluehost FAQs
Is SiteGround better than Bluehost?
SiteGround offers great hosting services for Shared, WordPress, and Cloud websites. However, if you’re looking for an affordable hosting plan with good performance and customer support then Bluehost is your choice.
Is Bluehost a good web host?
Bluehost offers affordable hosting services with unlimited disk storage, bandwidth, domain hosting, and email addresses. When integrated with CloudFlare, Bluehost can offer even better performance to get a faster website.
How much does Bluehost cost per month?
Bluehost has four shared hosting plans with prices ranging from $2.95 to $13.95 per month. You can go for 12 months, 24 months or 36 months plan. 36 months is the best value for money as you can save maximum.
Bluehost vs SiteGround vs GoDaddy – which is better?
SiteGround powerful technical features compared to GoDaddy or Bluehost, however, it’s expensive. Whereas GoDaddy has domain registration with decent performance at a cheap price. However, when it comes to Bluehost, it offers good website performance in affordable pricing and is the best option for starting a new blog in 2020.
Bluehost vs Siteground – Who is Better?
So, Bluehost vs Siteground – who offers better hosting services? As you can see from this Bluehost vs Siteground comparison, SiteGround is lesser-known not because it is not an excellent hosting provider but because it is not as invested in marketing as Bluehost. As you can see, it offers an excellent combination of quality services, user-friendliness, security, and world-class support. But while SiteGround is great, Bluehost is definitely a better choice between the two.
Bluehost offers a more efficient combination of cost-efficiency and top-notch hosting services. With multiple hosting services and plans to choose from, you are sure to find one that matches the exact requirements of your website. The impressive support, user-friendliness, free domain, and additional features only add up to its popularity and make it one of the best hosting providers in the industry. Get Bluehost at 60% off!