DISCLOSURE: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning when you click the links and make a purchase, we receive a commission.
Note: The winner is HostGator, continue reading to know why
HostGator was founded by Brent Oxley on October 22, 2002, in a dorm room at Florida Atlantic University. But, later in 2012, he sold HostGator to EIG (Endurance International Group). Day by day, HostGator is acquiring enormous popularity all over the world as a top web hosting provider.
On the other hand, Bluehost was founded in 2003. Similar to HostGator, Bluehost was also acquired by EIG on 2010. And, over the time, they have become one of the leading web hosting providers in the world.
Both of these companies are so reputed that it becomes challenging to pick the best one between these two. So, to make things easier for you, we have compared these two hosting providers. And, we are going to share the result with you in this post.
So, let’s get started…
Table of Contents
- 1 HostGator vs Bluehost: Comparison of the Hosting Services
- 1.1 Comparison between the Shared Hosting Services
- 1.2 Comparison between the VPS Hosting Service
- 1.3 Comparison between the Cloud Hosting Services
- 1.4 Comparison between the Dedicated Hosting Services
- 1.5 Comparison between the WordPress Hosting plans
- 1.6 Comparison of the Performances
- 1.7 Comparison between the Uptime Performances
- 1.8 Comparison between the Support Services
HostGator vs Bluehost: Comparison of the Hosting Services
Comparison between the Hosting Services offered:
We will begin this post by comparing different types of hosting solutions offered by these two web hosting providers. Let’s get started with shared hosting service.
HostGator comes with 3 shared hosting plans. The names of those plans are Hatchling, Baby, and Business plan. Let’s see what they are offering to their users.
- Hatchling Shared Plan:
The price of this plan starts at 2.75$/month. In spite of having so low price, this is not the best-selling shared hosting plan from HostGator. Because you can only host 1 domain with this one. If you want to host multiple websites at once you have to avoid this plan. But, if you have only one website then this is the best option out there for you.
- Baby Shared Plan:
This plan is priced at only 3.95$ per month. The best thing about this plan is that you can host multiple domains with this. As a result of this, the Baby plan is now the most popular shared hosting plan of HostGator.
- Business Shared Plan:
This plan comes with some additional features which are not available on the Hatchling and Baby plans. Thus, HostGator is officially recommending this one to their customers. If you want to spend at least 5.95$ every month then you can take this pack.
To be noted, with every shared hosting plans of HostGator, you will get a free SSL certificate and Unmetered Bandwidth.
On the contrary, Bluehost comes with 4 shared hosting plans. We will cover them in greater details below.
- Basic Shared Plan:
You have to pay at least 2.95$/mo for this plan. In exchange, you can host one website and will have 50 GB SSD storage. As this pack is limited to hosting one website only, a lot of people don’t opt for it.
- Plus Shared Plan:
If you want to host unlimited websites from one hosting account then this could be a good choice. You can get this pack by paying only 5.95$ per month. Almost everything is unlimited in this plan.
- Choice Plus Shared Plan:
The price of this pack is similar to the previous one which is $5.95/month. But, you will get additional features with this pack. Thus, we would recommend this pack to anyone. Even Bluehost also official recommends this pack.
- Go PRO Shared Plan:
If you want to get the best experience using a shared hosting account then you should take the Go PRO plan of Bluehost. It will come with some advanced features as well as with a high-performance server. However, the price of this plan is the highest which is $13.95/mo.
Our thoughts:
Comparing both of these two services is a bit tricky. Because the services and the price of their packs are almost identical. But, the packs of HostGator are straightforward. For instance, you can actually get the Baby plan which can be used to host multiple sites. And, you need to pay only 3.95$. In contrast, the best value for money pack from Bluehost comes at 5.95$. So, you can see that it is better to go with HostGator.
Comparison between the VPS Hosting Service
HostGator’s VPS Hosting plans
They have 3 VPS hosting plans. We will share all the information about these plans below.
- Snappy 2000:
This pack comes with 2 GB RAM, 2 Cores of CPU, 120 GB Disk Space, and 1.5 TB Bandwidth. The price of this one is 29.95$ every month.
- Snappy 4000:
The ‘Snappy 4000′ is officially recommended by HostGator. You have to pay at least 39.95$ for this one. In return, you will be provided with 4 GB RAM, 2 Cores of CPU, 165 GB Disk Space, and 3 TB Bandwidth.
- Snappy 8000:
If you want to get the best VPS hosting pack from HostGator then the Snappy 8000 is the one you are looking for. Although for the best performance, you have to pay the highest price. The cost of this plan is 49.95$ per month. The specifications of this package are 8 GB RAM, 4 Cores of CPU, 240 GB Disk Space, and 3 TB Bandwidth etc.
Bluehost’s VPS Hosting Service
Now, we’ll be talking about the VPS plans of Bluehost. They have 3 VPS packages.
- Standard VPS:
This is the most basic VPS pack from Bluehost. You can get this one by spending only 19.99$/mo. The Standard VPS plan comes with 2 GB RAM, 2 Cores of CPU, 30 GB Disk Space, and 1 TB Bandwidth etc.
- Enhanced VPS:
Bluehost is officially recommending this plan on their website. You can get this plan by spending $29.99/mo. The specifications are 4 GB RAM, 2 Cores of CPU, 60 GB Disk Space, and 2 TB Bandwidth.
- Ultimate VPS:
The price of this plan is $59.99/mo. It comes with some high-end features and specifications. For instance, you will get 8 GB RAM, 4 Cores of CPU, 120 GB Disk Space, and 3 TB Bandwidth etc.
Our thoughts on this:
Again, both of these hosting providers are so close in terms of the specifications and price of their VPS plans. However, HostGator is actually offering more storage space than Bluehost. Also, the price of the best VPS plan of Bluehost is higher than the HostGator’s best VPS plan. So, we would recommend going with HostGator.
Comparison between the Cloud Hosting Services
HostGator’s Cloud Hosting plans
There are 3 cloud hosting plans of HostGator. They are known as Hatchling Cloud, Baby Cloud, and Business Cloud respectively. Here are the details about them.
- Hatchling Cloud Plan:
This plan starts at $4.95 each month. However, you will get 2 GB RAM and unmetered bandwidth with this pack. Although, there’s a drawback of this pack. It is only possible to host one website with this pack.
- Baby Cloud Plan:
This is the bestselling cloud plan of HostGator. The reason behind this is that you can host unlimited websites using this package. Also, you are getting 4 GB memory and unmetered bandwidth. This pack will cost you at least 7.95 USD/ month.
- Business Cloud Plan:
This is the priciest cloud plan of HostGator. You have to pay at least $9.95 per month for this one. And, you will get 6 GB RAM, 6 Cores of CPU, unmetered bandwidth etc. Besides that, you will also receive a lot of advanced features from HostGator with this pack.
Bluehost’s Cloud Hosting Service
Bluehost is offering 3 cloud hosting plans which are Starter, Performance, Business Pro respectively. Let’s explore these options.
- Starter Cloud Plan:
The first cloud plan of Bluehost comes with 100 GB disk space, 2 GB RAM, and unmetered bandwidth. But the problem with this pack is that you are allowed to host only one domain. The price is $6.95/mo.
- Performance Cloud Plan:
This plan is one of the best-selling plans of Bluehost. You will be provided with 4 GB RAM, 4 Cores of CPU, Unlimited Disk Space, and Unmetered Bandwidth. Also, you can host unlimited websites using this pack. The pack is priced at 8.95$ per month.
- Business Pro Cloud Plan:
Now, we will be talking about the most expensive cloud plan of Bluehost. It will cost you $15.95 per month. For that amount of money, you will be getting 6 GB RAM, 6 Cores of CPU, Unlimited Disk Space, and Unmetered Bandwidth. On top of these, you will also receive some additional advanced features from Bluehost.
Our thoughts:
It is easy to decide this time. You can see that the prices of the Bluehost’s plans are higher than the HostGator’s plans. Yet, HostGator is offering more features compared to Bluehost. So, in our view, the winner here is HostGator.
Comparison between the Dedicated Hosting Services
HostGator’s Dedicated Hosting plans
They are offering 3 dedicated hosting packages. Let’s see what those are.
- Value Dedicated Server:
For 119.00 USD per month, you will be receiving 8 GB RAM, 4 Cores of CPU, 1 TB Disk Space, and unmetered Bandwidth. You can choose between Linux and Windows OS during checkout.
- Power Dedicated Server:
This plan is the best value for your money. As you will get 16 GB RAM, 8 Cores of CPU, 2 TB HDD or 512 GB SSD Disk Space, and Unmetered Bandwidth. For that, you will have to pay only 139.00$ each month.
- Enterprise Dedicated Server:
The Enterprise server is the most powerful dedicated server from HostGator. It comes with 30 GB RAM, 8 Cores of CPU, 1 TB SSD Disk Space, and unmetered Bandwidth. The price of this one begins at 149.00 USD per month.
Bluehost’s Dedicated Hosting plans
Bluehost comes with 3 dedicated hosting packages. They are Standard, Enhanced, and Premium respectively.
- Standard Dedicated Package:
This is the cheapest dedicated plan of Bluehost. You can get this plan only for 79.99 USD per month. The specifications of the server are 4 GB RAM, 4 Cores of CPU, 500 GB Disk Space, and 5 TB Bandwidth.
- Enhanced Dedicated Package:
If you want more power and storage space then you can check this pack out. This package will cost you $99 USD/monthly. And, it will come with 8 GB RAM, 4 Cores of CPU, 1 TB Disk Space, and 10 TB Bandwidth.
- Premium Dedicated Package:
The most powerful dedicated server of Bluehost is priced at 119.99 USD/monthly. The specifications of this plan are 16 GB RAM, 4 Cores of CPU, 1 TB Disk Space, and 15 TB Bandwidth. Added to that you will be getting 5 dedicated IP addresses.
Our thoughts:
Here, Bluehost has lower-priced packages than HostGator. However, HostGator is offering better servers than Bluehost. On top of these, you are also getting the option to choose between Linux and Windows OS. That is not available on Bluehost’s packages. So, we would again recommend HostGator.
Comparison between the WordPress Hosting plans
HostGator’s WordPress Hosting plans
Frankly, HostGator has three special WordPress plan. These plans come with a lot of features which are useful for WordPress websites. For instance, your sites will have 2.5X faster-loading speed compared to any websites hosted on their shared hosting servers.
You will be getting all the plugins and software required to run WordPress websites with these special plans. The plans are known as Starter, Standard, and Business WordPress plans. Let’s learn more about them.
- Starter WordPress plan:
The price of this WordPress plan starts at 5.95$/mo. You can only host one site using this package. And, you can also migrate your sites from other hosting providers to HostGator easily. However, HostGator will migrate 1 site for free with this package. This package is suitable for 100,000 monthly traffics.
- Standard WordPress plan:
If you have a couple of WordPress websites then you can use this plan. You will have to pay at least 7.95$ per month. And, you will get a server which is capable of marinating 200,000 traffics per month. With this package, HostGator will migrate 2 sites for free.
- Business WordPress plan:
This is the most expensive WordPress hosting plan of HostGator. It will cost you at least 9.95 USD each month. You can host 3 WordPress websites at once with this package. HostGator will help you to migrate 3 sites for free if you use this package. And, this is perfect for 500,000 traffics per month.
Along with these, you will get free SSL certificates and automatic daily backups with all the WordPress hosting plans of HostGator.
Bluehost’s WordPress Hosting packages
Bluehost has 3 WordPress hosting packs. And all of them are pretty reasonably priced. In fact, they are modified version of their shared hosting packs. Let’s learn more about these.
- Basic WordPress Pack:
This pack is priced at just 2.95$/monthly. However, you can only use one website with this hosting pack. You will get all the ‘Standard’ features from Bluehost with this pack. You are limited to 50 GB storage as well.
- Plus WordPress Pack:
This pack comes with unlimited storage. And, you can also host multiple domains at once. The price of the second WordPress pack of Bluehost is 5.95$ monthly. You will get both the standard and essential features of Bluehost with this pack.
- Choice Plus WordPress Pack:
If you want to get the best return for your money then this is the plan you are looking for. The price of this plan is similar to the previous one which is 5.95$/mo. But it comes with some extra features which are not included in the Plus pack.
All the standard and essential features are also included with this pack as well. You will get unlimited storage and are allowed to host unlimited websites. It also comes with an automated backup feature.
Our thoughts:
In this case, we see that the prices of the HostGator plans are higher than the Bluehost ones. Also, Bluehost is offering unlimited website hosting facility on two of their WordPress plans. In contrast, HostGator has limitations on all of their WordPress hosting plans.
Again, HostGator is offering free migrations whereas Bluehost isn’t. Thus, we can say that the competition here is neck and neck. However, if you want to host unlimited websites then you should go with Bluehost. But, if you have just 1 to 3 websites, then you should go with HostGator as they are offering special servers for their customers.
Comparison of the Performances
So far, we have talked about the packages of these hosting companies. Now, we will try to find out details about their performance. To make sure we have got the most accurate result, we will be conducting 2 tests.
At first, we will be using Pingdom to test the load time of these two hosting providers. Later, we will try to find out the server response time of them. On both of these cases, we will be using two different websites as the test subject. One is hosted on Bluehost and another one is hosted on HostGator. That way, we’ll get the perfect and accurate result.
Page speed test (Pingdom) on Bluehost:
This speed test will be conducted via the San Francisco test server of Pingdom.
The Result:
So the Load Time of the site hosted on Bluehost was only 887 ms. It is very good.
Page speed test (Pingdom) on HostGator:
For this one, we will be using the San Francisco test server again.
The Test Result:
Now, we can see that the load time is now 824 ms. It is actually quite good.
Our Opinion:
The thing is it is better if the load time is lower. If the load time is low that means your site is taking less time to load on the browser of a visitor. From our test, we can see that both of these hosting companies have a low load time. However, HostGator actually had lower load time than Bluehost. That means, HostGator is the winner here.
Server Response Test on HostGator:
Now, we will be performing a server response test. To do this, we will use Bitcatcha website. They have 8 test servers all over the world. After the test, we will be able to know the server response time of the test website from those locations. First, we will conduct this test on a website which is hosted on HostGator.
The Result:
Server Response Test on Bluehost:
Now, it’s time to test Bluehost’s server response time.
The Result:
Our thoughts:
Again, we have to tell you that it is better if the server response time is lower. To be honest, both of these hosting companies actually performed equally in this instance. For example, they have achieved ‘A’ on the performance grade. And, all of the server response time from the 8 locations are also identical for them. So, we would call it a draw for now.
Comparison between the Uptime Performances
Now, we will be comparing the uptime performance of HostGator and Bluehost. If you go to the official website of these hosting providers, you will see that they are telling that they have 99%+ uptime. And, if that’s true then this is very good. However, in reality, most of the time they claim deceptively.
So to know the actual uptime record, we have bought two hosting accounts with each of them. And then we have hosted two websites on each of them. Since then we have been keeping the track of the uptime record of them.
By doing that, now we know the actual uptime stat of Bluehost and HostGator. So, we will be sharing the information down below for our readers.
The Uptime performance of HostGator:
The Uptime performance of Bluehost:
Our thoughts on this:
Again, it is very hard to compare these two stats. Because each of them is so close to each other. Luckily, that’s actually a very good sign. For instance, we see that both Bluehost and HostGator kept 99%+ uptime on almost every month.
Here, we are only sharing the uptime record of the last 10 months. During that period, the uptime was at 100% on some of the moths too. Even before that their performance was identical.
We are very pleased with the uptime of these two hosting companies. You can see for yourself that both of them kept the industry-standard uptime record on a consistent basis. So, we would say that there’s no problem if you choose either of these companies based on the uptime record.
Comparison between the Support Services
HostGator Customer Support:
HostGator has made it simple to contact them anytime you are in need of assistance. You don’t even need to be an active customer of theirs to get in touch with them. They are available 24/7/365. You can connect them via either of these methods — Fax, Email, Live Chat, Phone call, Tickets etc.
Every time we have contacted HostGator we were very satisfied with their service. All of their customer care representatives were very helpful. But most importantly they were highly professional. They knew all the ins and outs of web hosting. So, they can easily find the solution to any problems so fast.
That’s not all. HostGator, in fact, has a huge collection of technical videos and articles regarding web hosting. All of these are available on the support page of their website and on their official YouTube channel for free. So, anybody can learn from those knowledge base articles and videos.
Overall, we can highly recommend their customer service. You too can contact them to get the experience yourself. And, we can guarantee that you will also like their service.
Bluehost Customer Support:
Similarly, we don’t have anything bad to say about Bluehost. They are very good at serving their customers. You can find them 24/7/365 as well. And the methods to contact them are — Live Chat, Phone call, Email, Tickets etc.
You can contact them even if you are not their customer. For the people who don’t like to wait in a virtual queue, you can take advantage of the knowledge base articles and videos on their support page. Those are free for everybody regardless of being their customer or not. They also have an FAQ section which is organized based on categories. So, you can easily find the solution to your problem just by searching on the FAQ page.
Typically, you would get a response from them as soon as possible. However, sometimes, you might need to wait for more than a couple of minutes. Other than that, everything is perfect about Bluehost Customer Service. They are also highly skilled and super-friendly. You will like their service too.
Last Words: Who is the Winner here?
It was an even-steven competition. But there is a winner here. And, from our point of view, it is clearly HostGator. However, Bluehost is not that bad. In fact, they are one of the best alternatives to HostGator. So, it won’t be a bad thing if you go with Bluehost.
But, if you want the best performance and best service then the ultimate winner is HostGator. In most cases, HostGator actually has cheap packages but with more features. Added to that, HostGator actually is offering very high-end specifications on all of their hosting plans.
Again, in terms of performance, HostGator was better than Bluehost. For instance, the site hosted on HostGator had low load time compared to the site hosted on Bluehost. On top of all these, HostGator also is maintaining industry-standard uptime consistently. As a result, we can easily say that HostGator is the best option compared to Bluehost.
