You’re probably here because you’re finding it hard to choose a hosting service provider, especially when you have two options in mind – Bluehost and Hostinger.
If affordability and reliability are at the top of your priorities, then both Hostinger and Bluehost is your best bet. These two hosting service providers offer their users a ton of packages, full of perks that any web-savvy would want.
In this comparison between Bluehost and Hostinger, we will compare the two host service providers using five categories:
- Features
- Pricing
- Ease of Use
- Support
- Performance
Hostinger vs Bluehost Comparison
Hostinger is one of the hosting service providers anyone would want to host his or her site without compromising some of the critical web hosting features such as speed and security.
Hostinger is popular because of its cheap web host packages. And even while they offer affordable plans, these packages are fully packed with essential perks to ensure you get value for your money.
On the other hand, Bluehost offers its users unlimited bandwidth, professional email accounts such as [email protected], top-notch customer support, excellent performance, as well as adequate space.
Bluehost is one of the few web hosts that have been recommended by the giant, WordPress.org. The reason why WordPress had to recommend this hosting giant is because of the excellent customer support and scalability the company offers its users. That said, you can reach Bluehost customer support 24/7 via phone call or email support.
Hostinger Pros
- Affordable web hosting packages.
- It offers free domain name, free SSL certificate, unlimited disk space.
- It offers non-payable daily and weekly backups.
- You have the option to ask for a refund before 30 days elapses.
- Cloud-based SSD for efficient speed and reliability.
- You can double your RAM.
- Hostinger offers free dedicated IPv4, as well as IPv6 address.
Hostinger Cons
- No phone support.
- You may be charged for site migration in some of the plans.
Bluehost Pros
- Bluehost provides its users with a ton of hosting packages to choose from – shared hosting, VPS hosting, cloud hosting, dedicated hosting, WordPress managed hosting.
- As a Bluehost user, you’ll get 24/7 customer support in addition to some valuable resources.
- Money-back guarantee within 30 days.
- The WordPress.org team recommends Bluehost.
- You have the options to take their upsells, which could be of benefit to you like the SEO tools, SiteLock security, CodeGuard backups.
- Offer smooth site migration from the shared packages.
- Have huge discounts when you sign up for the first time.
Bluehost Cons
- Bluehost does not guarantee its users uptime, which means that they’ll not compensate for any unexpected downtime.
- Bluehost charges its users a fee when migrating their sites.
Features
Both of these hosting platforms provide their users with a range of hosting plans, including:
- Shared hosting
- WordPress hosting
- Hostinger offers its users eCommerce hosting
- VPS hosting
- Bluehost provides its users dedicated hosting
In this comparison post, we will center on the shared hosting packages, which both web hosting companies provide for their customers.
Bluehost shared hosting
Bluehost’s shared hosting package comes with a ton of perks and tools useful for running your site. These perks will benefit both small businesses and medium-sized businesses just getting their feet wet. These features include:
- You can host unlimited domains
- Unlimited storage
- Unmetered bandwidth
- Free domain when you sign up for the first time
- Easy WordPress installation
- Free SSL certificate to protect your visitors
- $200 Marketing Credits that includes Google Ads, as well as Bing Ads
If you sign up for Bluehost, rest assured that you will get lots of perks. It would also help if you could note the unlimited resources such as unlimited websites, the storage, as well as the bandwidth.
Hostinger shared plans
The Hostinger shared package is more affordable as compared to Bluehost. But you need to know what features differ, which means you will have to go for a higher package if you need some of the perks offered in Bluehost. Below are some of the features you’ll get with Hostinger shared hosting:
- You are guaranteed a ninety-nine point nine percent uptime
- No charges for site migration
- Free domain
- Unlimited bandwidth for all the packages except single plan
- Quick WordPress installation
- Daily backups
- Free SSL for the business package
We can comfortably say that the 99.9 percent uptime, as well as the free migration service that Hostinger provides its users is the standout point in this category. If you have multiple small sites, Hostinger could be your perfect hosting provider because it ensures that your website is up and running.
Pricing
Here comes the pricing of both, and surprisingly, this is where the decision lies in most people who want to purchase hosting services for their websites.
However, you should expect some upsells because the rates you pay when you first sign up won’t be the same at the renewal stage.
To understand the pricing plans of both hosting providers, let’s start with Bluehost.
Bluehost Pricing
You must have realized that Bluehost pricing plans vary a lot. There are the options of 12, 24, and 36 months when you are signing up. These three have different pricing, and you will get more discount if you choose the 36-month plan.
Bluehost’s WordPress hosting plans start at $2.95 every month for the basic package. The plus package begins at $4.95 every month while the choice plan and the pro plan starts at $5.45 every month and $13.95 per month.
And while you might see that the pricing is monthly, Bluehost will force you to pay the whole amount depending on the plan you have chosen – 12, 24, or 36 months. The best of all is that they have a 30-day money-back guarantee, which means that you can ask for a refund before 30 days elapses if you aren’t satisfied with their services.
Hostinger Pricing
Hostinger is more affordable as compared to Bluehost. You can get your hosting services from $0.80, which is a pretty fair deal if you are on a tight budget.
And like Bluehost, you will have to go for a more extended commitment plan to get more discount. So going with the 48 months will fetch you some better discount rates.
Hostinger, however, offers a monthly plan, which could be tempting to most people. The bad thing about monthly plans is that they are more expensive and could be inconveniencing, especially when things go wrong in a specific month.
Value for Money
We have to be honest with you. Shared hosting is the most affordable hosting provider, and you can be assured to get real value for your money. Bluehost and Hostinger are some of the hosting providers with the most affordable shared hosting plans.
But there’s something you need to understand – how we managed to compare both Bluehost and Hostinger in the category of value for money because the prices you see on the platforms aren’t exactly what you’ll pay. Are we together up to that point?
Let’s be honest again: The prices advertised on every hosting platform are misleading – they tell you the prices “start at.” In reality, these prices are meant to grab your attention, but you will have to commit to a more extended period, such as three years to see the benefit.
For example, you will need to go for the 36-month plan in Bluehost and pay upfront if you want to get the discounted price advertised. On the other hand, you will have to commit to a 48-month plan to get the value for money.
Ease of Use
Ease of use when choosing a hosting provider should be your top priority. It would help if you had a hosting provider that will simplify things for you, so you don’t waste time figuring what to do.
And the good news is that both of these web host platforms are straightforward, and you don’t need any techie skills to use them comfortably.
Bluehost is quite simple to use and even cares more about beginners by including a ton of beginner-friendly functionalities to ensure that your site is set up in the quickest way possible.
Of course, there are a ton of differences between the two web host providers. The first difference is that Hostinger doesn’t provide its users with a control panel, but it has a hPanel, which could be a good substitute.
The second difference centers on the WordPress dashboard. Bluehost provides its users with a useful setup menu, which can help those who are just getting started with WordPress. On the other hand, Hostinger will install WordPress just as it is.
Customer Support
We can confirm that both Hostinger and Bluehost offer their users top-notch customer support, but if you want quicker responses, then you will have to go with Bluehost. But before we conclude, it would help if we started by looking at the customer support of both.
Bluehost Support
Bluehost has a lot to offer its users in terms of customer support. If you’d love to troubleshoot a problem, you will always find a Bluehost support team ready to help you. Below are the customer support options Bluehost has:
- Knowledgebase – Bluehost has a knowledge base center in the form of guides, tutorials, instructions, among others.
- Phone support – You’ll get 24/7 phone support, which allows you to speak with a Bluehost customer support team directly via the phone.
- Live chat – Most people nowadays love live chats because they give instant feedback, and your problem could be solved in a matter of minutes.
If customer support is your top priority, then Bluehost can offer this to you, but how about Hostinger?
Hostinger Support
If we are honest with you, Hostinger’s customer support doesn’t reach the Bluehost level. However, if you need little assistance, then Hostinger will be a good option for you. Below are what they offer in terms of customer support:
- Knowledgebase – Hostinger provides its users with a knowledge base center where users can quickly get help when stuck in the form of tutorials, as well as valuable content pieces.
- Email support – If you have any problem, you can always submit a ticket email where you can submit your problem and one of the Hostinger customer support team will respond to you shortly.
- Live chat – There’s a live chat on Hostinger too. This will be more helpful to you if you need instant feedback.
Sadly, Hostinger has no telephone support, which can limit you, especially if there’s a burning issue you need to be solved immediately.
Performance
Performance is usually the second priority for most website owners when looking for a hosting provider.
That said, you will not want a slow-to-load website or a hosting service provider that will experience so many downtimes because this can affect your business.
Even worse, poor performance can affect your website’s SEO, which can make it harder to gain traction through the content you regularly create.
To give a verdict in terms of performance, we had to test the two hosting providers’ load times using Pingdom, and below are the results we found:
Bluehost:
- Sydney – 3.83s
- San Francisco – 2.94s
- London – 3.33s
- Washington D.C – 2.82s
- Tokyo – 2.92s
Hostinger:
- London – 0.45s
- Tokyo – 1.99s
- Washington D.C – 0.81s
- Sydney – 2.78s
- San Francisco – 1.34s
From these results, you can see that Hostinger produced a faster service loading much faster as compared to Bluehost.
We also made sure to monitor both hosting providers for a week before we came up with this verdict because we didn’t want to miss out on anything or rather mislead you. Bluehost gave us 99.99 percent uptime, while Hostinger produced an uptime of 99.98 percent.
Final Verdict
We can say that Bluehost and Hostinger have much to offer their customers, with each of the hosting providers having its pros and cons. If you want more affordable prices and fast loading, then Hostinger is your best bet.
However, if your top priorities lie in unlimited features such as unlimited websites, unlimited storage, unmetered bandwidth, Bluehost is your best pick.