Two of the most established and recognizable cheap web hosting providers are BlueHost and HostGator. Both of these companies offer some of the best web hosting around yet there are some great differences when looking closing at BlueHost vs HostGator.
Choosing between BlueHost or HostGator can be difficult but if you know what you want, then the decision of HostGator vs BlueHost isn’t difficult. We have used both of these cheap web hosting providers and put our thoughts on both BlueHost and HostGator down on paper!
In this BlueHost vs HostGator review, we are going to give you a ton of information. Information that will consist of not only pricing for both hosts, but also their features. Features that can sway you from one side to the other when looking at BlueHost or HostGator. While we are going to list a winner in this HostGator vs BlueHost review, you will have to make the tough decision on which one of these hosts to choose based off your needs.
Host History of BlueHost and HostGator
Matt Heaton and Danny Ashworth came up with the idea of BlueHost in the early 2000’s. They did what a lot of entrepreneurs do, they started small and did a lot of grunt work. While both Matt and Danny believed in this small Provo, Utah company, their wildest dreams wouldn’t even have taken them to where they are today! BlueHost has become of the biggest web hosting companies in the industry.
Matt and Danny eventually sold their business to the Endurance International Group in 2010. While a lot of times this could be treacherous, this was a great move for BlueHost. EIG has over 750 employees and that vast group of employees has continued to move BlueHost in a positive direction.
If you have ever looked up web hosting, you are surely to have seen the alligator logo. Yes, that is HostGator. Back in 2002, Brent Oxley was sitting in his dorm room and started HostGator. While it started slow for HostGator, within the first year of HostGator it went from 112 customers to over 1,031 customers.
Soon after that HostGator started to really expand. In 2006, HostGator needed to expand so they opened a second office in Toronto. There were a lot of technical benefits for HostGator moving to Canada but we aren’t going to bore you with those details in our BlueHost vs HostGator review.
While the Toronto office for HostGator web hosting was starting to take shape, Brent had outgrown his little office in Florida. It was time for HostGator to move to Houston, Texas! Not only are the homes big in Texas, but so were the HostGator goals.
By 2009, HostGator had over 200,000 customers. It was truly becoming one of the best web hosting companies around. It continued to grow and in 2012 Endurance International Group purchased HostGator. EIG has taken HostGator to new levels just like they have taken to BlueHost to higher levels.
BlueHost Pricing vs HostGator Pricing
When you look at the BlueHost price, you have to make sure you are looking at the exact type of web hosting you need. BlueHost pricing varies based on the features and type of web hosting you need.
Perhaps the most common type of BlueHost web hosting is their shared web hosting. This is where almost all of our readers take advantage of our BlueHost coupon and save a lot of money!
The normal BlueHost price ranges from $7.99 a month to $14.99 a month for shared web hosting. That isn’t a bad price but using a BlueHost promo like ours will knock the BlueHost price down to $2.99 a month! That is a great BlueHost price.
Just like all the other web hosting companies, this BlueHost price is only for your initial term. That is why we always recommend that you purchase a three year plan. If you only purchase a one year plan, you have to renew at the normal BlueHost price. Like we said, this is not unique to BlueHost. Save money and get the lowest BlueHost price you can for the longest period of time.
Included in the BlueHost $2.99 price is a ton of features that you get to run a successful blog or website. You get a free domain name, unmetered bandwidth, five email accounts, and many tools to create a perfect website.
If you are looking for VPS hosting or dedicated web hosting, BlueHost offers that as well. The BlueHost pricing for VPS hosting starts at $19.99 a month and goes up to $59.99 a month. The main differences in the three BlueHost VPS hosting plans are the amount of SSD storage and RAM you get.
The BlueHost price for dedicated hosting starts at $79.99 a month and goes up to $119.99 a month. Similar to the BlueHost VPS plans, the difference in the BlueHost pricing for dedicated servers is based off the amount of storage and RAM you need.
HostGator has three shared web hosting plans to choose from. The HostGator price is very comparable to the BlueHost price. The HostGator pricing for shared web hosting ranges from $2.75 a month to $5.95 a month. That is when use a HostGator coupon to save about 60% off the normal HostGator price.
For the HostGator $2.75 price, you get one hosted domain, unmetered bandwidth, and several one click installs for your website. As you get into the more expensive HostGator prices, you get more features such as a dedicated IP address, anonymous FTP, and the ability to have a private SSL certificate.
The HostGator price for VPS hosting starts at $19.95 a month and goes up to $$39.95 a month. That’s a good price for VPS hosting but that is the HostGator promo price. You save about 75% off the normal HostGator price for their VPS hosting when using a HostGator coupon code.
The HostGator pricing for dedicated servers is on the high side when you compare HostGator vs BlueHost pricing. The promo HostGator price starts at $119.00 a month and goes up to $149.00 a month. This is for either Linux or Windows OS.
HostGator Support vs BlueHost Support
When choosing a web hosting company you need to look closely at the customer support you get. We took a very close look at it when comparing BlueHost vs HostGator. In fact, we have used both the BlueHost support and HostGator support.
When you choose HostGator and BlueHost, you free customer support. The HostGator support is very similar to the BlueHost support. Both of them offer four main types of customer support; Toll free, live chat, user forums, and video tutorials.
Toll free support: The toll free HostGator support number is 1-866-96-GATOR. If you need to call the BlueHost support line the number is 1-855-803-8158. Both the HostGator customer support and BlueHost customer support lines are staffed 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.
Perhaps one of the best features in the HostGator support system and the BlueHost support system is their live chat feature. Both of them use the same live chat plugin which is very easy for you to get help in. All you have to do is enter your name, billing username, and password. From that point you can login and start getting live chat support. The BlueHost support is very quick to respond which we love.
Often times you don’t want to talk to people or just need a quick answer. That is where the HostGator forum and BlueHost forum come into play. There are hundreds of tutorials on both of these cheap web hosting providers website. You can get help on anything from installing WordPress to adding a new domain to your web hosting account.
There are some people who just need to see things to get a good grasp on it. The BlueHost videos and HostGator videos do just that. They hold your hand and walk you through a variety of topics.
BlueHost WordPress Hosting vs HostGator WordPress Hosting
One of the hottest and smartest trends in web hosting is the use of WordPress. WordPress is a powerful open source content management system. What does that mean to the average webmaster? Quite simply it means a very easy way to manage your website on the administration side.
Using WordPress gives you access to many different themes and plugins. This means you have the ability to customize your website very easily. Installing the plugins and themes is done on your administration page. Additionally, BlueHost WordPress hosting and HostGator WordPress hosting are faster than their shared web hosting. That means your page will load faster.
Both BlueHost and HostGator offer WordPress hosting. It’s important to know that shared web hosting will work on WordPress websites, but using the BlueHost WordPress hosting or HostGator WordPress hosting has some added features to make your WordPress hosting experience better.
When looking at the BlueHost WordPress options you will find they offer four plans to choose from. The WP Standard, WP Enhanced, WP Premium, and WP Ultimate. The most popular BlueHost WordPress hosting plan is the BlueHost WP Standard. This is a solid, starter WordPress hosting plan. You can run a ton of stuff on this BlueHost WordPress plan. You can have up to 100 million visits per month on your website!
When it comes to the BlueHost WordPress price, you will pay $19.99 a month for the WP Standard plan and up to $49.99 a month for the WP Ultimate plan. The main difference between the four BlueHost WordPress hosting plans are the number of visits you are allotted, storage, backup, and RAM you get with each plan. All of the BlueHost WordPress hosting plans come with a free domain, 1 IP address, 30-day money back guarantee, the cPanel control panel, and a SSL certificate.
The HostGator WordPress hosting plans are gaining popularity due to their pricing. The HostGator WordPress hosting plans start at $5.95 a month and go up to $9.95 a month. While the HostGator WordPress hosting plans are cheaper than the BlueHost WordPress hosting plans, you do have some lower thresholds on key features.
For instance, on the HostGator Starter Plan you only get 100,000 visits per month. On the HostGator Business plan you still only get 500,000 visits per month. That is one of the differences between the three HostGator WordPress hosting plans. The only differences include the number of sites you can host and the number of backups.
Control Panels of BlueHost & HostGator
Earlier in this BlueHost vs HostGator review, we said they had a lot of similarities. One of those is that they both use the cPanel control panel. The BlueHost cPanel control panel and the HostGator cPanel control panel are two of the best control panels you can use. A lot of companies will try to cut corners and use a knock off. Both of the control panels of BlueHost and HostGator are the original cPanel!
The cPanel control panel is very easy to use. It has been around since 1996 and is constantly being updated to include better features. The BlueHost cPanel and HostGator cPanel are used on all their types of web hosting. That is a nice feature. No matter if you choose shared hosting, VPS hosting, or Dedicated hosting, you are going to get the cPanel control panel.
Inside the BlueHost control panel you will have access to the guts of your web hosting plan. This is where you can access the BlueHost MOJO marketplace, add email accounts, add MQSQL databases and much more. Navigating around the BlueHost control panel is easy and you don’t need to be an expert.
Just like the BlueHost control panel, once you log into the HostGator control panel you can do just about anything. Navigating around the HostGator control panel is simple because of the easy to read layout. The HostGator cPanel is really about making the users experience as easy as it can be while providing a powerful control panel.
BlueHost Add-ons & Upgrades
As we said in the above paragraph, once you get into your BlueHost cPanel, you will have access to many things. There are a lot of BlueHost offers that aren’t included in their standard plans that you may wish to add on. These BlueHost add-ons or as some call them, BlueHost upgrades, aren’t needed for everybody. That is why you can purchase these BlueHost upgrades as you need them.
There are many BlueHost add-on’s to choose from that have the ability to take your website to the next level! Here are most common BlueHost Add-ons and Upgrades:
Bluehost SEO Tools- Starting at $5.95 per month
BlueHost Domain Privacy – .99 cents a month
BlueHost SSL certificates- $4.17 a month
BlueHost G Suite- $5.00 per month
BlueHost MOJO Marketplace Themes- Starting at $25.00
HostGator Add-ons & Upgrades
The HostGator add-ons and HostGator upgrades are accessed in the HostGator control panel. While most people tend to think of the HostGator upgrades being their hosting plan, it also deals with the plugins and programs you can have. Here are 5 HostGator Add-ons and Upgrades:
HostGator CodeGuard Basic- Starting at $1.67 a month
HostGator Weebly- Free!
HostGator dedicated IP address- $5.99 per month
HostGator SpamExperts- $2.99 per month
HostGator domain registration- Starting at .95 cents per month
BlueHost eCommerce vs HostGator eCommerce
Running an eCommerce website is important if you are relying on that income to survive! As brick and mortal stores go out of business, online shopping is becoming more and more popular. If you want to survive in this industry, you need to have the best eCommerce web hosting you can.
The BlueHost eCommerce web hosting is great. Not only do you have all the standard features that BlueHost offers, but you have access to a lot of eCommerce tools that are needed. People tend to think the BlueHost eCommerce hosting is easy to use and we agree!
When using the BlueHost eCommerce hosting plan, also known as the BlueHost WooCommerce hosting, you get a ton of features at a great price. You can have BlueHost eCommerce hosting for as little as $6.95 a month! The BlueHost eCommerce hosting combines two great things: WordPress and WooCommerce. Between the two of these you get a very secure web hosting platform that will allow you to safely process payments online.
In addition to the basic BlueHost eCommerce hosting plan, you can get some BlueHost upgrades that are directly related to BlueHost eCommerce hosting. You can use the BlueHost pay per click marketing team to help get visitors to your site. You can get a premium BlueHost SSL certificate for as low $4.17 a month. No matter how you want to customize your BlueHost WooCommerce plan, you can!
The HostGator eCommerce hosting consists of using the HostGator add-ons and HostGator upgrades. There is no true HostGator eCommerce hosting plan like BlueHost. With that being said, you can still use any of the HostGator web hosting plans for your HostGator eCommerce needs. Simply go to your control panel and pick the HostGator upgrades you need.
Conclusion
Wrapping up this BlueHost vs HostGator review, we can say that both of these cheap web hosting companies are some of the best you will find. While we do have a clear winner in our minds when choosing between BlueHost or HostGator, the final decision is up to you and should be based on your needs!
With regards to the BlueHost price and HostGator price, they both score a 4 out of 5. No matter what type of web hosting you choose when looing at HostGator or BlueHost, they offer some of the best web hosting pricing around.
Scoring the BlueHost customer support and the HostGator customer support is pretty easy. They both offer you the same thing! The BlueHost support and HostGator support both score a 5 out of 5. As we said earlier in this HostGator vs BlueHost review, you have so many options when it comes to customer support that it is awesome.
When you look at the BlueHost WordPress hosting and the HostGator WordPress hosting, you will find they are different. The BlueHost WordPress hosting plans score a 4 out of 5. The HostGator WordPress hosting only scores a 3 out of 5. The main difference in the BlueHost WordPress and the HostGator WordPress comes down to the amount of traffic you get in the plan. It is always better to have more traffic allotted amount than not enough.
The BlueHost control panel and HostGator control panel both score a 5 out of 5 since they each use the cPanel control panel.
Both BlueHost and HostGator score a 5 out of 5 for their add-on’s and upgrades. Both companies give you the ability to add-on a lot of plug ins in the marketplace. This is a great way to make your site a one of a kind!
Perhaps the one area in this HostGator vs BlueHost review that we can say there is a major difference is the eCommerce hosting aspect of it. BlueHost has designed a plan just for eCommerce hosting while HostGator doesn’t. They both off you a ton of eCommerce hosting tools to choose from but having the eCommerce platform already built like BlueHost offers is great. The BlueHost eCommerce hosting scores a 4 out of 5 while the HostGator eCommerce hosting scores a 3 out of 5.
Overall, BlueHost web hosting scores a 27 out of 30 compared to HostGator web hosting scoring a 25 out of 30. In our BlueHost vs HostGator review, BlueHost is the winner. It’s hard to beat out a company like BlueHost with all their features and the amazing BlueHost coupon that we have to offer you!
