Bluehost vs HostGator
Bluehost and HostGator compared on measured uptime, response time, pricing and features from our own tests. Bluehost scores higher overall.
By Jennifer T. · Updated
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Verdict
BluehostWins overall
Newfold's WordPress-recommended host: three shared tiers on 36-month terms, weekly backups, a 5 percent SLA coupon
Newfold's Texas-born cPanel host: four shared tiers on a 36-month term with a free domain, Cloudflare CDN and staging
Bluehost wins 3 of the six sub-scores and comes out ahead overall (7.6 vs 7.4).
How do the scores compare?
Bluehost leads on 3 sub-scores, HostGator on 0. Higher is better.
Which one is faster and more reliable?
Which one costs less?
On renewal, Bluehost is cheaper ($9.99/mo vs $10.99/mo). Intro prices need the listed term.
What does each include?
| Bluehost | HostGator | |
|---|---|---|
| Free domain | First year, with a 12-month or 36-month term | First year on every plan; $22.99 is deducted from a refund if you cancel within the year |
| Free SSL | Let's Encrypt | Let's Encrypt, auto-renewed |
| Backups | Weekly website backups on every shared plan | Weekly courtesy backups, restorable with one click; the terms call them a courtesy, so keep your own |
| Staging | WordPress staging site on every plan | WordPress staging site on every plan |
| Free migration | Site migration tool | A free site migration tool is listed on the plan cards; the comparison table on the same page says paid migration is available |
| CDN | Yes | Not stated |
| Caching | Advanced static content caching and object caching | Static content caching and object caching on every plan; the feature list names an NGINX caching layer |
| SSH and WP-CLI | Yes | Not stated |
| Security | Malware scanning on Starter; AI malware removal, web application firewall and DDoS protection from Business | Malware scanning, AI-powered detection and removal from Baby up, web application firewall, DDoS protection, DDoS scrub center |
| Phone support | Business and above; Starter has chat only | Baby, Business and Pro; Hatchling is chat only |
| Uptime guarantee | 99.99% SLA; at most one coupon per month for 5% of the monthly hosting fee | The plan page says 99 percent; the terms we read contain no uptime clause or credit schedule |
| Choice of data center | Region selected at checkout (North America, South America, Europe, Asia) | Not stated |
| Windows hosting | No | No |
| Free CDN | Not stated | Cloudflare with Argo routing on every plan |
| SSH and languages | Not stated | SSH, WP-CLI, cron, PHP 8.2, Ruby on Rails, Perl, Python, unlimited MySQL and SFTP users |
| Resource limits | Not stated | No |
| Data center choice | Not stated | No |
| Not stated | Unlimited POP3 and IMAP mailboxes with SpamAssassin; Pro Email is a paid product after a free trial |