Liquid Web vs Bluehost
Liquid Web and Bluehost compared on measured uptime, response time, pricing and features from our own tests. Liquid Web scores higher overall.
By Jennifer T. · Updated
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Verdict
Liquid WebWins overall
Lansing's managed host since 1997: WordPress plans from $9 with Cloudflare edge CDN and a 100% network SLA, no refunds
Newfold's WordPress-recommended host: three shared tiers on 36-month terms, weekly backups, a 5 percent SLA coupon
Liquid Web wins 2 of the six sub-scores and comes out ahead overall (7.7 vs 7.6).
How do the scores compare?
Liquid Web leads on 2 sub-scores, Bluehost on 2. Higher is better.
| Liquid Web | Bluehost | |
|---|---|---|
| Performance | 7.5 | 7.5 |
| Uptime | 8.0 | 8.0 |
| Support | 8.0 (better) | 7.0 |
| Features | 8.5 (better) | 7.5 |
| Value | 7.0 | 7.5 (better) |
| Ease of use | 7.5 | 8.5 (better) |
Which one is faster and more reliable?
| Liquid Web | Bluehost | |
|---|---|---|
| Overall score | 7.7 (better) | 7.6 |
| Uptime (published)HostingStep 365 d vs HostingStep 243 d; methods differ | 99.99% (better) | 99.97% |
| Response time (published)HostingStep vs HostingStep; methods differ | 496 ms (better) | 501 ms |
Which one costs less?
On renewal, Liquid Web is cheaper ($9.00/mo vs $9.99/mo). Intro prices need the listed term.
| Liquid Web | Bluehost | |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest plan | Essentials WordPress | Starter |
| Intro price | $9.00/mo | $3.99/mo (better) |
| Renewal price | $9.00/mo (better) | $9.99/mo |
| Required term | 1 months (better) | 36 months |
| Websites | 1 | 10 |
| Storage | 15 GB | 10 GB |
| Money back | 0 days | 30 days (better) |
What does each include?
| Liquid Web | Bluehost | |
|---|---|---|
| Free domain | No | First year, with a 12-month or 36-month term |
| Free SSL | Free SSL certificates on the WordPress plans | Let's Encrypt |
| Backups | Daily backups kept 7, 14 or 30 days by tier; Acronis backup storage on managed VPS | Weekly website backups on every shared plan |
| Free migration | A self-serve migration tool and migration by a person on every WordPress plan | Site migration tool |
| Free CDN | Edge CDN powered by Cloudflare on every WordPress plan; CDN overage is usage-billed | Not stated |
| Caching | Object Cache Pro on every WordPress plan | Advanced static content caching and object caching |
| Staging | Staging sites with visual comparison on Pro and Elite; not on Essentials | WordPress staging site on every plan |
| Security | DDoS protection, WAF, Kadence Security Pro and daily malware scans on every plan; Patchstack virtual patching on Elite | Malware scanning on Starter; AI malware removal, web application firewall and DDoS protection from Business |
| Resource limits | WordPress plans are sized by visitors (50,000 a month on the entry tiers), shared storage and bandwidth; managed VPS plans state vCPU, RAM, SSD and bandwidth | Not stated |
| Data center choice | Lansing, Phoenix, Ashburn and Amsterdam, selected on the purchase screen where a plan offers it | Not stated |
| Uptime guarantee | 100% network uptime in the SLA with credits up to the monthly charge, claimed within days of an outage; the managed VPS page states 99.9% server uptime | 99.99% SLA; at most one coupon per month for 5% of the monthly hosting fee |
| Managed VPS | Fully managed from $72 a month for 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 80 GB SSD and 3 TB; cPanel, InterWorx or Plesk; Windows available | Not stated |
| Phone support | 24/7 by phone, chat and ticket | Business and above; Starter has chat only |
| Windows hosting | On VPS and dedicated servers | No |
| CDN | Not stated | Yes |
| SSH and WP-CLI | Not stated | Yes |
| Choice of data center | Not stated | Region selected at checkout (North America, South America, Europe, Asia) |
Company facts
| Liquid Web | Bluehost | |
|---|---|---|
| Control panel | Liquid Web's own platform for WordPress plans; cPanel, InterWorx or Plesk on VPS | Bluehost account manager with cPanel |
| Data centers | 4 (better) | 2 |
| Support channels | chat, phone, ticket, knowledge-base | chat, phone, knowledge-base |
| Founded | 1997 | 2003 |