Sometimes it becomes very difficult when you have two choices and both are good but you can only choose one. In this situation a detailed comparison between both helps taking a decision. The same happened with of our reader when he find it difficult to choose a hosting provider from Hostgator and Bluehost. He contacts us and asked us if Hostgator or Bluehost will be a right choice for him to host their website which was built on Linux platform. We perform a detailed comparison Bluehost Vs Hostgator and suggest him the right host for their website. Below are our finding about Bluehost Vs Hostgator hosting.
Bluehost Vs Hostgator – A Detailed Comparison Analysis
Below are the features that we compare for both of the hosts. On some points Hostgator Wins and on some other points Bluehost take the crown. Read the finding carefully to choose one between the two.
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| Price (On Yearly Billing) | $7.46 per month (Baby Plan) | $6.95 per month |
| Monthly Plans | Monthly Plans Available | Only Yearly Plans |
| Hosted Domains | Over 9 Millions | Over 2 Millions |
| Hosting Trial | Available With Coupon MY1CENTOFFER | No trial offer |
| 1 Click Install Library | 75+ Free Scripts | Mojo Library |
| Server Space | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Bandwidth | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Uptime | 99.9% | Not Written On Website |
| Money Back Guarantee | 45 Days | 30 Days |
| Email Accounts | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Add-On Domain | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Free Domain Name | No | 1 Free for 1 Year |
| Website Migration | FREE | $99.99 (Optional)* |
| Free Advertising Offers | $100+ | $200+ |
| Web Site Builder | FREE | FREE |
| Support Via Toll Free Number | Available With Business Plan | Not Available |
| Support Via Twitter | Yes | Yes |
| Chat & Phone Support | Available | Available |
| SSH Access | Available | Available |
| Off Site Backups | Available | Available |
| Full Backup Restoration | $15 Fee | Free |
| Private SSL | NO (But Available Free with Business Plan) | Not Available |
| Dedicated IP | NO (But Available Free with Business Plan) | Not Available |
| Discount Coupon | 25% Discount : HOSTGATOR25DISC | Not Available |
| Check More Features | Check More Features |
Server Uptime
Server uptime is one of the most important factors someone should consider while buying a hosting space. Hosts which get frequent down time should always be avoided even if they are offering you a hosting package at a very low price. Thanks to Hostgator & Bluhost advanced hosting technology which helps website get a higher uptime. Hostgator offer a 99.9% server uptime guarantee but we didn’t find any such guarantee written on Bluehost’s website. In this section we’ll give higher marks to Hostgator for confidently written the uptime Guarantee on home page.
Customer Support
Customer support is backbone of a shared hosting service. Without good customer support someone can’t do anything in case of any critical issue you face with your hosting service. Bluehost and Hostgator both offer good customer support through Phone, Chat, Live Chat & Twitter. If you subscribe to Hostgator’s Business hosting plan you’ll also get a toll free number to call on for support which Bluehost doesn’t provide. It is almost a tie between Bluehost & Hostgator in this section.
Performance
To test the performance of Bluehost & Hostgator servers we perform a test using a popular server speed test tool available on http://www.vertain.com/?sst . We took 2 websites, one hosted with Bluehost & second hosted with Hostgator. The test were performed on a 10 Mbps connection. We find the website which was hosted with Bluehost just took only 2.81 second to load but the website which was hosted with Hostgator took 5.70 second to load which is almost double. In this section Bluehost is a clear winner. Find below the screenshot of the test.
Bluehost Speed Test
Hostgator Speed Test
Migration From Other Hosting Provider
Most of the people search for a new host when they are finds themselves unsatisfied with their current hosting provider. I’ve seen people find the time difficult when they are asked to transfer their website by themselves by any host. Although if you’re using a cPanel on your existing hosting you can migrate your site with few clicks to Hostgator & Bluehost but still if you want Hostgator or Bluehost here is what you should know. Hostgator do the migration work free of cost but Bluehost charge for it. Bluehost Migration service cost $99.99, In which they migrate up to 5 websites and 20 email accounts. In this section Hostgator is a winner.
Hosting Trial
To ensure you’ve chosen a right host, a hosting trial is best way to judge the services. There are very few hosting providers which offer a trial before you buy. Hostgator offer such facility to its customer, on the other hand Bluehost doesn’t provide a trial. You can avail Hostgator Trial for one month in just 1 CENT on Hatchling and Baby plan using the coupon code MY1CENTOFFER. Here is a detailed step by step guide to avail this offer. In this section Hostgator is a clear winner.
Ease To Use
Both Hostgator and Bluehost offer cPanel with their shared web hosting services with WHM support. Using the panel you can manage FTP’s, Email’s, Websites, Script Installations and everything you require to manage a website. cPanel is world’s most popular & easy control panel for Linux hosting. In this section we’ll give equal marks to both of these hosting providers.
Freebies
Everyone loves freebies and i love them too. Hostgator web hosting comes with $100 Google Adword coupon which you can use to advertise your business on Google. On the other hand Bluehost offer $200+ advertising coupons from Google, Facebook & Bing. The additional advantage of buying a Hosting package from BlueHost is that you also get a Free Domain name for 1 year of your choice. In this section BlueHost win the race.
Additional Discount
Hostgator known for its discount offers. On some special occasions like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, President Day etc it offer up to 50% discount but on normal days you can avail a flat 25% discount on any of the hosting services offered by Hostgator using the coupon HOSTGATOR25DISC
On the other hand Bluehost don’t offer any such discount coupon although if you’re considering to buy a hosting package from Bluehost for 3 years, you can use the following link to get it at $4.95/Month.
The Verdict : Time to Announce A Winner
The fight is really tough but still only only one could be the winner. Higher up time, Longer money back guarantee, a free 30 days trial and free migration makes Hostgator a clear winner. Although you can still choose Bluehost for your hosting requirements as it is also very good web hosting company and we strongly recommend to our readers. So now it is your turn to make a decision. We’ve tried our level best to compare each and important aspect that we believe everyone should consider while buying a web hosting for website.