Bluehost and HostGator are some of the most well-known web hosting companies available for a good reason. Not only are they affordable for just about any budget, but they also provide services that are worth every cent.
How much value for money you’re getting from each one is a different story, though. At that, we compare the two to help you in making a decision between them.
Bluehost vs Hostgator Comparison Chart
| Name | Bluehost | HostGator |
| Â |  |  |
| Price | Check Price at Bluehost.com | Check Price at HostGator.com |
| Websites | Basic: 1 Plus: unlimited Choice Plus: unlimited Pro: unlimited | Hatchling: 1 Baby: unlimited Business: unlimited |
| Disk Space | Basic: 50 GB Plus: unlimited Choice Plus: unlimited Pro: unlimited | Unlimited |
| Bandwidth | Unmetered | Unmetered |
| Control Panel | cPanel | cPanel |
| Free Domain | Yes | Yes |
| SSL Certificate | Free | Free |
| Backup | Daily (Choice Plus and Pro only) | Weekly |
| Microsoft 365 (one free during trial only, excluding Basic; pay-per-account basis) | Unlimited | |
| Ad Credits | $200 (all plans except Basic) | $200 |
| Website Migration | Paid | Free |
| Support | 24/7 chat, phone, email | 24/7 chat, phone, email |
| Money-Back Guarantee | 30 days | 45 days |
Performance
You can get speedier server response times with Bluehost.
In terms of speed, Bluehost delivers fast server response times, and by the same token, that equates to fast loading times for your website. This is important because visitors will likely click away if things take too long to load on your page. In comparison, HostGator performs slower in general.
However, both have excellent uptime rates, averaging at 99.98 percent. That says a lot, considering that they’re shared hosting services.
Security
Both lag behind in security compared to other competitors, unless you pay extra.
Even though it’s one of the most important factors in web hosting, security is where most service providers skimp on to offer plans on a budget. As a result, features to keep your website safe are sold as add-ons to keep subscription prices down.
Both Bluehost and HostGator are guilty of this, but they do throw in SiteLock Lite with every plan. At first, that might sound like a good thing. You’ll get malware detection and stay out of search engine blacklists at the same time, but it’s limited. You can only scan up to five pages of your website, for example. In fact, it’s so lacking that it feels more like a tactic to push you to avail the premium version, almost like an upsell. For the record, all their plans come with a free SSL certificate, so there’s that.
Now one advantage that HostGator has is it offers weekly backups. But if you want a more robust solution on either service, you’ll have to avail CodeGuard Basic for automatic backups, which is also a paid add-on—surprise, surprise.
Features
HostGator’s cheapest plan has more to offer than Bluehost’s counterpart.
Both offer similar features across the board, but HostGator ups the ante by giving you more for every cent you pay. For instance, its Hatchling plan costs less than Bluehost’s Basic. Despite that, it comes with unlimited storage, email addresses, and subdomains as opposed to 50 GB of space, Microsoft 365 email accounts paid individually, and only 25 subdomains. Long story short, HostGator shows that affordable doesn’t mean cheap.
When it comes to website builders, Bluehost does beat HostGator. It offers access to Weebly across its plans, but the Gator Website Builder requires you to sign up for a separate paid subscription.
Customer Support
HostGator’s representatives are generally better at dealing with issues.
You can get in touch with either web hosting service via 24/7 live chat, phone, and email. In other words, they got all the usual bases covered.
However, the overall quality of support is where things start to become drastically different. First off, Bluehost is pretty infamous for its mediocre customer service, and it unfortunately lives up to its name. That said, you can expect long response times via chat, even when you’re just trying to get a simple problem resolved. On the other hand, HostGator’s agents typically know their stuff and can find a solution to your issue in a jiffy.
Both do have an extensive library of support articles and video tutorials, so you can always take a whack at working out a fix for any hiccup you encounter yourself. On that note, HostGator boasts having over 500 videos and 680 articles, so you’ll almost always find a guide that caters specifically to your issue.
Verdict
HostGator can deliver where it counts.
The two are decent web hosting services in their own right. However, Bluehost has the edge on the performance front, providing faster server response times and page loading speeds. Meanwhile, HostGator has better customer support, and its plans have better value for money. Neither one will win any awards when it comes to security, though.
FAQs
Yes, both services are under Endurance International Group or EIG.
Yes. To begin with, all of Bluehost’s plans come with a free SSL certificate and SiteLock Lite, and its pricier subscriptions include Spam Experts and CodeGuard Basic. However, you’ll have to avail SiteLock Premium as an add-on if you want a more comprehensive security measure.
Yes. For starters, HostGator offers a 45-day money-back guarantee, beating most competitors. It also has an uptime average of 99.8 percent and excellent customer support.
Just like other popular web hosting providers such as Bluehost, HostGator also uses cPanel.
