Bluehost and WordPress are two reliable platforms for creating your website, and both are excellent for beginners since they provide all the tools you need to get it off the ground. However, they’re fundamentally different: Bluehost is more of a web hosting provider, while WordPress is more of a content management system or CMS with hosting.
On one hand, Bluehost is more flexible with plenty of hosting options available, and it allows users to install other CMSes such as Joomla. On the other hand, WordPress is relatively limited and may not be capable enough for certain websites. Its users will also have to make do with its CMS, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. We compare the two on a few key fronts that’ll determine the experience you can expect from them, including features, customization and price.
Bluehost vs WordPress Comparison Chart
| Name | Bluehost Shared WordPress Hosting | WordPress |
| Â |  |  |
| Price | Check Price at Bluehost.com | Check Price at WordPress.com |
| Storage | Basic: 50 GB SSD Plus: Unmetered SSD Choice Plus: Unmetered SSD | Free: 3 GB Personal: 6 GB Premium: 13 GB Business: 200 GB eCommerce: 200 GB |
| Free SSL Certificate | Yes | Yes |
| Free Domain for 1 Year | Yes (all plans) | Yes (all plans except on the free version) |
| 24/7 Support | Yes | Business and eCommerce plans only |
| Free Version | No | Yes |
| Money-Back Guarantee | 30 days | 30 days |
Features
Bluehost subscriptions offer a lot more than WordPress.com’s.
Bluehost has three tiers for its shared WordPress hosting: Basic, Plus and Choice Plus. The entry-level plan includes one website, a free SSL certificate, 50 GB of SSD storage, a free domain for one year, five parked domains and 25 subdomains, email hosting and $200 worth of marketing credit. The next tier ups the ante with unlimited websites, unmetered SSD storage, unlimited parked and subdomains and 30 days of Microsoft 365 Mailbox. Choice Plus has everything Plus has but takes things up a notch with CodeGuard Basic.
For the record, Bluehost also has a one-click WordPress installer and supports automatic WordPress updates.
Meanwhile, WordPress has four paid subscriptions: Personal, Premium, Business and eCommerce. All of these come with a free SSL certificate and Jetpack essential features, even the free version. Storage ranges from 3 GB to 200 GB, and the free-domain-for-one-year offer is only for the Personal plan and up. Support is limited depending on the tier (more on that later), and installing plugins and uploading themes are reserved only for the Business and eCommerce subscriptions.
Hosting
Only Bluehost has a selection of web hosting options.
As mentioned, Bluehost is a web hosting company, while WordPress is a CMS with hosting. That said, it’s no surprise that the former has the edge over the latter here in terms of hosting options.
With Bluehost, you have the choice to go with virtual private server or VPS, dedicated and shared hosting. It even has WordPress-specific offerings, including shared WordPress, managed WordPress and eCommerce hostings.
WordPress may not have a variety in this regard, but at any rate, it’s reliable with a stable uptime north of 99 percent, similar to Bluehost.
It’s also worth mentioning that Bluehost is an officially recommended hosting provider by WordPress.org, meaning even WordPress itself endorses it. Make of that what you will.
Customization
You get free rein over your website’s personalization with Bluehost, even on the cheapest plan.
Bluehost gives users more personalization options, including a custom domain name right off the bat and a personalized email. They also allow their subscribers to install their own plugins and upload their own themes. That applies for all of its plans, even for the cheapest one.
WordPress’s free plan might have seemed tempting so far because of its free SSL certificate and Jetpack essential features—and because it’s free, of course. However, its restrictions when it comes to personalization just don’t make it worthwhile. For starters, you won’t be getting a custom domain name, so your site’s URL will be something like https://sample.wordpress.com. On top of that, there are ads, which you can’t use to earn money with.
Luckily, its most affordable plan Personal will get those things out of the way. However, you still can’t upload themes or install plugins, and you’ll still have WordPress.com branding, unless you cough up the dough for either the Business or eCommerce subscription.
Support
Bluehost provides 24/7 support on all its plans.
Customer support is one of the most important factors in deciding here, and that goes for both beginners and advanced users. Bluehost has excellent 24/7 assistance. Its team responds quickly and offers useful advice, and it even has a huge knowledge base full of helpful articles.
WordPress has decent support, but the thing is, it’s only good if you’re paying for the higher plans. To explain, the free tier doesn’t have any form of support, which isn’t too surprising. To get email support, you’ll have to upgrade to Personal. For live chat support, you’ll have to jump to Premium. Last but not least, you’ll need to be on Business or eCommerce for 24/7 live chat assistance.
The takeaway here is Bluehost has better customer support across the board, and there aren’t any limitations like in WordPress’s plans.
Price
Bluehost doesn’t have a free tier, but WordPress does.
Bluehost subscriptions are generally more affordable than WordPress.com’s counterparts, especially if you take advantage of their promo that shaves a huge chunk off their monthly fees for the first term. Take note that regular rates will apply after renewal. That’ll make them more expensive than WordPress Personal and Premium but still less than Business and eCommerce. Just to be clear, both offer a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Verdict
Users can simply do more on Bluehost.
Both Bluehost and WordPress are the most popular options around because of how simple to use they are. However, they’re suited for distinct projects and websites, meaning they’re geared toward different kinds of users.
At the risk of oversimplifying things, Bluehost is the better pick because users can personalize their websites to their heart’s content and choose from a wide range of hosting options depending on their needs. WordPress is more for beginner bloggers looking for a free way to try their hand at it or users who just want a simple blog and not deal with the “intricacies” of web hosting.
FAQs
No, Bluehost is a web hosting provider, while WordPress is a content management system or CMS.
Since they’re fundamentally different, it’s hard to say, but Bluehost is generally better than WordPress because of its flexibility, wider range of options and better customer support.
Once you purchase a Bluehost plan, you can use the company’s one-click WordPress installer to set everything up. Bluehost will take care of the rest.
Bluehost has shared WordPress hosting and managed WordPress hosting. They’re basically hosting services with features designed for the WordPress content management system.
