BlueHost vs HostGator 2024 [Speed, Uptime and Features Reviewed]

Are you confused that which one to choose from BlueHost vs HostGator?

Because these two are known as the reliable and cheap WordPress hosting providers to create a website using any major CMS such as Joomla, Drupal, or WordPress. And that’s why people seems confused when it comes to select one of them. Both hosts offer hosting plans almost at the same prices and include all the essential features such as cPanel, 1-click installer, latest PHP version and email accounts, etc.

So here we come with BlueHost vs HostGator comparison to make it easy for you to decide. And we are sure that at the end of the article you will be able to solve this confusion and come up with the best one.

BlueHost vs HostGator Comparison: Who Will Win the Battle?

Reputation

There is a mix of user’s reaction about these two providers but we see BlueHost is slightly better reputed than the HostGator. There may be some possible reason like BlueHost is officially recommended by the WordPress and also by many influential bloggers.

Also, BlueHost has an excellent reputation among the bloggers and webmasters who just want to start a blog. While on the other hand, many complain that HostGator try to confuse the newbies by their upsells tactics.

There was a time when HostGator considered as one of the great service providers, but now many users are not satisfied with their quality especially customer support. While there is ignorable fluctuation in BlueHost services quality. So we go for BlueHost when it comes to reputation.

Winner: BlueHost

Uptime

You need to make sure that your website does not go down quite often because this can devastate the reputation of your site. The virulent truth is that the downtime cannot be eliminated entirely. But this can be decreased by hosting the sites on quality hosting providers.

BlueHost provides a solid uptime. The account we are using perform competently. So far we faced none of the incidents when their average uptime falls below 99.9% uptime. Here is the Uptime statistics taken by the Uptime robot monitoring tool.

BlueHost Uptime

On the opposite side, HostGator also performs very well and manage to perform 100% Uptime in some months, but they lack the consistency.

Currently, they are doing good as you can see the picture below which proves that they are %100 during the last 7 days. But when it comes to 30 days monitoring period the average uptime becomes 99.98%. And if talk about the period before 30 days then we also face 2 downtime 1st one lasts for 1 minute, and 2nd one keeps our site down for 3 minutes.

Although these are minor downtimes but as a whole, this becomes a serious downtime.

HostGator Uptime

Yes, there are always possibilities of downtime with every hosting provider, but according to our BlueHost vs HostGator uptime stats BlueHost is the obvious winner.

Winner: BlueHost

Speed

Do you hate to wait? No one like that their browser just keeps on loading the page and eventually the site load with broken contents. If servers take a higher time to load the page, it means low speed and hence causes a decrease in traffic. And when there is no traffic, what is the purpose of maintaining the website. After uptime, speed is the next imperative element you need to consider.

Both of the companies are very close to each other when compare speed statistics

BlueHost Speed Test

HostGator Speed Test

BlueHost LoadImpact Statistics

As per the BlueHost statistics, initially their server take almost 950ms, but after that, the servers play pretty well by reducing the load time. By observing you can see that mostly site load time remains under 900ms and there are only rare occasions when it hit 1sec. You can also see the consistency in the line of the load time.

So, it means that BlueHost severs can manage traffic efficiently even when there are more number of active users.

Winner: BlueHost

Support Services

What about the web host’s support policy? Do they offer 24/7 technical support? This is one area that is most important for both novice and experts.

Both of the companies offer 24/7 Live Chat, Phone, Email, ticketing system and a knowledge base with full of articles. But are they both fast?

BlueHost support services are faster than the HostGator. Whenever we need help or some information we start a live chat and get connected under 5 – 7 minutes. 

But when we talk about HostGator Live chat it is terrible. You start a Live chat so that to get the answer quickly. But on average they take almost 10 – 40 minutes and even sometimes you have to wait for almost an hour. Suppose you want more resources or your site experiencing some error, and you need help on the immediate basis, but they are just sleeping. It’s a sign that “No care for customers”.

Winner: BlueHost

HostGator vs BlueHost Hosting Features

Storage Space

So how much you need the storage space to store the site contents? A simple informational type website usually did not need much space. BlueHost offer 50GB storage in the Basic plan while HostGator labeled their storage as “unlimited”.

Unlimited means there is no limit, but when the company thinks that your site is consuming more resources, then they will notify you to upgrade the plan. Typically when a provider says unlimited or unmetered, it means almost 100GB. But HostGator users can upload contents upto 200 GB easily, and after that, they might need to upgrade.

Winner: HostGator

Bandwidth

Bandwidth is the data transfer when each visitor visits your site. We can also say that the number of visitors that your site can hold. If you are out of bandwidth then no one able to visit your site.

But there are no worries because both BlueHost and HostGator provide unmetered bandwidth on all of the plans.

Winner: Tie

Email Accounts

 An email account with the brand name seems more professional and gives you more control.

So that is why to select a provider that permit you to create number of email accounts. BlueHost allow up to 5 email accounts and 100 MB email storage on each account. This is enough amount because mostly individual level websites have one or two email address to remain in touch with their visitors.

HostGator offers the unlimited number of email accounts on all of their plans which give them a clear win over the BlueHost in this round. Here note that both hosting providers support web mail, POP and IMAP. 

Winner: HostGator

Control Panel

A complicated backend panel not only grim to operate but also waste the valuable time. It doesn’t matter that if the company offer its own made panel or industry standard cPanel but the point is, it should be easy to understand.

Both of the providers offer cPanel which is very common in the market due to its intuitive nature.

So if you are currently using cPanel then shifting to BlueHost or HostGator cause no confusion. Frankly, BlueHost cPanel is more colorful and includes WordPress tools. Because both offers cPanel so this is a tie.

Winner: Tie

[Note: Personally we love the BlueHost control panel more than the HostGator.]

Application Installer

Gone are the days when you need to learn commands to install the web application (script) like WordPress. Now all the best WordPress hosting providers have introduced 1-click installer that allows quick installation. It’s just a matter of few clicks.

Not only WordPress both web hosts offers numerous scripts such as Joomla, Drupal, and PrestaShop, etc. to perform the installations easily.

Winner: Tie

PHP version

PHP is the most famous programming language and covers almost 82% websites. So how much it is important for you to select a company that supports the latest PHP version?

The answer is simple, the latest PHP version such as 7.0, 7.1 can improve the site speed significantly. Here you can learn more about the PHP.

Both HostGator and BlueHost support latest versions. However, you can downgrade to any old version such as 5.6 or 5.4 as well.

Winner: Tie

Parked Domains

You may not feel the necessity of Parked domains at the very start but once you are famous then this one use to secure the brand and traffic as well. For example, you have abc.com domain and receives notable traffic. So what if someone creates the domain name similar to you like abc.net? There may be a chance that he/she will get some of your potential visitors.

Parked domain secure you from such kind of incidents. With BlueHost basic plan you can park 5 domains. It means if you purchase the abc.net you can point it your domain name (abc.com) and whenever the visitor open abc.net they will automatically redirect to your site (abc.com).

But HostGator did not offer any facility for parking the domains in their Hatchling (basic) plan. So, if domain parking is a must have featured in your case then HostGator’s Hatchling plan is not good choice.

Winner: BlueHost

Auto Site Migration

Site migration proved a convenient option when you made your mind to shift your blog/website from the existing provider to another. There may be multiple reasons for migration such as lack of scalable options. The other reason could be that the existing provider is no more a quality provider.

So if you want to migrate from the old provider to HostGator then just fill their transfer form, and they will transfer all things like databases, contents, and scripts, etc. at zero cost. Remember that you are eligible for auto migration during the first 30 days of sign up. And after 30 days an administrator will only assist you.

While on the other hand, you will be shocked to see that BlueHost charge $149.99 for auto site migration. So if you want to shift your site on BlueHost servers then better do it yourself. There are plenty of tutorials available on the internet.

Winner: HostGator

Let’s Encrypt SSL

At the start, SSL was the important part for sites dealing with customers personal data like names, address, credit card numbers, etc. It is used to encrypt the user’s personal by implementing security protocols for improved security and privacy.

But now it becomes an obligatory part of every website and blogs whether you have, the content based blog or an e-commerce site due to Google’s recent announcement. As search engines (Google) give some ranking advantage to sites with SSL.

BlueHost cPanel featured with Let’s Encrypt option in all of their plans. This enables the user to activate the SSL in just a few clicks. But HostGator did not introduce such kind of automated and handy feature (let’s Encrypt) so far. Of course, they also provide SSL on all of their plans, but you have to do some technical work for activating this and pay extra charges.

Winner: BlueHost

Data Backup

Having Backups is the last hope when everything messed up and you don’t see any solution. By restoring a backup, your site shifts to a position when you last created the backup. That’s why it is necessary to create the backup. There are many free and paid services for backing up the whole or selected elements of a website. 

A backup creation option provided by the hosting company along with plan usually given in the control panel and you don’t need to install any plugin.

BlueHost offers both free and paid backup services. You can configure the service to create the daily, weekly and monthly backups. Moreover, if you want to download the backup on your computer, then you can do so via FTP. Also, there is no fee to restore the backup.

HostGator does a bad job here. The company says that they offer free backup and, yes, they are right, but whenever you want to restore the backup, they charge $15. Seriously??Yah! We are serious. So what are we gonna do with the free services that can only make the backup but not allow free restoration?

Winner: BlueHost

Pricing

Price is another very important element to consider especially for those having limited funds. You should ensure you get value for your money. Both companies offer shared, WordPress, VPS and dedicated hosting plans.

Free Domain Name

Domain Name is a web address of any blog or websites. Without this, you can’t setup a Blog. Many of the hosting providers offer this for free if you buy a hosting plan. BlueHost also offer a free domain name along with the web hosting. You don’t have to pay even a penny for the first year.

HostGator did not offer free domain name to their customers. This will be a little bit more for the first year than the BlueHost.

Winner: BlueHost

Domains & Privacy Guard

What if you want to purchase the domain name only? Although there are some other best domain registrars but BlueHost and HostGator are also an exceptional consideration. There is a slight difference between their prices.

BlueHost charge $11.99 for a .com domain while HostGator offer it in $12.95. But the story is not over yet. After one year BH cost $15.99 while HG demands $15 for renewal. So if you go for BH, then you can save almost a dollar for once but pay more at renewals as compared to the HG.

Domain privacy guard is an add-on that hides your private information like email address etc. to save you from malicious emails and marketing companies. But here note that it is not a compulsory add-on. So, if you want to activate this, then BlueHost offer it in $11.88 while HostGator offer in $12.95.

For the first year you are going to save almost $2 when purchasing a domain and privacy protection from the BlueHost and at renewals, you will save few cents. Because the differences are minor so this is a clear tie.

Winner: Tie

Web Hosting

BlueHost offer 3 web hosting plans in shared category. There is no cost difference at this time both of the provider’s prices are same except the basic plans. In their basic plan, BlueHost offer 1 free domain name, 50 GB storage (more than enough) and unmetered bandwidth. You can host one domain on this plan. This is very suitable if you want to host a small personal blog.

HostGator offers unmetered storage and bandwidth in their hatchling plan but restricted to host one domain name. Unlike BlueHost, they don’t give you a free domain for the first year on the purchase of hosting account.

Besides the basic plan, if we talk about the Plus (BlueHost) and Baby (HostGator) plans, both are pretty similar. You can host unlimited domains. It’s the best fit for users who planned to create multiple websites in the near future without spending any extra money. As you can see, there is not any prominent different between higher plans than the basic, so we are going to tie this section like above.

Winner: Tie

Refund Policy

Refund policy can also be described as the money back guarantee. A company can only strive to satisfy all of its customers. There is no guarantee that if a user is fully satisfied and so the other one. Here refund policy comes into play and saves your money.

After signing up with BlueHost, you can ask for the refund within the first 30 days. So if you feel that their services are not satisfactory, then surely get back your money. Here remember that after the 30 days you are not eligible to ask for the refund.

While HostGator pursuing the 45 days refund policy, so it means you have more days to test their services before you make a decision whether to request for refund or not?

So, deciding between BlueHost or HostGator in term of money back guarantee, it's not that tough to choose the best one. Isn't pretty easy?

Winner: HostGator

Conclusion

So it’s time to draw a conclusion b/w BlueHost vs HostGator.  When we talk about other aspects like free SSL, then BlueHost has the edge over HostGator too. Moreover, BlueHost also include free backup, domain parking, free domain name and well-furnished control panel in its most basic plan.

On the other hand, HostGator provide many other features as well like unlimited email accounts, sub-domains, higher storage for emails, and 4500 free website templates. But, they should consider about free SSL by Let's Encrypt as it is important for SEO.

You can get the Free SSL from CloudFlare. We are already using free SSL by CloudFlare on some of our blogs, and the most favorable part is you don't have to learn any technical stuff for implementing it. Here is a complete guide to enable CloudFlare's free SSL on your WordPress powered websites.

All in all, BlueHost plans are well designed, and they make the maximum availability of their speedy services more effectively, so we are going to suggest you BlueHost.

We are confident that the review gets clear everything to you and there is no more confusion that which one to select between BlueHost vs HostGator?

If you think we forget to cover any major feature that should be compared, please let us know in the comments. We will be more than happy to read your suggestions and feedback.

If you still need help and confused about HostGator vs BlueHost, don’t hesitate to contact. We’re always here to help you find the best web host.