Bluehost vs HostGator (2021 Comparison) Who’s the Best Hosting Provider?

When choosing between Bluehost and HostGator for your website hosting provider, you might have few questions and comparisons who is better choice for you. When it comes to picking the best WordPress hosting we will compare customer service, pricing, security, uptime, speed and reliability, user friendly, money back guarantee if you not 100% happy and migration option if you decide later to switch to other hosting provider. Once we will compare Bluehost vs HostGator we will find out who is the better choice for you.

Updated: January 02, 2021

Bluehost vs HostGator Comparison of Hosting Features and Service in 2021

Bluehost is a web hosting company owned by Endurance International Group founded in 2003 by Matt Heaton and located in Salt Lake City, UT. It is one of the 20 largest web hosts, collectively hosting well over 2 million domains. They are an official “WordPress.org” recommended hosting provider since 2005. Bluehost offers the ultimate WordPress platform. Tuned for WordPress users, we offer WordPress-centric dashboards and tools along with 1-click installation, a FREE domain name, email, FTP, FREE SSL Certificate Included, and more. Easily scalable and backed by legendary 24/7 live chat support by over 700 in-house hosting experts who are always available to take your call 1-888-401-4678 . Their hosting starts at $2.95/month and it’s back by a 30-day money-back guarantee. You can read our full Bluehost Review for 2020 if you need more in detail. If you decide to choose Bluehost as your hosting provider make sure to use our Bluehost coupon code and save 65% off best hosting deal.

HostGator is one of the oldest hosting companies around with over 8 millions domains and 850+ employees to provide you superior around-the-clock support. Founded in a dorm room at Florida Atlantic University by Brent Oxley, HostGator has grown into a leading provider of Shared, Reseller, VPS, and Dedicated web hosting. HostGator is headquartered in Houston and Austin, Texas, with several international offices throughout the globe. With 1-click WordPress install, 99.99% uptime, 24/7 support, live chat, free domain name and free SSL. HostGator is considered by many as one of the best hosting for business and freelancing agency. HostGator coupon offers Dessign readers an exclusive up to 60% off coupon code Dessign60 to save on any hosting plans. We also have a HostGator review  with detail information.

Bonus: Get Lifetime Access to our Premium WordPress Themes FREE (Value $99)

Bonus: If you sign up with any of the hosting providers below through our affiliate link not only you will get a amazing discount but you will also get Lifetime Access to our Premium WordPress Themes FREE (Value $99) this is to help you get started building your new WordPress website or WooCommerce Shop. We will also help you setup and install any of our themes for free and walk you through any questions.

Bluehost vs HostGator Ratings and Real Clients Reviews

Bluehost Rating and Review

We been using Bluehost for over 10 years and never had any issues, the support is outstanding and the hosting is 99.99% reliable and super easy user Interface to get around. But you can read other clients and customers reviews around the world and see for yourself, you will get many 5 stars reviews and also few 1-star reviews from clients who are angry or mad but this is usually a normal situation when inpatient clients want everything done in seconds which is impossible to do.. Bluehost customers and clients review on Trustpilot

TrustRadius Bluehost Reviews 7.5 out of 10 Score

HostGator Rating and Review

HostGator gets mixed reviews on Trustpilot, you will see many 1star reviews from angry customers and 5 star reviews from super happy customers. We believe that in 2020 most hosting companies have amazing customer support and will try to fix any issues in timely manners. You will always get angry customers who take it to the online to complain but overall HostGator is a great hosting company with long history and amazing customer service for the price.

TrustRadius HostGator Reviews 3.5 out of 5 Score

Bluehost vs HostGator Uptime and Speed

Bluehost Performance – Desktop & Mobile – Uptime at 99.99% and Load Speed at around 348ms Review

As we all know uptime in any hosting is the most important thing besides customer service. If your site is down you know that is not good and clients and customers get angry and frustrated. Being with Bluehost for over 10 years we can say that Bluehost uptime is 99.99% and it’s one of the most reliable hostings out there. The loading speed if your website is running on WordPress which we highly recommend and you are using the main W3 Total Cache plugins which we also recommend you should get around 348ms website load time.

Bluehost GTmetrix Page Speed Performance

We tested one of our websites hosted on Bluehost with GTmetrix to see how fast it opens and what is the PageSpeed Score. So how fast does a Bluehost website load? Our website loaded in 2.5 s with PageSpeed Score of A.

• PageSpeed Score Performance – A (94%)
• YSlow Score – A (93%)
• Fully Loaded Time – 2.5 seconds
• Total Page Size – 225KB
• Requests – 7
• Optimized images – C (77%)
• Leverage browser caching – B (88%)
• Optimize the order of styles and scripts – A (92%)
• Defer parsing of JavaScript – A (93%)
• Specify a cache validator – A (98%)
• Minify HTML – A (99%)
• Minify JavaScript – A (99%)

Bluehost Website Speed Test 25 Locations Average 3.7 sec

We also tested Page Load Speed from 25 Locations around the world to see how fast it opens in different locations. The Page Load Results are by Website Speed Test it shows that the average first-time visit is around 2.8 sec and the average repeat visit is around 2.1 sec which is very fast around 2 sec.

• Minneapolis – First Visit 2.1 sec – Repeat Visit 1.8 sec
• New York – First Visit 2.4 sec – Repeat Visit 1.8 sec
• London – First Visit 3.1 sec – Repeat Visit 2.8 sec
• San Francisco – First Visit 2.6 sec – Repeat Visit 2.1 sec
• Miami – First Visit 2.1 sec – Repeat Visit 2.6 sec
• Hong Kong – First Visit 5.0 sec – Repeat Visit 3.1 sec
• Montreal – First Visit 2.1 sec – Repeat Visit 2.3 sec
• Frankfurt – First Visit 3.8 sec – Repeat Visit 2.5 sec

Google PageSpeed Insights Mobile Performance 98 Score

Last page speed we did was from Google PageSpeed Insights where our Bluehost website score on a mobile device with a score of 98 % with an average of 1.8 s performance which is very fast in a top performance in green score 90-100 our site score top rank at 98.

• First Contentful Paint – 1.8 s
• First Meaningful Paint – 1.8 s
• Speed Index – 2.9 s
• First CPU Idle – 1.8 s
• Time to Interactive – 1.8 s
• Max Potential First Input Delay 20 ms

HostGator Performance – Desktop & Mobile – Uptime at 99.99% and Load Speed at around 417ms Review

HostGator GTmetrix Page Speed Performance

We tested one of our websites hosted on HostGator with GTmetrix to see how fast it opens and what is the PageSpeed Score. So how fast does a HostGator website load? Our website loaded in 1.8 s with PageSpeed Score of A.

• PageSpeed Score Performance – A (96%)
• YSlow Score – B (86%)
• Fully Loaded Time – 1.8 seconds
• Total Page Size – 290KB
• Requests – 9
• Minify CSS – A (96%)
• Avoid bad requests – A (100)
• Leverage browser caching – B (88%)
• Optimize the order of styles and scripts – A (92%)
• Defer parsing of JavaScript – A (93%)
• Specify a cache validator – A (98%)
• Minify HTML – A (99%)
• Minify JavaScript – A (98%)

HostGator Website Speed Test 25 Locations Average 2.5 sec

We also tested Page Load Speed from 25 Locations around the world to see how fast it opens in different locations. The Page Load Results are by Website Speed Test it shows that the average first-time visit is around 2.8 sec and the average repeat visit is around 2.1 sec which is very fast around 2 sec.

• Minneapolis – First Visit 6.2 sec – Repeat Visit 417 ms
• New York – First Visit 3.8 sec – Repeat Visit 624 ms
• London – First Visit 4.6 sec – Repeat Visit 631 ms
• San Francisco – First Visit 802 ms – Repeat Visit 415 ms
• Miami – First Visit 1.0 sec – Repeat Visit 427 ms
• Hong Kong – First Visit 2.8 sec – Repeat Visit 1.5 sec
• Montreal – First Visit 885 ms – Repeat Visit 435 ms
• Frankfurt – First Visit 1.9 sec – Repeat Visit 638 ms

Google PageSpeed Insights Mobile Performance 90 Score

Last page speed we did was from Google PageSpeed Insights where our Bluehost website score on a mobile device with a score of 98 % with an average of 1.8 s performance which is very fast in a top performance in green score 90-100 our site score top rank at 98.

• First Contentful Paint – 1.5 s
• First Meaningful Paint – 1.5 s
• Speed Index – 4.9 s
• First CPU Idle – 1.5 s
• Time to Interactive – 1.6 s
• Max Potential First Input Delay 60 ms

Bluehost vs HostGator Hosting Plans and Pricing

Bluehost Hosting Plans & Pricing Review

• Share Web Hosting – Basic $2.95/mo* , Plus $5.45/mo*, Choice Plus $5.45/mo*, Pro $13.95/mo*
• WordPress Hosting – Basic $2.95/mo* , Plus $5.45/mo*, Choice Plus $5.45/mo*, Pro $13.95/mo*
• Managed WordPress Hosting – Build $19.95/mo*, Grow $29.95/mo*, Scale $49.95/mo*
• WooCommerce Hosting – Starter $6.95/mo*, Plus $8.95/mo*, Pro $12.95/mo*
• VPS Hosting – Standard $18.99/mo*, Enhanced $29.99/mo*, Ultimate $59.99/mo*
• Dedicated Hosting – Standard $79.99/mo*, Enhanced $99.99/mo*, Premium $119.99/mo*

Besides the Basic plan, each plan offers: Bluehost Recommends Choice Plus which is the best plan to start with as it offers many great features.

• Unlimited Websites
• Unlimited SSD Storage
• Unmetered Bandwidth
• Free SSL Certificate
• Standard Performance
• Unlimited Domains
• Unlimited Parked Domains
• Unlimited Sub Domains
• $200 Marketing Credits

• 4 cores @ 2.3 GHz – 4 cores @ 2.5 GHz – 4 cores @ 3.3 GHz
• 4 GB RAM, 8 GB RAM, 16 GB RAM
• Unmetered SSD Storage
• 5 TB Bandwidth, 10 TB Bandwidth, 15 TB Bandwidth
• 3 IP Addresses, 4 IP Addresses, 5 IP Addresses

Bluehost Free Domain Name: Yes

Features: Malware Detection and Removal, Marketing Center, Jetpack Site Analytics, Daily Scheduled Backups, Domain Privacy + Protection, 30 day money back Guarantee, Bluehost SEO Tools, No Traffic Limits, Staging Environment, 24/7 Customer Support, CDN Enabled, FREE SSL, Spam Protection, SSD Disk Space

HostGator Hosting Plans, Features and Pricing

Share Web Hosting

Hatchling Plan – $2.75/mo , Baby Plan – $3.95/mo, Business Plan – $5.95/mo

HostGator share web hosting provides a vast array of tools to take your idea or business online today. From site building tools and templates, to our one-click application installer, you’ll find everything you need to launch your new website. With our QuickInstall tool, available on all Web Hosting plans, you can create any type of website: blog, forum, CMS, wiki, photo gallery, E-commerce store, and so much more! Since HostGator runs on Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP, thousands of existing applications and software are compatible.

HostGator Free Domain Name: Yes

Technical Specifications – Share Web Hosting

Bluehost vs HostGator Money Back Guarantee

Bluehost 30-Days Refund Policy

You can cancel your hosting plan within the first 30 days for a full refund. 

• If you cancel within 30 days you receive a full refund on your hosting service only. The money-back guarantee does not apply to most add-on products, such as domains, given the unique nature of their costs.
• If you cancel within 30 days and your plan includes a free domain, Bluehost will deduct a non-refundable domain fee of 15.99 from your refund. This not only covers our costs, but ensures that you won’t lose your domain name. You may transfer it to another registrar or simply point it elsewhere at your convenience. Please note newly registered domains cannot be transferred to another registrar during the first 60 days of the registration period. You retain ownership of your domain until the end of its registration period unless you renew it.
• Bluehost does not offer any refunds for cancellations that occur after 30 days.

HostGator 45-Day Money Back Guaranteed Refund

HostGator has one of the best refund policy of 45 days vs a regular 30 days from other hosting companies. To get the 45-day money-back guarantee for your shared, reseller, or VPS hosting, please cancel your account within the first 45 days of purchase. We cannot refund you until the cancellation request is complete.

Bluehost vs HostGator Ease of use and User-Friendly Dashboard

Bluehost 2020 New User Interface Dashboard

Bluehost WordPress 1-click install – Yes
Website Transfer – $149

Bluehost offers many hosting solutions from beginner to advanced users, its hosting price varies but the best thins is that you can always upgrade or downgrade your hosting month to month. One of the best things about the new Bluehost dashboard that got updated is that it’s very user-friendly and easy to use and navigate. I will take you through the new Bluehost 2020 dashboard so you can see what to expect. Bluehost dashboard has Home, My Sites, Marketplace, Email & Office, Domains and Advance buttons on the left navigation and all your Account, Profile, Billing, Security and Support on the bottom very easy to use and navigate.

HostGator Inside a Customer Dashboard Admin

Since you need to signup for HostGator to get a view of their dashboard we took a screenshots how it looks inside so you can see what you will have once you signup with HostGator hosting.

HostGator Dashboard will have on the left sidebar: Dashboard, Hosting, Marketplace, Domains, Billing, Support

Below you will have under Manage: SSL Management, CodeGuard Backups, SiteLock Security, Office 365 and Weebly Builder
Under Control Panel: Email Accounts, Webmail, Databases, File Manager, Install WordPress
Under Quick Links: Manage Domains, Transfer Domains, Add a Hosting Package, Billing History, Make a Payment, Manage Credit Cards, Request migration, and Contact Support

HostGator Control Panel Overview

HostGator Request migration Overview

HostGator FTP Dashboard Overview

Bluehost vs HostGator Web Security

New Bluehost Security Features Review + Details 

When it comes to security Bluehost is one of the best solutions. Bluehost takes its website security seriously and it has one of the best new security features available. SSL Certificates are now standard features in the Bluehost solution.

Password Reset Page Revamp

When you create a new password, you can now use it to directly log into your account without having to retype it. Additionally, we’ve streamlined the language on the page and updated the password suggestion tool to make it simple for you to generate more secure passwords. And now you can see if your password is meeting security requirements in real time.

Single Sign-On Feature

Second, all Bluehost accounts now support a single sign-on (SSO) feature. That means you can link your Google and Bluehost accounts and use your Google login to sign in. Interested in enabling this feature? Here’s a step-by-step guide.

Two-Factor Authentication

Third, you can now enable two-factor authentication on your Bluehost account. This feature gives you increased security, requiring you to know something (your password) and to have something (your phone) to log in. So even if someone guesses your password, they still won’t be able to access your account. Turn on two-factor authentication here.

Account Validation by Token

Fourth, you can now validate your identity when you contact support by providing a randomly-generated token found at the bottom of your control panel. This six-digit code will allow you to prove you own your account without having to give any portion of your password to a support agent.

BlueHost CloudFlare – Advanced DDoS Protection

Protect your Internet properties with a cloud-based, always-on DDoS protection, powered by the intelligence harnessed from Cloudflare’s always learning global network. Cloudflare’s layered security approach combines cloudflare multiple DDoS mitigation capabilities into one service. It prevents disruptions caused by bad traffic, while allowing good traffic through, keeping websites, applications and APIs highly available and performant.

SiteLock provides business website security:

SiteLock helps protect more than just your website; it can protect your business. There have never been more threats to your website business than now. Hackers use malware, SQL injection, cross-site scripting and more sophisticated techniques to steal your customer data redirect your traffic, ruining your site’s reputation.

• Daily 360-degree vulnerability scanning
• Automatic Malware Removal
• Dashboard Reports
• Alerts & Email Notifications
• Dynamic Verifiable Security Badge
• Web Application Firewall
• CMS Vulnerability Patching

HostGator Security

Great Security Features: Codeguard Daily Automatic Backups with Website Time Machine and full security 24/7

HostGator completes weekly backups of all of our servers except Dedicated servers, per our backup policy. After the weekly backup is taken, we scan the files for any possible malicious file signatures. If any malicious files are located, these are then sent to a quarantine folder so that the files are not lost if legitimate, but are no longer visible online.

HostGator will send an email to the account owner with the details of what was found. The following is a copy of the email that is sent out if any malicious files are located:

During a scan of our servers, we identified malicious content in accounts under your control. We have quarantined the files listed below to prevent abuse. Please note that no services have been disabled, and no legitimate content has been affected by this action. However, it is possible that other malicious activity may have disrupted your services.

The most important things you can do to ensure the security of your account are to make sure your software (e.g. WordPress) is up-to-date, and that your passwords are strong. We strongly encourage you to change all of your account passwords and update all software as soon as possible to prevent any further compromises or abuse.

We understand that any risk to our network reputation is a risk to our customers' reputation, and so we take third-party reports of network abuse seriously. In order to protect our shared reputation, we may disable account services in the event of a third-party report of network abuse until we are confident that the account has been properly cleaned and secured. This email is to inform you of the content found by our proactive scans and is not the result of a third-party abuse report. No services have been disabled as a result of this discovery.

Bluehost vs WP Engine Customer Support

Bluehost Customer Service Details

We been using Bluehost for over 10 years for our customers and also personal projects. We can honestly say that Bluehost has the best customer service and one of the nices people working in the customer section. We use both phone customer service where you can call 888-401-4678 and talk with a real person. Or we also use the chat support where if you don’t feel like talking to someone you can helpchat with them, just describe your problem and they will fix it as soon as possible, we never had any major issues with Bluehost and the support always was able to fix the issue in few minutes without any problems.

Here is the direct page to contact Bluehost or connect via social: @Facebook, @Twitter, @LinkedIn

Address: Bluehost – Endurance International Group
10 Corporate Drive
Suite #300
Burlington, MA 01803

U.S. (toll-free) 888-401-4678 or international +1 801-765-9400

Dessign team uses Bluehost since 2010 for all of our clients and strongly recommends Bluehost to anyone starting a website, with Bluehost uptime at 99.99% and load speed at around 4-5 seconds we can say Bluehost hosting is our top pick for a reliable and professional hosting solution with amazing 42/7 customer support and outstanding user experience dashboard.

HostGator Support and Customer Service

HostGator has the most extensive support options such as Live chat, 24/7/365 Support toll free: 866-96GATOR. HostGator has Customer Portal, Support Portal, Video Tutorials, Network Status and Live Chat. Also one of the best features is Knowledge Based

Bluehost vs HostGator Pros and Cons

Bluehost Pros and Cons

Pros of Using Bluehost

• Low Introductory Website or blog Hosting Price starting $2.95/month
• 99.99% Uptime which is very important as you never want your website to be down.
• WordPress.org recommendation as the best WordPress Hosting Solution.
• Easy to use and setup, with the best User Interface Dashboard
• Best Security powered by Cloudflare, sitelock and two-factor authentication
• 30-day money-back guaranteed
• We believed that Bluehost has the best customer support available 24/7
• Free Domain Name and 1-Click WordPress Install
• FREE SSL Certificate Included

Cons of Using Bluehost

• Higher renewal pricing so we recommend getting for 36/months at $2.95/month
• Bluehost site migration is $149, this is only for people who are switching from other hosting providers.
• No refund on the domain name, but you can transfer the domain to another hosting provider so no loss on your side.
• Some people give Bluehost a poor customer service review, we been with Bluehost for over 10 years we consider them at 5 stars
• Up selling addons which you can just un-check at the checkout section

Pros and Cons of HostGator

Pros of HostGator

Reliable and Strong Hosting: With 99.99% uptime and amazing customer support
45 Days Money Back Guarantee: HostGator offers 45 days money back guaranteed no question ask if you not 100% happy.
Great Security Features: Codeguard Daily Automatic Backups with Website Time Machine and full security 24/7
Free Website Migration: HostGator can transfer website files, databases, scripts, and one free domain registration transfer for free within 30 days.
Very User Friendly with great User Interface Dashboard: HostGator has one of the cleanest dashboard and cpanel we did quick review below so you can see how it looks and works.
Free SSL: Your hosting package includes a free SSL certificate that provides security for your website domains and subdomains

Cons of HostGator

Upselling: To get the best deal with HostGator you will have to sign up for 36 months, also a lot of extra features will be extra charge

Conclusion: Winner is Bluehost

When comparing Bluehost to HostGator based on customer service, pricing, security, uptime, speed and reliability, user friendly, money back guarantee. Bluehost is much better overall and secure with outstanding customer support 24/7 and we highly recommend for your WordPress or WooCommerce website hosting

Checkout some of our other Hosting Comparisons to decide which WordPress hosting is best for you.