Bluehost Alternatives | What’s Best for Your Site?
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You know what you don’t want. We know what you might want instead.
Bluehost is a beginner-friendly hosting provider, known for its WordPress integration and affordable shared hosting plans. But if you’re looking up Bluehost alternatives, you’re probably more concerned about what Bluehost doesn’t do so well. If your top priority is value for money, cool site features, or impressive uptime, then it’s worth weighing your options before committing to Bluehost long-term.
We’ve tested the best Bluehost alternatives ourselves, and covered them in detail here so that you can make an informed decision.
These are the best Bluehost alternatives for your site.
- HostGator (from $2.75/month) – best Bluehost alternative.
- InMotion (from $2.49/month) – best for shared and VPS hosting.
- A2 Hosting (from $3.92/month) – best for customer service.
- Siteground (from $6.99/month) – best for reliability.
- GoDaddy Hosting (from $2.99/month) – best for extra features.
- Hostinger (from $0.99/month) – best for discounted prices.
The top 3 Bluehost alternatives are HostGator, InMotion, and A2 Hosting. Of these, the best choice depends on what you’re looking for: HostGator has unbeatable uptime, InMotion has the best features, and A2 Hosting offers great value for money.
Now for a closer look.
Check out our full ranking of the Best Web Hosting Providers
1 HostGator
Best Bluehost Alternative
As far as Bluehost alternatives go, they don’t get any better than HostGator, which reigns supreme in our research as the best overall hosting provider. Unlike most providers, HostGator is all strength, no weakness, with plans fit for personal portfolios and large businesses alike.
HostGator Uptime
Not only is it top-ranked overall, but HostGator also gets the #1 spot in our research for uptime, with an impressive score of 4.5/5. Uptime is arguably the most important factor in assessing a hosting provider, since it refers to the amount of time your site will be live on the web. Most of us literally can’t afford a hosting provider with bad uptime, since downtime costs companies as much as $100 million per year.
The difference in uptime between HostGator and Bluehost looks marginal – they offer 99.99% and 99.98% uptime, respectively. But in a market where most reputable hosting providers offer upwards of 99.90%, every little bit counts.
HostGator Pricing
HostGator’s plans start at $2.75/month, but even its more expensive plans are reasonable for what they offer you. Watch out, though: both Bluehost and HostGator (and let’s be honest, all hosting providers) will pull you in with cheap first-year prices that renew for much higher.
If you want to take a closer look at your options, you can read our HostGator Pricing Review and our Bluehost Pricing Review.
HostGator Features
Bluehost and HostGator are pretty well-matched for features – they both have strong offerings. However, one Bluehost feature that you’ll miss with HostGator is the free domain name. When you pay the Bluehost registration fee, you get your own domain name included for one year (although you’ll have to pay a renewal fee if you’d like to keep it once the year’s up).
HostGator Help & Support
HostGator and Bluehost both get 5/5 from us for customer support, so rest assured you’ll be taken care of with either provider. But one point in favor of HostGator is its 24/7 live chat, which Bluehost lacks. Bluehost can still offer you 24/7 phone support and live chat some of the time, but with HostGator, it’s nice to know you’re fully covered.
Read our full HostGator Review to learn more about HostGator
2 InMotion
Best for Shared and VPS Hosting
InMotion comes second overall in our hosting provider rankings, in large part because of its customer support and different types of hosting. It beats Bluehost specifically by offering better cloud hosting, which may be relevant for you, and free storage backups, which are definitely relevant for you. InMotion is more expensive than Bluehost, but both still offer good value for money – it’s just that InMotion is geared more towards businesses, while Bluehost caters to the personal site/blogging crowd.
InMotion Uptime
If you’re debating between Bluehost and InMotion, there are a lot of good reasons to be leaning towards InMotion – but unfortunately, uptime isn’t one of them. InMotion does offer an excellent uptime of 99.97%, but like we said, in a world where every hundredth counts, it loses out to Bluehost’s 99.98%.
InMotion Pricing
InMotion offers a lot of different pricing options across its plans, with the lowest first-year prices coming in at $2.49/month*. However, that price is only available when you commit to a three-year plan in advance – if you’re not ready to make such a commitment, the cheapest plan becomes $7.49/month. Bluehost has similarly steep renewal prices, but overall, InMotion is still more expensive.
* This discounted price is available to Website Builder Expert readers – just go to InMotion’s website using the button below, and the discounted prices will be automatically applied.
InMotion Features
InMotion gets a perfect 5/5 for features, surpassing Bluehost in terms of storage features in particular. InMotion offers free SSD storage, which is faster and more reliable than hard drive storage. InMotion also offers more free and included features on its shared plans than Bluehost does.
InMotion Help & Support
Both Bluehost and InMotion score 100% in our findings for help & support. But InMotion is a smaller company than Bluehost, and you can really see that in the way it values its customers. In addition to all the expected functions of customer support, InMotion goes above and beyond, with a dedicated YouTube channel and a support center forum that’s actually helpful.
This is all well and good, but neither InMotion nor Bluehost have 24/7 live chat support. On the off-chance that that’s a dealbreaker for you, then you can stop reading: HostGator’s the way to go.
Read our full InMotion Review to learn more about InMotion
3 A2 Hosting
Best for Customer Service
A2 Hosting comes fourth in our overall rankings, right behind Bluehost – but with scores that close (4.1 versus 4.4, to be exact), it’s largely a matter of personal preference. If customer service is your top priority, then A2 Hosting could well be the Bluehost alternative you’ve been looking for.
A2 Hosting Uptime
Let’s make one thing clear – if uptime is your top priority, then you might want to look elsewhere. A2 Hosting provides an uptime rate of 99.90% – that may be an amazing score for some things, like a high school algebra test, but the world of uptime is unfortunately more cut-throat. And in this world, 99.90% can’t really compete with the likes of 99.98% and 99.99%.
A2 Hosting Pricing
What A2 Hosting lacks in uptime, it makes up for in pricing. With a score of 4.0/5, it even beats out HostGator.
There’s not much difference in terms of renewal, or even introductory prices when you compare A2 Hosting with the other top hosting providers. What makes A2 Hosting stand out from the pack is its any time money-back guarantee, which allows you to try the platform out virtually risk-free.
A2 Hosting Features
A2 Hosting definitely picks up points in the features category. Its most basic plan alone provides unlimited storage, unlimited data transfer, a free SSL certificate, and SSD storage.
A2 Hosting ranks well above Bluehost for features – the two came sixth and ninth, respectively – but InMotion and GoDaddy Hosting still beat them out with perfect 5/5 scores.
A2 Hosting Help & Support
A2 Hosting gets a perfect 5/5 (as does Bluehost) for help & support. The “Guru Crew,” as A2 Hosting’s support team is called, is available 24/7 via phone, live chat, and/or email. There’s also a ticket submission system to organize the customer service process.
Get the best value for your money with our guide to Cheap Hosting Providers
4 Siteground
Best for Reliability
If you thought 1&1 IONOS was reliable, just wait ‘till you’ve read about a provider that’s reliable and has good customer service. In fact, Siteground comes second only to Bluehost for help & support, and it has a strong showing in some of Bluehost’s weaker areas as well (such as features).
Siteground Uptime
For uptime, Siteground gets a 4.0/5 and third place in our rankings. Siteground says its uptime is 99.99%, but our research has that number at 99.98% – this is still very competitive, and puts SiteGround on par with Bluehost.
Siteground Pricing
Siteground’s prices generally lag behind those of its top competitors, including A2 Hosting, HostGator, and InMotion. For example, Siteground’s three most popular plans range from $6.99/month to $39.99/month. The equivalent plans with HostGator range from $2.75/month to $16.95/month.
However, one thing is refreshing about Siteground’s prices: additional costs are very transparent during the checkout process, which is more than any of the other providers we’ve covered can say. Bluehost in particular adds a ton of additional costs to your cart during checkout that you’ll have to manually uncheck, which is frustrating.
Siteground Features
Siteground comes fourth in our rankings for features – well above Bluehost’s sixth place spot. Siteground’s WordPress features in particular mean it can compete with InMotion and GoDaddy Hosting in this category – A2 Hosting and HostGator can’t say the same.
Siteground Help & Support
Siteground has excellent customer support – it earned a perfect 5/5 in our research. It holds up against its top competitors by offering 24/7 phone and live chat support, but Siteground also goes the extra mile. The Siteground Knowledge Base is a searchable treasure trove of helpful articles written by the company, so you won’t have to deal with any of that public forum guesswork – you can just get the answer straight.
Read our Siteground Review to learn more about Siteground
5 GoDaddy Hosting
Best for Extra Features
GoDaddy is perhaps the best-known name in the online game, and its hosting platform is no less deserving of that reputation. It stands out for the kind of amazing features that could only come from such an established source. But GoDaddy Hosting isn’t without its weaknesses…
GoDaddy Hosting Uptime
GoDaddy Hosting comes in fifth place with a score of 3.5/5 for uptime – it’s pretty middle-of-the-pack here, with a 99.97% uptime guarantee. HostGator, Siteground, and 1&1 IONOS all have GoDaddy Hosting beat, but that doesn’t mean GoDaddy’s uptime is bad. It’s just not one of this provider’s strengths.
GoDaddy Hosting Pricing
Brace yourself: GoDaddy Hosting comes in last out of all 11 hosting providers we tested for cost, with a score of 1.5 out of 5. This is not because it’s wildly expensive – it’s actually because GoDaddy Hosting offers a lot of add-ons and features which make it great for setting up an attractive website, but also mean that it’ll never be the cheapest provider on the market (although it does offer competitive introductory prices).
If you’re not sure if GoDaddy Hosting is a worthy investment, you can read our full breakdown of GoDaddy Hosting’s value for money to get a better idea.
GoDaddy Hosting Features
Like we said, GoDaddy’s steeper prices mean better features. That’s why GoDaddy Hosting takes first place for features with a perfect 5/5 score. Best of all, GoDaddy offers one-click installation of over 125 free applications, including WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal.
GoDaddy Hosting Help & Support
GoDaddy Hosting has a 24/7 support number and live chat, as well as “GoDaddy Community,” which is a help & support forum. GoDaddy Community differs from the Siteground Knowledge Base we talked about earlier, because while Siteground’s forum is written by employees, GoDaddy’s forum is written by other customers.
The upside of GoDaddy Community is that you won’t get any biased articles from GoDaddy itself, and the content will be relevant – if something has frustrated you, chances are it’s frustrating other GoDaddy customers as well.
Read our in-depth GoDaddy Hosting Review to learn more about GoDaddy Hosting
6 Hostinger
Best for Discounted Prices
Hostinger is best known for its affordability, but this European hosting provider also has some impressive features to brag about.
Hostinger Uptime
Hostinger offers an uptime guarantee of 99.90%. While this isn’t a bad uptime percentage, it can’t compete with the rest of our Bluehost alternatives. If uptime is your top priority, then you’re better off looking elsewhere. But if you value pricing and features over uptime, then read on, because Hostinger definitely impresses in these areas.
Hostinger Pricing
No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you: Hostinger’s plans really do start at 99 cents per month. With a discount like this, it’s impossible not to be getting great value for money. However, Hostinger’s prices increase noticeably after the introductory period, with the cheapest renewal plan starting at $7.99/month.
Hostinger also offers a 30-day money back guarantee on all of its plans, as well as a 15% student discount, so there are plenty of ways to save if you’re interested in this provider!
Hostinger Features
Hostinger’s most basic shared plan includes one email account, 100 GB bandwidth, and weekly backups. We’d say this is a pretty good deal for the low introductory price that you’ll pay!
Hostinger’s more advanced shared plans also include a free domain and Secure Shell access, while its VPS plans all come with a custom control panel and 128 GB RAM. Hostinger’s shared and VPS plans don’t skimp on features, but if you’re planning to grow your site over time, it’s worth nothing that Hostinger doesn’t offer dedicated plans.
Hostinger Help & Support
Hostinger offers 24/7 live chat, plus email support, tickets, and a searchable knowledge center. But Hostinger’s standout customer support feature is its library of how-to articles, which you can search and read at any time.
That being said, Hostinger is lacking a customer support phone service. If you prefer to get information over live chat, then Hostinger’s team is a great resource. But if phone support is a dealbreaker, then Hostinger may not be for you.
Final Thoughts
We’ve chosen these six providers based on our research and user testing. If you know that Bluehost isn’t what your site needs, then these are the top Bluehost alternatives:
- HostGator – provides unmatched uptime and scalability.
- InMotion – offers a good variation of hosting plans and types.
- A2 Hosting – provides excellent customer service.
- Siteground – a reliable provider with good customer service.
- GoDaddy Hosting – offers a wide selection of features.
- Hostinger – offers the best discounted prices.
If you’re still not sure where to start, we recommend HostGator as the best Bluehost alternative. Its 99.99% uptime is excellent, and it offers a range of hosting types, so you’ll be able to find a plan that suits you. If you value features over uptime, then you can’t go wrong with InMotion’s incredible storage offerings – and its customer support isn’t too shabby, either.
It all comes down to your top priority. Once you’ve identified this, you can go with the hosting provider than ranks best in that category. Leave us a comment below, too – we’d love to know what you value most in a web host!
FAQs
If you’re trying to host a WordPress site, then Bluehost is definitely best for you – it’s even the host recommended by WordPress.org itself. That’s not to say Bluehost is your only option if you have a WordPress site, but it does make Bluehost a great place to get started.
One trend we’ve noticed in Bluehost reviews is that the small amount of storage on its Basic plan (in comparison to other providers) has been a source of frustration. If storage is a top priority for you, then we’d recommend InMotion instead.
That depends on you! The factors we’ve discussed here – uptime, pricing, features, and support – are all vital aspects of a hosting provider, and any decent hosting provider will deliver on all four. It’s all about finding the provider that doesn’t just deliver, but excels in the area you find most important!
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