SiteGround vs. Bluehost – Discover the Best Choice.
Out of the hundreds of web hosting providers out there, SiteGround and Bluehost are two leading web hosting services and some of the most popular choices for people worldwide. However, even though both providers are great, you only need one, and this article will help you decide which of the two is the best option for your needs.
Winner Snapshot: Check Out This Summary Table to Quickly Compare These Two Providers
SiteGround | Bluehost | |
Features | Free site migration, free daily backups, free Cloudflare CDN service, free Weebly website builder, SiteGround Optimizer | Drag-and-drop WordPress site builder, free Cloudflare CDN, automated marketing tools, free one-year domain registration, excellent integration with WordPress |
Support | 24/7 support, Phone Support, Live Chat, Email Support, Ticket support, Knowledgebase | 24/7 support, Phone Support, Live Chat, Email Support, Ticket support, Knowledgebase, Video guides |
Performance | 99.99% uptime, the longest load speed is 1.25 seconds | 99.98% uptime, the longest load speed is 10.27 seconds |
Ease of use | Custom control panel and free migration plugin | Easy-to-use cPanel control panel |
Security | Custom web application firewall (WAF) An AI-driven anti-bot system Free SSL security Automatic PHP and WordPress updates Fast server monitoring system which checks the server status every 0.5 seconds Unique account isolation Automatic daily backups On-demand backup option CDN DDoS | Free SSL security IP address blacklists Integration with SpamExperts Integration with SiteLock Password-protected directories SSH access DDoS CDN |
Server location | Server locations in four different continents: Asia, Europe, North America, and Australia | Servers in three different continents: Europe, Asia, and North America |
Free migration | Yes | No |
Winner: SiteGround
All in all, if you want the best performance, speed, security, and support, SiteGround is the clear winner. Read more to discover how both providers compare and why SiteGround is the better option out of the two providers.
About SiteGround and Bluehost
![]() | SiteGround was founded in 2004 in Sofia, Bulgaria. Since its beginnings, SiteGround has amassed a large number of clients. It provides hostings for approximately 2,800,000 domains worldwide. Also, it has over 500 employees that are at the disposal of its clients for anything. SiteGround has data centers on four continents. Also, clients have reported a 99.7% happiness rate, so people really seem to be satisfied with this provider. |
![]() | Bluehost is only one year older than SiteGroud. Established in 2003 in Provo, Utah, Bluehost is one of the 20 largest web hosts. Currently, it hosts over 2,000,000 domains worldwide. Bluehost provides numerous hosting services such as shared hosting, WordPress hosting, virtual private server (VPS) hosting, dedicated hosting, and WooCommerce hosting. In addition to all of those, the company also provides professional marketing services. |
SiteGround vs. Bluehost: A Side-By-Side Comparison
When comparing SiteGround vs. Bluehost, we came to the conclusion that the main difference between the two lies in their respective performances, speed, and pricing. When it comes to performance and speed, SiteGround is the better option. On the other hand, Bluehost is the better option when it comes to pricing, as it is cheaper than SiteGround.
However, overall, SiteGround is better than Bluehost, as it comes with better performance, features, and excellent customer support. Also, SiteGround has a higher uptime average and looks out for its users’ data and makes sure it doesn’t get lost.
SiteGround is the best for those who are looking for top-notch performance and excellent support. So, if you are oriented more towards performance and support, SiteGround is the better option.
Bluehost is the best for those who have a tighter budget they need to follow. So, if you are newer to the website-creation scene and need a provider that is on the cheaper side, Bluehost is the better option for you.
Now that we have covered the short version of our comparison of the two providers, let’s dive in deeper and explore the features, performance, prices, customer support, ease of use, scalability, security, and server location of both providers and see how the providers perform in all of those categories.
Round 1: Hosting Features – Key Hosting Features and Services
Hosting Feature | SiteGround | Bluehost |
Free daily backups and restore | ✅ | Yes – but they are not guaranteed |
high-performance SSD storage | ✅ | ✅ |
Free WordPress installation | ✅ | ✅ |
Free site migration | SiteGround offers a free WordPress migration plugin, while custom site migration starts at $30. | Bluehost offers free WordPress migration, while a complete website transfer service costs $149.99. |
Free website builder | ✅ | ✅ |
Free domain-associated email | ✅ | ✅ |
Email accounts | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Disk space and bandwidth | Up to 160GB disk space and 5TB bandwidth with its cloud hosting plans | Unlimited on all plans except for the cheapest plan |
Built-in caching system | ✅ | ✅ |
Free CDN (content delivery network) | ✅ | ✅ |
Webspace limit | 40GB | Unlimited on all plans except for the cheapest plan |
free SSL | ✅ | ✅ |
Sub and parked domains | Unlimited on all shared hosting plans | Unlimited in all shared hosting plans except for the cheapest plan |
Option to add multiple users | ✅ | Yes, for WordPress sites only |
Free custom domain name | ❌ | Yes, only for the first year |
Easy staging sites | Available on all shared hosting plans except for the cheapest one | Yes, only for WordPress sites |
Git and SSH access | Yes, Git is only available with the GoGeek shared hosting plan. | Only SSH access is available. Bluehost does not offer Git |
Key SiteGround Features
SiteGround offers many valuable features in its web hosting bundles, but the most significant ones are the following:
- Free site migration
- Free daily backups
- Free Cloudflare CDN service
- Free Weebly website builder
- SiteGround Optimizer
Free Site Migration
With SiteGround, you can transfer your WordPress site from another provider for free with the help of its WordPress Migrator plugin. Transferring your existing WordPress site to SiteGround is relatively easy and only takes a few steps:
- First, you need to generate a migration token from your SiteGround account;
- Then you need to install the SiteGround Migrator plugin to your website;
- Once you have installed the plugin, you need to paste the token into the plugin;
- And lastly, you will be given instructions that you need to follow to complete the process.
Free Daily Backups
SiteGround offers free daily backups to all of its users, no matter which shared hosting plan they have. SiteGroud automatically saves daily backups and keeps up to 30 copies of their users’ accounts. Thus, SiteGround users will always have the ability to restore their backups if some of their content gets lost, which is an excellent feature to have for anyone who has a website.
Also, if you want an additional layer of security, you can choose to store your backups in a data center located in another city, state, or country.
Free Cloudflare CDN Service
CDN or Content Delivery Network is a network of servers that delivers content from an origin server throughout the world with the goal to provide high performance and availability to users from all over the world. So, suppose you have visitors on your site who are from many different countries or geographical areas. In that case, a CDN will help make your website ready and available for all of them, no matter which data center location you use.
Also, SiteGround’s Cloudflare CDN service boosts your site speed by caching your web content and distributing it to multiple data centers all over the world so that each visitor receives your content from the server that is closest to them.
Free Weebly Website Builder
Every SiteGround user has access to the free version of the Weebly website builder and can install it for free if they need it. Weebly is a drag-and-drop website builder which is easy to use and allows you to add a wide range of content and design elements to your website. The elements you can add with Weebly include titles, text boxes, pictures, galleries, contact and newsletter forms, slideshows, social icons, and buttons.
Also, suppose you feel like you need more than what the free version of Weebly offers. In that case, you can always upgrade your Weebly plan via your SiteGround dashboard and get Weebly’s premium features, which include Weebly’s app center, an advanced site statistics feature, an online shop, and a site search functionality.
SiteGround Optimizer
SiteGround’s Optimizer plugin is another useful WordPress feature that the provider offers. This plugin was made to help you improve your website’s speed and performance. It uses numerous optimization techniques, including scheduled database maintenance and image compression, to help your website improve.
The scheduled database maintenance feature can do the following for you: delete all automatically-created pages and post drafts, delete every comment marked as spam, optimize MyISAM tables, and more. With the image compression feature, you can resize your images to decrease the storage space they occupy and speed up their loading time.
Key Bluehost Features
Bluehost also comes with numerous helpful features in its web hosting bundles. However, the most significant ones include:
- Drag-and-drop WordPress site builder;
- Free Cloudflare CDN;
- Automated marketing tools;
- Free one-year domain registration
- Excellent integration with WordPress
Drag-And-Drop WordPress Site Builder
Bluehost’s WordPress website builder is made for both beginners and pros, and it allows you to choose from more than 300 design templates for your website. You also get to use an image library where you can find hundreds of preloaded photos, or you can use your own photos, videos, and music.
Another excellent feature you will get with Bluehost’s WordPress website builder is the ability to upload your own custom font and manage your CSS rules via the dashboard. Also, since it’s a drag-and-drop builder, adding and editing elements on your website is extremely easy. Namely, you add or edit elements by simply dragging and dropping them in the location you prefer.
Free Cloudflare CDN
Like SiteGround, Bluehost includes a free Cloudflare CDN service in all of its hosting plans. You can get either the basic or the premium Cloudflare package with Bluehost. With the basic package, your website content will be stored at more than 200 data centers around the world. You will get rate-limiting, WAF (web application firewall), and Argo smart routing with the premium package.
All of the features that come with Bluehost’s Cloudflare CDN service will increase your website’s speed and allow your visitors to experience the best performance with minimal interruptions.
Automated Marketing Tools
The first thing that comes to mind when the word “Marketing” is mentioned is, of course, SEO. SEO is an integral part of the online experience because it helps with boosting a website’s ranking on search engines like Google, Yahoo, etc. Bluehost offers an excellent SEO toolset that helps users with their search engine optimization process and helps them improve their rankings.
With it, Bluehost’s users will be able to see an overview of their SEO performance, get a list of suggested keywords, get step-by-step guidance on SEO, and more.
However, you will need to pay extra to get Bluehost’s SEO toolset, and you can choose from two plans: Start and Grow. In addition to the SEO toolset, Bluehost also offers free integration with Google My Business, which is another excellent marketing tool for websites.
Free One Year Domain Registration
Bluehost includes a free domain registration for the first year in all of its hosting plans. A domain is another integral part of any website since it is the name that visitors will see when they visit your website or search to find your website.
Thus, having the opportunity to register a domain name for free in the first year is an excellent bonus you will get from Bluehost.
Excellent Integration with WordPress
Bluehost and WordPress have one of the oldest partnerships on the market. The two have been collaborating for more than a decade now, so it comes as no surprise to see that WordPress recommends Bluehost to all of its users. With Bluehost, users can install WordPress on their accounts with just one click.
In addition, Bluehost also offers managed WordPress hosting, which includes multi-layered caching, auto-scalability, advanced website analytics, and centralized social media control. Also, you can get a staging environment and daily scheduled backups with Bluehost’s managed WordPress hosting plans.
And the Winner Is…
SiteGround! SiteGround takes the win when it comes to who provides better hosting features thanks to its excellent WordPress website transfer plugin, powerful caching system, WordPress staging tools, and its Git integration feature. All of these features make SiteGround the better and more robust option in the hosting features category.
Round 2: Website Performance (Uptime & Speed) – Who’s the Faster Provider
When measuring a website’s performance, there are two key factors to consider: uptime and speed. Uptime, in general terms, is the time during which a computer is in operation. In more web hosting-specific terms, uptime is the time that a website is available to visitors in a given period, and it is usually expressed as a percentage. The web hosting industry considers an uptime of 99.999% as high availability, which means that you should look for a provider that offers an uptime as close to 99.999% as possible.
The speed of your website is another crucial factor that can make or break your website. The faster the website, the better the customer experience. Fast speeds and load times affect customer experience a lot since they dictate whether visitors will enjoy using your website or not. If a website provides poor loading times and slow responses, visitors are more likely to leave and never come back again since people do not have the patience to wait until a site loads when there are other sites out there that will load immediately. Thus, slow speed and poor loading times lead to increased bounce rates and ultimately a decrease in visitors.
In order to test and compare the speed of both providers, we tested their speed and load times from several locations. Also, the tests we performed showed us the overall performance grade of both providers, which is also an important metric in this case.
Test | SiteGround | Bluehost |
Pingdom test 1 (Tokyo, Japan) | 0.679 s | 4.04 s |
Pingdom test 2 (San Francisco, USA) | 0.652 s | 1.68 s |
Pingdom test 3 (Sydney, Australia) | 1.25 s | 8.46 s |
GT Metrix test 1 (Vancouver, Canada) | 0.634 s | 2.6 s |
PageSpeed Insights test | 1 s | 10.7 s |
SiteGround Uptime & Speed
SiteGround definitely got the upper ground in all the speed tests we performed. It outperformed Bluehost in every test we conducted by a long shot. Its longest load time was 1.25 seconds, which is not long at all and is considered very fast since the load times of a website are recommended to be somewhere between 1-and 3 seconds.
Also, SiteGround offers an uptime guarantee of 99.99%, which means that your website will be up and running 24/7, which is critical for every website.
Bluehost Uptime & Speed
When it comes to uptime, Bluehost’s uptime is slightly worse than SiteGround’s – 99.98%. However, an uptime of 99.98% is still an excellent result nonetheless.
When it comes to speed, Bluehost lags behind SiteGround by a lot. Its results were a lot worse than SiteGround’s, with its highest load time being 10.7 s in our tests.
And the Winner Is…
SiteGround! SiteGround takes the win again and proves to be the faster provider. Not only does it provide much faster loading times, but it also offers a better uptime guarantee compared to Bluehost. Thus, in both uptime and speed, SiteGround is the clear winner.
Round 3: Prices & Plans
The next category we will analyze in our SiteGround vs. Bluehost comparison is the providers’ prices and plans. Thus, you will get an in-depth look at what both providers offer and how much it will cost you to host your website with both providers.
SiteGround | Bluehost | |
Entry Level plan | $4.41 / month | $2.95 / month |
Middle plan | $7.72 / month | $5.45 / month |
Middle plan no. 2 | / | $5.45 / month, where you get more features for the same price |
Highest plan | $15.46 / month | $13.95 / month |
Cloud Hosting | $88.39 / month $176.78 / month $265.16 / month $353.55 / month | None |
Dedicated Hosting | None | $79.99 / month $99.99 / month $119.99 / month |
VPS Hosting | None | $18.99 / month $29.99 / month $59.99 / month |
Reseller Hosting | $7.72 / month $15.46 / month $88.39 / month | None |
SiteGround Pricing Plans
SiteGround offers three shared hosting plans: StartUp, GrowBig, and GoGeek. Each shared hosting plan comes with a free website builder, free CMS installation (WordPress, Drupal, etc.), unmetered traffic, free SSL, unlimited free email accounts, free CDN, daily backups, unlimited databases, free WooCommerce installation, out-of-the-box caching, and super-fast SSD storage.
- The StartUp plan is suitable for those who want to host only one website and expect to have a maximum of 10,000 visits a month.
- The GrowBig plan is suitable for those who need more space and want to host multiple sites.
- The GoGeek plan is suitable for those who want to host unlimited websites and need even more storage (in this case, 40GB). Also, it is suitable for those who want to create, download, access, and edit repositories with Git, those who want to give their clients white-label access to their account, and for those who want to receive priority customer care.
SiteGround offers four cloud hosting plans: Jump Start, Business, Business Plus, and Super Power. Cloud hosting, in general, is suitable for those who run websites with large amounts of monthly traffic. All plans come with a free Cloudflare CDN service, a free dedicated IP, automated daily website backups, direct SSH access, SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol), access to SiteGround’s Collaboration Tools, the ability to add collaborators to your websites, and more.
- The Jump Start plan is suitable for those who are just getting started on the cloud and need 4 CPU cores, 8GB of RAM, 40GB of SSD storage space, and 5TB of data transfer for their websites.
- The Business plan is suitable for those who want to optimize their cloud experience and need CPU cores, 12GB of RAM, 80GB of SSD space, and 5TB of data transfer at their disposal.
- The Business Plus plan is ideal for websites that use databases or rely on PHP scripts and for those who need 6GB of RAM, 120GB of SSD storage, 5TB of data transfer, and 12 CPU cores.
- The Super Power plan is the highest cloud hosting plan that SiteGround offers and is suitable for those who want 24/7 VIP customer support, seven website backups from the last seven days, automated WordPress updates, Git integration, email spam filtering, or WordPress staging. It also comes with 16 CPU cores, 20GB of RAM, 160GB of SSD storage space, and 5TB of data transfer.
Lastly, SiteGround offers three Reseller Hosting plans: GrowBig, GoGeek, and Cloud.
- The GrowBig reseller hosting plan is suitable for those who want to sell hosting for an unlimited website coupled with 20GB of webspace, free WordPress installation, WordPress auto-updates, free CDN, and free SSL.
- The GoGeek plan is suitable for those who want to sell hosting where their clients can give white-label access to the Site Tools, use free private DNS, and receive priority support.
- The Cloud plan is suitable for those who want to sell hosting where the site’s resources can be tailored, and the clients’ access can be customized.
In addition to the hosting plans we mentioned above, SiteGround also offers WordPress and WooCommerce hosting, which are suitable for those who want to create a WordPress or WooCommerce website.
Bluehost Pricing Plans
Bluehost also offers a wide array of hosting services, including shared hosting, WordPress hosting, Managed WordPress hosting, WooCommerce hosting, dedicated, and VPS hosting.
Bluehost offers four shared hosting bundles: Basic, Plus, Choice Plus, and Pro. Each shared hosting bundle comes with a free WordPress site builder, domain manager, free SSL, integration with Google Ads and Google My Business, 24/7 customer support, a free domain for the first year, and free CDN.
- The Basic plan is suitable for those who need to host only one website.
- The Plus plan is suitable for those who want to run and host multiple websites.
- The Choice Plus plan is suitable for those who need more privacy and enhanced security features.
- The Pro plan is suitable for those who need more power and optimized web resources.
Bluehost offers three dedicated hosting plans which are suitable for those who need more speed, flexibility, and control over their websites. The plans include the following:
- Standard – the Standard plan is suitable for those who need to upgrade their resources to endure high traffic spikes.
- Enhanced – the Enhanced plan is suitable for those who need extra power and storage for their websites.
- Premium – the Premium plan is ideal for those who have huge amounts of visitors on a monthly basis and want their websites to perform at the highest possible levels.
Each dedicated hosting plan comes with an improved cPanel account control panel, free domain registration for the first year, free SSL, RAID storage, expedited customer care, and full WHM with root access.
Bluehost’s VPS hosting plans are for those who need something stronger than shared hosting but smaller than dedicated hosting. It acts as a middle-man between the two hosting services and allows users to have their own virtual server at their disposal. Bluehost offers three VPS hosting plans: Standard, Enhanced, and Ultimate.
- The Standard plan is suitable for those who are just getting started with their virtual server and want to get the hang of it first.
- The Enhanced plan is suitable for those who need more storage, including 60GB SSD Storage, 4GB RAM, 2TB Bandwidth, and 2 IP addresses.
- The Ultimate plan is suitable for those who need a lot of power and resources, including 120 GB SSD Storage, 8GB RAM, and 3TB Bandwidth.
The rest of Bluehost’s services include WordPress hosting, Managed WordPress hosting, and WooCommerce hosting. Bluehost’s WordPress hosting plans are suitable for those who want to build a WordPress website and need WordPress-specific hosting. Its Managed WordPress hosting plans are suitable for those who need an all-in-one WordPress platform that is scalable and suitable for fast growth. Lastly, Bluehost’s WooCommerce hosting plans are suitable for those who want to sell online and for those who specifically want to use WooCommerce’s powerful tools for their online stores.
And the Winner Is…
Bluehost! Even though both providers offer powerful and feature-rich plans, Bluehost comes on top thanks to the unmetered bandwidth included in all plans, free custom domain registration for one year, low introductory prices, and unlimited storage space in most of its hosting bundles.
Round 4: Customer Support – Who Offers the Better Helping Hand
Type of Support | SiteGround | Bluehost |
24/7 support | ✅ | ✅ |
Phone Support | ✅ | ✅ |
Live chat | ✅ | ✅ |
Email Support | ✅ | ✅ |
Ticket support | ✅ | ✅ |
Forum Support | ❌ | ❌ |
Video guides | ❌ | ✅ |
Knowledgebase | ✅ | ✅ |
Both SiteGround and Bluehost offer excellent customer support, including 24/7 support, phone, live chat, email, and ticket support. Also, both providers have extensive knowledge bases where users can find numerous tutorials and articles related to the services they offer. In addition, both providers have blogs where you can read the latest news and stay updated.
SiteGround also offers how-to tutorials and various free ebooks, which all users can download and use to get to know the provider and its inner workings. Also, suppose you submit a question that has been asked and solved before. In that case, SiteGround will automatically provide the solution, and you will have the answer to your question immediately, within minutes. SiteGround also has a podcast called “Geek 2 English,” where experts explain tech concepts. However, the last episode aired on the 22nd of April, 2021, and there have been no new episodes since.
Bluehost also has a resource center, where you can find guides, articles, and videos that can help you with whatever you need.
SiteGround Customer Support
When I was in the process of registering and setting up my SiteGround account, I experienced an issue and contacted its team via live chat. The experience I had with SiteGround’s live chat and the agent was one of the nicest experiences I have had so far. I received an immediate response to my question, and the whole conversation with the agent was amicable and enjoyable.
The agent provided me with a solution right away and guided me through the process I had to go through to solve my problem. The agent was also patient and highly professional and responded immediately to all of my messages until the very end.
Bluehost Customer Support
Bluehost’s live chat was easier to find than SiteGround’s since you can reach it via a button that is available on every page. Similar to my experience with SiteGround, I connected with an agent instantly after typing my question in Bluehost’s live chat. The agent asked for a few minutes to review my question. My question was the following: What do I need to do to host my website with you? I figured since Bluehost prides itself in being a beginner-friendly provider, I’d ask the most beginner-level questions I could think of.
After some back and forth with the agent, I noticed that her English skills were not great, but she was friendly and patient and responded to all my messages within minutes. I also asked what the difference was between creating a WordPress and a regular website. The answers I got were short, and the agent provided me with the most basic answer possible. In the end, I got answers to all my questions, but I liked my experience with SiteGround’s live chat better.
And the Winner Is…
SiteGround! Even though both providers offer excellent customer support, SiteGround has a slight upper hand in my experience. The agents at SiteGround were more friendly and knowledgeable, and talking to them felt more natural compared to my conversation with the Bluehost agent.
Round 5: Ease of Use – Which Provider Is More Beginner-Friendly?
Both SiteGround and Bluehost are suitable for beginners and offer excellent dashboards that are easy to use. SiteGround uses Site Tools as its control panel, while Bluehost uses cPanel. But which one is easier to use?
We will compare their account management dashboards, control panels, setup processes, and backup creation processes to determine which provider is more beginner-friendly.
SiteGround Ease-Of-Use
SiteGround’s dashboard provides users with tips and steps for website setup and optimization from the get-go. You will easily create your website by following those tips and steps, even if you are new to the web creation process. The dashboard is easy to navigate and offers menus where users can quickly find everything they need, which makes it ideal for beginners.
SiteGround has created its own control panel called Site Tools, and I have to say they’ve done a marvelous job. Site Tools is both intuitive and efficient and offers a menu on the left side, which is pretty straightforward. Users will be able to easily find everything they need just by looking at the menu, and they can pin their most used tools on the main page so that they can find them even faster!
When setting things up with SiteGround, the provider will offer you a tool that will help you to install WordPress, Weebly, Joomla, or Drupal and transfer an existing website. Also, with its Migrator plugin, you can migrate as many WordPress sites as you want with a few simple clicks.
SiteGround will automatically create your backups for you and will keep up to 30 copies of your account. You can easily find your backups in the Security category within your dashboard.
Bluehost Ease-Of-Use
Bluehost offers a list of recommended actions to take to its users once they reach their dashboard. Users can also check the boxes when a specific step is done to keep track of their process. Like SiteGround’s, Bluehost’s account management dashboard is excellent for beginners as it is also incredibly intuitive and has menus that are easy to navigate.
However, Bluehost offers more management options than SiteGround and offers a separate management area for each of your websites (if you decide to create more than one).
Bluehost integrates cPanel and uses it as its control panel. To access cPanel, you will need to press the Advanced button on your dashboard, and you will easily find it. cPanel is famous for being extremely easy to use, and it offers explanations for each tool. Also, you can effortlessly search for a specific tool or function by using cPanel’s search bar.
When it comes to creating a brand new website, users can easily do so with Bluehost. Thus, the whole setup process is ideal for beginners, and they will go through it without breaking a sweat.
However, if you want to migrate your existing website to Bluehost, you will have to do so manually, as Bluehost doesn’t offer a free site migration tool like its competitor, SiteGround. However, if you want to migrate an existing WordPress site, you will be able to do so for free with Bluehost.
When it comes to backups, you will get free daily, weekly, or monthly backups with Bluehost, but they are not guaranteed. Namely, Bluehost recommends that its users create their own manual backups to be safe. So, if you are a beginner who does not know how to do that, this part might prove a little challenging for you.
And the Winner Is…
SiteGround! Although both providers offer a smooth and highly beginner-friendly experience to their users, SiteGround wins because it makes migrations easier for its users.
Round 6: Scalability – Which One Is Better for Growth?
It is crucial for your hosting to be able to grow with you because it will enable you to seamlessly handle increased web traffic without disrupting your visitors’ experience. Also, you need to be able to easily scale your web hosting at all times so that you can grow your businesses and reach new heights without ruining the quality and responsiveness of your website.
SiteGround Scalability
SiteGround offers shared hosting and cloud hosting plans with which you can scale your website and meet the increasing (or decreasing) demands from your visitors. With its shared hosting plans, you will be able to grow from handling 10,000 monthly visits to up to 400,000 monthly visits easily. Also, if you need more space in the future, you will be able to get up to 40GB of space with SiteGround’s shared hosting plans, or if you do not need a lot of space, you can easily switch your plan and get a plan that is suitable for websites that need 20GB or 10GB of space.
So, for a price of $4.41, you will be able to handle up to 10,000 monthly visits, have 10GB of web space, host one website, and have unmetered traffic. On the other hand, if you need a little more space and power, you will be able to handle up to 100,000 monthly visits, have 20GB of web space, host an unlimited number of websites, and have unmetered traffic for the price of $7.72 a month. And for the price of $15.46 a month, you will be able to handle up to 400,000 monthly visits and have 40GB of web space with SiteGround.
However, if none of the above-mentioned numbers suit your needs and you need more, you can get it with SiteGround’s Cloud Hosting plans. SiteGround’s Cloud Hosting plans are ideal for websites that are experiencing continuous growth. And if none of SiteGround’s Cloud hosting plans cover your needs, you can configure your own cloud and get what you need.
Bluehost Scalability
While Bluehost does not offer Cloud hosting, it offers more than enough hosting services and plans that are ideal for growing your website. Namely, since it offers shared, VPS, and dedicated hosting plans, you can go through all stages of growth step-by-step and scale your hosting much more comfortably with Bluehost.
As we mentioned, shared hosting is the first level of hosting you can get for your website, then you have VPS, and finally, you have dedicated hosting. With Bluehost’s plans and low prices, you can scale your websites much more easily and without straining your wallet right away.
You can start with hosting one website at the low price of $2.95 a month and go carefully up from there. Also, if you notice that you have outgrown your shared server and need more resources, you can get your own virtual server for as low as $18.99 a month without needing to jump straight to a cloud server which is much more expensive. And when you need even more power and want to have your own dedicated server, you can do so at a price of $79.99 a month.
And the Winner Is…
Bluehost! Both providers offer both entry-level and high-level hosting services and plans suitable for growth. However, with Bluehost, you will be able to scale your website at a much more balanced level and at lower prices as well!
Round 7: Security – Who Will Make You Feel Safer?
SiteGround | Bluehost | |
Free SSL certificate | ✅ | ✅ |
DDoS protection | ✅ | ✅ |
Cloudflare | ✅ | ✅ |
Daily backups | ✅ | Yes – but they are not guaranteed |
Malware scans | ✅ | ✅ |
SiteLock Security | No, but it offers its own alternative – HackAlert | ✅ |
WAF (Web Application Firewall) | ✅ | ✅ |
Security features | AI-driven anti-bot system Automatic PHP updates Automatic WordPress updates Unique account isolation In-house server monitoring system Spam protection Proactive updates and patches SiteGround Security plugin for WordPress websites | Automatic WordPress updates IP address blacklists SiteLock SpamExperts Password-protected directories |
SiteGround Security
SiteGround offers numerous robust security measures that make its shared hosting as secure as dedicated hosting – and that’s amazing. Its security measures include:
- Custom web application firewall (WAF)
- An AI-driven anti-bot system
- Free SSL security
- Automatic PHP and WordPress updates
- Fast server monitoring system which checks the server status every 0.5 seconds
- Unique account isolation
- Automatic daily backups
- On-demand backup option
All of the security mentioned above features are available in all of SiteGround’s shared hosting plans, except for on-demand backups, which are available with the GrowBig and GoGeek plans.
Bluehost Security
Bluehost also offers excellent security features to its users, including:
- Free SSL security
- IP address blacklists
- Integration with SpamExperts
- Integration with SiteLock
- Password-protected directories
- SSH access
However, if you want to get automated backups, you will have to pay extra with Bluehost.
And the Winner Is…
SiteGround! Both providers offer robust security measures and features; however, SiteGround goes one step beyond and wins this category by providing automated daily backups to all of its users for free.
Round 8: Server Location
Lastly, we will compare the providers’ server locations because they are a crucial factor that affects a website’s speed. The more locations a provider has, the better the speed of your website will be for your visitors. Suppose a provider only has servers in Europe. In that case, visitors from other continents like Australia or Asia will experience slower loading speeds and will not get the same experience as your European visitors.
Thus, a provider should have servers in all parts of the world so that you can attract and retain visitors from everywhere.
SiteGround Server Location
SiteGround has six data centers located on four different continents, including:
- A data center in Iowa, USA;
- A data center in London, UK;
- Another data center in Frankfurt, Germany;
- A data center in Singapore, Singapore;
- A data center in Sydney, Australia.
Bluehost Server Location
Bluehost has data centers on three different continents. The difference between the two providers is that Bluehost has more data centers than SiteGround, even though Bluehost covers one continent less than SiteGround. Namely, Bluehost has 23 data centers located throughout the US, China, India, and Europe.
And the Winner Is…
SiteGround! Even though Bluehost has more data centers than SiteGround, SiteGround wins this category because it covers more continents than Bluehost, including North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.
SiteGround vs. Bluehost: Final Recommendations
When to Choose SiteGround?
SiteGround is an excellent web hosting provider, and you should choose it if:
- You want high-level performance – SiteGround offers an excellent uptime guarantee of 99.99%, which ensures that your website will be up and running practically 24/7. Also, SiteGround has server locations on four different continents, so your website will provide better performance from people from all over the world.
- If you need extra fast loading times – SiteGround proved to be the faster option during the speed tests we conducted. Its longest load speed was 1.25 seconds, which is not long at all and is considered fast in the industry.
- You want excellent support – SiteGround offers round-the-clock support via multiple channels, including live chat, phone, email, and ticket support. It also has an extensive knowledge base where you can find thousands of helpful articles and guides.
Go for Bluehost If You:
Even though Bluehost lost the race, it is still a formidable and competent opponent who offers excellent services. You should choose Bluehost if:
- If you are looking for the most affordable prices – Bluehost offers very low prices and is one of the most affordable providers out there. With it, you will be able to create a beautiful, fully-functioning website even if you are on a tight budget. You will get all the features and tools you need to host your website for as low as $2.95 a month.
- If you want to scale your website step-by-step – Bluehost is also ideal for those who expect to grow their online business one step at a time and do not want to spend money on resources they do not yet need right away. Bluehost offers shared, VPS, and dedicated hosting plans, with which you can slowly scale and grow your website at affordable prices.
The Bottom Line
After conducting an in-depth and highly detailed comparison between the two providers, it is safe to say that SiteGround wins the SiteGround vs. Bluehost race. Both providers proved to be worthy opponents, and both come with their pros and cons. However, SiteGround proved to have more pros than cons and proved to be the more powerful option here.