With technology being our present age’s front runner, it’s no surprise that practically every part of a business is conducted online. Websites and blogs, of course, are included. Web hosting is the go-to solution if you want an excellent and fast-running website or blog. And the web hosting industry is a big one.

As a result, it’s unsurprising that individuals have trouble deciding which service to choose. There are many options currently available when it comes to providers. As a result, I decided to create the Vendor vs. Vendor series. And in this installment of the series, I’ll compare two well-known web hosts: Hostinger and Bluehost. One is the cheaper choice currently accessible, while the other is the most reliable one. As a result, a question arises: is it better to pay a higher price, or is it better to pay a lower price?

So, today I will help you make a decision more readily by comparing Hostinger and Bluehost and deciding whether one is better than the other. I’ll make my decision based on speed, features, price, and other vital factors.

Let’s start!

About Today’s Providers

First, let’s get to know today’s competitors a bit more, starting with Hostinger. Hostinger is a little younger than Bluehost, being founded in 2004. It is a privately held company with over 29 million users and is based in Kaunas, Lithuania, with 178 subsidiaries worldwide. The company was initially known as Hosting Media, and it wasn’t until 2011 that it was renamed Hostinger.

In 2021, investors purchased 31% of Hostinger’s equity from employees and became members of the board of directors. With over 20,000 new users signing up every day, Hostinger is ICANN-accredited. Since its inception, Hostinger has been an enormous success.

Hostinger offers shared web hosting, cloud hosting, WordPress hosting, cPanel hosting, VPS hosting, Minecraft hosting, and CyberPanel VPS hosting. All Hostinger plans include free SSL certificates, backups, built-in caching, and other features. Online stores can also benefit from eCommerce hosting.

Now it’s time for Bluehost. It is a private firm based in Provo, Utah, that was established in 2003. The Endurance International Group purchased it in 2010. It has amassed almost 2 million websites in its 18 years of existence. Bluehost has been a long-time supporter of WordPress, having done so for over a decade. It’s also a WordPress-approved provider.

In addition to WordPress hosting, Bluehost also offers shared hosting, virtual private servers, and dedicated server hosting, which it launched in 2013. It also provides WooCommerce hosting as well as other marketing services.

Both providers have a lot to offer and are among the top picks in their field; however, if you want a provider with lower prices and faster loading time, Hostinger has the right features. On the other hand, if you want a provider with unlimited resources and better support, Bluehost’s features would be a better fit for you.

But let’s not make any decisions yet, and let’s see what these two providers have to offer in more detail.

Lightning Speed – Who’s Faster?

Your website’s uptime and performance are shown in the server network. As a result, it is a critical consideration when selecting a web hosting service. It’s best to go with a web hosting provider with a high uptime and speed level. Otherwise, your website’s content will load slowly. This being said, let’s see how today’s providers do in the speed field.

Let’s start with Hostinger. The provider is pretty transparent when it comes to the location of its data centers, unlike Bluehost. Hostinger maintains data centers in the United Kingdom, the United States, the Netherlands, Singapore, Brazil, Lithuania, and Indonesia. Hostinger also allows users to change the server’s location where their data is stored once a month.

Customers can monitor the server uptime using Hostinger’s system status, which guarantees a 99.99 percent uptime. Cloudflare CDN is also available through Hostinger, ensuring that your website’s content is delivered swiftly no matter where you are.

Hostinger-hosted websites have an average load time of 143 ms, which is faster than most providers. This is one of the quickest response times available, and it beats the industry average of 600 ms by a long shot.

Bluehost is a global service network that offers fast and dependable web hosting to its customers. When it comes to the location of Bluehost’s servers and their number, the provider isn’t exactly forthcoming. According to reliable sources, Bluehost has data centers in Provo, Utah, Orem, Utah, Mumbai, India, London, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, China, and Shanghai, China.

Even though the locations of the data centers are not publicly disclosed, Bluehost automatically selects the best server for storing your data based on your geographic location. Even if you don’t know where your data is stored, this ensures that you get the most outstanding possible experience and optimization.

Now we’ll talk about speed. Bluehost offers 99.9 percent uptime. This percentage is usual for web hosting and slightly higher than the 99.59 percent industry average. As a result, it’s plausible to believe their speed is correct. As a result, the most significant possible result is 99.9 percent uptime, which Bluehost offers.

In addition, as previously indicated, Bluehost, like Hostinger, offers a free Content Delivery Network (CDN), specifically the Cloudflare CDN service, which ensures a truly high degree of performance.

The average load time for Bluehost is 361 ms, which is regarded as outstanding and quick. However, Hostinger has a significantly faster response time.

It is important to note that both providers do well in this category, as both guarantee a 99.99 percent uptime and offer CDN with every plan. However, Hostinger does a better job because it has a significantly faster average response time.

About Security

When picking a web hosting provider, security and data protection are critical considerations. This feature is more important than speed for many people because many websites, blogs, online businesses, and other services work with sensitive data that must be safeguarded from cyberattacks and backed up frequently. So, before you choose a provider, you need to know how they perform in terms of security and backup.

When it comes to these two providers, both of them offer the basic security features in their plans, such as:

• Free Let’s Encrypt certificate installation and upgrades
• Easy one-click Cloudflare installation
• Basic spam protection
• Server-level security enhancements

Also, both providers offer free SSL certificates and DDoS protection.

So, to see the fundamental differences between these two providers, we have to look at the more advanced features they offer.

First up, Hostinger. Mod security, Suhosin PHP hardening, PHP open_basedir protection, and other security modules are available on Hostinger’s servers. They allow the business to provide the highest level of security currently accessible.

Free CDN, WordPress Acceleration, Cloudflare, SSH Access, and daily and weekly backups are also provided. Hostinger also has a two-factor login system in place, as well as BitNinja security for added protection.

As mentioned, Bluehost, like Hostinger, also offers free CDN. SiteLock is also provided by Bluehost that checks your website for malware, spyware, and other dangers daily. As a result, all corporate servers are monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Anti-Spam Protection and Two-Factor Authentication are also included. SSH Access, IP Blocker, SSL/TLS, Manage API Tokens, Hotlink Protection, and SSL/TLS Status are all included in the control panel. Bluehost offers automatic WordPress updates with the latest security features, account confirmation by token for contacting customer support, daily site backups, and one-click restore from backups.

When it comes to security, both providers offer similar features, except that Hostinger provides more features for free than Bluehost does. However, both providers are on the same level here.

Backups are the next step, and Hostinger is the first up. Depending on the plan you choose, Hostinger can run daily or weekly backups for you. After that, you can download the backup files. As a result, you should carefully consider the plan you choose and whether it includes backup options.

Bluehost provides free daily, weekly, and monthly backups. It also allows you to recover data from backups with a single click. On the other hand, these backups aren’t assured. To ensure that their data is safe, Bluehost recommends that users create manual backups.

Another thing to keep in mind about Bluehost’s backup policy, you must purchase at least Choice Plus to receive automated backup options. Bluehost, on the other hand, would charge you $32.95 per year to do your backups.

So, overall, neither provider really exceeds when it comes to security as they both offer basic features, which are still pretty good. However, seeing as Hostinger provides backups at a lower price, I have to say that Hostinger has the upper hand here, but only slightly.

Who’s Easier to Use?

Both providers are at the top of the list when it comes to ease of use. Because not all consumers are tech-savvy or specialists in this industry, web hosting services must be user-friendly and beginner-friendly. Let’s see if one provider outperforms the other or if it’s a draw.

Hostinger uses the hPanel control panel, which is a custom control panel. Its Site Manager provides a graphical user interface for beginners and a server control interface for developers, similar to cPanel, which Bluehost uses. hPanel is a stripped-down version of cPanel that is more user-friendly, intuitive, and accessible to beginners. You can access your WordPress dashboard and plugins with a single click.

The cPanel on Bluehost is exceptionally user-friendly. It’s well-organized and straightforward to use. Everything is clearly labeled and has a corresponding icon; all you have to do now is select the icon you want to utilize. Bluehost is in charge of the rest.

Bluehost’s cPanel is very well-integrated, and it includes a unique dashboard for novices with additional capabilities that aid website and business management.

So, I will have to declare a tie for this category because, ultimately, both providers have a very user-friendly service. At the end of the day, the choice will be left for you to decide which provider you prefer based on your individual needs.

Customer Support

If a business wants to be successful, it must provide exceptional customer service. It’s no surprise that these two providers are among the finest in the industry regarding customer service. Both companies have extensive knowledge bases and can respond to any question you may have.

Hostinger provides live chat and email assistance 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Hostinger also provides a well-organized and vast knowledge base containing tutorials and a blog, as previously noted.

Bluehost offers live chat, phone, forum, email assistance, video tutorials, and an extensive knowledge base, as mentioned. It has a toll-free number for phone help, and the response time is immediate, as shown in the picture below, and is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It does not, however, provide a feature for submitting support tickets.

Overall, neither provider is perfect for support, as there are things that one offers and the other doesn’t and vice versa. However, for this one, I have to give the win to Bluehost, as it has phone support. But all in all, both providers offer a reliable customer support service.

Analyzing the Financials

Now that we’ve gone over the two providers’ basics, performance, and technical aspects, it’s time to look at their financial components. The number of plans available and the features included varying between these two providers. Let’s have a look at the shared hosting plans offered by the providers for the sake of simplicity.

Hostinger has three shared hosting plans available, with monthly promo prices for new users. It’s important to know that the rates virtually double the promotional price when you renew your subscription. Despite the higher renewal fees, the features provided by Hostinger are pretty impressive for the price you pay. Also, Hostinger has multiple payment options available for its customers, such as PayPal, credit cards, and cryptocurrencies.

Bluehost is a bit more expensive. Bluehost has four different shared hosting plans available, each with a 12-month or 36-month billing period. The Choice Plus plan is the one that is suggested and offers the best value for money. After the first billing cycle, the renewal fees double, just like with Hostinger.

Overall, Hostinger outperforms the competition in terms of pricing, as it offers lower prices and more features.

When it comes to refunds, Hostinger has an industry-standard 30-day money-back guarantee.

Bluehost offers the same 30-day money-back guarantee as Hostinger.

Now, let’s look at the affiliate programs of Hostinger and Bluehost.

You can make money with Hostinger by referring to successful signups, such as web hosting sales. It’s free to sign up, and it’s a quick and straightforward process. All you have to do is make an account, fill a form, and wait for your account to be verified. After you’ve been verified, you’ll receive a referral link that you may use to promote Hostinger products. The commissions you receive can increase once you start making 15-20 sales every month.

For each eligible hosting sale that their affiliates make, Bluehost pays a commission to their new affiliates. The registration process is straightforward and free. In just a few minutes, you can sign up for an affiliate program and begin making money. Bluehost accepts approximately 95 percent of all applications. Bluehost will send you a unique affiliate link when you’ve been accepted, which you may use to promote Bluehost on social media and your website. The best part is that you can earn as much in commissions as you desire. By providing targeted campaigns, promotional tools, and accurate tracking, Bluehost will make the process even easier for you. Payments are made using PayPal 45-60 days after the sales are made at the month’s end.

The affiliate programs of these two providers are excellent, and many people use them. So, be sure that you’ll earn money regardless of whose program you choose.

So, when I look at this category overall, I am confident that Hostinger is the winner as it has lower prices for both new users and renewals. Also, the fact that both providers offer similar features yet Hostinger has lower prices than Bluehost is another reason why Hostinger takes this win.

Main Features

For simplicity, let’s put the main features these two providers offer in one place.

Overall Summary of Categories

And The Crown Goes to – Hostinger!

The comparison between these two providers was quite a close call. And although Hostinger won in most of the categories, Bluehost was right at its heels, not far behind.

However, there can only be one winner, and today the winner is Hostinger, seeing as it did better in almost every aspect of today’s race. Still, I have to point out that the final decision rests on you and your specific needs.

So, Hostinger is the best option if you’re new to the field, looking for low prices and quick loading times.

On the other hand, Bluehost is for those who want unlimited resources like bandwidth, storage, websites, and better support.