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SiteGround and Bluehost are two of the most popular web hosting providers for bloggers. WordPress recommends both, calling them the “best and brightest of the hosting world.” But when it comes to SiteGround vs. Bluehost, is one better than the other?
We’re taking a closer look at what these hosting providers offer to determine which one comes out on top. We’ll look at,
In this SiteGround vs. Bluehost review, I’ll also pick a winner for each category. The final winner will be revealed at the end of the post.
Let’s get to it, starting with a comparison of the cost of hosting.
SiteGround vs. Bluehost pricing: Which one’s more affordable?
Affordability is one of the most important things to consider when looking for a web hosting service, especially if you’re a new blogger who’s looking to keep costs as low as possible.
Let’s take a quick look at the pricing of these two web hosts.
SiteGround’s WordPress hosting pricing
Bluehost’s shared hosting pricing
VERDICT: Bluehost wins.
Bluehost’s plans tend to be more affordable than SiteGround’s hosting plan. That said, the pricing can vary depending on the hosting category you choose (shared, dedicated or VPS).
I’m focusing on shared hosting because it’s usually the best option for beginner bloggers who are yet to receive huge amounts of traffic to their blogs.
That said, Bluehost is cheaper in another way —it includes free domain registration for one year. While you can also register a domain through SiteGround, a “.com” domain starts at $15.95 per year.
On to the next round….
Features: Who has the best features for bloggers?
Let’s take a closer look at the features that SiteGround and Bluehost offer that will help you grow your blogging career.
SiteGround’s features for shared hosting
Bluehost’s features for shared hosting
VERDICT: SiteGround wins.
Remember, we’re only looking at the basic plans for both web hosts here. SiteGround’s basic plan appears to have more features than Bluehost.
The most important ones for blogging include daily backups, a free domain email (e.g., yourname@myblog.com), free WordPress installation and migration, unmetered traffic and databases, and a 30-day-money back guarantee.
However, as mentioned above, Bluehost does beat SiteGround when it comes to domain registration, as it includes a free domain for a year.
Speed and uptime: Which is faster?
So many web hosting reviews claim that SiteGround is faster than Bluehost. I decided to verify this claim by actually testing their loading speeds via GT Metric, one of the most popular online tools that assess and report the performance of websites.
Here are the results for the two websites in terms of performance.
SiteGround
Bluehost
VERDICT: SiteGround wins.
SiteGround won my test when it came to speed and performance. I repeated this test several times and at different intervals to verify the results. In each test, SiteGround still emerged on top in terms of speed and performance.
That said, speed and performance can be variable at different times and on different days, so it could be worth running your own test if you want to compare the two.
Furthermore, both hosts guarantee more than 99% up-time, meaning both are solid, secure options for hosting your blog.
SiteGround vs. Bluehost customer support: Which is more helpful?
If you’ve just started your blogging career, chances are you’ll be in contact with your web host’s customer support quite often.
This is especially true if you’ll be building your blog from scratch and don’t have much experience with blog design. (Don’t worry, thanks to drag-and-drop templates, it’s easier than ever to design a pretty blog!).
However, if you run into challenges or technical issues, contacting customer support can help. This is where choosing a web hosting company with the best customer support services can come in handy.
Let’s take a look at what to expect from these two web hosts in terms of customer support.
To start with, both SiteGround and Bluehost let you contact their customer support representatives without necessarily creating an account online.
To contact support on SiteGround as a new customer, follow these steps:
- Click on Sales Chat from the main menu
- Select the New Customer Tap from the new window
- Provide your name and email
- Enter the question, and then click Continue to connect to the next available live chat support representative
To contact Bluehost support as a new customer, you have three options to choose from the main menu of the website’s homepage: email, chat or call. If you choose to chat with a Bluehost customer support representative, the procedure is the same as SiteGround’s.
If you want to call Bluehost customer service representatives, click on the Call button on the homepage of the website, and you will see a list of phone numbers for your location. Here’s a summary of customer support reviews of both web hosting companies posted on TrustPilot.
SiteGround customer service reviews
Bluehost customer service reviews
VERDICT: SiteGround wins.
Based on these reviews, it’s clear that many users prefer SiteGround to Bluehost when it comes to customer service. In this category, SiteGround wins — again!
Security: Which one’s safer?
Cybersecurity is an important part of blogging. Once your blog starts attracting hundreds or thousands of subscribers monthly, it could be a target for hacking. Hacking could not only cut off people from accessing your blog, but it could lead to sensitive data being leaked.
For instance, a hacker could leak the emails of your subscribers to a third party. Or if your blog has ecommerce features, your customers’ credit card details could be breached.
To avoid this scary scenario, it’s always good to choose a web hosting service that prioritizes the security of its clients’ websites and blogs.
SiteGround security
This web hosting service flaunts its security-first approach, which includes a team of developers and a 24/7 system administration team to watch over their platforms. They go further to explain exactly how their security system works. Take a look:
Bluehost security
Under this category, I took a tour of Bluehost’s website, but couldn’t find any specific security features, even though there were a couple of mentions in several pages. While Bluehost pledges to provide security for their customers, they don’t provide as much information as SiteGround about how exactly they achieve this.
Along the way, I bumped into this section on the Bluehost website, where I searched for the term “security” (because it wasn’t readily available on the home page or other pages of the website).
While this popular web host’s servers are likely secure, Bluehost could provide more details about their approach to security.
VERDICT: SiteGround wins.
If Bluehost has better security features than SiteGround, they aren’t as well elaborated. That’s why, in this category, I’ll hand the crown over to SiteGround, once again.
SiteGround goes the extra mile to explain the exact security features they have and how they work. When you click on the “Learn More” button on the security page on SiteGround, you will be redirected to more pages providing information about the security features that come with this web hosting service.
Popularity: Which is more popular?
If you’ve done some research into how to start a blog, chances are you’ve seen tons of bloggers recommending Bluehost. From my experience, I see Bluehost talked about a lot more among bloggers than SiteGround.
Bluehost, based in Orem, Utah, United States, has over two million clients from all over the world. The company was founded in 2003 and employs over 750 people in its facility in Utah. It’s owned by Endurance International Group and led by Suhaib Zaheer as its CEO since 2017.
On the other hand, SiteGround was founded on March 22, 2004 by Ivo Tzenov, a year after Bluehost. Interestingly, as of January 2020, the company boasts at least two million clients worldwide. This is about the same number of clients as Bluehost.
Given that Bluehost has been in the industry a year longer than SiteGround, and somehow, they seem to have almost the same number of customers worldwide, it appears that SiteGround is gaining ground on the popularity front.
VERDICT: Bluehost wins.
Although Bluehost wins this category, there’s every reason to believe that SiteGround is climbing up the ladder – fast.
SiteGround vs. Bluehost: Recommended by WordPress?
WordPress is by far the most popular content management system and the word’s most popular blogging platform. I recommend WordPress to new bloggers looking to build a blogging business.
Both Bluehost and SiteGround have been officially recommended by WordPress, along with web hosting provider DreamHost. Here’s a confirmation screenshot from the official website of WordPress:
VERDICT: Tie.
On whether Bluehost or SiteGround has been endorsed by WordPress, the result is a tie.
Which hosting service is better for you?
If you’re looking for affordability, Bluehost is cheaper than SiteGround. When you first sign up for its basic plan (shared hosting), you’ll only pay $2.95 per month for 36 months and get a free domain name for a year.
This is one of the best web hosting deals you’ll find anywhere on the internet. Also, if you’re looking for a popular web host based on the number of global customers, Bluehost still seems to be the more popular option of the two.
That said, SiteGround exceeds in several areas that could make its higher price tag worth it. Its prompt and knowledgable customer service, for example, is a big draw.
As a reminder, here are the results of this SiteGround vs. Bluehost cage match:
In the end, both SiteGround and Bluehost are excellent options for hosting your blog. Both integrate seamlessly with WordPress and make it easy to get your blog online in a matter of minutes.
Think about which factors are most important to you (pricing, features, security, etc.), and choose your host accordingly.
For a deeper dive into both hosts, check out my full SiteGround review here and complete Bluehost review here.
For more on how to launch your blog, head to my step-by-step tutorial on how to start a blog. Happy blogging!
