Bluehost and HostGator are two of the most popular web hosting and other peripheral services providers. With competitive hosting plans and a range of value-added services, Bluehost and HostGator have managed to establish an impeccable industry reputation.
For the majority of users, WordPress services are what count, when we talk about hosting providers. That’s why, throughout the course of this article, discussion will largely revolve around WordPress features.
But how do these two hosting behemoths compare against each other? Let’s try to find out!
Bluehost
Bluehost is a great hosting partner if you want to install WordPress directly onto your domain name. Even though almost every hosting provider worth their salt provides one-click WordPress installation ability these days, Bluehost has taken it a notch up with their extremely easy WordPress installer that doesn’t take more than 2 minutes to install fresh WordPress on a new domain.
Here’s how to install WordPress using Bluehost:
Step- 1
Create a Bluehost account using universal sign up procedure. Once your account is verified, log into your account.
Step- 2
Once you are logged in, simply locate the Website Builder dialogue box (highlighted in yellow). The WordPress option (highlighted in red) is what you need to go ahead with.
Step- 3
You only have to click ‘Start’ to install a fresh copy of website on your domain. If you already have a website set up, you might want to back it up before proceeding. Alternatively, you can switch seamlessly from other host’s WordPress using the ‘Import’ option. Make sure to choose your admin email and password carefully – you don’t want to lose them.
Advantages of installing WordPress using Bluehost:
- Very affordable (multi-domain plans start from as low as $6.99 p.m.)
- After installing WordPress on a new domain using Bluehost, you will have Google AdWords credits worth $200 automatically rolled down to you.
- Bluehost offers a number of WordPress specific value-packs that can help you use many premium plugins for free.
Disadvantages of installing WordPress using Bluehost:
- Bluehost has recently experienced more downtime than they would have liked.
- Their servers can be, for a brief while, unresponsive – leading to high page load times.
HostGator
HostGator is a globally popular web hosting service provider. It has consistently ranked among top 20 hosts in the world for over five years. WordPress installation using HostGator is breezy and quite pleasant, too.
Let’s see how it really works.
Step- 1
Once you create a HostGator account, buy a hosting plan and point the nameservers to your domain, you need to simply gain access to your cPanel account. The credentials are available in an email sent by HostGator. If you don’t know the cPanel ID of your domain, just type the following in your browser’s address bar – www.yourwebsite.com/cpanel
Step- 2
Your cPanel will look something like this (the layout colours might be different in different countries). Find the ‘QuickInstall’ option (encircled in red) and proceed with it.
Step- 3
QuickInstall screen will look something like this. Find the ‘WordPress’ option in the left sidebar. Enter your domain name (as registered in HostGator) and carefully fill in the admin details. Within 2 minutes, your domain will be a host to an efficient WordPress package!
Advantages of installing WordPress using HostGator:
- Amazingly fast servers
- Very low percentage of annual downtime
- Highly customisable plans
- Excellent customer support
Disadvantages of installing WordPress using HostGator:
- HostGator cPanel can be a little overwhelming – especially if you don’t know your ways about web hosting.
- No additional WordPress incentives are offered by HostGator.
Comparing Bluehost and HostGator
When we look at it from a neutral perspective, there’s little separating these two high-quality hosts.
| Bluehost | HostGator | |
| Number of email accounts offered with the starter plan | 100 | 500 |
| Number of domains offered with the starter plan | 2 | 1 |
| Free domains with starter plans | 1 (.com) | None |
| One year starter plan | $6.99 p.m. | $4.99 p.m. |
| Database listings with each plan | 20 | Unlimited |
| Average uptime (over last 12 months) | 99.7% | 99.99% |
| Customer support and troubleshooting | A | A++ |
Summary
It must be noted that for an average user with a website that doesn’t attract unusually high traffic, Bluehost and HostGator are two of the safest options. If you are looking to get your website up and running within half an hour, you can’t go wrong if you choose either of them.
However, if you have on your hands a website that must be up and live 24×7, HostGator will be the more suitable option. Typically, business websites and e-commerce websites need to be on their toes regarding uptime. That’s where HostGator scores more than Bluehost. In addition, HostGator has some of the fastest and most responsive server bases that guarantee an optimum performance of your website.