SiteGround vs Bluehost: Which One is The Winner in 2024?

SiteGround vs Bluehost
SiteGround vs Bluehost

If you're finding it difficult to pick the right hosting choice among SiteGround and Bluehost, this post is just for you where you'll find all the details including pros, cons, benefits and also the pricing for Wordpress.org (official website) recommended hosts.

Are you confused between SiteGround and Bluehost? Do you want to pick the right shared hosting choice that offers security and speed?

In this detailed SiteGround vs Bluehost comparison post, we’ll talk about all the features, pros and cons and other essential details that you need to pick the right hosting choice among them.

We’ll also talk about few important things you need to remember before you pick a web hosting choice to run your WordPress sites. Let’s get started!

SiteGround vs Bluehost: The Best Web Hosting Revealed

siteground vs bluehost 2024
FeaturesSiteGroundBluehost
24/7 supportYes
Yes
Website space10 to 30 GBUnmetered
Control PanelYesYes
Free domainYesYes
Money back guarantee30 days30 days
SSD StorageYesNo
Pricing$3.99/mo$2.95/mo (after discount)
Uptime99.9%99.9%

Before we talk about the best web hosting comparison between these two hosts, let’s first start with the SiteGround features, benefits along with the pricing first. Then, we’ll move on to to discover the features of Bluehost along with pricing and all.

SiteGround: What Makes It A Recommended Hosting by Official WordPress.org Team Itself?

SiteGround is officially recommended by WordPress.org itself and it is one of the best hosting providers that offers speed and security at affordable prices. If you’re looking for SSD storage which gives you faster loading times along with bulletproof security – SiteGround should be your top hosting choice.

Features List Of SiteGround

Here’s an awesome list of features provided by SiteGround.

  • Free domain name
  • Free website builder to easily start a website no matter what industry you are in
  • cPanel & SSH Access for easy website management and better security
  • Free website setup & transfer
  • 24/7 Technical Support to assist and resolve any hosting issues you might have
  • SSD Storage to boost up your website speed
  • Free uto daily backups in case if you lose any files or data
  • 30 days money back guarantee
  • Unlimited Emails and databases
  • Free Let’s Encrypt SSLs for better encryption
  • Free Cloudflare CDN to increase your website performance
  • Instant backups on demand and so on

Why Use SiteGround?

If you’re wondering about why should you pick SiteGround hosting plans to host your WordPress site, here are few top benefits laid out for you!

1. SSD Storage for all hosting plans
Website speed is one of the most important things which can make or break your website’s success. Not only your website audience but also Google gives top priority and rankings if your site is loading faster.

Most of the shared hosting environments (including hosting sites like Bluehost, HostGator etc) don’t provide faster website loading times because their servers are still outdated. Here’s where SiteGround stays way ahead of Bluehost as their shared hosting environment uses SSD servers (solid state drives) to give you blazing fast loading times.

ssd plans

The best part is that SiteGround provides SSD servers to even shared hosting plans that offer you affordable pricing plans ranging from $3.99 per month which is insane.

Just imaging getting access to fastest SSD servers at the price of merely $4 per month. If you’re looking for a fastest hosting service provider which is also affordable, you should definitely go for SiteGround.

2. Free site transfers, free SSL certificates and own firewall security
Do you hate your current web hosting service? Are you thinking about migrating your site from your existing hosting service to a better hosting site like SiteGround? Then, you’re in good hands because SiteGround provides you free site transfers.

All you have to do is to pick any of their hosting plans and contact their customer support about your site migration and they will do the needful. The best part is that it is completely free of cost!

SSL certificates are essential if you’re running a site in 2024 and beyond because it works both as a trust factor (must for eCommerce stores) and also Google started giving more priority to the sites that have enabled SSL certificates. SiteGround offers SSL certificates at free of cost whereas you’ve purchase it if you’re using Bluehost.

SiteGround also has its own firewall security to provide all of their sites super security from all malware attacks and security threats. So if you’re looking for bullet proof security to cover all your websites from any security or malware attacks, SiteGround can be your best bet.

3. Free auto daily backups with CloudFlare CDN
What happens if you lost all of your site files or data? What if your site gets hacked? Have you ever thought about it? Daily thousands of websites are getting hacked and cracked by black hat attackers who either steal your backlinks or produce some malware into your websites which affects both your traffic and sales.

So what’s the best way to avoid it? You need to get a better hosting that provides top security features as well as regular backups of your site. While Bluehost charges extra money for backups option whereas SiteGround offers auto daily backups of your site for free.

If you’re wondering how CDN works, just check out this video.

That means in case if something goes wrong or if your website files accidentally get deleted, then you can simply use SiteGround backup restore feature to restore all your data (including blog posts, images, comments etc) at free of cost.

Pros And Cons of SiteGround

Pros

  • Create instant backups whenever you need them
  • SSD servers on all plans
  • Free website migration service for each account
  • Amazing uptime of 99.9%
  • SSL encrypted with each account (for free)
  • Priority support for all the customers
  • A wide range of hosting options ranging from shared hosting to managed hosting to enterprise hosting that suit all kinds of budget and website needs

Cons

  • Website space capped at 10GB to 30GB
  • Limited bandwidth (they also limit the CPU usage to a daily and monthly limits)

What About SiteGround Pricing?

SiteGround offers a variety of hosting options which are suited for all kinds of businesses and people and here are few of them;

  • Dedicated hosting
  • Shared hosting
  • Reseller hosting
  • Managed hosting
  • Cloud hosting
  • Enterprise hosting

Shared hosting plans from SiteGround are most popular and widely used by beginners which are also are affordable for starters so let’s talk about the shared hosting plans from SiteGround.

SiteGround offers 3 pricing plans in their share hosting environment which include;

  1. StartUp
  2. GrowBig
  3. GoGeek

Let’s explore more details about each of their shared hosting plans so you can pick the best one that suits your budget and website needs.

  • StartUp: This plan is perfectly suited for beginners who wants the cheapest plans from SiteGround which costs you just $3.99 per month where you can install 1 website where you’ll get 10 GB of website space and perfectly suited for 10,000 monthly website visitors.
  • GrowBig: This is the most recommend shared hosting plan from SiteGround which costs you $6.69 per month where you can install multiple websites with 20 GB website space and suitable for up to 100,000 monthly visits.
  • GoGeek: If you want an advance shared hosting plan from SiteGround which gives you ultimate features like staging, free backups on demand, this plan is for you which costs you $10.69 per month and you’ll get 40 GB space which is suitable for traffic up to 400,000 website visits a month.

So if you’ve decided the right hosting plan from SiteGround, what are you still waiting for?

Bluehost: Is Is Just Another Hosting Or A Better Alternative?

First things first: Bluehost is also a recommended WordPress hosting by official WordPress.org team. In fact, here are only 3 hosting sites that WordPress.org recommends for web hosting;

  • Bluehost
  • DreamHost and
  • SiteGround

Bluehost currently owned by EIG group and Bluehost was founded by Matt Heaton and Danny Ashworth in 2003 and it currently hosts over 2 million websites all around the world (which itself says how popular and big it is when compared to other hosting sites like SiteGround).

Suggested Reading: Hostgator vs Bluehost: Which is the better host in 2024?

Features List Of Bluehost

Here’s a list of some of the Bluehost features that you need to have a look at if you’re going to giving a try to it:

  • Free domain name for 1 year
  • 30 days money back guarantee
  • Unlimited emails and databases
  • Unmetered bandwidth and website space
  • $200 valued marketing offers (both Google and Bing ads to help you promote your new website in paid search)
  • Offers cPanel for easier domain and website management
  • Creates automatic daily backups for all your website files (only for Choice Plus shared hosting plans users)
  • Gives you access to domain manager which helps you easily track, update, transfer and purchase domains from one place

Why Should You Use Bluehost?

If you’re still thinking about whether or not to purchase hosting plans from Bluehost, you should probably read the following benefits offered by Bluehost so you get a better view of their hosting environment before you spend any money on their hosting plans.

1. Cheaper hosting plans
The #1 reason to choose Bluehost over SiteGround is for pricing. Bluehost offers cheaper shared hosting plans that are way better than SiteGround and that’s why Bluehost has over 2 million customers worldwide.

Bluehost shared hosting plans start just at $2.95 per month which is way cheaper when compared to SiteGround shared hosting plans which start at $3.99 per month (that means there’s a difference of over $1 per month when compared to Bluehost Vs SiteGround hosting plans).

So if you are someone who is looking to get a reliable shared hosting service at cheaper prices, Bluehost should be your pick. Just make sure to pick 36 months (3 years) shared hosting plans from Bluehost to get that pricing of paying just $2.95 per month.

If you’re picking 1 year hosting plans, you’ll have to pay more, so make sure of their 3 years hosting plans so you can save more on their hosting.

Suggested Reading: Bluehost coupon: Get 66% Discount Now

2. Awesome customer support from Bluehost
When you are just starting out, you might face a lot of issues and challenges to start your WordPress site (things like installing WordPress on your hosting, changing domain name servers and pointing them to your hosting, managing your files from your hosting account etc). Here’s where you need really good help and assistance from your hosting. If not, you’ll regret later for choosing them. Fortunately Bluehost offers help in a lot of ways;

  • A wide range of library of articles which includes step by step guides and video tutorials around domains, emails, hosting etc (which can help you as a self help for fixing things on your own)
  • Live chat
  • Phone support
  • Ticket system (where you need to submit a ticket through their website to resolve your hosting related issues)

The best part is, their customer support team is functional and up and running 24/7 days, all day every day (throughout the year). That means, even if you had any hiccups with your websites at midnight, you can contact their customer support team for assistance.

3. User friendly easy to use control panel
The primary reason to consider buying hosting from Bluehost is that it offers an easy to use control panel which makes easier for you to do things like;

  • Installing WordPress with 1 click
  • Managing your emails
  • Creating databases
  • Email forwarding, file access and so on

Here’s how the cPanel looks like;

bluehost cpanel look

It also offers drag and drop builders such as Weebly to easily create stunning websites even if you’re not a tech savvy. Not only that, you can manage all your files including backups (Bluehost keeps weekly and monthly backups of your site) that you can use to restore your files in case of data loss.

Pros And Cons of Bluehost

Pros

  • Widely used and backed by EIG group (which also own a ton of other hosting companies like HostGator, iPage etc)
  • Gives you access to a wide range of free website scripts including social networking scripts, blog support, mailing lists, message forums, Joomla and Drupal etc.
  • Supports a lot of databases including MySQL, PostgreSQL, CGI-BIN, PHP, Python, Perl, Ruby on Rails etc
  • The cPanel (control panel) on Bluehost is extremely easy to use even by beginners (you can easily manage all your files, databases, domains, install WordPress with just a click of a button etc)
  • You’ll get a free domain name for a year with all the hosting plans from Bluehost except the basic plan (that means you’ll be saving around $10 to $15 on purchasing a domain instantly when you sign up with Bluehost)
  • All of the shared hosting plans from Bluehost include essential things like unlimited disk storage, domain hosting, email addresses and bandwidth
  • Bluehost has a better customer support so you are in safe hands when things go south

Cons

  • Lots of upselling for things such as backups, SSL certificates, SiteLock and so on
  • No SSD storage offered (thus the websites that are hosted on Bluehost are not as fast as SiteGround because SiteGround uses super fast SSD storage drives) on all of their hosting plans
  • Charges money for site migrations unlike SiteGround

Bluehost Pricing

Bluehost also offers a wide range of hosting plans including shared hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated hosting and so on but let’s just talk about the shared hosting plans from Bluehost so you can pick the most affordable hosting choices from Bluehost to launch your WordPress site today.

Bluehost shared hosting plans include;

  1. Bluehost Basic plan: This is the cheapest hosting plan, which costs you $2.95 per month, where you can install 1 website with 10 GB storage.
  2. Bluehost Choice Plus plan: This is the MOST recommended plan, which costs you $5.45 per month, and you can install 3 websites with 40 GB storage. You’ll also get a free domain and CDN.
  3. Bluehost Online Store: This plan costs you $9.95 per month, where you can install 3 websites with 40 GB storage. You’ll also get a free domain, free malware scanning, backups and CDN with eCommerce plugins worth over $450.
  4. Bluehost Pro plan: This is their high-end shared hosting plan, which costs you $13.95 per month, where you can install 5 websites with 100 GB storage. You’ll also get a free domain, CDN, malware scanning, free daily website backups, etc.

Click here to start your site on Bluehost (at a discount price)

Read: Bluehost vs GoDaddy: Which is the Better Host?

How to get started with proper web hosting search?

Here are few things to keep in mind before signing up for any web hosting of your choice so you can save more bucks and host your sites on the right platform without any fuss.

Picking the right hosting

Here are 3 major factors that you need to be careful about before choosing any hosting i.e between SiteGround and Bluehost or any other hosting choice.

1. What about the pricing?

This is the primary concern for most people who are just starting out and hunting for a hosting to run their WordPress sites: pricing is what bothers most people. How much should you spend on a hosting service completely depends on your website and budget needs. But avoid free web hosting sites if possible.

Also look for hosting sites that offer reliable hosting service at affordable prices with a lot of customer base. That way you can grab a decent hosting service without worrying much about the budget. Fortunately both SIteGround and Bluehost don’t put a hole in your pockets as both of them are affordable hosting choices.

Also make sure to keep an eye on their money back guarantee while picking any hosting service of your choice. Few hosting sites give you 7 days while most of the other hosting sites including SiteGround and Bluehost gives you 30 days money back which means that first time Bluehost or SiteGround users can try out their preferred hosting package for a period of 30 days and continue with it only if they like. Also make sure it has web analytics access, here’s a video explaining the need for it.

They can prefer not to continue with SiteGround or Bluehost hosting services within 30 days and get their full money back as a refund. So you are not going to lose anything.

2. What about the customer reviews?

Just do a quick search on Google to find out all the real feedback given by people who are already using the hosting service you want to buy. If you’ve decided to buy either SiteGround or Bluehost, you can simply look for customer reviews to know the ins and outs of that hosting because the people who are already using the hosting can give you a better idea about how good their features or how fast their customer support is.

Also go through forums, take help from people who you know about their hosting choice and use platforms like Quora to know more about the hosting platform. Because once you’ve decided to host your site on any hosting platform, you’ll rarely think about migrating to another hosting service (even if you’re facing issues with your current hosting service simply to avoid the complexity of migrating a site or moving all your files, emails, databases etc).

3. How good is their customer support?

Last but not the least: figure out how good or bad the customer support team is. Fortunately both SiteGround and Bluehost provide great customer support which is functional 24/7 throughout the year.

Which hosting plan to choose?

There are a wide range of hosting plans offered by both of these hosting sites. There are a full range of hosting plans that most of the hosting companies offer you which are listed below;

  • WordPress hosting is perfectly suited for WordPress users
  • Shared hosting which is suitable for people who want affordable hosting
  • VPS hosting which is best for people who want better website speeds
  • Dedicated hosting is best for those high traffic sites which get a lot of traffic every single day
  • Cloud hosting services are for people who need ultimate cloud hosting experience with affordable rates (this is also gives you less downtime issues as the hosting is provided on cloud hosting)
  • WooCommerce hosting is best for eCommerce and online stores that need a ton of eCommerce and SEO friendly apps and easy to handle apps (such as shopping carts, navigation etc)

So make sure to pick the right hosting plan that suits your budget needs as well as website needs.

Are there any catches?

There are so many hosting companies that do upselling all the time. There’s nothing wrong in upselling or cross selling though but beginners who have limited budgets can get frustrated if they see any upselling.

Most hosting companies do upselling through add ons such as backups, site transfers, website setup and so on. So make sure if you find any such as extra addons while picking your web hosting service. Also have a look at hosting companies that provide you unlimited bandwidth because they always put a maximum cap on their bandwidth (so it’s really not unlimited).

If there’s any hidden fees such as GST or any other tax, you should take a notice of that too. Although SiteGround doesn’t charge any hidden fees but Bluehost does charge hidden fees in terms of taxes so you should be well aware of that.

Read: Best Bluehost Alternatives for 2024 That Are Most Trusted

The Ultimate Breakdown

If you’re still wondering about which hosting service to pick among these two hosts, here’s a simple breakdown of these hosting sites which includes their pricing comparison, features, security and website speed comparisons so you get a clear idea about which one to pick among them.

Pricing: Bluehost shared hosting plan (starter plan) starts at just $2.95 per month where SiteGround shared hosting plans start from $3.99 per month. So clearly pricing wise, Bluehost is better when compared to SiteGround.

Features: Features wise, SiteGround is a lot better when compared to Bluehost. You’ll get incredible features such as free SSL certificates, daily automatic backups, free website transfers and so on with SiteGround which are not offered by Bluehost (you’ll have to pay extra for all those addons).

Security: Both SiteGround and Bluehost take their security seriously and they provide all the necessary features such as backups, malware protection, constant network monitoring, securing their hosting environment with firewalls to keep your sites secure from all the potential security risks and threats.

Website speed and performance: SiteGround wins the race in terms of speed and website performance. All of the sites on SiteGround are hosted using SSD drives along with a CDN to give you superior website loading times and speeds when compared to traditional storage provided by Bluehost. Here’s an illustration of it.

speed test

Customer support: Again, both SiteGround and Bluehost offers 24/7 customer support through phone, live chat and knowledgebase where you can find a ton of video and text form of tutorials to resolve your hosting related issues.

So what do you think about both the hosts? Have you decided the right hosting choice for your budget and website needs?


FAQs

Here are few FAQs about SiteGround vs Bluehost that you must know before giving a try to either one of the hosting sites.

Who should choose SiteGround hosting for WordPress site?

SiteGround is really a better choice if you want faster loading times with better security as SiteGround uses SSD servers which also gives you access to SSL certificates for free of cost.

Who should pick Bluehost as their hosting provider?

Bluehost is one of the most trusted hosting companies used by over 2 million people worldwide. So if you really want a web hosting service with easy to use control panel, large number of customers and affordable hosting plans, Bluehost is just for you.

Should I be using a CDN on my website?

If you have high traffic or heavy content based website which includes content like videos, large sized images, files for download etc we highly recommend you to use CDN on your website.

How to install WordPress on SiteGround hosting?

u can take the help of tutorials from SiteGround to easily install WordPress and there are so many video tutorials are also available where you can install WordPress on SiteGround with just one click. If you still have any questions, you can seek assistance from SiteGround customer support team.

How to install WordPress on Bluehost?

It’s really easy to install WordPress on Bluehost as it offers 1-click installs on their marketplace. Here is a simple to use tutorial about how you can install WordPress on Bluehost (along with screenshots) within just 5 minutes.

Recommended Web Hosting Resources:

Final Thoughts

Honestly speaking, both SiteGround and Bluehost are two incredible hosting companies that offer affordable shared hosting plans and both these companies have amazing customer support along with huge customer base.

So just go have a look at their features and decide the right hosting choice among them and let us know if you’ve any questions in the comments below.

About Author
Anil Agarwal is the Founder of Bloggerspassion. He is a full-time blogger and SEO expert who has been helping people build profitable blogs for over a decade Now. He has been featured in Over 100 Publications including Forbes, The HuffPost, HubSpot, Shopify, Semrush, Kinsta, Bluehost, Hostinger and G2.com etc. Know more about Anil Agarwal from here.

Reader Comments (6)

  1. The Bluehost customer support would be big in my eBook Anil. First off they need to keep my site up and it needs be speedy too. But beyond that, customer service is huge. Often overlooked for folks obsess over speed and forget you need reliable help when your site has issues. We know by now; all sites have issues sometimes.

    Reply
  2. Very informative comparison. But you do not pick the one winner finally. You recommend them both. Anyway, you gave the option to us for choosing the preferred company. Thanks for the review.

    Reply
  3. A great detailed information. I personally use Bluehost hosting and has not got any issue till now. I also recommend using my friends.

    Reply
  4. Hey Anil

    Great and detailed review. We use bluehost for many of our sites and clients, and we can definitely recommend it as well.

    Cheers,

    Reply
  5. Hey Anil, I must say this is a good comparison! I was very curious about your conclusion on which company you will recommend most.
    I have the same opinion as you: both companies are really good choice, and you can’t go wrong choosing one or other.

    Reply
  6. Both services are good, I tend to favor BlueHost, seems easier to use and like Ryan said before me, their customer support is good, certainly better than GoDaddy and Hostgator, etc.

    Do you know why I never used Siteground though or promote it to my readers? Because it doesn’t have the option to pay with PayPal, and in my opinion that’s a big mistake. So many sales are potentially lost due to that. I mean how hard is it to implement PayPal as a payment gateway alongside your credit card merchant like stripe etc.. lol

    Anyway, if you really want true hosting power you should ditch shared hosting all together and switch to a VPS, they are roughly the same price now as shared hosting plans, but you get more power for your money. Sure it’s not really newbie friendly, but there are plenty of tutorials out there.

    Anyway just my 2cents, great review btw.

    Reply

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