Bluehost is one of the leading web hosting providers in the world. The company powers more than 2 million domains worldwide. It is owned by Endurance International, the same company behind domain.com and hostgator.com.
Bluehost consistently ranks as one of the best web hosting service providers for several reasons. They have some of the most affordable packages. At just $4.95 per month, Bluehost offers a great starting point for any beginner or advanced webmaster working on a budget.
They also provide various hosting services like shared hosting, dedicated hosting, and VPS hosting. Moreover, Bluehost comes with additional features like a drag-and-drop WordPress website builder.
But for all its benefits, Bluehost does have a few drawbacks. Here’s one of the complaints from users:
Therefore, if you are looking for a reliable web hosting service and not just the cheapest option, you may want to consider other alternatives. In this article, we will discuss seven such alternatives but first, let’s go through some of the critical factors that make a great web hosting provider.
What should your ideal hosting provider have?
Choosing the right web hosting solution can be very hectic, considering we have more than 300,000 providers on the market. However, the whole process gets easier once you know what to look for. So, here are the five key factors you need to consider when picking a web hosting company:
Security
Whether you are running a personal blog, eCommerce store, or any other online business, security is something you don’t want to compromise. Therefore, the web hosting company you pick must have sufficient security measures in place to protect your site from hackers and other online threats.
Thankfully, all top web hosting companies provide features like 24/7 server monitoring, regular backups, AI-antibots, and additional security plugins, especially for WordPress websites. You should also look for a hosting company that offers SSL certificates. Some providers will even add this certificate for free.
Support
Customer support is critical for any webmaster. Minor issues can easily stall your online business, and that’s why you need a hosting company with a super-responsive customer support team.
In addition to responsiveness, the customer support team must have technical knowledge. That’s vital since you want most of the issues you may encounter solved as quickly as possible. You don’t want to be passed around from person to person just to get one question answered.
Finally, it’s great to get a company with multiple communication channels. You should be able to get in touch with a customer representative via email, live chat, or direct line. The more communication options, the better. More communication options give you more convenience.
Going through customer reviews on third-party platforms like Trustpilot can help you understand how reliable a hosting company’s customer support is. If the company you pick has a free trial, use that period to test the responsiveness and technical know-how of the customer reps.
Speed
Site speed will directly affect the success of your online business. As you may already know, search engines like Google recognize page load times as a ranking factor. Therefore, to boost your organic ranking on SERPs, you must have a fast website.
Site speed is also critical for the user experience. Users expect a website to load within seconds. The longer your website takes to load, the higher the chances users will bounce. That translates to lost revenue.
The best web hosting companies employ different technologies to optimize server speed. For example, they use solid-state drives or SSDs instead of hard disk drives. They also use powerful caching technologies and PHP setups for optimal performance.
Price
Web hosting services start at pretty low prices. However, cheap web hosting always comes with a catch.
Therefore, while you may want to save a few bucks on your hosting, don’t focus too much on the price and then just forget about performance. Instead, your goal should be to get a web hosting company that gives you the most value for your money.
Something else you should consider is the renewal rate. Most hosting companies have very cheap starting packages. However, these rates can more than triple once the honeymoon period is over.
So, don’t pick a web host based on the introductory prices alone. Check the renewal fees as well.
Scalability
The best web hosting providers grow with your business. As a new site, you might be okay with limited bandwidth. However, once your site picks up, and the traffic grows, you’ll require additional bandwidth.
The same thing applies to storage. You may not need a lot of storage in the early weeks of launching your site, but you’ll almost certainly need it when your content and business grows.
On top of all that, you may be forced to move from shared hosting to dedicated, or VPS hosting as the needs of your business evolve.
Pick a hosting company that can support such scalability.
7 alternatives to Bluehost
We’ve narrowed down the list to just seven web hosting companies. These Bluehost alternatives tick all the five boxes discussed above. However, each solution comes with unique features which you must scrutinize to find the perfect fit for your business.
| Name | Starting From | Best Thing About It | Biggest Problem |
| Siteground | $3.95 per month. | Great uptime and good support. | No major issues. |
| DreamHost | $2.59 per month. | Good WordPress hosting. | No major issues. |
| InMotion | $2.99 per month. | Good server speeds. | Automated backup is a paid add-on for many plans. |
| HostPapa | $3.95 per month. | Great value for money for multi-site subscriptions. | Automated backup is a paid add-on. |
| Hostinger | $0.80 per month. | One of the cheapest hosting providers. | High renewal fees. |
| GoDaddy | $5.99 per month. | Range of hosting options at affordable prices. | Issues with the quality of customer support. |
| HostGator | $2.75 per month. | Range of hosting options at affordable prices. | High renewal fees. |
Let’s break them down:
1. SiteGround
SiteGround is not just a great Bluehost alternative, but it is also one of the best web hosting providers around. The company leverages different technologies to ensure your website is safe, fast, and live at all times.
In terms of security, SiteGround utilizes a smart web application firewall (WAF) that protects both the servers and websites against breaches and hacks. They also have 24/7 server monitoring which scrutinizes the servers every 0.5 seconds. That ensures any possible issues are identified and fixed swiftly.
Moreover, they offer regular backups, which are done in distributed servers across the globe. Therefore, if you lose any website data, SiteGround will help restore your data pretty quickly.
On the performance front, SiteGround remains unrivaled. The company guarantees 99.9% uptime. Their services are powered by Google Cloud, which explains the exceptional reliability and impressive server speeds.
SiteGround utilizes SSD disks and Cloudflare CDN to optimize website performance. SSD server storage is faster, which means quicker page load times. Meanwhile, CDN boosts site speed by helping users connect to the nearest servers.
Speaking of which, SiteGround has data centers spread across four different continents. That makes it an excellent Bluehost alternative for any online business with a global audience. The company also has brilliant customer support. You can reach the team any time of day via phone, ticket, or live chat.
SiteGround offers WordPress hosting, WooCommerce hosting, and Cloud hosting. The cheapest web hosting package starts at $3.99 per month for the introductory fee and renews at $14.99 per month.
The company provides other extras like a website builder, free WordPress migration, Free SSL, Free email, etc. Each package also comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
2. DreamHost
DreamHost provides shared hosting, WordPress hosting, dedicated hosting, VPS hosting, and Cloud hosting. The company is one of only three web hosts recommended by WordPress.
Unlike most other web-hosting providers, DreamHost is not owned by large businesses. Instead, it is employee-owned, which is vital as it improves the user experience. The employees go out of their way to deliver superior services.
DreamHost has a clean and easy-to-use control panel to help you manage your website with ease. They also provide auto WordPress updates, free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates, free email hosting, automated backups, free domain, and fast SSD storage, among other features.
The customer support team is based in the US, and they are available 24/7/365. You can reach them via email or chat. However, live chat agents are only available from 3:00 AM to 9:30 PM PT.
The cheapest WordPress hosting package starts at $1.99 per month, while shared hosting starts at $2.59 per month. The company also has flexible payment plans that include monthly billing.
Something else unique about DreamHost is they offer more than just hosting services. You can also get email hosting and domain registration services. Moreover, they have Pro Services like SEO marketing, social media marketing, and custom web design.
DreamHost provides free WordPress migration and an impressive 97-day money-back guarantee.
3. InMotion
InMotion has over 500,000 WordPress users. The company has been around for more than two decades, providing shared, WordPress, dedicated, and VPS hosting.
They have an award-winning customer support department. The US-based customer representatives are available 24/7 and can be reached through email, live chat, and phone. The website also has a relatively active community forum where you can access valuable insights from fellow InMotion users.
Although not as fast as some of the top BlueHost alternatives mentioned above, InMotion server speeds are still pretty impressive. You also get 99.99% uptimes and security features like SSL certificates and malware & hack protection.
InMotion prices start at $2.99 per month for shared hosting and $6.99 per month for WordPress hosting. All plans are covered with a risk-free 90-day money-back guarantee.
InMotion comes with a few notable drawbacks. For example, automated backups are not available for all packages.
4. HostPapa
HostPapa is an independently owned web hosting company based in Canada. They provide various services, including domain registration and enterprise email hosting.
HostPapa offers shared, managed WordPress, VPS, and Reseller hosting. All plans, including the Starter package, come with free domain registration, a free SSL certificate, and unmetered bandwidth.
The company provides a 99.9% uptime guarantee and a 30-day money-back guarantee. In addition, customer service representatives are available 24/7 via phone, live chat, and support tickets.
The hosting solution also integrates with over 400 business apps allowing you to add features like shopping carts and blogs to your website.
Other noteworthy features of HostPapa include:
- Free domain transfer
- Free website migration
- Beginner-friendly website builder
- Easy-to-use control panel
- SiteLock
- Automated website backups
The HostPapa basic plan costs $3.95 per month. However, features like automated website backups and SiteLock are sold separately as add-ons.
5. Hostinger
Hostinger is among the cheapest web hosting providers on the market. Shared hosting starts at just $1.39 per month and renews at $9.49 per month. The company has such low prices due to its vast customer base of 29 million users!
Hosting services include WordPress, VPS, and Cloud hosting. They also offer email hosting and domain registration services.
Performance-wise, Hostinger is pretty impressive with a PHP speed boost for increased server speeds, Cloudflare CDN for fast load times, and a 99.9% uptime guarantee.
Hostinger also provides site backups, free SSL certificates, SSD storage, one-click WordPress installation, and 24/7/365 tech support.
Although you can get your website online for just $1.39/mo with Hostinger, the $2.59/mo package offers more value. For example, instead of hosting just one website, you get to host up to 100 websites. Storage also increases from 30GB to 100GB while bandwidth shifts from 100GB to unlimited.
Furthermore, the package provides 100 email addresses at no extra cost. Plus, you will get an additional 1GB storage per mailbox and a user-friendly webmail interface.
Shifting from Bluehost or any other web host to Hostinger is pretty straightforward since the company provides free automated website migration. However, if that sounds like too much work, contact the Hostinger team, and one of their website migration experts will do the transfer for you.
6. GoDaddy
With over 84 million domain names under their management, GoDaddy is, without a doubt, one of the largest domain name registrars.
However, the company offers additional services which web hosting solutions like shared hosting, WordPress hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated servers. The web host has a 99.9% uptime guarantee, a one-click domain name setup, a one-click installation of over 150 apps, and an easy-to-use cPanel.
GoDaddy has data centers distributed across different continents, including Europe, North America, and Asia pacific. It’s, therefore, a decent Bluehost alternative for global online businesses.
Shared hosting packages start at $5.99 per month, while WordPress hosting costs $6.99.
GoDaddy has several drawbacks. For one, you won’t get a free SSL certificate if you sign up for the Economy or Deluxe shared hosting packages. You have to pay for the certificate separately. Alternatively, you’ll have to upgrade to the more expensive shared hosting plans or WordPress hosting packages.
Second, while GoDaddy has customer support centers distributed across the world, there are reports their representatives are not very knowledgeable about technical hosting issues. That means you’ll probably get passed on between different people every time you are experiencing technical problems.
Another issue with GoDaddy is that SSD storage is only available on dedicated servers and VPS hosting.
7. HostGator
HostGator offers shared, WordPress, dedicated, and VPS hosting. All hosting packages come with vital features like a free SSL certificate, server monitoring, unmetered bandwidth, one-click installation of various apps, a 99.9% uptime guarantee, and 24/7 customer support via live chat and direct line.
The web host also provides free website migration. They provide site transfer experts who will move your website, ensuring site scripts, files, and databases are correctly transferred.
The cheapest HostGator package is the Shared Hatchling Plan which costs $2.75 per month. WordPress hosting starts at $5.95 per month.
HostGator has an intuitive website builder, but it is sold separately, with packages starting at $3.84 per month going all the way to $9.22 per month. The high-end package comes with all the bells and whistles, including a logo maker, email marketing tools, eCommerce integration, website analytics, and so on.
One of the cons of HostGator is the average customer support. Most customers complain of long waiting times. The host has also limited the backup feature to WordPress hosting alone -you won’t get it on the shared hosting plans.
Moreover, you don’t get unlimited backups or site visits with any of the three WordPress hosting plans. Even the more expensive $9.95/mo Business plan is capped at 3GB for backups and 500k visits per month.
In Closing
That’s it for the best Bluehost alternatives. SiteGround takes the crown as the best Bluehost alternative. Not only is it faster, but you also get first-class customer support, excellent uptimes, a website builder, and tons of other features. The packages also start at a very reasonable price of $3.99 per month. Plus, you get a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Besides SiteGround, we also looked at six other great alternatives, i.e., DreamHost, InMotion, HostPapa, Hostinger, GoDaddy, and HostGator. Each of these alternatives comes with unique pros and cons. For example, InMotion has 99.99% uptime and remarkable security features, but automated backups are available on only a few plans.
Therefore, you must carefully consider what each host provides then determine whether it aligns with your business’s needs. If in doubt, go through the five factors discussed earlier. That should help you narrow down your options.
