Bluehost VS Siteground - Comparison and buying guide
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Choosing a web hosting service: Bluehost VS Siteground comparison
With so many hosting companies out there, it can be difficult to decide which one is right for you. We have taken two of the top hosting companies Bluehost and Siteground and did all the work for you. Both have their pros and cons, but which one is better? Continue reading to find out the verdict.
We suggest exploring the top 10 hosting providers ranked globally before making your choice:
Evaluation Criteria
Comparing two giants and fierce competitors of the web hosting industry is no easy feat. We have narrowed it down to the 6 categories that will greatly influence the consumer in deciding which web hosting service to use:
1.User Friendliness
2.Wordpress
3.Speed & Uptime
4.Security
5.Customer Service
6.Price
Both Bluehost and Siteground are extremely popular with consumers and have well established names in the industry. As a matter of interest, both companies host over 2 million websites and have been in business for over 15 years. With that out of the way, let’s look at the first comparison.
1.User Friendliness
Bluehost
Bluehost offers a C-Panel interface and it is easy to manage your account with a single user login. The interface is easy to use which is ideal for beginners. It also offers an array of great features such as FTP accounts, email accounts, a file manager and PHPMyAdmin. You will also receive a free domain name for a year when signing up with Bluehost.
Siteground
In 2019, Siteground changed their C-panel interface to a custom panel which has a cleaner look and feel. The new hosting dashboard is an upgrade from the previous one and makes it easier to use. This means that even a beginner should be able to use it without any issues. Siteground does not provide a free domain name, however the host does offer a domain name service.
2.Wordpress
WordPress is one of the most popular tools out there for building a website or a blog. Any web host worth considering should have easy and affordable wordpress hosting options.
Bluehost
Bluehost is officially recommended by WordPress.org. All of the hosting plans include one click WordPress installation and unlimited bandwidth which means website design can start immediately. Buehost also offers a free SSL certificate for your site.
Siteground
As with Bluehost, Siteground is also officially recommended by WordPress.org. They have an easy one click WordPress installation and offer free site migration if you have previously created a WordPress site. Siteground also has automatically installed updates and a free SSL certificate.
3.Speed & Uptime
Whether you have a personal blog or business website, one of the most important features to look at is speed and uptime. Ideally a web hosting service should have an uptime of 99.5%. There is nothing worse for a web browser (or Google), to have to deal with a site that is slow or not working.
Bluehost
With an estimated uptime of 99.98%, Bluehost is right up there at the top. This means that downtime is roughly 1.6 hours per year. They are also listed as one of the fastest hosting services for WordPress blogs. There are various speed tests out there on the web, but the average speed of Bluehost seems to be less than 2 seconds which is faster than about 85% of other companies out there.
Siteground
Siteground can also boast some impressive uptime and speed scores. With an uptime percentage of 99.99% your site will hardly have any downtime. Again, there are many reviews out there on the web with varying speed tests done, but the average indicates a load speed of under two seconds.
4.Security
Everyone should take online security very seriously. Even something like a personal blog should have excellent security measures in place. No one wants to find out that their website has been hacked and deal with the negative consequences that can bring. Any web hosting service worth considering should provide excellent security even with their basic hosting options.
A few notes to remember is to always use a device with updated anti-virus software installed when accessing the web. You can also not rely solely on the web host for security and it is important to make sure the website itself is secure. This can get extremely technical so for this comparison we will keep it simple.
Bluehost
As previously stated, daily backups are automatically created with Bluehost. It is however recommended that customers create their own back-ups. The level of security required will depend on the specifics of your site and additional security features such as SiteLock can be purchased. Overall the Bluehost servers are quite secure and the free SSL certificate that they include will let users know that your site is verified and trusted to secure their personal data.
Siteground
Your site will also have the free SSL certificate to indicate the verified and trusted status. Without going into technical details, the servers of Siteground are very secure. One of the malware detection systems used is called HackAlert. According to Siteground it is one of the best early warning detection systems out there.
Any site can be hacked, but both of these companies have top notch security in place to keep their users protected.
5.Customer Service
At some point you might need to get in touch with technical support. Both of these companies offer 24/7 support to their customers which means that you are able to get the help when you need it.
Bluehost
Getting in touch can be done by telephone, logging a service ticket or through a chat feature on the Bluehost website. They also offer a 30 day money back guarantee should you not be satisfied with the service. There are mixed reviews online regarding their customer service and it seems to be pretty average.
Siteground
Siteground claims to have one of the highest rated online support services out there and with over 2000 customers giving them a 5/5 review it seems to be accurate. As with Bluehost, they can also be contacted via chat, logging an email ticket or telephone.
You can find positive and negative reviews online for most companies, but in this case Siteground seems to perform better than Bluehost where customer service is concerned.
6.Pricing
Some people don’t consider price as a factor when making a decision, but for most this is a crucial aspect when working on a budget. There is nothing worse than finding hidden costs that were not originally budgeted for so it is crucial to understand what you pay for and what you are getting.
Bluehost
Bluehost offers 4 different hosting plans starting from as little as $3.95 per month. The recommended plan is the “Choice Plus” which costs $6.95 per month. With this option you receive:
-Unlimited websites,
-Unlimited SSD storage,
-Unmetered bandwidth (standard with all plans)
-Free SSL certificate (standard with all plans)
-Standard performance
-Unlimited domains
-Unlimited parked domains
-Unlimited sub-domains
-SPAM experts
-Domain privacy & protection
-Site backup – CodeGuard Basic
-1 Microsoft 365 Mailbox – Free 30 Days
After the 30 days email expires, the basic email plan starts at $2.99 per license per month for the first year. After that the renewal cost is $4.99 per licence per year. The plan is pretty basic as the name suggests and will provide 15GB of email storage.
Siteground
Siteground offers 3 hosting options starting from $6.99 per month. Their best seller id the “GrowBig” plan with a price of $9.99 per month. Choosing this plan will provide you with:
-Unlimited websites
-20 GB SSD storage
-Up to 25 000 monthly visits
-Unmetered traffic (standard)
-Free SSL (standard)
-Daily backup (standard)
-Free CDN (standard)
-Free email (standard)
-Managed WordPress (standard)
-Unlimited database (standard)
-30 days money back (standard)
-On demand backup copies
-Speed boosting caching
-Site staging
-Add collaborators
The site staging is for WordPress sites and allows you to create a copy of the live website to act as a testing site. Any new coding or designs can be tested on the copied site before applying it to the live site. Applying the changes is as easy as one click which will also create an instant backup of the live site.
Verdict: Bluehost VS Siteground – who is the best hosting provider?
For beginners the best starting out point is Bluehost. It is one of the most recognizable names in the web hosting world and provides a variety of simple plans at great pricing options. Pair that with ease of use as well as a responsive customer service team, the company deserves to be up there as one of the best.
For users already running a website and looking to migrate, Siteground is a great option due to their free site migration service offered. They also offer a variety of different hosting options to suit most needs and with their good customer service ratings should be easy to deal with.
To be completely honest, both of these web hosting companies are rated among one of the top 10 web hosting services to use. There really isn’t a bad choice to make by going with either of these companies.
If it was not for the fact that Siteground has questionable upselling techniques as well as to double their fees after the first year, they would have been an equally good choice.