Comparing Bluehost and GoDaddy
Bluehost and GoDaddy stand out as two of the most budget-friendly hosting providers, making them popular choices for individuals seeking cost-effective hosting solutions for their websites.
Both hosting companies enjoy significant popularity within the market. GoDaddy, boasting a substantial market share, hosts over 40 million websites, while Bluehost holds the distinction of being an officially recommended hosting provider by WordPress.org.
The question remains: which platform is the optimal choice for your new WordPress website?
Bluehost Overview
As one of the largest web hosting companies worldwide, Bluehost is an officially recommended host for WordPress. They offer WordPress-optimized hosting plans featuring faster servers and reliable performance.
Bluehost’s shared hosting prices are notably competitive when compared to other providers, rendering them a preferred choice for beginners and small businesses operating within a restricted budget.
Advantages of Bluehost
Bluehost provides remarkable value at a budget-friendly rate. Let’s delve into some of the merits and demerits of utilizing Bluehost as your hosting service:
Advantage 1: Cost-Effectiveness – Bluehost’s entry-level plan enables a cost-effective initiation of your website, presenting excellent value for emerging small businesses, bloggers, portfolio websites, and various other site types.
Advantage 2: User-Friendly Interface – Bluehost offers an exceedingly beginner-friendly hosting control panel, simplifying the process of WordPress installation (via a single click) and website management.
Advantage 3: Complimentary Domain – They furnish a free domain name, translating to cost savings at the outset of your venture.
Advantage 4: Free CDN + Free SSL – Bluehost includes a free CDN to enhance website speed, complemented by a free SSL certificate bundled with all plans, thereby fortifying website security.
Advantage 5: Website Speed – Our testing revealed commendable performance by Bluehost, even without performance optimization on our test sites. Supplementing with WordPress caching plugins further unlocks speed improvements.
Advantage 6: Staging Sites + Development Tools – Bluehost plans encompass the setup of staging sites, automated WordPress updates, flexibility to modify PHP versions, SFTP access, and more.
Disadvantages of Bluehost
Nonetheless, there are some downsides to utilizing Bluehost. Here are a few disadvantages that warrant consideration:
Disadvantage 1: Elevated Domain Renewal Cost – The domain renewal cost post the free domain offer is relatively higher than the average market price. While this may not have an immediate impact on most businesses, it is a factor to keep in mind for future planning.
Disadvantage 2: Upselling Add-ons – The signup process involves considerable upselling of additional products. Most beginners may not require these products immediately, allowing for potential omission.
Bluehost Review
Bluehost has earned a stellar 5-star rating on WPBeginner, a testament to its high value proposition at competitive prices based on over 300 user reviews. We also conducted our own rigorous performance and stress tests on their servers, providing comprehensive insights in our in-depth Bluehost review.
An outstanding aspect of Bluehost is the inclusion of a free domain with all plans, coupled with unlimited bandwidth and SSD storage in their Plus plan, ensuring exceptional overall value for your investment.
Moreover, their eCommerce hosting plan tailored for WooCommerce offers an impressive collection of premium WooCommerce and WordPress extensions, valued at over $1000+. This is a significant cost-saving advantage for online store owners.
Comparing GoDaddy with Bluehost
GoDaddy, renowned as the world’s largest domain registrar, is a well-known web hosting company offering a diverse range of hosting plans catering to individuals and businesses of varying scales.
GoDaddy commands a substantial market share in the website hosting sphere, hosting numerous prominent websites. Nevertheless, it may not always be the optimal choice when establishing a website, blog, or launching a new business.
Advantages of GoDaddy
GoDaddy stands out as a popular, cost-effective hosting provider. Here are some of the advantages and drawbacks associated with utilizing GoDaddy as your hosting service:
Advantage 1: WordPress-Optimized Hosting – GoDaddy’s managed WordPress hosting plans run on servers optimized for WordPress, ensuring faster and more secure hosting.
Advantage 2: Managed Hosting – GoDaddy handles essential administrative tasks such as WordPress installation, automated daily backups, WordPress core updates, and server-level caching.
Advantage 3: Free Domain – A free domain name is included, contributing to cost savings at the outset of your venture.
Advantage 4: Free CDN + Free SSL – GoDaddy plans integrate the Cloudflare CDN to accelerate website speed, accompanied by a free SSL certificate across all plans, bolstering website security.
Advantage 5: Affordability – GoDaddy offers highly competitive pricing considering the array of features provided.
Advantage 6: 24/7 Support – GoDaddy ensures around-the-clock customer support availability for assistance whenever needed.
Advantage 7: Monthly Billing Option – For those preferring monthly payments, GoDaddy offers a monthly billing option, although a larger discount is available for annual prepayment.
Disadvantages of GoDaddy
However, there are some drawbacks to using GoDaddy. Here are a couple of disadvantages that are worth noting:
Disadvantage 1: Addons – GoDaddy presents an extensive array of services, and during the checkout process, users are frequently presented with numerous addon tools and features. While these are optional, the abundance of upsell offers may be perceived as overly aggressive by some users.
Disadvantage 2: Controversial Ads – GoDaddy has faced criticism over its controversial advertising over the years. Although this does not impact their hosting services, some users have chosen to discontinue their association with GoDaddy in protest against their advertisements.
Disadvantage 3: No Email Support – Despite providing 24/7 support through live chat and phone, GoDaddy has discontinued email support.
GoDaddy Review
GoDaddy boasts a 5-star rating on WPBeginner, albeit based on 16 reviews, compared to over 300 for Bluehost. Comprehensive insights into their hosting services can be found in our detailed GoDaddy review.
Similar to Bluehost, GoDaddy’s plans offer exceptional value. Each plan includes one year of free domain registration, a free SSL certificate, SSD storage, and unlimited bandwidth. Moreover, their hosting plans are managed, alleviating some ongoing maintenance requirements.
However, GoDaddy’s overall onboarding experience may not be as intuitive for beginners. Additionally, while they provide 24/7 support through live chat and phone, email support is no longer available.