The Best Bluehost Alternatives 2025

Namecheap provides similar features to Bluehost, but at a lower price. InMotion is better for resource-heavy sites, while DreamHost’s entry-level plan has more storage.
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Best entry-level plan

4.9
Editorial Rating
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On DreamHost's website

DreamHost
BLACK FRIDAY: Free Site Build + $1.99/mo Hosting
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Best long-term value

4.8
Editorial Rating
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On Namecheap's website

Namecheap
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Best for power users

4.4
Editorial Rating
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On InMotion Hosting's website

InMotion Hosting
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Bluehost is a popular web hosting company, but if you need an alternative, then Namecheap is most likely going to fit the bill.

Namecheap’s shared hosting plans include cPanel, email accounts, and most of the same features you get with Bluehost, but at a much lower long-term cost. Plus, Namecheap offers a separate line of managed WordPress plans that are ideal for high-powered single websites. Beyond Namecheap, several other Bluehost alternatives might work better if you have some unique requirements.

For example, if Bluehost’s Starter plan website and storage limits aren’t enough for you, but you don’t need to upgrade to tier two either, then DreamHost’s entry-level plan is an ideal choice.

For more horsepower across the board on all plans, consider InMotion Hosting, whose bottom-tier plan offers the same amount of storage as Bluehost’s highest tier. Ultimately, you’ve got options, and we’ve laid out the best ones for you below. Keep reading so you can make an informed decision on where to host your next website(s).

In this article
The best Bluehost alternatives
Compare the best Bluehost alternatives
DreamHost: Best for resource-rich entry-level plan
Namecheap: Best for overall long-term value
InMotion: Best for power users with heavy resource needs
When to consider a Bluehost alternative
Bottom line: The best Bluehost alternatives
FAQs

The best Bluehost alternatives

Best Entry-Level Web Host Plan
4.9
Editorial Rating
Learn More
On DreamHost's website
Website Hosters
DreamHost
BLACK FRIDAY: Free Site Build + $1.99/mo Hosting
  • Easy one-click WordPress installation and AI web builder
  • Intuitive custom control panel with user-friendly analytics
  • Managed WordPress plans are pricey

Best Long-term Value Host
4.8
Editorial Rating
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On Namecheap's website
Website Hosters
Namecheap
  • Crushed all performance tests with 100% uptime and 0.7s load times
  • Intuitive setup process takes minutes to launch a new site
  • Exceptional customer support with fast response times
  • Supports only 1 WordPress site per plan

Best for High-Performance Sites
4.4
Editorial Rating
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On InMotion Hosting's website
Website Hosters
InMotion Hosting
  • Remarkably fast site speeds
  • Above-average uptime guarantee
  • Dashboard, help center, and cPanel can be difficult to navigate

Compare the best Bluehost alternatives

Bluehost logo DreamHost logo Namecheap logo InMotion Hosting logo
Best for Best for robust features and security Best for entry plan with higher resource limits Best for overall long-term value Best for power users with heavy resource needs
Star rating
4.8
4.9
4.8
4.4
Starting price $2.99/mo $2.89/mo $9.88/mo $13.99/mo
Money-back guarantee Yes — 30 days Yes — 30 days Yes — 30 days Yes — 90 days
Uptime guarantee 99.99% 100% 100% 99.99%
Monthly visits 40K - 400K 40K - 400K Unmetered 70K - 520K
Number of websites 10 - 100 25 - 100 3 - unlimited 1 - 40
Storage 10 GB - 100 GB NVMe 25 GB - 100 GB NVMe 20 GB - 50 GB SSD** 100 GB - 300 GB NVMe
Free SSL certificate On all plans On all plans On all plans — free for first year only On all plans
Free domain for a year On all plans On all plans On all plans On all plans
Learn more Get Bluehost

Read Bluehost Review

Get DreamHost

Read DreamHost Review

Get Namecheap

Read Namecheap Review

Get InMotion

Read InMotion Review

*Column reflects Namecheap’s shared hosting information; EasyWP plans are different.
**The middle plan offers unmetered SSD, but in practice, this is unlikely to go beyond 50 GB, which is the ceiling on the highest plan.

DreamHost: Best for resource-rich entry-level plan

4.9
Editorial Rating
Learn More
On DreamHost's website
Website Hosters
DreamHost
BLACK FRIDAY: Free Site Build + $1.99/mo Hosting
  • Easy one-click WordPress installation and AI web builder
  • Intuitive custom control panel with user-friendly analytics
  • Managed WordPress plans are pricey

What we liked

Higher limits on entry-level plan: DreamHost’s entry-level plan is capped at 25 websites (compared to Bluehost’s 10), and NVMe storage is set to 25 GB (compared to Bluehost’s 10 GB).

Daily automatic backups: The only way to get daily backups on shared hosting with Bluehost is by subscribing to a third-party add-on called CodeGuard. Otherwise, you’ll be limited to weekly backups. DreamHost surpasses Bluehost with daily backups at no extra charge.

Free handcrafted starter site: Bluehost’s AI website builder certainly speeds up the process of building a new website, but it can’t compete with DreamHost’s AI building you a site from scratch.

What we didn’t like

Email is a paid add-on: Bluehost offers paid professional email plans, but it also includes free email via cPanel on all plans. With DreamHost, email is free for the first 3 months, then converts to a paid add-on.

No malware scanning on entry plan: Bluehost provides free malware scanning on all plans, whereas DreamHost only adds it starting from tier two. Even then, it’s only a single monthly scan, and it’s not automatic, so you have to remember to do it yourself.

Test results

When we tested DreamHost recently, it clocked in some impressive numbers for both speed and uptime. To run the tests, we first built a mock website using DreamHost. Then we used a freemium testing tool called dotcom-tools.com to check how fast the site would load from three separate locations — Strasbourg, Montreal, and Dallas.

DreamHost had an overall performance score of 98/100, with an average LCP score that’s well below Google’s recommended upper limit threshold of 2.5 seconds.[1] LCP stands for Largest Contentful Paint and refers to the point at which a web page's main content is likely to have finished loading. FCP stands for First Contentful Paint, and as the name implies, it measures how quickly the first piece of content loads. DreamHost crushed it there, too, loading in under half a second.

Uptime 99.95%
Average response time 673 ms
Did DreamHost pass the stress test? Yes
Learn more Get DreamHost

Read Our DreamHost Review

Star rating summary

Our experience using DreamHost was mostly pleasant. It performed well, has great features, and solid security. Although we did mark it down a few points in the prices category. This is partly because it doesn’t include email in its standard shared hosting plans. You have to buy it as an add-on, which drives the total cost up. If you can look past that, DreamHost makes a great alternative to Bluehost.

DreamHost received a high star rating of 4.9 because it has excellent WordPress integration, several AI-powered website creation tools, and extensive customer support.

Although DreamHost is not the most affordable web hosting service, it's also not the most expensive. 

Decision factor Weight Verdict
Our experience 10% 4.5
Value and capacity18% 4.4
Performance20% 5.0
Features25% 5.0
Security20% 5.0
Support and reputation7% 4.9

Learn more about our experience testing in our DreamHost review.

Namecheap: Best for overall long-term value

4.8
Editorial Rating
Learn More
On Namecheap's website
Website Hosters
Namecheap
  • Crushed all performance tests with 100% uptime and 0.7s load times
  • Intuitive setup process takes minutes to launch a new site
  • Exceptional customer support with fast response times
  • Supports only 1 WordPress site per plan

What we liked

Diversity of plan choices: Bluehost and many of its alternatives lump managed WordPress features into their shared hosting plans. Depending on your preference, this may or may not be ideal. If you fall into the latter camp, then you’ll appreciate Namecheap’s segregated approach, which offers a set of managed WordPress plans called EasyWP, and an entirely separate set of shared hosting plans called Stellar.

Managed WordPress (EasyWP) control panel is very beginner-friendly: cPanel is a wonderful hosting control panel, but it can also be overwhelming for those getting started with web hosting. Luckily, Namecheap’s EasyWP has an alternative custom control panel that’s much easier to navigate. It’s an excellent choice for beginners.

Free full service website migration: Bluehost does offer a free website migration tool, but to get the done-for-you treatment, you must pay for Bluehost’s migration service [2]. That’s not the case with Namecheap, which gives you a white glove migration service on all plans.

What we didn’t like

Has not upgraded storage to modern NVMe: To be fair, this isn’t a deal-breaking disadvantage for the average website. Unless you're running a high-traffic ecommerce store, a membership site with frequent database queries, or a WordPress installation with dozens of plugins making constant database calls, the faster read/write speeds of NVMe aren’t going to be noticeable. Nonetheless, with most Bluehost competitors (and Bluehost itself) offering modern NVMe storage, it would be nice to see Namecheap make an upgrade.

No AI website builder on managed WordPress (EasyWP) plans: Namecheap’s inclusion of AI tools in its shared hosting plans but not in its EasyWP plans is an oddly perplexing business decision. If you already have the tools available, why not integrate them into managed WordPress hosting, too? Especially given that many customers expect it nowadays.

Test results

For our in-depth Namecheap testing, we signed up for an EasyWP plan and followed the same process as we did with DreamHost. First, we built a demo site. Then we checked for speed and monitored uptime for several days. Namecheap came back with lightning-fast sub-second FCP and LCP scores, with an overall performance rating of 99/100.

Uptime 100%
Average response time 150 ms
Did Namecheap pass the stress test? Yes
Learn more Get Namecheap

Read Our Namecheap Review

Star rating summary

Having used both Namecheap’s shared web hosting and its managed WordPress service, we’ve had nothing but positive experiences with both. For anyone seeking a more affordable, reliable alternative to Bluehost, Namecheap is a great option.

If you have only a single WordPress site and expect heavier monthly traffic, then you can’t go wrong with the EasyWP plans. For multisite needs, opt for a shared hosting plan and install WordPress via cPanel.

Namecheap earned a near-perfect star rating of 4.8 because it provides intuitive setup process (especially for beginners), various hosting types and security features, and reliable performance. 

Namecheap's managed WordPress plans are fairly priced, but it uses older generation SSD storage and doesn't offer integrated AI tools. 

Decision factor Weight Verdict
Our experience 10% 5.0
Value and capacity18% 4.6
Performance20% 5.0
Features25% 5.0
Security20% 5.0
Support and reputation7% 4.7

Learn more about our experience testing in our Namecheap review.

InMotion: Best for power users with heavy resource needs

4.4
Editorial Rating
Learn More
On InMotion Hosting's website
Website Hosters
InMotion Hosting
  • Remarkably fast site speeds
  • Above-average uptime guarantee
  • Dashboard, help center, and cPanel can be difficult to navigate

What we liked

Massive amounts of storage space: InMotion’s entry-level plan gives you 100 GB of NVMe storage space, which is ten times more than Bluehost! It’s also higher than other Bluehost alternatives and makes an excellent choice for media-heavy websites, such as ecommerce stores with many product images and videos.

200+ pro WordPress themes and plugins: WordPress has plenty of useful free themes and plugins, but developers generally reserve the best features for their paid upgrades. InMotion unlocks free access to over 200 paid versions of themes and plugins to help you customize your site.

90-Day money-back guarantee: The industry standard is 30 days, but InMotion triples it. This gives you ample time to get a website up and running and, depending on how committed you are, even to get some initial traffic.

Dedicated IP addresses: InMotion includes a dedicated IP address on its highest plan, with the option to purchase one on the lower tiers. A dedicated IP address offers benefits like improved website performance and security, better email deliverability, and more reliable access. Being able to buy one (or get it bundled in on tier four) is a nice benefit.

What we didn’t like

No staging on entry-level plan: Although you can always manually install a staging plugin, it wouldn’t hurt InMotion just to include the same staging tool that’s added starting on the tier two plan.

Test results

Of the three Bluehost alternatives we tested, InMotion had arguably the best performance numbers. Even though all of them were excellent, InMotion led the way with the highest average performance score, a faster FCP and LCP than Namecheap, and a faster LCP than DreamHost.

Uptime 100%
Average response time 173 ms
Did InMotion pass the stress test? Yes
Learn more Get InMotion

Read Our InMotion Review

Star rating summary

Overall, our experience with InMotion was positive, but remember that it’s generally more expensive than competitors once you age out of the promo period. The expense is absolutely justified for what InMotion gives you, but if you don’t need 100 GB of storage space (as one example), then it might not be personally justifiable. For someone who does need the extra horsepower, though, InMotion is an excellent choice.

InMotion earned a solid star rating of 4.4 because of its perfect performance during our testing, availability of basic features across plans, and having all the security essentials.  

However, we had to dock InMotion in the experience category. The dashboard was difficult to navigate and it doesn't offer any guided WordPress tools. 

Decision factor Weight Verdict
Our experience 10% 3.0
Value and capacity18% 3.6
Performance20% 5.0
Features25% 4.5
Security20% 5.0
Support and reputation7% 4.7

Learn more about our experience testing in our InMotion review.

When to consider a Bluehost alternative

Bluehost can be a great option to host your new website (or transfer over an existing one). It includes almost all the features that an average website needs across all plans:

  • SSL certificates
  • a free domain in the first year
  • a CDN
  • email
  • staging sites
  • comprehensive security
  • 24/7 support
  • an AI website builder

However, it’s not without its limitations: renewal fees are pricey, domain privacy is a paid add-on, backups are only weekly (vs. daily for many competitors), and many functions are provided by paid third-party add-ons like SiteLock and CodeGuard rather than native solutions. Luckily, there are alternatives to Bluehost that address those limitations.

Bottom line: The best Bluehost alternatives

Namecheap’s shared hosting plans offer the best alternative to Bluehost for most websites. The reason is simple: You get most of the same features, but both domains and hosting cost much less over the long haul. Unless there is some very specific Bluehost quirk that’s not included on Namecheap, then it only makes sense to choose the better deal.

For more specific needs, DreamHost, InMotion Hosting, or even Namecheap’s EasyWP plans make more sense. For example, if you only need to host a single WordPress site and want it to reliably handle heavy traffic, EasyWP is a smart option.

On the other hand, if you have more than ten simple websites or find that Bluehost’s Starter plan doesn’t have enough storage space, then DreamHost’s entry-level plan will suit you better. For complex sites like big ecommerce stores or membership sites that use up more resources, InMotion’s plans would make an ideal fit.

How we test web hosting services

We use our proprietary grading rubric to evaluate web hosts based on performance, ease of use, features, support, and overall value. Our hands-on approach ensures our ratings reflect how each service actually performs in the real world, so you can choose a host with confidence.

Our process starts with signing up for each service and setting up a real website, just like you would. We run page speed, uptime, and stress tests to measure reliability and performance under load. We also explore the dashboard, test security tools, and contact support to see how responsive and helpful it is.

To learn more about how we test, check out our full testing methodology here.

FAQs

Is Wix better than Bluehost?

Wix is the best web builder we’ve tested, and the platform can be easier to use for someone who’s never built a website before, but it’s not necessarily “better.” The problem is that better is subjective. Different people are looking for different features when building a website, so what’s better for you might not be better for someone else. In general, though, Bluehost is better than Wix in more areas that relate to website building.

Is GoDaddy better than Bluehost?

When taking all factors into consideration (i.e., pricing, features, security, etc), GoDaddy is not better than Bluehost. GoDaddy’s business model relies too heavily on upsells and free trials that turn into paid add-ons after a set period. In practice, this means that many of the features Bluehost includes by default on all plans (e.g., free SSL), you’ll end up having to pay a separate fee for (or you’ll have to upgrade to a higher plan).

Which hosting is better than Bluehost?

It depends on what you are looking for in a web host. For higher storage space limits and better developer tools, InMotion is better than Bluehost. DreamHost makes a great alternative if you need an entry-level plan with more storage space and higher website limits. If you want better promotional rates, check out Hostinger or IONOS. For the best long-term value, Namecheap’s shared hosting gets the job done.


4.9
Editorial Rating
Learn More
On DreamHost's website
Website Hosters
DreamHost
BLACK FRIDAY: Free Site Build + $1.99/mo Hosting
  • Easy one-click WordPress installation and AI web builder
  • Intuitive custom control panel with user-friendly analytics
  • Managed WordPress plans are pricey
Author Details
Martin is a writer for All About Cookies with over three years of professional experience as a writer and editor for leading online publications in the WordPress space. A long-time tech enthusiast, he has also served as Chief Editor of a quirky tech newsletter with more than 13,000 subscribers.

Citations

[1] Understanding Core Web Vitals and Google search results

[2] Migration Services: Website and Email Migration