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Best value
If you're trying to decide between Hostinger and Bluehost, this should make it easy: Hostinger is the better choice for most users. It offers better performance with an uptime guarantee, comparable features (with some minor exceptions), and lower pricing across tiers. While Bluehost has specific advantages, such as phone support and cPanel access, most users will not be able to justify the higher cost.
That said, the right choice depends on your specific needs. We spent considerable time testing both hosts, and in the sections below, we'll break down their features, pricing, performance, support, and reputation.
Which web hosting service has the best core features?
Which web host has the best performance and reliability?
Which web host is the better value?
Which web host has the best security features?
Which web host has the best support and reputation?
Top alternatives
Hostinger vs. Bluehost: Which is better?
FAQs
Hostinger vs. Bluehost review at a glance
- Hostinger: Best value
- Bluehost: Best starter plan
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Star rating | ||
Starting price | Starts at $2.99/mo (48-month term) | Starts at $3.99/mo (36-month term) |
Money-back guarantee | Yes — 30 days | Yes — 30 days |
Uptime guarantee | 99.9% | Not guaranteed |
Monthly visits | 25K - 100K | 40K - 400K |
Number of websites | 25 - 50 | 10 - 100 |
Storage | 25 - 50 GB | 10 - 100 GB |
Free SSL certificate | On all plans | On all plans |
Free domain for a year | On all plans | On all plans |
Learn more | Get Hostinger | Get Bluehost |
Hostinger pros and cons
Hostinger has a lot of advantages, and one of them is pricing. The length of its promotional rate is 48 months. This is far longer than most competitors, including Bluehost, which caps out at 36 months. In short, if you choose Hostinger, you can save a lot of money on your first contract.
Besides attractive promo pricing, Hostinger also delivers an impressive feature set. For ecommerce sites, the tier two Business plan includes a full suite of online business management tools, advanced AI features, and a free CDN. It has everything you need to run an ecommerce store.
Both Hostinger shared plans also come with hPanel, which is an easy-to-navigate control panel for managing your account:
While Hostinger has far more strengths than weaknesses, there are a few trade-offs to consider. For example, as convenient as the hPanel is, some people are simply die-hard cPanel fans, and not having access to it can be a dealbreaker. Technically, you can upgrade to one of Hostinger’s VPS plans and get cPanel that way, but if you’re looking for shared web hosting, then a VPS plan is probably overkill. Also, support is limited to chat only, and monthly website traffic limits are lower than Bluehost on all plans.
- Industry-leading promo pricing period (4 years)
- AI website builder (+ other AI tools)
- Superior performance, uptime, and customer reputation
- Customer support is chat-only (no phone)
- Entry plan uses an older SSD (instead of NVMe)
- Entry plan doesn’t include CDN, staging, or ecommerce features
Bluehost pros and cons
Despite being more costly, Bluehost has some marginal advantages over Hostinger, particularly with its entry-level plan. As long as you don’t need to build more than 10 websites and you don’t mind paying $1 more per month for the first three years of hosting, then Bluehost’s Starter plan can be a better option than Hostinger’s Premium plan.
The main advantages are that you’ll get:
- Modern NVMe storage
- A free CDN
- A WordPress staging site
- Object caching
Hostinger unlocks those four features only in the tier two Business plan. You’ll also enjoy higher monthly traffic limits at 40,000 (compared to Hostinger’s 25,000). And for cPanel fans, Bluehost also gives you access to the world-class control panel on all shared hosting plans via the Bluehost account manager:
The big drawback to using Bluehost is obvious: It’s expensive, and after the entry-level plan, they barely give you anything extra for the additional money they ask. In some cases, they give you less. Beyond the cost, Bluehost also performed worse in our performance testing, and it doesn’t have an uptime guarantee (which is non-negotiable for ecommerce sites). One last significant drawback is Bluehost’s online reputation among customers, which is not so stellar. It reflects a gap between their marketing promises and real-world experience.
- Stronger features on entry-level plan versus Hostinger
- AI site creation tools
- Modern NVMe storage across all plans
- All plans are more expensive than Hostinger
- Ecommerce suite isn’t available until tier three plan
- No uptime guarantee on shared hosting plans
Which web hosting service has the best core features?
On entry-level plans, Bluehost beats Hostinger on core features alone (without factoring in pricing). With the tier two plans, Bluehost maintains a lead across most types of websites. However, there is a notable ecommerce exception: Hostinger bundles an ecommerce suite that Bluehost gatekeeps behind its tier-three plan.
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Websites per account | 25 - 50 | 10 - 100 |
Storage available | 25 - 50 GB | 10 - 100 GB |
Bandwidth | Unlimited (fair use) | Unmetered (fair use) |
Monthly visits | 25K - 100K | 40K - 400K |
WordPress staging environment | Starting at Business (tier two) plan | On all plans |
Migration assistance | Free full service on all plans | Free self service on all plans / paid full service option |
2 - 5 boxes per website / free for first year | 5 - unlimited boxes per account | |
Control panel | On all plans (hPanel / cPanel sold as a separate hosting product) | On all plans (cpanel) |
Website builder | On all plans (AI-powered) | On all plans (AI-powered) |
Hosting types available | Shared / WordPress / WooCommerce / Cloud / VPS / Agency | Shared / WordPress / WooCommerce / Cloud / VPS / Dedicated Server |
Learn more | Get Hostinger | Get Bluehost |
If you’re planning on transferring your existing website(s) over from another hosting service to either Hostinger or Bluehost, then you should be aware of how each host approaches the process. With Hostinger, you’ll get the golden gloves service, and everything will be handled for you for free.
On the Bluehost side, they’ll equip you with tools and tutorials, but it’ll be up to you to make the transfer(s) happen — unless you’re willing to pay for Bluehost’s premium migration service.
Another consideration is whether you need access to cPanel. As explained earlier, Hostinger’s shared hosting plans do not offer cPanel, while Bluehost includes it on all plans. If cPanel is a must-have feature for you, then you’ll need to either go with Bluehost or consider a Hostinger VPS plan.
Lastly, there is the issue of monthly website traffic. Bluehost is more generous than Hostinger across all plans, but with the second tier, the difference is stark: Hostinger gives you 100,000 monthly visitors, whereas Bluehost doubles the amount to 200,000.
One feature you won’t have to worry about with either hosting company is access to an AI-powered website builder because they both offer it:
Which web host has the best performance and reliability?
In our hands-on testing, we measured four key metrics: uptime, overall performance score, FCP (First Contentful Paint, or how quickly the first element on a web page appears), and LCP (Largest Contentful Paint, or how quickly the main content loads).
Hostinger outperformed Bluehost on three out of the four.
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Uptime guarantee | 99.9% | Not guaranteed |
Tested uptime | 100% | 96.4% |
Average performance score | 97.3 | 93 |
Average FCP | 0.8 seconds | 0.53 seconds |
Average LCP | 1.07 seconds | 1.43 seconds |
Learn more | Get Hostinger | Get Bluehost |
After more than a week of continuous uptime monitoring, our Hostinger test site clocked in with a flawless 100% score. In contrast, our Bluehost site experienced an outage for several hours during a downtime incident. This is particularly concerning because Bluehost is among the few major hosting companies that don't include an uptime guarantee for their shared hosting plans. On a practical level, this means that if your site were to go down with Bluehost and you lost sales, you’d have no recourse to recover your lost earnings.
In terms of performance, the story was similar. Hostinger came out on top in overall performance and had a faster average LCP, though Bluehost did get one win with a faster average FCP score.
The bottom line is this: All metrics matter, but uptime is non-negotiable. The fact that Bluehost doesn't guarantee uptime percentages and that we experienced downtime during a relatively short testing window is a red flag for business-critical websites.
Which web host is the better value?
As mentioned in the introduction, Hostinger is the overall better value between the two. The few additional perks that Bluehost offers aren’t enough to justify the extra cost for most users.
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Price range | $2.99-$7.99/mo (48-month term) | $3.99-$14.99/mo (36-month term) |
Best value plan | Business for $3.79/mo (48-month term) | Starter for $3.99/mo (36-month term) |
Money-back guarantee | Yes — 30 days | Yes — 30 days |
Free domain for a year | On all plans | On all plans |
Free CDN | Starting at Business plan | On all plans |
Free SSL | On all plans | On all plans |
Learn more | Get Hostinger | Get Bluehost |
Hostinger plans
When you land on the Hostinger shared web hosting plans, you’ll notice that there are three options. This is somewhat misleading because there are only two classic shared web hosting plans. The third is a cloud hosting plan for businesses looking to scale. Both shared hosting plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
- Premium: 25 websites, 25 GB SSD, 25,000 monthly visits, 100 subdomains, free SSL, free domain for one year, free migration service, weekly backups, DDoS protection, web application firewall, AI website builder, developer features, and 24/7 chat support
- Business: 50 websites, 50 GB NVMe, 100,000 monthly visits, 100 subdomains, free CDN, free SSL, free domain for one year, free migration service, weekly + on-demand backups, DDoS protection, web application firewall, AI website builder + advanced AI tools (image generator, blog writer, etc), developer features, an advanced ecommerce suite, and 24/7 priority chat support
The third plan Hostinger shows is actually their entry-level cloud hosting plan, which is presented as a higher-level option in case the shared plans aren’t powerful enough to meet your needs. Hostinger does this type of mixing and matching with several other hosting categories, so it’s just something to be aware of.
Bluehost plans
Like Hostinger, Bluehost offers the same hosting plans across different categories. For example, all of Bluehost’s shared web hosting plans are also their WordPress plans. They did this by merging managed WordPress features into their shared hosting. All plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
- Starter: 10 websites, 10 GB NVMe, 40,000 monthly visits, free CDN, free SSL, free domain for one year, weekly backups, DDoS protection, web application firewall, AI site creation tools, WordPress staging site, developer features, and 24/7 chat support
- Business: 50 websites, 50 GB NVMe, 200,000 monthly visits, free CDN, free SSL, free domain + privacy for one year, weekly backups, DDoS protection, web application firewall, malware detection + removal, AI site creation tools, WordPress staging site, developer features, and 24/7 phone + chat support
- eCommerce Essentials: 100 websites, 100 GB NVMe, 400,000 monthly visits, free CDN, free SSL, free domain + privacy for one year, weekly backups, DDoS protection, web application firewall, malware detection + removal, AI site creation tools, WordPress staging site, developer features, advanced ecommerce suite, and 24/7 phone + chat support
Which web host has the best security features?
Both hosts offer nearly identical baseline security, but Bluehost's automatic malware detection and removal (available starting from their tier two Business plan) gives it a slight edge over Hostinger's on-demand backups.
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Malware scanning | ||
Firewall protection | ||
DDoS protection | ||
Backup frequency | Weekly (all plans) + On-demand (on Business plan only) | Weekly |
Other | Cloudflare protected nameservers | Malware detection + removal (starting from tier two) |
Learn more | Get Hostinger | Get Bluehost |
At the entry level, Hostinger and Bluehost’s security features are almost the same. The one differentiator that stands out is that Hostinger uses Cloudflare-protected nameservers for enhanced DDoS protection and DNSSEC, but since Bluehost also provides DDoS protection, this advantage is minimal.
The real difference emerges at the tier two Business level. Hostinger adds on-demand backups, while Bluehost includes automatic malware detection and removal.
While on-demand backups offer convenience, they're essentially a restore tool because both hosts already provide automatic weekly backups. Malware detection and removal, however, actively prevents the most common attack vector in shared hosting: compromised code through outdated files and plugins.
Which web host has the best support and reputation?
Bluehost edges ahead on support options, offering 24/7 phone support starting with its tier two Business plan, while Hostinger limits users to chat-only support on all plans. However, Hostinger performs significantly better in customer reviews and online reputation ratings.
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24/7 customer support | ||
Support options | AI chatbot, live chat, knowledge base, written tutorials, video tutorials | Phone, live chat, knowledge base, online courses |
Trustpilot score | 4.7 | 4.6 |
G2 rating | 4.4 | 3.4 |
Capterra rating | 4.5 | 3.6 |
Learn more | Get Hostinger | Get Bluehost |
Both hosts offer 24/7 chat support, though Hostinger uses an AI chatbot for frontline triage while Bluehost routes you to a human after some basic questions. To Hostinger's credit, its AI chatbot is better than most. The chatbot scans the knowledge base to provide contextually aware answers rather than canned responses, and if you truly get stuck, a human will take over the conversation.
Still, most people prefer speaking with a real human right away, and some specifically want phone support. Since Bluehost offers 24/7 phone support starting with their tier two plan, it would seem to have the advantage. However, advertised support channels don't always reflect real-world customer experience.
Online reviews bridge the gap between support options and what it’s like to rely on those options to get help. On G2, Hostinger has 2.4 times as many positive customer support mentions as negative, while Bluehost actually has more negative mentions than positive.
Capterra tells the same story: Hostinger's support scores 4.4 out of 5 compared to Bluehost's 3.3, with overall ratings of 4.5 versus 3.6. Even on Trustpilot — the only platform where the gap is narrow — Hostinger edges out Bluehost 4.7 to 4.6.
Top alternatives
If you’ve read this far and neither Hostinger nor Bluehost seems to fit your hosting needs, then you might want to consider Namecheap or Hosting.com. They’ve both been in business for over two decades and enjoy relatively positive ratings across the web. They also have extremely low promo pricing and include free ongoing email on all shared web hosting. Here’s a quick rundown of their entry-level plans:
- Namecheap Stellar plan: $1.98/mo in the first year and comes with three websites, 20 GB SSD storage, 30 email boxes, unmetered bandwidth, AI website builder + tools, free CDN, free domain name in the first year + free ongoing domain privacy protection, free SSL in the first year, cPanel, bi-weekly backups, and 24/7 live chat support.
- Hosting.com Starter plan: $2.99/mo (billed annually, first yr only) in the first year and comes with one website, 15 GB NVMe storage, 10 email boxes with unlimited mail space, unlimited bandwidth, LiteSpeed servers, advanced malware protection, free SSL, free migrations, free domain in the first year, weekly backups, and 24/7 live chat support.
Hostinger vs. Bluehost: Which is better?
All things considered, Hostinger is the better hosting option for most users. While Bluehost does have some advantages — particularly when comparing entry-level plans — the marginal benefits don't justify the higher cost.
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Value | ||
Core features | ||
Performance and reliability | ||
Security | ||
Support and reputation | ||
Learn more | Get Hostinger | Get Bluehost |
Hostinger has a superior cost-to-benefit ratio across both web hosting tiers, maintains better performance, and garners consistently positive customer reviews. Ecommerce sites in particular benefit from using Hostinger, as its second-tier plan offers advanced business tools for $11 less per month than Bluehost's comparable third tier. The AI-assisted chat support is responsive and effective, though some users may miss having phone access.
Bluehost offers 24/7 phone support on higher-tier plans and has strong brand recognition in the WordPress community. However, its prices are significantly higher for comparable features (particularly for ecommerce sites), and Bluehost has received notably lower customer satisfaction ratings. Security features are similar between both hosts, with Bluehost offering slight advantages in malware protection on tier two plans.
Unless Bluehost has some very specific non-negotiable feature for your situation (e.g., cPanel access), then Hostinger is generally the better choice.
FAQs
What is the downside to Bluehost?
The main downsides to Bluehost are inconsistent performance and price. Bluehost plans are generally more expensive than competitors', and some renewal rates for certain products are outrageously high. For example, a .com domain name costs $23.99 to renew, with an additional $15 for domain privacy. That means it costs almost $40 per year just to maintain your website domain name with Bluehost (unless you use a different registrar).
What is the downside to Hostinger?
The downside of Hostinger is that none of its hosting plans include phone support. You can receive help only via chat. Beyond that, the entry-level shared hosting plan has a few minor drawbacks. For example, it uses older-generation SSD hard drives and doesn’t include a free CDN, though neither of these is an issue as soon as you hit the second-tier plan.
What is the biggest difference between Hostinger and Bluehost?
Although Hostinger and Bluehost have several differences, the biggest difference is probably their promotional pricing, with Hostinger offering better deals on hosting plans. Considering how much they also have in common, Hostinger will offer most of the same features you get with Bluehost, at a lower price and with guaranteed uptime on shared hosting plans.
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