11 best Bluehost alternatives (No affiliate links)

This post will show you better alternatives to Bluehost. As a side note, I am not affiliated with any hosting companies.

I used Bluehost for 2 years, but I noticed that the current hosting package couldn’t handle my growing traffic. So, I decided to migrate my website to a different website.

As a web developer, I have practical experience working with many different hosting companies. But before I migrated my own website, I researched many different hosting companies. So, you will get practical and field data from this post.

What are the top Bluehost alternatives?

Aiming to create or transfer a high-traffic website, here are my top picks:

Amazon Lightsail
Cloudways
WP Engine
A2 Hosting
SiteGround
GoDaddy
Hostpapa
Hostgator
IONOS
Dreamhost
Hostinger

1. AWS Lightsail

AWS Lightsail is specially made for WordPress and other CMSs. However, you need some technical experience to set up Lightsail. Or you can hire someone to set up your WordPress website on AWS Lightsail hosting.

It charges you every month, and the bill is calculated per hour.

Several pricing ranges are available, from $3.5 to $160 per month. However, the total bill may be different from your subscription. For example, if you subscribed for a $10 package, you may receive a 12/15/20 dollar bill at the end of the month, depending on usage and traffic.

AWS is a big name in the hosting industry. Many well-known websites, such as Netflix, LinkedIn, Facebook, BBC, etc., also use AWS for their hosting. So you can use it without any doubt and as a great alternative to Bluehost.

Advantages of AWS Lightsail

The high-speed server loads your website faster.
Cloud-based hosting.
It’s easy to migrate an existing website to Lightsail, and it’s cost-free.
High-volume SSD storage.
You get a static IP address.
SSH terminal access.
Automatically deploy your code to Lightsail anytime you push (git push origin master) to Github.
Unlimited websites within a single package.

Difficulty on AWS Lightsail

You need technical knowledge to use their hosting.
The total bill may be greater than your subscription plan (depending on usage).
Email setup is a little bit trickier.

2. Cloudways

Cloudways is a middleman between the cloud hosting providers and you.

Cloudways allows you to use any cloud hosting from DigitalOcean, VULTR, Linode, AWS, and Google Cloud. It’s not a competitor of AWS or Google Cloud. Cloudways made the cloud environment more flexible and easy to use, and this is its beauty.

So, if you’re not tech-savvy, you can still use AWS, Google Cloud, Vultr, or any of the five cloud hosting providers.

Like AWS Lightsail, Cloudways bills you monthly, and the price is calculated per hour (Pay as you go). However, you can limit the bill per month. Once your limit is exhausted, the website will stop running until you extend it.

Bluehost charges you upfront every year. On the other hand, Cloudways charges you every month. That means you can make the payment pay-as-you-go and as much as you use it. Perhaps you get optimal server speed, and it can handle more visitors than Bluehost. So, you can think of Cloudways as the perfect replacement for Bluehost.

Advantages of Cloudways

Easy to use cloud environment.
A pay-as-you-go billing system means paying only for what you use.
High-speed server.
You can cancel your subscription at any time.
24-hour customer support.
Free website migration.
Unlimited websites within a single package.
Automated backup.
Staging environment (playground/sandbox)
An advanced caching system that loads websites faster.
You can run 3rd party tools like Git, Composer, and WP-CLI and manage your code.
SFTP access to your file system.

Difficulty on Cloudways

Prices are higher than those of the actual cloud hosting providers.

3. WP Engine

WP Engine is one of the most reliable & fastest hostings for WordPress that holds 1.5M+ websites.

They offer managed WordPress hosting for $300/year. That means you get a dedicated server that does not share speed/bandwidth with others. This is why the website loads super fast.

Other companies also sell managed WordPress hosting, but WP Engine means it when it says managed WordPress.

Website performance or loading speed is one of the big factors among 200 ranking signals. So, if you’re concerned about speed/performance, WP Engine is the right solution for you.

The lowest plan of WP Engine can handle 25,000 monthly traffic (visits). And you also have the option to increase the bandwidth when traffic exceeds 25,000.

So, if you are looking for a better substitute for Bluehost, you should definitely consider WP Engine.

Advantages of WP Engine

Maximize speed & SEO ranking.
High security and threat blocking.
Free staging (sandbox).
Backup & restore feature.
You can build your hosting plan depending on the volume of traffic.

Difficulty with WP Engine

Prices are high compared to Bluehost.
Small and additional add-ons (such as automatic plugin updates) also cost money, but they are free on other hosting companies.

4. A2 Hosting

A2 Hosting is the fastest & reliable hosting company. It is one of the best Bluehost alternatives for comparing prices and features.

The prices are nearly similar on Bluehost and A2 Hosting (among similar hosting plans). From my practical experience, I saw that Bluehost had a hard time serving 2K visitors on their shared hosting.

On the other hand, A2 Hosting (a similar package) can handle that amount of traffic without too much trouble, which is why I think it is a great alternative to Bluehost.

Bluehost increases the rates once you increase the subscription duration. For example, one of the Bluehost packages will cost you $5.45/month if you subscribe for 1 year, but the same package will cost you $7.45/month if you subscribe for 3 years.

However, on A2 hosting, the rates decrease as you increase the subscription duration. For example, one of the A2 hosting packages will cost you $6.99/month for one year, but this same package will cost you $2.99/month if you subscribe for three years.

So, if you’re planning to buy hosting for a longer period of time, such as 2/3 years, you can save money and get better performance from A2 Hosting.

Also, you can buy hosting for 1 month on A2, which you can’t do on Bluehost.

Considering all of these factors, A2 Hosting is the right Bluehost alternative in terms of quality.

Advantages of A2 Hosting

The website loads faster than Bluehost (a similar package).
You can make payments every month.
Different servers for different packages.

Difficulty with A2 Hosting

An infected website may cause an account ban.
Customer support is not as good as they promise.

5. SiteGround

SiteGround also offers competitive pricing like Blueshot. However, SiteGround provides better server speed than Bluehost.

Like Bluehost, SiteGround offers a 30-day money-back guarantee so you can test their hosting environment with confidence.

They also offer free SSL certificates, CDN, emails, and backups.

Advantages of SiteGround

Competitive pricing model.
It has a nice server speed, and the website loads quickly.
Easy-to-use collaboration features with other developers.
You can choose a specific server zone from various locations.

Difficulty on SiteGround

SiteGround may save your data without your consent. I have a collaboration account and a different customer account, but they redirect me to an unwanted account most of the time.
They are country-biased and don’t do business with some countries. They may even push their political opinions to customers. This may seem funky, but it also happened during the Ukraine war. Also, they don’t sell hosting to every person (country).
Contacting their support is time-consuming and a little tricky.

6. GoDaddy

Who doesn’t know GoDaddy? It’s one of the most known and popular brands when it comes to domain, hosting, and website building. GoDaddy is the most popular for buying domain names, but their hosting is also nice.

GoDaddy offers very competitive hosting prices ranging from $5.99/month.

Like Bluehost, its cPanel is very easy to navigate, and you can install various applications, including WordPress, with a few clicks.

Advantages of GoDaddy

You can buy both the domain & hosting from this single place.
Easy to manage DNS.
It supports A-Records, which is not supported by many other domain/hosting companies.
You can also connect 3rd party hosting using A-Records instead of Nameservers. It comes in handy when you work with a cloud-based environment like Heroku.

Difficulty on GoDaddy

Not all their hosting packages have Free SSL. So make sure your package includes free SSL before buying their hosting. Otherwise, you have to buy it separately and install it yourself.
They try to upsell too much.

7. Hostpapa

You will get fabulous customer support if you face any issues with your website or hosting (mostly). Hostpapa server speed is better than Bluehost.

Their main client base is small business owners like you and me. They try to provide their best when it comes to resolving any issue.

Hostpapa offers very competitive pricing and provides great value. So, if you are on a tight budget and seeking Bluehost alternatives with the highest ROI, you can definitely go with Hostpapa.

Advantages of HostPapa

Better server speed.
Competitive pricing.

Difficulty on HostPapa

Insufficient storage for the mailboxes (1GB/mailbox).
Suspending accounts without prior notice to resolve issues.

8. Hostgator

Hostgator provides better speed than Bluehost, but if you want to get the most out of it, you have to sign up for the “Business Plan” (Shared Hosting) or the “Standard Plan” (WordPress Hosting).

Other than that, the rest of the lower packages are similar to Bluehost. Not to mention, these two are owned by the same company (Endurance International Group), so there are lots of similarities between Hostgator and Bluehost.

Advantages of Hostgator

Easy to navigate cPanel.
Separate “Portal” login.
99% uptime.
24-hour customer support.

Difficulty on Hostgator

Not all packages contain free SSL.
Renews at a higher rate (regular price) than you purchased for the first year.

9. IONOS

Previously, it was known as 1&1. However, to get better performance than Bluehost, you have to sign up for at least an “Expert” plan (web hosting). It will cost you $8 per month but is billed annually ($96).

On IONOS, you can sign up for 1 month, which will cost you $16.

IONOS is a German company that provides better speed and performance. It is one of the big alternatives.

Advantages of IONOS

Better loading speed.
You have the ability to pay monthly (at a higher rate).
99.9% uptime.
Free SSL & DDoS protection.
Free backup & restore feature.

Difficulty on IONOS

Reaching out to customer support is not as easy as it should be.
Hosting renews at a higher rate than you signed up for the first year.
They don’t keep backup for more than 7 days. That means if you contact them more than 7 days later after losing your website, they have nothing to do for you.

10. Dreamhost

It comes with pre-installed WordPress, and you don’t have to install it manually. However, its “Shared Starter” package will cost you 47 USD yearly. If you want better hosting than Bluehost, you have to buy at least “VPS Basic,” which will cost you $13.75/month (billing yearly $165).

However, if you’re on a tight budget, you can sign up for their “Shared Hosting.” However, their shared hosting is not better than Bluehost’s (similar packages).

Advantages of Dreamhost

Very competitive price.
Good customer support.
Custom-built panel.

Difficulty on Dreamhost

Dreamhost does not have cPanel.

11. Hostinger

Hostinger is a growing company that offers very cheap hosting packages. Their price starts from $1.99/month. They could be good alternatives to Bluehost.

However, you need at least a “Business WordPress” package (under WordPress Hosting) to get better service than Bluehost.

But if you are looking for a cheap and reliable hosting company, you can choose any of their “Web Hosting” packages.

Advantages of Hostinger

Very competitive & cheap price.
99.9% uptime.

Difficulty on Hostinger

The renewal price is nearly double that of the first year.
Customer support needs more improvements.

Conclusion

Hosting plans, packages, and companies can be confusing to non-techies and newbies. Many marketing strategies are involved in this industry.

Sometimes, one big company merges with another or sells to another. Bluehost has been doing well in this industry for a long time.

However, one company can not serve everyone’s needs. In this post, I showed many better alternatives that may serve your needs.

11 best Bluehost alternatives (No affiliate links)