Bluehost is a great hosting company that is also recommended by WordPress. There are other WordPress-friendly hostings that can be Bluehost alternatives. Bluehost has a wide range of hosting plans and packages. Such as shared, VPS, and dedicated. And each of these plans is divided into 3/4 other packages.
If you’re looking for better web hosting for WordPress websites and better hosting than Bluehost, this post will show you the options.
I used Bluehost for 2 years and I noticed that the current hosting package can’t handle my growing traffic. So I decided to migrate my website to a different website.
Being a web developer, I have practical experience working with many different hosting companies. But before I migrate my own website, I researched a lot about many different hosting. So you will get practical and field data from this post.
What are the top Bluehost alternatives in 2023?
Aiming to create or transfer a high-traffic WordPress website, here are my top hosting (Bluehost alternatives) selections:
- Amazon Lightsail
- Cloudways
- WP Engine
- A2 Hosting
- SiteGround
- GoDaddy
- Hostpapa
- Hostgator
- IONOS
- Dreamhost
- Hostinger
1. Amazon/AWS Lightsail
AWS Lightsail is specially made for WordPress and other CMSs. However, you need a little bit of technical experience in order to set up Lightsail. Or you can hire someone to make the setup for your WordPress website on AWS Lightsail hosting.
It charges you on a monthly basis and the billing is calculated per hour.
There are several pricing ranges from $3.5 to $160 per month. However, the total bill may be different from your subscription. For example, you subscribed for a $10 package and you may receive a 12/15/20 dollar bill end of the month depending on the usage & traffic.
AWS is a big name in the hosting industry. There are lots of well-known websites like Netflix, LinkedIn, Facebook, BBC, etc are also using AWS for their hosting. So you can use it without any doubt and use it as a great alternative to Bluehost.
Advantages of AWS Lightsail
- The high-speed server loads your website faster.
- Cloud-based hosting.
- 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 in order 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.
You can use any of the cloud hosting from DigitalOcean, VULTR, Linode, AWS & Google Cloud through Cloudways. It’s not a competitor of AWS, Google Cloud, etc. Cloudways made the cloud environment more flexible and easy to use. And this is the beauty of it.
So, if you’re not tech-savvy, you can still use AWS, Google Cloud, Vultr, or anyone from the 5 could hosting providers.
Like AWS Lightsail, Cloudways also bills you monthly basis, and the price is calculated per hour (Pay as you go). But you can limit the bill per month. And once your limit is exhausted, the website will stop running until you extend it.
Bluehost charges you on a yearly basis and upfront. On the other hand, Cloudways charges you on a monthly basis. 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, which means pay 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 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.
There are other companies that also sell managed WordPress hosting. But WP Engine means it when they say managed WordPress.
Website performance or loading speed is one of the big factors among 200 ranking signals. So if you’re aiming to gain SEO traffic, WP Engine is the right hosting 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 thinking to find a better substitute for Bluehost, you can definitely go with 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 own 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 which is free on other hosting companies.
4. A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting is the fastest & reliable hosting company. It is one of the best Bluehost alternatives when it comes to comparing prices and features.
The prices are nearly similar on Bluehost & A2 Hosting (among similar hosting plans). From my practical experience, I saw that it had a hard time for Bluehost to serve 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. This is why I think A2 Hosting is a great alternative to Bluehost.
Another cool thing you will notice when you compare their pricing system. On Bluehost, it 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.
But on A2 hosting, it decreases the rates as you increase the subscription duration. For example- one of the A2 hosting packages will cost you $6.99/month for 1 year. But this same package will cost you $2.99/month if you subscribe for 3 years.
So if you’re planning to buy the hosting for a longer period of time such as 2/3 years, you can save your 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.
Comparing all of these, A2 Hosting is the right Bluehost alternative when it comes to quality.
Advantages of A2 Hosting
- The website loads faster than Bluehost (a similar package).
- You can make payments on a monthly basis.
- 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. But SiteGround provides better server speed than Bluehost.
So if you’re thinking of a Bluehost alternative, SiteGround can be a better option.
SiteGround offers a 30-day money-back guarantee so you can test their hosting environment with peace of mind.
They also offer free SSL certificates, CDN, emails, and backups.
Advantages of SiteGround
- Competitive pricing model.
- 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 also 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. And even they may push their political opinions to customers. This sound may seem funky but it also happened during the Ukraine war. Also, they don’t sell hosting to every people (country).
- Contacting their support is time-consuming and a little tricky.
6. GoDaddy
Who doesn’t know GoDaddy? It’s one of the known and popular brands when it comes to domain, hosting, and website building. However, 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 with a few clicks including WordPress.
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/hosting (mostly). Hostpapa server speed is better than Bluehost.
Their main client base is small business owners like you & me. And their 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 signup 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. So there are lots of similarities between Hostgator & 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, If you want to use IONOS as the Bluehost alternative and if you want a better hosting than Bluehost, then you have to signup for at least an “Expert” plan (web hosting). It will cost you $8 per month but billed annually ($96).
On IONOS you can signup for 1 month which will cost you $16.
IONOS is a German company. They provide better speed and performance. They are one of the big alternatives to Bluehost.
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 the customer support is not 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. Though its “Shared Starter” package will cost you 47 USD yearly. But 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 signup for their “Shared Hosting.” But their shared hosting is not better than Bluehost (similar packages).
So, if you want to take them as the Bluehost alternatives, you have to spend for a higher package.
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 and they offer hosting packages at very cheap prices. Their price starts from $1.99/month. And they could be good alternatives to Bluehost.
However, you need at least a “Business WordPress” package (under WordPress Hosting) in order to get better service than Bluehost.
But if you were looking for a cheap & reliable hosting company, you go with any of their “Web Hosting” packages.
Advantages of Hostinger
- Very competitive & cheap price.
- 99.9% uptime.
Difficulty on Hostinger
- Renewal price is nearly double compared to the first year.
- Customer support needs more improvements.
More posts related to Bluehost
- How to transfer a website from one Bluehost account to another?
- Do you need SiteLock Security on Bluehost?
- Is Bluehost Codeguard Basic worth it?
- Which Bluehost plan is best for small businesses?
- How to cancel your Bluehost account?
- How to remove a website from your Bluehost account?
- How to point a domain to Bluehost?
- How to install WordPress on Bluehost?
- How to change the primary domain on Bluehost?
- Answers to the most common questions about Bluehost
- Bluehost alternatives
Conclusion
Hosting plans, packages, and companies are confusing to non-techies and newbies. There are lots of marketing strategies are involved in this hosting industry.
Sometimes one big company is merging with another company or sold to another company. Bluehost is doing good in this industry for a long period of time.
However, one single company can not serve everyone’s purpose. In this post, I showed a lot of Bluehost alternatives that may serve your purpose.
