My dad has always had an appreciation for technology, even when he seldom understands it. And like many young people, I was his go-to for any troubleshooting problems because I was “good with computers”. Almost of all his problems needed no effort to solve–finding a lost email or navigating a camera menu were simple tasks I enjoyed helping him with. So when he approached me to build him a website, I found a unique challenge in front of me. I had never built a website before, but I was “good with computers”, so why not try doing it?
As it turns out, my dad had most of what he wanted ready to go, he just needed a place to put everything. He had made brochures prior to creating a presence online and wanted his site to be a carbon-copy of his brochure. What I found out later, is that I ended up making his website thanks to GoDaddy. My dad called GoDaddy and told then what he wanted. They told him they would host his site for their standard fee and would build his site for several hundred dollars more. It was at this point that my dad decided to utilize the free labor of his offspring.
After deciding to have me build the site, my dad still planned to host the site with GoDaddy. I took it upon myself to research different web hosts, and found that GoDaddy is often much slower that other web hosts. Considering my many of my dad’s clients had an adversarial relationship with technology, I knew speed, reliability, and ease of use were top priorities. And Like a substantial amount of the internet, my dad’s site would be built with WordPress so I knew I’d need a web host that would also interact well with that platform.
Since then I’ve worked to create many different types of of websites for myself and clients from simple blogs to online stores and complexly designed and animated sites for business, legal, and medical professionals. Throughout my experience, I’ve found two hosting services that continually fit the needs of myself and my clients while delivering great performance and not breaking the bank. I’ve used and recommended Bluehost and HostGator so often that I decided to become an affiliate and share my experiences below.
Choosing the wrong hosting service can have a significantly negative impact on your site. A bad hosting service can result in slow load times, frequent site downtime, and poor security–all of which drive people away from you site. That’s why finding the right hosting is important for your WordPress site, online store, or blog.
So what are the keys to choosing the right host and how will you know you have a host you can on in the future? Let’s go over what you should consider.
- Loading Time & Uptime: People aren’t patient when it comes to the internet. This is the realm of instant gratification, and if your site is slow or doesn’t load right away, visitors will choose someone else’s site over yours. HostGator is often faster (in some cases twice as fast), with more uptime. Both hosting services have a 99% uptime guarantee, but HostGator has less downtime than Bluehost. I’ve never had a client complain of downtime with either service, but it’s clearly less downtime is better.
- Security and Data Backup: Security is an especially important concern and one that continues to grow. If you aren’t running an online store chances are security may not be a major concern, but as more blogs and WordPress sites create followers who provide their email and other personal information security is paramount. Likewise, if anything does go wrong, it’s important to know that the contents of your site are backed up on a secure server. Bluehost offers a hassle free way to backup your database, including automated backups of your file AND databases. But HostGator also has a security team dedicated to protecting your site from Hackers, Viruses, and Malware. Both offer great security and one doesn’t stand out above the other.
- Price: Price is always a consideration, and it’s the same with hosting. There are free hosting services, cheap hosting services (a few dollars a month), and more expensive hosting services.
When it comes to hosting, free is almost never the right option because they severely hurt your site’s performance by limiting bandwidth, providing poor or no security, having really slow load times, and offering very little (often zero) support or service.
More expensive options are for very large sites with tons of traffic (think major online retailers). I’ve redesigned sites for Real Estate agents, Attorneys, and other professionals who were getting charged three times the rates of Bluehost and HostGator plans. Expensive hosting rates offer little benefit for most people, because they end up paying so much extra for things they don’t need. Blogs and Online stores hosted by Bluehost and HostGator with 100,000 or more monthly visitors do just fine, and I find it wasteful to pay more for the same result.
- Service: If you do encounter an issue, it’s important to know that you that you can get the problem solved fast. Both Bluehost offer 24/7 U.S. based customer support, meaning they really will answer the phone and help fix problems fast. HostGator has excellent support as well, and it’s also available 24/7/365 with a variety of ways to contact them including Email Support, Live Chat, and Phone Support. Both web hosts have a great support team.
- Reliability: It’s important to know that you can depend on your site to work. Unreliable web hosts are a headache for me to deal with, but dozens of times more frustrating for my clients. One of the worst offenders was an Indian hosting company with just barely 30% uptime and some of the most difficult customer service and a clunky user interface. Reliability comes down to many factors, but this is the “it just needs to work” consideration.
Bluehost has over 1,000,000 accounts, and more than 20,000 sites created each month. Unless you can see the servers and data centers for yourself, it’s good to look for a host that is not only stable, but able to grow.
HostGator is in the same boat. It offers stellar performance and security, and has been able to do so over 15 years while supporting with hundreds of thousands of customers and continuing to grow.
- WordPress Ease of Use: WordPress powers over 25% of the web. Considering the massive amount of new websites created on the WordPress platform, it’s important to find a host that’s friendly with WordPress. Interestingly enough, WordPress actually recommends using Bluehost because it is fast, responsive, and you can install multiple WordPress sites on the same account easily. This makes Bluehost a great choice to make test sites or start a new blog quickly.
Currently, HostGator does not offer WordPress Hosting without paying extra. It is, however, easy to use WordPress once installed.
- Bonus Features: To make themselves stand out, hosting companies offer bonus features for using their service. Bluehost offers Unlimited Domains on your account, unlimited databases, and bandwidth. Bluehost will also give you a Free Domain Name For Life when you use their hosting service for a year.
HostGator offers a better Money Back Guarantee (45 days as opposed to 30), Unlimited Disk Space, Emails, and Bandwidth on All Plans, as well as a Free Weebly Site Builder. While this might not be a bonus it’s also worth noting that HostGator doesn’t require a contract like other web hosts.
It’s always nice to get something (or in this case somethings) for free that the other guy makes you pay for.
The Verdict
Both Bluehost and HostGator are excellent choices that offer great performance, support, security, and won’t break the bank. Each hosting service, however, fulfills customer needs a bit differently.
If you’re a first-time user or personal blogger, Bluehost is the best choice because of how friendly it is to beginners. It is one of the few providers endorsed by the WordPress Core team and allows for single click WordPress installation. Bluehost plans also comes with a free domain and site builder, making it a one-stop shop for someone who want to hit the ground running.
HostGator is the best choice if you’re comfortable creating websites and value the increases in performance over the Bluehost’s ease of use. HostGator’s large range of options and control make it a great choice if you need to host multiple sites, and it’s what I most commonly use to host my client’s sites.