HostGator Vs BlueHost

With so many web hosts out there, finding the right home for your website can be quite a pain. And trying to compare different web hosts by going back and forth between their websites is a real nightmare.

• HostGator Coupon Codes
• BlueHost Coupon Codes

When it comes to hosting a personnal blog or website (or even a small business website for that matter), a lot of people will narrow it down to HostGator (review) and BlueHost (review).

In this review we’ll compare the details of each web hosts in order to help you make the best decision.

Both BlueHost and HostGator are quite similar as far as shared hosting goes but HostGator offers a wider range of services.

HostGator Overview

At first glance, HostGator is just your average web host: cPanel hosting with PHP and MySQL support, a standard ModernBill setup, 24×7 phone and email support and an ordinary website design.

But besides its meat-and-potatoe hosting services, HostGator is a strong web host who actually delivers the merchandise: fast and reliable hosting with professional and friendly support all around the clock.

Based in Florida, HostGator has been in the hosting industry since 2002 and to this day they’ve grown to be one of the largest web hosting company around. With over a million websites it’s no wonder why HostGator is trusted by so many webmasters.

HostGator is accredited by the Better Business Bureau and got a “Satisfactory” rating with as few as 10 complaints to this day, which were all resolved.

HostGator Hosting Services

• Linux Shared Hosting
• Linux Reseller Hosting
• Windows and Linux Dedicated Servers

BlueHost Overview

BlueHost has been around for quite a while, delivering web hosting services since 1996. They specialize in website hosting, offering a single one-size-fits all hosting plan. On their website, BlueHost claims to host over 630,000 domains.

Again here we get the standard hosting setup: cPanel hosting with PHP and MySQL support. No bells and whistles here but what you see is what you get, no hidden fees or restrictions.

BlueHost offers 24×7 support and they can be reached by phone, email or live chat.

BlueHost Hosting Services

• Linux Shared Hosting

BlueHost Vs HostGator: Web Hosting Features

So if you’re looking at either a reseller or dedicated hosting solution it’s a no-brainer here, go with HostGator as BlueHost doesn’t offer these services.

While BlueHost has a single one-size-fits-all hosting plan, HostGator offers three (3) different packages. Let’s see how they compare side-by-side.

Resources

BlueHost is now offering unlimited disk space and bandwidth but has a limit on the number of email accounts you can have. Chances are you won’t need 2,500 email accounts anyway. On the other hand HostGator doesn’t provide unlimited hosting but with packages offering 350GB of storage space or more, you will have plenty of room for your website.

Programming & Development

Scripting language support is not an issue here. Both BlueHost and HostGator support PHP, Perl, CGI and provide you with MySQL and Postgre database servers. HostGator has a slim advantage with its ASP.net support but if I were to host a website developped in dot Net I’d go with a Windows Hosting Provider instead.

Website Management

cPanel is obviously the control panel of choice. It is by far the best control panel for Linux web servers, combining endless possibilities with ease of use. With cPanel you’ll also get Fantastico Deluxe, a great script installer that allows you to install your favorite web applications (like Wordpress, Drupal, osCommerce, phpBB, etc.) within a few clicks.

For those who want to have a custom website but do not have HTML programming skills, both web hosts offer a nice website builder with hundreds of free professional templates.

eCommerce owners have access to a SSL certificate server, allowing to perform secure transactions. You’ll also have the choice of three (3) shopping carts which can be installed very easily.

HostGator Vs BlueHost: Conclusion

We’ve got two very similar web hosts here but I think that HostGator is a better choice than BlueHost since it gives you room to grow (ie.: you can eventually move to a dedicated server). Also the fact that HostGator is a bit cheaper and offers monthly terms is a good thing if you don’t plan to spend too much initially.

I also think the fact that HostGator is a younger company than BlueHost while they’ve got almost twice the number of customers speaks for itself.

Links

• HostGator Website
• HostGator Review and User Reviews
• BlueHost Website
• BlueHost Review and User Reviews
• HostGator vs BlueHost – Hosting Plan Comparison