HostGator vs Bluehost - The Real Truth

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HISTORY OF HOSTGATOR

I love HostGator. I love that weird little alligator they use to represent the company. I love the customer service. They brought my website back from the dead when I thought it was completely lost.

I owe them so much.

HostGator is not only a great web hosting service, but a stepping stone to a successful website. Its ease of use and affordability makes it number one in my book.

It was founded buy a Florida Atlantic University student named Brent Oxley in 2002. It is a solid and reliable web hosting service that it is considered a veteran amongst a plethora of junior web hosting companies.

It performs with lightning speed, and works well with WordPress. It includes everything that you need to get online including domain name registration, privacy protection, and an option to purchase a designated server.

In 2012, a new company called Endurance International group took over HostGator which had been achieving growth year after year right from the beginning.

HostGator monopolizes the market with over 9 million websites using its service. That’s incredible! That shows their authority and trustworthiness in an industry where that’s seldom achieved.

There have been so many fly-by-night web hosting services start up only to close down the next year. Not HostGator. It’s proved the test of time, and that for me is worth its weight in gold.

I want reliability, affordability, and expertise. That’s what I get from HostGator.

HISTORY OF BLUEHOST

Bluehost is very similar to HostGator in that it is a veteran in the hosting service industry. It didn’t get its name until 2003. However, it was first conceived by Matt Heaton in 1996 under a different name.

It was acquired by the Endurance International Group in 2010, the same group that bought out HostGator two years later.

I find it interesting that the two leading competitors in the hosting service industry is owned by the same company.

For those who argue that one is more superior than the other, I shake my head. Both Bluehost and HostGator run neck and neck. Both do pretty well the same thing. Both have millions of customers using their service.

The only caveat that I have found between the two are controversial censoring. Bluehost appeared in a Newsweek article accused of censoring webpages that we’re not from the US.

Specifically, websites from countries listed as rogue states by the United States government were being censored.

That is alarming, especially since a web hosting service should have no control over the content by which its customers create.

Also, in February 2011, Bluehost took down a religious website simply because they did not agree with the content within the website.

That again is alarming.

There was also a security breach in March 2015 where Bluehost was hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army.

To be fair, other hosting service providers were also hacked. HostGator being one of them.

The SEA (Syrian Electronic Army) claimed that these services where posting terrorist websites.

The ability to correct vulnerability to cyber-attacks is an important aspect to consider when choosing a web hosting service. One would hope that the company would learn from its mistakes and put safeguards in place after that.

That is certainly something to think about when considering a web hosting service, especially since Paulos Yibelo (a well-known bug hunter) from TechCrunch reported serious vulnerabilities at Bluehost in 2019.

Now, that’s nothing in comparison to the minor service outages and attacks that HostGator has been subject to over the years. They haven’t had any further incidents.

DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES

Speed

Both HostGator and Bluehost are known for their incredible web loading speeds.

Customer Service

Both HostGator and Bluehost are known for their excellent customer service.

Discounts

Both HostGator and Bluehost both have discounts for first-time users.

Server Uptime

Server uptime is supposed to be slightly better with Bluehost, but I would think that depends on your content, traffic, and size of your website.

You can purchase dedicated hosting through HostGator once your website receives more traffic. You can choose between 8-30GB Ram where they provide maximum performance, world class support, advanced management.

The dedicated servers include protection against the DDOS attacks, RAID-1 configuration, three dedicated IPv4 IPs, an unlimited data base, full root access, 24/7 365 live support, and a fully redundant network.

Bluehost also has dedicated server hosting that is very comparative, but I didn’t find their website to be as thorough as HostGator. That may just be me.

COST COMPARASONS

The cost comparison between HostGator and Bluehost is quite similar, however Bluehost is slightly cheaper.

OTHER WEB HOSTING COMPANIES

CONCLUSION

All in all, both HostGator and Bluehost are good companies. In my opinion they both do exactly the same thing, and are reputable, affordable, and trustworthy.

When it comes to choosing a web hosting provider, choose one that you like and stick with it. They are all pretty much the same.

Personally, I like HostGator because I used them from the beginning. You might have a totally different experience with them, and that’s okay.

Information used for this article was obtained from the following websites:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluehost

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HostGator

https://www.bluehost.com

https://www.hostgator.com

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