SiteGround vs Bluehost – What’s the Best Choice For 2021?

For a long, I was planning to get a presence on social media or the digital world, you can say. During the lockdown, I tried finding ways of doing something worthy. Then one day, I came across the word ‘digital marketing’ which many of you have heard being pushed to you by your parents or IT geek or IT teacher. I just gave a thought that let’s check out what it has in it that people talk a lot about it. 

After research, I got to know that it has covered almost everything, not software development and advanced IT stuffs, but yes you can count SEO, SMO, social media marketing, affiliate marketing, email marketing, website building, blogging and various other options that are basics. 

I took an interest to learn its module one by one and understood some basic as well as core areas. All that interests me is if I’m not a software developer and still I want to start blogging or build a website, can I do it?

The answer I got it, yes, I can do it. I don’t need to be a software developer to build a website. How come is it possible? Well, there are so many hosting companies that have automated the whole process to get started by simply choosing the plan, templates available from, registering a domain name, getting the plugins and begin to blog or start a website with.

The big question that needs to be answered here is which hosting company should I choose for myself among many alternatives and the two most popular ones: Siteground vs Bluehost. 

I did a lot of research to make sure that I’m able to choose the right option for my needs and I should consider every feature they provide in-depth. 

So, I’m here to help myself as well as you to make a decision which is best for what needs and what are the criteria to tick when checking these two alternatives. It’s like my way or the highway. You choose by doing thorough research or go with the flow that whatever will happen you will deal with it later on. 

SiteGround vs Bluehost: How the journey started?

Siteground was founded in 2004, registered in four popular countries Sofia (Bulgaria), Madrid (Spain), London (UK) and the USA. They have 6 data centres spread on 3 continents. They have 500+ exceptional people in their team and still own the members who started with the company since it’s inception, including the top executives. 

Bluehost was founded in 2003 by co-founders Matt Heaton and Danny Ashworth in Provo, Utah State. They have 6 datacenters located in Mumbai (India), Utah (USA), Orem (USA), London (UK), China (Shanghai) and China (Hong kong). They have 750+ team members who are available to lend help round the clock. They have powered 2M+ websites worldwide. 

Siteground and Bluehost, both are web hosting service provider companies. 

To gain tremendous insights on each feature in-depth, let’s have a battle round of each one.

Battle Round 1: Easy to use- Which one is effortless?

When you talk about ease of use and the sassy term ‘effortless’, both the platforms have gained fame in their areas of expertise. 

Bluehost provides cPanel based solutions while Siteground provides custom panel-based solutions. What’s the major difference between cPanel and custom panel? 

cPanel is an online Linux-based graphical interface (GUI) that simplifies website and server management. cPanel comes with two interfaces, cPanel which is a user interface and Web Host Manager (WHM) which is a server management interface. This combo mainly manages the website along with tools to manage the server. cPanel job is to manage the domain, website publishing, creating email accounts, managing or organising web files, and many more. 

Cloudflare, a popular CDN, can be activated through Siteground and Bluehost simply. At times, Bluehost, upsell promotions of paid tools more often that is irritating and might confuse you as well.

Bluehost is also pricey and push you to take a longer hosting plan maybe for 3 years.  

In my opinion, the Siteground is easier to use and convenient as it is not pushy in terms of it’s paid tools and higher plans. It’s custom panel also makes it a win-win situation.

Battle Round 2: What are the hosting features?

The most significant part of choosing the hosting platform is what are the features they are providing you to suit your needs. Firstly, what storage is available in the plan and how much you need should match with each other at an economical price. 

Storage- Your need and hosting storage should have a match. 

This is the key feature and therefore it should be checked first. 

Plans	SiteGround	Bluehost
Beginner level	10 GB	50 GB
Middle level	20 GB	Unlimited
Higher level plan	40 GB	Unlimited

Bluehost beginner plan storage of 50GB is providing more than Siteground’s higher-level plan of 40GB, but if your projects or website don’t require much storage, you can go with Siteground. If storage matters for you and are essential then you should choose Bluehost which provides you with unlimited storage. 

Note: 

Siteground as well as Bluehost use SSD as their storage drives which will cost you more if you opt separately but both the platform plans come with them. It boosts your speed as compared to traditional storage drives. 

Battle Round 3: Who offer paid or free domains, Subdomains and parked domains?

Siteground offers subdomains for free. You are free to create as many subdomains as you need with your plan. Registering a domain name for the first time is paid for (.com) costs $16 per year. You can also Park domains unlimited with all the plans. 

Bluehost comes with a free domain name registration with all their plans. Do not overlook that subdomains and parked domains are available to a limit of 5 and 25 in the beginner plan. It is unlimited in the higher plan. 

Since Bluehost provides free domain registration they could be a winner in this battle. But many other points also need to be kept in mind and not just domain name registration. 

Battle Round 4: Email accounts- to receive and send emails.

Email is an important part of the business. All the communication occurs with the mail. Let’s check out which platform provides how much storage in email accounts. Siteground provides unlimited email accounts to be linked. However, each plan storage differs starting from 2GB for the beginner’s plan, 4GB for the medium plan and 6GB for the higher plan. Forwarders and aliases can be set up along with all the plans. There are three email clients to manage your account which is available with cPanel such as Horde, Roundcube and SquirrelMail.

The only difference in Bluehost is the beginner’s plan provides 5 email accounts with storage of 100MB. While all other plans of Bluehost come with unlimited accounts and storage. 

Here, the contrast is Siteground offers unlimited email accounts while bluehost offers only 5 accounts. Siteground storage is limited while Bluehost provides unlimited storage except in the beginner’s plan. So, it’s pretty the same in both cases. 

Battle Round 5: WordPress integration- who is dealing well?

If you talk about CMS, WordPress comes into mind. It’s the most used platform for CMS. There are servers optimised for WordPress and tools to enhance productivity. Let’s dig out the main features of WordPress that comes with both platforms. 

The very first feature is an easy installation which is performed by both platforms. 

Secondly, the system update should be automatic which is provided by Siteground but Bluehost has not taken care to provide it. 

The next significant feature is whether plugin update is automatic or not. Siteground ticks yes in this feature as well and Bluehost do not provide it. 

Another feature called in-house caching system which is offered by Siteground named SuperCacher and Bluehost doesn’t offer. A separate plugin is required which is not fantasising. 

Lastly, the staging area is again provided by Siteground only in its two plans GrowBig and GoGeek. Bluehost does not provide it. 

Clearly, it shows how Siteground managed to provide so many good features of WordPress integration and Bluehost lacked behind that is why WordPress has chosen Siteground as the best WordPress integration in its website itself. This battle is won by Siteground without any doubt.

Battle Round 6: If lost the data- are you safe? 

Backup is everything if you lose the data. The hard work you have put in is lost and you don’t know whether you will be able to recover or not is a matter of question. Recent backups will help you to restore your files and data quickly and it will be a lifesaver. There are times where I have been saved because of this feature. 

You have got Siteground’s back- They do daily backups and you can recover for the last 30 days data. It can be recovered in seconds. There is also one more feature available called backup on demand. It will restore everything on your system- but before update and that too faster. The sad thing is it is available only on GrowBig and GoGeek plans. 

Bluehost isn’t as cool as Siteground. It provides backup only with higher plans. If you are using a lower and middle plan, then you have to expend $3 extra to avail of that service. 

Well, Siteground wins the point here as backup is an important part and if you are getting it for free then why would you like to pay a penny for a higher premium. 

Battle Round 7: Plans and prices: Are you looking for cheap or quality?

Some look for plans which are cheap cost-wise and others look for an alternative that should give them the quality even if it cost high. It is a personal decision. 

Don’t compromise when it comes to hosting- a piece of advice. 

Siteground Shared hosting plans:

There are three plans available to go with: 

1. Startup- It costs you $14.99 a month.
2. GrowBig- It costs you $24.99 a month.
3. GoGeek- It costs you $39.99 a month.

Bluehost Shared hosting plans: 

There are four plans available in Bluehost:

1. Basic- It costs you $8.99 a month.
2. Plus- It costs you $12.99 a month.
3. Choice plus- It costs you $16.99 a month.
4. Pro- It costs you $25.99 a month. 

With the pricing list, you must have got an idea which is cheaper in pricing. Bluehost wins this battle as it Is available for the lowest prices compared to Siteground. 

Battle Round 8: Support system

When it comes to choosing a platform, support system is something I’m really interested to know. The reason is you have got a helping hand whenever you are stuck or things go wrong. It makes things easy and you get clarity fast. 

Siteground make sure to resolve the issue as fast as they can. They have a support system active via phone, email through ticket generation and live chat. 

This makes it easy to communicate using any mode which is flexible to you. I liked the call support system, as it resolves your doubt and clarifies more on other small queries. 

Bluehost support isn’t that popular as many have faced upsell promotions for higher plans which might irritate you, as it does to me. If you take my personal view on this, I would select Siteground than Bluehost. This crucial point goes to Siteground. 

Battle Round 9: Is security a matter of priority for you?

Siteground provides SSL, SFTP, and SSH which is important security. The most secure version which is PHP7 that comes by default that help you to monitor the traffic. It helps to block all the malware and brutal attacks by a hacker. It ensures to keep the security rules tighter every week to prevent this. 

Bluehost offers the same security- SSL, SFTP, and SSH. They also provide Sitelock. This is additional security that will cost you about $30 a year. Siteground also provides a Site Scanner that will cost you $1.50 a month. 

There is a lot of talks about Bluehost sites hacked but I believe both the platforms make an extra effort to keep it safe and stay in the business for long. 

Battle Round 10: Scalability: How much your hosting will grow with you?

There are chances that the public may like your ideas or business and you start getting attention or traffic more at the start itself, but what is the use if your hosting provider fails to optimise it for you. 

There are more options other than GoGeek plans: 

1. Cloud hosting- It costs $80 a month This will help you to add more resources like storage, RAM and many more which will be a flexible solution for you with just one click. Keep in mind it comes with 5TB which may be enough for you. 
2. Enterprise hosting- If your needs are satisfied by any of the plans above, this is a great option for you as you can tailor it to your needs. 
3. Reseller hosting- You are a developer and look after the client business, this option is cool for you. 

Now, let’s check out what Bluehost has to offer other than a shared hosting plan:

1. VPS- They have VPS plans which will costs you about $30 a month and it powers SSD storage and powerful processing. 
2. Dedicated server- You are working on a project and all you need is a performance booster, you have to expend a little more for about $120 a month and you will have your own server. 

Here it is a tie. As both the platforms have provided a good solution additionally. 

Round Battle 11: Website transfer 

It is pain in the ass when it comes to web migration, especially for the first time. 

The worse part is both Siteground and Bluehost does not provide this service for free. Siteground will charge you $30 for one site migration and offer an easy to use transfer plugin if you are WordPress users. Bluehost is more expensive. It charges you $150 to transfer up to 5 websites with 20 email accounts. 

The point goes to Siteground as it is affordable as well as come with a WordPress plugin. But it would be awesome if they could offer more. 

Concluding Thoughts

So, let me summarise both the hosting service provider for you to get a glance at all the features and specifications in short. 

Siteground is a more popular and chosen platform as it provides more sophisticated support, easy to use, less costly in web migration, good security system with additional support add-ons. Their email ticket system is valuable for every query or problem to resolve. Backing up the lost data or files is also an easy task with Siteground. It provides a custom panel with its plans that is amazing if you need high customisation for your business or company. 

The most important element of WordPress integration also works well with Siteground hosting plans. 

Bluehost also made its good impact in many features like it is scalable along with additional plans for add-ons. When it comes to security, it is not behind in the race. It provides security equally as Siteground. It provides amazing storage. Its beginner plan storage is more than Siteground’s higher plan. It has beaten Siteground in pricing as well. 

Both the platforms have got their pros and cons. Now the choice is left to you. Read the complete guide above and make a good choice for you. Which platform makes your dream come true!

With whom you go ahead in the future.