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Bluehost and GoDaddy are one of the most well-known names in web hosting. Both have great hosting plans for their customers and excel in user interface as well as good customer support teams. However, when measured against each other, which service provider get an edge over the other? Let’s find out.
Speed and uptime
GoDaddy claims that they provide an uptime of 99.9%. Bluehost doesn’t claim anything about its uptime. However, in our tests, we have found that both perform equally well, and the uptime, indeed, remains at 99.9%. The site speed and uptime are very essential for a website. Slow loading websites are quickly abandoned by the users. On the other hand, if your website is experiencing downtime, the users may never even want to come back. Remember, there are hundreds, if not thousands of websites like you where the traffic can go to.
The minimum server response time, site uptime and page load time are similar for both the websites, which is why they tie in this department. However, when the site traffic becomes considerably high, GoDaddy servers become slower. There are several complaints about them being unable to handle high performance websites with a sizeable traffic. Though Bluehost also isn’t particular good in this department, it is certainly a little better than GoDaddy. The maximum server response time of this platform is lower than that of its competitor.
Performance
When it comes to performance, both the websites tie again. Both of them have very robust servers and equally good data centers, which ensure that your site continues to perform well, regardless of the software or CMS you are using to run it. Bluehost has an intelligently controller CPU that helps in providing secure access to your website. It also has power centers running on AMD processors. The CPU uses segregation technology which further enhances security while maintaining good performance of the websites. You remain protected against spam attacks and viruses, thanks to their powerful technology. Our Godaddy Alternative “Bluehost” is also better in performance.
GoDaddy, on the other hand, runs on equally powerful Intel Core i7 processors. The good thing about their hosting is that they provide you a choice between Windows OS and Linux OS hosting. Their servers are very powerful, protecting against any malicious activities and helping you gain insights into the powerful processing abilities of their system. Their configurations, though different, provide similar performance. Both the systems are equally good. So, they enter a tie here as well.
Customer support
When it comes to customer support, Bluehost is certainly better than GoDaddy. This is not to say that the latter’s support is bad. However, the Bluehost customer support usually goes out of its way to help the users. Anybody can face problems in managing their websites, whether newbies of experienced webmasters. We found that Bluehost is especially supportive for newbies who could make some grave errors while managing their websites. The team will respond to errors quickly and ensure that there is no problem for the user.
The GoDaddy support team is excellent and brings you the best customer support but fades in comparison to its rival. The team does help you but you will have to wait for very long before your issue is resolved. This could be critical for people who have high traffic websites. However, you can contact them via several options, including live chat, tickets, toll-free calls and emails. The options are many but the response time could be a problem for many people.
Control Panel
The GoDaddy control panel and the Bluehost control panel are similar to each other. Both the services offer standard cPanel to their customers, because of which you can navigate all your options with ease. The email, hosting, marketing etc. options are laid out very carefully for the users in this support environment because of which you can manage your website with relative ease. GoDaddy also offers you a Parallels Plesk Panel which is great for people using Windows hosting. Here, it gets an added advantage over Bluehost.
Both the platforms offer you one-click installation of several useful apps, especially the open source software. This is where the similarities between the two ends. Bluehost lets you access multiple websites easy as it provides unlimited MySQL databases. GoDaddy only provides you limited MySQL databased in the shared hosting plan. Also, you get automatic backups on the cPanel with Bluehost. Its rival doesn’t offer you the same. Manual backups are available at both the platforms for free. The rest of the features are similar in the cPanel.
Money-back guarantee
If you buy a hosting plan from Bluehost, you get a 30-day money back guarantee. This guarantee is available on all their hosting plans. This helps you in getting a pro-rated refund policy. You can decide whether you want to stay with the platform or change within this period. GoDaddy, on the other hand, offers you a 45-day money back guarantee. However, it is only available when you subscribe to their annual plan. However, this longer guarantee period also shows that the company has complete confidence on the services it provides. For an average user, it will be better to stick with the Bluehost plan as you can get your money back with any plan.
Hosting plans and pricing
Both the platforms offer you a free domain with their hosting plans, which makes them very affordable options for the users. GoDaddy provides both Windows and Linux hosting while Bluehost provides only Linux hosting to the users. There is no doubt that no other company can provide a better Windows hosting plan other than GoDaddy. Therefore, we will stick to the Linux hosting versions for the sake of comparison.
At Bluehost, the cheapest plan you get is $3.49 per month which you can avail if you get hosting for three years on the starter shared hosting option. For GoDaddy, the pricing is slightly higher. You get the economy plan for $3.99 per month if you get a three-year plan. It is interesting to note that when cheaper plans are considered, Bluehost provides you a good value for money.
However, when it comes to premium plans, the prices are equally higher because Bluehost offers a wider range of premium features, specially those related to the MySQL servers. Here, GoDaddy takes an edge over its competitor, giving a well-rounded offering for a much reasonable price. Moreover, it allows you to subscribe to its premium plans for shorter durations as well.
The Bluehost starter plan offers you 1 website with 100 GB disk space, unlimited bandwidth, cPanel access and 100 email accounts. You also get unlimited MySQL databases for $3.49 per month. Everything is unlimited in Bluehost Plus package available for $5.95 and Bluehost Business Pro available for $13.95.
On the other hand, the GoDaddy economy plan provides you 1 website with 100 GB storage and unlimited bandwidth. You can choose between cPanel or Plesk and get 100 email accounts as well. For $3.99 per month, you get 10 x 1 GB MySQL databases. In the GoDaddy Deluxe plan, you get unlimited websites, unlimited disk space and 500 email accounts. cPanel or Plesk option is available here and you get 25 x 1 GB MySQL servers as well. With the GoDaddy Ultimate plan, you get everything in the GoDaddy Deluxe plan. However, it offers you 1000 email accounts unlimited 1 GB MySQL servers.
VPS hosting plans
Bluehost provides you four different hosting plans. The first plan is Bluehost Standard with 30 GB SAN storage, 2 GB RAM, 1 TB bandwidth and 1 unique IP address for $24.99. The second plan is Bluehost Enhanced that provides 60 GB SAN storage, 4 GB RAM, 2 TB bandwidth and 2 unique IP addresses for $49.99. The third plan is Bluehost Premium with 120 GB SAN storage, 6 GB RAM, 3 TB bandwidth and 2 unique IP addresses for $74.99 per month. The final plan is Bluehost Ultimate which comes with 240 GB SAN storage, 8 GB RAM, 4 TB bandwidth and 2 unique IP addresses for $99.99 per month.
GoDaddy offers five different plans for VPS hosting. The First plan is GoDaddy 1 GB which comes with 60 40 GB storage, 1 GB RAM, 1 TB bandwidth and 3 unique IP addresses for $24.99. GoDaddy 2 GB plan comes with 60 DB storage, 2 GB RAM, 2 TB bandwidth and 3 unique IP address for $29.99. GoDaddy 3 GB plan comes with 90 DB storage, 3 GB RAM, 3 TB bandwidth and 3 unique IP address for $34.99. GoDaddy 4 GB plan comes with 120 GB storage, 4 GB RAM, 4 TB bandwidth and 3 unique IP address for $49.99. The last plan is GoDaddy 8 GB plan comes with 240 GB storage, 8 GB RAM, 8 TB bandwidth and 3 unique IP address for $99.99.
Dedicated hosting
Bluehost provides 3 different dedicated hosting plans. The first one is Bluehost Standard that comes with 1 TB mirrored storage, 4GB RAM and 5 TB Bandwidth for $124.99. Bluehost Enhanced comes with 1 TB mirrored storage, 8 GB RAM and 10 TB Bandwidth for $169.99. Bluehost Premium comes with 1 TB mirrored storage, 16 GB RAM and 15 TB bandwidths for $209.99.
On the other hand, GoDaddy offers five different hosting plans. The first plan offers 512 GB storage, 2 GB, 2 GB RAM and 5 TB bandwidth for $79.99 per month. The second plan offers 1 TB storage, 4 GB RAM and 10 TB bandwidth for $109.99. The third plan offers 1.5 TB storage, 8 GB RAM and 10 TB bandwidth for $139.99. The fourth and fifth plan come with a 2 TB storage each. However, one plan comes with 16 GB RAM and 15 TB bandwidth for $169.99 per month while the second plan comes with 32 GB RAM and 20 TB bandwidth for $209.99.
Conclusion
Bluehost is a clear winner for people who are just getting started or those who want more value for their money. Also, it has a better set of features to offer to people which means that you will be able to scale your website easily and pivot with time. Overall, we think that Bluehost will help you get a better overall offer.
Image Credits – PcMag!
