Bluehost vs. WebHostingHub
WebHostingHub isn’t quite on the same level as Bluehost in terms of popularity, but can it still put up a good fight against the hosting juggernaut? The short answer is yes, however, that doesn’t mean it can also win the battle.
Comparing Bluehost vs HostGator or Bluehost vs SiteGround is easy because we’re all very familiar with these big companies and their services. But while comparisons between hosting giants are certainly very informative, sometimes you can also learn a lot by comparing companies that are seemingly not in the same league. For example, Bluehost vs WebHostingHub.
Now, I’m sure you already know a lot about Bluehost (and if you don’t, you can check out our dedicated Bluehost hub), but what about WebHostingHub? Although the company has been around for a while, it’s still somewhat of a niche option, and that’s probably because it focuses exclusively on shared hosting. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does make WebHostingHub feel more limited compared to rivals like Bluehost that have a lot more variety.
Don’t have enough time to dive into the full comparison? Here’s a summary of our research:
Variety isn’t everything of course, which is why we recently took an in-depth look at everything WebHostingHub has to offer as a means of preparing for this comparison. WebHostingHub has a lot of things in common with Bluehost, but there are just as many differences. So, without further ado, let’s jump into one of the most important aspects of this Bluehost vs WebHostingHub comparison.
Performance
You don’t need me to tell you how important performance is for a website. Sure, your website might look great and have amazing content on it, but most people will give it a wide berth if it takes too long to load. Unfortunately, even if you have lots of experience optimizing websites, the performance will probably not be stellar if the websites are hosted at a slow provider. We’ve seen an example of this in the past during our Bluehost vs Wix comparison. Luckily, the situation looks far less dire in this case.
We already had plenty of data to indicate that Bluehost websites don’t usually struggle in the performance department and our recent rounds of tests managed to impress us once again. Our Bluehost website consistently loaded in under 2 seconds throughout our testing and managed to hold its own even when bombarded with hundreds of virtual users. Meanwhile, the server response times weren’t too shabby either when testing from within the US but they did slow down once we began testing from other continents.
WebHostingHub seems to perform similar to Bluehost from our experience but isn’t quite as reliable during stress tests. We found this to be somewhat strange given that WebHostingHub gives you more resources with the entry plan (which is the plan we used for testing). We think this could be due to the fact that Bluehost simply has superior infrastructure.
This would make a lot of sense given that Bluehost chose to invest all its resources into a single data center. WebHostingHub has two of them, which would be an advantage under normal circumstances, but maybe spreading resources across multiple data centers isn’t a great idea if you’re a small company.
Also worth noting is that the two data centers used by WebHostingHub are both located in the US. Consequently, you’re probably not going to see amazing response times when testing from other regions. If you’re looking for a company that has a worldwide network of servers, consider checking out TMDHosting.
In order to compensate for the poor location coverage, both Bluehost and WebHostingHub use CDNs (content delivery networks) to boost performance for non-US users. The only difference is that Bluehost’s CDN is integrated into the dashboard while WebHostingHub requires you to jump through a couple of extra hoops in order to install it.
Aside from that, Bluehost and WebHostingHub are pretty evenly matched. Both companies use SSD storage with all their hosting plans and have a 99.9% uptime guarantee. Truthfully, Bluehost does a better job than WebHostingHub in terms of uptime, though the difference is not significant. What is significant is the fact that neither company will compensate you should your uptime fall under 99.9%, which is very disappointing.
Pricing and Value
There aren’t an awful lot of hosting providers out there that can strike a good balance between pricing and value. On one hand, you have companies like Hostinger that offer very cheap services but not a great deal of features. On the other hand, you have specialized providers like WP Engine that charge a premium for their services but you do get what you pay for. So where do Bluehost and WebHostingHub fall on this scale? Well, let’s take a closer look.
At only $2.95/mo (with this special offer), we would consider Bluehost’s entry price to be very affordable. WebHostingHub’s cheapest plan will cost you more than double at $5.99/mo, but there are a few benefits. The most notable of them include unlimited storage, support for 2 websites, and 3 free website transfers. With Bluehost you get 50GB worth of storage with the cheapest plan, support for a single website, and no free website transfers. WebHostingHub does have a lot going on for itself but $5.99 is still a bit expensive, especially if you don’t need website transfers.
Past the entry packages, Bluehost starts to offer increasingly more value without raising the prices too much. For instance, the Choice Plus plan is a total steal at only $5.45 per month during your first term. This plan is one of the main reasons why Bluehost scored as high as it did on our list of top 10 cheapest web hosting providers and there’s no real equivalent to be found at WebHostingHub.
Although we think Bluehost is a better choice for users on a budget, there is certainly an argument to be made for going with WebHostingHub instead. But what if you’re not necessarily interested in shared hosting? Well, the choice becomes much simpler in that case because Bluehost is the only company here that also works with managed WordPress hosting, virtual private servers, and dedicated hosting. The prices are similar to what other companies ask for these types of hosting, except maybe for the managed WordPress hosting, which is a little more expensive compared to the market average.
If you’re looking for good cloud hosting options we recommend you check out this article. Meanwhile, for reseller hosting we would primarily recommend trying A2 Hosting, though there are a few other good options out there like InMotion or GoDaddy. Bluehost is a great option for pretty much everything else.
Customer Support
Good customer support is essential for any business, especially a tech-oriented one that has customers who need help all the time. If you’re thinking about signing up with Bluehost you can expect quality support provided by a team of experts with many years of experience under their belts. The company’s tech agents are particularly adept at helping with WordPress-related issues but you can rely on them for other matters as well.
From our experience with WebHostingHub, the customer support there is just a tad slower and the agents are often trying too hard to convince you to buy additional products or services. Granted, you will run into this issue at most companies, including Bluehost to a certain degree. But if you can ignore the sales pitches, you should be able to get all your questions answered in a reasonable amount of time.
Support agents can be reached 24/7 via phone, live chat, email or tickets in both cases. WebHostingHub customer support also works with Skype, an option that may come in handy for certain users. Bluehost doesn’t have that option but the company has a premium support service known as Blue Sky that can be very valuable for agencies and larger businesses.
The knowledge base is an area where WebHostingHub lags behind Bluehost quite heavily. Many of the articles and tutorials there haven’t been updated in nearly a decade and can no longer be considered reliable. We’re seeing a similar situation with the company’s social media pages and YouTube channel, which have been inactive for several years. Bluehost is quite the opposite and has a much better (and up to date) knowledgebase to boot.
Ease of Use
Similar to other big names like HostGator or Namecheap, Bluehost and WebHostingHub both rely on cPanel to provide a straightforward and intuitive experience to their users. The tried-and-true control panel is a staple in the industry and comes with many benefits, including the ability to transfer your custom settings should you ever choose to move to a different hosting provider. Among other things, you can also expect 1-click installers for a wide variety of applications via Softaculous.
The two companies differ a bit in terms of site builders, with WebHostingHub recommending BoldGrid followed by WordPress. Unsurprisingly, Bluehost recommends WordPress first while also supporting Weebly and all the other popular builders. Personally, we would also recommend WordPress and we find that Bluehost has better support for the CMS. In fact, it’s one of only three hosting providers officially endorsed by the WordPress foundation. The other two are SiteGround and DreamHost.
Security
Companies that focus primarily on shared hosting are famously bad at providing good security features, which does make sense considering how little you’re paying for your hosting. Having said that, you do get a bit more by signing up with Bluehost. SSL certificates and nightly backups are available right off the bat and you can also get domain privacy, a dedicated IP, and a more reliable backup & restore tool by upgrading to a more expensive package.
At WebHostingHub you get SSL certificates and nightly backups for free and that’s about it. There are no additional freebies when you upgrade to a higher tier but you can get some extra features by purchasing optional add-ons, such as a proper backup & restore tool for $1/mo. Given the already high starting price of the hosting, I feel like more security-related features should have been included for free at WebHostingHub.
Features
Our Bluehost vs WebHositngHub comparison wouldn’t be complete without a breakdown of the most important features. We already mentioned some of them but let’s do a quick recap before we wrap things up.
Bluehost
- Free domain for 1 year
- Unlimited SSD storage with all plans (except Basic)
- Free SSL certificates
- cPanel
- CDN integration
- Great support for WordPress
- VPS, dedicated, and managed WordPress hosting
- Nightly backups
- Unlimited emails
- 30-day money-back guarantee
WebHostingHub
- Free domain for 1 year
- Unlimited SSD storage with all plans
- Free SSL certificates
- cPanel
- Free site migrations
- Two data centers
- Nightly backups
- Unlimited emails
- 90-day money-back guarantee
Bluehost vs. WebHostingHub – Our Pick
WebHostingHub has some good things going on for it but its prices are difficult to justify when you take everything into account. At more than double the starting price of Bluehost, WebHostingHub is a tough sell at the moment and needs to add more value to its plans before it can truly compete with the big dogs. As it stands, Bluehost is simply the better choice and here’s why:
- Performance: You probably won’t notice a big difference between the two if you’re running starter websites. Once the traffic starts rolling in, however, Bluehost is easily more reliable.
- Pricing and Value: $5.99/mo is a bit steep for what you get in return at WebHostingHub. Bluehost offers a much better bang for your buck.
- Customer Support: You can rely on both companies for help in equal measures, but if you’re looking for tutorials and other documentation Bluehost is the way to go.
- Ease of Use: There aren’t any major differences between the two in this area, however, Bluehost does have better support for WordPress.
- SEO: Bluehost can provide you with some helpful SEO tools if you’re willing to pay for them. WebHostingHub doesn’t offer any tools like that.
- Security: Bluehost has more security features at its disposal, both free and paid.
- Scalability: This goes without saying, but a company that offers multiple types of hosting and hosting packages to choose from has better scalability than one that doesn’t. Bluehost wins again.
Click here if you want to see more comparisons like this one or check out our reviews hub for in-depth looks at some of the most important hosting providers on the market.
While we appreciate what WebHostingHub is trying to do, Bluehost is ultimately the superior hosting provider whichever way you look at it. Not only are its entry prices lower, but the company also excels in terms of features, ease of use, and scalability.
