Bluehost vs Hostwinds – Which Web Hosting is Better?

Not sure which to choose between Bluehost and Hostwinds? You’re not the only one. 

Since both are considered some of the best providers in the market, they have been battling it out on which one is the more reliable and high-performing.

But the real question is: which one’s going to be the best fit for you?

To help you determine that, I compared Bluehost vs Hostwinds in this article. We’ll look at both their:

• Uptime and performance
• Website building
• Migration services
• Products and features
• Security
• Pricing
• Customer Support

Let’s get started.

Bluehost vs Hostwinds - A Side by Side Comparison

Uptime and Performance

Before I go ahead, know that uptime and performance are two different things. Uptime talks about your site’s accessibility and downtimes, while performance talks about speed. 

Anyone who has a website will tell you that uptime and performance are two very important factors. 

Web hosts that have low uptime rates and slow loading speeds will kill your chances of getting higher SEO rankings, low bounce rate, and audience credibility. 

Who wants a constantly offline or loading website anyway? 

When it comes to uptime, both Bluehost and Hostwinds have a 99.9% guarantee. 

However, when audited, Bluehost showed an uptime of 99.93% (August 2023), while Hostwinds went to 100% (August 2023). So you could say Bluehost has better uptime, even if by only a small margin.  

As for their performance, Hostwinds’ speed is more inconsistent compared with Bluehost. This means that Hostwinds’ speed goes up and down, depending on several factors such as increased traffic and location. 

Bluehost, on the other hand, maintains fast loading speeds of 616 ms (August 2023), which is a great plus if you want consistency for your landing pages. 

However, speed is noticeably better on Bluehost. They have multiple server locations around the world, which helps if you’re appealing to an international audience. Hostwinds on the other hand is located mainly in the US and EU and are somewhat inconsistent with their speed.

Website Building

Both Bluehost and Hostwinds use Weebly website builder as their built-in website creation software. 

Since they’re using the same software, there’s not much to compare between the two. 

But to help give you an idea of what to expect with Weebly, here’s my take:

It’s a user-friendly website builder where no coding skills are required. Instead, you just have to drag and drop elements to your site to create the theme and layout that you want. 

And the best part? It can create a mobile-friendly version of your website, too!

One thing you should note. Both hosts support one-click WordPress installation, so you can choose to build your website with WordPress as well. In fact, Bluehost is one of the 3 recommended hosting providers by WordPress. 

Check out the easy site start-up process of BlueHost:

Migration Services

If this is your first time making a website, then you won’t really need to worry about migration services because you’re registering your site with either Bluehost or Hostwinds. 

However, if you’re coming from a different web host, you will want to know about each provider’s migration services.

Bluehost doesn’t offer migration services for free. Personally, I didn’t mind the extra charge because Bluehost’s subscription plans are affordable. 

However, if you use WordPress, you can get their migration services for free. This is the perks of having Bluehost as a recommended provider. 

On the other hand, Hostwinds offers an easy and free migration service for any site, WordPress or not. 

I say easy because they offer experts that help you set up your site’s migration. 

There’s no need to migrate your website by yourself. The support team handles it for you and you’ll just need to confirm if the site was transferred properly.

Products and Features

Now let’s talk about products and features. 

These will help determine if the price of your chosen web host is valuable or not. 

Here is a breakdown of what’s included in each basic plan:

Let’s look at a few of these. 

Domain

Both Bluehost and Hostwinds give a free domain when you register for at least a year. 

This domain is only free in your first year, so keep that in mind when your annual plan expires and you plan to continue for another year. 

Email Addresses

When comparing the two with this feature, there’s a clear winner. 

Since Hostwinds has an unlimited number of email accounts offered, this is ideal if you plan to give, say, all your employees, email addresses of your site’s domain.

On the other hand, Bluehost only gives 5 email addresses, so it’s very limited. 

Backups

Worried that you might lose your data?

Bluehost and Hostwinds have daily backups that will store the latest copy of your website. 

Note: Bluehost’s free daily backup is not guaranteed. If you want to be extra sure, you can create and manage your own backups.

Security

An SSL certificate is very important to keep your website secure. 

You’re in luck! 

Bluehost and Hostwinds give free SSL certificates on each of their plans - even the basic plans.

So there’s no need to worry about security and site protection. 

But if an SSL certificate is not enough, Bluehost has an add-on for SiteLock and CodeGuard, two features that will give additional protection to your website and data. 

As for Hostwinds, you already get 24/7 site monitoring on their basic plan.

Pricing

What I’ve been talking about here pertains to Bluehost’s and Hostwinds’ shared hosting plans. 

But did you know that they have other types of web hosting plans? 

Here are their other services and their prices:

If we’re just looking for the most affordable plan, Bluehost gives the cheapest starting plans for shared hosting and dedicated servers. 

But if it’s VPS plans that you’re aiming to get, Hostwinds has a more affordable price range. 

Note: These are only the starting prices. It may go higher when you renew the plan.  

Customer Support

Who has the best customer support?

It’s hard to choose one as both Bluehost and Hostwinds are great. 

Their response times are fast and customer support is strong and approachable. 

Both Bluehost and Hostwinds support live chat and phone support 24/7, ensuring you’ll be able to get in touch at any time.

Verdict

As you can see, Bluehost and Hostwinds are very close competitors. 

They both have great uptime, offer many great products and features, have responsive customer support, and are very secure. 

But if you’re leaning more towards fast and consistent speeds, as well as cheaper prices and free backups, then Bluehost is your guy. 

On the other hand, if you prioritize unlimited storage and email addresses, Hostwinds might be better for you. 

We hope this article has been a great help!