Hosting Reviews on July 9, 2021 by Joanna Gatapia

If you’ve been looking for a web host, then you would have heard of Bluehost and Liquid Web. 

These two are great options and choosing one is going to be difficult because they have a lot of strengths and few weaknesses. 

That’s a good thing because we don’t want a web host we can’t trust or one that can’t keep up with our website needs. 

Cell

BlueHost

Liquid Web

Owner

Endurance International Group (EIG)

Madison Dearborn Partners Family of Companies

Basic Plan

Basic Shared Hosting

SPARK

Price

$2.95/mo

$9.50/mo

Free Domain?

Yes

No

Average Uptime

99.93% (August 2023)

Average Speed

616 ms (August 2023)

One-Click WordPress Installation?

Yes

Yes

Free SSL?

Yes

Yes

Number of Sites

1

1

Free Email?

No

Yes

Free Backup?

Manual Backup

Automatic

Moneyback Guarantee

30 days

Yes

Support Channels

Live chat and Phone

Live chat and Phone

Control Panel

cPanel

cPanel, InterWorx, Plesk

Space

50 GB

15 GB

Free CDN?

Yes

Yes

Migration Services

Free for WordPress Sites

Yes

Overall Rating

Get Hosting

Other Plans

Managed WordPress ($9.95), VPS ($18.99)

Cloud ($265), Dedicated ($169)

Cell

*Uptime and Speed data from Pingdom and Hrank


But which one is better?

Before we get started, know that Liquid Web doesn’t have a shared hosting plan, unlike Bluehost. 

So to compare the two, we’ll be looking at their Managed WordPress packages. We’ll look at: 

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

Read on for a complete Bluehost vs Liquid Web comparison. This way, you’ll know which one is better for YOU. 

Bluehost vs Liquid Web: Uptime and Performance

Let’s first talk about uptime. 

Liquid Web has a spectacular uptime score of .

Of course, Bluehost isn’t far off. Even if they don’t offer uptime guarantees, independent audits of their uptime show that it’s all the way up to 99.93% (August 2023).

This means, with both hosts, your website will hardly experience any downtime. And if it does, only for short periods. 

What about performance?

When I say performance, it refers to how fast your page loads.

Liquid Web also performs slightly better than Bluehost here.

Bluehost vs Liquid Web - Which Web Hosting is Better Liquid Web


With loading speeds of , even if you have many videos and images on your web page, visitors won’t have to wait long for the content to load. 

Bluehost, on the other hand, has speeds of 616 ms (August 2023). This is still faster than average, but not as fast as Liquid Web’s performance. 

WINNER: Liquid Web. While both have comparable uptime, Liquid offers better performance giving it the win here, which is to be expected considering how their VPS plans give you virtual dedicated resources to power your site.


Bluehost vs Liquid Web: Website Building

If there is one thing that Bluehost is popular in, it’s being a recommended web host by WordPress. 

Bluehost is just one of three providers WordPress endorses and this is a big deal for anyone planning to create a WordPress site. 

Bluehost’s suite of themes, tools, and plug-ins make it one of the best (if not the best) web hosts for WordPress sites. Plus, you also have access to a lot of marketing tools!

Bluehost vs Liquid Web - Which Web Hosting is Better Bluehost


But what if you don’t want a WordPress site? That’s okay, too, since Bluehost has a Weebly site builder that’s user-friendly.

As for Liquid Web, it uses iThemes WordPress Tools as its main software for WordPress design, themes, and plug-ins. It might not be as robust as Bluehost’s version, but it’s not a bad site builder. 

Liquid Web also has another site builder if you’re not into WordPress. All its plans will give you access to Beaver Builder Lite, which is a good builder but not as intuitive as Weebly.

WINNER: Bluehost. Liquid Web can be a bit difficult to work with if you’re a newbie, with VPS plans that can lead to greater complexity. Bluehost, however, offers plans with Managed WordPress and is recommended by WordPress itself. 


Check out how to get started with Bluehost in this video:


Bluehost vs Liquid Web: Migration Services

Planning to move from a different web host? 

Great news! Bluehost and Liquid Web have free migration services for their managed WordPress plans. 

Take note, however, that not all plans have free migration services. 

For Bluehost, its basic shared hosting plan doesn’t offer free migration services (unless it’s a WordPress website). 

WINNER: Liquid Web. With Liquid Web’s support for sites of all CMS types on all its plans, it trumps Bluehost’s WordPress limited migration services.


Bluehost vs Liquid Web: Features

Wondering what other features are included in a Managed WordPress package?

Let’s compare:


Bluehost

Liquid Web

WordPress Sites

1

1

Email Address

5

Unlimited

SSL Certificates

Free

Free

Control Panel

cPanel

cPanel

Storage

50 GB

15 GB

Backups

Free

Free


For all of Bluehost’s Managed WordPress packages, you only get 1 WordPress site for each. This means that you have to get another plan if you want another site. 

This is what makes Liquid Web a better choice for businesses or blogs that need different sites. 

You can pick a plan that allows you to manage unlimited sites. As you can see, you have a lot more options.

Another great thing about Liquid Web? Their unlimited email addresses. 

As for backups, both hosts include free manual backups. This will give you peace of mind knowing that your data is secured.

WINNER: Tie. Both hosts aim at different clients. Rest assured that they offer great features for each of their plans. We can’t decide which is better than the other.


Bluehost vs Liquid Web: Security

Which is a more secure web host? 

I would say that both Bluehost and Liquid Web have robust security measures on their servers. This makes it hard for malware and/or hackers to affect your website. 

Bluehost has a free SSL certificate, malware detection, and daily backups. For an additional fee, you can opt to buy SiteLock which is a suite of security features for your site. 

Liquid Web also offers both SSL certificates and daily backups. It even has a 24/7 security monitoring team that makes sure your website is protected around the clock.

WINNER: Liquid Web. Liquid Web offers greater security due to the nature of VPS, which insulates your content from other sites hosted on your server. You’ll also get superior virus protection with Liquid Web.


Bluehost vs Liquid Web: Pricing

I mentioned at the beginning that Liquid Web doesn’t have shared hosting plans. However, it has other types of web hosting that you might want to consider. 

Here’s a chart of Bluehost’s and Liquid Web’s plans and prices:


Bluehost

Liquid Web

Shared Hosting

$2.95 - $13.95/mo

--

Managed WordPress Hosting

$9.95 - $27.95/mo

$9.50 - $499.50

VPS Hosting

$18.99 - $59.99/mo

$15 - $125/mo

Dedicated Server

$79.99 - $119.99/mo

$169 - $411.75/mo

Cloud Hosting

--

$265 - $740/mo

In general, Bluehost is more affordable than Liquid Web in some packages. But since the former doesn’t have any cloud hosting, you only have Liquid Web to choose from if you want virtual servers.

WINNER: Bluehost. When it comes to pure affordability, Bluehost offers much cheaper packages perfect for bloggers and general site creators on a budget.


Bluehost vs Liquid Web: Customer Support

These two web hosts have strong customer support that is responsive and capable of answering any inquiries and solving issues. 

However, when it comes to the number of channels you can reach out to, Liquid Web has more. You can contact them through live chat, phone, or email, while Bluehost only offers live chat and phone.

But since you probably prefer live chat and phone anyway, this isn’t a big issue. 

WINNER: Tie. Both hosts offer great methods of getting in touch. And while Liquid Web is slightly quicker to respond to queries, you’ll get a comparable level of service with both.


Verdict

Features

Winner

Uptime and performance

Liquid Web

Ease of use

BlueHost

Migration service

Liquid Web

Products and features

Tie

Security

Liquid Web

Pricing

BlueHost

Customer support

Tie


Both Bluehost and Liquid Web have their strengths and weaknesses.

Bluehost is great for reliable, affordable, and secure WordPress packages, while Liquid Web has more features and faster loading times. 

So depending on what factors matter more to you, you’ll be able to pick which web host is better suited for your site.

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