Bluehost vs HostGator (2026)

Bluehost and HostGator share a parent company, Newfold Digital, and their entry plans look alike: 10 websites, 10GB of storage, a free first-year domain, free SSL, weekly backups and chat-only support. Bluehost is the better buy for most WordPress sites, because it publishes a $3.99 a month first-term price on a 36-month term, renews at $9.99 a month, runs on NVMe storage and puts phone support on a cheaper plan. Pick HostGator if you know cPanel and want it in plain view, or if you want to pay month to month at a published rate ($17.59 for Hatchling). HostGator's discounted first-term prices didn't load on its plan pages when we checked on November 4, 2026, so compare its checkout total before you pay.

Pricing compared

Both hosts advertise their lowest prices on a 36-month term paid upfront, and both move you to a higher regular rate when the first term ends. These are the shared plans in US dollars before tax, checked November 4, 2026.

Plan level	Bluehost	HostGator
Entry, 10 sites	Starter: $3.99 a month for 36 months, renews at $9.99	Hatchling: $10.99 a month on 3 years, $13.19 on 1 year, $17.59 month to month
Middle	Business, 50 sites: $6.99 a month for 36 months, renews at $13.99	Baby, 20 sites: $16.49 a month on 3 years, $18.69 on 1 year, $24.19 month to month
Upper	eCommerce Essentials, 100 sites: $14.99 a month for 36 months, renews at $21.99	Business, 50 sites: $21.99 a month on 3 years, $24.19 on 1 year, $30.79 month to month

The HostGator figures are the regular rates from the price chart in its help center, which is what you pay at renewal. New HostGator customers get a discount on the first invoice, but its plan pages showed placeholders where those prices belong, so we can't give you the first-term price. Bluehost shows its first-term prices clearly but doesn't list a month-to-month price for these plans. HostGator's Pro plan (100 sites) is on its plan page but not in the price chart.

Compare plans with the same number of sites and Bluehost costs less once the discount ends. Starter renews at $9.99 a month against $10.99 for Hatchling on a 3-year term. Bluehost Business hosts 50 sites with phone support and renews at $13.99 a month, while HostGator's Business plan, also 50 sites, is $21.99 a month on 3 years.

Both hosts are running holiday sales. Bluehost's Buy More, Save More offer takes 15% off one eligible product, 20% off two and 25% off three or more, on a first 12-month term bought by November 30, 2026. HostGator's home page advertises up to an extra 20% off for Black Friday, but we couldn't find the terms. Each gives you a free domain for the first year on a yearly or longer plan and keeps a domain fee if you cancel and take the refund. HostGator states that fee as $17.99 in one place and $15 in another.

WordPress and site setup

Bluehost is built around WordPress. Every plan installs it for you and includes a staging site, SSH and WP-CLI, and the free Yoast SEO plugin. Bluehost says WordPress.org has recommended it since 2005, and it is one of the hosts on WordPress.org's recommended hosting page today. Each plan also includes AI site creation tools, which draft a first site from your answers for you to edit in WordPress. The eCommerce Essentials plan installs WooCommerce and adds tools for payments, memberships and online courses.

HostGator covers the same basics with fewer extras. You install WordPress in one click, test changes on a staging copy and get the free Yoast SEO plugin on every shared plan. Its free migration tool moves an existing WordPress site, and on most plans HostGator will move the site for you for a fee. Bluehost lists a free site migration tool on all three of its plans.

For a first WordPress site, Bluehost's setup does more of the work for you. If you already know WordPress and want somewhere to put it, the two are close, and price will decide it.

Control panel and ease of use

HostGator names cPanel on every shared plan. You manage files, email accounts and MySQL databases in the panel that many developers and freelancers already know, and HostGator's own portal handles billing and the account.

Bluehost's plan pages don't name a control panel at all. Its help center shows cPanel opening in a new tab from the Hosting section of the Bluehost Portal, where you also manage domains, sites and billing. Bluehost Cloud, its managed WordPress line, has no cPanel.

A beginner spends most of their time inside WordPress, so the panel matters less than it used to. It does matter if you've run sites on cPanel for years and want it in plain view, and on that HostGator is the more familiar choice.

Speed, security and backups

Bluehost puts its shared plans on NVMe storage, and HostGator lists SSD storage. Both include a CDN: HostGator uses Cloudflare's with Argo Routing, and Bluehost lists a free CDN on every plan. HostGator's bandwidth is unmetered, as long as your site doesn't use 25% or more of system resources for longer than 90 seconds.

Security on the plan pages is close to identical. Both list free malware scanning with detection and removal, a web application firewall and DDoS protection on every shared plan, and both move you to what they call AI-powered malware detection and removal on the second plan up (Business at Bluehost, Baby at HostGator).

Backups are the weak spot on both. Bluehost's plan tables list weekly backups on all three shared plans, and HostGator says it backs up your files weekly as a courtesy. If you want daily restore points included, SiteGround lists free daily backups with up to 30 days of restore points on every plan.

On uptime, Bluehost promises 99.99% on its shared and WordPress plans and gives a 5% credit for the month if it misses, which you claim within 30 days. HostGator's plan page lists a 99% uptime guarantee without stating any credit.

Support and refunds

Both answer live chat 24/7 on every plan, and both leave phone support off the entry plan. At Bluehost, phone support starts on Business; at HostGator, it starts on Baby. Bluehost quotes an average chat response of under 2 minutes in one place and under 30 seconds in its FAQ. HostGator lists 24/7 phone support, live chat and a knowledge base.

The refund rules are almost the same. Each gives a 30-day money-back guarantee on hosting fees, and neither refunds a monthly term or domain fees. That matters if you planned to try a host for a month first, because a monthly plan at either company comes with no refund window. If you want the 30 days to count, buy a 12-month or longer term.

Who each one suits

Bluehost suits a first-time WordPress site owner who wants WordPress, a domain and SSL set up in one checkout and can pay for 36 months upfront to get $3.99 a month. It is also the better pick if you want phone support without a big jump in price, since Business includes it at $6.99 a month for the first term. When you outgrow shared hosting, Bluehost Cloud gives you managed WordPress with real-time backups and a 100% uptime SLA from $65 a month on a 36-month term. The Bluehost listing covers its VPS and dedicated servers too.

HostGator suits someone who works in cPanel, wants to pay month to month at a published rate, or runs around 20 small sites and likes the Baby plan's size. Check the first-term price at checkout, since we couldn't see it, and weigh it against the renewal rates above. The HostGator listing covers its VPS and dedicated servers.

Because the same company owns both, their refund rules, domain fees and weekly backups look much alike. If those are what put you off, compare a host outside the group, such as SiteGround or DreamHost.