Bluehost vs SiteGround (2026)

Bluehost costs less over three years and fits more sites on its cheapest plan: Starter is $3.99 a month for 36 months, paid upfront, and holds 10 websites. SiteGround costs less to start, at $1.99 a month for the first 12 months on StartUp, but it renews at $17.99 and StartUp holds one site. SiteGround puts more care into its entry plan, with daily backups and phone support, where Bluehost's Starter lists weekly backups and chat only. Pick Bluehost for the lowest long-run bill or several small sites on a budget, and SiteGround for one or two sites where daily backups and a support line matter more than price. Prices checked November 4, 2026, before VAT.

Pricing compared

Both hosts advertise a low first-term price and a much higher renewal, so compare what you pay over the time you plan to stay. We checked both price lists on November 4, 2026, in US dollars before VAT.

Bluehost charges $3.99 a month for Starter, $6.99 for Business and $14.99 for eCommerce Essentials. Those prices need a 36-month term paid upfront, and the plans then renew at $9.99, $13.99 and $21.99 a month. Bluehost's plan pages don't show a month-to-month price for these plans, and monthly terms fall outside its 30-day refund.

SiteGround charges $1.99 a month for StartUp, $3.99 for GrowBig and $5.99 for GoGeek during its early Black Friday sale. You prepay 12 months at that price, then the plans renew at $17.99, $29.99 and $44.99 a month.

For a single small site over three years, the totals look like this, assuming SiteGround renews at its listed monthly rate:

Plan	First payment	Three years in total
Bluehost Starter	$143.64 for 36 months	$143.64
SiteGround StartUp	$23.88 for 12 months	$455.64
Bluehost Business	$251.64 for 36 months	$251.64
SiteGround GrowBig	$47.88 for 12 months	$767.64

SiteGround is the cheaper way to try a host for a year and far more expensive if you stay. Bluehost asks for more on day one and then leaves the price alone for three years. After that, Starter costs $119.88 a year at $9.99 a month, still well under StartUp's $215.88.

Neither host has a free plan or a free trial. Bluehost refunds hosting within 30 days on 12- and 36-month terms, but domains aren't refunded, and if your plan came with a free domain it deducts a domain fee. SiteGround offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on shared hosting and 14 days on its cloud plans.

What the entry plans include

The cheapest plans differ most in how many sites they hold. Bluehost Starter takes 10 websites with 10GB of NVMe storage and suits about 40,000 visits a month. SiteGround StartUp takes one website with 10GB of storage and suits about 10,000 visits. To host a second site on SiteGround you move to GrowBig, which allows unlimited sites, 50GB and about 100,000 visits.

Both entry plans come with a free domain for the first year, a free Let's Encrypt certificate and a free CDN. Bluehost wants the domain redeemed within 90 days of purchase. SiteGround adds unlimited email accounts on your domain to every plan, where Bluehost gives a free trial of its Pro Email and then charges for it.

Bluehost's Starter also includes things SiteGround keeps for its higher plans: a WordPress staging site, SSH and WP-CLI, and the free Yoast SEO plugin. SiteGround's StartUp has SSH and WP-CLI too, but staging starts on GrowBig.

Storage lines up exactly at the top: Bluehost Business and SiteGround GrowBig both give 50GB, and eCommerce Essentials and GoGeek both give 100GB. The visit figures favor Bluehost in the middle, at 200,000 a month on Business against about 100,000 on GrowBig.

Backups, speed and security

SiteGround's backups are its clearest lead. Every plan backs up daily, keeps up to 30 days of restore points in separate locations and restores a site in one click. GrowBig and GoGeek let you take an extra backup before a risky update.

Bluehost's shared and WordPress plan tables list weekly backups, though an FAQ on the same WordPress hosting page describes daily backups. Read the plan tables as the commitment until Bluehost makes the two agree. If backups matter to you, plan on a backup plugin or a Bluehost Cloud plan, which lists real-time backups.

For speed, SiteGround runs on Google Cloud, lets you pick a data center in North America, Europe, Asia or Australia, and serves files from a CDN with more than 170 locations. Its SuperCacher and Speed Optimizer plugin handle caching, and GrowBig and GoGeek add faster PHP. Bluehost's plans use NVMe storage and a free CDN, and its WordPress page tells you to choose a US data center at checkout; it doesn't name other locations.

On security, SiteGround scans every account for malware daily and removes it for free, with a firewall and AI bot filtering. Bluehost includes malware scanning and removal on Starter and lists AI-powered malware detection and removal on Business and eCommerce Essentials.

Room to grow

Bluehost offers more steps above shared hosting. Its self-managed NVMe VPS plans run from $4.69 a month for 1 vCPU and 2GB of RAM to $25.99 for 8 vCPU and 16GB, on 24-month terms. You manage the operating system yourself, and cPanel is a $14.99-a-month add-on. Bluehost Cloud is the managed option: Cloud 10 costs $65 a month on a 36-month term for up to 10 WordPress sites, with a 100% uptime SLA, real-time backups and 24/7 priority support. Dedicated servers start at $144.19 a month for 8 cores and 32GB of RAM on a 36-month term.

SiteGround skips the budget VPS. Its cloud plans are fully managed, billed monthly, and run from $100 a month for Jump Start (4 CPU cores, 8GB of memory, 40GB of SSD) to $400 for Super Power (16 cores and 20GB), with autoscaling and a custom option. That costs more, and SiteGround runs the server for you.

For an online store, Bluehost's eCommerce Essentials installs WooCommerce and adds payments, memberships and courses tools. SiteGround supports WooCommerce and PrestaShop on every plan and preinstalls WooCommerce with the Storefront theme on its WooCommerce hosting.

Ease of use and setup

Both hosts set up WordPress for you and keep it updated. Bluehost puts AI site creation tools on every WordPress plan, so you answer a few questions and get a first draft of the site to edit in WordPress. WordPress.org lists Bluehost on its recommended hosting page next to Pressable and Hostinger. SiteGround is not on that list, though every SiteGround plan includes managed WordPress updates and its free Speed Optimizer and Security Optimizer plugins.

SiteGround uses its own Site Tools panel for installs, email, SSL, staging and caching. An AI assistant inside it answers questions and can clear the cache, turn on the CDN or fix WordPress file permissions for you. Every plan includes a free AI agent for WordPress and monthly AI tokens.

Moving an existing site is easier on SiteGround. Your first migration is free, either through the SiteGround Migrator plugin or done by the team on request. Bluehost's plan pages don't list a free migration on the shared and WordPress plans.

Support

SiteGround gives every plan the same channels around the clock: live chat, tickets and phone. GoGeek adds priority support.

Bluehost offers 24/7 chat on every plan. Phone support starts on Business, so Starter customers reach Bluehost by chat only, and Cloud plans get 24/7 priority support. The VPS plans are self-managed, which means Bluehost supports the hardware and network and you handle the software.

So on the cheapest plans, only SiteGround gives you a phone number. Bluehost Starter customers who want one need to move up to Business at $6.99 a month on a 36-month term.

Who each one suits

Bluehost suits a first WordPress site, or a handful of small sites, when you can pay three years upfront and want that price to hold. It also gives you a cheap path to a VPS or dedicated server later.

SiteGround suits one or two sites that a business depends on, where daily backups, staging from GrowBig and phone support on every plan are worth a higher bill from year two. Agencies get unlimited sites and white-label client access on GoGeek. For other options in the same category, compare DreamHost, which holds 25 sites on its entry plan.