Bluehost vs GoDaddy: Deep Analysis of Hosting Plans and Pricing

Not sure whether to choose Bluehost or GoDaddy to host your new website? Both companies are extremely popular. In fact, in our most recent WordPress hosting survey, which received more than 1,800 responses, GoDaddy was the second most popular host overall, while Bluehost was third.

With so many people vouching for both sides, it can make it tough to decide. We’re here to make it easier. A lot easier.

In this detailed comparison, we’ll examine these two hosting giants based on four key criteria: features, performance, customer support, and pricing.

By the time you’re done reading, you’ll know whether or not Bluehost or GoDaddy is the right choice for you. Let’s begin with a top-level overview of what you can expect and then we’ll get into the heavy details.

The two hosts at a glance 🔎

Features comparison ⚙️

Bluehost and GoDaddy provide a variety of shared hosting plans between them. Let’s take a look at the features you can expect if you sign up for a shared hosting plan with either one of them.

Note that the table compares the entry-level shared hosting plans of both providers. In some instances additional information about higher-level plans is provided via tooltip (i.e., by hovering with your mouse on desktop or tapping on mobile).

As you can see for yourself, the two hosts offer an impressive lineup of features and they don’t differ drastically from each other.

The one big win for GoDaddy is that it offers free automatic daily backups on all its plans. In contrast, Bluehost only offers it on their third tier.

Technically, if you read the fine print, Bluehost does back up your site from time to time as mentioned in section 27.1 of their user agreement. However, this isn’t an advertised feature because as they plainly state, it’s for [their] own operational efficiencies and purposes. Furthermore, they reserve the right to charge a restoration fee if you request copies of the backups.

Backups notwithstanding, Bluehost still has a slight overall edge when we take everything above into account. They give you a free SSL, free CDN, and a WordPress staging site – none of which you get with GoDaddy’s entry-level shared plan.

However, there’s still more to the story so keep reading.

Performance comparison 🏎️

The speed of your website is a key factor in its success. Slow loading times will affect user experience and consequently increase bounce rates, lower returning visitor numbers, and impact on your site’s conversions. Therefore, it’s crucial to choose a host that will help your pages load quickly.

Lucky for you, we have hosting accounts with both Bluehost and GoDaddy and we run monthly performance tests on them.

To ensure the testing is fair, we set up two identical WordPress websites with some dummy content. We then use the Pingdom speed test tool to record page speed from different locations across the globe. Finally, we update the results you see below after each monthly test. So if you come back to this article a month from now, the data you see below will be different (assuming that no freak coincidences occur).

In general, both hosts tend to do well on these tests so on any given month you might see one beat out the other by a marginal amount. Then the following month it could very well switch directions.

In addition to page load speed, we also monitor the companies’ uptime. This is crucial – especially for websites that receive moderate to high traffic. As a rule of thumb, you don’t want to see anything lower than 99%. Below you can see the last three months of uptime data for both Bluehost and GoDaddy:

Similar to load times, both Bluehost and GoDaddy tend to have stellar uptime. It’d be uncharacteristic of either one if you see anything below 99%.

Customer support comparison 📞

Both Bluehost and GoDaddy offer impressive levels of support, enabling customers to rest easy that if there is a problem they won’t need to face it alone.

Each host offers extensive documentation, including getting started tutorials, how-to guides, community forums, blogs, and more.

Both Bluehost and GoDaddy also provide 24/7 live chat and telephone support. The one exception is Bluehost’s entry-level plan, which only provides 24/7 chat support (no phone).

As for the support quality, from personal experience with the chat support of both companies and on multiple occasions, we’d have to say that Bluehost has an edge. Their support reps tend to be more helpful and knowledgeable than GoDaddy’s.

Though take this with a grain of salt. In the grand scheme of things, our personal experience is still a relatively tiny sample size when you take into consideration how many users both companies interact with on a daily basis. It’s possible that you might chat with GoDaddy support and have an excellent experience.

Nonetheless, all things considered and based on our experience, we tip our hat in favor of Bluehost here.

Pricing comparison 💰

When it comes to pricing, Bluehost appears to have an edge over GoDaddy with its cheaper plans – at least in the first few years. After that, things begin to even out on the entry-level plan. In the higher plans, GoDaddy even overtakes Bluehost as the lower priced option.

The reason for this is that both hosts change their prices after the initial contract period is up. The key difference is that Bluehost’s cheapest per-month rate is offered on a one-year contract, whereas GoDaddy’s cheapest rate is provided if you sign up for a three-year contract.

Let’s examine how these factors play out for each set of shared hosting plans:

• First tier plans
• Second tier plans
• Third tier plans
• Fourth tier plans

Tier one: Bluehost’s Basic plan vs GoDaddy’s Web Hosting Economy plan

As mentioned, the lowest sticker price with Bluehost is on the one-year plan. But assuming that you wanted hosting for more than just a year, is that one-year contract the best deal?

The answer is…no. 👎

The three-year contract is actually the better deal – and it’s also a better deal than GoDaddy’s three-year contract.

Let’s do the math:

The three-year plan with Bluehost costs $178.20, which comes out to $4.95 per month.

If you were to sign up for the one-year contract instead and renew it three times, you’d wind up paying between $263.64 and $311.64 (assuming no rate changes). That’s between $85.44 and $133.44 more over the course of three years. 💡 The reason for the range is due to a marketing trick that Bluehost uses on their renewal rates (we’ll explain it in just a bit).

And when we compare the $4.95 per month on the three-year plan to GoDaddy’s $5.99 per month on their three-year plan, you’re saving $1.04 per month with Bluehost. That adds up to $37.44 over the life of the contract.

So no matter how you slice it, the Bluehost three-year contract is going to save you the most money.

But, there’s another plot twist here:

When the three years are up, the renewal price for another three years is identical with both Bluehost and GoDaddy:

Simply put, the long game looks different.

💡 For your convenience, below are both plans, presented side-by-side, as they are shown on each hosts’ website:

Click to close

Tier two: Bluehost’s Choice Plus plan vs GoDaddy’s Web Hosting Deluxe plan

Now let’s examine how the promotional rates and renewal rates play out on the tier two plans.

🏆 = lowest price in category

As you see above, on both the one-year and three-year contracts, things look a bit different than they did with the entry-level plans.

While Bluehost is still the clear-cut cheaper option in the initial contract period, GoDaddy turns the tables when it comes time to renew.

There’s one other caveat here though, which is that marketing trick that Bluehost uses which was mentioned earlier.

If you look at the side-by-side screenshot of the plans below, you’ll notice that on the Bluehost side, it says “renews at $13.99,” which is coincidentally (or probably not) the same as GoDaddy’s renewal rate.

Confusing, right?

So what Bluehost does, is that they (sometimes) give you that renewal rate on your first renewal. This allows them to advertise it that way. But all subsequent renewals after that initial renewal default to the true renewal rate, which is the one we showed you in the comparison table above (and which is published in their knowledge base). We also know this from firsthand experience because if you recall from the earlier performance section, we have accounts with both Bluehost and GoDaddy so we know how much they charge.

Side-by-side of the two plans; click to open

Tier three: Bluehost’s Online Store plan vs GoDaddy’s Web Hosting Ultimate plan

Are the third tier plans going to look similar to tier two?

Let’s take a look:

Overall, it is a similar story to what we saw with the tier two plans.

However, in the case of the three-year contract, the cost savings are drastically more pronounced here. In the initial promo period, Bluehost is only cheaper by $1.44. But then when it comes time to renew, GoDaddy crushes Bluehost by a whopping $288!

Side-by-side of the two plans; click to open

Tier four: Bluehost’s Pro plan vs GoDaddy’s Web Hosting Maximum plan

Looking at the last set of plans, we can see that GoDaddy makes additional cost savings gains here. The only better deal on the Bluehost side is on the initial one-year contract. All of the other contracts favor GoDaddy – including even the three-year promo rate.

Side-by-side of the two plans; click to open

Should you choose GoDaddy or Bluehost for your website? 🤔

If you’re still on the fence, the easiest way to think about it is what we wrote in the TL;DR at the beginning of the post:

• In most cases, Bluehost is a better deal for the first three years.
• However, when it comes time to renew your contract, GoDaddy has cheaper rates.

There are two notable exceptions to the above:

• The entry-level plans end up being the same price after the promo period.
• The promo price on a three-year contract on the tier four plan is cheaper with GoDaddy.

If you don’t mind dealing with the hassle of transferring your account from one provider to another, you could also take advantage of Bluehost’s cheaper promo rates, and then after the first three years just transfer to GoDaddy. Given that most of their features are similar, it wouldn’t be a drastic jump from one to the other. Plus you’d actually benefit from the GoDaddy promo rates too (once you transferred over).

On a final note, it’s worth mentioning that Bluehost and GoDaddy aren’t the only hosting providers out there. If you still aren’t sold on either of them, you can check out our collection of cheap web hosting to find other options within their price range.

And once you’ve decided on a host, you can follow our tutorial on how to create a website to get started.

Any questions on the services that either Bluehost or GoDaddy provide? If so, please ask away in the comments below.