How do I know which hosting company that is the best one for my blog?
There are several hosting companies. In this article, you will find a comparison between two of the most popular ones, namely BlueHost and Hostgator.
Please note that this article does contain affiliate links to both of them.
If you decide to purchase through my link, I will get a commission.
However, if you want to start your own profitable blog would you rather pay the full price or would you prefer to get a discount for something that is needed to start anyway?
I highly recommend that you start by reading the entire article, or at the very least skim through it.
The article is meant to be a comprehensive guide that will be useful for new bloggers.
You will also find it useful if you are doing some research on which hosting company that is best for your blog.
You will find my review below…
Why Do I Need Hosting Anyway?
If you’re someone who is completely new to blogging, you might be asking yourself Why do I need hosting?
You need hosting if you want to run your self-hosted blog, which is the best way to do blogging
I will not lie to you, it does cost a bit of money, but probably a lot less that you think.
Some people pay up to $12.95 for hosting every single month.
The two hosting companies I am comparing in this article range between $2.95 to $9.95 per month depending on whether you need hosting for just one blog or several blogs.
Click here to get a discount for your first blog.
If you know how to install WordPress yourself, you can get hosting for multiple websites for as low as $5.95 per month.
I am using one of them myself, but I will not tell you which one.
Why Can’t I Get Free Hosting?
You can get free hosting on WordPress.com, Tumblr, or Blogger.com, but it comes with a price.
The price you pay for using a free platform is that you will not be the owner of the content that you create.
It is not a long-term business model.
You should be aware that blogging is a real business and you can make money from it.
One of the most popular blogs is Huffington Post, which I am sure you have heard of, and maybe even read frequently.
Why Do I Need to Pay for Hosting?
Most importantly, you will own your own content.
It will help you rank better on the search engines if you know what you are doing compared to the free options that I mentioned above.
Traffic is something all blog owners are struggling with.
If you can help yourself to rank higher on the search engines, by providing a lot of value, you will get more human visitors to your blog.
How Do I Start a Profitable Blog?
You begin by selecting a good domain name which will cost you around $10 for an entire year.
If you have bought your domain already, then it is great.
However, if you don’t know what to name your blog, I recommend that you read my Complete Guide to Naming Your Blog.
Your blog name is just like a zip code, it points to a certain location.
Then, you will need the door with your name on it, to specify the physical location. In this case, it is through a hosting company.
Since two of the leading hosting companies, HostGator and BlueHost will be compared below.
I will not discuss other hosting companies even if there are others as well.
The two are the most reliable according to my own experience, and this is the main reason why I am limiting myself to a comparison between the two.
Which Blogging Platform Should I Use?
There are several different blogging platforms available to you. Some are better than other ones.
For this reason, the apparent question will be: Which blogging platform should I use?
I, as well as most other bloggers, swear by and use the one blogging platform that runs the most of all blogs available on the Internet today (around 24%) which is WordPress.
Now, you might not know this but there are two versions of WordPress.
Both of them are free.
The only real difference between the two is that one is self-hosted and the other one is hosted for free by Automattic, the company behind WordPress.
Their version is LIMITED compared to the self-hosted version that I am using on this blog.
Yes, this blog is a self-hosted WordPress-blog.
Don’t think that it will be hard to set it up. Both HostGator and Bluehost offers a one-click solution as well as helping you to set up your blog for a small fee.
There is really no excuse not to setup a blog for yourself in the 2020s.
When I ran into some problems when I set up this blog, but my hosting company did a great job and helped me fix all the issues.
The 1-Click Install WordPress Option
Both companies make it super-easy for you, even if you’re a bit technically challenged to set up your own blog.
After you’ve signed up to either one of them, you will get access to something called a cPanel.
In the cPanel, you will find the one-click option.
HostGator vs BlueHost – Which Hosting Company Do I Recommend
So, which hosting company do I recommend?
In the table below, I will make a comparison between the two, before I reveal my recommendation too you.
Note that the monthly prices may have changed since November 2019, when I wrote this article. I try to update this article as frequent as humanly possible.
| Monthly Price Comparison (WordPress-Plan) | HostGator | BlueHost |
| Starter/Basic Plan | $5.95 | $3.95 |
| Standard/Plus Plan | $7.95 | $5.95 |
| Business/Choice Plus Plan | $9.95 | $5.95 |
The difference between the different plans is several.
The one I will mention is that the Basic Plan above, as well as the Hatchling Plan below, is for one single WordPress-installation and one single domain.
At the same time, the other plans include unlimited installations and domains.
What will I get for my money?
| HostGator (Starter Plan) | BlueHost (Basic Plan) |
| Free domain included | 1 free domain included for the first year |
| 100k visits per month | Unmetered Storage |
| 1 GB backups | Unlimited Parked Domains |
| Free SSL-certificate | Free SSL-certificate |
| Unlimited Subdomains | |
| $100 Marketing Credit | $200 Marketing Credit |
I do not compare the other packages since the packages above will suit most beginners.
If you know how to install WordPress yourself, you can save a couple of dollars every month.
You can use the website builder option, as you will see below:
| Monthly Price Comparison (Shared Hosting-Plan) | HostGator | BlueHost |
| Hatchling/Basic Plan | $2.75 | $3.95 |
| Baby/Plus Plan | $3.95 | $5.95 |
| Business/Choice Plus | $5.95 | $5.95 |
I have to say that both of them has a 24/7/365 days-support that will help you with any issues that you may encounter.
Don’t hesitate but just reach out to them if you need any help.
I recommend that you join this hosting company.
The reason why I recommend it are the following:
- You get great support and service 365/24/7
- Easy installation of your WordPress
- A free domain
- A free SSL-certificate
- Marketing budget to get started
An SSL-certificate will help your blog to rank on the search engines since it will make your website secure.
You will notice that it begins with “HTTPS” instead of “HTTP”.
If you don’t want to go with my recommendation, I have included links to the different companies below.
In fact, there is one that is recommended by WordPress itself.
Click here to sign up to HostGator.
Click here to sign up to BlueHost.
I hope you now have enough information to decide which hosting company is the best for your blog.
