Now that WordPress.com is offering website plans that include hosting, are they a better option than the other WordPress hosting options? How does WordPress.com compare with the web hosts recommended by WordPress.org? In this comparison of WordPress.com vs Bluehost, we take a detailed look at Automattic’s WordPress.com hosting plans against one of the best choices for affordable WordPress hosting, Bluehost. Which one is better for your websites? Let’s take a look.
Advantages of Choosing WordPress.com over Bluehost:
Advantages of Choosing Bluehost over WordPress.com:
WordPress.com and Bluehost include many of the same features such as a free domain the first year, CDNs, DDoS protection, and free SSL. The Business and Commerce plans with WordPress.com do include more advanced features such as website staging and production syncing, unrestricted bandwidth, automated datacenter failover, and no limitations on site visitors. Meanwhile, Bluehost features also include their AI site creation tools, customized WordPress dashboard, and 30 day money back guarantee. Best of all, with Bluehost you can host multiple websites.
In this category, Bluehost is better in the lower priced hosting plans and for multiple website hosting, while WordPress.com is superior at the upper level plans (Business and Commerce) for individual websites.
I’m pleased to report that both WordPress.com and Bluehost provide fast performing websites. WordPress.com includes high frequency CPUs together with global edge caching and global CDN results in excellent page loading times and core web vitals. Bluehost offers advanced caching and Cloudflare CDN. In fact, in our testing, Bluehost was slightly faster with better CWVs. Therefore, they are the winner in this category.
See some of our sample speed test results from GTmetrix below:
The customer support category in this comparison is very close. On the plus side for Bluehost, they provide responsive live chat support that is readily available when needed. Most of the time our results were fine, however we would like to see a bit more consistency here. Occasionally, there were delays when working with the support agent, but this situation was the exception rather than the rule.
By contrast, the support resolution from WordPress.com was consistently good. The issue here is that you initially get connected to automated chat. For specific inquiries, you need to wait for an email reply, which can take a number of hours. Therefore, here we again have to give the slight edge to Bluehost for faster response times.
Started Business: 2005
BBB Rating: A+
Data Center Location:Data Centers: Global
Price: $4 mo. – $45 mo. (Enterprise Plans also available)
Unlimited Bandwidth: Yes
Unlimited Storage: No
Email: Yes
Host Multiple Domains: No
Hosting Interface: WordPress Dashboard
Server Uptime: 99.999%
Full Refund Period: 14 Days
Dedicated Hosting Available: No
Advantages of Choosing WordPress.com:
Choose WordPress.com if:
Started Business: 1996
Data Center Location: Provo, UT
Price: Price: $1.99 mo. – $9.99 mo.
Unlimited Bandwidth: No
Unlimited Storage: No
Unlimited Email: Yes
Host Multiple Domains: Yes
Hosting Interface: cPanel
Server Uptime: 99.99%
Full Refund Period: 30 Days
Dedicated Hosting Available: Yes
Advantages of Choosing Bluehost:
Choose Bluehost if:
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Overall, although it’s extremely close, in this comparison of WordPress.com vs Bluehost, Bluehost is the winner. The combination of features, better website speed and performance, and faster responding customer support make Bluehost the better choice for most WordPress website situations.
Also, if you need multiple website hosting or if you can only afford the cheapest level hosting plan, then I would recommend going with Bluehost.
See our Review Ratings below.
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