Do you want an unbiased SiteGround vs. Bluehost vs. WP Engine web hosting comparison?
WPExpertPro and a slew of other industry experts have endorsed these top WordPress hosting companies. Beginners, on the other hand, are frequently unsure which is best.
We'll evaluate SiteGround vs Bluehost vs WP Engine in this guide, along with their benefits and drawbacks, so you can make the best option possible.
SiteGround vs. Bluehost vs. WP Engine: What's the Difference?
The top WordPress hosting services on the market, according to WPExpertPro, are SiteGround, Bluehost, and WP Engine.
And this isn't something we say casually. We've dealt with dozens of WordPress hosting companies over the years and are familiar with the benefits and drawbacks of the business as a whole.
We regularly do testing on all of these top hosting services, using real websites and data, to be even more sure in our decision.
If all three are satisfactory, it will be up to each user to determine his or her own hosting requirements.
Some users, for example, may prefer a low-cost alternative in order to keep their website costs under control. Other users, on the other hand, could require a hosting package with more support choices.
In this comparison, we'll analyze at the advantages and disadvantages of SiteGround vs. Bluehost vs. WP Engine in further depth. If you don't want to read the whole thing, here's a quick rundown:
So, let's take a look at each of them and see how they compare.
Comparison of SiteGround
SiteGround is an officially recommended WordPress hosting company and one of the highest-rated WordPress hosting businesses. They provide exceptional customer service, excellent performance, and a user-friendly hosting configuration.
With their proprietary in-house speed optimizations, they have a highly optimized WordPress hosting platform. This speeds up your website, which is beneficial to SEO and user experience.
Advantages of SiteGround
Each WordPress hosting company has its own set of advantages and disadvantages that you should be aware of before signing up. SiteGround comes with a number of amazing features right out of the box.
Let's look at some of the benefits of using SiteGround as your web hosting provider.
Faster Website- SiteGround offers a highly optimized WordPress hosting platform with its own performance optimizations, resulting in a faster website. Their servers are housed on the Google Cloud Platform, which is one of the most powerful cloud hosting platforms available. You can boost your search engine rankings by using faster sites.
Excellent Customer Support- SiteGround provides heroic customer service with quick response times, knowledgeable and professional live chat, and 24/7 phone support.
Multiple Geographic Locations — SiteGround makes it simple to choose the location of your server. If the majority of your consumers are in Asia, for example, you can choose Asian-based servers (Singapore). The United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, and the Netherlands are among the other datacenter locations.
Free CDN and SSL- SiteGround makes it simple to activate Cloudflare's free content delivery network (CDN) for your website. It also makes utilizing Let's Encrypt to add a free SSL certificate to your site a breeze.
Daily Backup — All of their plans feature daily backup, and their higher plans provide on-demand backup copies.
WordPress Site Migration - SiteGround has a migrator plugin that makes moving your WordPress website from another host to SiteGround a breeze.
,- WP-CLI and SSH support are included in all plans. You receive access to a staging environment, the opportunity to add collaborators, and WordPress supercacher performance boosters with their GrowBig plan. GIT, Ultrafast PHP, white-label clients, and other developer tools are included in the GoGeek plan.
SiteGround's drawbacks
There are several drawbacks to using SiteGround that may be a deal breaker for some people.
Higher Monthly Costs — If you pay on a month-to-month basis, their hosting options can get pretty pricey. Signing up for a yearly plan will save you money.
Storage Limits - Each hosting plan has a set amount of storage. Although it is rather vast, and most website owners do not want additional storage, it is still something to consider.
Comparison of Bluehost
Bluehost is one of the largest web hosting businesses in the world, as well as a WordPress host that is officially recommended. They provide WordPress-optimized hosting solutions that include quicker servers and consistent performance.
When compared to SiteGround and WP Engine, their shared hosting pricing are less expensive. As a result, they're an excellent fit for newcomers and small enterprises on a tight budget.
Bluehost's Advantages
Bluehost provides excellent value for money, but what are some of its drawbacks? Let's begin with some of the advantages of utilizing Bluehost as your web hosting provider.
Lower Prices – Bluehost's entry-level plan helps you to get started for less money, which is ideal for new small enterprises, blogs, portfolios, and other types of websites.
Ease of Use — It features one of the most user-friendly hosting control panels available, making it incredibly simple to install WordPress (with only one click) and administer your website.
Free Domain - They provide you with a free domain name, saving you money on your startup costs.
Free CDN + Free SSL — Bluehost provides a free CDN to speed up your website, as well as a free SSL certificate with all plans.
Website Speed — We found Bluehost to perform well in our tests, despite the fact that we did not apply any speed optimization on our test sites. You can use WordPress caching plugins to increase performance even more.
Bluehost plans include staging site setup, automatic WordPress updates, the ability to change PHP versions, SFTP access, and other features.
Bluehost's drawbacks
There are, of course, some drawbacks to using Bluehost. The following are some of the drawbacks that you should be aware of.
Domain renewal price is higher than average – Their free domain renewal price is higher than the industry average. It is not likely to have an immediate impact on most businesses, but it is something to consider.
Upselling addons - During the enrollment process, you'll see a lot of upselling. Most novices will not require these things right immediately, therefore they can be skipped.
Comparison of WP Engines
WP Engine is one of the world's most popular managed WordPress hosting services. They were one of the first companies to offer managed WordPress hosting services.
The hosting company provides a highly optimized environment with built-in custom caching on a managed WordPress plan. Updates and backups are also handled by the hosting company.
WP Engine is a powerful platform that is utilized by both corporations and agencies. Beginners will find it simple to maintain their website, while developers and companies will find it advanced for hosting client sites.
WP Engine's Advantages
WP Engine is a robust hosting service, but it comes with some drawbacks that you should consider before signing up. Some of the benefits of using WP Engine are listed below.
Reliability- WP Engine's patented technology can easily handle traffic spikes without causing your website to go down or slow down.
Security — It includes a number of powerful security measures that help to prevent DDoS assaults, brute force attacks, JavaScript/SQL injection attacks, and more. If your site is hacked while using their platform, they also provide a free cleanup service.
Daily Backup - Daily backup is included in all of their plans.
Advanced Features- WP Engine provides advanced capabilities for developers, enterprises, and agencies, such as 1-click staging websites, GIT version control, and transferrable installs, among others.
Speed- WP Engine's EverCache provides server-level caching for everything, including a CDN, resulting in speedier load times.
Free Themes- WP Engine accounts come with 30 StudioPress premium WordPress themes for free, which is a wonderful deal for WordPress users.
WP Engine's drawbacks
WP Engine provides cutting-edge technologies and robust web hosting services, but it also has some drawbacks.
Blocked Plugins - WP Engine keeps track of which WordPress plugins you can't use on your site. These plugins are either incompatible with WP Engine features or clash with them.
Costly - WP Engine costs more than shared hosting platforms. If your company can afford it, the services they provide are well worth the expense.
Which is better: SiteGround, Bluehost, or WP Engine?
You might be wondering which of SiteGround vs Bluehost vs WP Engine is preferable now that we've evaluated their respective features.
The solution is dependent on your specific requirements.
For example, if you want to create an internet business or a new online store but don't want to spend a lot of money, Bluehost is a great option. It is inexpensive and provides a secure, quick, and simple platform.
SiteGround, on the other hand, is a better choice if you can afford to spend a bit more on premium hosting. For a small fee, you can get speedier assistance, a WordPress platform that is optimized, and a website that is really fast. It provides the best of both worlds in terms of value and performance.
Finally, if you need a concierge WordPress hosting service, WP Engine provides an all-in-one solution. It's dependable, simple to use, has advanced developer options, and provides increased security, among other things.
Most Commonly Asked Questions (FAQs)
We've answered a lot of queries after assisting thousands of consumers in finding the finest web host for their needs. Some of the most frequently asked questions concerning SiteGround vs. Bluehost vs. WP Engine are answered below.
What method did you use to compare the web hosting speeds of Bluehost, SiteGround, and WP Engine?
We test each company's performance and reliability using independent third-party tools like Pingdom, LoadImpact, and Bitcatcha, so we can help you choose the best WordPress hosting for your business.
We generate a sample WordPress site on each hosting company and install the basic WordPress theme to correctly test performance across all WordPress hosting companies. Following that, we import sample content, including photographs and media, to make our test look like a typical user's website.
Is it possible to use subdomains on my website?
Yes, all three of these companies allow you to use subdomains. It doesn't count towards your one-website restriction if it's a staging site. If you want to establish many websites, you'll need to switch to a more expensive plan.
Is cPanel used by SiteGround?
cPanel is not used by SiteGround. They created a unique control panel to provide a better user experience. As a result, they've been able to introduce more premium tools, similar to WP Engine.
Only Bluehost, SiteGround, WP Engine, and Bluehost still offer cPanel hosting. Despite the fact that Bluehost has its own control panel, you may access cPanel from Bluehost by going to the Advanced menu.
Is WP Engine able to provide email accounts?
WP Engine does not provide email addresses. They specialize in managed WordPress hosting and recommend using specialist business email address options such as Google Workspace (G Suite).
On the other side, both Bluehost and SiteGround provide free business email addresses that you may create from your account area. Bluehost also allows you to purchase premium Office365 corporate emails directly from the Bluehost interface.
If you want to improve email deliverability for bulk emails, all providers recommend using the WP Mail SMTP plugin with a reputable third-party SMTP service.
What makes SiteGround so costly?
When compared to other shared hosting services such as Bluehost, HostGator, Dreamhost, and others, SiteGround's pricing is unquestionably higher. However, by switching to the Google Cloud platform, they have considerably enhanced their infrastructure. They've also developed extensive caching to improve performance, as well as robust development tools including staging sites, Git workflows, Ultrafast PHP, and WP CLI support, among other things.
Previously, these strong capabilities could only be obtained by upgrading to a managed WordPress hosting service. SiteGround now sells them to small enterprises at a lower cost.
It's no longer fair to compare SiteGround's costs to those of other shared hosting providers because they're actually pioneering a new category of premium WordPress hosting.
When do you require WordPress hosting that is managed?
You might be thinking, as a novice, if managed WordPress hosting is truly that much better. If that's the case, when should you upgrade to managed WordPress hosting?
All of this is covered in depth in our guide on when you should use managed WordPress hosting.
However, whether you're just creating a blog or a small company website, managed WordPress hosting isn't necessary.
We recommend selecting a managed platform when your website grows and your traffic increases, so you can delegate the technical part and focus on developing your business.
However, if you have the financial means to pay a little extra for better service, you can use managed hosting whenever you're ready.
We hope this SiteGround vs. Bluehost vs. WP Engine comparison helped you determine which platform is best for your new website.