Website hosting is a part of running your business. Not just anyone can be a web host. There are benefits and drawbacks to any web hosting service. Some have poor security; others don’t allow you to install specific programs. This means you need to find a hosting service that meets your particular needs. That’s why I created this comparison between Bluehost and Wix so that you can make an informed decision.
Are you trying to decide the best one between Bluehost and Wix? There are many things to consider — ease of use, security, performance, reliability, etc. I’ll discuss each of these factors to help you make the right decision in this post.
Related article: How to Host Your Website in 30 Seconds
Bluehost - The web hosting company
Endurance International Group owns Bluehost, an Internet hosting company. With its sister firms, HostMonster, FastDomain, and iPage, it is one of the top 20 web hosts, hosting over 2 million domains.
In Provo, Utah, the company runs its servers in a 50,000 square ft. (4,600 m2) facility that is now shared with the sibling company HostMonster. Bluehost’s Utah location employs nearly 700 workers.
Bluehost is a famous company that provides shared, VPS, and dedicated hosting solutions for websites of all sizes. As one of the 20 largest web hosts, they’re also a popular choice for users who are new to web hosting or don’t want to manage their server. Their basic plans start at $3.49 per month (first year, billed yearly, excluding taxes) and include a free domain name with registration, making them an affordable choice for the cost-conscious buyer.
Wix - Web Development Company
Wix.com is a web development platform that lets anyone create a website using simple drag-and-drop tools.
Wix was created on the concept that everyone should develop, design, and contribute on the Internet. Wix empowers millions of businesses, organisations, professionals, and individuals through free and premium subscriptions to take their businesses, brands, and workflow online.
The Wix Editor and highly curated App Market enable users to build and manage a fully integrated and dynamic online presence. Wix was named one of the Top 100 Global Companies by LinkedIn.
Tiiny Host as an alternative
Web hosting can be a complicated topic to understand. You often just want to upload your website and not need to worry about the technical details. Tiiny Host is the simplest way to host & share your web project. It provides an easy-to-use, drag & drop interface to upload your website in seconds. Here’s how:
- Navigate to tiiny.host
- Drag & drop a HTML or Zip file containing your site
- Enter a link-name (optional) and click Upload
That’s it!
Bluehost Vs. Wix
Wix and Bluehost are two of the biggest names in website hosting. They both offer a wide range of plans, but they have different approaches to building websites and marketing tools.
This article compares Wix with Bluehost on key criteria such as performance, ease of use, pricing, customer support, and extras. Let’s jump into these factors one by one.
Ease of Use:
Bluehost
From my experience with Bluehost, it is very easy to use but geared toward WordPress and is not a website builder. The reason for this is that Bluehost has designed its hosting to be as simple and beginner-friendly as possible.
It starts during the signup process, where you only need to enter your domain name and a couple of other details before you’re up and running.
This ease of use extends to the backend, which I found very intuitive. For example, Bluehost makes it very easy to install WordPress on your site (which takes less than five minutes) and has its one-click installer for other apps like Joomla and Drupal.
In summary - yes, Bluehost is easy to use, but for WordPress.
Wix
Wix is a very easy-to-use website builder: No coding, no experience, and technical skills. Even if you’ve never built a website before, Wix makes it easy for you to create one.
With Wix, building a website is intuitive and simple. No matter what your business is or what stage of building your website you’re in - You’ll have access to all of the tools you’ll need to create the website you want.
In short, yes. Wix is an accessible website builder that offers simple and powerful tools to help you create something that looks like a professionally designed site.
But how easy it is will depend on a few things, including how much time you’re willing to invest in getting familiar with the service and its tools. They also provide some unique considerations for users if they’ve never built a website before.
Customer Support:
Bluehost
Bluehost’s customer support is a bit of a mixed bag. Customer support is where Bluehost shines, sometimes. Their friendliness and speed are phenomenal. They are very responsive, but the quality of their answers isn’t always the best.
They offer different contact methods: phone, live chat, and ticket system. They also have a knowledge base. They only have 24/7 live chat support, but phone support is available during business hours.
Wix
Wix’s customer support is excellent. They have a 24/7 phone customer service line, a live chat function, and a ticketing system that lets you get in touch with their support team.
Wix’s support team is knowledgeable and helpful; they know their platform well and give you all the guidance you need to work on your website.
In addition to excellent customer support, Wix has a comprehensive Help Center where you’ll have answers to most of the queries as well as step-by-step guides to help you get started with their website builder. You can also reach out to WixArena’s friendly community for additional support.
Affordability:
Bluehost
Bluehost is one of the most affordable web hosting providers available. However, that doesn’t mean they are cheap or low quality. Bluehost has been the officially recommended WordPress hosting provider since 2005 and is used by over 2 million bloggers worldwide. Bluehost offers more than just affordability as a hosting platform—they offer reliability, scalable services, and excellent customer service.
The shared hosting plans start at $2.95 per month (billed annually) for three years and include everything you need to start your blog or small business website.
Wix
Wix’s premium plans start at $8.50 per month and come with a free domain for one year, plus unlimited bandwidth, storage, and support for Google Analytics.
Wix’s VIP plan costs $24.50 per month. You get priority support and your VIP consultant to guide you with your website’s development. Your site also gets a free professional logo worth $50 and $300 in ad vouchers for Google and Bing.
The best plan is Wix eCommerce, which costs $16.50 per month (with a free domain name for one year). It comes with everything included in the Business Basic plan, plus tools to sell online and accept bookings.
Performance and Reliability:
Bluehost
Bluehost’s mission is to provide the best performance for your websites and applications. Bluehost offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee with each shared hosting plan. If you experience downtime due to an issue with their servers, they’ll credit your account for up to 10% of your monthly hosting fee.
Bluehost’s infrastructure is built with reliability in mind. All shared hosting plans include RAID10 storage and hot-swap drives for redundancy and fault tolerance. In addition, all of their hardware is housed in data centers equipped with backup generators, uninterruptible power supplies, redundant power feeds, and multiple network carriers.
Wix
Wix has always been known for its reliability, and when you use one of its website templates, you’ll never have to worry about your site going down. But, on top of that, they’ve also made some serious enhancements to their platform to make their sites load at lightning speeds!
All Wix sites are automatically hosted on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) for speed and security. This is one of the sister companies of Google, which many consider one of the most reliable companies in the world.
Security:
Bluehost
Building websites with Bluehost is safe. You can check the security status of their services on the McAfee Secure website or Norton Safe Web website.
Bluehost is a certified partner of both companies, which means that they are committed to providing their customers with the best website safety and protection.
Bluehost has partnered with McAfee Secure and Norton Safe Web to provide you with a secure hosting environment. To provide you with an optimal hosting experience, Bluehost constantly monitors its services to prevent and eliminate any possible security risks.
Wix
Wix is a safe platform for building your website. It has a robust security infrastructure that protects you and your users. The Wix team works around the clock to ensure your site’s safety so that you can focus on other parts of your business.
The Wix system is safe, fast, available, and scalable. Here are some of the ways Wix goes above and beyond to keep your site secure:
Wix sites come with free hosting, featuring powerful servers that ensure your website is always running smoothly. That means no crashes or downtime for you and your customers. If you wish to take it up a notch, Wix offers even more reliable premium plans with unlimited bandwidth.
Features & Services [comparison table]
| — | — | — | Features and Services | Bluehost | Wix | Free Domain | Yes | Yes | Control Panel | Yes | No | Free Backups | Yes | Yes | Free SSL | Yes | No | Disk Space | 50 GB | 1 GB | Uptime | 99.98 % | 99.8 % | Support | Live Chat and Phone | Live Chat, and Help Center |
Bluehost Vs. Wix: Which is Better For your Website?
Bluehost and Wix are two of the best comprehensive website-building services available, but which is better for you?
Both Wix and Bluehost offer a range of different hosting plans to meet different needs. They also have free trials, so there’s no risk in trying them out and finding out which one works best for you.
Although both Bluehost and Wix are excellent platforms to build a website on, they’re very different. If you’re looking for an easy, intuitive website builder, Wix is probably the way to go. If you need more flexibility, customisation and prefer WordPress, Bluehost is better.
Wrap up!
The takeaway here is that both companies have strengths and weaknesses, so you’ll have to decide which one will work better for you. In the end, Bluehost has been the personal choice of users because it has been providing satisfying results over the years, while Wix appears to be a great option if there are features you specifically want out of a website builder. Either way, it’s worth giving both a try.
