If you want to start a WordPress blog on popular hosting platforms, you’ll find lots of companies, and one of them is Bluehost and iPage. These providers offer different features, limits, and resources, and that can make the difference for blog speed and security. Today, we’ll compare both hosting services for hosting a blog or site on CMS.
Bluehost
Before starting this comparison, let’s understand what the Bluehost hosting for blogging is exactly and what it does.
Bluehost shared plans
As a hosting company, Bluehost offers both, shared and managed hosting for the famous WordPress software. Every package comes with its specifications and limitations.
For example, the shared plans offer good features for blogs with low traffic. The RAM, CPU, and even bandwidth suit the site needs and I will work well.
Managed hosting
On the other side, managed hosting is designed specifically for medium to large size sites. In fact, a website that receives hundreds of daily visits needs extra resources, faster network uptime, and better server optimizations. Even more, the level of security on managed hosting is much higher than regular hosting.
Of course, managed services cost more, and the Bluehost managed hosting plans range from $20 to $50 per month for the promotional plans. In reality, for the yearly hosting plan, the customer pays $30 and if he prefers the monthly billing options, that will cost $40 and that’s twice the price of faster-hosting services like WPEngine.
We find their managed service a lot more expensive than their competitors with better quality and better customer support.
For the optimized WordPress hosting, the company offers a free SSL certificate (let’s encrypt). So, you don’t have to install the certificate yourself.
What I liked most about the Bluehost solution for blogs is their guaranteed RAM of 2 GB. That’s great if you consider the free professional CDN and security from SiteLock. However, we always recommend using a security plugin and making your site more secure.
Don’t count on any shared hosting service for your blog security. Even on managed hosting, you make things safe and use trusted plugins and themes from well-known companies.
- Read also: VPS hosting providers
Bluehost features
To transfer a hosting to Bluehost, you need to pay them $100 and that’s too expensive for simple site migration. Or, on the other hand, you can move your site files manually through FTP, and if you’re a beginner and know nothing about hosting, you have to use a backup plugin, and BackupBuddy is the best in that.
To upload a theme on Bluehost, you can use the dashboard, or you can use any FTP software. We prefer using the default blog upload feature, it’s safer and better, but only if you have a file in ZIP format.
You don’t have to upload the CMS to Bluehost as the company provides a website auto-installer tool. So, you can click a few buttons and install the software on your hosting account.
If you don’t have the time for installation or don’t want to play with the settings, then, only InMotion Hosting offers pre-installed WordPress hosting. Every customer can check the free software installation during the SignUp and that saves a lot of time for starters.
To point your domain name to Bluehost servers, you can use the DNS tool (from your domain registrar) and link it to the following ones:
- ns1.bluehost.com and its IP address is 162.88.60.37
- ns2.bluehost.com and the IP is 162.88.61.37
The main problem with Bluehost is their downtime, sometimes, things work well for days and without notice, the server can go down for hours.
Unfortunately, in the last few years, there were lots of downtimes that lasted a long time, I remember one for approximately 19 hours. So, Bluehost for your blog may look good, but expect downtimes and no shared hosting is perfect.
The Bluehost marketing offers may only be helpful and attractive if you want to advertise with Google and Facebook. Indeed, there are $200 of free ads with those popular networks. Additionally, there is a free domain.
- Read on: Dedicated web hosting companies
In the last post, I’ve talked about the differences between Bluehost shared hosting and WordPress, so you can learn why the company recommends them. It’s not about quality, but they work together as partners for marketing and promotions.
iPage
Blog hosting plans
iPage is a low-cost and WordPress-compatible hosting solution. It’s the company owned by the same group EIG that owns Bluehost, HostGator, and other popular companies. They offer PHP hosting that can handle medium traffic to your blog and that’s good.
Using blogging software on iPage hosting is the same as any server, but for the control panel, it’s different. You can install applications and tools, and there is nothing to worry about.
iPage offers pre-installed plugins and themes, however, that’s not a big deal, you can search for the top-recommended tools for your blog and install them one by one. But, for beginners, it’s helpful to start with a good configuration.
In conclusion, iPage is good for any small size blog, it offers the tools that every blogger needs it starts with. However, for speed, it’s not the fastest one, but it is still a recommended affordable hosting to start with, and ten, use superior quality hosting for high traffic sites.
iPage offers FTP, so you can upload a theme, plugins, or file to your account. Also, there is a file manager to use.
By the way, it’s recommended to try the FTP connection with Filezilla for example to verify the credentials. In many cases, having FTP access is more than important to manage plugins or delete files when you can’t access the WordPress admin area for any mistake.
Shared and managed plans
There is no big difference between the iPage “Essential” plan and their managed hosting. It’s a shared account at the end, but with limits on resources. For that reason, using the cheapest iPage plan is recommended to build a blog for the first time. Then, you can get more resources when the blog grows.
- Related: Yearly WordPress hosting under $20
For speed, iPage is not fast, but also, not slow for a shared server. It’s an average hosting solution that bloggers can use. The customer support of phone and email assistance, you need that if something wrong happens to your blog files or installation.
iPage vs iPage for blogging
Both hosting services are well-known, registered companies and have customer support and lots of features.
Bluehost has superior quality compared to iPage for any WordPress blog. That’s because of their optimized server configurations, and friendly customer support.
iPage is an affordable web hosting that we recommend for small blogs. You get what you need without problems, but if you plan for a large website, then, Bluehost will be much better but don’t expect the best blog host in the world.
If you want better hosting, then, HostGator is the right choice, it’s better than both companies and comes with faster servers that everyone needs.
