WPEngine vs Bluehost – Which Is Better?

When it comes to building websites, an essential requirement is the web host. 

Besides, it is highly recommended to opt for a renowned web host to benefit from their exceptional services. 

WPEngine and Bluehost on the other hand, are big names in the web hosting industry with thousands of customers across the world.

However, a prospective customer may find it hard to opt for the best among the two prominent web hosts.

If you are confused about which of these platforms is ideal to use, this post will walk you through their features, pricing details, and similitudes. 

After comparing them against each other, you can decide which the best is.  

What Is WPEngine?

Founded in 2010, WPEngine is a prominent web hosting company with a specialty in WordPress – a widely used content management system (CMS). 

With its team of WordPress experts, WPEngine has evolved to dominate the WordPress hosting sphere in the web hosting industry.

It is a reliable hosting platform for anyone looking to create a WordPress website.

As a managed hosting service, WordPress website hosting aspects such as speed, security, performance, analytics, are fully covered. 

WPEngine incorporates a series of software solutions that facilitate agility, intelligence, performance, and integrations.

This, in turn, ensures that users can customize their WordPress hosting experience on its unified platform.

Nevertheless, WPEngine offers users the perfect experience as it integrates technologies from Google, New Relic, and AMS.

With WPEngine, you can automate the entire process of creating and managing your WordPress websites without hassles.

Just as its name implies, WPEngine is the ideal web host for every WordPress website.

WPEngine has features that would interest any prospective customers. Some of its key features include: 

WPEngine Managed WordPress Hosting

WPEngine can host any WordPress website effortlessly; hence, you don’t have to worry about the technical aspects of hosting your WordPress site.

Besides, WPEngine is developed for WordPress CMS which powers 35% websites on the internet. 

WPEngine Global CDN

WPEngine incorporates a free content delivery network (CDN) service upon subscription.

This ensures that the WordPress website is accessible across all geographical locations at a much faster speed.

WPEngine Automated SSL Certificate

One of the WPEngine interesting features is the SSL certificate which ensures website security.

With a single click, users can activate the free SSL certificate which is powered by WPEngine for all hosted websites on its platform. 

WPEngine StudioPress Themes

WPEngine provides subscribers with up to 36 premium StudioPress themes for free.

Powered by Genesis Framework, these SEO-friendly WordPress themes are compliant with WordPress theming rules.

WPEngine Auto BackUp

WPEngine automatically backup the data of hosted websites daily.

This makes it possible for users to retrieve their site’s recent data in case they experience website issues. 

WPEngine Copy Sites Feature

With WPEngine, you can copy the design and structure of one WordPress website to another.

This saves site developers the time of having to recreate websites they intend to replicate.

WPEngine Two Factor Authentication

Other interesting WPEngine features is the two-factor authentication (2FA). This helps to protect your site from breaches and hackers.

Two security processes are required before access to the WP dashboard is granted. 

WPEngine Automated Migration

This feature lets you transfer your WordPress website from any hosting platform to the WPEngine platform easily and concisely. 

WPEngine 24/7/365 Support

The WPEngine support team Is available all day of the week and at any time.

As a customer, you can reach out to them and get help whenever it is needed. 

Other outstanding WPEngine features include:

• Dedicated development environments 
• Services onboarding
• Git and SFTP connections
• GeoTarget 
• PHP 7.3 and HTTP/2 enabled 
• Proprietary EverCache
• Content performance

WPEngine Pricing 

To meet up with all kinds of web hosting needs, WPEngine provides users with various pricing packages.

Listed below are the WPEngine pricing plans:

Startup Plan 

$29.17 per month when billed at $350 annually, or $35 per month when billed monthly.

• For 1 website
• 25,000 Monthly visits
• 10 GB Local storage
• 50 GB Monthly bandwidth

Also, free add-ons for the Startup Plan include:

• Genesis Framework
• 35+ StudioPress themes
• Automated SSL certificates
• Development, stage, production environments
• Global CDN
• Transferable sites
• PHP 7.3 ready
• LargeFS
• Page performance
• SSH gateway
• 24/7 chat support

Growth Plan

$95.83 per month when billed at $1150 annually, or $115 per month when billed on a monthly basis

• For 5 websites
• 100,000 Monthly visits
• 20 GB Local storage
• 200 GB Monthly bandwidth

Free add-ons for the Growth Plan include:

• All free add-ons from the Starter Plan, including;
• Imported SSL certificates
• 24/7 phone support

Scale Plan 

$241.67 per month when billed at $2900 annually, or $290 per month when billed on a monthly basis

• For 15 websites 
• 400,000 Monthly visits
• 30 GB Local storage
• 400 GB Monthly bandwidth

Free add-ons include:

• All free add-ons from the Growth Plan

Custom Plan 

Custom pricing

• For 25+ websites 
• Millions of Monthly visits
• Up to 1TB Local storage
• More than 400 GB Monthly bandwidth

Free add-ons for the Custom Plan include:

• All Scale Plan free add-ons
• Content performance
• WordPress multisite
• Consultative onboarding
• Readiness assessment
• GeoTarget

Note: WPEngine provides subscribers of the Starter, Growth, and Scale plans with two free months when they opt for an annual subscription. 

WPEngine Pros

• Specialized WP hosting 
• Reliable security
• 99.9% Uptime 
• Reliable customer support
• Integrated technologies 
• Automatic backup
• Free StudioPress themes 
• Yearly payment discounts 

WPEngine Cons

• Does not facilitate domain name registration 
• No cPanel
• No webmail
• Lack of support for the Startup Plan subscribers
• Not all WP plugins are supported 

What Is Bluehost?

Founded in 2003, Bluehost is one of the oldest web hosting companies used globally by millions of website owners. 

Owned by Endurance International Group, Bluehost dominates a larger percentage of the web hosting industry alongside its sister companies such as HostGator, iPage, BigRock, ResellerClub, and others.

With its many years of experience in the web hosting industry, Bluehost has evolved to be a household name for hosting all kinds of websites irrespective of the website technologies.

Besides, Bluehost supports WordPress hosting, WooCommerce hosting, shared hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated servers. Not to mention, Bluehost facilitates domain name registration.

On the other hand, Bluehost is recommended by WordPress.org as the best web hosting company for WordPress sites.

Therefore, individuals and businesses alike can make use of Bluehost to host any type of website.

Bluehost is recommended by so many customers including WordPress.org because of the features it offers. 

Some key features of Bluehost are:

Bluehost WordPress And WooCommerce Hosting

Bluehost provides specialized hosting services for WordPress and WooCommerce websites.

These are special hosting options with infrastructure and tools to build any WordPress or WooCommerce website. 

Bluehost WP Pro

Bluehost incorporates an easy-to-use dashboard known as WP Pro. This facilitates marketing and managed WordPress hosting features. It also enables users to enjoy improved customer support and advanced security features. 

Bluehost Shared Hosting

Shared Hosting is available on Bluehost. This feature lets you host your website or blog on a shared server with other websites. It is fully managed and has a user-friendly dashboard. 

Bluehost VPS Hosting

Virtual Private Server Hosting gives you a semi-dedicated server to host your website while ensuring better performance. The VPS hosting features increased bandwidth and storage space and can handle a high amount of traffic. 

Bluehost Dedicated Hosting

Bluehost allows subscribers to host their websites on its dedicated server without sharing bandwidth or server resources with other customers. The dedicated server is optimized for advanced hosting experience and advanced capabilities.

Bluehost Domain Name Registration

You can register your domains on Bluehost, which can then be used with your web hosting plan. About 17 domain extensions can be registered on Bluehost including .com, .net, .org, blog, .co.uk, amongst others. 

On the other hand, Bluehost allocates a free domain name for new users when they register for a hosting plan. 

Bluehost 24/7 Customer Support

Bluehost has a team of expert support which helps customers to resolve both technical and non-technical issues. Their support team can be contacted via phone, email, or live chat on the website. 

Other notable Bluehost features include:

• Webmail support
• SSL certificate
• Domain
• Free website scripts
• Unmetered bandwidth
• Free marketing credits

Bluehost Pricing Packages

Bluehost offers different pricing plans for each type of hosting package i.e. WordPress Hosting, WP Pro, WooCommerce, shared hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated hosting.

Here are the Bluehost pricing packages:

1. Shared WordPress Hosting

Basic Plan 

• Starting Price – $2.95 per month
• 1 Website
• Free SSL certificate
• 50 GB SSD storage
• Free domain (for 1 Year)
• 5 Parked domains
• 25 Subdomains
• $200 Marketing credit

Plus Plan 

• Starting price – $5.45 per month 
• Unlimited websites
• Free SSL certificate
• Unmetered SSD storage
• Free domain (for 1 Year)
• Unlimited parked domains
• Unlimited subdomains
• $200 Marketing credit
• 1 Office 365 mailbox (free for 30 days)

Choice Plus Plan 

• Starting price – $5.45 per month
• All Plus Plan features, including;
• CodeGuard basic backup
• 1 Office 365 mailbox (free for 30 days)

2. WP Pro – WordPress Managed Hosting

Build Plan

• Starting price – $19.95 per month
• 100+ Free WordPress themes
• Daily scheduled backups
• Jetpack site analytics (basic)
• Malware detection & removal
• Marketing center
• Domain privacy & protection
• 1 Office 365 mailbox (free for 30 days)

Grow Plan

• Starting price – $29.95 per month
• All features of the Build Plan, including;
• 10GB video compression
• Bluehost SEO tools
• Jetpack premium
• Business review tools
• Jetpack ads integration
• Blue Sky ticket support
• 1 Office 365 mailbox (free for 30 days)

Scale Plan

• Starting price – $49.95 per month
• All features of the Grow Plan, plus:
• Unlimited video compression
• Elastic search
• Unlimited backups & restore
• Jetpack pro 
• PayPal integration
• Blue Sky chat support

3. WooCommerce Hosting

Starter Plan

• Starting price – $6.95 per month
• 1 Online store
• 100 GB SSD storage
• Storefront theme
• Free SSL certificate
• Domain privacy & protection
• Free setup call
• 1 Office 365 mailbox (free for 30 days)

Plus Plan

• Starting price – $8.95 per month
• All features of the Starter Plan, including;
• Unlimited online stores
• Unmetered SSD storage
• CodeGuard backup basic

Pro Plan

• Starting price – $12.95 per month
• All features of the Plus Plan, including;
• Bluehost SEO tools

4. Shared Hosting

The Bluehost shared hosting package comes with four plans each with different pricing, which includes;

Basic Plan

The Basic plan lets you host just one website and it is priced at a starting cost of $3.95 per month. It features a 50 GB storage space, a free SSL certificate, and unmetered bandwidth. The plan can hold up to 5 parked domains and 25 subdomains. You get to register a free domain name upon purchase at no additional cost. 

Plus Plan

The Plus plan is priced at a starting cost of $5.95 per month and it can host an unlimited number of websites. It also has an unlimited storage space and unmetered bandwidth. A free SSL certificate is included and it can host an unlimited number of parked domains and subdomains. 

Choice Plus Plan

The Choice Plus plan is priced at the same starting amount as the Plus plan i.e. $5.95. It includes all of its features and additional features like domain name privacy protection, and CodeGuard basic site backup. 

Pro Plan

The Pro plan is the highest shared hosting plan on Bluehost. The price is set at a starting amount of $13.95 per month and it includes all the features of the previous plans as well as a dedicated IP address. 

5. VPS Hosting

The Bluehost Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting plan provides you with more control and flexibility. Three hosting plans fall under the VPS hosting package, which includes:

Standard Plan

The Standard VPS hosting plan is available at a starting price of $18.99 per month. When you purchase this plan, you get a server with 2 cores, 1 IP address, and 1 TB of monthly bandwidth. It also includes a 2 GB RAM and 30 GB of SSD storage space.  

Enhanced Plan

The Enhanced VPS hosting plan is available at a starting amount of $29.99 per month. It features a server with 2 cores, 2 IP addresses, and 2 TB of bandwidth per month. Also featured is a 4 GB RAM and 60 GB of SSD storage space.

Ultimate Plan

The Ultimate VPS hosting plan is available at a starting cost of $59.99 per month. The VPS server features 4 cores, 2 IP addresses, and 3 TB of monthly bandwidth. Also, it includes 8 GB RAM and 120 GB of SSD storage space as well. 

6. Dedicated Server Hosting

This is the highest hosting solution you can get on Bluehost. It features 3 separate plans which include:

Standard Plan

Bluehost charges a starting cost of $79.99 per month for this standard dedicated hosting plan. Features of this plan include 4 cores at 2.3 GHz, 3 IP addresses, and 5 TB of monthly bandwidth. 4 GB RAM and 500 GB mirrored storage space are allocated as well. 

Enhanced Plan

Bluehost charges a starting amount of $99.99 per month for this Enhanced dedicated hosting plan. Features of this plan include 4 cores at 2.3 GHz, 4 IP addresses, and 10 TB of monthly bandwidth. Also, this plan incorporates 8 GB RAM and 1 TB mirrored storage space. 

Premium Plan

This plan is available at a starting price of $119.99 per month. For this Premium plan, you get 4 cores at 3.3 GHz, 5 IP addresses, and 15 TB of monthly bandwidth. The storage space and RAM are 1 TB and 16 GB respectively.

Note: All the Bluehost pricing packages come with a 30-day money-back guarantee. 

Bluehost Pros

• Reliable support
• Free domain name registration
• Reliable security
• Supports WordPress & WooCommerce
• Supports webmail
• Free SSL certificate

Bluehost Cons 

• Website migration is not free
• Confusing WordPress hosting packages
• High renewal rates
• Absence of Windows hosting

WPEngine vs Bluehost – Which One Should You Opt For? 

WPEngine is the ideal web host for WordPress hosting, while Bluehost is versatile for both WordPress and non-WordPress site hosting.

However, in order to isolate the best web host among WPEngine and Bluehost, we will be comparing the two web hosts using some specific criteria.

Ease of Use

WPEngine and Bluehost both incorporate user-friendly interfaces. 

The Bluehost dashboard is very easy for anyone including newbies to navigate and access its features.

On the other hand, the WPEngine dashboard is user-friendly as well. 

However, the series of management features on the dashboard can make it difficult for newbies to familiarize themselves with, although experienced users would not have any difficulty.

Cost

Both WPEngine and Bluehost feature various hosting plans with different prices. 

Notwithstanding Bluehost having many hosting plans than WPEngine, WPEngine’s pricing is much higher than Bluehost’s pricing plans. 

To launch a website on Bluehost’s Shared Hosting plan would cost at most $13.95 per month. The dedicated hosting plan has the highest cost at $119.99 per month. Not to mention that you get free domain registration and more flexibility.

WPEngine, on the other hand, has its lowest hosting plan priced at $35 per month. The scale plan costs $290 per month. While the cost for the custom plan is not fixed, it could cost more than $600 per month. 

Not to mention, for WPEngine, you still need to purchase a domain name from a third-party domain name registrar and you are restricted to hosting only WordPress websites. 

Therefore, for cost-effectiveness, Bluehost is highly recommended for the low-budget website owners.

Flexibility 

When it comes to flexibility, Bluehost takes the upper hand as WPEngine only supports WordPress. WPEngine features 4 hosting plans and they are all tailored for WordPress hosting. 

If you do not want to make use of WordPress CMS, you have to opt for a flexible web host such as Bluehost to elude the WordPress limitations.

On the other hand, Bluehost provides you with shared hosting plans, VPS hosting plans, and dedicated hosting plans. 

With this, website owners can host both WordPress and non-WordPress sites without hassles, not to mention the free domain name Bluehost provides new users on its various pricing packages.

Speed & Uptime 

WPEngine features some integrated technologies that make its servers reliable. 

The Google Next-Generation Hardware makes WPEngine websites load very fast and this is what Bluehost lacks. 

Also, the Proprietary EverCache feature allows WPEngine to handle a massive amount of web visitors and thus provides maximum uptime.

Meanwhile, Bluehost servers do not get affected by massive amounts of web visitors, so server uptime is guaranteed. Besides, SSD Hosting ensures that websites load faster. 

With Bluehost, speed and website uptime might be affected while on the shared hosting plan most especially if a particular website is utilizing excess bandwidth or server resources. 

Bluehost does not slack in any way, but WPEngine beats it when it comes to speed. Moreover, ‘speed is king’ in the web host industry.

Domain Name Registration

In this criterion, WPEngine gets a zero-rating because it does not facilitate domain name registration. 

Therefore, in order to host your WordPress website on WPEngine, you would need to purchase your domains from other platforms (such as Bluehost) and link them to your WPEngine hosting account.

Bluehost, on the other hand, is a renowned domain name registrar in the world. Users can register domain names with different TLDs with them and also set up hosting from within their Bluehost control panel.

Security 

As a managed WordPress hosting company, WPEngine handles all the security processes of its customers. 

The platform automatically updates the WordPress CMS whenever a new version or patch is released. Besides, WPEngine incorporates SSL Encryption as well as 2FA which keep your website safe from security threats.

Bluehost is no different as the platform also provides security features as proactive measures against cyber threats. 

Moreover, Bluehost updates WordPress versions automatically and also issues SSL certificates to all their domains for free for additional online protection.

In terms of security, WPEngine is more geared towards preventing WordPress sites hack through its provision of disallowed WordPress plugins list, resources, and other security measures.

WordPress Support 

WPEngine specializes in WordPress hosting so the platform can be used to host a WordPress website easily when compared with Bluehost. 

However, you might not be able to enjoy the full WordPress experience as some WordPress plugins are disallowed by WPEngine.

Bluehost, on the other hand, is a general web hosting company that lets you host any type of website most especially WordPress website. 

With Bluehost, users can make use of any notable WordPress theme or plugins as they are all supported.

Final Thoughts

To conclude, which is the better hosting platform between WPEngine and Bluehost? From our comparison, the answer definitely will be Bluehost. 

This is simply because you can do more with Bluehost than WPEngine. 

Whereas WPEngine is simply a WordPress-only hosting platform, Bluehost facilitates web hosting for both WordPress and non-WordPress sites.

Besides that, Bluehost also supports WooCommerce hosting as well, which is the eCommerce version of the WordPress CMS (via the WooCommerce plugin). 

Another interesting perk to consider is that Bluehost supports domain name registration. Also, their low pricing when compared to the WPEngine series of pricing plans makes Bluehost the dominant web host to consider over WPEngine.

Nevertheless, you can take your time to figure out which of the web host works well for your next web design project.