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AWS vs Bluehost Review [current_date format=’F Y’]. Which one is superior ?

Satyendra Prasad

February 4, 2023

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AWS vs Bluehost is an ongoing debate among web hosting providers. AWS is a popular cloud-based web hosting service. It offers a wide range of web hosting services and it is the go-to choice for many companies. On the other hand, Bluehost is a well-known web hosting provider that offers reliable and cost-effective services to users.

BlueHost vs HostMonster Review [current_date format=’F Y’]. Which one is better?

The battle between these two giants has been going on since the early 2000s. However, it has now reached new heights with each one trying to outdo the other with their latest offerings. The market share of these two companies varies depending on who you ask and which metric you are looking at, but Bluehost still leads in most cases.

Winner Snapshot – Here is a summary table to compare AWS vs Bluehost

Winner: BlueHost

Many web hosting services are on the internet, but AWS and BlueHost are quite popular among users. Both offer great features, but you can’t use both at the same time. Comparing both products is the only way to choose your preferred hosting platform.  

BlueHost offers more plans for shared hosting, dedicated servers, and cloud hosting. It also offers more customer support services and a cheaper starting price than AWS. Keep reading our AWS vs. BlueHost comparison to know how both hosting platforms stack against each other.  

Quick Comparison: AWS vs BlueHost

About AWS and BlueHost

AWS vs BlueHost – A Side-by-Side Comparison

When we compared AWS vs BlueHost closely, we discovered that both platforms have several similarities with differences in average speeds, performance, pricing, and customer support options.

If you consider performance alone, you’ll choose BlueHost in a heartbeat. But if many cloud hosting options is what you seek, you’ll get flexible plans from AWS.

However, overall, BlueHost trumps AWS because of its straightforward design, better features, superior support services, and general performance. Also, based on our earlier comparison, BlueHost has a slightly better uptime than AWS and secures user data on any of its servers stationed worldwide.  

BlueHost is a better option for beginners creating their first websites and keen to publish it in moments. The hosting service provides a website builder, allowing you go live on the Web in record time. Small businesses and individuals planning to grow their presence online will benefit from these features – BlueHost also offers significant support through marketing features to boost website customer reach and SEO.

AWS is a perfect match for businesses keen to manage data with multiple cloud hosting options. It offers more data centers that allow better management of websites, especially those in need of greater storage options. AWS also offers decent support services for businesses, even though these come at a slightly higher price.

Now, we have a summary of our comparison of AWS vs Bluehost; let’s take a closer look at these services and everything they offer. Then, we will go on to check out how these services perform in terms of security, servers, ease of use, customer support, and more.   

1. Hosting Features (AWS vs Bluehost)

Main AWS Features

AWS offers several handy features in its Web plan along with enough elements any proper hosting service must have. But does AWS really stack up to BlueHost? There’s just one way to find out – outlining its major features. The major features AWS offers are:

• Third-Party Integration
• IAM Interface
• Virtual Private Clouds (VPC)
• Server Selection

Third-Party Integration

AWS offers basic to advanced forms of third-party integration to its users. With this support, AWS subscribers can integrate several external channels to their websites easily.

AWS vs Bluehost

AWS eclipses BlueHost when you compare both for their capacity to manage collaborators in one place. The Identity and Access Management (IAM) interface helps AWS subscribers manage developers, administrators, and other users of your website.

Also, the feature makes it easy to create groups, rules, and user permissions to anyone with access to your AWS plan.

Virtual Private Clouds (VPC)

VPC offers significant control to website administrators keen to manage traffic to and from their site. The feature equips admins with enough tools to restrict inbound and outbound network access.

Also, AWS provides much security with its multi-scanning support. Content won’t make it to your website without receiving several layers of deep scanning.

Server Selection

AWS allows its users choose servers they want their websites to run from, allowing businesses manage their site with increased speed. Server selection also promotes better uptimes and overall website performance when users choose data centers at ideal locations.

Main BlueHost Features

BlueHost has several useful features AWS users can only hope for at the moment. Let’s look at top BlueHost features and see it they check out:

• Affordable Pricing
• Website Builder
• Free SSL Certificate
• 30-day Money Back Guarantee

Affordable Pricing

BlueHost appeals to most users as plans have a very low price with several handy features. Users can subscribe to shared hosting services and get very low monthly fees not available from other providers.

With these cheap offerings, BlueHost easily attracts new website builders in need of Web hosting on a budget.

Also, users can secure dedicated hosting for their website from any of BlueHost’s tailored plans. However, subscribing to a dedicated plan can be very expensive for users looking for short and affordable hosting services.

Website Builder

Every BlueHost plan comes with a website builder and free domain. Even if users can get better site builders from other sources, BlueHost features easy-to-use templates ideal to create simple websites.

Beginners with little to no knowledge of Web design will get more from this feature. BlueHost offers its affordable, all-inclusive Web design features to users on an annual plan.

Free SSL Certificate

Basic BlueHost plans come with a free Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate to improve domain security. The feature supports several cryptographic protocols designed to promote secure communication across the internet.

With this feature, BlueHost subscribers can run their websites securely and avoid many vulnerabilities.

30-day Money Back Guarantee

Users that don’t like BlueHost can get their money back within 30 days of subscription. So, potential users with no clear choice for Web hosting will fancy this feature. Any user keen to get Web hosting trials with a money-back guarantee can’t get a better deal.

However, it might be a wiser choice for users to stick with BlueHost if the service has every feature they need.

2. Site Performance (Speed & Uptime)

You need a Web hosting service with a speed uptime between 99.95 to 99.99% availability. No hosting platform can guarantee 100% site performance, so we need to compare how AWS and BlueHost stack up in this regard.

AWS Speed & Uptime

Tests on the performance of AWS shows it has an average uptime percentage of 99.98%. Speed test results also show that AWS has an overall slowest time of 1.3 seconds compared to BlueHost’s 1.26 seconds. Overall, AWS fastest time was recorded as 0.77 seconds through a Pingdom test.

BlueHost Speed & Uptime

BlueHost performance tests shows it has an average uptime of 99.99% and overall faster loading times than AWS.

Winner:

BlueHost offers a slightly better uptime than AWS, but not enough to make a real difference. At 99.98 for AWS and 99.99% for BlueHost, both hosting services offer almost identical speeds and uptimes. However, a difference of 0.01% gives BlueHost the edge on this one, even if it’s not a wide margin.

3. Pricing & Plans

The next category considers pricing and plans available from AWS vs. BlueHost. It’s essential to check for prices and plans available from these providers, especially for those on a budget.

AWS Prices & Plans

AWS features 14 plans in total shared into seven (7) Windows and Linux plans each. Check out these plans and their prices:

All AWS plans come with great customer support, server selection (type/location), virtual cloud storage, scheduled backups, multi-platform support, and more.

BlueHost Prices & Plans

BlueHost has four plans in its Web hosting package – Basic, Plus, Choice Plus, and Pro. The Basic plan offers:

• 50GB storage,
• Unlimited bandwidth,
• A free SSL certificate, and
• 1 site support

All these features are available from BlueHost Basic plan at $4.95 per month. Also, the Plus, Choice Plus, and Pro plans offer unlimited storage, bandwidth and free SSL to unlimited websites for $5.85, $5.95, and $9.95 respectively. The plan is perfect for creating simple, professional sites with ease.

BlueHost VPS offers Standard, Enhanced, and Ultimate plans to users. It provides 30GB to 120GB storage, 1TB to 3TB bandwidth, 2 to 4 CPU cores, and 2 to 8 GB RAM between $19.99 and $59.99/month.

BlueHost Dedicated Server hosting provides Standard, Enhanced, and Premium plans to users. It offers users 500GB to 1TB storage, 5TB to 15TB bandwidth, 4 sets of 2.30GHz to 3.30GHz cores, and 4 to 16GB RAM between $79.99 and $119.99/month.

BlueHost WordPress hosting offers Basic, Plus, and Choice Plus plans to users.

• BlueHost WordPress Basic Plan offers 50GB storage, and 1 site support at $4.95/month.
• Plus offers unlimited storage, unlimited site support at $5.85/month.
• Choice Plus offers unlimited storage, unlimited site support, and backups at $5.95/month

Winner:

There’s a tie in this section as BlueHost wins in terms of plans but AWS beats it when it comes to pricing. BlueHost has four (4) separate hosting plans for Web, VPS, dedicated servers, and WordPress. These plans have sub-packages to suit different needs and cost between $3 and $120.

However, AWS offers twice as much RAM and storage along with four times the bandwidth compared to BlueHost plans.

4. Customer Support

AWS Customer Support

AWS is big on customer support, and this is quite surprising considering the trend of massive companies. Customers can reach out to AWS customer support by phone, email, live chat, and ticket support.

These services are available 24/7 and customer service teams from AWS are typically eager to resolve issues.

BlueHost Customer Support

BlueHost has several customer service options through email, live chat, and ticket support. However, many of these services don’t completely resolve customer complaints, and there’s no phone support for quick contact.

Winner:

BlueHost doesn’t stack up to AWS after measuring both for their customer support options and quality. AWS offers more customer support channels to users and provides better response quality compared to BlueHost.

5. Ease of Use

We need to see if AWS and BlueHost are easy for beginners new to Web hosting. Ease of use is essential to know which Web hosting service suits your needs perfectly.

AWS Ease of Use

AWS adopts a high-tech interface designed to support businesses with an all-in-one design. The entire suite of AWS works to sync every product you’re signed up to for easy dashboard control.

AWS’ control panel has an advanced design, and this might be tricky for beginners apart from those signed on to Amazon Lightsail.

BlueHost Ease of Use

Many users prefer BlueHost due to its user-friendly design, especially first-time website builders. It comes with a direct dashboard design and doesn’t mix up its features. Every service description is easy to understand and the account opening process is super-fast and simple.

All steps to sign up to any plan are clear and straightforward, making it highly unlikely for users to run into problems.

Winner:

BlueHost wins this round, even if it’s quite difficult to decide. The web-hosting service promises some of the most comfortable navigation options and is perfect for beginners. With BlueHost, users can sign up and get their websites running without much hassle.

6. Scalability

It’s essential to secure hosting services that grow to suit your business needs. Your business won’t have to switch hosting providers whenever there’s a need to scale.

When your business grows, you’ll expect to get more traffic and work your way around reducing downtimes. Pick a Web host with the right features to grow with your business easily.

AWS Scalability

AWS offers a massive suite of products to businesses and can fit the needs of startups or large firms.

It doesn’t come with a free website builder but more than makes up for this with other features. Users can conveniently build personalized websites through AWS Lambda or rely on Amazon Quicksight for design concepts. AWS cloud hosting also guarantees massive resources for all scaling needs.

AWS has so many features to offer towards helping businesses scale with ease. Many high-profile firms with significant scaling needs choose AWS due to its massive suite of products.

BlueHost Scalability

BlueHost offers shared hosting services to users on a budget but can also scale to meet the needs of premium users. Dedicated hosting offers users significant resources to accommodate growth of any kind.

With dedicated hosting, subscribers can access a sole IP, free SSL, increased speed, and other essential features. These resources can prove vital for small, medium, and large-scale businesses looking to host their websites from exclusive servers.

Winner:

BlueHost wins this round with its flexible options for all kinds of scaling needs. Users can comfortable plan their website growth without needing to expend too many resources. BlueHost also offers all these services for way less than what AWS charges its users.

7. Security

AWS Security

AWS’ hosting plans come with some of these basic security features:

• Firewall protection
• Malware scans
• CDN boosts
• DDoS security
• Scheduled site cleanup

BlueHost Security

BlueHost offers these security features on many of its plans:

• CloudFlare CDN
• Scheduled backups
• Free SSL
• IAM

Winner:

AWS wins this round easily with its improved security features and cloud-based backups. However, BlueHost offers several excellent features to help its users operate their websites without

8. Server Location

We need to assess the server location of AWS and BlueHost, as where servers operate from could affect website speed and other metrics. You must choose a hosting service with many servers in multiple locations or risk experiencing frequent downtimes and poor loading speed.

Let’s compare both hosting providers to see which has better features to offer.

AWS Server Location

AWS has its servers on six (6) continents and in these countries:

• Australia,
• South Africa,
• USA,
• Canada,
• UAE,
• England,
• France,
• India,
• Spain, etc.

In total, AWS has servers located in over 20 regions to serve clients.

BlueHost Server Location

Mumbai, Utah, Orem, London (UK, Europe) and China (Shanghai, Hong Kong)

Winner:

AWS easily wins the server location debate with 175+ data centers scattered across six continents. However, BlueHost keeps a tight lid on information about its servers and their location.

AWS vs BlueHost: Final Recommendations

When to Choose AWS

Even though AWS lost many rounds, it’s still a major domain registrar with countless users worldwide. You should use AWS if you want:

Superb uptimes:

AWS delivers an above average uptime of 99.98% all year. With this high uptime rate, you can tun your site throughout the year without experiencing any major shutouts.

24/7 customer support:

AWS features email, phone, live chat, and ticket support to its subscribers. Users can register complaints and receive feedback every day of the week. AWS customer service team will usually request a phone conversation for customers signed up on premium plans.

Improved security:

AWS provides significant security options to users, allowing subscribers run their website with added protection.

Increased collaboration:

Tools like Lightsail, Amazon S3, and EC2 are useful to subscribers with diverse teams working on their websites. The comprehensive tools offered by AWS makes it easy for administrators to manage content writers, developers, and other workers with ease.

Choose BlueHost If…

You desire a Web hosting platform trusted by countless professionals around the globe. We recommend BlueHost if you want:

Low-cost Web hosting:

BlueHost has the cheapest hosting packages to support the needs and budget of all website designers and administrators. Beginners and experienced subscribers can get many of their needs met at lower prices.

High-level performance:

BlueHost boast a slightly higher uptime than many hosting services.

Even though its support services are inferior to that of AWS, you can run standard sites 24/7 without hitches. Many of its servers are scattered around the globe, so you can secure improved site performance no matter your location.

A money-back guarantee:

If you’re undecided about BlueHost and just want to try out its services, you’ll get a month-long period to check it out. You can cancel your subscription and get your money back, no questions asked within that time.

Super-fast site loading:

If you seek very fast loading speeds for your website, BlueHost is an ideal option. The Web hosting provider offers better optimal speeds than many of its competitors.

It’s normal to think since BlueHost’s low price points will water down it’s quality, but that’s not the case. With this Web hosting provider, you can get lightning-fast loading speeds to your pages without paying huge fees.

Bottom Line

We compared these popular Web hosting platforms because they offer similar services, and it won’t hurt to know the better option. From all observations and analysis, BlueHost seems better than AWS.

While AWS is a popular option for large businesses, BlueHost seems to offer more bespoke features website owners need. BlueHost users also get a better deal from all plans and more hosting options.

However, AWS offers better security and superior customer support. So, you’re free to choose any one you prefer. Check out our analysis to consider and select the best Web hosting service best for your needs.

FAQs

Does BlueHost Have Unlimited Storage?

BlueHost offers unlimited storage options to subscribers along with limited hosting plans. Subscribers can access 50GB (Basic plan) or go for unlimited (Plus to Pro plans) hosting space.

Unlimited hosting plans from BlueHost cost between $6 and $10 depending on your choice.  

Does AWS Have Shared Hosting?

AWS operates as a cloud-based hosting service and doesn’t offer shared hosting. Users can access cloud hosting services through Cloudways and operate their sites with relative comfort.

Does BlueHost Have a Free Website Builder?

BlueHost has three (3) website builder plans, but none of them are available free of charge. You can get any of these website builders within $3 to $25.

How Does WordPress Installation Work on AWS?

You can install WordPress or any other CMS on AWS through Amazon Lightsail.

The Amazon Lightsail feature allows AWS subscribers run their website content through WordPress in a matter of minutes. Installation of WordPress through Lightsail is simple and mimics the process on BlueHost’s VPS.