WPEngine vs Bluehost Review 2021: Brutally Honest Truth, 500% Cheaper Secret?
Are you wondering if you should get WPENGINE or BLUEHOST to start your new website? Choosing the right web hosting is not easy. But selecting the wrong one will give you a BIG headache. I have tested both, but read this WPENGINE vs BLUEHOST review first to see which one is really worth your time and money!
Table of Contents
What To Expect In This WP Engine vs Bluehost Review?
Whether you are a beginner online or experienced, you may find it hard to select the right web hosting provider to create your website. This is the case because many marketers online may push a specific web host due to the HUGE commissions or referrals that they receive to send web traffic. This is particularly the case with WPEngine being they pay their affiliates $200 per referral that signs up with their web hosting services. An example here.
Why do I mention this? Well, sometimes marketer may push how great something is without actually give you as the consumer the good, bad, and ugly that you deserve to know. It’s your money that you are spending and you should get the most value and resources for your buck!
With this said, this WPEngine vs Bluehost review today will be honest. You will learn about:
- The Company
- Web Hosting Plans & Pricing
- Customer feedback
- Website speed & Servers
- Our Personal Recommendation
Today I wanted to give my personal experience with both of these web hosting companies to give more of idea what to expect from them BEFORE getting started. I would hate for you get started with WP Engine before considering all that you can get from Bluehost web hosting for less. Don’t believe me? See here www.bluehost.com!
Some time ago I did a review WP Engine Alternatives that may interest you also if you want to save money. However, today we will simply focus on Bluehost to keep it simple, okay?
THE COMPANY
Although both Bluehost and WPEngine have been around for quite some time making their marks in the web hosting industry, Bluehost has been in business longer. In fact, they have been providing web hosting services for over 20 years.
They both specialize and are known for WordPress performance. However, of the 2 hosts, it appears that Bluehost is recognized of the top 3 recommended hosts to use by WordPress.org. WPEngine is known primarily for its premium managed WP hosting.
CUSTOMER FEEDBACK
Bluehost web hosting has been given an excellent 5 rating by top users online, while other respected & authoritative sites like ShoutMeLoud and MatthewWoodard don’t like WPEngine services for very valid reasons.
Many complain about WPEngine and don’t think it’s really worth the investment for its managed WordPress hosting. I agree. They are really expensive when compared to managed WordPress platforms like LiquidWeb and Kinsta. It seems like many clients seems to complain about their billing, overcharges on web traffic and customer support.
WEBSITE SPEED & SERVERS
Both Bluehost and WPENGINE have pretty good website speeds, server performance, and good uptimes for websites. So real no complaints here.
WPENGINE vs BLUEHOST WEB HOSTING PLANS
Now let’s talk costs. When you get started with ANY web hosting provider you definitely want to find the best ways to save money. Although there are many WPEngine reviews online, these are mostly from individuals as mentioned before who are just affiliates of the company and get huge commissions of $200/referral! This means that the WPEngine reviews that you see are highly biased. Let me inform you that I am not an employee of WPEngine nor Bluehost hosting. Simply today I wanted to draw comparisons in this WPEngine vs Bluehost review based on my personal research and experience.
So now I will just point blank tell you who I prefer and why. Bluehost web hosting!
Why? The starting Personal plan for WPEngine was $29/month but has increased to $35/month!
These are new WPEngine pricing for their new managed hosting plans. They are more expensive as you will see below in the graph. In my opinion they don’t really often more value for the price increase.
They have a lot of restrictions with this WP Engine Personal Plan that you don’t have to worry about with Bluehost Plus Hosting.
As you can see above, you only get:
- 1 install (site)
- 25,000 visits per month
- 10GB local storage
However, with Bluehost Plus & Choice Plus plans starting at only $5.95/month, you can get:
If you are beginner and you get started with the Basic hosting plan right now it only costs $2.95/month! The main difference between the basic and plus hosting is you can host 1 website with Basic & add on multiple domains with Plus hosting.
I am not crazy about math, but one thing that I can see clearly is that you save a heck of a lot of money per money with Bluehost web hosting!
Look at this…WPEngine vs Bluehost Plus Hosting Pricing => $35/$5.95 = 5.88!
This is over 500% Savings in web hosting costs!
WP Engine Pricing $35/month X 12 months = $420 per year spent on web hosting
Bluehost web hosting is about $71 for 12 months!
Buying web hosting with Bluehost gives you a huge 500% savings over WPEngine.
Bluehost also has a step up recommended WP Standard plan (below) for 19.99/month. The 2 major benefits of this over WPEngine is that it gives you:
- 100 million visits/month
- 30 GB storage
Remember with WPEngine, even with their TOP Essential Plan, you only get 400K visits/months for a whopping $290 per month!
Refund Policy
So with WPEngine, they offer a 60 day money back guarantee while Bluehost offers a 30 day money guarantee policy. 30 days is pretty standard in the web hosting industry.
Other similar that extend like WPEngine are Hostwinds. Hostwinds gives clients a full 60 days. Pressidium, another premium similar to WPEngine, but FASTER also offers 60 days money back guarantee. Dreamhost gives you a 97 day money guarantee and Mochahost even extends to 180 days!
So when it comes to refund policies in this Bluehost vs WPEngine review, there are many competitors of these hosts that beat them both in this area.
Why do I share this with you? As I mentioned before in the beginning of this WPEngine vs Bluehost review I want you to have the good, bad, and ugly. This review is 100% honest and will give the ups and downs of both web hosting services. This is something that you will not read in most web hosting reviews online.
OUR PERSONAL RECOMMENDATION
Okay, enough with the math stuff. But you get the point. I think that Bluehost frankly knocks WPEngine socks off with pricing and web hosting benefits. If you are looking to save money and have great customer support, then Bluehost is a great web host to use to create your blog, website or eCommerce store. But if you are RICH and have LOTS of money to WASTE, then go with WPEngine!
Depending on the type of site that you already have or would like to create will determine which Bluehost hosting plan you buy. But either way you are getting way more features and wiggle room for your hard earned money and that is what matters most.
Thank you for reading this WPEngine vs Bluehost Review for 2021! I hope that this info will help you to make a very wise decision today. Why do you think about this review? Let me know your thoughts below.