Hostinger vs Bluehost: Prices, Renewals and Performance

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How we compared

Hostinger: tested. We run a group of WordPress sites on a Hostinger Business-tier shared plan, manage them through hPanel and the Hostinger API, and measured seven of them on October 31, 2026. Bluehost: compared on published specs and prices. We have not hosted a site on Bluehost; its figures come from Bluehost’s official shared hosting page, checked October 31, 2026. We did not invent performance numbers for Bluehost.

Hostinger vs Bluehost at a glance

Official plan pages checked October 31, 2026. Prices are per month before tax, paid up front for the full term.

Prices: intro vs renewal

Official list prices checked Oct 31, 2026, before tax. Sources: www.hostinger.com, www.bluehost.com.

Both hosts advertise their lowest monthly prices on long terms paid up front: Hostinger on 48 months and Bluehost on 36 months. Both renew at roughly three to four times the intro price. For the bigger picture across hosts, see hosting renewal prices.

What you really pay over four years

Our arithmetic from official prices on October 31, 2026, ignoring tax, domain renewals and future price changes.

Hostinger’s longer intro term is the main reason it wins on cost. After the intro term ends, the picture flips at the entry level: Bluehost Starter renews at $9.99 a month and Hostinger Premium at $10.99, a difference of $12 a year. On the mid plans, Bluehost Business renews lower than Hostinger Unlimited ($13.99 vs $16.99), but Unlimited allows unlimited websites rather than 50. Run your own numbers in the hosting renewal cost calculator.

Performance

Hostinger: what we measured

On October 31, 2026, we measured time to first byte for seven of our WordPress sites on Hostinger from our VPS in Boston. Cached pages answered in 0.363 to 0.398 seconds, and about 0.25 seconds of that was network connection and TLS to the CDN edge. Skipping the page cache added 0.20 to 0.31 seconds for PHP to build the page. Every site we measured was served through Hostinger’s CDN with LiteSpeed’s page cache in front of WordPress. Full details are in our Hostinger review.

Bluehost: what it publishes

Bluehost lists NVMe storage, object caching and a free CDN on its shared plans, and a 99.99% uptime commitment with a 5% service credit. It also gives a rough guide of about 40,000 monthly visits on Starter and about 200,000 on Business. We have not measured Bluehost ourselves, so we cannot tell you how fast its pages load in practice. If speed is your main concern, test during the money-back window.

Features and limits

Hostinger

Bluehost

Hidden costs to budget for

The plan price is not the whole bill. These are the extras that most often change the real cost of Hostinger or Bluehost after year one:

• Domain renewal. Both include a free domain for the first year, then you pay the registrar rate. On October 31, 2026, Hostinger renewed a .com at $19.99 a year. Bluehost did not print its domain renewal rate on the shared hosting page we used, so check it in your account before the first year ends. Some cheaper registrars renew a .com for about $11; see cheapest domain registrar.
• Backups. Hostinger Premium and Bluehost Starter both list weekly backups. If you update your site daily, weekly backups can mean losing up to a week of work; Hostinger Unlimited lists daily backups.
• Email. Hostinger Unlimited lists unlimited mailboxes free for the first year. After the free period, email can become a separate line on your bill at either host, so check before you rely on it.
• Domain privacy. Bluehost lists domain privacy as free for the first year on Business. Make sure you know what it costs after that, or move the domain to a registrar with free privacy.
• Add-ons at checkout. Both hosts offer extras such as security scanners, SEO tools and premium email during checkout. Untick anything you do not need; the comparison above assumes none of them.

Switching later

Neither host locks you in, but moving is easier if you plan for it from day one. Keep your domain at a registrar you control, keep regular backups that you download yourself, and avoid host-specific site builders if you want to move a WordPress site later. When we moved FindNChoose from shared hosting to a VPS, we kept the domain, built the new site on a VPS and only changed DNS records at the end; the steps are in how to move WordPress to a VPS and how to point a domain to hosting.

Support and guarantees

Hostinger offers chat and ticket support through hPanel; for our own sites, most routine tasks such as adding sites, SSL and DNS are handled in the panel or through the API. Bluehost offers 24/7 chat on Starter and adds phone support on Business. Bluehost’s money-back guarantee is 30 days, and it deducts the domain fee if you got a free domain. Check each host’s current refund terms before you buy.

Which should you choose?

• One to three sites, lowest cost: Hostinger Premium.
• Several sites: Hostinger Unlimited, or Bluehost Starter if 10 sites and 10 GB are enough and you prefer a lower renewal.
• You want phone support: Bluehost Business.
• Online store or membership site with many logged-in users: neither shared plan is ideal; consider a VPS. See shared hosting vs VPS and best WordPress hosting.

Whichever you pick, register the domain separately if you might switch hosts later; see the cheapest domain registrars.

See Hostinger plansOfficial site. Confirm the term and renewal price at checkout.

See Bluehost plansOfficial site. Confirm the term and renewal price at checkout.

Frequently asked questions

Is Hostinger better than Bluehost?

For most new WordPress sites, yes: it costs less over four years and performed well in our own tests. Bluehost is a better fit if you want 10 sites on an entry plan, a slightly lower renewal or phone support on its Business plan.

Which is cheaper, Hostinger or Bluehost?

Hostinger is cheaper over the first four years: Premium costs $119.52 for 48 months, while Bluehost Starter costs about $263.52 over the same period. After the intro term, Bluehost Starter renews slightly lower at $9.99 a month vs $10.99.

Is Bluehost faster than Hostinger?

We cannot say, because we have only tested Hostinger. Our Hostinger sites served cached pages in about 0.36 to 0.40 seconds from Boston, mostly network time. Bluehost publishes NVMe storage, caching and a CDN, but we have no measurements of our own.

How many websites can I host on each?

Hostinger Premium allows 3 websites and Unlimited allows unlimited. Bluehost Starter allows 10 and Business allows 50.

Do Hostinger and Bluehost include a free domain?

Hostinger Premium and Bluehost Starter both list a free domain for the first year. It then renews at the normal domain price, so check the renewal rate.

Sources

1. Hostinger web hosting plans and prices (checked Oct 31, 2026)
2. Bluehost shared hosting plans and prices (checked Oct 31, 2026)

FindNChoose Editorial Team

We run our own WordPress sites on shared hosting and on a VPS, and use AI coding tools every day. We publish what we measured, list every price with the date we checked it and label anything we have not tested ourselves. About us · Editorial policy

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