Bluehost vs WordPress.com: Which Is Better for Your Website?

Trying to decide between Bluehost and WordPress.com to launch your website?

First, let’s make sure that we’re on the same page with what it is we’re actually going to be comparing. If you already know that WordPress.org and WordPress.com are not the same thing, then you can skip this explanation and head straight to the analysis.

If you’re still reading, this is what you need to know:

Bluehost is primarily a web hosting company that lets its customers build websites using all kinds of different software, but it mainly specializes in WordPress – as in the open-source WordPress software available via WordPress.org.

On the other hand, WordPress.com is a specific hosted implementation of the same software.

Put another way, Bluehost and WordPress.com are both hosting companies that can serve as the “home” of your future website, while the WordPress software is what you can use to build your website. With Bluehost, the WordPress software is one of many options available for website building. With WordPress.com, it is the only option.

In this article, I will compare Bluehost with WordPress.com by discussing some of their key differences, their plans and pricing, customer support, and other factors. This will help you decide which one is right for you.

Bluehost vs WordPress.com: Top-level overview

To get started, I thought I’d give you a bird’s eye view of how the platforms compare. This can serve not only as a convenient summary, but also as a first exposure to what each one offers. Then, as you continue reading, it will reinforce what you learn below, while giving you a deeper understanding of it.

BluehostWordPress.comFree plan❌✅Cheapest paid plan$1.99 / monthThis reflects the special promo price that we’ve secured for our readers. The contract term is one year and it comes out to $35.40. If you don’t use our link, it’s $2.95 / month.$2.75 / monthThis price is available if you pay up front for three years, which comes out to $99. Two-year, one-year, and month-to-month billing is also available but is progressively more expensive.Renews at$11.99 / monthThis reflects the standard renewal price. Occasionally, Bluehost will also apply a one-time reduced renewal rate (which varies) on an initial renewal, but all subsequent renewals default to $11.99 / month.$2.75 / monthNumber of plans offered15This includes 4 shared hosting plans (what most beginners use), 4 cloud hosting plans, 3 VPS plans, 3 dedicated server plans, and 2 online store plans (though one of these is also offered as an option in the shared hosting plans).6 (including the free plan)Free domainFor the first year only. This is the standard industry promo length when it’s offered.✅✅Free SSL✅✅Storage10 GB6 GBStaging siteA staging site is a replica of a live website used for testing and quality assurance before updates go live.✅❌Customer support24/7 ChatAll plans higher than the entry-level plan also offer phone support.24/7 ChatWordPress does not offer phone support on any of their plans.Collect payments✅✅

* The comparison of features above is between Bluehost’s entry-level shared hosting plan and the WordPress Personal plan, which is their cheapest paid plan.

Bluehost vs WordPress.com: 3 factors to consider

It’s possible to create a successful website using either Bluehost or WordPress.com. However, there are some important considerations you should keep in mind when making your decision. Let’s take a look!

1. Website building software (how you can build your site) 👷‍♂️

As I mentioned in the intro, both Bluehost and WordPress.com are web hosting companies. That much they have in common. But perhaps the biggest difference between them is that while WordPress.com limits you to only using WordPress to build a website (which is kind of obvious, given its name), Bluehost lets you use whatever content management system (CMS) you want.

Although the WordPress software is by far the most popular choice and easily installed with a single click on any Bluehost account, there are also other alternatives. These include:

Joomla: Ideal for building complex websites with extensive content management needs.
Drupal: Perfect for sites that require intricate content organization and complex functionality.
Ghost: Focused on minimalist blogging and publishing.
Prestashop: Specialized for ecommerce. It’s an excellent choice for online stores and a strong alternative to WooCommerce.
Adobe Commerce (better known as Magento): Best suited for large-scale ecommerce businesses.

Just keep in mind that from the list above, Bluehost customer service will only support you if you use Joomla or Drupal (or WordPress, of course). You are free to install any of the others, but you’ll be on your own to manage them if you get stuck.

If you’re wondering how I know this, it’s because I confirmed it with Bluehost’s customer service:

Speaking of which…

2. Plans offered 📝

Because Bluehost is a more robust hosting platform that is designed for a wider variety of purposes, it also naturally offers a much wider range of plans compared to WordPress. Let’s take a closer look at both, starting with Bluehost. Afterwards, we’ll compare the entry-level Bluehost plan to the first three WordPress plans.

Bluehost plans

Bluehost’s plans can be categorized as follows:

Shared hosting plans: 4 plans, starting from $1.99 per month (using our promo link), billed for one year at $35.40. This is where most people start, which will probably include you, should you decide to use Bluehost.
Cloud hosting plans: 4 plans, starting from $29.99 per month, billed for one year at $359.88.
VPS plans: 3 plans, starting from $46.99 per month, billed for three years at $1,691.64.
Dedicated server plans: 3 plans, starting from $141.19 per month, billed for three years at $5,082.86.
Online store / ecommerce plans: 2 plans, starting from $7.45 per month, billed for one year at $119.40.

The way Bluehost categorizes their plans differs slightly from the way I organized them above, but this is more or less for marketing reasons.

The most prime example is within the shared hosting plans, which come in two flavors – web hosting and WordPress hosting. While Bluehost has separate pages dedicated to each of those subcategories, in practice, they are the same plans.

Watch me click back and forth between Bluehost’s web hosting plans and their WordPress hosting plans below. You’ll notice that absolutely nothing on the page changes, other than the page title shown in each tab:

If you’re just getting started with website development and you plan to build a relatively simple website or blog using the WordPress software, then either the entry-level shared hosting plan or the one just above it will suit you fine.

The nice thing about using Bluehost is that if your website grows and things are going well (i.e., you’re making money), it’s also fairly easy to scale up to one of their more powerful hosting solutions like the cloud, VPS, or dedicated server plans.

If, for whatever reason, you decide to use a CMS other than WordPress, then you may want to consider one of the more heavy-duty plans from the get-go. It really depends on the specific CMS and your goals.

For example, Ghost, like WordPress, should do just fine on a shared hosting plan for a while. However, a platform like Adobe Commerce (Magento) is very resource heavy and not something you’d generally want to install on a basic hosting package.

In short, Bluehost gives you lots of options and can grow with you as your website grows.

Now let’s look at WordPress.

WordPress plans

The big draw with using WordPress.com if you’re a total newbie, is that you can start with a free plan to get your feet wet.

The free plan is obviously free for a reason, though. It’s not meant to build a serious website. You can’t even connect your own domain to it. This means you’ll be stuck with something like yourwebsite.wordpress.com. Not very sexy.

On the flip side, it will allow you to play around with the WordPress software itself, including the block editor, and also get comfortable with WordPress.com’s user dashboard:

If you end up enjoying the taste test, then you can upgrade to one of the paid plans, of which there are five in total. The prices below reflect annual billing. Cheaper rates are offered if you sign up for a two-year or three-year contract.

Personal: $4 per month, $48 per year.
Premium: $8 per month, $96 per year.
Business: $25 per month, $300 per year.
Commerce: $45 per month, $540 per year.
Enterprise: Starting at $25,000 per year.

In practice, most beginners will want to stick with one of the first two plans, though the third and fourth plan might be appropriate, depending on your goals. The fifth plan is for larger companies that require way more than you’ll need.

Having said that, here’s an important question that needs to be answered:

⚠️ Are WordPress.com plans really better than using one of Bluehost’s shared hosting plans and installing WordPress on them?

Since WordPress.com focuses solely on WordPress and nothing else, I wouldn’t blame you for assuming that it’s a better choice for building a WordPress site. However, in many ways, it’s actually the opposite.

Let me explain.

Bluehost entry-level plan vs WordPress.com first three plans

The easiest way for me to show you why Bluehost gives you more bang for your WordPress buck, is by comparing its entry-level plan to the first three WordPress plans, but particularly the third one.

You’ll notice in the screenshot above that I highlighted some areas on both sides. Let’s talk about them.

Theme and plugin restrictions

The most mind-blowing 🤯 thing you’ll notice is that WordPress.com does not allow you to install WordPress themes or plugins from the WordPress repository unless you sign up for the third tier plan.

This limitation is entirely artificial and applied by WordPress.com itself for the sole purpose of turning a default benefit into a paid one.

If you install WordPress on the entry-level Bluehost plan, you’ll automatically get access to all 12,200 themes in the WordPress repository, as well as all 59,650 plugins.

Here’s another way to put it in perspective:

Even the worst priced scenario with Bluehost is still cheaper than the best priced scenario with WordPress.

Need I say more?

Cost of additional features

If you look carefully at the screenshot at all of the areas I highlighted – other than the one I just discussed above – you’ll see features that Bluehost offers on their entry-level plan, but that WordPress doesn’t give you until you reach their third tier plan. These are:

CDN
Web application firewall
DDos Protection
Malware scanning
SSH and WP-CLI
WordPress staging site

To be fair, the third tier WordPress.com plan does give you significantly more in terms of storage space and bandwidth compared to the entry-level Bluehost plan. But when you’re just starting out, you probably won’t need all of that extra horsepower, whereas you will benefit from having a CDN, DDos protection, etc. Simply put, Bluehost gives you more of what you need at a significantly lower price point.

Customization limitations

Another thing you might notice – even though I didn’t specifically highlight it – is that on the second tier WordPress plan, they unlock the ability to customize fonts and colors.

Guess what though?

This is another thing that you can do with WordPress by default. We even have a whole tutorial on how to customize fonts in WordPress. Them not letting you do it on the entry-level Personal plan is once again because they are artificially restricting the way that WordPress works in order to squeeze you into a higher plan.

3. Customer support 💬

Reaching out to customer service is something that’s often overlooked in articles like this. In my opinion, it shouldn’t be. At some point you’ll probably need help with something, which means you’ll need to contact customer service.

But what if the customer service isn’t very good? Or what if you’re a phone person and it’s only offered via chat (or vice-versa)?

These are important considerations.

So let’s take a look at how Bluehost compares to WordPress in this area.

Bluehost support

All of Bluehost’s plans come with 24/7 support, but there are still some variables to consider.

For the shared hosting plans, the entry-level plan offers 24/7 support via chat, but there’s no option for phone support. However, all plans above the entry-level do offer phone support, in addition to the chat support.

For the more heavy-duty plans like cloud, VPS, and dedicated server, you get 24/7 priority support via phone or chat.

On top of that, even if you’re not a customer and you just want to ask a question, you can easily open up a chat window to get in touch with their support team. You saw that earlier in the screenshot I shared. All they asked me for was my first and last name. No email or anything else.

WordPress.com support

In contrast to Bluehost, WordPress only offers support via chat. In their words:

Final verdict: Which one is better for your website?

We covered a lot of ground here. Hopefully it helped you make a decision or at least come close to making one.

While I did lean heavily in favor of Bluehost throughout the article, it doesn’t mean you should totally rule out WordPress.com. It’s a legitimately good choice if you:

Aren’t big on customization
Don’t care about having access to themes and plugins
Want to get started quickly
Don’t plan on building a complex website (or don’t mind overpaying to do it)

At only $4 per month ($2.75 if you pay for three years up front) for the entry-level plan, you’ll be able to set up your own site, link a custom domain name to it, and do exactly that. That’s certainly a better long-term deal than the $11.99 per month you’d have to pay with Bluehost once the initial promo period is up.

Plus, there’s also the free plan, which is a huge benefit if you’ve never worked with WordPress before and you simply want to try it out.

However, Bluehost is clearly the better choice if you:

Are even moderately interested in customizing your website
Want a robust set of features with no restrictions on how you can use WordPress
Prefer more comprehensive customer support (and especially phone support)

Besides that, Bluehost also has a deeper roster of plans to choose from when your website starts to grow.

Finally, with Bluehost, you’re not limited to only using WordPress to build your site. You can use Joomla, Drupal, and other content management systems, whereas with WordPress.com you don’t have any of those options.

Do you have any questions about Bluehost or WordPress.com? Let me know in the comments section below!

Free guide

Follow the simple steps in our 4-part mini seriesand reduce your loading times by 50-80%. 🚀

Free Access