FastComet vs. Bluehost: Which is the best hosting for WordPress?

When it comes to selecting a hosting provider for your website, be it a blog, business website, or online store, most people are unable to make a decision. They understand the importance of quality hosting but are unable to decide even after spending several hours and days.  The biggest reason for this conundrum is lack of knowledge. 

Most people do not know what factors they should actually look into when selecting a web host. In this FastComet vs. Bluehost comparison, we will compare these reputed hosting providers on factors that are actually important for a hosting service. While Bluehost is a hosting veteran with several years of industry experience, FastComet is a comparatively new company but has highly impressive user reviews. 

So, who wins the FastComet vs. Bluehost battle? Continue reading to find out-

1. Hosting Infrastructure

Bluehost is part of Endurance International Group (EIG) that owns more than 50 hosting brands. It has been in the hosting business since 2003 and is one of the most popular hosting companies. But given the widespread popularity of this US-based hosting provider, it is surprising that the company does not provide much information about its data centers. 

As per the information available on their website and some other news reports, it is believed that Bluehost has its data centers in Provo and Orem in Utah (USA). It also has a data center in London, Hong Kong, and Mumbai. The company uses high-end hosting servers with SSD storage as well as free CloudFlare CDN to further improve the hosting speed. 

FastComet, on the other hand, is very transparent about its data centers. While the company only started hosting in 2013, it already has 10 world-class data centers at locations like USA, Canada, Europe, Japan, Singapore, and India. Just like Bluehost, FastComet also has SSD servers and offers free CloudFlare CDN. So, while both the hosting providers have excellent hosting infrastructure, FastComet’s transparency is commendable.   

2. Hosting Services

Every website is different and so are their hosting needs. So, in order to better meet the hosting needs of all the different types of websites, hosting providers now offer many different types of hosting services. For instance, Bluehost offers Shared Hosting, VPS Hosting, Dedicated Hosting, WordPress Hosting, and E-Commerce Hosting. It has also recently launched WP Pro which is a fully managed WordPress Hosting with additional features like email marketing, SEO, and more. 

FastComet also has a comprehensive range of hosting services including Shared Hosting, VPS Cloud Hosting, Dedicated CPU Servers, WordPress Hosting, Magento Hosting, and WooCommerce Hosting. Just like the hosting infrastructure, FastComet and Bluehost are mostly at par with the types of hosting services they offer. Undoubtedly FastComet is one of the most popular Bluehost Alternatives hosting providers in 2021.

3. Pricing

This is where things get interesting! Shared hosting is known to be the cheapest form of hosting and we will compare the pricing of both the hosting providers on the basis of the price and what is included in their cheapest shared hosting plan. Visit the pricing page on Bluehost’s website and you will see that Basic plan, which is the cheapest shared hosting plan from the company, priced at $2.95. 

However, you can only get this plan at this price if you pay for 36-months at once. The price will increase to $3.95 for 24-months and to $4.95 if you pay for 12-months. If you only want to pay for 1 month, the price of the plan will be $7.99. Needless to say, things are not as transparent as one would expect. FastComet is far better in this aspect.  

The cheapest shared hosting plan offered by FastComet is FastCloud and it starts from $3.95/month. With regards to what is included in the plan, Bluehost offers 50GB SSD storage, unmetered bandwidth, free SSL certificate, and 1 domain name with its cheapest shared hosting plan. FastComet’s FastCloud plan comes with 15GB SSD storage, free domain transfer, and a free website transfer for one website. 

Moreover, FastComet also offers a Website Started Kit which includes features like free website builder, 350+ website templates, premium support, and unlimited email accounts. There are additional features like daily backups, CloudFlare CDN, BitNinja security, unlimited databases, and unlimited sub-domains. Bluehost charges an additional fee for most of these features that FastComet offers for free. 

4. Uptime and Speed

Bluehost has always been known for its uptime. For this comparison, we monitored the uptime of Bluehost and it actually as in line with what the company guarantees. Over a period of 6 months, the uptime was indeed 99.99%. Just like Bluehost, FastComet was also able to deliver an uptime of 99.99% for the said duration. 

With regards to speed, FastComet is a far better choice. The TTFB (Time to First Byte) for FastComet stood at an average of 400ms over a period of 3 months. But the same for Bluehost is not very impressive at around 600-650ms which sometimes also reached around 800ms. So, while both the hosting providers offer excellent uptime, FastComet is a better choice with regards to the hosting speed.   

5. Security

When it comes to security, both the hosting providers have a lot to offer. For instance, FastComet has its own AI-powered security solution known as FastGuard. It allows the FastComet servers to communicate with each other and learn from attacks so that they can be better prevented in the future. It comes with enhanced features like free daily backups, account isolation, brute force protection, free personal SSL, web application firewall, SpamExpert, DDoS detection and mitigation, and more. 

But what is important to note here is that FastComet offers all of this for free. Even their cheapest shared hosting plan comes with these security features. Bluehost on the other hand only offers SSL certificate and SpamExpert for free. Other features like web application firewall, malware scan and reports, CDN caching, and more are either not available or have additional charges. Bluehost has tried to make up for it by offering $100 worth of Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising.  

6. Daily Backups

As discussed above, FastComet offers free daily backups. You can create as many as 30 free daily backups even with shared hosting with FastComet. There are also weekly backups available for free. You can restore the website backups any time you like. Bluehost also offers this backup facility through CodeGuard. 

However, you will have to purchase the add-on as the backup facility is not free. You can include the CodeGuard Basic plan at the time of checking out on Bluehost. If website backup is important for you and you don’t want to pay for it, FastComet is the way to go. 

7. Domain Registration

Just like all the popular hosting providers, you get the domain name free for a year with all the hosting plans from Bluehost. You will have to pay the renewal fee after a year. If you already have a domain name, Bluehost will transfer it for free. This free service is available even if you select an international domain name. 

But with FastComet, there is no domain fee as long as you keep using their hosting services. If you already have a domain or a website, FastComet will transfer it for free. Moreover, FastComet offers free managed migrations on all the plans so that the migration is quick and does not result in any major downtime for your website. 

8. Customer Support

Bluehost offers support through live chat, email, and phone. But while the support is quick, a lot of agents from their support team are not very knowledgeable or efficient. You are sure to come across this major drawback in many other genuine Bluehost reviews. So, in case if you have a fairly complex technical problem, it will probably take some time to get the required answers from Bluehost support. 

However, there are some great tutorial videos on the Bluehost website and there is also a discussion forum. FastComet currently has one of the best support teams. You can get in touch with them through live chat, phone, and email 24x7. Talk to any FastComet support agent and you are sure to find them highly experienced, knowledgeable, and patient. Even the ticketing system is super quick which is surprising as such systems generally take at least a few hours to get answers. 

Also Read 5 Best Divi Hosting Providers 2021 

9. User-friendliness

Both the hosting providers use cPanel as it is the most popular control panel. While FastComet has added some extra features, there is nothing much to write about. But with regards to user-friendliness, most people creating a website for the first time are sure to experience more convenience with FastComet. 

Their website has hundreds of detailed tutorials across topics such as website building, e-commerce, WordPress, and a lot more. Also, Bluehost is notoriously popular to sneak in some add-ons on the checkout page. This can make things a little confusing for someone purchasing a hosting service for the first time. 

10. Additional Features and Benefits

Bluehost offers a no-questions-asked 30-days money-back guarantee on all of its hosting services. FastComet offers 7-days money-back guarantee on its VPS and dedicated hosting and 45-days guarantee on all the other plans. In some of the more expensive plans of Bluehost, you get free Microsoft Office 365 Mailbox for 30-days. 

If you go with the expensive plans of FastComet, you will get their RocketBooster add-on for free. This add-on uses HTTP/2, Varnish Static and Dynamic Caching, Opcode Caching, and LiteSpeed LSPHP Technology for considerably improve the speed of your website. 

Conclusion

While there is no denying that Bluehost is an excellent hosting provider, FastComet is significantly better as it can be seen above. While FastComet does not have as vast experience as Bluehost or the backing of a hosting giant like EIG, the customers are highly impressed with their services. 

Right from pricing, add-ons, security, to support, you will see that the FastComet customers have a highly positive experience with all the different aspects important for a web host. If you are looking for a reliable and value-for-money host, you now know what you should select.