Bluehost vs Wix Comparison: Which Platform Suits You Best?

In this article, we delve into the comparison of Bluehost vs Wix, exploring their respective strengths and weaknesses to aid your decision-making process for website hosting and building.

Key Takeaways

• Wix is a versatile and user-friendly website builder known for its drag-and-drop interface and extensive design options.
• Bluehost is a reliable hosting provider offering various hosting plans suitable for beginners to experienced website owners.

Bluehost vs Wix: At A Glance

At a glance, comparing two distinct services might seem unusual. Wix, a renowned website builder, empowers users to craft captivating websites swiftly.

Conversely, Bluehost is a hosting provider enabling website construction through your preferred content management system (CMS), with a strong emphasis on WordPress.

In short, Bluehost and Wix are platforms with clear differences, but they both offer high-quality services. To summarize, let’s compare their key attributes:

Wix and Bluehost: Pros & Cons

Before we delve into the comprehensive comparison, let’s explore the benefits and downsides of Wix and Bluehost.

Wix

Pros

• Intuitive drag-and-drop interface
• Built-in SEO
• 200+ App integrations available
• Good site speed
• Massive template collection
• Extend your site features with Wix App Market
• Market your site easily
• Tons of extra features
• Lots of help and support

Cons

• Storage limits on all plans
• You can’t change templates once your site is live

Bluehost

Pros

• Value-priced starter plan
• Free domain name
• User-friendly interface
• 24/7 phone and chat support
• 1-click WordPress installation
• Free CDN

Cons

• Lack of an all-in-one package
•  Limited storage
• Not all plans include daily backups
• No month-to-month plans
• Inconsistent customer service quality

Wix vs Bluehost: A Detailed Comparison

In the following sections, we’ll delve into a detailed comparison between Wix and Bluehost, covering various aspects to help you make an informed choice.

Pricing 

Firstly, understanding the pricing structures is crucial as it determines the financial commitment for your website endeavors.

Wix

Wix comes with higher costs than Bluehost, with its paid plans ranging from $16/month to $159/month. Wix offers a variety of plans catering to different needs, from simple websites to those with eCommerce capabilities. 

It’s worth noting that Wix offers a free plan through a 14-day trial that includes hosting. However, the resources are limited, offering only 500MB of bandwidth and storage. Additionally, custom domain names are unavailable, and Wix’s ads appear on your website. Nevertheless, this plan allows you to explore the builder without any charge.

Bluehost

In contrast, Bluehost’s popular shared hosting plans fall within the range of $2.95/month to $13.95/month. 

When discussing the Pro plan, its price doesn’t seem justified. For the same cost, you could invest in a cost-effective yet significantly more potent VPS. Additionally, it’s worth noting that Bluehost appears to be the one applying increased rates solely during the renewal process.

The Verdict: Bluehost is the Winer!

All in all, Bluehost offers more affordable hosting with ample server resources. On the flip side, Wix could prove to be cost-effective over time due to its all-inclusive nature, eliminating the need for additional investments.

Another point to note is their slightly differing money-back policies. Bluehost provides a 30-day money-back guarantee, while Wix offers a 14-day window. However, Wix also presents a free plan for extended testing.

Ease of Use

Secondly, comparing the Ease of Use between Wix and Bluehost is essential to determine which platform provides a smoother and more intuitive experience for users.

Setting up a website

Both Wix and Bluehost simplify the website-making process, offering highly automated procedures that allow you to see your website come to life with just a few clicks.

Wix

When signing up with Wix, users can quickly start the website-building process. You can either choose a template and adjust it yourself or let Wix’s ADI choose for you based on a few preferences, which offers a faster setup but with limited customization. 

On the other hand, setting up the site manually grants more freedom, allowing users to pick from over 800 templates and use a drag-and-drop interface for extensive customization. This method lets you arrange elements freely on your site.

Bluehost

Setting up a website with Bluehost is equally straightforward. Upon your initial login, you’ll be greeted with a setup screen where you can begin the process. By answering a few questions, naming your site, and selecting a theme, your website is ready to go – it’s that simple. It’s important to note that this automated setup specifically installs WordPress.

In essence, both Wix and Bluehost excel in their simplicity and speed when it comes to laying the groundwork for your website.

Website management area

Comparing the Website management interfaces of Wix and Bluehost enables us to evaluate their ease of use, features, and administrative capabilities. This evaluation assists users in selecting the platform that best suits their requirements and preferences for efficient website management.

Wix

Wix operates on an intuitive platform, and its service management area primarily displays account-related details.

Within Wix, site and account management are consolidated on a single page. The left-side menu offers tools such as Marketing & SEO for handling advertising campaigns, while selecting “Settings” provides access to key account information, including domain connections.

Simultaneously, essential settings are prominently placed in the central panel. The “Site Actions” card encompasses plan and email settings alongside a guide to assist users in navigating Wix’s diverse features.

Bluehost

Upon accessing Bluehost, users are greeted by a clean setup wizard, with a sidebar offering key management options such as site, app, email, domain management options, and an Advanced tab for cPanel access. Front and center, a to-do list assists in web creation, especially for WordPress users.

Furthermore, while Bluehost integrates cPanel for advanced tweaks, simpler tools are conveniently located on the main dashboard, ensuring users can easily manage email accounts, databases, and files.

In summary, parallels exist between Wix’s builder management and Bluehost’s hosting management, yet the underlying concepts diverge. Wix offers front-end tools, whereas Bluehost provides you with a higher degree of control.

Extra hosting management features

In this comparison segment, we’ve evaluated extra site management features from Wix and Bluehost. Wix offers an App market and role assignment, while Bluehost provides staging and marketing management.

Wix

Wix provides various apps, spanning categories such as analytics, business tools, events, and online stores. Beneath each plan’s icon, you’ll find a concise description, rating, and download count.

Another notable feature is Wix’s inclusion of Site Roles. With this function, you can invite individuals to access your site’s management and assign distinct roles. Each role corresponds to a specific level of control over your site.

Bluehost

Bluehost, on the other hand, provides staging, enabling you to create a duplicate of your site for testing changes and updates before implementing them on the live site.

Accessed through the Bluehost plugin in your WordPress admin panel, staging requires just a few clicks for copying and implementing changes. Besides that, Bluehost offers marketing tools such as Google My Business and Google Ads, simplifying the setup of marketing campaigns directly from the dashboard.

The Verdict: The result is a tie!

Both Wix and Bluehost offer user-friendly experiences. Wix stands out as a straightforward and versatile website builder, while Bluehost is notably beginner-friendly as a hosting provider. Moreover, both platforms provide valuable additional features.

Performance 

Website performance is a critical factor determining a site’s success. To assess their speed, we conducted three tests focusing on reliability and speed for both providers. The findings indicate that both platforms demonstrate equal reliability. 

However, Bluehost outperformed Wix in terms of speed, while Wix excelled in handling higher levels of traffic. Now, let’s delve into a more comprehensive analysis of the results.

Uptime and response time

We looked at both Wix and Bluehost for varying durations. Bluehost was observed for a span of 2 months, while Wix was monitored for slightly more than a month.

Wix

During that one month, Wix encountered 5 instances of downtime, resulting in a total of 7 minutes of non-operational time. This translates to an impressive uptime of 99.99%.

For the average response time, Wix showcased a commendable performance with an average response time of 461ms. This is notably favorable, considering that the hosting industry’s average response time typically hovers around 600ms.

Bluehost

Similar to Wix, Bluehost has also showcased an impressive uptime of 99.99%, indicating reliability.

However, Bluehost boasted a notably quicker response time compared to Wix. Its average response time stood at 361ms, a commendable result. It’s worth mentioning that this performance could have been even more remarkable if not for a significant spike in the middle of the testing period.

In brief, the Wix vs Bluehost comparison resulted in a draw regarding reliability, with both providers achieving an uptime of 99.99%. Yet, Bluehost gains some extra points for its faster average response time.

Website speed

Let’s now evaluate how both Wix and Bluehost fare when functioning as fully developed websites.

To get the result, we installed templates and their corresponding demo content on the websites of both Wix and Bluehost. It’s worth noting that due to the distinct platforms used by Wix and Bluehost (Wix does not use WordPress while Bluehost does), the templates differed slightly.

To ensure a fair comparison between Wix and Bluehost, both providers were tested under equivalent conditions. The testing was conducted from the US, both hosted in US-based data centers.

Here are three key metrics that hold our utmost attention in this comparison

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – This indicates the time taken for the largest content portion to load. Ideally, it should be kept under 2.5 seconds.
• Fully Loaded Time – When a page takes over 3 seconds to load, visitors might sense a delay in responsiveness.
• Time to First Byte (TTFB) – This metric reflects how quickly the server identifies and responds to the initial request. It’s preferable for this to be under 200 milliseconds.

Wix

While Wix might seem less impressive due to the inherent complexities of website builders, it delivers a commendable performance. Its LCP stands at 2.6 seconds, just slightly beyond the ideal mark, but acceptable for intricate sites. 

Furthermore, despite an 8.4-second Fully Loaded Time, the site is interactive by 3.5 seconds, ensuring prompt functionality. Wix’s TTFB, although slightly above the 200-millisecond standard at 304 milliseconds, remains impressive. Considering Wix’s numerous design features, its performance is notably efficient.

Bluehost

In contrast, while not without flaws, Bluehost showcased considerably better outcomes. Both its Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and Fully Loaded Time registered at just 1.8 seconds, falling comfortably within recommended timeframes.

Bluehost’s Time to First Byte (TTFB) stands at 1 second, leaving room for improvement. This suggests that a swifter server response could have significantly expedited site loading.

In summary, both providers demonstrated rapid performance, but it’s evident that in this Wix vs Bluehost comparison, there’s a clear winner. Bluehost emerged as the faster performer, even though Wix held an edge in server responsiveness.

Stress testing results

The final test evaluates the performance of both providers under increased website traffic. Initially, we simulate the activity of 50 virtual users (VUs) on each site for a 5-minute period.

Given that 50 visitors could potentially strain or overwhelm the server, we often need to repeat the test with a slightly lower number of VUs, continuing until we achieve a successful outcome.

Wix

Wix successfully handled the initial test with 20 visitors, which roughly translates to around 20,000 monthly visits. However, it appears that this is its upper limit. The response time (blue line) remained remarkably stable and consistent despite the growing number of visitors (grey line). Unfortunately, the red line indicates 248 failed requests, which is not a desirable outcome.

Bluehost

During Bluehost’s initial test, it successfully managed 15VUs. However, its response time (blue line) exhibited inconsistency, showing sensitivity to the number of visitors (grey line) on the site. An increase in visitors led to server slowdowns. Despite this, none of the requests experienced failures.

The Verdict: Bluehost is the winner!

In the performance comparison, both Wix and Bluehost exhibited strong reliability with 99.99% uptime. 

However, Bluehost stood out for its faster average response time (361ms vs. Wix’s 461ms) and quicker loading speed (LCP and Fully Loaded Time of 1.8 seconds).

Security 

Regarding security, Wix and Bluehost take distinct approaches. Bluehost, being a hosting provider, offers access to various security measures, although many require separate purchases. In contrast, Wix integrates numerous security features but grants limited user access to them.

You can see the information below in the following table for an overview of the security tools of both platforms.

Wix

For more detail, here are Wix’s security features :

• Continuous website monitoring to safeguard against malicious attacks.
• PCI compliance for ensuring secure card payment transactions on your site.
• 2-Step Verification to add an extra layer of login security.
• Automatic backups facilitated by the Site History feature, making version restoration easy.

Bluehost

In addition to the free tools, many of Bluehost’s security features require an additional fee:

• Firewall and malware protection are not included by default but can be purchased for $5.99/month.
• Backup options are available with the Choice Plus plan or can be added for an extra $2.99/month.

The Verdict: Wix is the Winer!

Wix becomes the winner because it appears to have a more comprehensive range of security features, though not all are customizable. On the other hand, Bluehost provides basic security features for free, while additional ones come at an extra cost.

Help & Support

Finally, let’s start with the basics. Both Bluehost and Wix provide various methods to get in touch with their support teams.

Wix

To get in touch with Wix’s customer support, you can either use a ticket system or request a callback. Unfortunately, there’s no live chat option available.

When reaching out to Wix’s support, you’ll first chat with a bot before being able to submit a ticket or request a callback, which can be a bit slow. However, Wix is generally quick in processing tickets, so you won’t face prolonged wait times for responses.

Although live chat isn’t offered, Wix offers speedy ticket handling. Additionally, the free callback service is available in various languages, including English, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. English support is 24/7, while other languages have specific hours. The free callbacks and language options are definite advantages for Wix’s customer support.

Bluehost

Bluehost provides multiple support tools, including 24/7 live chat and phone assistance. Unlike Wix, Bluehost is easily accessible and offers a broader range of support options. Notably, Bluehost offers the convenience of live chat support with minimal waiting times for agent assistance.

During my interaction, the Bluehost agent proved to be swift and helpful, resolving my query in under 5 minutes. However, it’s worth noting that the depth of knowledge among agents can vary, given their individual expertise levels.

The Verdict: Bluehost is the winner!

Overall, the customer support from both Wix and Bluehost is satisfactory. Wix provides options for submitting tickets and requesting callbacks, which are promptly addressed.

On the other hand, Bluehost offers live chat and phone support. 

Wix vs Bluehost: Which is Best For

When making the decision between Wix and Bluehost, it’s essential to consider your specific needs and priorities. Let’s explore which platform suits different user preferences better.

Wix is best for

• Individuals seeking a hassle-free and efficient website creation process.
• Those with limited skills or time constraints.
• Beginners who prefer pre-designed templates over coding.
• Users want to avoid technical complexities and focus on content and design.

Bluehost is best for

• Individuals prioritize enhanced security for their websites.
• Users want greater design freedom and a more tailored website experience.
• Those unimpressed with pre-designed templates and seeking a blank canvas for web design.
• Users are willing to build their site from scratch in exchange for complete creative control.
• Individuals value robust security features and are less concerned about potential cybersecurity threats.

Wix vs Bluehost: FAQs

Final Words

In conclusion, for the comparison between Wix and Bluehost, both are excellent choices for beginners and individuals with limited web development experience. However, Wix stands out as the easier option to use, whereas Bluehost can also cater to more advanced projects.