Last verified 35 days ago·24 sources·Updated automatically
Bluehost and Flywheel compared across Company facts, Pricing, Performance & infrastructure, WordPress management, Support & security and Platform & integrations — every fact sourced and re-verified from each vendor's public material.
Bluehost
Budget-friendly, WordPress.org-recommended hosting aimed at first-time site owners.
0 daysNo free trial; free demo sites and a 60-day money-back guarantee instead
Money-Back Guarantee (Days)
30 days
60 days60-day money-back guarantee (excludes Agency and Custom plans)
Performance & infrastructure
Underlying Cloud
own datacenters
Google CloudRuns on the Google Cloud Platform
Datacenter Locations
—
55 data center regions worldwide
Free CDN
Free CDN included on all plans (Cloudflare-powered)
Free global CDN powered by Fastly on all plans
Web Server
Apache
NGINXNGINX serving static files and reverse-proxying PHP-FPM
Built-in Object Cache
Redis object caching enabled by default on WordPress plans
Page caching only (FlyCache); no persistent object cache
Latest PHP Version
8.4
8.2PHP 8.2 (default for new sites); 7.4 also selectable
Free SSL Certificate
Free SSL (Let's Encrypt) on all plans
Free Let's Encrypt SSL (Simple SSL) with any plan
WordPress management
Automatic WordPress Updates
Managed WordPress core updates included
Automatic major and minor WordPress core updates
Staging Environments
WordPress staging site included on all plans
One-click staging sites included on all plans
Automatic Daily Backups
Free backups are weekly; daily automatic backups require the paid CodeGuard add-on
Automatic nightly backups with one-click restore
Backup Retention (Days)
—
30 days30 days of nightly backups retained
Free Site Migration
Free self-serve WordPress migration tool
Free site migrations included
SSH & WP-CLI Access
SSH & WP-CLI access included on standard WordPress plans
SSH gateway with WP-CLI on all Cloud Platform sites
WordPress Multisite Support
—
Multisite requires Freelance, Agency, or Custom plan; not on the entry Starter plan
Support & security
Uptime SLA (%)
99.99%99.99% uptime SLA (server/Apache performance); remedy is a 5% monthly account credit
99.9%99.9% uptime
24/7 Support
24/7 support; chat on all plans, phone added on Business and above
24/7/365 chat support on all plans
Malware Removal / Hack Fix
Starter includes malware scanning only; malware detection/removal unlocks on the Business plan and above
Free malware cleanup / hack fix if your site is infected on-platform
WAF / DDoS Protection
Web Application Firewall and DDoS protection included on all plans
Fastly-based WAF and DDoS protection at the edge, included on all plans
Platform & integrations
Control Panel
customBluehost custom dashboard (cPanel available underneath)
customCustom Flywheel dashboard (replaces cPanel)
White-Label / Agency Features
No white-label/client-management tooling on the entry managed WordPress plan
Billing transfer to clients, collaborators, and multi-site management for agencies
Email Hosting Included
Professional email is a paid add-on after a 1-month free trial (~$2.99/mo per mailbox)
No email hosting; Flywheel recommends a dedicated provider like Google Workspace
The verdict
Bluehost
Best for hosting several low-cost sites on one plan
Starter runs $9.99/mo versus Flywheel's $25, and covers 10 WordPress sites and 40k monthly visits to Flywheel's 1 site and 25k. It adds a Redis object cache, PHP 8.4, and a 99.99% SLA. The catch: free backups are only weekly (daily needs a paid add-on) and malware removal waits for the Business plan.
Flywheel ships white-label and client-billing tools Bluehost's entry plan lacks, plus nightly backups with 30-day retention (Bluehost's are weekly), free malware cleanup, and a 60-day money-back window versus 30. It runs on Google Cloud across 5 regions. Trade-offs: $25/mo for 1 site and 25k visits, and no persistent object cache.
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