Bluehost vs. Liquid Web

Last verified 35 days ago · 24 sources · Updated automatically

Bluehost and Liquid Web 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.

HQ Jacksonville, FL

Visit Bluehost Full profile

Liquid Web

Managed WordPress and ecommerce hosting (formerly Nexcess), on Liquid Web's own datacenters with Cloudflare Enterprise and a 100% uptime SLA.

HQ Lansing, MI

Visit Liquid Web Full profile

Attribute

Bluehost

Liquid Web

Company facts

Headquarters

Jacksonville, FL Operating HQ of parent Newfold Digital

Lansing, MI Lansing, Michigan (Liquid Web HQ; Nexcess consolidated under the Liquid Web brand)

Employees

4.1k Parent company Newfold Digital headcount (Bluehost-specific count not published)

750 Approx. company headcount (LinkedIn 500–1,000 range, midpoint)

Pricing

Starting Monthly Price (USD)

$9.99 Starter plan renewal rate (36-month term)

$6 Spark – Launch plan, the entry managed WordPress tier (1 site, 15 GB), billed monthly

Entry Plan WordPress Sites

10 sites Starter plan

1 sites 1 WordPress site on the entry Spark – Launch plan

Entry Plan Monthly Visits

40k Starter plan — vendor states 'ideal for 40K visits/mo' (guidance figure, not a hard meter)

—

Entry Plan Storage (GB)

10 GB Starter plan — 10 GB NVMe SSD

15 GB 15 GB storage on the entry Spark – Launch plan

Free Trial Length (Days)

0 days No free trial; 30-day money-back guarantee instead

0 days No free trial offered on managed WordPress plans

Money-Back Guarantee (Days)

30 days

0 days No money-back guarantee; the current Terms of Service state fees are non-refundable

Performance & infrastructure

Underlying Cloud

own datacenters

own datacenters Runs on Liquid Web-owned, staffed Tier-4 datacenters

Datacenter Locations

—

9 9 Liquid Web datacenter locations across the US, UK, EU, and Australia

Free CDN

Free CDN included on all plans (Cloudflare-powered)

Cloudflare Enterprise CDN included on every managed WordPress plan

Web Server

Apache

Apache Apache application server (with a Cloudflare Enterprise / NGINX edge-cache layer in front)

Built-in Object Cache

Redis object caching enabled by default on WordPress plans

Redis object caching (Object Cache Pro) enabled by default on all new sites

Latest PHP Version

8.4

8.3 PHP 8.3 selectable via the Client Portal (newer releases may also be available)

Free SSL Certificate

Free SSL (Let's Encrypt) on all plans

Free SSL certificate included on all plans

WordPress management

Automatic WordPress Updates

Managed WordPress core updates included

Host-managed automatic WordPress core (and security) updates

Staging Environments

WordPress staging site included on all plans

Free staging site included on every plan

Automatic Daily Backups

Free backups are weekly; daily automatic backups require the paid CodeGuard add-on

Automatic daily backups on every plan

Backup Retention (Days)

—

7 days 7-day backup retention on the entry Spark – Launch plan (30 days on Thrive/Elevate)

Free Site Migration

Free self-serve WordPress migration tool

Free self-serve migration on the entry plan (assisted migration on higher tiers)

SSH & WP-CLI Access

SSH & WP-CLI access included on standard WordPress plans

SSH (Secure Shell) access with WP-CLI on managed WordPress plans

WordPress Multisite Support

—

WordPress Multisite supported (subdomain or subdirectory networks)

Support & security

Uptime SLA (%)

99.99% 99.99% uptime SLA (server/Apache performance); remedy is a 5% monthly account credit

100% 100% uptime SLA (network and power), with service credits

24/7 Support

24/7 support; chat on all plans, phone added on Business and above

24/7/365 support on all plans

Malware Removal / Hack Fix

Starter includes malware scanning only; malware detection/removal unlocks on the Business plan and above

Malware remediation is a paid one-time service ($200/incident), not an included guarantee

WAF / DDoS Protection

Web Application Firewall and DDoS protection included on all plans

Web application firewall + DDoS protection (Cloudflare Enterprise) included on every plan

Platform & integrations

Control Panel

custom Bluehost custom dashboard (cPanel available underneath)

custom Custom Sites & Stores portal (sites-portal.liquidweb.com), not cPanel/Plesk

White-Label / Agency Features

No white-label/client-management tooling on the entry managed WordPress plan

Reseller / white-label hosting and client management for partners

Email Hosting Included

Professional email is a paid add-on after a 1-month free trial (~$2.99/mo per mailbox)

Email hosting not included; mailboxes require a paid add-on or third-party provider

The verdict

Bluehost

Best for hosting many sites under a money-back guarantee

Bluehost's $9.99 Starter plan holds 10 WordPress sites against Liquid Web's 1, and is sized for ~40k visits/mo. It carries a 30-day money-back guarantee where Liquid Web states fees are non-refundable, and runs PHP 8.4 vs 8.3. Trade-off: free backups are only weekly (daily needs a paid add-on), and there are no white-label or Multisite features.

Full profile

Liquid Web

Best for agencies needing backups, multisite and global datacenters

Liquid Web starts at $6/mo with 15 GB storage, automatic daily backups, white-label/agency tooling and WordPress Multisite, none of which Bluehost's entry plan includes. It spans 9 datacenters across the US, UK, EU and Australia with a 100% uptime SLA. Trade-off: the entry plan is 1 site, and there is no money-back guarantee.

Full profile

Sources · 24 verified references

bluehost.com liquidweb.com pitchbook.com linkedin.com websitebuilderexpert.com

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