Bluehost vs. WordPress.com

Last verified 35 days ago · 23 sources · Updated automatically

Bluehost and WordPress.com 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

WordPress.com

Automattic's hosted WordPress service, from a free tier up to managed, plugin-enabled business plans.

HQ San Francisco, CA

Visit WordPress.com Full profile

Attribute

Bluehost

WordPress.com

Company facts

Headquarters

Jacksonville, FL Operating HQ of parent Newfold Digital

San Francisco, CA Automattic (WordPress.com's parent); a fully distributed company.

Employees

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

1.5k Automattic (parent company) headcount, ~1,450 across 80+ countries.

Pricing

Starting Monthly Price (USD)

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

$9 Personal plan, the cheapest paid tier; bandwidth is unmetered on all plans.

Entry Plan WordPress Sites

10 sites Starter plan

1 sites Personal plan hosts a single WordPress site.

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

6 GB Personal plan includes 6 GB of storage.

Free Trial Length (Days)

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

0 days No free trial; WordPress.com offers a money-back guarantee instead.

Money-Back Guarantee (Days)

30 days

14 days 14-day refund window on annual plans (7 days on monthly).

Performance & infrastructure

Underlying Cloud

own datacenters

own datacenters Automattic-operated infrastructure, 28+ data centers across 6 continents.

Datacenter Locations

—

4 4 site-placement regions: US West, US Central, US East, EU West.

Free CDN

Free CDN included on all plans (Cloudflare-powered)

Global edge cache / CDN included on all plans at no extra cost.

Web Server

Apache

NGINX NGINX-based stack.

Built-in Object Cache

Redis object caching enabled by default on WordPress plans

Persistent object cache (Memcached) enabled by default on all plans.

Latest PHP Version

8.4

8.4 PHP 8.4 selectable (8.2, 8.3, 8.4 supported).

Free SSL Certificate

Free SSL (Let's Encrypt) on all plans

Free SSL certificate auto-provisioned on all plans.

WordPress management

Automatic WordPress Updates

Managed WordPress core updates included

WordPress core and security updates are managed by the platform automatically.

Staging Environments

WordPress staging site included on all plans

Staging sites require the Business plan; not available on the entry (Personal) plan.

Automatic Daily Backups

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

Automated real-time backups/restore (VaultPress) require the Business plan; not on the entry (Personal) plan.

Free Site Migration

Free self-serve WordPress migration tool

Free 'Do it for me' expert migration plus free content import; full plugin/theme site migration needs the Business plan.

SSH & WP-CLI Access

SSH & WP-CLI access included on standard WordPress plans

SSH and WP-CLI require the Business plan; not on the entry (Personal) plan.

WordPress Multisite Support

—

WordPress Multisite networks are not supported; each site needs its own plan.

Support & security

Uptime SLA (%)

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

99.999% 99.999% uptime SLA.

24/7 Support

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

24/7 priority support requires the Business plan; Personal gets email + weekday/extended live chat, not full 24/7.

Malware Removal / Hack Fix

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

Daily malware scanning with automatic fixes, built into every site.

WAF / DDoS Protection

Web Application Firewall and DDoS protection included on all plans

Web Application Firewall and DDoS protection built into every site at no extra cost.

Platform & integrations

Control Panel

custom Bluehost custom dashboard (cPanel available underneath)

custom Custom WordPress.com dashboard (Calypso); no cPanel.

White-Label / Agency Features

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

Automattic for Agencies: unified multi-site dashboard, consolidated billing, client referrals, bulk discounts.

Email Hosting Included

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

No mailbox hosting on the entry plan; Professional Email / Google Workspace is a paid add-on (free for 1 year only on Business/Commerce).

The verdict

Bluehost

Best for multiple sites and hands-on developers

Bluehost's $9.99 Starter plan hosts 10 sites to WordPress.com Personal's 1, with 10 GB storage versus 6 GB. It includes staging, SSH/WP-CLI, and 24/7 support on the entry tier, all of which WordPress.com gates behind its Business plan. Its 30-day money-back window also beats WordPress.com's 14 days.

Full profile

WordPress.com

Best for managed security and agency management

WordPress.com's $9 Personal plan builds in daily malware scanning with automatic fixes, which Bluehost's Starter plan lacks (removal unlocks on Business). It carries a higher 99.999% uptime SLA versus 99.99%, and adds Automattic for Agencies white-label tooling that Bluehost's entry plan does not offer. The trade-off: one site only, and no entry-plan staging or SSH.

Full profile

Sources · 23 verified references

bluehost.com automattic.com pitchbook.com websitebuilderexpert.com wordpress.com developer.wordpress.com

Affiliate disclosure. DecisionWire may earn a commission when you sign up through links on this page. Commissions never influence our data, scores, or rankings.