The Main Differences between HostArmada & Bluehost
While both HostArmada and Bluehost cater to affordable hosting users, several key differences set them apart. Bluehost, as a globally recognized brand and an official WordPress partner, offers considerable brand credibility and slightly more generous resource allowances on its cheapest plan – allowing up to 10 websites compared to HostArmada’s single-website limitation.
However, HostArmada stands out with significantly more competitive long-term pricing, especially when considering renewal rates. HostArmada also offers superior overall features, including a longer 45-day money-back guarantee (compared to Bluehost’s 30-day policy), free professional email accounts throughout the plan’s lifecycle (versus Bluehost’s paid email feature after a brief trial), and a broader range of global server locations. These attributes make HostArmada particularly attractive for budget-conscious customers seeking both affordability and high-quality features.
Compare Hosting Offers & Features
HostArmada
Our Take
HostArmada is a newer hosting company that has quickly built a solid reputation for customer support, uptime, and competitive pricing. With cloud infrastructure, free daily backups, and a focus on security, it offers excellent value for small businesses and personal sites. It’s especially appealing for users who want reliable, hands-on support without paying premium prices.
BlueHost
Our Take
BlueHost is usable, polished, and beginner-friendly, but we generally do not recommend it for most HostScore readers. Its dashboard and WordPress setup are easy, but our testing and checkout review found enough speed, renewal, and upsell concerns to make us cautious.
If You Seek Cheap Hosting: HostArmada is Better
When considering cheap hosting, HostArmada clearly emerges as the much better choice. Despite Bluehost offering the advantage of hosting more websites on its entry-level plan (10 websites versus HostArmada’s single site), this is quickly overshadowed by its substantially higher renewal prices. Bluehost’s Basic plan renews at nearly four times the introductory rate, significantly impacting long-term affordability.
In contrast, HostArmada delivers more transparent and affordable pricing beyond the first year. Additionally, HostArmada’s inclusion of valuable free features such as daily backups, comprehensive malware scanning, a Web Application Firewall, wider choice of server locations (see screenshot above), and unlimited professional email accounts further solidify its position as a better budget option.
| Hosting Type | HostArmada | BlueHost |
|---|---|---|
| Shared Hosting | $1.99 - 3.95/mo | $3.99 - 14.99/mo |
| VPS Hosting | $29.95 - 74.23/mo | $4.69 - 25.99/mo |
| Dedicated Hosting | $81.95 - 180.95/mo | $144.19 - 315.19/mo |
| Cloud Hosting | $29.95 - 74.23/mo | $65.00 - 230.00/mo |
| Managed WP Hosting | $2.49 - 4.94/mo | $3.99 - 14.99/mo |
| Windows Hosting | $ - /mo | $ - /mo |
| Coupon | - | - |
| Coupon Details | - | - |
For VPS / Cloud Hosting: HostArmada is Better
In the VPS and Cloud Hosting segments, HostArmada again provides a superior offering. HostArmada’s VPS and Cloud hosting plans are competitively priced, offer full NVMe storage, and importantly, they do not force long-term commitments – you can opt for monthly or quarterly billing cycles while still benefiting from attractive discounts.
Bluehost does offer VPS hosting options, but pricing tends to scale steeply, and flexibility in short-term billing is limited. Moreover, Bluehost’s VPS solutions have fewer customization options regarding global server locations and can lack certain advanced security features that HostArmada includes by default, such as Imunify360 protection. Therefore, VPS and Cloud Hosting users will find HostArmada’s offerings more robust, flexible, and cost-effective overall.
For WordPress Users: Both Are Solid Choices
WordPress users find valuable features and reliable performance with both Bluehost and HostArmada.
Bluehost, being an official WordPress-recommended hosting provider, comes optimized specifically for WordPress, offering seamless WordPress installations, automatic updates, strong compatibility with popular WordPress tools, and AI-powered WordPress site creator (see demo video above).
HostArmada, though not officially endorsed by WordPress, matches this reliability by providing equally strong WordPress-centric tools. It includes NGINX-powered shared hosting plans, strong security through Imunify360, daily backups, and built-in caching options (at higher tiers).
Final Verdict
Overall, HostArmada stands out as the stronger choice due to its significantly better long-term pricing, strong feature set – including security, backups, and free professional email – and greater flexibility with server location choices. While Bluehost holds appeal due to its official WordPress recommendation and allows more websites on its lowest-tier plan, the high renewal costs and fewer inclusive features make HostArmada a smarter long-term investment.
More About the Companies
HostArmada
HostArmada is a web hosting provider known for its transparent practices and customer-centric approach. Established in 2019 and led by founder Daniel Walton, the company offers a range of hosting solutions, including shared, VPS, and dedicated hosting, with a focus on performance, security, and scalability. Headquartered in Delaware, the company operates multiple global data centers to serve a diverse customer base.
HostArmada Pros
- Competitive pricing
- Daily remote backups with up to 21 days of restore points
- NGINX server and NVMe storage for all shared hosting plans
- 45-day money-back guarantee
- Free malware scans and Web Application Firewall (WAF) on all shared hosting plans
- Supports hosting of legal adult content websites
- Wide range of server locations
HostArmada Cons
- Price increases upon renewal
- Entry-level plan supports only one website
- Advanced speed features like dynamic caching are limited to the highest-tier shared plan
- No Windows Server hosting option
BlueHost
Bluehost is a long-running web hosting and domain services company founded by Matt Heaton and Danny Ashworth in 2003 and now owned by Newfold Digital, LLC. The company sells shared hosting, managed WordPress hosting, VPS, cloud hosting, dedicated hosting, domains, email, security tools, and website services. It is one of the better-known WordPress hosting brands, partly because of its long relationship with WordPress.org, but today it operates as part of a much larger hosting group rather than as an independent boutique provider.
BlueHost Pros
- Easy account dashboard for beginners
- WordPress setup is fast and automatic
- cPanel is still available when needed
- Free SSL was auto-installed in our test account
- NVMe storage, free CDN, and WordPress tools are included in all shared plans
BlueHost Cons
- Speed performance slower than expected
- Renewal prices are much higher
- Email setup is misleading and can push users toward paid Pro Email
- Heavy (and some misleading) upsells during checkout and inside the portal
- Better value exists elsewhere for many use cases
