- Hey guys, my name is Christian Taylor. Welcome back to Craylor Made to talk about all things branding, marketing,
and entrepreneurship. When you're getting
started with WordPress, you might've visited the
hosting tab on wordpress.org and wondered which
company is right for you. Well, first let's clear something up. You do not need to use
one of the three web hosts on this tab to host
your WordPress website. WordPress is a free open-source platform that can be hosted on any web server. But today we're comparing
the three options recommended by wordpress.org. Let's start with Bluehost. Bluehost has a wide variety of
plans ranging from $36 a year to $624 a year with their
top tier WP Pro offering. You can get vanilla shared
hosting for your WordPress site that includes Bluehost's
intuitive setup wizard, 24/7 live chat and phone support, all at a $3 per month price tag. Bluehost does let you sign
up for month-to-month hosting if you wish, but they Mark
up the price drastically. They definitely want you to purchase a one-year bundle upfront. So if you can afford it,
this might be the way to go. You are committing to a year, but Bluehost offers a
30-day refund policy. And I've used this policy before to get a refund with no problems. The Bluehost WP Pro plans
are much more expensive but they're meant to rival
managed WordPress options like WP Engine and Flywheel. You'll get premium features
like a staging environment, unlimited websites, no traffic limits, and premium or pro Jetpack
plans as an option. There are a couple of things that bug me about the Bluehost checkout screen. First, if you roll your
mouse up to the browser bar, like you're going to leave the site, you'll almost always get a pop-up offering you an exclusive discount to get you to stay and
finish your purchase. Everyone likes discounts, but I hate that it's
literally a hidden Easter egg. If you didn't happen to roll your mouse over the browser bar, you would be overpaying
for your web hosting without knowing it. And that's not cool. Additionally, the checkout
screen can pre-check some upsells that will inflate the price. Here's what the basic shared
hosting package looks like. I'm not too bothered that
they preach at Codeguard Basic because I'm a huge advocate
for daily automated backups, but that's something that should
be included with your plan, even if Bluehost has
to charge more for it. SiteLock security is definitely a bloated and unnecessary ad-on in my opinion. As you move up in price
to the WP Pro Grow plan, you'll see that the package
extras are included in the cost. After you pay for your hosting, the Bluehost setup process
is pretty intuitive. They walk you through installing WordPress and even picking a free theme. And they have options for automatic WordPress
migrations free of charge. I have to give it to Bluehost for having a streamlined setup process. But this is where I started facing issues. I find the Bluehost setup
process and panel is just buggy. After I signed up, the
panel would spin and spin and lead to nowhere. I had trouble with signing my hosting
account to a subdomain with little explanation
from the support team. And one of the two automatic
migrations I attempted failed. The first automatic migration did work, but for some reason it takes
around a day to complete. I much prefer other hosts who
license the BlogVault plugin to offer migrations, because it's a smooth and timely process. The second migration failed entirely, and I had to contact Bluehost
support to resolve it. Speaking of support, I had vastly different
experiences with Bluehost depending on the support channel I used. I had nothing but trouble
with the Bluehost live chat. It seemed like the representatives had a hard time understanding
my basic questions. And I felt frustrated
having to repeat myself or over explaining the
problem to get help. When the second automated migration failed for transferring my site
to their WP Pro plan, I decided to give them a call
and see if they could help. They weren't able to try the
automated migration again, but they did lock me through
doing a manual migration. And the step-by-step
instructions were very clear. The rep was patient and
stayed on the phone with me for as long as it would take. So if you prefer phone support, Bluehost might be a good option for you. The live chat support is just bad. And I'm bothered that I was forced to
do the migration myself for such a high-end hosting plan. It seems like there are a
lot of bugs and glitches with their onboarding
process in management panel. Bluehost is the only one of
the three hosts to use cPanel. The main management panel is proprietary, but if you click Advanced, it takes you to a
standard cPanel interface where you can perform additional tasks. So if it's a requirement that
you be with the cPanel host for whatever reason,
Bluehost is the way to go. I didn't have any reliability
or speed issues with Bluehost, and the uptime was 99.97%
over a one-month period. So, should you use Bluehost? Well, if you're looking
for very cheap web hosting, I think the basic 12-month
plan is worth considering. For $36 a year, you get one
website, 50 gigs of SSD storage, and 24/7 phone and chat support. The big caveat here is that
you won't get automatic backups unless you pay an extra $3 a month, and you won't get a staging environment. Another big catch to any Bluehost plan is that the rates are pretty secretive. Oftentimes, the first 12-month period is at a promotional price, so you have no idea what it will renew at. I wish Bluehost was more
transparent about this. And generally, I would stay away from them unless you really need some cheap hosting. Definitely stay away from the WP Pro plan. My experience with the
Grow plan was just bad. You do get daily backups
in the staging environment, but the automatic migration failed prompting me to spend
40 minutes on the phone getting it resolved. Quite frankly, that's just not acceptable for hosting of this price point. The staging environment was
also the worst I've experienced, requiring you to install a
WordPress plugin to use it. Since I migrated my site,
instead of starting fresh, this plugin wasn't installed on my site, and I had to again, contact their support and get it installed. But wait, there's more,
the plugin said beta on it. This was the same case with
their automatic migration tool. I'm paying big money
for important features that are in beta? It's true because the
staging plugin didn't work. At this point, I'd seen enough. I wasn't about to contact
their support again, just stay away from the
Bluehost WP Pro plans. You'll have a better experience
at SiteGround, DreamHost, or another WordPress managed provider like WP Engine or Flywheel. Next, let's take a look at SiteGround. It appears that SiteGround has experienced a dramatic transformation since I last reviewed them in spring 2019, because I was blown away by my experience. Unlike Bluehost, my setup
experience with SiteGround was super smooth. I had zero issues signing up using the automated migration plugin, and getting my site up and running on a subdomain of my choice quickly. The checkout page is refreshing because there are zero upsells. SiteGround lets the plan
speak for themselves, and you just choose the
plan that fits your needs. SiteGround uses a
proprietary infrastructure, so there's no cPanel hosting here. Instead, you get access to
SiteGround's custom manager where you can access
your hosting settings. The features of the GrowBig
plan are most appealing for anyone going after that
managed WordPress experience. You'll enjoy important features like automatic daily backups, multiple one-click staging environments, and 24/7 chat and phone support that is miles better than
my experience with Bluehost. The live chat reps are knowledgeable, and the phone support had a similar straightforward
feel to Bluehost. SiteGround had 99.99%
uptime in my testing, and the hosting is snappy and reliable. Similar to Bluehost, SiteGround lets you create
custom email addresses on your domain name
included with your hosting. I didn't test the quality
of the email hosting in this comparison because I prefer to stick
to dedicated email hosting from Namecheap or G suite, but it's great to see
hosts giving you the option at no extra charge. The SiteGround panel feels like everything cPanels should be. It's extremely straightforward
and easy to navigate, but it has every feature you
could want in a web host. Honestly, it's a total 180 from
my last evaluation in 2019, but I absolutely loved my
experience with SiteGround. It's clear they've
transformed their service. And I think the GrowBig
plan is the best option if you're willing to pay
for 12 months at a time. You can get the first
year for $10 a month, then it will be $25 a month after that, which is right in line with WP Engine. However, WP Engine does
not offer phone support in their $25 a month plan. Additionally, WP Engine is a stickler for enforcing a monthly pageview limit, and only allowing one
website on the base plan. With SiteGround, the visit
cap is just a suggestion, but you can get as many page visits as the server can handle. You can also host unlimited
websites on the GrowBig plan. There's a lot of value here. And if you're wondering why
I compare a premium web host with WP Engine so often, especially because they're not
included in this comparison, it's because WP Engine
is the golden standard of top tier hosting in my experience, but SiteGround is close. So if you're looking for some
darn good top tier hosting that will scale as you
add additional websites, I think SiteGround is a great option. So, last, let's check out DreamHost. Like Bluehost, DreamHost offers
both budget shared hosting and premium managed WordPress hosting. For $5 a month, and I truly mean $5 a
month, no annual payments, you can get high quality
reliable WordPress hosting for your website. There's nothing fancy here, no staging environments
and no phone support. But you do get automated
backups included in the price. It's not a daily backup,
but it backs up often enough to let you restore your site
in the event of a compromise. Live chat support, email
correspondence for in-depth issues, free SSL certificates, and 50 gigabytes of
storage are also included. DreamHost does offer phone
support, but it will cost you $10 for a callback on the
basic shared hosting plan. There are managed WordPress hosting plans that include three to
five callbacks per month. I didn't test the phone support as none of my plans included it, but I found the chat and email support was perfectly sufficient to help me with any issues I ran into. When it comes to the panel, DreamHost is slightly less
intuitive than SiteGround. They come a long way and
under their new Websites tab, which is currently in beta, we get that managed WordPress feel even with the shared hosting,
which is pretty cool. You can manage your FTP,
MySQL, restore backups, change the PHP version. It's not quite up to the level
of full managed WordPress like their DreamPress offering is, but it is pretty intuitive. Now, my gripe with the
DreamHost panel is that, things are just hard to find and there's a lot of redundancy. So, like, you have to know
that you'll find this view under Domains and Websites. Why is it under Domains and not WordPress? I'm not sure. The DreamPress UI is under WordPress. And then we have a separate FTP section. And overall, I feel it's
a little bit cluttered and a little bit confusing. Here's where I'd put DreamHost for their $5 per month shared package. It's rock-solid reliable
with great customer support, but you need to be a more tech savvy user to navigate the panel. It's not rocket science, but it just doesn't
feel the most intuitive. I'd say you're getting the
hosting quality of SiteGround, but you're not getting as
polished of an experience. I think this is fair because the DreamHost shared hosting plan is an amazing value. Who can argue with $5 a month? No paying annual, no contracts. Also again, unlike Bluehost, you're getting automated backups here, and you're getting really
high quality live chat and email support. DreamPress is where
things get more exciting. This is DreamHost's
managed WordPress offering, and it takes the DreamHost experience up to the level SiteGround. You'll get automatic daily backups, a one-click staging environment, easy access to phpMyAdmin
and file manager, and an overall more polished experience. Once again, DreamHost presents itself as a great budget option in the higher tier hosting category. The base DreamPress plan is
$20 a month paid monthly, not annually, and gives you the
managed WordPress experience you can get with higher tier hosts like WP Engine and Flywheel. The performance and reliability is great with both DreamHost plans. I experienced a perfect 100% uptime with the shared WordPress hosting, and the 99.99% uptime
with the DreamPress plan. So in conclusion, I generally recommend
staying away from Bluehost, unless you want to bargain
with the cheapest plan at $36 a year, or you feel that phone support
is really important to you. SiteGround is hands down the
best web hosts out of the three but they're also the most expensive. Their simple approach to
pricing and premium experience is something you're sure to enjoy. And if you're looking
for some middle ground, DreamHost is phenomenal, $5 per month for pay as you go web hosting with a 97-day money back
guarantee and amazing reliability. Can't complain with that. And DreamHost takes their
97-day money back guarantee so seriously that they
will automatically refund all charges you've paid up
to 97 days if you cancel. They refund all of it automatically. You never even have to speak to a human or get pestered about why you're canceling or why you want to refund. You just go in, click Cancel, automatic refund is issued to you. I've experienced this before,
and it's just incredible. Really goes to show you
how much DreamHost believes in what they have to offer. Now, what does this mean in comparison to other
web hosts I've discussed? After all, this comparison is limited to the three web hosts
recommended by wordpress.org. Be sure to check out my
other comparison videos looking at more hosting options. My opinions on Bluehost and DreamHost haven't changed much from the past, but SiteGround is definitely
worth considering now. Previously I recommended that
you stay away from SiteGround, but I'd now put it in the tier
of WP Engine and Flywheel. I truly believe that SiteGround has experienced a serious transformation. I don't know if they've
had leadership changes, but they definitely redid their panel and their entire interface, and, wow, they offer
an impressive service. So, which web hosts do you use? I'd love to know your thoughts
in the comments down below. And if you liked this video, do be sure to hit that Subscribe
button and click the bell so you don't miss when
I release new videos. With that said, I will
catch you guys next time.
