Looking at these two hosts, it can be quite surprising that the underdog, Greengeeks, can compete with a large hosting company like Bluehost. Both of these hosting providers are very competitive in the current hosting market, both offering some extremely good benefits and features.
Let’s take a deep look into what each of these hosts offers, so that you can figure out which is best suited for your needs. To do this we will be looking at the following criteria for each host.
- Performance
- Usability
- Capabilities
- Support
- Uptime
- Price
These are core staples of a good web hosting service. So figuring out how Greengeeks and Bluehost fair in each area is important.
Let’s jump right in!
Performance – Greengeeks vs Bluehost
Performance is a key indicator and one of the major components to look for when screening for a good web hosting solution. Each of these websites has been tested over a period of a couple of months using Pingdom to set up a regular ping interval. But we have also done quite a bit of research on previous site speeds and averaged them out.
Greengeeks has a ping of about 178 MS for worldwide, and around a 56 MS ping for the US West.
Bluehost has a whopping 153 MS Ping for the worldwide access, and around a 23 MS ping for US West.
From these we can see that Bluehost is marginally faster then Greengeeks when it comes to speed for both the US West coast and their worldwide averages. Although these are pretty similar ping speeds, so you shouldn’t really see much of a difference in speed in actual usage.
Usability – Greengeeks vs Bluehost
Usability is a core factor in determining which host to use. But it’s a little bit tricky to judge because preferences can differ from person to person. As such we will try to take an unbiased look at each of their core usability features and try to determine which is suited best for each scenario.
Greengeeks Usability Overview
First up is Greengeeks.
When it comes to the user interface for Greengeeks, they have a very simple design. They have a navigation bar so that you can access your services, domains, billing and support all in one area. Your websites are all listed below under the Quick Server Login panel for ease of access.
Each of these servers or websites have a cPanel login, WHM login, and View Details. For most of your, every day needs cPanel will usually be your goto login option.
Overall, the design exemplifies simplicity. It allows you to access the core features that you might need on a daily basis but lacks easy access to fine tune-control which you might see from a host like Bluehost.
Click here to visit GreenGeeks
Bluehost Usability Overview
Next up is Bluehost.
Bluehost also has a clean and simple design when it comes to its usability. Once you log in from the main site, you will come across the server access screen as seen above.
This interface will allow you to access most of the main features you will need when it comes to managing your domains and websites.
I believe this is where Bluehost blows the competition away. While keeping a simplistic design structure, it also allows the user fine-tune control through their own Advanced tab. In this tab, you will have access to many of the server management options right away.
Within the My Sites tab, you will have access to each of your sites, where you can manage their settings or log in directly to the website (if you are using a CMS like WordPress).
So which is best when it comes to Usability?
Boiling this all done, I would have to favor Bluehost in this area. Usability is one of the core reasons that I enjoy Bluehost so much. If you are looking for an easy to use user interface, while also having fine-tuned control, then Bluehost is your winner.
Capabilities – Greengeeks vs Bluehost
One of the biggest criteria to look at when it comes to web hosting solutions is their capabilities. Both Greengeeks and Bluehost provide their own exclusive tools to help you manage your website and domains in order to give you a great user experience. So let’s dive right in and see what each of these great hosting services offer.
Greengeeks Capabilities
Greengeeks has some unique features to offer, that differ from most web hosting solutions. Or at least that what is mainly shown when looking at their value packages.
Some of the main features that they boast are:
- Unlimited Space
- Unlimited Bandwidth
- Unlimited Domains
- Free Domain Included
- Free Site Builder
- Nightly Backups
Some of the major features that are unique to Greengeeks are nightly backups, unlimited MySQL databases and access to a free site builder.
Greengeeks is definitely a great contender when it comes to Bluehost in comparing their capabilities. And when it comes down to it, they both have fairly similar features.
Access to a free site builder, with a domain name included, is a great addition to their packages and is especially useful for those setting out to create their first website.
So what’s the main difference between each Greengeeks hosting plans? Well, the main difference between all 3 packages, is the performance and emails per hour. Their Eco Starter package comes with “standard” performance, the Ecosite Pro comes with “2x” performance, and the Ecosite Premium comes with “4x” performance. When it comes down to judging these packages, I would say its fairly standard to increase the performance of the website based on the price of the package, but they are a bit vague in how this performance is actually calculated.
Click here to visit GreenGeeks
Bluehost Capabilities
Next up is Bluehost, which has some great capabilities just like Greengeeks. In fact, they are pretty similar in terms of features, but Bluehost tends to focus a bit more on performance and allowing multiple websites, then on emailing and extra services like Greengeeks does.
Some of the big perks that they show on their plans are:
- Unlimited Websites
- Unlimited SSD Storage
- Unlimited Bandwidth
- Free SSL Certificates
- Unlimited Domains
Four of the biggest features when it comes to Bluehost are their Unlimited Websites, Storage, Bandwidth and Domains. The core of the Bluehost experience is to be able to host and manage a multitude of different websites through the same server.
Being able to create multiple websites on the same server, without any caps is wonderful for those who like to run multiple projects at once. It’s by far one of the biggest selling points when it comes to choosing Bluehost over other hosting solutions such as Greengeeks.
Overall Impressions of Greengeeks and Bluehost Usability
Overall, both of these sites provide a great number of features. They both focus a lot more on performance then you will see with other hosting solutions, and as such contains some of the same major capabilities.
I would say, that Greengeeks takes the edge when it comes to personalizing a website. It comes with a free domain, a free site builder, access to email services and more already setup. Which is a great benefit for those just starting out, or those that are focusing on a singular website.
For people who are looking to run multiple projects at the same time, and want easy access to spawn more websites, Bluehost wins by miles. It is by far the best hosting service, that I have found, that provides such great features for doing such.
Customer Support – Greengeeks vs Bluehost
A good criterion to look at when it comes to choosing a hosting solution is its options for customer support. This is something that can make or break a good platform because sooner or later you will have trouble with your hosting solution and getting it solved quickly and easily, is crucial.
Greengeeks Customer Support
Greengeeks has a varied number of customer support options. They allow you to submit an email support ticket, live chat, or call through to their phone support with any issues that may arise.
From my experience, they have one of the best customer support solutions of most hosting solutions. Email support cases are usually solved within 15 to 20 minutes. Which is blazingly fast compared to some other hosts. They also support live chat which is available 24/7/365 which is super helpful for instant help with anything you might run across while hosting your websites.Related Post: Bluehost vs Wix (2021) - Which Is the Better Hosting Service?
Bluehost Customer Support
When it comes to Bluehost’s customer support, they also have a variety of different options. Customer support is done through phone, chat, and email. The most common method of contacting support with Bluehost is by using their online support chat.
With Bluehost support, they excel at helping their customers through the technical difficulties that arrive when managing websites.
On the not so good side, Bluehost has quite a bit of difficulty when it comes to issues that arise outside of the normal. In many cases, if you are looking to solve an issue that is not immediately recognizable by support, they will give you a textbook answer. They will start pointing towards documentation and otherwise be mostly unhelpful.
Which has the best Customer Support
When it comes down to this category, I have to give it to Greengeeks. It’s crazy how fast and reliable their customer support lines are. They have amazing response times and are available to help you with a variety of issues that may arise when developing your own website, and hosting it properly.
Bluehost sadly lacks that same level of customer support and while it still has pretty good support, it just doesn’t compare to that of Greengeeks.
Uptime – Greengeeks vs Bluehost
Uptime is a big component when it comes to choosing the proper web hosting solution. Having your website go down can be very bad. So it’s super important to make sure that whichever hosting service you end up using, they have a great uptime history.
We’ve done research on both hosting solutions, Greengeeks and Bluehost, and they both excel in their uptimes.
Greengeeks Uptime
Greengeeks floors the competition when it comes to uptime. They claim to have a 99.9% uptime, which is backed by our findings.
Bluehost Uptime
Bluehost has a pretty strong track record on their uptime. They boast about a 99.96% uptime on their website hosting, over the past couple of months.
Overall Winner
It’s tough to call a winner here as they are so close in uptime. When it comes to web hosting services, uptime is such a big factor that most hosts nowadays have over a 99% uptime rating. With both of these services reaching this uptime, it’s safe to say that they are both great services when it comes to uptime.
Pricing – Greengeeks vs Bluehost
The final criteria we will be judging between these two hosts is pricing. Pricing can be a major deciding factor when it comes to finding the best hosting solution. Luckily, in this case, both Greengeeks and Bluehost have outstanding pricing structures when compared to other competitors.
Greengeeks Pricing
Greengeeks only has a few hosting options when compared to Bluehost. The main plans are Web Hosting and WordPress Hosting. Both of these plans are basically identical, the only changing factor being that the WordPress Hosting is “WordPress Optimized”. Which from my experience just means that they have WordPress pre-installed and setup.
Their pricing plans look like:
You will find that their lowest end hosting plan is VERY cheap. At $2.95 a month, it’s definitely a steal. That being said, Greengeeks pricing excels when it comes to their bigger plans.
Their Ecosite Premium plan is only $11.95 and is their top performing tier.
Like Bluehost, these pricing schemes are based on a 3-year term and they increase if you lower the term length. Looking into their cheapest tier here is what it looks like based on the term length:
- 3-Year Term – $2.95 / month
- 2-Year Term – $3.95 / month
- 1-Year Term – $4.94 / month
- Monthly – $9.95 / month
One of the big benefits of using Greengeeks over Bluehost is that they have the option for monthly payments. Albeit, this is a much more expensive option when compared to a 3-year term.
Click here to visit GreenGeeks
Bluehost Pricing
Bluehost has a much more varied pricing structure then Wix, because they have multiple hosting options: Shared, VPS, and Dedicated hosting plans. We’ll be covering each of their pricing plans, but for comparison’s sake, the closest service to what Wix offers is their Shared Hosting plans.
Shared Hosting Plan Pricing:
When it comes to pricing, Bluehost separates their bundles into 4 different plans. Basic, Plus, Choice Plus, and Pro are their different plan, each having more features and capabilities than the previous. Throughout the review, we were assuming the usage of the Choice Plus plan, which In my opinion, is their best plan if you are looking for website hosting.
This plan starts at $5.45/mo, but this price can be deceiving because it requires you to purchase a much longer-term plan. To get this pricing you will need to purchase 3 years of their hosting service. So let’s dive into what the pricing is per month based on the term length purchase.
- 3 Year Term – $5.45 per Month
- 2 Year Term – $7.45 per Month
- 1 Year Term – $7.95 per Month
Overall, the pricing terms go up about 2 dollars per month if you buy a term that is shorter then 3 years.
Overall Pricing Greengeeks vs Bluehost
When it comes to pricing, both hosting solutions are pretty similar. I would say that Greengeeks is aimed much more towards less experienced users, they have a cheap solution for those looking to host a single site with decent performance. While Bluehost excels at giving a ton of different options for advanced users to go from shared hosting plans all the way to dedicated hosting plans, as they scale with growth.
Conclusion, Which is Better?
Now that we have gone over each of the criteria for both Greengeeks and Bluehost, it’s time to figure out which service will better fit your needs.
Greengeeks – Single Website, Fancy Features, Cheap Price, Great Customer Support
When it comes to Greengeeks, I believe this hosting solution is absolutely wonderful for those just starting out in the website scene. They have an amazing customer support team, access to features like site builders and emailing services and an easy to use user interface.
They are a very cheap option to get started with and have the option of expanding to bigger performing websites.
The drawback with Greengeeks is when it comes to more advanced users. Greengeeks starts to fall off in performance and usability when it comes to hosting multiple sites and growing into a large dedicated site. They lack the options of dedicated hosting, and their user interface is definitely more geared towards more simple hosting.
Click here to visit GreenGeeks
Bluehost – Multiple Websites, Fine Tune Control, Easy Management
Bluehost excels when it comes to managing multiple projects, and expanding when projects grow bigger. With the varied options, Bluehost provides, it’s very easy to switch over from shared hosting to a dedicated host when need be.
While Bluehost lacks the customer support you will find with Greengeeks it far exceeds in performance value, especially when hosting multiple websites.
The drawback of Bluehost is that its aimed at much more advanced users. Beginners will find it a bit more difficult to get started with a customer support line that is lacking when compared to Greengeeks.
Hopefully, this comparison of Greengeeks vs Bluehost helped you decide which hosting solution is the best fit for you. Please leave a comment with your experience with any of these hosts, or if you have any questions!