Bluehost and HostGator: Same Company, Same Problems, Same Shit

For years, I recommended both Bluehost and HostGator on this site.

Commission from Bluehost: $65-$150/sale (tiered by volume) Commission from HostGator: $65-$150/sale (tiered by volume)

I knew they were owned by the same parent company (Newfold Digital, formerly Endurance International Group). I knew they overcrowded servers. I knew of their aggressive upselling. I knew support was declining.

I recommended them anyway because they paid me well.

Then I started tracking the actual data, processor specs, resource limits, complaint patterns, renewal pricing. The numbers told a story I couldn’t ignore anymore.

This article is me fixing that mistake.

Why Comparing Bluehost vs HostGator is Pointless

When you compare Bluehost vs HostGator, you’re not comparing competitors.

They’re owned by the same company: Newfold Digital.

Same parent company.
Same infrastructure approach.
Same pricing model.
Same support outsourcing.

The only real difference is the logo on the login page.

The Newfold Digital Empire

Newfold Digital doesn’t just own Bluehost and HostGator. They own 50+ hosting brands:

Shared Hosting Brands:

• Bluehost
• HostGator
• HostMonster
• JustHost
• PowWeb

Domain Services:

• Domain.com
• Register.com
• MyDomain

Other Hosting:

• Site5
• Netfirms
• Verio

This isn’t competition. It’s a monopoly disguised as choice.

The Acquisition Pattern

Here’s how it works:

1. Newfold acquires a decent hosting company
2. Cuts infrastructure costs (overcrowds servers)
3. Outsources support (quality declines)
4. Raises renewal prices
5. Waits for customers to leave or pay more
6. Acquires next company, repeats

The evidence:

• Bluehost was well-regarded before the 2010 EIG acquisition
• HostGator’s reputation declined after the 2012 acquisition
• Every major EIG/Newfold acquisition follows this pattern

You can verify this yourself by checking historical reviews on Reddit r/webhosting, Web Hosting Talk, and TrustPilot. Watch the sentiment shift after acquisition dates.

The Performance Problem

Let me show you what you’re actually getting with your money.

Processor Technology

Bluehost:

• CPU: Unspecified (they won’t disclose)
• Clock speed: Unspecified
• Release date: Unknown
• Server: Apache

HostGator:

• CPU: AMD Opteron 6376
• Clock speed: 3.2 GHz (turbo)
• Release date: November 2012
• Server: Apache

HostGator is running 13-year-old processor technology from 2012.
Bluehost won’t even tell you what processors they use.

For comparison, here’s what modern hosting looks like:

Hetzner:

• CPU: AMD EPYC 7002/7003/9654 or Intel Xeon Gold
• Clock speed: Varies by processor (3.5-4.0+ GHz typical)
• Release date: 2019-2024 (depending on server assignment)
• Performance tier: Enterprise-grade server processors
• Server: Unmanaged (you choose: Nginx, Apache, LiteSpeed, etc.)

Scala Hosting:

• CPU: AMD EPYC 9474F
• Clock speed: 4.1 GHz (turbo)
• Release date: November 2022
• Performance tier: Top 2% of server processors (PassMark rank: 33/5374)
• Server: OpenLiteSpeed

ChemiCloud:

• CPU: AMD EPYC 9354
• Clock speed: 3.8 GHz (turbo)
• Release date: November 2022
• Performance tier: Top 6% of server processors
• Server: LiteSpeed

The performance gap isn’t minor. It’s generational.

Storage and Infrastructure

Storage type:

• Bluehost: NVMe
• HostGator: SATA (slower than NVMe)
• Hetzner: NVMe
• Scala: NVMe
• ChemiCloud: NVMe

PHP handler:

• Bluehost: LSPHP
• HostGator: FCGI (significantly slower)
• Scala: LSPHP (faster)
• ChemiCloud: LSPHP (faster)

Server caching:

• Bluehost: Basic plugin
• HostGator: Basic plugin
• Scala: LiteSpeed + Redis object cache
• ChemiCloud: LiteSpeed + Redis object cache

HostGator combines outdated processors with SATA storage and slow PHP handlers. That’s why sites hosted there feel sluggish even with optimization.

The Resource Limit Trap

Both Bluehost and HostGator advertise “unlimited” hosting. Here are the actual limits from their Terms of Service:

Bluehost Resource Limits

According to Bluehost’s official documentation:

• Inodes: 200,000 maximum (50,000 soft limit)
• CPU time: Roughly 8% of CPU cycles (enforcement varies)
• Database tables: 5,000 maximum
• Total database storage: 10GB
• Single database limit: 5GB

HostGator Resource Limits

According to HostGator’s official documentation:

• Inodes: 200,000 (website removed from backups at 100,000)
• CPU usage: 25% maximum for 90 seconds
• Database tables: 5,000
• Total database storage: 10GB
• Single database limit: 5GB

What This Actually Means

These limits sound abstract until you hit them:

• 200,000 inodes gets exceeded with 2-3 WordPress sites running WooCommerce or media-heavy content
• 3 seconds of CPU time or 25% CPU usage triggers throttling with modest traffic (5,000-10,000 visits/day)
• When you hit these limits, your site slows down or shows 5xx errors
• Support response: “You need to upgrade to a higher plan”
• You upgrade, hit the limits again at higher traffic
• The cycle repeats until you’re paying $30+/month or you migrate away

This isn’t resource management. It’s a forced upsell system built on artificial scarcity.

How Other Hosts Compare

Hetzner Cloud VPS:

• Inodes: No limit (you control the entire VPS)
• CPU: Dedicated vCPU cores (no throttling or sharing)
• 100% CPU usage allowed on your allocated resources
• Resources scale by upgrading instance size

ChemiCloud:

• Inodes: 500,000 (2.5x more than Bluehost/HostGator)
• CPU: 3 cores + 3GB RAM (actual dedicated resources)
• Scalable to 6 cores/6GB without forced upgrades
• No hidden throttling

Scala Hosting:

• Inodes: Unspecified (more flexible enforcement)
• CPU: Dedicated resources with 4.1 GHz processors
• No artificial CPU time limits
• Resources scale with actual usage

The difference: these hosts provision adequate resources upfront instead of forcing upgrades through artificial limits.

The Pricing Trap

Here’s where the real scam happens (unfortunately this is NOT unique to only Newfold Media/EIG companies)

Bluehost Pricing (Choice Plus Plan)

What they advertise:
“Starting at $5.45/month”

What you actually pay:

• Year 1: $5.45/month (requires 3-year prepayment = $196.20 upfront)
• Renewal price: $21.99/month ($791.64 for 3 years)
• Price increase: 303%

HostGator Pricing (Business Plan)

What they advertise:
“Starting at $6.25/month”

What you actually pay:

• Year 1: $6.25/month (3-year prepayment = $225 upfront)
• Renewal price: $19.99/month ($719.64 for 3 years)
• Price increase: 220%

The Dark Patterns

1. Forced long-term commitment: To get the advertised price, you must prepay for 3 years
2. Auto-renewal enabled by default: Most customers forget to disable it
3. Early billing: Both bill 15 days before renewal (less time to migrate if you notice)
4. Renewal notices: Bluehost sends notice 30 days prior, HostGator 45 days prior (but many customers miss these emails)
5. The lock-in: After prepaying for 3 years at the promo rate, the psychological barrier to leaving is higher

Transparent Pricing Comparison

Scala Hosting:

• Start plan: $5.95/month
• Renewal: $14.95/month
• Increase: 151% (still lower than Bluehost’s renewal)
• No forced 3-year contract

ChemiCloud:

• Turbo plan: $4.49/month
• Renewal: $19.95/month
• Increase: 344% (comparable, but faster infrastructure)
• 45-day money-back guarantee vs 30 days

Hetzner Cloud VPS:

• CX11: €4.49/month (~$4.90)
• Renewal: €4.49/month (same price)
• Increase: 0%
• Monthly billing, cancel anytime

I’m not claiming Scala or ChemiCloud don’t have renewal increases. They do. The difference is the performance you get for that renewal price actually justifies it.

What Customers Actually Say

I track hosting complaints across multiple sources: TrustPilot, BBB, Reddit, Web Hosting Talk, and WordPress forums. Here’s what the data shows:

Renewal Complaints (Year-over-Year % Change)

• GoDaddy: ↑58% average (1,418 total complaints)
• Bluehost: ↑47% average (552 total complaints)
• HostGator: ↑28% average (252 total complaints)
• Scala Hosting: ↑237% average (1 total complaint)

Yes, Scala’s percentage increase looks alarming, until you realize it’s going from zero complaints to one complaint total.

Performance Complaints

• GoDaddy: ↓62% average (256 complaints - trending worse)
• Bluehost: ↑8% average (304 complaints)
• HostGator: ↓6% average (139 complaints)
• Scala Hosting: 0 complaints tracked
• ChemiCloud: 0 complaints tracked

TrustPilot Ratings

• GoDaddy: 4.7/5
• Bluehost: 4.6/5 (25,766 reviews)
• HostGator: 4.6/5 (15,365 reviews)
• Scala Hosting: 5.0/5
• ChemiCloud: 4.9/5

Note: TrustPilot ratings can be heavily influenced by review solicitation immediately after purchase, before customers experience renewal pricing or performance issues.

BBB Complaints (Last 3 Years)

• GoDaddy: 1,300+ complaints
• Bluehost: 500+ complaints (marked as “pattern of complaints” by BBB)
• HostGator: 100+ complaints (marked as “pattern of complaints” by BBB)
• Scala Hosting: 0 complaints
• ChemiCloud: Not enough data (smaller company)
• Hetzner: Not enough data (European company)

When the Better Business Bureau marks your complaint pattern, that’s not a good sign.

CPU Limit Complaints

• Bluehost: ↓88% average (6 complaints - meaning it’s getting worse)
• HostGator: 0 tracked complaints (surprisingly)
• GoDaddy: ↓85% average (17 complaints - getting worse)
• Scala Hosting: 0 complaints
• ChemiCloud: ↑212% average (1 total complaint)
• Hetzner: 0 complaints

The negative percentages mean complaints are increasing—the situation is deteriorating.

The SiteLock Malware Allegations

In my opinion, this is one of the most predatory practices in the hosting industry.

How the alleged scam works:

1. You’re hosting with Bluehost or HostGator
2. You receive an email: “Your site contains malware”
3. Support recommends SiteLock scanning service ($199+ per site)
4. If you don’t purchase SiteLock, they threaten account suspension
5. The “malware” is often a false positive or minor issue you could fix for free
6. Even after manually cleaning your site, support may continue pushing SiteLock
7. Some customers report being charged for SiteLock without explicit consent

Why I believe this is problematic:

• The host profits from security failures they’re supposed to prevent
• Support appears to have incentive to diagnose malware regardless of actual threat
• Legitimate malware can usually be cleaned with free tools (Wordfence, Sucuri Scanner)
• Charging $199+ for what should be included security seems predatory to me

Evidence:

You can verify these complaints yourself on:

• Reddit r/webhosting discussions (search “SiteLock”)
• Better Business Bureau complaints
• TrustPilot reviews mentioning “SiteLock scam” or “malware extortion”

In my opinion, GoDaddy allegedly uses similar tactics.

Support Quality Decline

In my opinion, both Bluehost and HostGator have extensively documented support issues based on customer complaints across multiple platforms.

Common Support Complaints

Long wait times:

• Average response: 45+ minutes for live chat
• Ticket responses: 24-72 hours common
• Phone support: 30+ minute hold times reported

Outsourced support:

• Appears to heavily rely on overseas support centers (based on customer reports)
• Scripted responses that don’t solve problems (common complaint pattern)
• Support staff allegedly lacking technical depth
• Language barriers in some cases (according to reviews)

Pressure tactics:

• Support pushing upgrades instead of solving issues
• Recommending SiteLock for minor problems
• Suggesting plan upgrades when CPU limits are hit
• Upselling add-ons during support interactions

Account issues:

• Difficulty canceling accounts (no self-service option on HostGator)
• Continued billing after cancellation
• Account suspensions without adequate warning
• Deleted websites “under sole discretion” (per ToS)

Support Rating Comparison

BBB accreditation:

• Bluehost: F rating
• HostGator: F rating (previously A+, downgraded)

Google My Business ratings:

• Bluehost: 1.3/5
• HostGator: 3.8/5
• Scala Hosting: 4.9/5
• ChemiCloud: 5.0/5

In my opinion, the decline is measurable and documented across multiple review platforms. Verify the ratings yourself using the links above.

Why Everyone Recommends Them

Let’s address the elephant in the room: affiliate commissions.

Commission Structure

Bluehost affiliate program:

• Commission: $65-$150 per sale (tiered based on monthly volume)
• Cookie duration: 90 days
• EPC (Earnings Per Click): High due to brand recognition

HostGator affiliate program:

• Commission: $65-$150 per sale (tiered based on monthly volume)
• Cookie duration: 60 days
• EPC: High due to aggressive marketing

Note: The commission ranges reflect volume tiers - higher volume affiliates earn more per sale.

Why this matters:

When a review site can make $150 per sale, there’s enormous incentive to recommend these hosts regardless of quality. That’s why you see them at #1 on almost every “best hosting” list.

Popular affiliates who promote them extensively:

• Pat Flynn (discussed it openly on his podcast)
• Basically every “how to start a WordPress blog” YouTube channel
• WordPress.org recommended hosting (selection is subjective and opaque, though not technically “paid” - WordCamp sponsorship appears to correlate with listing)
• and basically every YouTuber with a “how to start a WordPress blog” channel

My Old Approach vs New Approach

What I used to do:

• Rank by commission potential
• Bluehost paid $65-$150 → Rank #1
• HostGator paid $65-$150 → Rank #2
• Performance didn’t matter if the commission was high
• Made thousands promoting them

What I do now:

• Rank by actual performance and value
• Test infrastructure and track complaints
• Recommend what I’d actually use
• Sometimes accept lower commissions for better products

Current recommendations with commissions disclosed:

• Scala Hosting (+$100/sale - yes, I make similar or more depending on tier, but they legitimately outperform)
• ChemiCloud ($100/sale - comparable commission, significantly faster infrastructure)
• Hetzner ($0/sale - I make nothing, still rank #1 for VPS because it’s the best value)

The difference isn’t always that I make less - sometimes I make similar commissions. The difference is I rank by quality instead of just commission rate. Hetzner pays me nothing, and I still recommend it over hosts that would pay me $150/sale.

Alternatives to Bluehost and HostGator

If you’re currently on Bluehost or HostGator, here are legitimate alternatives:

For Shared Hosting

Scala Hosting - $5.95/month

What you get:

• SPanel control panel (better than cPanel, included free)
• OpenLiteSpeed servers (faster than Apache)
• AMD EPYC 9474F processors (top 2% performance)
• 4.1 GHz turbo clock speed
• Actual dedicated resources (no hidden throttling)
• Transparent renewal pricing ($14.95/month)

Commission disclosure: +$100/sale (I make more than from Bluehost, but the performance justifies the recommendation)

ChemiCloud - $4.49/month

What you get:

• ~100ms global TTFB (extremely fast)
• LiteSpeed servers
• AMD EPYC 9354 processors (top 6% performance)
• 3 cores + 3GB RAM (scalable to 6/6)
• 500,000 inodes (2.5x more than Bluehost/HostGator)
• 10-200 free migrations
• 45-day money-back guarantee

Commission disclosure: $100/sale (less than Bluehost)

For VPS/Cloud Hosting

Hetzner Cloud - €4.49/month (~$4.90)

What you get:

• German infrastructure (excellent reliability)
• NVMe SSD storage
• AMD EPYC or Intel Xeon processors
• No renewal price increases (€4.49 stays €4.49)
• Transparent billing
• Excellent API and developer tools
• For developers comfortable with unmanaged hosting

Commission disclosure: $0/sale (I make nothing recommending Hetzner)

Migration Guide

If you decide to leave Bluehost or HostGator:

Timing strategy:

• Don’t wait until renewal date (they bill 15 days early)
• Disable auto-renewal immediately
• Plan migration at least 30 days before renewal

Backup first:

• Full site backup (files + database)
• Download to local computer
• Don’t rely solely on host’s backup system

Domain transfer considerations:

• Unlock domain at current registrar
• Get authorization/EPP code
• Transfer takes 5-7 days typically
• Consider transferring domains separately (Cloudflare, Namecheap cheaper)

DNS propagation:

• Update nameservers at domain registrar
• Can take 24-48 hours
• Keep old hosting active during transition
• Test thoroughly before canceling old account

Cancellation process:

• Bluehost: Can cancel through cPanel
• HostGator: Must contact support (no self-service cancellation)
• Request refund for unused time (rarely granted, but try)
• Get confirmation of cancellation in writing

Fighting for refunds:

• Reference their money-back guarantee if within 30 days
• File BBB complaint if they refuse legitimate refund
• Credit card chargeback as last resort (if fraudulent charges)
• Document everything

The Bottom Line

Bluehost and HostGator are owned by the same company running the same playbook:

• Use outdated infrastructure (or won’t disclose specs)
• Advertise low prices, jack them up 200-300% at renewal
• Set resource limits low enough to force upgrades
• Outsource support to cut costs
• Allegedly profit from security problems through SiteLock
• Spend marketing budget on affiliates instead of infrastructure

I recommended them for years because they paid me well. Then I looked at the data.

The processor gap alone is disqualifying: 2012 technology vs 2022 technology matters.

The resource limits are designed to force upgrades: 200,000 inodes and 3 seconds CPU time aren’t technical necessities, they’re business model decisions.

The renewal pricing is predatory: 240%+ increases aren’t market rates, they’re lock-in exploitation.

I could keep recommending Bluehost at $150/sale. I chose to recommend hosts that actually work, even though some pay comparable amounts (ChemiCloud $100) and some pay nothing (Hetzner $0).

That’s the integrity level I’m aiming for now: 6/10. Not perfect. Still using affiliate links. But ranking by quality instead of commission.

Don’t Trust Me — Verify Everything

Seriously. Check my claims:

• Processor specs: Search “[host name] server specifications” or check their knowledge base
• Resource limits: Read Bluehost and HostGator Terms of Service (search “resource usage” or “acceptable use”)
• Pricing: Visit their websites, click through to see renewal prices
• Complaints: Check BBB profiles, TrustPilot, Reddit r/webhosting, Web Hosting Talk
• Commission rates: Join affiliate programs yourself and see the payout structures

If I’m full of shit, you’ll find out. That’s the point.

Full disclosure: I make money from affiliate links to Scala Hosting (+$100/sale) and ChemiCloud ($100/sale), and nothing from Hetzner ($0/sale). Bluehost offered $65-$150/sale depending on volume. I rejected it because the performance doesn’t justify the recommendation, no matter what they pay.