BlueHost vs WebFaction Web Hosting Comparison 2021

In order to help you get out of the dilemma of making a clear distinction of WebFaction and BlueHost, we have carried out a profound comparison by having a close and careful look at their web hosting services in terms of prices, features, performance and technical support. In the following, we are to make a comparison at length.

Since the feedbacks of customers reveal the quality of the services to some extent, we have thoroughly read hundreds of reviews from verified customers of these companies. In addition, to make sure objectivity, we also personally tried their services for more than 3 months. Consequently, we worked out detailed overall ratings of their services in the following table. Please refer to it for reference.

Rating
Plan in Review	Cloud Hosting	Standard
Overall
Features
Loading Speed
Reliability
Technical Support
Customer Ratings
Price	$9.50/mo	$14.99/mo

In the following, we are to lift the veil and reveal the secret of their services with a deeper insight.

Price

To serve medium sized business websites, WebFaction designs a cloud VPS package that is available for both short term and long term billing cycles. Its price is $9.50/mo for a monthly subscription. As for annual subscriptions, the price is $8.50/mo.

Being different with its competitor, BlueHost comes with a total of 4 upgradeable VPS packages that include Standard, Enhanced, Premium and Ultimate. The price is starting at $29.99/mo, $59.99/mo, $89.99/mo and $119.99/mo respectively. For this company is offering a 50% discount, everyone is able to purchase all packages with the price starting at $14.99/mo, $29.99/mo, $44.99/mo and $59.99/mo by going with this exclusive promotional link.

Price
Plan in Comparison	Cloud Hosting	Standard
Regular Price	$9.50/mo	$29.99/mo
Discount	N/A	50%
Discounted Price	$9.50/mo	$14.99/mo
Money Back	Anytime	60 Days

About money back guarantee, WebFaction promises 60 days whereas BlueHost provides 30 days. To be specific, the money back guarantee of WebFaction ensures 60 days full money refund while no money can be received after this period. Differently, BlueHost provides a 30 days full money back guarantee with prorated refund after this period. Besides, both of them support payments via PayPal and credits cards.

Feature

The package from WebFaction includes resources that are upgradeable including 100 GB disk space, 600 GB bandwidth and 512 MB applications memory. By comparison, packages of BlueHost come with minimum 2 GB RAM, 30 GB SAN storage, 1 TB bandwidth and 1 free domain. For they bear some differences in the amount of many resources and advanced features, we have made a clear table in the following.

Feature
Plan in Comparison	Cloud Hosting	Standard
Control Panel	Custom	cPanel
Disk Space	100 GB	30 GB
Bandwidth	600 GB	1 TB
Memory	512 MB	2 GB
Perl/Python/Ruby on Rails
	Not Recommended	Learn More

In the case of the control panel, WebFaction designs a custom one by itself whereas its competitor utilizes cPanel. Although these two control panel both make a great deal of contribution in saving time and energy to manage websites, still, it may result in maladjustment for some users who have been accustomed to the easy-to-use interface of cPanel.

Performance

Instead of operating data centers by its own, WebFaction has been renting data centers from SoftLayer that are equipped with high performance rack architecture, redundant infrastructure and audited physical security. Differently, BlueHost owns 3 data centers highlighted for UPS power and diesel generator, high performance Dell servers, and top-notch technologies.

Although WebFaction possesses advanced data centers, it still cannot keep competing with its competitor. The list in below is worked out based on detailed statistics we have gained after we have launched a real-time monitoring for more than 3 months.

• WebFaction: takes 99.97% uptime on the average.
• BlueHost: delivers approximately 100.00% uptime.

Server response time is another factor that matters to a great extent. According to a survey, only 1-second page load delay brings about 7% decrease in conversion rate, 11% fewer page views and 16% reduction in the satisfaction rate of visitors, which causes severe losses for medium sized businesses. To obtain real data, we personally tried the speed by hosting 2 websites on their servers respectively from which coming out the following statistics.

• WebFaction takes 795ms on the average.
• BlueHost takes 320ms on the average.

Technical Support

Technical support is consistently prioritized by many business websites for some urgent technical issues happen unexpectedly. Both of them provide technical assistance 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Meanwhile, knowledgebase of BlueHost and Q&A of WebFaction are available where webmasters are capable of seeking specific solutions to some common technical issues.

Nevertheless, the support of WebFaction is only reachable via email while that of BlueHost can be asked via toll-free phone, email and live chat. Without the responsive help through phone and live chat, some webmasters have to suffer from a great deal of inconveniences in seeking help to settle pressing difficulties.

Technical Support
Plan in Comparison	Cloud Hosting	Standard
Toll-free Phone
Email
Live Chat
How to Claim	Not Recommended	Link Activation

Conclusion- BlueHost Wins in the Competition

Seemingly, WebFaction offers a much affordable price, but its drawbacks in server response time and technical support make it fail in the comparison with its competitor. Based on our real hosting using experience, we personally consider BlueHost as the better option considering its faster loading speed and 24×7 US-based technical support.