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As of October 2026, the main Bluehost alternatives fall into three groups: Hostinger for lower-cost shared hosting, Cloudways for several sites on one managed cloud server, and Kinsta, WP Engine or Liquid Web for managed WordPress. Bluehost’s own entry WordPress plan, Starter, costs $3.99 a month on a 36-month term and renews at $9.99 a month, so the useful comparison is renewal price, term length and what each plan leaves out.
This comparison is based on each host’s published plans, documentation and terms, checked in October 2026; it does not include our own speed tests.
Our Web Hosting Price Index tracks intro and renewal prices for 22 hosting plans, Bluehost Starter included.
In this guide
Bluehost alternatives at a glance
| Host and plan | Intro price and term | Renewal | Sites | Storage | Staging | Backups | Money-back |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bluehost Starter | $3.99/mo on a 36-month term | $9.99/mo | 10 | 10 GB NVMe | Yes | Weekly per plan card (FAQ says daily) | 30 days; not on monthly terms |
| Hostinger Premium | $2.99/mo on a 48-month prepay ($143.52) | $10.99/mo | 3 | 20 GB SSD | Not on entry-level plans | Weekly | 30 days |
| Cloudways, DigitalOcean 2GB | $24/mo, billed hourly (1GB from $11) | No intro rate shown | Unlimited | 50GB SSD | Free | Daily, kept 1 week by default | None published; 3-day free trial |
| Kinsta Single 35k | $35/mo or $350/yr; first month free on select plans | No intro rate shown | 1 | 10GB | Free | Daily, 14 days | 30 days, first-time customers |
| WP Engine Essential, 1 site | $35/mo, or $336 for the first year | Not published; $420/yr list | 1 | 10 GB | 1-click staging | Daily, kept at least 30 days | None published |
| Liquid Web Pro | $19/mo, or $17.10/mo billed annually | No intro rate shown | 1 | 15 GB (shared) | Yes | Daily, kept 14 days | Terms say fees are non-refundable |
What Bluehost’s entry plan costs
Bluehost’s WordPress hosting page sells Starter on three terms. The headline $3.99 a month needs a 36-month term (36 months at $3.99 comes to $143.64) and renews at $9.99 a month. A 12-month term was listed at $3.74 a month on October 11, 2026, down from $4.24 two days earlier, so that term’s price moves with promotions. At $3.74 it costs less up front than the 36-month price, but it renews at $11.99, $2 a month more. Month to month, Starter costs $15.99 a month.
For that, Starter includes 10 websites, 10 GB of NVMe storage, a traffic guide of 40,000 visits a month, weekly backups (the plan card’s wording; the same page’s FAQ describes daily off-site backups, so confirm with Bluehost which applies to Starter), free SSL, malware scanning, a CDN, SSH and WP-CLI, a WordPress staging site, a free migration tool and a free domain for the first year.
Some items cost extra or run out. The plan card lists Pro Email as a one-month free trial that renews at $2.50 a month, and says phone support is not included on Starter; it is on Business. Bluehost’s FAQ points to SiteLock and CodeGuard as security add-ons, and the domain is free for the first year only.
The refund policy matters if you are thinking about leaving. The 30-day money-back guarantee covers shared, VPS and dedicated hosting for new signups, but not “services with a monthly term,” and Bluehost deducts a fee for the domain from a money-back refund. After 30 days, renewals are refundable only within a 15-day prebill window, and products auto-renew by default.
Those terms are the reasons to compare: the price rises about 2.5 times at renewal on the 36-month term, the lowest price needs a three-year commitment, and email and phone support sit outside the entry plan.
Lower-cost shared hosting: Hostinger
Of the sites like Bluehost, Hostinger sells the most similar product: shared hosting run from its own hPanel, with WordPress, SSH and WP-CLI. Its Premium plan costs $2.99 a month only on a 48-month prepay ($143.52), then renews at $10.99. It allows 3 websites with 20 GB of SSD storage, free weekly backups, a free domain for a year and 2 mailboxes per website free for the first year, plus free unlimited migrations and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Staging is not on Premium: Hostinger’s staging docs say the feature is “plan-gated” and “entry-level plans see an upgrade prompt.” It fits 1 to 3 small sites if you can prepay four years. Our Hostinger vs Bluehost comparison covers the two head to head, and the Hostinger review covers its limits.
Several sites on one server: Cloudways
Cloudways manages a cloud server for you and lets you launch unlimited sites on it, so you pay per server instead of per site. On DigitalOcean Standard, its pricing page starts at $11 a month for 1GB of RAM and 25GB of SSD storage, billed at $0.0164 an hour. Its billing guide caps DigitalOcean servers at the monthly price and charges partial months only for the hours used, so there is no term to prepay.
Treat $11 as a test price. Cloudways’ getting started FAQ says 1GB servers are “primarily intended for testing and staging purposes” and advises 2GB or more for live sites: $24 a month, with 50GB of storage. As a guide, it says a 2GB server can handle 4 to 5 small sites with up to 110,000 combined page views a month.
Every server includes free staging and automated backups, which its backup guide sets to daily with one week’s retention by default. Offsite backup storage costs $0.033 per GB per server. Cloudways doesn’t host email on its own servers; mailboxes are an add-on. Its engineers migrate your first website free, and there is a 3-day free trial with no credit card, but the pricing page mentions no money-back guarantee.
It fits several WordPress sites, if you are comfortable choosing a server size. See our Cloudways pricing guide and Cloudways review.
Managed WordPress: Kinsta, WP Engine and Liquid Web
These hosts price by site and monthly visits, and their entry plans include daily backups.
Kinsta
Kinsta’s Single 35k plan costs $35 a month or $350 a year on its pricing page, for 1 WordPress site, 35,000 monthly visits and 10GB of storage. Sites are backed up every 24 hours with 14 days of retention, staging is free, and Kinsta’s team handles unlimited free migrations. New customers get the first month free on select plans, and the money-back guarantee covers 30 days for first-time customers.
Extras: another site costs $30 a month, visits over the cap cost $0.50 per 1,000 under its overage rules, and Kinsta doesn’t provide email. See our Kinsta pricing guide and Kinsta review.
WP Engine
WP Engine’s Essential plan for 1 site costs $35 a month billed monthly, or $336 for the first year billed annually, on its plans page. That annual price uses a new-customer coupon that is “not valid for upgrades, renewals,” the undiscounted annual price in the page’s plan data is $420, and the page says renewal pricing is “subject to change.”
The plan covers 25,000 visits a month, 10 GB of storage and 75GB of bandwidth, with daily and on-demand backups kept for at least 30 days, 1-click staging and development environments, and a free automated migration plugin. Its overage pricing page charges $2 per 1,000 extra monthly visitors on the Startup tier, the ID the plans page uses for Essential. There is no published money-back guarantee: the terms of service say fees “are not refundable except as expressly stated herein,” and plans auto-renew for the same term unless you give notice 30 days before it ends. See our WP Engine pricing guide and WP Engine review.
Liquid Web
Liquid Web’s entry Pro plan costs $19 a month, or $17.10 a month billed annually, on its managed WordPress page, with no intro discount shown. It covers 1 site and 50,000 monthly visitors, with 15 GB of shared storage, 2 TB of bandwidth, 14-day daily backups, staging and a self-serve migration tool.
The catch is in the terms of service: “all Fees are non-refundable.” See our Liquid Web pricing guide and Liquid Web review.
If you want an AI builder: 10Web
10Web bundles an AI website builder with managed WordPress hosting. Its AI Starter plan costs $10 a month billed annually ($120 for 12 months, against a regular price of $240) for 1 website, 10GB of storage and 10,000 monthly visitors, per its pricing page, which says the 30-day money-back guarantee applies until you claim the free domain. Its terms of service say “At 10Web we do not offer refunds for Platform subscriptions,” so check which applies before you buy. See our 10Web pricing guide.
How to switch from Bluehost
To leave Bluehost cleanly, work in this order.
- Pick the new host first. The migration help sits on its side: Hostinger offers free unlimited migrations requested in hPanel, Cloudways moves your first website free, Kinsta’s team runs unlimited free migrations, WP Engine provides a free automated migration plugin, and Liquid Web includes a self-serve tool.
- Test the copy on the new host before you change DNS.
- Sort out email first if your mailboxes are at Bluehost. Kinsta doesn’t provide email and Cloudways doesn’t host it on its own servers, so decide where mail will live before canceling.
- Point your domain at the new host. Bluehost lists domain registration and renewal fees as nonrefundable.
- Cancel on Bluehost’s timeline. Products auto-renew by default and renewals are refundable only within the 15-day prebill window, so turn off auto-renewal in Bluehost’s Renewal Center well before your term ends.
How to decide
- 1 to 3 small sites at the lowest first-term cost: Hostinger Premium, if a 48-month prepay suits you. Compare its $10.99 renewal with Bluehost’s $9.99.
- Several sites, no long term: Cloudways, from $24 a month for the 2GB server it recommends for live sites, plus offsite backup storage.
- One business site with staging, daily backups and migration help included: Kinsta or WP Engine at $35 a month on monthly billing. Kinsta publishes a 30-day money-back guarantee; WP Engine doesn’t.
- Managed WordPress for less than $35: Liquid Web at $19 a month, accepting that its terms rule out refunds.
- Staying with Bluehost: of the three Starter terms, the 36-month term shows the lowest renewal price, $9.99 a month.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good alternative to Bluehost?
For the same kind of shared hosting at a lower first-term price, Hostinger Premium costs $2.99 a month on a 48-month prepay and renews at $10.99. For several sites without a long term, Cloudways starts at $24 a month for the 2GB server it recommends for live sites. For managed WordPress, Kinsta and WP Engine list $35 a month on monthly billing, and Liquid Web $19.
Is Bluehost cheaper than Hostinger?
Not at intro prices. Hostinger Premium is $2.99 a month on a 48-month term ($143.52), while Bluehost Starter is $3.99 a month on a 36-month term ($143.64 over the term). Bluehost renews lower, at $9.99 a month against Hostinger’s $10.99, and allows 10 websites to Hostinger’s 3. Our Hostinger vs Bluehost comparison works through the four-year cost.
What is the best Bluehost alternative for WordPress?
For WordPress-specific management, Kinsta ($35 a month), WP Engine ($35 a month) and Liquid Web ($19 a month) include daily backups and staging on their entry plans. Kinsta’s money-back guarantee covers 30 days for first-time customers; WP Engine publishes none, and Liquid Web’s terms say fees are non-refundable.
Can you get a refund if you leave Bluehost?
Only in narrow windows. Bluehost’s refund policy offers 30 days for new signups on shared, VPS and dedicated hosting, minus a fee for the domain, and excludes monthly terms. After that, renewals are refundable only within the 15-day prebill window, and domain fees are nonrefundable.
Last checked: October 2026. Prices and plans change; check the vendor’s page before you buy.