If you’re wondering who would win in a clash between Bluehost vs Squarespace, this is the article for you.
In this Bluehost vs Squarespace comparison, I will reveal their strengths and weaknesses, analyze multiple very important factors, such as pricing, ease of use, performance, security and customer support.
In This Article ⤵️
- Bluehost vs Squarespace – Pricing Comparison
- Bluehost vs Squarespace – Ease of Use
- Bluehost vs Squarespace – Performance
- Bluehost vs Squarespace – Website Security
- Bluehost vs Squarespace – Customer Support
- Our Recommendations
- Awesome Alternatives
Bluehost vs Squarespace – Which One Is Better?
| Bluehost | Squarespace | |
| ⭐ Rating | 4.5⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | 4.0⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| 💲 Price from | From $2.95/month | 14-day free trial, starts from $11.00/month |
| 🌐 Free Domain | Yes | Yes |
| 💳 Payment types | Credit card and PayPal | Stripe, Paypal, Apple Pay and Afterpay |
| 🏘️ Hosting types | Shared, WordPress, WooCommerce, VPS, and dedicated hosting | Shared, VPS, Dedicated, WordPress, Cloud |
| 🚄 Average speed | 361ms | 460ms |
| 📑 Uptime guarantee | 99.9% | 99.9% |
| 🛡️ Security | Free SSL, 24/7 server monitoring, and Cloudflare DDoS protection | Free SSL certificate, free domain privacy |
| 👨💻 Support | 24/7 live chat, ticketing, and phone | Live Chat Monday to Friday 4:00am-8pm (EST), Email |
| 💰 Money-back guarantee | 30 days | For annual website subscriptions canceled within 14 days of the first payment |
| 🌎 Server locations | The US | North America and Europe |
| ➕ Extras | Staging, emails, website builder, Cloudflare CDN | Fully integrated ecommerce, Advanced website analytics, Powerful merchandising and more |
| 💻 Website | Visit Bluehost | Visit Squarespace |
Pricing Comparison – Clear Distinction Between the Two?
Bluehost offers shared hosting that starts from $2.95 per month, which is way lower than the $11 per month starting price of Squarespace plans. That automatically makes Bluehost way more affordable. But does the affordability come with a cost?
On the other hand, the cheapest $11 per month Squarespace plan offers a lot more features and conveniences. Some of them include unlimited bandwidth, squarespace AI, video hosting, the opportunity to sell products without worrying about shipping and fulfillment and more. Let’s get into more detail!
Bluehost’s Pricing
Bluehost‘s shared hosting is the go-to option for the majority of users. With the Basic plan you don’t get much, but in most cases it will be enough for individuals looking to start a small business and the main highlight of this plan is the affordability.
The plan includes free SSL, 10GB SSD storage and custom WP themes for a single website. The pricings of the plan are the following:
- Only $2.95 per month, if you purchase the 12 months plan
- $4.95 per month, if you purchase the 36 months plan
The Choice Plus plan is a big upgrade. It’s offering big 40GB SSD storage, free CDN, free domain privacy protection, you get to have 3 websites instead of one and a free domain name. The pricings of the plan are the following:
- $5.45 per month, if you purchase the 12 months plan
- $7.45 per month, if you purchase the 36 months plan
The Online Store plan is great for people who want to start an eCommerce business.
On top of all the Choice Plus plan features, the Online Store plan is offering tons of eCommerce/online store features. Some of them are exclusive store theme, store analysis and the huge $450 worth of eCommerce plugins included, for free! The pricings of the plan are the following:
- $9.95 per month, if you purchase the 12 months plan
- $12.95 per month, if you purchase the 36 months plan
The Pro plan is great for big businesses, or individuals with big business plans, to establish an online presence.
The main features of the plan are that you get to have not 3, but 5 websites, 100GB SSD, instead of 40, and it’s coming with more powerful and optimized web resources. The pricings of the plan are the following:
- $13.95 per month, if you purchase the 12 months plan
- $18.95 per month, if you purchase the 36 months plan
Squarespace’s Pricing
The Personal plan is Squarespace’s foundational plan with access to fully customizable, best-in-class templates. It’s also their cheapest plan.
What you’ll get is a free domain, mobile optimized templates, unlimited bandwidth, video hosting, squarespace AI and much more. The pricings of the plan are the following:
- $11 per month, if you purchase annually
- $15 per month, if you pay on monthly basis
With the Business plan on top of all the Personal plan features you get advanced website analysis, fully integrated eCommerce, professional email from Google, complete customization with CSS and Javascript, promotional pop-ups and banners and more, which is just awesome. The pricings of the plan are the following:
- $17 per month, if you purchase annually
- $24 per month, if you pay on monthly basis
With the Commerce Basic plan on top of all the Business plan features you get powerful merchandising, point of sale, product reviews, advanced merchandising features and more amazing stuff for eCom Businesses. The pricings of the plan are the following:
- $24 per month, if you purchase annually
- $28 per month, if you pay on monthly basis
The Commerce Advanced plan is the biggest and most feature-rich Squarespace plan. With this plan you will get all the tools necessary for the most advanced sellers and biggest businesses, maybe even too many features. The pricings of the plan are the following:
- $36 per month, if you purchase annually
- $42 per month, if you pay on monthly basis
Check Out All The Pricings & Features
Bluehost vs Squarespace – Ease of Use
When it comes to ease of use, both platforms are easy to use and beginner friendly. Bluehost has its custom dashboard, variety of tools and cPanel integration. On the other hand, Squarespace has a great account management dashboard and straightforward website editor.
Ease of use – Bluehost
Upon signing in, Bluehost will welcome you with a quick setup process. If you wish to, the platform will install a WordPress site for you and will take you through a setup wizard, but again, you can skip it if you wish.
It’s better to not skip it and go through it, which in result you will come out with a WordPress website already on your account. In the process, you can pick a theme that fits your needs, even some plugins. And, once you’re done, all that is left to do is to actually customize the site in the WordPress admin panel.
Ease of use – Squarespace
Same as Bluehost, Squarespace will also welcome you with a quick setup process and will lay the foundation for your future website. The platform will bring you through a setup similar to Bluehost’s, but it’s focusing on your choice of an awesome template, as the platform offers hundreds of beautiful free ones just perfect for eCommerce.
You will be asked some questions to make the best choice. And, after you pick it, you’ll be redirected to the website builder/editor to start customizing your website immediately.
Bluehost vs Squarespace – Performance
Performance is the key to ensuring a good user experience and search engine visibility. In this Bluehost vs Squarespace performance comparison I will compare their uptime and response time, and website speed.
Uptime and Response Time
According to Bluehost themself and many case studies, Bluehost’s uptime is 99.99%. As for the response time, it’s a speedy average of 361ms.
Squarespace, according to case studies, offers even a little better uptime. It’s 99.99%, which is the same as Bluehost’s, but what makes it better is the shorter and more rare outrages. But, if we talk about response time, its average is about 465ms, which is a little higher.
As a short conclusion I can make, both Squarespace and Bluehost are very fast and reliable.
Website Speed
A good website speed is very important for every hosting. We will be looking at these 3 metrics:
- The Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): It should be under 2.5 seconds. It shows a time when the majority of content is loaded.
- Fully Loaded Time (FLT): It speaks for itself. It’s best to keep it under 3 seconds.
- TTFB: This is the time a server takes to react when a web page is opened. 200ms is ideal, although not mandatory.
According to case studies, Bluehost’s Largest Contentful Paint and Fully Loaded Time are both the same – 1.7 seconds on average. This is a very good result! But, its TTFB is around 1 second, which isn’t great and may decrease the site’s performance a bit.
Squarespace has similar results – slightly better 1.3 seconds LCP and slightly worse 2.3 seconds FLT. It’s TTBF is slightly better – at around 600ms. The platform’s server is super quick to initially react, with TTFB at 82ms. Sadly, there was some 536ms blocking time, delaying the overall page load.
As a short conclusion I can make, both Bluehost and Squarespace load websites very quickly. At the same time, both have some weak spots – Bluehost’s servers take more time to react, while Squarespace lacks some optimization which delays page loading.
Bluehost vs Squarespace – Website Security
Good website security is essential and even more important in 2023. Happily, both Bluehost and Squarespace offer advanced website security features and cover the essentials. But with one big difference.
Both platforms offer free SSL certificates, the possibility to set up Cloudflare for DDoS protection and 24/7 monitoring. But, Bluehost will charge you for some extra security features, such as daily backups (for $2.99 per month) and web application firewall alongside malware removal is another (also $2.99 per month).
On the other hand, Squarespace offers free regular backups and in case there’s a critical error, you can request for your site to be restored. Also, WAF is on and managed by professionals.
As a short conclusion I can make, Squarespace undoubtedly offers better security features and policies. But, a thing that should be mentioned is that no matter which option you choose, the most common security vulnerabilities will be covered.
Bluehost vs Squarespace – Customer Support
When creating and running your website, it is inevitable that you will have questions and issues that you will need help with. That’s why great customer support is so important and deserves a mention.
When it comes to the battle of Squarespace vs Bluehost regarding customer support, the providers have different approaches. Bluehost excels with an easy-to-reach knowledgeable live chat, while Squarespace offers a very vast knowledge base before initiating direct contact.
Honorable mentions are Bluehost’s 24/7 phone call support option and Squarespace’s 24/7 email ticket.
As a short conclusion I can make, I can say for certain that Bluehost has more advanced and more accessible customer support, mainly because with Squarespace you can live chat with agents only from Monday to Friday 4:00am-8pm (EST), while Bluehost’s is 24/7, including phone support.
Bluehost vs Squarespace – Our Recommendations
Okay, so, which platform should you choose? The answer is it depends on your needs and business plans.
For example, if you are an individual looking to start a blog, a relatively small website or a small business, Bluehost is your go-to option. Why – because it’s more affordable and at the same time the features the platform offers are enough, even more than enough, depending on the plan you choose.
If you fit in the description of a person with ambitions to start a blog or a small business with a lower budget, our recommendation is to choose the Choice Plus Bluehost plan. It offers enough storage, free domain, free security features, and just enough features for your needs.
But, if you are a person, or a team with a budget, ready to create a professional online store business, Squarespace is your go-to choice. Squarespace should be your go-to choice for eCommerce and dropshipping, just because the platform is precisely created for online store owners.
But which plan to choose? The Squarespace’s Business plan offers the best value. It gives you enough features for your online business. But, the truth is that the 2 bigger plans (Commerce Basic and Advanced) offer even more awesome eCom features and if you have the budget, it’s better to go with either of those two plans.
Awesome Alternatives
If neither Bluehost and Squarespace seem like the option for you, there are two great alternatives you should look into. A great alternative to Bluehost is Hostinger, and an unique alternative to is 10Web. Let’s explore them a bit more:
10Web
10Web is a game-changing hosting platform. Why – because it offers an AI website builder which will create your desired online store and/or blog in just minutes!
It’s very easy and free to start creating your website with this awesome AI and view its preview – all you will need to do is to go to this page if you want to create an online store. If you want to create any other site type, go to this page.
But first of course, you can get to know more about 10Web and then decide if this amazing platform fits your needs.
Hostinger
Hostinger is an awesome hosting platform that offers even cheaper, and at the same time more feature-rich plans, starting from as low as $1.99 per month! The platform has some of the best performance across all shared hosting. You can learn more about Hostinger here.
