Bluehost vs. Nexcess Hosting (2023)

Looking for the right web host to support your business website?

That search can seem endless at times. Trying to find the right web host has practically made me want to go off the grid before.

That was at the beginning of my tech career. Now, over a decade later, I have tons of experience helping beginners navigate the web hosting world to find their best match.

If you’re torn between Bluehost and Nexcess, look no further. This review will give you an efficient-yet-complete overview of each provider so that you’ll have a clear next step by the time you’re done reading.

Let’s get started!

How Did We Test Bluehost & Nexcess Hosting?

At TYB, we’re highly committed to the most honest and thorough testing standard with trusted software. We value lab testing & data collected there above our points of view.

To gather information for this review, we set up two staging sites: one for Bluehost and one for Nexcess. We then measured results in the following areas:

• Hosting Types & Features
• Performance & Speed
• Ease of Use
• Pricing & Value
• Website Security
• Help & Support
• WordPress Features
• Extras

Bluehost vs. Nexcess Winner:

Pick Bluehost if you:

• Need to start an affordable site
• Plan on running a small-scale site without tons of traffic
• Prefer unmanaged hosting

Our Bluehost review goes more in-depth on all of its services and features to help you decide.

Pick Nexcess if you:

• Need a site that can handle traffic
• Run a larger-scale website
• Prefer managed hosting
• Are not interested in dedicated or VPS solutions

Check out our Nexcess review for more information.

What is Bluehost Web Hosting?

Bluehost is a Utah-based web hosting platform owned by Endurance International Group (EIG). It’s one of the world’s most popular web hosting platforms and collectively hosts two milion+ websites. 

Bluehost offers a wide range of hosting options, including managed WordPress, WooCommerce, shared, dedicated, and VPS.

You can also purchase domain names and other specialty features using their services.

Who Uses Bluehost?

Bluehost is a popular web hosting service provider for individuals who plan to use WordPress to build their site and those willing to commit to a three-year hosting plan.

WordPress recommends Bluehost to bloggers looking to create a site quickly. Because of their reciprocal relationship, Bluehost and WordPress have tons of integrations to make combining their services a breeze.

What are the Benefits of Bluehost?

Bluehost is extremely affordable, a big plus in the hosting world. You don’t want to overpay for your web hosting, especially if you only run a small-scale blog or business website. Bluehost also doesn’t come with any hidden fees.

Its plethora of WordPress integrations is also a bonus, as it can make the setup process easy and help you design a unique, eye-catching site.

Bluehost isn’t known for overwhelming clients with expensive upgrades, either. The hosting service actually seems to really care about offering genuinely reliable hosting, as seen by features like a free domain name, free SSL and Cloudflare, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Where Bluehost Falls Short

While Bluehost doesn’t necessarily shove upgrades down users’ throats, they do require domain renewal after the first year at a high price compared to the average. 

Furthermore, their hosting services are limited when it comes to Cloud and Windows hosting — they don’t offer either. 

Finally, Bluehost isn’t spectacular regarding uptime, which their lack of an uptime guarantee reflects. This should be fine for small websites, but it’s tricky to imagine a large-scale enterprise site successfully dealing with spotty uptime. 

What is Nexcess Hosting?

Nexcess is a subset of Liquid Web hosting, which is a company famous for its reliable hosting capabilities.

Nexcess tends to keep a low profile, so I wouldn’t be surprised if you haven’t heard of it. Nevertheless, it’s a top option for small businesses and individual site owners — and it has been for over 22 years.

This hosting provider offers management for popular systems like WooCommerce, Magento, and WordPress. They also provide cloud hosting.

Who Uses Nexcess?

Nexcess is an excellent option for site owners who prefer managed hosting. Managed hosting is similar to dedicated hosting in that your web server(s) are solely used for your business. This type of hosting tends to come with better uptime and speeds.

As such, large enterprises and small businesses alike can benefit from Nexcess’s fast speeds and site monitoring.

What are the Benefits of Nexcess?

Considering their advanced hosting solutions, Nexcess is extremely easy to use with exceptional customer service. It’s a stellar option for beginners.

Furthermore, Nexcess offers fantastic uptime and speeds.

Where Nexcess Falls Short

Nexcess is slightly more expensively priced than companies like Bluehost. However, the quality of their services matches the prices. Managed hosting tends to be more expensive than most other types.

If you’re not interested in managed hosting and want total control over your servers, Nexcess isn’t the right provider.

Nexcess vs. Bluehost: The Details 

Now that I’ve covered some general information about Nexcess and Bluehost, let’s get into the details and see how they stand against each other.

What Types of Hosting Does Bluehost Have?

Bluehost offers these hosting types:

• Shared hosting
• Dedicated hosting
• VPS hosting
• WordPress hosting
• Managed WordPress hosting
• WooCommerce hosting

What Types of Hosting Does Nexcess Have?

Nexcess offers these hosting types:

• Managed WordPress hosting
• Magento hosting
• WooCommerce hosting
• Drupal hosting
• Flexible cloud hosting

Winner: It’s a tie!

Both Nexcess and Bluehost offer hosting types that the other is lacking. Therefore, it’s not reasonable to stack them up against each other.

In fact, managed WordPress and WooCommerce are the only hosting types they have in common. Both of those options are suitable for small businesses!

Does Bluehost Have Uptime Issues?

Most web hosts offer an uptime guarantee, usually at 99.99%, since some downtime is to be expected with any host.

Bluehost, on the other hand, doesn’t offer an uptime guarantee. We didn’t experience any downtime during our testing, but many reviews contain complaints about Bluehost’s uptime on larger sites. We likely avoided downtime because our site got few visits.

Does Nexcess Have Uptime Issues?

Nexcess offers a 99.99% uptime guarantee, which matched perfectly during our testing. Nexcess went down only twice, with each outage lasting less than one minute.

Nexcess reviews, on the other hand, boast primarily of their impressive and reliable uptime for larger websites.

Winner: Nexcess!

Nexcess offers a clearer-cut uptime guarantee and more consistent averages across the board. Bluehost tends to offer stable uptime primarily to small websites.

How Fast Is Bluehost?

Bluehost offers decent speeds on each of its hosting plans. The average load time for a Bluehost site is about 1.5 milliseconds, with an average response time of about 1.25 milliseconds.

How Fast Is Nexcess?

Nexcess offers many speed-optimizing techniques, including caching and SSD-powered servers, to ensure your site is running blazing-fast. They also provide CDN integration for image and video loading.

Winner: Nexcess!

Bluehost has fewer additional speed features than Nexcess. Although their loading times are generally quick, Nexcess is more reliable.

Bluehost Stress Test

During our testing, Bluehost’s shared hosting plan was able to handle 100 virtual users visiting at the same time. The site didn’t slow down or shut down, proving that their shared plans can take the heat.

Nexcess Stress Test

We conducted a stress test on Nexcess by sending 150 users to our Nexcess site simultaneously. This was on a managed WordPress hosting plan.

The Nexcess server showed no signs of lag. Instead, it maintained fast speeds and perfect uptime, undoubtedly able to handle traffic bursts.

Winner: It’s a tie!

The stress tests we conducted on these providers were slightly different, therefore, impossible to compare fairly. However, they both handled the trials spectacularly.

How Easy is Bluehost to Use?

Bluehost is straightforward to use, particularly if you’re searching for reliable WordPress hosting services.

With Bluehost’s comprehensive suite of tools, launching a website is extremely simple. Some of these tools include:

• Free site migration
• Additional SEO tools
• Data and weekly reports on website performance

Bluehost also has an accommodating team of knowledgeable individuals available 24/7 to make the website setup and management process as simple and stress-free as possible.

How Easy is Nexcess to Use?

Nexcess is also incredibly user-friendly.

The host provides a unique interface, which functions as a powerful and straightforward website control center. This tool is organized, intuitively designed, and packed with numerous features at the ready. Whether you’re just starting in web development or are an experienced master of the craft, using Nexcess will be effortless.

From their home screen, you can:

• Manage billing
• Manage your plans
• Connect domain names easily

Like Bluehost, Nexcess offers reliable customer support to troubleshoot potential site issues.

Winner: It’s a tie!

Both Nexcess and Bluehost are extremely easy to use. While Bluehost offers tons of WordPress integrations, Nexcess provides a comprehensive dashboard to control your account quickly. These are different features that will work for different site owners. All in all, though, their value is on par with each other.

Bluehost Pricing & Value

Bluehost offers highly affordable pricing. If you’re running a simple site, you don’t need to worry about breaking the bank with Bluehost available.

Nexcess Pricing & Value

Nexcess’s managed hosting environment moves us away from having to manage site maintenance and security. However, they stop users from being able to control detailed elements of the hosting environment.

Managed hosting tends to be more expensive than regular web hosting.

Winner: It’s a tie!

Bluehost and Nexcess offer different types of hosting, and their pricing reflects that. As such, comparing two completely different types of web hosts on a factor like pricing is senseless. However, Bluehost is the cheaper option.

How Secure is Bluehost?

If you’re looking for top-notch privacy and security features, Bluehost is an excellent choice – especially considering the competitive monthly price. Their plans offer automated backup options at no extra cost, as well as SSL certificates.

Even though other web hosts have more security specs than Bluehost, dedicated or VPS hosting on Bluehost allows users to customize their safety parameters completely.

It’s best to avoid shared hosting if you’re looking for top-notch security.

How Secure is Nexcess?

Because Nexcess is a managed hosting platform, its services come with constant security updates that protect your site from hackers. Nexcess also comes with iThemes security.

Winner: Nexcess!

Nexcess offers more in-depth security features, as with managed hosting. You’ll have to worry less about maintaining your site and keeping it immune to attacks.

Is Bluehost Customer Support Good?

Bluehost offers decent and reliable customer support. It’s available 24/7 via phone calls and live chat with tech experts. Bluehost also provides an in-depth knowledge directory with articles, video tutorials, and step-by-step guides.

Their customer support team isn’t always the fastest, as waiting times can take 30+ minutes on some days.

Is Nexcess Customer Support Good?

Nexcess, like Bluehost, has customer support reps available 24/7 via live chat and phone calls. However, these features are only available in the Americas, the UK, and Australia.

Their response times tend to be super quick. Their knowledge directory is also advanced, comprehensive, and easy to navigate.

Winner: Nexcess!

Nexcess offers more advanced customer support by virtue of being a managed hosting provider. Support agents must be more available to maintain your website with managed hosting.

Does Bluehost Offer WordPress Hosting?

Bluehost does offer WordPress hosting, both managed and unmanaged.

Does Nexcess Offer WordPress Hosting?

Nexcess offers only managed WordPress hosting. 

Winner: Bluehost!

Bluehost offers more types of WordPress hosting than Nexcess.

Will Bluehost Help With Website Migration?

Bluehost offers a free migration plugin to help you quickly transfer your website when switching hosting providers.

Will Nexcess Help With Website Migration?

Nexcess also offers free site migrations for any site, no matter how complicated or extensive.

Winner: It’s a tie!

Both web hosting platforms offer site migration services.

Does Bluehost Offer Email Hosting?

Bluehost offers an additional $4.99/mo email hosting for Office 365 functionality.

Does Nexcess Offer Email Hosting?

Nexcess offers Microsoft mailboxes for an additional $2/mo.

Winner: Nexcess

Nexcess email hosting plans are more affordable than Bluehost’s. 

Does Bluehost Have a Website Builder?

Bluehost offers a highly easy-to-use site builder called Bluehost Builder. With it, you can use drag-and-drop functionality to run a simple WordPress site quickly.

Does Nexcess Have a Website Builder?

Nexcess has a site builder specifically for online stores called StoreBuilder. You can test it for free before choosing a domain name, after which the site can go live.

Winner: It’s a tie!

Both sites offer intuitive and sleek site builders that should make getting a site up and running easy. Bluehost’s is more affordable, but it has fewer features, so both builders offer equal value for their prices.

Bluehost Alternatives 

If you like the sound of Bluehost but aren’t sure if it’s exactly right for you, here are some other hosts to consider.

A2 Hosting

A2 Hosting offers attractive features such as a free website migration and a reliable 99.9% uptime guarantee. However, Bluehost offers easy domain management tools and affordable price plans that might make it a better fit for your purposes.

If you need lots of bells and whistles or have more demanding requirements for speed and performance, A2 Hosting might be your best bet. But if you want something basic with a few extra goodies thrown in here and there, Bluehost is likely to fit the bill.

Dreamhost

Dreamhost and Bluehost are similar hosting services in that they both cater to smaller businesses and offer highly affordable pricing plans. The most significant benefit of Dreamhost over Bluehost is that they only require financial commitments one month at a time.

Nexcess Alternatives 

Here’s some follow-up reading before you decide that Nexcess is the right provider for you.

Liquid Web

Nexcess is a child of Liquid Web, so it’s worth considering if you like Nexcess’s uptime and speeds. Liquid Web is essentially the same as Nexcess in terms of customer support, uptime, and speed — the main difference is that it also offers VPS and dedicated hosting, which Nexcess does not.

Kinsta

Kinsta and Nexcess both offer wonderful managed hosting. Kinsta offers cloud hosting and is more expensive but better suited to enterprises than Nexcess.

Now You Decide

Nexcess or Bluehost? Or neither? It’s up to you.

I hope this comparison gave you a sense of your next step in this journey of finding a web host. Thanks for reading, and happy hunting.

If you still have any unanswered questions, please leave a comment!

Bluehost Vs. Nexcess FAQ