AWS is the number 1 cloud hosting company. It is used by some of the largest companies in the world. Bluehost offers affordable shared/dedicated/VPS hosting packages. Its most popular service is shared hosting. It has also launched a handful of expensive dedicated server plans. Amazon has launched AWS plans for all budgets. For example, the cheapest instances cost below 10 dollars per month. Below, we’ve compared the subscriptions and features of Amazon Web Services and Bluehost. Let’s find out which service is best for users.
Services, data centers, and plans
Amazon provides over 100 services under AWS and has many data centers across the world. Bluehost offers just three services – hosting, domain registration, and Bluesky support and has 3 data centers, 1 in Asia and 2 in the US. The hosting service of Bluehost is divided into three categories – Shared, Dedicated, and VPS.
When it comes to packages, AWS provides 1000s of server configurations under these categories – large, small, medium, nano, and micro. The micro and nano instances are the cheapest, whereas large/medium servers are expensive.
AWS supports custom configuration by letting users link one or more services with their EC2 instance. For example, you can buy block storage and link it with your server while purchasing the web hosting subscription.
AWS lets you register a new domain or transfer a domain you own. The domaining service of AWS is called Route 53. It doesn’t include a free domain with any cloud hosting plan you purchase from AWS. Bluehost, on the other hand, lets you register various types of domains, and it also provides one free domain when you buy one of its following four shared hosting plans:
- Basic, Choice.
- Choice Plus, Pro.
You can buy an instance on an hourly basis on Amazon Web Services, but you can’t do so on Bluehost. BH offers monthly, annual, and 3-year hosting packs. The monthly subscription is costlier than the annual and 3-year plans. The annual subscription is cheaper than the monthly plan and costlier than the company’s 3-year package and offers the maximum discount to the users.
Cheap and Moderately priced servers
BH shared hosting packages cost between 2.95 and 11 dollars. The company offers four shared plans Basic, Pro, Choice Plus, and Choice. The Basic subscription supports one site, and the remaining plans support unlimited sites. The nano, small, tiny EC2 instances cost between 5 to 40 dollars.
BH VPS servers Standard, Enhanced, and Ultimate are priced between 29 and 119 dollars. The Standard and Enhanced plans provide a 2-core processor, 30/60GB storage, and 2GB/4GB RAM. The Ultimate server has a 4-core processor, 120GB storage, and 8GB RAM. Servers with similar configurations cost 30 to 80 USD on AWS.
Expensive servers
Bluehost has introduced these three dedicated hosting plans – Standard, Enhanced, and Premium. The plans are priced at 79.9, 99,9, 119.9 dollars per month and offer 4-core processor/4GB RAM/500GB storage, 4-core processor with 8 threads/8GB RAM/1000GB storage, and 4-core processor with eight threads, 16GB RAM, 2TB storage. The servers with the same configuration cost 50 to 120 dollars on AWS. BH dedicated hosting plans ship with cPanel/WHM and dedicated IP addresses. Amazon Web Services doesn’t offer cPanel for free. Also, the outbound/inbound data transfer is chargeable on AWS.
Storage
AWS lets users choose the type of storage they would like to use. Before ordering your server, you can select HDD or SSD storage block. Bluehost servers have SSD instead of HDD.
Skills
As BH shared plans come with a cPanel tool, it is easy to manage a server and create backups if you’re using one of the plans. Amazon Web Services lets users buy a machine with cPanel. The cost of cPanel will be included in the bill. Managing the server in command line mode is not easy. You may have to log in to the server via SSH, run Linux commands, log in to the MySQL server, etc. Running commands without knowing their use can be dangerous. For example, if you delete an important configuration file, you will have to re-create the file from scratch, and if you activate a feature that makes the application/web server consume a considerable amount of RAM, your site may crash.
SSL Certificates
Bluehost users can activate an SSL certificate for their sites with a few clicks of a button. Amazon Web Services users use the Certificate Manager tool to generate SSL certificates for their sites. This service isn’t free. The price per certificate is 0.75 dollars.
Backups
Creating a backup of the site regularly is important. If you don’t back up the site and your site is hacked, you will be in big trouble. Users of some shared and VPS hosting packs of BH don’t have to worry about backups, as the company will create backups of their site every day. The plans we’re talking about are Choice Plus and Pro. AWS doesn’t offer a free backup service. It provides a paid backup service that costs 0.05/GB.
Free hosting
Amazon Web Services has a free tier that lets users try their cloud services without paying a dime. Although the validity of the free tier is a year, it comes with a time limit i.e. The hours accolated to your account will exhaust if your instance is on 24 hours a day for a month. AWS also provides free 5GB storage memory for deploying applications, saving files, etc. Bluehost doesn’t have a free tier. It has a 30-days money-back guarantee.
Apps
Both Amazon Web Services and Bluehost let users install apps such as WordPress, Joomla, etc, but as mentioned earlier, you’ll not be able to use cPanel unless you have purchased its license or have chosen a machine that comes with cPanel. BH provides a control panel tool. Developers with knowledge of Linux, and web/application servers don’t require a control panel as they can manage their sites via command-line tools such as PowerShell, terminal, etc. Users with a lack of technical knowledge require cPanel.
Closing words: Amazon Web Services and Bluehost offer affordable hosting plans. Anyone can use BH as this company gives its users access to a control panel tool. Amazon Web Services users must have knowledge of Linux or should be ready to spend extra money to use tools that will make their lives easier.
