InterServer vs. Bluehost (2023)

By: Ryan Frankel

Editor: Lillian Castro

9/3/2023

Ryan Frankel Hosting Expert

“We tested Bluehost & InterServer — The winner is Bluehost!”

Searching for a web host feels a lot like house hunting. Two houses may share identical builds and price points, but the layout and features are different on the inside. InterServer and Bluehost are similar in providing a full range of shared, VPS, and dedicated hosting options at highly affordable rates. But just like every house hunt, one must come out on top, and that decision always comes down to individual features.

Overall Rating

4.9/5.0 ★★★★★

Basic Plan: $2.95/month »
Plus Plan: $5.45/month »
Pro Plan: $13.95/month »

Visit Bluehost »

Overall Rating

4.6/5.0 ★★★★★

Standard Web Hosting: $2.50/month »
Cloud VPS Hosting: $6.00/month »
Managed WordPress Hosting: $6.00/month »

Visit InterServer »

Disclosure: When you sign up through links on our site, we often earn referral fees from partners. For more information, see our ad disclosure and review policy.

Overall Hosting Comparison

Best Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.9/5.0

Bluehost has long been a favorite of mine in the shared and WordPress hosting spaces. The company adheres to modern standards for hardware, and its customer service resources are now backed by hosting industry titan Newfold Digital.

Bluehost’s shared hosting options will accommodate the vast majority of customers' needs. Independent proprietors, small business owners, and non-developers needn't look beyond the host's shared server (read: cheap hosting) plans.

Once your website outgrows the traffic allowances of a shared hosting plan, however, Bluehost excels in the VPS hosting and dedicated server niches, too.

Bluehost has revamped its user experience — beefing up the user-friendliness factor significantly in recent years. Users will find the web host dashboard and overall customer experience to be welcoming.

Easily navigate installing popular apps, such as WordPress, Joomla, or Zen Cart, with the familiar cPanel control panel. The domain management panel makes it easy to add on domain services, should you choose to opt for an upgraded plan, where domain privacy and support for unlimited domain names come standard.

If you’re looking for WordPress hosting specifically, whether on a shared, virtual, or dedicated server, you’ve come to the right host. Bluehost is one of the few providers endorsed by the WordPress Core team, ranked among SiteGround and DreamHost.

Install the popular blogging platform in a single click via the web hosting control panel, or have the Bluehost pros take care of it for you by leveraging a managed WordPress hosting service.

As previously mentioned, Bluehost also tops the charts in VPS and dedicated server hosting — offering fantastic performance at competitive prices.

With two to four cores and guaranteed resources, your virtual or dedicated server will be performant, powerful, and online virtually 24/7.

The Bluehost team leverages industry-leading open-source technologies, such as KVM and OpenStack, to eke out as much performance as possible, leaving you with the utmost flexibility and reliability.

And in case you're not quite yet sold: Both the VPS and dedicated hosting plan options include instant provisioning because waiting for your server is so 2000s.

Read on for more Bluehost reviews as we rate the web hosting company for affordability, reliability, ease of use, as well as the features offered in each hosting product category.

Up to unlimited website domain and email hosting
1-click WordPress installs and software updates
Support for popular shopping carts with FREE SSL
Up to $200 in Microsoft and Google Ad credit
Industry-leading hardware and uptime rates
Get started on Bluehost now.

Money Back Guarantee

30 days

Disk Space

10 GB SSD - 100 GB SSD

Domain Name

FREE (1 year)

Best Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.6/5.0

As tech-savvy teenagers in the days of dial-up internet, Mike Lavrik and John Quaglieri started InterServer to show their former hosting providers how it should be done. Fed up with their hosting options, Mike and John created InterServer on a strong foundation of technical expertise and customer support.

Now, InterServer is a refreshing, independent hosting option built on modern infrastructure that is assembled, deployed, and supported at the datacenter housed in company headquarters in New Jersey.

InterServer's robust shared plans come with the features you'd expect from higher-tier providers: unlimited storage, bandwidth, email, and SSL certificates, along with power-packed SSDs, free migrations, and affordable domains.

Rookie site owners might be intimidated by InterServer's long list of features, but each will help customers large and small succeed in their hosting ventures.

InterServer can't match the low prices of some of the mass-market competitors out there when it comes to shared hosting, but they become exponentially more affordable as your website or application grows to VPS or dedicated plans — especially when you consider the perks of 24/7 on-site support and IT-minded Co-Founders who still manage the datacenter and respond to support tickets.

No matter which level of hosting you need, InterServer offers a price-lock guarantee. Whatever price you sign up for, that's what you'll pay as long as you have the account (unless you add or upgrade services).

You'll never be surprised with a rate increase or be locked into lengthy contracts. We're struggling to come up with another hosting provider who can make that promise.

Independently owned datacenter and NO contracts
24/7 on-site support through chat, phone, and tickets
Same price guaranteed for life
Unlimited storage, sites, and email
FREE website migration, caching, and security tools
Get started on InterServer now.

Money Back Guarantee

30 days

Disk Space

Unlimited SSD

Domain Name

New or Transfer

Cheap Hosting Comparison

Cheap Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0

#4 out of 10 in Cheap Hosting reviews

Bluehost pricing is about as competitive as the industry offers.

Sign up for a shared hosting plan for as little as $2.95 per month, and WordPress hosting packages are consistently priced; a VPS plan starts at around $19.99 per month; and the dedicated hosting rates are as little as $79.99 per month. The only way to feasibly sweeten this deal would be a free trial, which, unfortunately, the hosting company does not offer.

However, the 30-day money-back guarantee is marketed heavily. The Bluehost customer support team promises complete service satisfaction or a full refund.

Bluehost hosting has reputation for affordability and usability, which both web novices and veterans can appreciate.

Unlimited website hosting — from domains and email to disk space — is available with almost all plans. Even the most basic Bluehost plan sets users up for success with ample hard disk storage, unmetered bandwidth, and both a free SSL certificate and free domain registration for the first year of hosting service.

Optional add-on services, such as automated backups, and complimentary marketing credits for select plan holders sweeten an already attractive hosting bargain. Some common freebies we love seeing include:

Free domain name registration (for the first year of service)
Free Let's Encrypt SSL certificate (also for the first year)
Free website builder (Weebly, an industry favorite)

Due in part to its affordability but mostly the quality of service, most Bluehost reviews will rank the hosting company atop (or near the top of) lists of the best shared, VPS, and/or WordPress hosting services.

You'll see similar results from our Bluehost review. We regularly recommend Bluehost hosting products that are geared toward beginners, including shared, WordPress, and WooCommerce hosting customers, where cost and ease of use are top priorities.

Bluehost is a solid, reputable choice of hosting provider with competitive pricing, industry-standard hardware performance, and all the premium add-ons imaginable.

The web host's low costs, coupled with its supremacy in the shared hosting arena, make this web host a bang-for-the-buck favorite throughout the hosting community.

Cheap shared hosting from a trusted provider
Ideal for hosting a WordPress website
FREE Weebly website builder and Cloudflare CDN
Unlimited traffic and 24/7 live chat support
Get 70% off today with our Bluehost coupon
Get started on Bluehost now.

Money Back Guarantee

30 days

Disk Space

10 GB SSD - 100 GB SSD

Domain Name

FREE (1 year)

Cheap Rating

★★★★★ 4.5/5.0

#9 out of 10 in Cheap Hosting reviews

It's hard to argue with a shared hosting plan that includes unlimited storage, bandwidth, websites, and email — but shared hosting is a crowded industry that turns on name recognition, reputation, and bargain-basement prices.

InterServer outperforms some of our higher-rated hosts, but we understand that many first-time site owners are laser-focused on finding the lowest costs.

InterServer's shared options are best for the more experienced user who will appreciate SSD caching servers and RAID-10 storage, along with included perks such as Cloudflare CDN and free SSL certificates. Free migrations and automatic weekly backups add to the list of advantages included under InterServer's premium price.

On the flip side, however, novice customers will enjoy a free website builder when designing and launching their site. Although InterServer's 400-plus installation scripts cover a number of content management systems and eCommerce tools, other hosts take a more hands-on approach to empowering these customers to start an online store.

InterServer may make up for its somewhat higher rates with a price-lock guarantee — the price when you sign up is what you can expect to pay for the life of your account. What's more, InterServer won't lock you up with lengthy contracts.

Customers can get discounted rates by paying up front for services; otherwise, your hosting plan runs month-to-month. Users will appreciate knowing what bills to expect and not having to deal with annual rate hikes.

$0.01 first month (coupon code HOSTINGADV)
$2.50/month after. No contracts or increases
Unlimited storage space, data transfers, and email
Register or transfer domains for less than $10
99.9% uptime and price-lock guarantee
Get started on InterServer now.

Money Back Guarantee

30 days

Disk Space

Unlimited SSD

Domain Name

New or Transfer

Dedicated Hosting Comparison

Dedicated Rating

★★★★★ 4.5/5.0

#5 out of 8 in Dedicated Hosting reviews

Built on modern technology, with a minimum of four CPU cores per dedicated server, Bluehost offers reliable and flexible dedicated hosting options at an extremely reasonable price.

We continually praise the company's shared hosting options for having fantastic hardware and a great management console, and the brand's dedicated server offerings are no different.

Designed and maintained in house, Bluehost servers rely on only the latest technologies. The hosting company leverages open-source platforms, such as OpenStack and KVM, to boost flexibility and performance. All dedicated machines boast at least four CPU cores, 1TB of RAID-1 storage, and at least 4GB of available RAM.

Each dedicated server is provisioned instantly and can be upgraded at any time with essentially just a few clicks.

Bluehost prides itself on the always-available customer support staff. The experienced support agents work directly with engineers who have their hands on your machine, so to speak.

As a former Bluehost customer, I've always found the support technicians to be incredibly responsive and helpful.

Instant provisioning for all Bluehost server plans
Minimum 3 dedicated IP addresses
Modern hardware, built and maintained in house
24/7 expedited support from a dedicated team
Sign up to save 37% on your first term
Get started on Bluehost now.

Money Back Guarantee

30 days

Disk Space

500 GB - 1 TB (RAID-1)

Domain Name

FREE (1 year)

Dedicated Rating

★★★★★ 4.5/5.0

#6 out of 8 in Dedicated Hosting reviews

You know a hosting company means business when it owns and operates its own datacenters.

Because InterServer employees build and manage servers in the same building as company headquarters, dedicated hosting customers get the utmost in flexibility, support, and around-the-clock monitoring.

Co-Founders Mike Lavrik and John Quaglieri started InterServer in 1999 out of frustration with their own personal hosting providers and insist the company remain independent and customers are supported 24/7 through phone, chat, or tickets with InterServer's US-based team.

In fact, chances are a Co-Founder will answer your ticket in fewer than 20 minutes.

Servers are up and running within four hours and come with at least 1GB of RAM, 250GB of storage, 10TB of bandwidth, and five IP addresses. With the company's base Intel Dual-Core Atom configuration costing roughly $50 per month, InterServer brings surprising affordability to the high-end dedicated hosting products.

At the other end of InterServer's spectrum of server setups, we were utterly blown away by the amount of storage you can configure — users can max out their servers with not one, but two, 6TB SATA hard drives. If you need SSD, you can install up to 2TB of the performant drives.

Users can also configure up to 13 IP addresses and choose among several different flavors of Linux or Windows operating systems.

24/7 uptime monitoring and private datacenter
Up to 24 cores and 100TB bandwidth
12 operating systems and 3 control panels
Custom configs built and maintained in-house
Price-lock guarantee without contracts
Get started on InterServer now.

Money Back Guarantee

N/A

Disk Space

250 GB SSD - 80 TB HDD

Domain Name

New or Transfer

VPS Hosting Comparison

VPS Rating

★★★★★ 4.7/5.0

#5 out of 9 in VPS Hosting reviews

We love recommending Bluehost for its lifetime customer growth potential, meaning you can start with shared hosting and seamlessly scale to VPS hosting plans and beyond.

The price versus performance is pretty unbeatable in the virtual hosting space, and Bluehost's engineering team will kick off the customer relationship by instantly provisioning your server.

Bluehost’s VPS offerings boast several benefits compared to standard shared hosting and other VPS providers. The first is speed; Bluehost offers your choice of two or four cores and 4GB to 16GB of RAM with guaranteed resources, so you have the power you need when you need it.

The second perk is security; Bluehost offers redundant storage and optional SiteLock protection to secure your data.

For those new to VPS hosting who may not know exactly what is needed, Bluehost makes it incredibly easy and seamless to switch between plans to find the perfect package for you.

The company's enhanced cPanel interface enables users to instantly adjust computing resources. If you have questions or need some advice, Bluehost's wonderful support staff is standing by to assist 24/7.

Seamless migration from any Bluehost shared hosting plan
Root access and easy multi-server management
Ample RAID-1 storage and tons of bandwidth
Each plan gets at least 3 dedicated IP addresses
cPanel and WHM with root access
Get started on Bluehost now.

Money Back Guarantee

30 days

Disk Space

30 GB SSD - 120 GB SSD

Domain Name

FREE (1 year)

VPS Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0

#3 out of 9 in VPS Hosting reviews

InterServer's on-site datacenter and hands-on involvement with configuring and provisioning virtual private servers give customers a level of flexibility not seen with many other hosting providers.

InterServer rations VPS and cloud resources through slices. Users can select just one CPU core or more than a dozen, with disk space ranging from sane to absurd amounts of high-powered SSDs.

In addition to that speedy standard feature, we love that virtual servers are provisioned instantly and come with the latest versions of PHP, MySQL, Perl, Python, and Ruby pre-installed. Users can take further control through full root access and InterServer's web-based control panel.

InterServer brings incredibly affordable options to the VPS and cloud space, with plans starting at $10 or less per month and a free migration service from shared hosting accounts.

We're not wild about the rest of InterServer's managed VPS services but understand that many customers at this level are plenty capable of handling their virtual servers.

The company will support issues related to the operating system or control panel if the account has at least four slices (four cores, 8GB memory, 120GB of storage). InterServer isn't being unreasonable by any stretch, but other hosts make management a simpler, smoother process.

InterServer guarantees hardware, network, and infrastructure uptime of 99.9%, which has become pretty standard for the web hosting industry. We expected to see the in-house expertise bump that guaranteed rate a little higher, but we trust InterServer will overdeliver on their SLA promise.

$0.01 for the first month using code HOSTINGADV
Then $6 monthly with no contracts, no changes
Latest of PHP, MySQL, Perl, Python, and Ruby
7 operating system options for Linux or Windows
Full root access and choice of datacenter
Get started on InterServer now.

Money Back Guarantee

N/A

Disk Space

30 GB SSD - 480 GB SSD

Domain Name

New or Transfer

WordPress Hosting Comparison

WordPress Rating

★★★★★ 4.9/5.0

#1 out of 8 in WordPress Hosting reviews

Bluehost's WordPress hosting packages are aimed at first-time site owners and personal bloggers. These services come at a premium compared to the standard Bluehost web hosting (basic shared hosting) plans, but the WordPress optimization and platform-specific resources are arguably worth the cost.

The shared WordPress hosting plans are arguably the most popular. Equipped with the web's famous MOJO Marketplace, enjoy single-click installations of popular apps and tools, including WordPress.

Bluehost is on a short list of providers officially endorsed by the experts at WordPress.org, so, when faced with WordPress-specific issues, you can reach out to the customer support team with confidence.

Bluehost's managed WordPress hosting service is based on the hosting company's VPS offering. Though not as customizable as others, this managed hosting service focuses on simplicity and speed.

The account management interface is easy to navigate, and the instant provisioning allows for speedy setup. Integrated features, such as the MOJO Marketplace and ManageWP, are nice touches as well.

Though simple by design, Bluehost doesn't skimp on WordPress fan favorites:

Automatic WordPress installation and updates
Customizable themes for WordPress in the Bluehost Marketplace
Global content delivery network (CDN) powered by Cloudflare

Formed in 2003, Bluehost has long been one of the foremost shared hosts on the planet, and the hosting company now powers more than 2 million websites.

With an experienced team, competitive pricing, and always-there support, Bluehost is an industry veteran when it comes WordPress hosting.

Recommended by WordPress.org since 2005
Automatic WordPress updates and initial install
FREE WordPress themes in the Bluehost Marketplace
24/7 support via live chat, phone, and email
Get exclusive discounts on WordPress plans
Get started on Bluehost now.

Money Back Guarantee

30 days

Disk Space

50 GB SSD - 100 GB SSD

Domain Name

FREE (1 year)

WordPress Rating

★★★★★ 4.6/5.0

With managed WordPress hosting plans being all the rage lately, we occasionally get peeved at hosting providers that capitalize on the frenzy without optimizing its platform for the specific strengths and weaknesses of the world's most popular content management system.

That being said, InterServer's standard shared and VPS infrastructure provides more than enough resources to run your WordPress site at peak performance.

Perhaps most importantly, InterServer promises to clean up customers' compromised websites and get them back online if you get hacked — especially important for WordPress users, as the platform's popularity unfortunately makes it a prime target for attacks.

Even the most experienced WordPress users can fall victim to an exploit, and InterServer's support team is available 24/7 to fix any issue when it arises.

The company's proprietary InterShield security suite, however, does an impressive job at keeping attackers at bay. The company's in-house malware database drives a firewall powered by machine learning and collecting data from InterServer's thousands of servers.

When it comes to speed, InterServer has you covered with five levels of content caching solutions, covering SSL certificates, packets, software, hardware, and RAID configurations. A partnership with Cloudflare garners users extra protections and global content delivery.

Enjoy single-click installs for the WordPress software, easy-to-use cPanel control panel, and solid-state drives (SSDs) to get your site performance extra oomph.

To the value-minded shoppers in the crowd, note that all InterServer customers are assured a price-lock guarantee and will never be asked to sign a control. That's a longer-term value in the shared hosting market that's tough to beat.

FREE website migration and privately owned datacenter
The price you pay now is guaranteed for the life of your account
24/7 support teams will fix and restore hacked websites
Plans optimized for speed with SSD storage and caching
NO long-term contract required
Get started on InterServer now.

Money Back Guarantee

30 days

Disk Space

Unlimited SSD

Domain Name

New or Transfer

Site Builder Hosting Comparison

Website Builder Rating

★★★★★ 4.5/5.0

#5 out of 9 in Website Builder Hosting reviews

With Bluehost, new site owners have the drag-and-drop simplicity of the WordPress website builder at their fingertips. This makes launching a new online brand, store, or personal site from scratch relatively painless.

Sure, site building has its headaches for newbies, but the Bluehost team is ready and willing to assist you every step of the way. To help prime your site launch for success, Bluehost offers a plethora of unlimited freebies:

Free domain hosting (unlimited domains on select plans)
Free email hosting (unlimited by default)
Unlimited storage on most plans
Unlimited bandwidth (site traffic)

These freebies, coupled with several options for site-building services, is everything a new website owner needs to get started, and the cost is hard to beat. If WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) isn’t for you, perhaps a CMS (content management system) option sounds appealing.

Choose from the most popular content management and blogging software, including Joomla, Drupal, and WordPress, and download and install the application(s) with a single click.

Most Bluehost hosting plan options have even been customized to cater to WordPress — and Bluehost is one of three hosts officially endorsed by the WordPress Core developers.

For quick, cheap, and easy website building — backed by one of the web’s most reliable web hosts — you can’t go wrong in choosing Bluehost.

FREE website builder (powered by WordPress)
Custom themes and easy integration with ecommerce tools
Expert support 24/7 via live chat, phone, and email
Longest-running WordPress.org recommendation
Pro services to design, build, and market your site
Get started on Bluehost now.

Money Back Guarantee

30 days

Disk Space

10 GB SSD - 100 GB SSD

Domain Name

FREE (1 year)

Website Builder Rating

★★★★★ 4.6/5.0

Although InterServer's unrivaled tech expertise and flexible VPS plans foster a brand reputation that serves experienced developers, the company's focus on affordability and customer satisfaction at the shared hosting level show that InterServer is highly tuned to serving everyone's needs.

A partnership with the drag-and-drop SitePad website builder is proof that InterServer doesn't require users to code their sites into creation.

Website design is simplified and consolidated into a matter of minutes with the what-you-see-is-what-you-get features found within SitePad. InterServer customers can install the website builder through cPanel or DirectAdmin integrations, and the builder comes with more than 300 professional themes, organized into categories such as business, travel, photography, real estate, health, and others.

Site owners will be sure to find a template that works for their specific niche, and each design is already prepped and ready for mobile devices. We especially appreciate that SitePad and InterServer enable customers to establish multiple sites on one account, given the unlimited hosting resources and site builder flexibility.

To further distinguish your online brands, SitePad provides more than 40 widgets to further customize themes with photo galleries, text boxes, buttons, videos, and other interactive elements.

Coupled with unlimited SSD storage and hundreds of cloud-based applications (think WordPress, MediaWiki, phpBB, and others), InterServer is poised to provide all the tools site owners need to be successful.

Add in the company's incredible first-month rate and guaranteed long-term pricing, and we're confident you'll find a hosting partner capable of ushering you through growth.

$0.01 for the first month, then $5 monthly after
FREE SitePad builder comes with 300+ themes
Drag-and-drop interface with 1-click pubishing
40+ widgets for galleries, videos, maps, and more
Unlimited storage, transfer, websites, and email
Get started on InterServer now.

Money Back Guarantee

30 days

Disk Space

Unlimited SSD

Domain Name

New or Transfer

Bluehost vs. InterServer - Our Conclusion

Ryan Frankel Hosting Expert

“We tested Bluehost & InterServer — The winner is Bluehost!”

While both hosts offer a powerful server experience, it’s up to the buyer to see which is the best fit. Bluehost’s dynamic, easy-to-use shared hosting is ideal for beginners who want to jump-start their web journey. InterServer specializes in high-tech, supremely flexible configurations, particularly at the VPS and dedicated server levels. No matter your decision, you will indeed find a home where your website can recharge and power on.

Overall Rating

4.9/5.0 ★★★★★

Visit Bluehost »

Overall Rating

4.6/5.0 ★★★★★

Visit InterServer »

About The Author

Ryan Frankel has been a professional in the tech industry for more than 20 years and has been developing websites for more than 25. With a master's degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Florida, he has a fundamental understanding of hardware systems and the software that runs them. Ryan now sits as the CTO of Digital Brands Inc. and manages all of the server infrastructure of their websites, as well as their development team. In addition, Ryan has a passion for guitars, good coffee, and puppies.