Bluehost vs AWS: for most people putting a WordPress site online, Bluehost is the easier and cheaper start: $3.99/mo on a 36-month term, renewing at $9.99/mo, with 24/7 chat (phone support starts on the Business plan). AWS (through Amazon Lightsail, from $5/mo with a public IPv4 address) wins if you want root access and will patch the server yourself. Free AWS technical support does not exist.
Show me today’s Bluehost WordPress price or Show me Lightsail’s WordPress bundles.
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You have a WordPress site. Maybe it is a blog, maybe it is a shop with 40 products. And someone told you “just put it on AWS.” That advice is not wrong. It is incomplete. AWS rents you a server; Bluehost rents you a finished apartment with a front desk. This page tells you which one fits the job you actually have.
Deciding between Bluehost and Amazon Web Services (AWS) hosting? If so, you’re a rare breed. The reason is because these are two completely different approaches to web hosting. Bluehost is a more traditional low-cost host with the basic features and standard control panel interface that you might be used to. AWS is built for developers, with their own interfaces and a different pricing model.
That being said, there are some key points to consider when choosing between these two hosts. If you’re new to web hosting, or switching hosting provider for the first time in awhile, the task can be daunting. You must think about things such as price structure, service downtime and the available features that a hosting service provides you. Customer support is a significant factor as well. You want technical support available instantly when something goes wrong, at the busiest time of day or in the middle of the night.
Should you even be comparing AWS and Bluehost?
Here’s the thing: if you’re comparing these two companies, you may want to rethink what your goals are. These really are two different beasts.
You should go with AWS if you have a development team or agency that’s helping you with your hosting setup. AWS provides great scalability, pricing, and options, but their product is not built for your average user. For that reason, I want to caution you now to consider if you have the development resources to manage AWS, or your own technical skill. They do have an Amazon Lightsail product that is a lot friendlier to the beginner, yet this is still somewhat tailored to someone with some basic development or technical skills.
AWS has so many hosting options, that it’s impossible to compare all their products in this review. We’ll be focusing on their Amazon Lightsail product, which is the closest thing AWS has to a small business plan, with a nod to EC2 and CloudFront for when you outgrow it.
If you’re not super technically oriented, and just want a good host with great support, I would recommend comparing a few other hosts first. Start with SiteGround vs Bluehost.
Quick aside: want a hybrid of AWS infrastructure with Bluehost-style support? Check out Cloudways, a managed host that runs servers on AWS and Google Cloud with scale and customer support in mind. Our full Cloudways review has its current prices.
Who wins for what?
| Your situation | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| First blog, no server experience | Bluehost | WordPress preinstalled, 24/7 chat, free domain for year one |
| Developer who wants root and SSH | AWS Lightsail | Full server control, predictable monthly bundle |
| Growing WooCommerce store, small team | Bluehost (higher tier) or a managed host | Someone else patches the stack; AWS support costs extra |
| Store with an engineer on staff | AWS | Scale up to EC2, RDS and CloudFront when you outgrow one box |
| Lowest possible year-one bill | Tie | Bluehost’s 36-month promo vs Lightsail’s cheapest bundle; new AWS accounts can also use Free Tier credits |
| Phone support at 11pm | Bluehost Business or higher | Phone line runs 7am to midnight Eastern, but Starter is chat only; AWS has no free technical support |
What does each one really cost?
Bluehost has some pretty cheap starting plans to get you in the door, but the pricing rises after some time, while AWS has more consistent pricing that’s also cheap. The price structure for Bluehost is built with your standard multi-tiered plans encouraging you to choose the middle option.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) hosting has a few different hosting products, so pricing varies widely on needs. The simplest plan for business owners would be their Lightsail option that starts at $5/mo. This simplifies the pricing compared to some of their other products which charge by the second or the hour.
Promo prices and cloud prices work differently. Bluehost gives you a low price if you prepay for years, then renews higher. AWS charges the same monthly rate forever, but only for the server. Everything else is on you.
| Line item | Bluehost WordPress (Starter) | AWS Lightsail (Linux, IPv4) |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $3.99/mo on a 36-month term | $5/mo, billed monthly |
| Renewal | $9.99/mo | Same rate, no promo cliff |
| Next step up | Business: $6.99/mo intro, renews $14.99/mo on 36 months | $7/mo (1 GB RAM, 2 vCPUs, 40 GB SSD, 2 TB transfer) |
| Cheapest option | Starter plan above | $3.50/mo IPv6-only bundle (512 MB RAM, 20 GB SSD) |
| Free period | None; discount is the promo | No Lightsail trial for new customers; AWS Free Tier credits (up to $200) can cover it instead |
| Domain | Free for the first year | Not included; buy separately |
| SSL certificate | Free | You set it up (free Let’s Encrypt is common) |
| Technical support | Included: 24/7 chat on Starter, phone from Business up | Business Support+ from $29/mo |
Here is the math over three years, using only the listed prices (our arithmetic, not a quote). Bluehost Starter: $3.99 x 36 = $143.64, paid up front. Lightsail’s $7 bundle: $7 x 36 = $252, minus whatever Free Tier credits a new AWS account applies to it. Add a paid AWS support plan and Lightsail costs $29 more every month.
Now year four. Bluehost jumps to $9.99/mo. Lightsail stays at $7. So the gap narrows after the promo ends, and the “cheap” host is only cheap for as long as your first term lasts.
Two AWS details changed recently. Lightsail bundles with a public IPv4 address got new prices on May 1, 2024, when AWS started charging for IPv4 addresses. And from July 15, 2025, new AWS accounts get up to $200 in credits and a 6-month free plan instead of the old 12-month free tier. Accounts created before that date stay on the legacy Free Tier. Lightsail’s own short-term free trials were replaced by this Free Tier and are no longer offered to new customers.
Show me Bluehost’s current renewal prices
Which is faster for WordPress?
We have not run our own speed tests for this update. So no invented load times here. What we can describe is the architecture, and what each company says about itself.
Bluehost’s WordPress plans are shared hosting. Your site shares a server with other customers, and Bluehost tunes the stack. In November 2025, Bluehost said nearly a million customers had moved to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, with 4 to 5x better median response times, and that the full move would finish in 2026. That is the company’s own claim. We have not verified it.
Lightsail gives you a virtual server with fixed RAM and CPU. Nobody else’s traffic spike eats your memory. But 512 MB or 1 GB of RAM running WordPress, PHP and MySQL on one box is tight, and you do the caching setup yourself.
Our inference, not a test result: a well-tuned Lightsail instance with a cache and CDN can beat a busy shared server. An untuned one usually will not. The person tuning it matters more than the logo.
Features side by side
There are so many features to compare when looking at hosts, it’s not even funny. There’s so much jargon it could make your head spin! Since our site aims to break down hosting companies for your average marketer or entrepreneur, rather than a seasoned developer, we want to focus on the aspects that matter most for you.
| Feature | Bluehost | AWS Lightsail |
|---|---|---|
| WordPress install | Preinstalled | WordPress blueprint, setup up to 15 minutes |
| Server access | Control panel, limited shell | Full root/SSH |
| Storage | NVMe SSD | SSD, fixed per bundle |
| CDN | Free CDN included | Lightsail CDN distributions (separate) |
| Backups | Weekly on Starter and Business | Snapshots (you schedule them) |
| Upgrade path | Higher shared tiers, then Bluehost cloud/VPS | Bigger bundles, then EC2, RDS, CloudFront |
That last row is where AWS pulls away. If you need to switch or upgrade features, they offer almost every conceivable feature under the sun. Bluehost provides a wealth of features to its clients too, but it covers the basics for a WordPress site and stops there.
On backups, Lightsail snapshots are beneficial when something goes wrong, and you need to pull up information from when your website was working correctly. The catch is that you schedule them yourself, and they cost extra.
One thing to know if you already run WordPress on Lightsail. The old “WordPress by Bitnami” blueprint stopped getting updates after May 19, 2026. From November 19, 2026, you cannot create new instances with it. AWS recommends its own Lightsail WordPress blueprint instead, and existing Bitnami instances keep running. If your server says Bitnami, plan the migration now.
Who helps you when the site goes down?
Bluehost: live chat 24/7 on every plan, and phone support from 7am to midnight Eastern (US and Canada line 888-401-4678) on Business and higher. The Starter plan lists phone support as not included. The help desk will look at your WordPress problem. That is the product.
AWS: every account gets Basic Support free, but it covers billing, account questions and quota increases only. You cannot open a technical case on Basic. For that you need a paid plan. Business Support+ starts at $29/mo per account (or 9% of your first $10,000 of monthly AWS charges, whichever is greater) and promises a 30-minute response on critical cases. The older Developer and Business plans end on January 1, 2027.
And even paid AWS support helps with AWS. It will not debug your plugin conflict.
Customer service support is a bit confusing with Amazon Web Services (AWS). On the outside, they don’t make many customer support quality claims, but prompt you to log in to the console to get started. They also discuss choosing a customer support plan, which is not reassuring. Given that AWS aims at the developer market, that’s the deal you sign up for.
With Bluehost, the best thing to do is initiate a chat with one of their salespeople first to help determine the quality. If the answers are slow or vague before you’ve paid, they won’t get faster after.
On uptime, AWS provides their service health dashboard for the public to view at any time. That kind of openness should give some indication of quality.
Get me a host with support included
Is Bluehost still owned by the same company?
Mostly yes. Bluehost belongs to Newfold Digital, the company Endurance International Group became. Newfold is owned by private equity firms Clearlake Capital and Siris Capital Group. Newfold also owns HostGator.
The 2025 changes: Newfold split into Bluehost Group and Network Solutions Group, and in May 2025 named Sachin Puri CEO of Bluehost Group. In December 2025, Newfold announced a $100 million investment aimed at Bluehost and Network Solutions. Nothing there changes your plan, but it does tell you Bluehost is a core brand, not one being wound down.
AWS is Amazon’s cloud business. Lightsail is its simplified VPS line. Stability is not your risk there. Configuration mistakes are.
Verdict by reader type
When comparing Amazon Web Services (AWS) hosting and Bluehost, it’s like comparing apples to oranges for the most part. Bluehost is aimed at first-time bloggers and entrepreneurs looking to set up a website in a simple way. AWS has a complex and confusing amount of options for beginners, although their Lightsail offering is a good simple way to start.
If you had to pick between the two, and you wanted cheap and simple hosting, Bluehost is the way to go. Because Bluehost is so large and shares resources with sister companies, they can offer some of the cheapest prices for hosting. But at the end of the day, you get what you pay for. Webmasters on a budget who don’t anticipate a lot of traffic or support tickets will find everything they’re looking for with Bluehost pricing.
AWS is cheap, fast, and highly flexible and would be recommended for a first-time beginner if they were somewhat technically savvy. If you’re not intimidated by learning a new system, and can generally Google your way around problems, then you may find the technical innovations of AWS appealing and a strong long-term solution. If you’re just starting out, you should start with Amazon Lightsail.
Beginner with a blog or brochure site: Bluehost. You get WordPress ready to go, a free domain for year one and 24/7 chat. Want someone to call? That starts on Business ($6.99/mo intro, $14.99/mo renewal). Who should NOT pick it: anyone who will not budget for the $9.99/mo renewal. Put a reminder in your calendar for month 35.
Developer who wants control: AWS Lightsail. Root access, flat monthly pricing, and a clean path into the rest of AWS. Who should NOT pick it: anyone who will not patch Linux, set up backups, and read the Bitnami notice above. An unpatched server is an open door.
Growing store: it depends on who is on your team. No engineer? Stay on managed or shared hosting, where security patches are someone else’s job. Have an engineer? AWS scales further, but price in Business Support+ at $29/mo minimum and their time.
Show me today’s Bluehost price or Show me Lightsail pricing
FAQ
Is AWS cheaper than Bluehost for WordPress?
In year one, usually not. Bluehost Starter is $3.99/mo on a 36-month term, while Lightsail’s IPv4 bundles start at $5/mo. After Bluehost renews at $9.99/mo, a $5 or $7 Lightsail bundle is cheaper, if you do not pay for AWS support.
Can a beginner run WordPress on AWS?
Yes, Lightsail has a WordPress blueprint. But you own updates, backups and security, and free AWS support will not answer technical questions. Most beginners are better off on shared or managed hosting first.
Is the AWS free tier enough to host a WordPress site?
Only for a while. Accounts created after July 15, 2025 get up to $200 in credits and a free plan that ends after 6 months or when credits run out, whichever comes first.
What are the downsides of Bluehost?
The renewal and the support tiers. Starter’s $3.99/mo needs a 36-month term and renews at $9.99/mo, and phone support starts on the Business plan; Starter gets 24/7 chat. You also get no root access, which AWS gives you.
Who is better than Bluehost?
It depends on what you want more of. For root access and full control, AWS Lightsail from $5/mo. For managed WordPress with a flat bill, see the hosts in our hosting comparison chart, which lists every renewal price we could verify.
Who is AWS’ biggest competitor?
Microsoft. Synergy Research put Amazon’s share of worldwide cloud infrastructure spending at 26% in Q3 2026, Microsoft at 19% and Google at 16% (Synergy Research Group, October 29, 2026).
Who owns Bluehost now?
Newfold Digital, which is owned by Clearlake Capital and Siris Capital Group. Newfold was formerly Endurance International Group.
Should I move from Bluehost to AWS when my site grows?
Move when you have someone who can run a server, not just when traffic grows. A bigger Bluehost tier or a managed WordPress host is often the simpler next step. See our best cloud hosting picks for the middle ground.
Sources
Full source list with retrieved dates is in the sources block. Primary sources: Bluehost pricing and help pages, AWS Lightsail pricing and docs, AWS Support pricing and docs, AWS What’s New (free tier), Newfold Digital newsroom.
Related
Update log
- : Rewrote and fact-checked the page: the first full update since 2020. Kept Joe’s original writing where it still holds.
- : Prices and facts checked against the cited sources, read September 24, 2026 to October 30, 2026.
One Response
Great article. I agree that AWS is the clear winner. I’ve been switching all my web properties from BH to AWS and the difference is night and day. A couple other important differences:
1. AWS is much faster than BH, I haven’t personally done benchmark tests but if you search Google, they’re out there
2. AWS pricing is different for everyone. A T2 Micro instance is $.01 per hour and the first year is free.
3. If you purchase a reserved instance of 12, 24 or 36 months the rate comes down substantially. That’s probably the best apples-to-apples comparison with BH because their minimum term is 12 months.