Bluehost vs Squarespace (2024): 8 Crucial Differences
Picking the right platform to host your website on can make a world of difference to your business.
The only problem? There are so many different platforms to choose from!
One platform you might not have heard of is Bluehost. You can use it to host and build your site, as well as sell online.
The big question… how does Bluehost stack up to our favorite platform, Squarespace?
Squarespace vs Bluehost – which is best? Let’s take a look!
Squarespace vs Bluehost: 8 things to consider
1. Bluehost is more affordable
If you want a platform that’s cheap and cheerful, Bluehost is definitely one you should think about.
The platform offers four standard hosting plans, as well as two eCommerce plans.
The standard hosting tiers range from $9.99 to $26.99 a month if you commit to a three-year plan.
However, you can often get these plans at a substantial discount meaning you save even more. When I checked out Bluehost’s prices, the cheapest tier only cost $2.95 a month!
The eCommerce plans, which allow you to sell online, range from $25.99 to $39.95, but again, you can often get them for much less.
Squarespace offers four pricing plans, which range from $16 to $72 a month. Like Bluehost, these plans include your hosting, as well as a range of cool additional features, which we’ll look at in this article.
If you want to get Squarespace for less, you can pay annually. You can also keep an eye out for promo codes, work with a Squarespace Circle member, or sign up with a student card.
2. Squarespace is easier to get started on
Once you’ve signed up to Bluehost, you need to set up your site. You can either migrate an existing site (Bluehost has a WordPress migration tool to make the process as pain-free as possible), or build it in the web platform of your choice.
While Bluehost tries to make this as easy as possible, it’s still quite technical. This means it might take time if you’re not the most web-savvy person!
Conversely, Squarespace is designed for people who don’t have web design experience but still want a beautiful, professional site. Choose your plan, pick your template, add your content, and you’re ready to go!
Squarespace is block-based – just select the block you want to add to your page and customize it to your needs. You can also use Fluid Engine to drag and drop elements with laser precision.
3. Bluehost lets you host multiple websites
There might be times when you need to create more than one website. For example, you might need a site for your business, as well as a personal website.
Bluehost lets you create multiple websites using the same pricing plan. If you pay for the highest tier, you can build up to 100 sites!
With Squarespace you can only create one website per plan.
4. Squarespace has unlimited storage space
When you have lots of photos and documents to showcase on your site, you need enough storage space to ensure you can upload everything.
Bluehost has limited storage space, which varies depending on the pricing tier you’re on. For example, on the lowest tier, you get 10GB. If you have a lot of hi-res images, you can burn through this quite quickly.
Squarespace provides unlimited storage space, no matter which tier you’re on.
(Bear in mind that you can only upload 30 minutes worth of videos to Squarespace unless you buy a digital products add-on.)
5. Bluehost is more flexible
Bluehost works with a wide range of open-source platforms.
(By open-source, I mean a platform anyone can download and edit for free.)
Bluehost is primarily designed to work with WordPress – in fact it’s officially endorsed by WordPress, and has been since 2005!
However, you can use it to host any open-source platform, like Joomla or Drupal. This gives you lots of flexibility and scalability.
With Squarespace, you’re limited to one platform and one platform only,
6. Bluehost has more features
Bluehost can take advantage of all the plugins WordPress offers – this means you can download over 60,000 free and paid-for plugins to transform the functionality of your site.
You can use these plugins to add contact forms, enhance your search engine optimization, and automatically resize your images… the possibilities are endless!
But… don’t count Squarespace out. Squarespace has a wide range of cool features you can take advantage of including email marketing, appointment scheduling, and membership spaces.
You can also download integrations to provide even more functionality, like Mailchimp, Xero, and Flickr.
Plus, Squarespace has one cool feature that Bluehost doesn’t. Spark Plugin offers over 150 awesome customizations to transform the look and feel of your website!
7. Squarespace is more secure
Both Squarespace and Bluehost take precautions to ensure your website stays safe and protected. Both come with free SSL certificates and automatically download and apply any security updates.
With Bluehost, it’s still your responsibility to ensure that any themes and plugins you use stay up to date. Out-of-date themes and plugins are easy targets for cybercriminals.
Squarespace keeps everything updated for you, providing you with peace of mind.
8. Squarespace looks nicer
Bluehost is perfectly capable of creating a beautiful-looking site. However, it’s dependent on the platform you choose and your level of skill.
While creating a basic WordPress site is relatively easy, it’s much harder to make one that looks stunning and catches the eyes of your prospective customers.
With Squarespace, creating a great website is much simpler. You can choose from over 100 professionally designed templates, and you can even use artificial intelligence (AI) to build your own bespoke theme.
All Squarespace’s templates are mobile-responsive too, meaning they automatically reformat to look good on all mobile devices.
Want something more custom? You can buy premium templates that will make your website truly unique!
Bluehost vs Squarespace: which is best?
It depends on the level of control you want over your site.
Bluehost lets you host the open-source website of your choice and gives you complete flexibility over how you build your site. But, to create a website that looks good and works well, you need to have basic web development skills.
While Squarespace isn’t as flexible, it’s ideal for web design novices, as you can create a beautiful, fully functional site in less than an hour.
Why not give both a try and see which you prefer?
Squarespace vs Bluehost FAQs
What is Bluehost?
Bluehost is a hosting platform you can use to store and present your website to potential visitors. It also offers a range of additional services, including website building and eCommerce functionality.
You can use Bluehost to host any open-source website (for example, Joomla or Drupal), but it’s most frequently used for hosting WordPress sites.
Do Squarespace and Bluehost have anything in common?
Yes – while both platforms are different, they do have similarities too. These include:
A free domain for new users in the first year
AI site creation tools
Blogging and eCommerce tools
Drag-and-drop website-building software
Content delivery networks (CDNs) to quickly serve files to anyone in the world
24/7 Customer support (both offer online chat – Bluehost provides phone support and Squarespace provides email support)
Both platforms are great for search engine optimization (SEO) too – perfect if you want your website to rank as high in the search engine results as possible,
Do Bluehost and Squarespace offer free trials?
Squarespace offers a 14-day free trial so you can try all the features and see if it’s right for you. If you work with a Squarespace Circle member, this trial is automatically extended to six months.
Bluehost doesn’t offer a free trial as such, but it offers a 30-day guarantee. If you’re not happy with your plan, you can get your money back.
Are there any other web hosting platforms out there?
Yes – if you’re looking for a website that’s fully hosted online, there are a couple of other options. Here are some articles to help you choose:
Squarespace or Bluehost – which will you use to create your brand new website?
