WP Alpha vs Bluehost
An honest comparison for WordPress site owners weighing up Bluehost. Where Bluehost is the better choice, this page says so.
Side by side
| Compared | WP Alpha | Bluehost |
|---|---|---|
| Server locations | Sydney, Melbourne, London, Chicago | No Australian data centres for WordPress hosting; plans say ‘Global Data Centers’. Sydney is offered only for Managed and self-managed VPS. |
| Entry price | A$29, £15.95 or US$24.95 a month | A$5.57/mo on a 36-month term (Starter, 10 GB, 10 sites), renews at A$13.94/mo. US site shows US$3.99/mo, renews US$9.99/mo. |
| Free migration | Yes, done for you | Yes. Self-service: free Bluehost migration plugin powered by InstaWP; paid pro-services migration is offered if the tool fails. |
| Updates tested on a staging copy first | Yes | Not stated as automatic. Plans list Managed WordPress Updates and a staging site; help says you test updates yourself on staging. |
| Backups | Every two hours offsite, plus your own hourly backups to your own storage | Weekly backups, one restore point kept (each run overwrites the last); self-restore in Websites > Manage Site > Backups; Jetpack is extra. |
| Malware scanning and cleanup | Daily scans, cleanup included | Starter lists free malware scanning and malware detection and removal; human cleanup is a paid add-on (Complete Security, US$5.99/mo). |
| Firewall | Business grade WAF on every plan | Yes. Web Application Firewall and DDoS protection listed on every WordPress plan; ThreatShield Smart WAF on Business and up. |
| Traffic limits | None. No metering, no overage fees | No hard cap. Starter is ‘Ideal for 40K visits/mo’; bandwidth is unmetered with no overage fees, but CPU limits and a fair-use policy apply. |
| Support | 24/7 live chat and tickets | Live chat 24/7 on all plans. Phone 7am to midnight US Eastern, not included on Starter; international number +1 801 765 9400. |
| Contract | None. 30-day money-back guarantee | Promo price needs a 36-month term (12-month also sold). 30-day money-back on hosting only; monthly plans, domains and add-ons excluded. |
Bluehost column read from Bluehost’s own pages on 2026-10-10, prices in AUD (bluehost.com/en-au; bluehost.com root showed USD to this Thailand visitor with a currency selector). Sources: www.bluehost.com, www.bluehost.com, www.bluehost.com, www.bluehost.com, www.bluehost.com, www.bluehost.com.
Where Bluehost is the better choice
- Price-only buyers: A$5.57/mo covers 10 sites with WAF, staging and weekly backups, far below a premium managed AU host.
- One bill for domain, hosting and email: free domain for the first year on 12 or 36-month terms, plus a Pro Email trial.
- WooCommerce on a budget: eCommerce Essentials bundles payments, subscriptions, memberships and courses at A$20.92/mo.
- Non-WordPress or custom stacks: cPanel, SSH and WP-CLI are included, and VPS and dedicated plans sit in the same account.
Switching from Bluehost
We migrate your site for free. We move it, you approve it, then DNS changes, and 99 of 100 migrations happen with no downtime window. Your old host stays live until you say so.
Backups: Bluehost Portal > Websites > Manage Site > Backups tab (weekly, one restore point). Files: Portal > Hosting > My Plans > View Details > cPanel or File Manager, or Websites > Manage Site > Files and Access. EPP code: Portal > Domains > Move & Access > Request Auth Code; it is sent to the registrant email and can take up to 24 hours; unlock the domain first; 60-day lock after registration, transfer or a registrant change.
Which hosting fits your business?
The simple rule: if you pay for your traffic, in ad spend or in SEO, choose Fully Managed. If customers find you on their own, Basic is all you need.
The one to pick if customers find you on their own
Basic Managed Hosting
A reliable site with minimum hassle.
For businesses that win their work through reputation, referrals and repeat customers. Your site needs to be there, look right and load fast whenever someone looks you up. It is important, but it is not the engine of the business, its traffic needs are small, and it does not need a team working on it.
This is you if
- Your site is a brochure, a portfolio, a local service site or a small store
- Customers find you through referrals, word of mouth or your Google listing
- You are not paying for clicks or running an SEO campaign
- A few hours of downtime would be annoying, not expensive
- You want updates, backups and security handled, and never to think about hosting
On a bad day: the site is slow for an afternoon. We fix it, and nobody is out of pocket.
From A$29 a month
See Basic Managed plansThe one to pick if you advertise
Fully Managed Hosting
For businesses that market online, every day.
For businesses proactively marketing online: running Google Ads or other paid traffic, doing SEO aggressively, including for AI search, and relying on the site day by day, sometimes hour by hour, to generate leads, customers and sales. Downtime and issues have a serious impact on the bottom line.
This is you if
- You run Google Ads, Meta ads or other paid traffic to the site
- You invest in SEO, in Google and increasingly in AI answers, and being found is tied to revenue
- The site brings in enquiries, bookings, calls or orders every day
- An hour of downtime, a broken form or a slow checkout costs real money
- You chose the hosting, and you do not want to be the one who gets the 7am call
On a bad day: the site is slow for an afternoon while your ads keep running. You pay for every click and lose the enquiries. Our job is to make sure that day does not happen, and to catch it fast if it does.
You do not need this if customers find you without ads or an SEO push. Basic will serve you well, and if you ask us, we will tell you so.
From US$99 a month
See Fully Managed plansThe one to pick if you need to prove what works
Fully Managed, with the Conversion Tracking Pack
For businesses that need proof of what the site produces.
Everything in Fully Managed, plus PixelYourSite and CallRail set up and kept working, so every form, sale and phone call is credited to the ad, keyword or page that produced it. Your monthly report shows leads, sales and calls next to speed and uptime.
This is you if
- You want to know which ads and keywords bring in customers, not just clicks
- Phone calls are a large share of your enquiries
- You report marketing results to a boss, a board or a client
- Your ad platforms are bidding without seeing all your conversions
On a bad day: a plugin update quietly stops your forms reporting to Google Ads, and the bidding drifts for weeks before anyone notices. We test the tracking on a schedule, so it is days, not weeks.
Any Fully Managed plan, plus US$99 a month and a US$295 setup
See what is in the packWhat customers say
Our initial engagement was to help us optimise the speed of our website without compromising its impact. The team were professional and responsive when we first engaged in 2020 and have continued to be so ever since.
These guys helped us optimise and improve website performance in no time at all. Great job. Support side of the business is also very responsive as well.
Very professional, efficient and quick service. Brendan and Ash both very responsive and kept me up to date.
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