Both are established shared-hosting brands with a WordPress recommendation history. This page compares them on entry cost, renewal exposure, and plan limits.
Entry cost and renewal
Bluehost Starter is $4.99/mo (For 12 month term), renews at $11.99/mo. SiteGround's entry StartUp plan is $2.99/mo (Prepaid for 12 months); renews at $17.99/mo.
The number that decides it is not the intro price -- it is the renewal. SiteGround wins the first term on sticker cost, but its renewal is the steeper of the two, so which host is "cheaper" flips the moment the intro term ends. Budget on the renewal line, and the entry-price gap stops being the deciding factor.
Plan limits
| Plan | Sites | Storage |
|---|---|---|
| Bluehost Starter | 10 websites | 10GB NVMe storage |
| SiteGround StartUp | Host 1 website with unlimited traffic | 10 GB Premium Google storage |
Staging
SiteGround's entry StartUp plan does not include staging (confirmed absent on that tier); staging appears starting on SiteGround's mid tier. Bluehost, by contrast, includes staging on every plan (Staging Environment listed as an all-plans website feature).
Still undecided?
The tie-break is one question: will you ever test changes before they go live? If yes, Bluehost's all-plans staging settles it on the entry plan alone; if you genuinely never will and only want the lowest first-year cash, SiteGround's entry price wins that narrow case. Everything else between them is close.
Bottom line
At the entry tier the two are close on headline price; Bluehost's stated all-plans staging is the practical differentiator if you need to test changes before they go live. See shared hosting alternatives for budget options below both, or Bluehost pricing plans for the full Bluehost tier breakdown. For a full feature-by-feature comparison, see our SiteGround vs Bluehost 2026 breakdown.