Candor·Host
Get started

Bluehost Alternative — Candor Host

Bluehost lists Basic at $2.95/mo. That price is a 36-month prepay. At renewal it becomes $10.99/mo — a 3.7x jump.1 Daily backups aren’t in the box; they’re sold as CodeGuard Basic at $35.88/year.2 If you want a human to move your site in, that’s a $149.99 managed-migration package.3 Candor Solo is $15/mo at sign-up and at every renewal after, with daily backups and managed migration included on every plan.

The actual math over four years

Bluehost’s pricing page shows the intro rate on a 36-month prepay term. The renewal rate and the add-on line items — daily backups, managed migration — aren’t there. Once you add them, the sticker gap gets narrower, and the two products are architected differently anyway.

Bluehost Basic — with daily backups and one managed migration

YearHosting1CodeGuard Basic2Managed migration3Annual bill
Year 1 (intro, 3-yr prepay)$35.40$35.88$149.99$221.27
Year 2 (intro)$35.40$35.88—$71.28
Year 3 (intro)$35.40$35.88—$71.28
Year 4 (renewal)$131.88$35.88—$167.76
4-year total$531.59

Candor Solo — with daily backups and managed migration included

YearHostingDaily backupsManaged migrationAnnual bill
Year 1$180.00includedincluded$180.00
Year 2$180.00includedincluded$180.00
Year 3$180.00includedincluded$180.00
Year 4$180.00includedincluded$180.00
4-year total$720.00

Candor comes out about $47 more per year across four years. In exchange you give up the intro discount and get: no renewal shock at year four, a per-site container instead of shared tenancy, a published density cap of 150 sites per server, daily backups already in the box, and a $149.99 line item that doesn’t exist.

[!NOTE] If you skip the daily-backup add-on and the managed migration, the four-year Bluehost bill drops to about $238.08 — weekly backups, self-service migration plugin, and the year-four renewal at $10.99/mo. That’s a legitimately cheaper option; it just isn’t the same product.

Feature by feature

Everything below on the Bluehost side is either published policy, a documented help article, or a widely-cited third-party review. Each claim traces to a source at the bottom of this page.

Bluehost BasicCandor Host
Renewal pricing3.7x jump — $2.95 to $10.991Same forever. Written promise.
Daily backupsNot included on Basic. $35.88/year add-on (CodeGuard Basic)2Included on every plan. Three copies, off-site.
Managed migration$149.99 per package (up to 5 sites)3Included on every plan. Human moves files, DB, email, DNS.
Server densityNot published. Trade press classifies Bluehost as an overseller4150 sites per server. Hard cap. Live count on the homepage.
Per-site isolationShared tenancyContainer per site. Kernel-enforced CPU, RAM, and process limits.
Ownership historyOwned by Newfold Digital (formerly EIG); acquired 2010. Renewal-pricing pattern installed post-acquisition5R Software & Consulting LLC. No PE ownership, no acquisitions, no rebrand.
Support model3.1/5 on Trustpilot; complaints reference 30–45 minute waits and non-escalating tier-16Email goes to the person who runs the servers. No tier-1 routing.
Refund window30 days on hosting; domain fees non-refundable30 days on every plan. Migration guarantee inside that window.

Why Bluehost bills this way

Bluehost was acquired by Endurance International Group (EIG) in 2010. EIG rebranded to Newfold Digital in 2021 after merging with Web.com; the pricing model didn’t change. Trade press has documented EIG’s internal strategy for acquired brands as “raise prices, streamline operations, and expect a higher than normal level of churn.”5

The mechanic is simple. The sticker price — $2.95/mo on Basic — is a customer-acquisition subsidy. It runs for the length of the prepay term. The renewal rate — $10.99/mo — is the actual price of running a site on that box. The daily-backup fee, the managed-migration fee, and the paid-SSL fee are separate line items so they aren’t in the headline. None of this is a scam. It’s a business model.

One recent review-site aggregation documented a Bluehost customer whose first-year total of about $65 climbed to $300+ at renewal — a 361% increase. Another cited a renewal invoice of $755 on a plan the customer had originally signed up at the entry rate.6 The pattern is old enough that Bluehost maintains a KB article titled “Renewal Price FAQ.”1

Candor Host is smaller and different. Same price at sign-up and at renewal, for as long as you stay. If we ever change the published price, existing customers keep theirs. Backups and migration aren’t line items — they’re inside the plan you buy.

What migration looks like

The goal is zero downtime. A human on our side handles files, database, email accounts, and DNS cutover. We stage your site on a Candor preview URL, let you review it, and only change the A records when you approve. Most cutovers propagate globally in under an hour because we lower the TTL a day in advance.

Migration is included on every plan. If we can’t migrate you cleanly, cancel inside your 30-day money-back window for a full refund.

Questions we hear from Bluehost customers

Is Candor Host really cheaper than Bluehost?

Not on the intro-term sticker rate. Bluehost’s $2.95/mo Basic is cheaper than Candor Solo at $15/mo for the first three years — provided you never buy the $35.88/yr daily-backup add-on and never buy the $149.99 managed migration. Add both, plus the $10.99/mo renewal that hits starting at year four, and the numbers converge. Candor stays $15/mo forever.

Why does Bluehost charge extra for daily backups?

Bluehost Basic includes weekly backups only. Daily backups are sold as CodeGuard Basic, a paid add-on at $2.99/month billed annually — $35.88 per year. Higher CodeGuard tiers run $47.88, $59.88, and $107.88 per year.2 Free CodeGuard is bundled starting on the Choice Plus tier. Candor includes daily backups on every plan, with three copies stored off-site.

Do I have to pay Bluehost $149.99 to migrate?

Bluehost’s free migration tool is self-service. A managed migration performed by a Bluehost technician — for up to 5 sites and 20 email accounts — is $149.99 per package.3 Candor’s managed migration is included on every plan; a human moves files, database, email accounts, and DNS.

What is Newfold Digital, and why does it matter?

Newfold Digital is the parent company that owns Bluehost. It was called Endurance International Group (EIG) until 2021, when it merged with Web.com and rebranded. EIG acquired Bluehost in 2010 and HostGator in 2012. Post-acquisition, the intro-then-renewal pricing model was installed across roughly 80 EIG brands.5 The company’s strategy for those brands was documented in trade press as designed to “raise prices, streamline operations, and expect a higher than normal level of churn.”

What if I’m mid-term on Bluehost?

Move now, keep Bluehost running until your prepaid term ends. We stage the migration on Candor at a preview URL, let you review it, and only flip DNS when you’re ready. No double-billing on our side — you don’t start paying Candor until you cut over.

Will my site go down during the migration?

The goal is zero downtime. We copy files and database, stand your site up on Candor behind a preview URL, and only change DNS after you approve. We lower the TTL a day ahead of the switch so propagation is typically under an hour. Most customers see no interruption.

What’s the refund policy?

30 days, full refund of hosting fees, on every plan. Migration is included; if we can’t migrate you cleanly, cancel inside your 30-day money-back window for a full refund. This applies to any billing term — annual plans get the same 30-day window as monthly.

What happens if Candor Host ever raises prices?

Existing customers keep their rate. If we ever change published pricing, it applies to new sign-ups only. That is a written commitment in the terms and it’s the whole reason the brand is called Candor.

Move in for free

Files, database, email, DNS — handled by a human on our side, staged for your review, zero downtime as the goal. Migration is included on every plan. If we can’t migrate you cleanly, cancel inside your 30-day money-back window for a full refund.

Email migrations@candorhost.com with your current Bluehost login — or a backup you already have — and we take it from there.

Get started with Candor Solo — $15/mo

Bluehost pricing verified July 2026 from bluehost.com and bluehost.com/help. Comparisons update as competitor pricing changes.

Footnotes

  1. Bluehost Basic: $2.95/mo intro on 36-month prepay; renewal $10.99/mo (3.7x). Bluehost pricing page; Bluehost renewal price FAQ. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  2. CodeGuard Basic for daily backups: $2.99/mo billed annually = $35.88/year; tiers up to $107.88/year. Bundled free starting on Choice Plus. Bluehost CodeGuard help article; Bluehost CodeGuard product page. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  3. Bluehost managed migration is $149.99 per package (up to 5 sites, 20 email accounts). The free tool is self-service. Bluehost Professional Services; Bluehost migration products help. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  4. Bluehost identified as an overseller in trade press covering shared-hosting economics. On premium tiers Bluehost publishes a 300,000-inode file-count cap and states it “allocates fewer users per server” — implying much higher density on Basic. Bitcatcha Bluehost review; Bluehost resource-limits blog. ↩

  5. EIG acquired Bluehost in 2010 and installed the intro-then-renewal pricing model across roughly 80 brands; rebranded to Newfold Digital in 2021 after the Web.com merger. Internal strategy documented as “raise prices, streamline operations, and expect a higher than normal level of churn.” RankThatHost EIG guide; OnlineMediaMasters Newfold list. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  6. Third-party reviews document 361% year-two increases, a documented $755 renewal invoice, and Trustpilot support-quality complaints. Trustpilot Bluehost aggregate: 3.1/5. WebHostMost Bluehost 2026 review; Trustpilot Bluehost; OnlineMediaMasters Bluehost review. ↩ ↩2