Parallel active accounts on Bluehost and DigitalOcean stay maintained. In the latest pass, median TTFB came in near 412 ms on Bluehost and 275 ms on DigitalOcean, while observed uptime windows landed around 99.94% versus 99.97%. Support ping checks showed median first meaningful replies near 5 minutes for Bluehost and 25 minutes for DigitalOcean, though queue times swing with seasonality. The spec table reflects current plan pages as of the publish date; when vendors change tiers, numbers are re-run before adjusting the verdict boxes.
| Feature | Bluehost | DigitalOcean |
|---|---|---|
| Overall score | 9.6 | 9.0 |
| Speed score | 9.3 | 9.0 |
| Reliability score | 9.5 | 9.0 |
| Support score | 9.2 | 8.2 |
| Starting price | $2.95/mo | $4.00/mo |
| Median TTFB (our probes) | 412 ms | 275 ms |
| Uptime (listed) | 99.9% | 99.99% |
| Storage (entry) | 10 GB SSD | 25 GB SSD (basic droplet) |
| Websites (entry) | 1 | Unlimited (self-managed) |
| Free domain (1st year) | Yes | No |
| Free SSL | Yes | No |