Bluehost Review: Is It The Best Solution for Hosting Your Site?

Creating your business website is a key component for a successful launch. Having a professional online presence will create many opportunities for your business and give your brand a leading edge. Choosing a high-quality and reliable web hosting service will ensure your website is built on a solid foundation and has the features required for you to smoothly perform all the functions your business needs.

Bluehost is one of the most popular web hosting companies, which is owned by Endurance International Group. It was founded in 2002 and it now hosts over two million domains. The company’s mission is “to empower people to fully harness the web” and it does so by offering web hosting packages that have comprehensive tools that allow global users to have a strong web presence. Its tools are simple to use both for beginners and experts, they also provide customer support via different avenues 24/7 helping users have the best web hosting experience.

Besides web hosting services, Bluehost also offers SEO services, content creation, social media marketing, graphic design, email, marketing training, domain names, and local business listings. These are all important components of building a brand and driving traffic to your business. This Bluehost review will focus on the web hosting service Bluehost offers.

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Overall Rating

To give you a quick glance, Bluehost provides excellent customer service, server uptime (system reliability), and great value for the cost. It is a superior choice, especially if you’re going to create a WordPress website. Many of Bluehost’s features are better than its competitors. They accommodate various types of customers with their shared and private hosting plans. Their prices are very competitive and accessible, plus you’ll be able to try them for 30-days with a 100% money-back guarantee. For customer reviews, check out the pros and cons of Bluehost.

Read on to learn more about Bluehost and why it is a great solution for your web hosting needs.

How to Determine if Bluehost is Right For You?

When you search the web for the best web hosting service, you’ll see Bluehost pop up right away. It is hugely popular and widely used worldwide by various types of users, even those who just have personal sites. Nonetheless, how can you know if this popular giant is completely suitable for you?

Bluehost is most likely the right web hosting service for you if you’re seeking a company that provides old-fashioned reliability. It has been recognized as the best hosting for WordPress websites. In fact, WordPress itself has listed it as its preferred hosting service since 2005. It has also been found ideal for photography website hosting, for those of you who are enthusiasts of artistic images.

Let’s look at a substantial list of the pros and cons of Bluehost so that you can get a glimpse of the company and see if it’s a right fit for you:

PROS

Server uptime guarantees reliability: Bluehost provides an amazingly comforting uptime guarantee of 99.98%, which makes business owners feel at ease. The last thing you want is for your customers to find your site down when they visit.
Integration to WordPress is seamless: There’s a reason why WordPress has recommended Bluehost since 2005. It is super easy to set up a WordPress website through Bluehost. Many users find WordPress as the leading platform for creating their sites, so it is a great partnership.
Pricing plans for any type of budget: No matter what kind of customer you are, Bluehost’s variety of tiered pricing plans allow you to find an affordable option even after the lower pricing of the first year.
Global notoriety gives you peace of mind: The company has hosted over two million sites globally, which means they are industry leaders and have many satisfied customers and referrals.
Accommodates a variety of businesses: Broad range of hosting options for any type of site owner. Whether you’re running a simple blog or an e-commerce site, Bluehost has a plan for you.
Easy upgrades as your business evolves: You’ll have the ability to upgrade your plan to a Dedicated or a VPS server without having to relocate your site – this means continuity and no downtime.
Keep your site well maintained: Their cPanel features free anti-spam tools and other functions to keep your site running smoothly.
Free trial offer: Bluehost offers a no-questions-asked money-back guarantee for 30 days. You can cancel anytime and try the service for free to see if you want to keep it.
Additional resources to support all needs: Cloudflare support is available amongst other support features.
High-security features: Bluehost plans carry important security features including SiteLock protection, SSL certificates, and unique IPs.

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CONS

Extra costs may be charged for add-ons: when purchasing a plan, be sure to check your shopping cart carefully as some optional add-ons are automatically inserted, which will increase your total price. Just uncheck any optional unwanted items to ensure you purchase your package at the price that works for you.
Limited storage: Compared to its competitors, Bluehost has a limited amount of storage capacity on its basic plan. If you need more storage, you’ll have to consider an additional expense for that option.
Other additional fees: Bluehost charges a fee when switching from another hosting service, which most companies offer for free. These and other unexpected fees can drive up your total price.
Mixed customer support reviews: Some customers have found their support center a bit slow and lacking a personal touch.

Now that you have a general idea of the pros and cons of Bluehost, let’s dive deeper into the company and its services.

Performance, Reliability, and Security

As mentioned earlier, Bluehost guarantees a server uptime of 99.98%, which means only about 105 minutes of annual downtime. For security, it uses SiteLock, which scans your website for malware and viruses with ongoing 24/7 network monitoring on the Bluehost’s servers. Your site is sure to be part of a very secure network.

cPanel

All Bluehost customers have access to cPanel on their accounts. It is an industry-leading control panel that makes managing your web hosting account simple. Your Bluehost’s customized cPanel includes features that allow you to easily manage backups, themes, security options, and other tools.

You can think of cPanel as your complete command center where you access your account, manage domains, install applications and scripts, and set up your backup options. It is a non-technical dashboard that makes it easy for you to navigate your web hosting experience with its simple interface.

Secure Company Operations and Infrastructure

To protect their infrastructure, Bluehost does not disclose or publish information about their locations, security measures, or datacenters. They build their own serves with components that are carefully chosen, which is what contributes to their top-notch reliability. The company uses UPS power backup, 24/7 network monitoring, and diesel generator power backup. They have taken the measures necessary to keep their reputation for reliability and security.

In addition, to protect your data as a customer, Bluehost provides you with “RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) Level 1” support, which mirrors your data in multiple disks. This improves the reliability of your data and keeps it secure.

Plus, Bluehost provides you with the features of password-protected directories, filters for email accounts and users, the ability for you to create IP address blacklists, the ability for you to manage your digital certificates, a management tool for your private keys, and other important security features all business should have.

Since Bluehost backups are not guaranteed since they are performed at the company’s discretion, they recommend you set up your daily backup protocol for full security of your data.

Site Load Speed

Visitors are more likely to leave your site if it takes a long time to load. It is almost always the case that a slow website means less traffic, which translates into lower sales numbers. The second factor next to uptime, is how fast your website takes to load, its site load speed. Those two top qualities can make difference between the success or failure of your site.

Bluehost provides an average load speed of 581 ms over the past year. This speed is one of the best amongst its industry competitors. Its servers are continuously tuned and monitored to keep them functioning at the best speeds. Bluehost’s servers rarely become overloaded, which is one of the reasons why many sites slow down.

When issues do occur, Bluehost works quickly to resolve them. They encourage their customers to perform a traceroute and contact their customer service agents with the information so that they have the details they need to resolve the problem with utmost diligence. This is an example of the type of prompt solutions they offer and what contributes to their ongoing success as an industry leader.

Improve Your Site With Cloudflare CDN

Bluehost integrates Cloudflare in its packages making your site faster, decreasing its CPU usage on the server, and decreasing bandwidth usage. Improve load times are especially essential to e-commerce sites. Cloudflare is a content delivery network (CDN), it is a web of servers that keep cached versions of your sites that allows for faster uploading of data because the data travels from a CDN that is proximate to the person viewing the site.

This shorter travel time means the data comes in quicker and allows the person to view all the content of the website at a faster speed. To give you an idea, the average speed of a request with Cloudflare is 9ms, compared to 31ms without it.

Since Cloudflare has 154 datacenters worldwide, they are able to quickly reach website viewers anywhere. You can easily start using Cloudflare by setting it up from your Bluehost control panel.

Hosting Types and Features

There are six various types of hosting offered by Bluehost including WooCommerce, Shared, Shared WordPress, Managed WordPress, VPS, and dedicated.

Let’s explore the details and differences of each hosting category below:

WooCommerce: This is a WordPress open-source plugin for e-commerce sites. It is an ideal tool for small to large-sized online merchants that use WordPress. Since its launch in 2011, this plugin became popular because it is simple to install and customize. It is by far, the best way to host a WordPress site that has an online store.
Shared: It is a web hosting service that allows multiple websites to reside on one web server that is connected to the Internet. It is the most economical and most general basic service for web hosting. It is a cost-effective solution because it allows many customers to share the total cost of server maintenance.
Shared WordPress: Here you’ll find an affordable way to host WordPress sites, where the resources of the hosting server are shared with other websites. You can think of this option as an entry-level way to host a WordPress site that allows you to keep your budget under control.
Managed WordPress: This is a premium product specific to WordPress that provides a concierge-type service that includes performance optimizations, security protocols, and maintenance features to help you run your best WordPress. The key features include things such as automatic updates.
VPS (Virtual Private Server): It is a virtual component sold as a service by Bluehost and other internet hosting companies. It offers more than the basics for those types of businesses that need to be a bit more advanced utilizing features such as advanced optimization, high performance, backup options, and an easy-to-use interface for advanced functions.
Dedicated: This is the most expensive option where the customer leases an entire server that is not to be shared with anyone else. The customer has complete control over this machine so that they can optimize their unique requirements for performance, security, and other factors.

Additional Bluehost Features

The most impressive feature Bluehost offers is its seamless integration with a WordPress built site. Let’s view other features this hosting service offers:

1. Website Builder

You don’t have to be an HTML or CSS expert to build a professional and well-functioning website. Their drag-and-drop site builder allows you to create a fully-integrated site that looks great.

2. Domain Registration

Bluehost includes a free domain to particular customers who sign up for a one-year plan. You still have to pay a domain registration fee, which is approximately $10 to $15.

3. Data Transfer

On many of their plans, Bluehost includes unlimited data transfer and CPU Protection.

4. Storage

Bluehost offers a variety of plans that have different storage capacities. They offer from 50GB up to unlimited storage space for the files on your site. For example, a WordPress blog that only needs to accommodate words and images can use the 50GB plan. On the other hand, e-commerce sites that provide many functions to their visitors will require more storage space.

As you can see, a great advantage of using Bluehost is that you can take care of all your needs in one place. You can register your domain, set up your email administration, use a hosting service, and store your data all under one roof.

SSL Certificates

Google has set forth a best industry practice that every site should have an SSL certificate. It does not matter if the site is e-commerce or not, it is highly beneficial for all sites to have an SSL certificate.

Having the SSL certificate keeps your site and data safe and in compliance with regulations. It will also give your customers more confidence when visiting your site, which can increase traffic to your site.

Another advantage of having an SSL certificate is that your site rankings in search engine results will improve. If your site seems insecure, search engines will downgrade your results. Bluehost does a wonderful job including SSL certificates for each of our installed domains. Not only does it saves you the extra cost of installing the certificate yourself, but it also saves you the hassle.

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Hosting Plans Pricing

When it comes to getting value for your money, Bluehost ranks as the leading hosting service. It is not the cheapest service on the market, but it does offer the best value for what you get. It offers many features and complimentary extras included in its plans, especially on shared and WordPress options.

To give customers peace of mind, Bluehost offers a 30-day money-back guarantee and it also provides discounts for new customers. People on average save approximately 64% per month with the promotional pricing offerings.

Bluehost’s Plus plan is highly futuristic while still remaining an affordable option for the more advanced customer.

Below you’ll see pricing for the six types of hosting plans Bluehost offers:

1. WooCommerce Hosting

Initial Price: $15.95 per month

Renewal Price: $24.95 per month

2. Shared Hosting

Initial Price: $2.95 per month

Renewal Price: $8.99 per month

3. Shared WordPress Hosting

Initial Price: $2.95 per month

Renewal Price: $8.99 per month

4. Managed WordPress Hosting

Initial Price: $9.95 per month

Renewal Price: $29.99 per month

5. VPS (Virtual Private Server) Hosting

Initial Price: $9.95 per month

Renewal Price: $29.99 per month

6. Dedicated Hosting

Initial Price: $79.99 per month

Renewal Price: $119.99 per month

Plan Comparison

You’re probably ready to ask yourself which plan is best suited for you. Here’s the full comparison of Bluehost’s shared hosting options composed of the following plans:

Basic
Plus
Choice Plus
Pro

We’ll review each plan below in great detail to help you determine which one is the best for you.

1. Basic Plan Review

The Basic plan is a basic option that is a starter plan for shared hosting and it is also the cheapest choice.

Who should purchase the Basic plan?

If you are just beginning and are launching a WordPress site, but want a reliable and economic option, the Basic plan is perfect for you.

A setback about this plan is that you are limited to only one website on your hosting account and you’ll have limited features. Besides those factors, it is a perfect plan if you plan to run only one website and want to enjoy a high-quality hosting service.

Perfect for:

Beginners.
WordPress starters.
Bloggers looking for the most economic option.

Features of Basic plan:

Only one website is included.
50 GB website space and bandwidth.
Five email accounts and email storage.
Free SSL certificate.
25 parked domains and subdomains.
One Free domain for 12 months

2. Plus Plan Review

Bluehost’s Plus plan is highly futuristic while still remaining an affordable option for the more advanced customer.

Who should purchase the Plus plan?

This plan has all the components of the Basic plan, but you’ll be able to install unlimited sites. On all of the unlimited number of sites you want to install, you will enjoy features such as email accounts, storage, unlimited parked domains, and other features.

Perfect for:

New bloggers.
All types of WordPress users.
Bloggers that want an unlimited number of sites under one hosting account for an affordable price.

Features of Plus plan:

Ability to install an unlimited number of sites.
Free SSL certificates for all your installed sites.
Unmetered website space and bandwidth.
One free domain (for 12 months).
Unlimited email accounts and email storage.
Unlimited parked domains and subdomains.
$200 worth of marketing offers.
One spam expert.

3. Choice Plus Plan Review

If you’re looking for a high number of quality features in a shared hosting plan at an affordable price, the Choice Plus plan is the best option for you.

Who should purchase the Choice Plus plan?

If you work with WordPress often and want a high-quality hosting solution, this plan is great for you. Along with the features found in the Plus plan, you’ll also have options for site backups, domain privacy, and other features.

Perfect for:

All types of bloggers.
WordPress regular users.
Users looking for site backup and advanced features.

4. Pro Plan Review

The Pro plan is Bluehost’s most expensive shared hosting option that gives you unique features such as a dedicated IP.

Who should purchase the Pro plan?

For people seeking a high-performing shared hosting option, the Pro plan is certainly the one you should choose.

When you select this plan, you’ll enjoy all the features of the Choice Plus plan. In addition, you’ll have access to exclusive features like high performing servers, site backups, a dedicated IP, domain privacy, and others.

Perfect for:

All professional bloggers and WordPress users.
Those who want a dedicated IP, and other key advanced features such as site backup.

Features of Choice Plus Plan:

Ability to install an unlimited number of sites.
Free SSL certificates for all your installed sites.
Unmetered website space and bandwidth.
One free domain (for 12 months).
Unlimited email accounts and email storage.
Unlimited parked domains and subdomains.
$200 worth of marketing offers.
Two spam experts.
One domain privacy plus protection.
Included site backup with CodeGuard Basic.
A dedicated IP.
One free office 365 mailbox for 30 days.

Conclusion About Plans

All of Bluehost’s shared hosting plans come with general common features such as free domain name registration for one year, free SSL certificates, and unmetered bandwidth.

Choosing the best plan all comes down to your specific website needs and your budget. If you’re willing to spend a little more each month, then the Choice Plus plan is a great option. When you sign-up for a three-year plan, you’ll save more than buying the yearly service. Unfortunately, Bluehost does not offer month-to-month plans.

If you’re a complete beginner and are just getting your feet wet, the Basic plan may be the best for you. Even if you’re a seasonal blogger, you should still choose the Choice Plus plan. Advanced bloggers should definitely choose the Pro plan.

Support Center

Customers give mixed reviews about Bluehost’s support center, but most are very pleased to find the type of 24/7 support you expect from a reputable company. Highly trained support agents are available via telephone, email, support tickets, or live chat to help you with all topics you may need to be covered.

You may also lookup information in their extensive collection of online materials through their portal. Here you’ll find video tutorials, articles, and FAQs on just about any web hosting topic.

The company is well organized into their sales, technical support, or account management teams so you can connect directly to what you need much quicker.

Before purchasing the service, you may try their live online chat to get a feel for the quality of their support. Remember that Bluehost has a 30-day money-back guarantee, you’ll be able to test-drive their service and products for a whole month before you decide if this hosting company is right for you.

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Recap of Bluehost Site Hosting Features

Let’s recap Bluehost’s best features as a site hosting service:

You’ll have access to a large number of add-ons and site tools.
You’ll receive free SSL certificates for each installed site.
You’ll use cPanel, which is an easy-to-navigate dashboard that helps you stay organized and maintain your site conveniently.
You’ll have access to site builders and other free tools.
Be at ease with the reliability of 99.99% uptime around the clock most of the year.
You’ll receive free email addresses that are specific to your domain for the most professional communication with your clients.
Their modern state-of-the-art technology provides fast site load times.
Integration of Cloudflare that makes your site loading faster.
Premium security features to keep your data secure.

FAQ

Here are some frequently asked questions about Bluehost.

Who Owns Bluehost?

Bluehost was founded in 2003, but since 2010 it has been owned by Endurance International Group (EIG), which was formerly BizLand. EIG is an IT service company that specializes in web hosting and also owns HostGator, Dotster, iPage, Arvixe, A Small Orange, and other major players in the web hosting arena.

What Nameservers Do Bluehost Customers Use?

When you use Bluehost as your web host, you will use ns1.Bluehost.com and ns2.Bluehost.com as your nameservers. This allows your website to connect and be managed by Bluehost.

What Type of Support Do Bluehost Clients Receive?

One of the best advantages of using Bluehost is the support you’ll receive. Their customer support agents are available for you 24/7 and you can find them via live chat, by calling their toll-free phone number, start a support ticket, or you may also email your questions. Their customer service is only available for English speakers, so if you need service in another language, working with Bluehost may pose a challenge.

What is the Location of Bluehost’s Servers?

Bluehost is owned by EIG, which makes it hard to figure out which datacenters are used. Plus, they make it a point not to disclose this type of information to the public in order to protect their servers and customers. Their previous headquarters was in Provo, Utah, but it is unclear if they still have operations there. Because they are part of EIG’s vast corporate portfolio, it allows them to access a large number of resources, which means their servers may be in various locations, it is not known for sure.

What Are Some Good Alternatives to Bluehost if You’re Shopping Around for a Hosting Service?

Bluehost is one of the best web hosting services on the market. However, if you’re shopping around, some popular alternatives include HostGator, InMotion Hosting, SiteGround, and GreenGeeks.

Keep in mind that Bluehost is a one-stop-shop, not only do they offer web hosting, but also other business services. In this case, for alternatives that also offer a one-stop-shop approach, you’ll find Web.com and 1&1 Hosting to be comparable options.

What is the Most Economic Hosting Plan Bluehost Offers?

The most cost-effective plan offered by Bluehost is priced at $2.75 per month. After the first three years, which is considered to be the first billing cycle, the price renews at $7.99 per month.

A great option to try the service is to do a 30-day trial that guarantees a full refund if you’re not satisfied and cancel within the trial period.

Does Bluehost Allow You to Register Domain Names?

All customers are able to buy domain names from Bluehost right from their cPanel dashboard. You may also buy domain privacy features for an additional annual cost. All of their hosting plans include a free domain name for one year unless you cancel the hosting service, in which case you’ll be charged for the domain name.

Can Customers Automatically Install WordPress

Once you purchase the Optimized WordPress hosting plan, you’ll be ready to use WordPress as it will be already installed on your dashboard. For other plans, you can simply install WordPress from the MOJO marketplace along with a variety of other applications such as Drupal, Magento, Joomla, PrestaShop, and others. All of these options are accessible with an easy one-click-install process.

What Plan is Best for WordPress Sites?

Bluehost is devoted to WordPress and thus offers several WordPress-specific plans. They have been recommended by WordPress.org for years and host more than one million WordPress sites. They have an exclusive full-time staff of WordPress Core developers dedicated to Bluehost customers. They also sponsor WordPress WordCamps, which are global conferences made up of a community that works together to enhance their knowledge about everything there is to know about WordPress.

The most economical WordPress option offered by Bluehost is the Shared hosting plan. It is ideal for most site owners. Users that need more features will benefit from choosing more advanced plans like WordPress Pro and Managed WordPress hosting. E-commerce stores definitely will want to choose the WooCommerce plans.

Does Bluehost Allow CGI Scripting to be Used in My Hosting Account?

Yes, you may use CGI (Common Gateway Interface) with your hosting account as long as it is not infected with bugs. CGI is a standard method of running programs from a web server. They are often used when page visitors fill out forms or perform other interactive actions on your site. It makes your page more dynamic and adds more interactive components.

How Many MySQL database Are Offered?

MySQL databases provide a management system so you can easily access, add, and process data stored in a computer database. For all its shared Linux hosting clients, Bluehost provides 100 MySQL databases.

Are Mailing Features Supported by Bluehost?

Yes, through the default setting on the cPanel dashboard, Bluehost offers mailing list features via Mailman. There’s approximately a sending limit of 2,000 per month.

When using the cPanel, you’ll be able to create, delete, or modify your site’s mailing lists. This allows you to send one message to multiple recipients at one time. It is perfect for a company’s email subscription communication and as part of their marketing tools.

Do I Receive a Free Domain With Any Bluehost Hosting Plan?

When you sign up for Bluehost, you’ll receive a free new domain registration. As long as you keep the domain under a Bluehost hosting plan, it will remain free upon yearly renewals. If your hosting plan only includes one free domain, you will have to pay an additional fee for each new domain you want to register under your hosting plan.

You’ll have to pay for the first free domain if you change to a new domain name, or if you switch to a different hosting company.

What Type of Payment Methods Does Bluehost Accept?

It is very easy to pay for your Bluehost web hosting service. The company accepts most major credit cards including American Express, Visa, Discover, and MasterCard. You may also use checks from a U.S. bank account, send payments via PayPal Instant Payments, purchase orders, or use money orders from the United States.

As of now, the company cannot accept payments from your PayPal balance, wire transfers, gift cards, or non-reloadable prepaid credit cards.

The general default payment method during the sign-up process is by using a credit card of your choice, which can become your card on-file for recurring payments unless you update your settings to use another method.

Summary of Bluehost Review

If you’re looking for an industry leader that helps you get your site published and fully functioning, Bluehost is a great choice. Their simple dashboard interface using cPanel allows you to create a smooth routine for you to maintain and run your site.

It is an affordable alternative for those who like to use WordPress and want a reliable company that offers great uptime all year long. Their servers provide a fast and secure experience and their features and plans accommodate just about every type of business. You’re able to enjoy features such as Cloudflare that optimize the speed of your site.

Overall, it is a popular choice for beginners and experts alike. It is a highly stable company that has just about every feature you need. Bluehost is not only a web hosting service company, but it is a one-stop-shop for other business and digital marketing services you might need to continue to grow your business.

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