With more than 2 million fully hosted websites on its servers, BlueHost become one of the world’s largest web hosting companies.
Starting at $2.95 a month, you can host your website on BlueHost servers with free domain name registration and many other free features.
But, is this the reason behind its popularity, or it is good as a lot of marketers say so.
In this review, I will show you everything you need to know about BlueHost. So, by the end of it, you will be able to decide whether or not it’s a great web hosting provider choice for your website.
Bluehost Story
Founded in 2003 by Matt Heaton and Danny Ashworth in Provo, Utah, BlueHost started as a small hosting company with a vision to provide reliable and affordable web hosting solutions. Over the years, it has grown exponentially, now hosting over 2 million websites worldwide. In 2010, BlueHost was acquired by Endurance International Group (now part of Newfold Digital), a move that brought both benefits and challenges to the company.
BlueHost’s rise to prominence can be attributed to several factors:
- Early adoption of open-source technologies, particularly WordPress
- Competitive pricing and feature-rich hosting plans
- Strong affiliate marketing program
- Focus on user-friendly interfaces and beginner-friendly tools
Today, BlueHost is one of the few web hosting companies officially recommended by WordPress.org, cementing its reputation as a go-to choice for WordPress users.
Bluehost Pros & Cons
Pros:
- User-friendly interface and control panel
- Affordable introductory pricing
- Free domain name for the first year
- Free SSL certificate
- Easy WordPress integration
- Reliable uptime
- 30-day money-back guarantee
Cons:
- Higher renewal rates
- Upselling during the checkout process
- Limited server locations
- Backups not included in basic plans
- Performance can be inconsistent on lower-tier plans
Bluehost Plans and Pricing
BlueHost offers a variety of hosting options to suit different needs. Prices may vary based on promotions and contract length. Always check the renewal rates, as they are typically higher than introductory prices.
However, here are the hosting options they offer:
1. Shared hosting:
The shared hosting solution allows multiple websites to utilize a single server, sharing the same resources.
That means, your website will be hosted with other people’s websites on the same server. Usually, you’ll have no idea who or what websites you’re sharing the resources of a server with.
- Basic: Starting at $2.95/month (promotional price). Renews at $11.99/month.
- Choice Plus: Starting at $5.45/month (promotional price). Renews at $21.99/month.
- Online Store: Starting at $9.95/month (promotional price). Renews at $26.99/month.
- Pro: Starting at $13.95/month (promotional price). Renews at $28.99/month.
| Shared Hosting Comparison | BASIC | CHOICE PLUS | Online Store | PRO |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Promotional price | $2.95/month | $5.45/month | $9.95/month | $13.95/month |
| Renewal price | $11.99/month | $21.99/month | $26.99/month | $28.99/month |
| No. of websites | 10 websites | 50 websites | 50 websites | 100 websites |
| No. of visitors | 40k visits/mo | 200k visits/mo | 200k visits/mo | 400k visits/mo |
| SSD storage space | 10 GB | 50 GB | 50 GB | 100 GB |
| Free daily backups | No | First year | Real-Time Backups | First-year |
| AI Site builder | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Free SSL | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Free CDN | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Free domain 1 year | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Chat support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Phone support | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
2. WordPress Hosting:
Bluehost has WordPress-focused hosting plans optimized for WordPress sites. It’s the same shared hosting plans but comes with a ready-installed WordPress or the option to install it
- Basic: Starting at $2.95/month.
- Choice Plus: Starting at $5.45/month.
- Online Store: Starting at $9.95/month.
- Pro: Starting at $13.95/month.
3. VPS Hosting:
VPS is short for Virtual Private Server, which is basically a physical server machine that has been divided into several virtual servers.
You’ll share a server with other clients, but you will have your own dedicated resources such as RAM, CPU cores, storage space, and bandwidth.
This type of hosting is recommended for those who need a server for a big site that gains a lot of traffic or for those who need special server configurations like working with a particular application or a programming language.
But, it requires knowledge of how to configure servers and write codes. It’s not recommended for beginners at all, as they will be overwhelmed with the stuff they need to go through.
VPS hosting plans:
- STANDARD (NVME 4): Starting at $46.99/month. Renews at $65.99/month.
- ENHANCED (NVME 8): Starting at $65.99/month. Renews at $95.99/month.
- ULTIMATE (NVME 16): Starting at $94.99/month. Renews at $140.99/month.
| VPS Hosting Comparison | STANDARD NVME 4 | ENHANCED NVME 8 | ULTIMATE NVME 16 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Promotional price | $46.99/month | $65.99/month | $94.99/month |
| Renewal price | $65.99/month | $95.99/month | $140.99/month |
| CPU processor | 2 vCPU cores | 4 vCPU cores | 8 vCPU cores |
| RAM memory | 4 GB DDR5 RAM | 8 GB DDR5 | 16 GB DDR5 RAM |
| Storage space | 100 GB NVMe | 200 GB NVMe | 4500 GB NVMe |
| Bandwidth | Unmetered | Unmetered | Unmetered |
| cPanel | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| dedicated IP address | 1 | 1 | 1 |
4. Dedicated Server Hosting:
The dedicated server hosting type is a physical server dedicated with its whole resources to a single business customer.
The customer has complete control over the machine, so they can customize it for their requirements, including performance and security. They are also responsible for its security and BlueHost is responsible for running it for them.
Dedicated servers are meant for those websites that generate tons of traffic or need a top-performing server such as big e-commerce websites and large companies.
The dedicated server hosting comes with three plans:
- STANDARD (NVME 32): Starting at $141.19/month.
- ENHANCED (NVME 64): Starting at $217.19/month.
- PREMIUM (NVME 128): Starting at $312.19/month.
| Dedicated Hosting Comparison | STANDARD NVME 32 | ENHANCED NVME 64 | PREMIUM NVME 128 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Promotional price | $141.19/month | $217.19/month | $312.19/month |
| Renewal price | $188.79/month | $271.19/month | $391.19/month |
| CPU processor | 8 vCPU cores | 16 vCPU cores | 32 vCPU cores |
| RAM memory | 32 GB DDR5 | 64 GB DDR5 | 128 GB DDR5 |
| Storage space | 1000 GB NVMe | 2000 GB NVMe | 30000 GB NVMe |
| Bandwidth | Unmetered | Unmetered | Unmetered |
| dedicated IP address | 1 | 1 | 1 |
5. Cloud Hosting:
Cloud hosting is a type of web hosting where you get dedicated resources on a shared CPU such as VPS hosting, but with flexible plans, better performance, and more powerful features.
Bluehost cloud hosting comes with 4 different plans:
CLOUD 1: This plan offers 1 website, 10 GB SSD storage space, and 2 vCPU. It costs $29.99/month and the renewal price is $79.99/month.
CLOUD 10: This plan offers 10 websites, 125 GB SSD storage space, and 20 vCPU. It costs $49.99/month and the renewal price is $109.99/month.
CLOUD 25: This plan offers 25 websites, 175 GB SSD storage space, and 75 vCPU. It costs $89.99/month and the renewal price is $169.99/month.
CLOUD 50: This plan offers 50 websites, 225 GB SSD storage space, and 150 vCPU. It costs $109.99/month and the renewal price is $249.99/month.
6. WooCommerce Hosting:
Bluehost offers specialized WooCommerce hosting plans designed specifically for online stores built on the WooCommerce plugin for WordPress. These plans come with features tailored to meet the needs of e-commerce websites, ensuring optimal performance, security, and ease of use.
WooCommerce hosting comes with 2 plans, they are Online Store and Online Store + Marketplace.
| WooCommerce Hosting Comparison | Online Store | Online Store + Marketplace |
|---|---|---|
| Promotional price | $9.95/month | $12.95/month |
| Renewal price | $26.99/month | $39.95/month |
| No. of websites | 50 websites | 100 websites |
| No. of visitors | 200k visits/mo | 400k visits/mo |
| SSD storage space | 50 GB | 100 GB |
| Automated Real Time Backups | Yes | Yes |
| AI Site builder | Yes | Yes |
| Free SSL | Yes | Yes |
| Free CDN | Yes | Yes |
| Free domain 1 year | Yes | Yes |
| Chat support | Yes | Yes |
| Phone support | Yes | Yes |
Pricing and plans overall:
If you opt to use Bluehost services, we recommend going with the 1-year shared hosting plan, it’s the cheapest and the best.
Bluehost is ideal for Shared hosting. For other web hosting choices such as Cloud, VPS, and managed WordPress, there are great alternatives that provide better performance for less price such as Cloudways.
Bluehost Performance
Performance is one of the main criteria that you should take when you looking for a web hosting provider, this includes the uptime, loading speed, and more.
Bluehost has improved its performance in recent years, now offering:
- SSD and NVMe SSD storage on all plans for faster loading times.
- DDR5 RAMs.
- Cloudflare CDN integration for improved global performance
- Performed 99.9% uptime and 100% SLA uptime guarantee on cloud hosting plans.
However, real-world performance can vary. While BlueHost has made strides in this area, some users report occasional slowdowns during peak traffic times.
Uptime:
Uptime is crucial for user experience, bad uptime means that your website will go down while users are browsing your website. This will certainly leave a bad impression on the visitors of the site, and they may not visit your site again. Also, Google finds it very difficult to crawl a website that has many downtimes.
Bluehost doesn’t clearly mention their SLA uptime guarantee on all plans, but from tests, we could say that Bluehost’s uptime is 99.9% usually, which is good.
Loading speed:
Web page loading speed is essential for any website to deliver the best user experience and improve its search engine rankings. Google added the core web vitals as a ranking factor.
Bluehost’s speed is not that good when your website is facing a traffic spike. However, it’s a great choice to start with because it provides many free and paid features at a low price.
Data centers:
Bluehost’s primary data centers are located in Provo, Utah, and Houston, Texas. These data centers are equipped with advanced security measures, redundant power, and cooling systems to ensure high availability and reliability for their hosting services.
They may also leverage additional infrastructure through partnerships with global data center providers, but specific details about other data centers are not typically disclosed publicly.
Bluehost Features
Bluehost is known for its many free and paid features that will help you build a fully responsive and awesome website, and these are some of their features.
1. AI website builder:
The AI website builder is a website creation tool that allows you to build a website with no coding or technical knowledge. You can onboard in minutes and get a custom, ready-to-go site.
Users are able to visually click, drag, and drop content to build a home page and additional pages of their website all while being able to access the full power, flexibility, and tools of WordPress.
Regardless of whether you’re a newbie or a PRO, the Website Builder is an essential tool to use when creating a stunningly professional website on WordPress.
Free domain name:
When you register for a hosting plan on Bluehost, your hosting plan comes with a free domain name, a new domain name that you can register for free for one year.
After the end of the year, you will have to pay the registration fee for the specific domain name.
Honestly, many other shared hosting companies offer this feature on their plan, but many of them don’t include it on their cheapest plan.
Free CDN:
CDN stands for content delivery network, it takes popular content to cache servers where it is accumulated, temporarily stored (cached), and given at future requests.
CDN is essential for your website’s speed and performance, it will convey web pages and other web content to users based on their geographic locations, providing a high-speed experience.
This feature is provided by Bluehost as a free feature that comes with any shared hosting package even with the cheapest hosting plan.
Free SSL certificate:
An SSL (secure sockets layer) certificate is a small data file that provides an extra layer of security between a website and a browser.
The SSL certificate both serves to authenticate the website’s identity, and to encrypt any information provided through the website.
A web browser knows how to read the SSL certificate on the site in order to authenticate the website’s identity, and SSL encryption ensures that any information shared between the server and browser is scrambled so that no third party can access it.
Bluehost provides a Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate for free for all hosting plans including the basic plan.
30-Day money-back guarantee :
If you don’t like BlueHost very much after using their services, you can cancel your hosting plan within the first 30 days for a full refund.
If you registered the free domain name offer through this plan, you will be charged for it, and issued the rest to you.
The refund guarantee does not apply to most add-on products, such as domains. Bluehost will deduct a non-refundable domain fee and the domain name will be yours.
Bluehost Security Features
Bluehost offers a range of security features to protect your website and data:
1. All BlueHost plans come with a free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate. This encrypts data transmitted between your website and its visitors, ensuring sensitive information remains secure. SSL certificates also boost your site’s credibility and can improve search engine rankings.
2. SiteLock Security Available as an add-on, SiteLock provides comprehensive website security:
- Daily malware scans to detect and remove threats
- Vulnerability scans to identify potential security weaknesses
- Web Application Firewall (WAF) to block malicious traffic
- CAPTCHA protection to prevent automated attacks
- Blacklist monitoring to ensure your site isn’t flagged by search engines
3. Domain Privacy Protection Included in higher-tier plans, domain privacy protection keeps your personal information hidden from public WHOIS databases. This helps prevent spam, identity theft, and unwanted solicitations.
4. Spam Protection. Bluehost employs multiple layers of spam protection:
- SpamAssassin: An open-source spam filtering system that uses a variety of techniques to identify and filter spam
- Spam Experts: Advanced email filtering that blocks up to 99.99% of spam before it reaches your inbox
- Spam Hammer: An additional layer of protection that uses machine learning to adapt to new spam threats
5. Regular Backups While not included in all plans, CodeGuard Basic provides:
- Daily automated backups of your website
- One-click restore functionality
- Real-time backup monitoring
- 1GB of backup storage
6. Bluehost offers two-factor authentication for your hosting account, adding an extra layer of security beyond your password.
7. Resource Protection to prevent one website from affecting others on shared servers, BlueHost implements:
- CPU throttling to limit resource usage
- Account isolation to separate user accounts
8. Physical Security BlueHost’s data centers feature:
- 24/7 network monitoring
- Redundant power systems
- Climate control systems
- Fire suppression systems
- Biometric access controls
9. Bluehost employs measures to mitigate Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, helping to keep your website online during potential attacks.
10. Automatic WordPress Updates For WordPress sites, BlueHost can automatically update your core WordPress installation, helping to patch security vulnerabilities quickly.
Customer Support
Bluehost provides good customer support to assist users with any issues or questions they may have.
- Live Chat: Available 24/7, live chat allows you to get quick answers to your questions. Response times are typically under 5 minutes.
- Phone Support: BlueHost provides 24/7 phone support with separate lines for different departments (e.g., sales, technical support, billing).
- Email Ticket System: For less urgent issues, you can submit a ticket and receive a response via email, typically within 24-48 hours.
- Knowledge Base: Bluehost maintains an extensive knowledge base.
- Video Tutorials: A series of video tutorials covering various aspects of web hosting and website management.
- Community Forums: While not as active as some competitors, Bluehost maintains community forums.
What is BlueHost Best For?
Bluehost is particularly well-suited for:
- Beginners and small businesses starting their first website
- WordPress users (due to its seamless integration and optimization)
- Those looking for affordable hosting with decent features
- Bloggers and small to medium-sized websites
Bluehost Alternatives
If you feel that Bluehost is not what you are looking for after this review, there are great alternatives that might be a better choice for you.
- Hostinger: Known for excellent performance and support.
- HostGator: Similar pricing and features, good for beginners.
- DreamHost: Offers monthly billing options and strong uptime.
- WP Engine: Specialized WordPress hosting with premium features and performance
Is Bluehost a Good Web Host?
In short, Bluehost is a great company to start with, it has many free features that can lower your web hosting costs. But it’s not the best choice out there, There are better alternatives such as Hostinger, which is better and faster and it costs less than Bluehost costs. Read the Hostinger review.
Read:
Best cheap web hosting under $3.
Best web hosting for developers.
Best Web Hosting for Bloggers.
How to Cancel BlueHost Subscription?
You can cancel your Bluehost account within the first 30 days of signing up. Before requesting cancellation make sure that you have made backups for your websites and emails.
To cancel your subscription first log in to your account, click on your profile icon, and go to products. Next, click on the Renew button, then select Do not renew, select a reason, and then click Continue. Finally, click OK.
Bluehost Review: The Conclusion
BlueHost remains a competitive option in the web hosting market, especially for beginners and WordPress users. Its combination of user-friendly features, affordable pricing, and reliable service makes it a solid choice for many website owners.
However, those requiring top-tier performance or specialized hosting solutions might want to explore other options. As with any hosting decision, it’s essential to consider your specific needs, budget, and long-term plans for your website.
Remember to take advantage of BlueHost’s 30-day money-back guarantee if you decide to try their services. This allows you to test the platform risk-free and ensure it meets your needs before making a long-term commitment.
