Out of the numerous web hosts available, only three of them have been officially recommended by WordPress themselves. One of such web host is Bluehost! But that’s not where the story ends. Apart from being a WordPress shop, there is a lot more than it offers. It offers services that power up simple blogs as well as advanced e-commerce applications.
Other noteworthy features include free domains, easy and user-friendly control panel, and incredible customer support. All these features make Bluehost one web host that beginners opt for.
Bluehost started in 1996 by founders Danny Ashworth and Matt Heaton in Provo, Utah. In a short time, they became one of the largest web hosts of the world. Today, the company hosts over 2 million sites from across the globe.
What makes it unique is that it has a long-standing partnership with WordPress. In fact, in 2006, it became one of the official WordPress-recommended hosting companies. With a staff comprising 750 employees working tirelessly, the company aims for the highest quality of services. It also takes pride in its 24/7 customer support and excellent hosting infrastructure. It also boasts its support for open-source software such as WordPress.
Numerous web hosts out there meet the minimum WordPress requirements. However, WordPress officially has a list which includes some of the best options for the hosting world. Included in the list if Bluehost.
Powering more than two million websites, the web host is known to be the ideal WordPress platform. Its features are tuned for WordPress. It comes with a WordPress-centric dashboard as well as one-click installation. Other features include a free domain name, FTP, and email. It is also easy to scalable and backed by 24/7 support provided by in-house WP experts.
With 13 hosting plans, Bluehost has hosted an impressive 2,313,601 total domains. Both .com and .org are the most commonly hosted ones. Other domains include .info, .us, and .biz.
Before settling on a web host, looking at the performance metric is crucial. You must have a look at the speed (average load time), and uptime of the host. All these metrics affect the user experience as well as WordPress SEO rankings.
To have a fast website, your web hosting company should also be fast. Keeping this fact in mind, we first tested the host’s speed. To do so, we made a test website using a default theme. We also added dummy content with images so that it acts like a real website. Finally, we used Pingdom for testing the site’s speed.
As you can see, the load time is less than a second which is pretty good!
For our next test, we looked at the overall availability of Bluehost. To do so, we looked at the downtime and the response time of the host. As the results show, for almost a month, Bluehost hasn’t been down at all. Plus, an uptime of 99.99% is quite impressive too.
Also, the speed is remarkable as well. The graph shows that Bluehost’s response time has been more or less quite steady. The time hardly reaches one second at any time of day with the average response time being almost half a second. Thus, the host ensures stable and reliable performance.
Month | Uptime Stats | Load Time Stats |
---|---|---|
June 2019 | 99.98% | 415 ms |
May 2019 | 100% | 384 ms |
April 2019 | 99.99% | 307 ms |
With Pingdom and similar tools, you can see how data like images load on your website. However, for more accurate server response time, Bitcatcha is a more suitable tool. Using this, we can test the server response time without loading any data.
As you can see, the server response times are quite exceptional, particularly in the US. While in other countries the response time is a little higher, it is still quite below one second. Overall, the server response time is excellent.
Bluehost offers a range of hosting plans to cater to various customers. Their packages include shared, cloud, WordPress, WooCommerce, VPS, and dedicated hosting. Let’s briefly look at what each plan is targeted at.
Type of Hosting | #1 Package | #2 Package | #3 Package | #4 Package |
---|---|---|---|---|
Shared (Basic) | $2.75 / mo | $4.95 / mo | $5.45 / mo | $13.95 / mo |
WordPress | $2.75 / mo | $4.95 / mo | $5.45 / mo | ✖ |
VPS | $19.99 / mo | $29.99 / mo | $59.99 / mo | ✖ |
Dedicated | $79.99 / mo | $99.99 / mo | $119.99 / mo | ✖ |
This is the ideal plan for those who are starting a new website with low traffic. In such a plan, your site shares the resources of the server with other sites. Bluehost offers four shared hosting plans. These are Basic, Plus, Choice Plus, and Go PRO.
Basic: Starting at $2.75/month, the plan lets you host one website. It comes with 50GB SSD storage, unmetered and a free SSL certificate. Other features included 1 included domain, 5 parked domain, and 25 subdomains.
Plus: Costing $4.95/month, the plan comes with unlimited websites and SSD storage, and unmetered bandwidth. Other features include a free SSL certificate and unlimited domains. As a bonus, a $200 marketing offer is also included.
Choice Plus: Priced at $5.45/month, the Choice Plus plan includes everything that is included in the Choice plan. The only difference is that this plan also includes domain privacy and site backup.
Go PRO: Available at a price of $13.95/month, this plan is an advanced version of the Choice Plus package. The main difference between the two is that the PRO package includes a high-performance server and a dedicated IP.
Main Features | Basic | Plus | Choice Plus | Pro |
---|---|---|---|---|
Started Price | $2.75/mo | $4.95/mo | $5.45/mo | $13.95/mo |
Renewal Price | $7.99/mo | $10.99/mo | $14.99/mo | $23.99/mo |
Websites | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
SSD Disk Space | 50 GB | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Bandwidth | Unmetered | Unmetered | Unmetered | Unmetered |
Email Accounts | 5 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Domain(s) Hosted | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
FREE Domains Included | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
FREE SSL Certificate | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
As apparent by the name, a hosting package for sites powered by WordPress. Apart from being optimized to run WP sites, it can also protect your websites from common threats. Bluehost has four WordPress hosting plans to offer. These include the Basic, Plus, and Choice Plus.
Basic: Priced at $2.75/month, the plan lets you host 1 website. The plan includes other features like 50GB SSD storage, free SSL certificate, and a free domain of one year. $50 marketing credit is also included in this plan.
Plus: With this plan priced at $4.95/month, you get unlimited websites, unmetered bandwidth, and free SSL certificate. Moreover, free domain for one year, unlimited subdomains, and $100 marketing credit are also included.
Choice Plus: With this $5.45/month plan, you get unlimited websites, free SSL certificate, and unmetered SSD storage. Other features include a free domain for a year, $200 marketing credits, and CodeGuard basic backup.
VPS hosting can be called an upgrade to WordPress hosting. It allows you to use virtual dedicated resources within a shared environment. There are three VPS hosting plans at Bluehost. These are standard, enhanced, and ultimate.
Standard: Starting at $18.99/month, the plan includes 2 cores, 2GB RAM, 1TB bandwidth, and 50GB SSD storage. Other features include 1 domain, 1 IP address, 30-day money-back guarantee, and 24/7 support. Free SSL is also included.
Enhanced: At $29.99/month, this plan includes 2 cores, 60GB SSD storage, 4GB RAM, and 2TB bandwidth. It also comes with 24/7 support, 2 IP addresses, and 30-day money-back guarantee. Plus, an SSL is also included for free.
Ultimate: At $59.99/month, this plan includes 4 speed cores, 120GB SSD storage, 8GB RAM, and 3 TB bandwidth. 1 included domain, 2 IP addresses, and 24/7 support is also included. Like other plans, this one also includes free SSL certificate and 30-day money-back guarantee.
With dedicated server hosting, you will have the resources of the server all to yourself. There are three dedicated hosting plans. These are standard, enhanced, and premium.
Standard: Costing $79.99/month, the plan includes 4 cores and 8 threads, a speed of 2.3GHz, and 500GB storage. Moreover, it comes with 4GB RAM, 5TB bandwidth, 3 IP addresses, and 1 included domains. Other features include a free SSL certificate, 24/7 support, and 30-day money-back guarantee.
Enhanced: At $99.99/month, the plan features 4 cores, 8 threads, 2.5GHz speed, 1TB storage, and 8GB RAM. Other features include 10TB bandwidth, 1 included domains and 4 IP addresses. Like other plan, this one also includes free SSL, 24/7 support, and 30-day money-back guarantee.
Premium: Starting from $119.99/month, this plan comes with 4 cores and 8 threads, a speed of 3.3 GHz, and 1TB storage. Moreover, 1 domain, 16GB RAM, 15TB bandwidth, and 5 IP addresses are also included. Like other plans, this one also features free SSL, 24/7 support, and 30-day money-back guarantee.
Bluehost has a shared hosting package that is suitable for starter sites. Their shared plan has three different levels. All three plans have features that hosting clients generally want.
Let’s see the features that are included in the three basic plans as well as the cost of each. There are two upgrades available for those who want more from the basic plan. These are the Plus plan and the Choice Plus plan.
Bluehost Basic: With the basic plan, you can only host a single website. Other features of the plan include one domain, 50 GB storage, 25 subdomains, and 5 email accounts. For first time users, the price is $2.95/month. Meanwhile, the renewal price is $7.99/month.
Bluehost Plus: The Plus plan includes unlimited websites, bandwidth, and web space. You also get unlimited email accounts. The starting price of this package is $5.95/month. The renewal price, meanwhile, is $10.99/month.
Bluehost Choice Plus: This plan takes it a little further from the plus plan. It includes all the features of the plus plan. In addition, it includes extras like SiteBackup Pro and domain privacy worth more than $80/year. For the first time users, the plan costs $5.95/month. The renewal price is $14.99/month.
Bluehost Go PRO: The Go PRO plan is a step further from the Choice Plus package. It has everything that the Plus plan includes and combines it with a high-performance server. Additionally, it also includes a dedicated IP.
Main Features | Basic | Plus | Choice Plus |
---|---|---|---|
Started Price | $2.75/mo | $5.45/mo | $5.45/mo |
Renewal Price | $7.99/mo | $10.99/mo | $14.99/mo |
Websites | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
SSD Disk Space | 50 GB | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Bandwidth | Unmetered | Unmetered | Unmetered |
Email Accounts | 5 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Domain(s) Hosted | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
FREE Domains Included | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
FREE SSL Certificate | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
FREE Site Builder | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ |
FREE Website Transfer | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ |
cPanel & Softaculous | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Nightly Backups | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
MySQL Databases | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Cloudflare CDN | Add-on | Add-on | Add-on |
Performance | Standard | Standard | Standard |
Money Back Guarantee | 30 days | 30 days | 30 days |
While the basic plan costs $2.75 for a month, both the other packages cost the same. They start at $5.45 for a month.
Payment Period / Plan (for new users only) |
Basic | Plus | Choice Plus | Go Pro |
---|---|---|---|---|
12 month | $4.95/mo | $7.45/mo | $7.45/mo | $18.95/mo |
24 month | $3.95/mo | $6.95/mo | $6.95/mo | $15.95/mo |
36 month | $2.75/mo | $5.45/mo | $5.45/mo | $13.95/mo |
The renewal price for all three is entirely different and varies according to the payment plan. The cheapest one is the 36-month plan. For the basic plan, it is $7.99/month. Meanwhile, for the Plus plan, the renewal costs $10.99/month. For the Choice Plus plan, the renewal price is $14.99/month. Finally, for the Go Pro plan, the renewal cost is $23.99/month.
Payment Period / Plan (renewal prices) |
Basic | Plus | Choice Plus | Go Pro |
---|---|---|---|---|
12 month | $8.99/mo | $12.99/mo | $16.99/mo | $25.99/mo |
24 month | $8.49/mo | $11.99/mo | $15.99/mo | $24.99/mo |
36 month | $7.99/mo | $10.99/mo | $14.99/mo | $23.99/mo |
Let’s have a look at some of the main features Bluehost has to offer. These will help you determine how good or bad this option is for you.
A domain name is included for free with all shared hosting plans for the whole year. While it may cost up to $20 elsewhere, Bluehost gives it away for free. A professional domain email has various benefits. It drives awareness to your company by showing the domain to the customers with the emails you send out. Moreover, it adds credibility just by being connected to the domain. There are three options for personal domain email with Bluehost. The Email Essential plan costs $2.99 per license/month while the Business Plus is $5.99 per license/month. In addition, the Business Pro is priced at $9.99 per license/month.
For storage, the option is pretty basic. While the disk space is SDD, there is quite a lot of it. The basic plan has 50GB which is sufficient for many users.
There are also no limitations on the bandwidth. While it is unmetered, it isn’t unlimited so it can handle regular use on the website easily. Meanwhile, the other advanced shared hosting plans all come with unmetered bandwidth and unlimited SSD storage.
Bluehost offers one-click installation for various popular software. These include WordPress as well as other applications like Drupal and Magento. Besides, if you opt for Blueрost WordPress hosting, you get various WP features. These include free email, automatic WordPress updates, staging environment, and automatic WP installation.
Unfortunately, Bluehost doesn’t offer free site migrations. You will have to pay a hefty fee of $149.99 to enjoy migration services. Besides, the host doesn’t transfer more than 20 email accounts and 5 websites.
Other features that Bluehost offers include an application-rich dashboard. Using the dashboard, you can integrate various services like Google Apps and CloudFlare in the cPanel. Moreover, there are many add-ons available as well. These include multi-server management, unique IPs, domain privacy, SiteLock, and spam protection.
With the domain privacy protection that Bluehost has to offer, you can keep your site protected. It helps to prevent phishing attacks, spam, and theft. It does so by hiding the personal information linked with your domain. Domain privacy costs $0.99/month.
Each plan included free SSL certificate powered by Let’s Encrypt. This gives you a secure connection between your visitors and your website. As a result, it helps to safeguard personal information and other sensitive data.
Bluehost also offers SiteLock Security with its shared hosting plans. You can get it for $1.99/month. With its help, you can save your site from malware and attacks. SiteLock Security works by detecting as well as fixing threats before they become a problem. Another option is the CodeGuard Basic. This makes daily backups and checks for changes on the website. You can get it at $2.99/month.
A dedicated IP is not included with the basic shared hosting plan. Similarly, it is also not included with the Choice and Choice Plus plan. A dedicated IP is only included in the Pro plan.
All the shared plans come with automatic backups for free. Daily, weekly, and monthly backups are all offered. So, if there’s a problem with your site, then you can restore it to the previous state easily. Plus, you can also keep all the files safe.
Since Bluehost focuses quite a lot on security, there are numerous other security features as well. Apache Spam Assassin, Spam Hammer, and Spam Experts offer three different layers of anti-spam protection. Plus, the directories are password-protected. SSH access is also provided. As a result, you can securely access configuration files.
For Bluehost, there is only one server location. The server is located in Provo, Utah where the company is based.
Without a doubt, Bluehost has a sleek and modern website. This clean design also extends towards their user backend as well. As a result, the website is quite user-friendly. It also offers the following:
Signing up as well as setting a domain is quite simple and doesn’t take too much time. Just select your desired plan and then mention the details. You can either get a new domain or use the one you already have.
Next, you need to make an account and mention all your details. Here, you will be asked to enter your payment details too.
To ensure further ease of use, the host accepts payment by a majority of credit cards. You can also pay using PayPal.
Most users get to enjoy instant account activation. However, if there’s any suspicion of fraud or inaccurate information, then activation can be delayed.
Bluehost comes with an easy to use and simple cPanel control panel. Setting up your website as well as managing it becomes easy. The interface is so easy that you only need to click on the icons you need to go to.
Like everything else, customer support is also not short of impressive. There’s a team of 300 people ready to help out customers. Plus, support is provided in multiple languages. Moreover, the expensive packages include technical support too. The following customer support channels are available:
Generally, it takes less than one minute for the agent to join your chat bubble. However, the software tells you to wait at least five minutes for an agent to be connected. Plus, the queues are not too long, so you don’t have to wait. Also, the representatives have knowledge of basic things so you can get the help you need.
The ticketing service is impressive as well. Within an hour, Bluehost routinely answers the requests.
There’s an international number for calling agents. What’s impressive is that the customer representatives have good knowledge. Thus, they are well-equipped to answer questions. Generally, phone support is a good option.
The knowledge base does have the answers to most questions. Detailed tutorials are also available in the form of how-to articles and eBooks. These come with images to make everything easier to understand. An FAQ is present as well that covers a wide array of topics.
Bluehost plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee. So, if you cancel just within the first month, you can get the full refund. However, if you cancel after that, then you won’t get the prorated refund. Note that the domain fee isn’t refundable.
After thorough reviewing, we have come to the conclusion that Bluehost is ideal for:
Regardless of the plans you choose, there are numerous excellent extras and features. Plus, the plans are so diverse that you get flexibility regardless of your budget. In general, Bluehost can cover almost all kinds of needs.
To sum it up, Bluehost is a web host that we definitely recommend to all. If you want a web host with a good reputation, then this is your best bet. Scalable and cheap plans allow you to personalize your solutions and you can get started at any time!
We hope this detailed review helps you come to an informed decision. What do you think about it? Do you have any experience with Bluehost? Let us know!