Bluehost is a household name when it comes to web hosting providers. It is part of the Endurance International Group, which is a massive American corporation that owns multiple web hosting companies. Today we will cover the pros and cons and take you to an in depth Bluehost Review.
It is one of the most popular web hosting providers that provide you every solution from domain name to dedicated servers.
Moreover, Bluehost is officially recommended by WordPress, the most popular and open-source content management system that powers more than 30% of websites.
Bluehost offers you web hosting at the cheapest rate at $3.95 per month. You can purchase the various types of web hosting from Bluehost as per your website requirements from beginners to professional and corporate levels.
Bluehost will never disappoint you with its service.
If you search Bluehost on the internet, you will find there are thousands of articles that do not tell you the honest fact about Bluehost. However, in this article, we are going to talk in deep regarding various products offered by Bluehost and their reliability.
Web Hosting Plans Offered by Bluehost
Shared Hosting
If you are a beginner and your website does not have much traffic, Shared Hosting can be most suitable for you. Multiple sites share the same server space in a shared environment which make web hosting plan cheaper.
You can understand it as a flat shared by multiple partners. However, it is not recommended to go for shared hosting if your website has massive traffic and size.
Managed WordPress Hosting
If your website is developed using WordPress, you can purchase their Managed WordPress hosting that is best suited for WordPress websites. These packages are optimized for WordPress and can handle every requirement of the WordPress website.
However, it is slightly costlier than regular hosting, but it is worth your money as you won’t have to worry regarding disk space, Bandwidth, and any other issue of your WordPress website.
VPS
Virtual Private Server is a web hosting package that lies between a shared server and a dedicated server. You share the server with other clients in VPS. However, there is a virtual wall between your and other client projects.
A VPS is recommended for people who need a special configuration for their project requirements.
Dedicated Server
If you are running a business and corporate level website and get millions of traffic, a dedicated server can be the best solution. You get a dedicated system in this package that won’t be shared by anyone.
During our Bluehost Review We Discovered Cool Features
Easy to Use
One of the things we researched for our Bluehost Review was that registration process of Bluehost is quite an easy and intuitive registration panel. You can register and purchase your favorite web hosting package. The backend of Bluehost was redesigned in 2019, and the latest cPanel is much easier to use.
Bluehost features its own customized panel to help you manage your website without much hassle. You get everything you require on the focus point so that you don’t need to search them and waste your precious time.
Free Domain Name
You get a free domain name with Bluehost Plus, Choice Plus, and Pro plans. Hence, you don’t need to spend extra bucks to purchase a domain name if you go for Bluehost web hosting package.
Moreover, it gives you a complete DNS management feature of your domain. You can easily add MX record, CNAME, TXT Record, and make other DNS changes easily with few clicks.
One-Click Application Installer
It features an easy-to-use one-click application installer to install applications like WordPress Joomla, Drupal, Magento, and many more. You don’t need to install WordPress or other CMS with Bluehost manually.
However, Bluehost adds some third-party plugin while installing WordPress with its one-click installer. So, you need to make sure to uncheck them during the installation process.
Disk Space
The Basic plan of Bluehost gives you a limited space of 50 GB where you can host 1 website. But, this space is more than enough to host a single site. If you purchase Plus, Choice Plus, and Pro plan, you don’t get any limitation over the disk space.
You can host as many websites as you want; however, the maximum number of files of all the sites should be up to 200,000 for Plus and Choice Plus and 300,000 for Pro plan.
Monthly Bandwidth
You get unlimited Bandwidth with every plan of Bluehost. So you don’t need to worry about the number of visitors on your website.
SSL Certificates
You get free SSL Certificates of Let’s Encrypt to keep your website safe and secure from spammers and hackers. You don’t even need to install SSL Certificates on your domain with Bluehost.
As soon as you create a website on your domain, Bluehost automatically adds Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate over your website.
An SSL Certificates adds a green padlock to your website address bar making it https:// from https://.
Reliability
Bluehost is one of the most reliable web hosting company. Even WordPress officially recommends Bluehost to host WordPress websites. It has been hosting more than 2 million websites as of 2020.
Hundreds of reputable and famous brands have hosted their website on Bluehost. Hence, you can be assured of the excellent performance of your website while hosted on Bluehost.
No Hidden Fees
The best part about Bluehost is that they do not have any hidden fees like set up charges or any other fees that most of the web hosting company charges during renewals.
Some users have complained about a few add-ons being added while purchasing the Bluehost plan. However, it is entirely optional. You can easily uncheck and remove them from your cart before making a purchase.
Email Accounts
You can create unlimited email accounts of your domain with Bluehost. Moreover, it provides you with 3 different webmail client options to send, receive, and manage your business emails. You won’t be charged extra for creating and managing emails.
The email service is entirely free with the Bluehost web hosting package. However, you can’t send more than 500 emails per hour, so if you are thinking of sending bulk emails using Bluehost, you need to rethink.
Security Features
You can purchase additional paid add-ons with the Bluehost web hosting package to enhance your website’s security. Bluehost offers you special security features such as SiteLock and CodeGuard with a nominal fee.
SiteLock keeps your website safe from hackers while CodeGuard gives you an additional backup option. Moreover, they have a two-factor authentication system that doesn’t allow hackers to get direct access to any website hosted on Bluehost server.
Bluehost Website Builder
Recently, Bluehost added a website builder option in its easy to use control panel. The website builder is fast and easy and comes with various pre-built layouts to choose from. You also get 50+ themes with the Bluehost website builder.
Moreover, you can create your website with Drag-and-Drop Editor of Bluehost website builder. Also, this website builder’s designs are fully responsive, and your website is automatically optimized for speed and performance.
Server Speed
The server speed has always been excellent as per my experience with my websites hosted on Bluehost server. Some users do have complained regarding their website being slow, blaming the server speed.
But the website’s speed is affected by various other factors, such as the total number of files, images, and other media files displayed on their website. I have a few of my websites hosted on Bluehost, and all my website loads under 3 seconds whenever I test them with various testing tools. Hence, you can be assured of an excellent server speed with your websites hosted on Bluehost.
Uptime
You can be assured of almost no or minimum downtime with Bluehost. Bluehost offers 99.99% of uptime. However, I have never faced any downtime with any of my websites hosted on their server.
They have a high-optimized server configured very well to handle all the requirements of your website, keeping it live in any situation. Hence, you can drop off your worries about the website downtime with Bluehost.
Backups
You get daily, weekly, and monthly automatic backup options with Bluehost, which you can download and restore if your website crashes or any mishap occurs. However, you can also purchase an on-demand backup option if you need your site.
Server Features
You can use PHP Versions 5.6 to 7.3 with Bluehost. You can also use MySQL 5.6 to run your database and various other scripting languages such as Perl and Ruby on Rails on the Bluehost server.
Hence, Bluehost can be your reliable partner for your various project related to the website with its server features.
Refunds and Guarantee
You get a 30-day no questions asked money-back guarantee with every web hosting plan of Bluehost to keep you secure. If you don’t like their service or face issue with Bluehost web hosting, you can ask for a refund without any second thought, and they will give you back your money.
However, I can assure you that you will never have such a situation once you become a Bluehost customer.
Support and Assistance
When it comes to support and assistance, Bluehost has an unmatchable and world-class support team of experts to help you with any issues 24/7 for 365 days. You can contact their support team via Live Chat or Phone calls regarding your queries and concerns.
You will be amazed by the expert knowledge of their support team at handling issues.
Part Of Our Bluehost Review Was To Learn More About Bluehost Pricing
Bluehost offers four different plans in its shared web hosting package. They are Basic, Plus, Choice Plus, and Pro Packages.
You can purchase the Basic plan at the price of $2.95 per month, which you can use to host 1 website. You get disk space of 50 GB that is enough space for 1 site.
If you need to host multiple websites, you can purchase a Plus plan that offers you unlimited site hosting with unlimited SSD storage and Bandwidth. Moreover, you also get free SSL certificates for every domain and subdomain.
But if you ask me, I would recommend you to go for the Choice Plus plan that offers everything included in Plus plan along with additional features such as Domain Privacy, and website backup to give you peace of mind in case any mishap occurs with your website.
The Pro plan starts at $13.95/month and is suitable for a high-performing website with over 100K plus traffic. This plan provides you a dedicated IP with better security and backup of your website to give you peace of mind.
Cons of Bluehost
No Email Support
In our Bluehost Review we discovered that Bluehost only offers Live Chat and Phone support, which are excellent. However, one can’t keep themselves stuck to their phone or laptop for their queries. Hence, Email support would be great in situations where you just have some questions and do not need to interact with them in real-time.
No Free Website Migration
Almost every web hosting provider provides you one or multiple free website migration when you purchase their web hosting package. However, it is not the same for Bluehost. You need to migrate your website yourself if you change your web hosting from other web hosting to Bluehost.
It won’t be an issue for a small website owner. However, it can be an issue for website owners having ample disk space. Though they offer a paid migration, it can’t be a solution that everyone would like to pay for.
Wrapping Up
Bluehost is one of the most popular and reliable web hosting providers that you can select to host your website. They have multiple web hosting packages that are suitable for beginners to advanced users.
Moreover, it is officially recommended by WordPress.org, so if you are planning to build your website over WordPress, you can be assured of an excellent performing website. If you are looking for a web hosting provider that gives you robust performance, excellent uptime, and an advanced set of features at a high price, then Bluehost can be one-stop for you.
Thanks for reading our Bluehost Review. Check out our other product reviews here.
