Bluehost Review: What You Need To Know
Bluehost is a market leader in website hosting, powering over two million websites. One of the reasons it is so popular is that it does an excellent job of demystifying the process of creating a website for novices. This is especially true if you intend to build your website with WordPress.
All Bluehost plans include a free domain for the first year, as well as great uptime (based on real-world data), a free CDN, an easy website builder, and a free SSL certificate.
All Bluehost plans include a free domain for the first year, as well as great uptime (based on real-world data), a free CDN, an easy website builder, and a free SSL certificate.
This hosting service has everything you need in one place. Is it, however, the best hosting service for you? Let us investigate.
Bluehost Compared to The Best Web Hosting Services
Bluehost ranked second in our list of the five best web hosting providers after two weeks of rigorous testing that included signing up, building a website, speaking with customer support, and 30 days of uptime and speed testing. Although other hosts outperformed Bluehost, it remains an excellent option and our top pick for a free, beginner-friendly WordPress drag-and-drop site builder.
Bluehost: The Good and The Bad
Even the most exclusive web hosting service has flaws. Here's an in-depth look at Bluehost's best and worst features.
The Good
Great Security: Bluehost's security measures are among the best on the market. All of Bluehost's security features are effective and will save you hours of tweaking your website. It will also provide you with peace of mind, which is especially important for complete beginners.
All Bluehost plans include resource protection, and CodeGuard Backup Basic can be added for $2.99 per month. CodeGuard will assist you with daily backups and monitoring, as well as alerting you to any changes.
The most basic version of this security feature includes 1GB of storage space, daily backup and monitoring, and three-monthly restorations.
However, the more expensive plans, such as Choice Plus and Pro, include one year of free automatic backups and 24/7 network monitoring.
Extensive and Fast Customer Support: Bluehost's extensive and quick customer support is another outstanding feature. Customer support is essential for any web hosting service, but finding one that provides quick and efficient support can be difficult.
Fortunately, Bluehost provides just that, and most users report that customer service is extremely helpful when they require immediate assistance. In fact, there's a good chance you'll be connected to Bluehost's Live Chat system within five minutes.
You don't have to worry about figuring out time zones because all of its support is available 24/7. Bluehost also provides phone and email support, though wait times vary. You can always kill time by browsing its extensive knowledge base support forum for multiple FAQs, videos, in-depth articles, and support resources on everything web hosting.
Easy to Use: Bluehost is the most popular web hosting service on the market not only because of its outstanding features and products, but also because it is so incredibly simple to use. Ease of use is an important feature to have because web hosting can be confusing for some people, so the onboarding process shouldn't be difficult as well.
But don't worry, Bluehost has a simple onboarding process that will get your website up and running in a matter of minutes. It will ask you to fill out a form that includes your website goals, what you want to add to your site, and what you want your site's name and tagline to be.
After answering these questions, you can select a theme from the Bluehost Marketplace, and it will automatically install WordPress for your convenience. All you have to worry about is customization, while Bluehost handles the backend and technical details.
High-Performance Servers: The last great thing about Bluehost is that it provides very high-performance servers to all users who purchase the Pro plan. Although paying more money isn't always ideal for every user, we believe you get what you pay for. You can get access to Dual Quad Processor Performance Servers for $14.95 per month, which will keep large ecommerce websites running smoothly.
This server is an excellent choice for larger websites because Bluehost ensures that there are fewer users per server (with a file count of 300,000), ensuring that there are no slowdowns for anyone involved.
If you don't want to pay the price for these servers, we still think the regular Bluehost servers that come with the other plans are great and work perfectly well.
Reasonable Cost: When you choose Bluehost, you will receive a number of cost-related benefits.
The monthly fee is reasonable, especially if you sign up for a 36-month subscription. If you are a new customer, you can get a free domain name for the first year. With a Bluehost subscription, you won't have to worry about any hidden fees.
Finally, Bluehost offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you don't have to worry about putting your money at risk.
The Bad
No Free Site Migration: Here's where the drawbacks come into play. Bluehost currently does not provide free site migration, which may be an issue for users transferring from another web hosting service.
Bluehost will charge you a hefty $149.99 to migrate up to five websites and 20 email accounts. Despite the fact that this service includes 24/7 support, a thorough review, and a seamless transition, it is still quite expensive for most users—especially when many other web hosting services will transfer your website for free.
It's also worth noting that this migration service excludes reseller, VPS, and dedicated server accounts, as well as domain registrations.
No Guarantee Uptime: Unlike most web hosting companies, Bluehost does not guarantee uptime on any of its plans. This is concerning because downtime can be extremely costly for website owners, as it can result in the loss of potential customers.
An uptime guarantee provides users with additional peace of mind by demonstrating that the provider will keep your website up and running in the most efficient manner possible—and is serious about the customer service experience while prioritizing the needs of its customers.
Despite the fact that this may be an issue for some, many users have praised Bluehost for its uptime, regardless of guarantee, as data shows it has an uptime efficiency of 99.99%.
Constant Upselling: This may simply irritate our team, but once we choose a pricing plan from a web hosting service or a similar type of service, we are set. We don't need constant reminders of other features we might want to purchase. If we require additional features, we can conduct our own research.
Unfortunately, Bluehost will constantly bombard you with popups and other marketing communications in an attempt to persuade you to upgrade to a more expensive package. This was extremely annoying to us, but these upsell pitches may not bother some people.
Bluehost Pricing and Options
Bluehost provides a variety of pricing plans based on individual website goals and needs. Let's break it down by level.
Bluehost Pricing
The great thing about Bluehost is that it offers a wide range of services at a reasonable price. It provides three main business niches, each with a different pricing plan. Shared hosting, online stores, and managed WordPress are examples of these.
Shared Hosting Plan
Bluehost customers prefer the shared hosting plan because it provides the most flexibility. Bluehost pricing is significantly lower on a 36-month plan than on a 12-month plan, so let's compare the two. This plan has four pricing options, which are as follows:
Basic: $4.95/month on a 12-month term; $2.95/month on a 36-month term
Plus: $7.45/month on a 12-month term; $5.45/month on a 36-month term
Choice Plus: $7.45/month on a 12-month term; $5.45/month on a 36-month term
Pro: $18.95/month on a 12-month term; $13.95/month on a 36-month term
As you can see, 36-month terms are significantly less expensive than 12-month terms. Bluehost also offers a 24-month term, but it is only slightly less expensive than the 12-month option.
Having said that, all pricing plans include a free one-year domain, free CDN, free SSL certificate, custom themes, and 24/7 support.
The Plus, Choice Plus, and Pro plans include unlimited websites, unlimited SSD storage, and a 30-day trial of Office 365.
Online Store Plan
Bluehost's online store plan appears to be much simpler than its shared hosting plans. These specific plans are best for ecommerce stores, where you can build, promote, and begin selling through your WooCommerce-powered store.
This plan has two pricing options for 12-month and 36-month terms, which are as follows:
Standard: $15.95/month on a 12-month term; $12.95/month on a 36-month term
Premium: $32.95/month on a 12-month term; $24.95/month on a 36-month term
Both plans include unlimited products, the installation of WooCommerce, 24/7 customer support, payment processing, discount codes, and CodeGuard Backup Basic.
Managed WordPress Plan
This powerful plan is designed for WordPress users who are creating a website. It enables you to purchase a plan for your professional WordPress website that provides scalability, security, speed, and support.
This plan has three pricing options, all with 36-month terms:
Build: $9.95/month
Grow: $14.95/month
Scale: $27.95/month
All plans include top features such as one WordPress website, 200+ global edge servers, free SSL, built-in high availability, a staging environment, and the best for up to 50,000 monthly visitors.
Daily scheduled backups, malware detection and removal, and domain privacy and protection are also included.
Bluehost Offerings
Bluehost provides a wide range of web hosting-related products that are suitable for the majority of users. Here's an in-depth look at some of Bluehost's products:
WordPress Hosting
Bluehost and WordPress are inextricably linked, and there is no better way to run your website than with its official WordPress hosting. Bluehost designed this hosting package to help your website by providing resources and tools that work seamlessly with WordPress.
This hosting plan is ideal for blogs, websites, or online stores because it is fully compatible with any WordPress website. Automatic WordPress installation, automatic WordPress updates, and Google My Business verification are all available from Bluehost.
Not only that, but you can select from a unique selection of WordPress-specific themes and templates from the Bluehost Marketplace. With customization features and simple-to-install plugins, you have complete design freedom.
Some other features of WordPress hosting include:
Microsoft Office 365
Free domain for one year
Secure login setup
24/7 WordPress hosting support
This hosting package is priced differently than the Managed WordPress plans. Specific WordPress hosting is available in three 36-month plans, including:
Basic: $2.95/month
Plus: $5.45/month
Choice Plus: $5.45/month
Shared Hosting
As previously stated, the shared hosting package is the most popular among Bluehost users because it is the simplest way to get your website up and running at a low cost.
Simply put, shared hosting allows multiple users to run their websites on the same server. This package is ideal for blogs, hobbies, or small business websites.
The shared hosting package's best feature is that Bluehost manages and monitors the server, so users don't have to worry about server management or platform patches.
The shared hosting package includes the following features:
Domain manager
Resource protection
SSL certificates
Google Ads
Because it is simpler and more affordable, shared hosting plans would benefit small businesses the most. Small businesses are less affected than larger businesses that require more space because shared hosting does not guarantee RAM or CPU.
Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated hosting is an excellent option for larger businesses that require more storage, power, and control. Because this package is on the high end of web hosting, it prioritizes performance and security.
A dedicated hosting server, as opposed to shared hosting, offers its users the highest level of protection, security, and control. Because these servers are independent of one another, each user has full access to the server without being affected or affecting the experience of another user.
Bluehost dedicated hosting provides every user with stable and predictable website performance, as well as complete control and privacy.
This package is ideal for users with high-traffic websites, as you will require the full range of RAM and CPU to run your website efficiently—exactly what dedicated hosting provides.
Some of the benefits of dedicated hosting include:
Extreme speed
Fast provisioning
RAID storage
Root access
Dedicated support
Storage upgrades
Free domain for one year
Bluehost's dedicated hosting, on the other hand, is not cheap. It has three pricing plans, which are as follows:
Standard: $79.99 per month with 500GB storage and 4GB RAM
Enhanced: $99.99 per month with 1TB storage and 8GB RAM
Premium: $119.99 per month with 1TB storage and 16GB RAM
Conclusion:
All pricing plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Overall, Bluehost is an excellent choice for beginners because it includes everything you need to get started with WordPress, from a free domain name and automatic WordPress installation to a free drag-and-drop page builder and detailed step-by-step instructions.
Overall, Bluehost is an excellent choice for beginners because it includes everything you need to get started with WordPress, from a free domain name and automatic WordPress installation to a free drag-and-drop page builder and detailed step-by-step instructions.
We believe that most users will enjoy the Bluehost experience because of its extensive product offerings, which include WordPress hosting, shared hosting, dedicated hosting, and multi-tiered pricing plans.
The good outweighs the bad, and it's a web hosting service worth considering, particularly for WordPress users.
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