Bluehost is a popular web hosting company that offers a range of hosting services, including shared hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated hosting, and WordPress hosting. They are known for their reliable service, affordable pricing, and user-friendly interface. Bluehost also provides a variety of tools and features to help website owners create and manage their sites, including a website builder, one-click WordPress installation, and 24/7 customer support. Overall, Bluehost is a well-regarded option for individuals and small businesses looking to host a website.
In this Bluehost review, we are going to see how good or bad it really is.
Table of Contents
- Web hosting plans / Pricing
- Performance
- Easy of use
- Migration
- Features
- Security
- Customer support
- Pros and Cons
- Do we recommend Bluehost ?
Web hosting plans / Pricing
Bluehost has been recommended by WordPress.org because they offer the ultimate WordPress platform, as well as a wide range of web hosting services.
Below is a list of hosting services provided by Bluehost
Shared Web hosting
Shared web hosting is popular among website owners as an initial hosting choice, often used due to its affordability and accessibility. The web hosting comes with two plans, each one of them has different features.
Pricing: Shared web hosting plan starts from AUD $3.04/mo – 12 months
Ideal for new businesses looking to grow and expand.
VPS Web hosting
This service is a great choice for those who have outgrown their shared web hosting. with VPS hosting website users get more control over their website specially if they have consistent too much traffic month to month.
Pricing: VPS web hosting plan starts from AUD $48.87/mo – 36 months
Ideal for managing multiple projects. Get full root access and automated daily backups, on-demand snapshots. Unlimited traffic.
Dedicated Web hosting
This web hosting service is at the end of hosting spectrum, the client can have access to a single server with all its resources, site owners have the rights to install any software they choose and manage.
Pricing: Dedicated web hosting plan starts from AUD $140.52/mo – 36 months
Ideal for managing multiple projects. Get full root access and automated daily backups, on-demand snapshots. Unlimited traffic.
WordPress hosting
WordPress hosting service is optimized for WordPress, it also comes with built in features such as payments, appointments and more.
Pricing: WordPress hosting plan starts from AUD $3.04/mo – 12 months
Ideal for WordPress users who are looking for solutions for web presence and commerce needs.
Cloud hosting
Cloud hosting service basically handles grows so that if you get large amount of traffic then cloud hosting plan is the right one to accommodate the surge traffic. This web hosting plan uses multiple servers to balance the load and maximize uptime instead of using one server.
Pricing: Cloud hosting plan starts from AUD $45.99/mo – 12 months
Ideal for people who want to grow their business with managed service and auto-scalable cloud plans.
As you can see Bluehost offers different services and pricing based on service and plan you choose.
Addition services
Bluehost has other addition services which you only know about when you are at the check out.
For example, below is a list of addition services for a Shared hosting service by Bluehost.
After the initial 1 free year, SSL services require payment for continued use.
You can add or remove services based on your business needs.
Performance
Bluehost has a good both uptime and response time which is really important when it comes to website performance, on an average the uptime is between 99.43% – 100%.
The web hosting provider experienced outages over the years however in September 2022 there was a big outage which took 1h 25m.
Below report shows recent uptime and response time for Bluehost
Table below shows both uptime and response time history from September 2022 – April 2024
*Source Pingdom
Easy of use
When you login to Bluehost you will be presented with an easy site to navigate.
You can access different options such as accessing your website, cPanel, domains, Hosting and more.
cPanel is a very popular option between big hosting company’s and Bluehost cPanel is easy to use and has nice user interface.
Overall, using Bluehost dashboard was good experience and easy to use.
Migration
If you are considering switching web hosting providers, we have you covered.
To migrate your website to Bluehost
- Migrate the site yourself which is FREE of charge
- Bluehost can migrate your website by accessing your old account get the backup and migrate to Bluehost, this will cost $149, Bluehost will ensure the site’s delivery from the previous host and covers the transfer of 1 to 5 websites and up to 20 IMAP email accounts (provided everything is accessible via a single cPanel/FTP login
Features
With Bluehost web hosting you get lots of features (some features are available to certain plans only) when you choose a web hosting plan
- 24/7 chat support
- Free domain for 1 year
- Free CDN
- Free SSL
- WordPress 1-Click install
- 30 days money back guarantee
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Free domain for the 1 year
Resources
- Click here to read our free guide how to choose the best domain name for your website.
Security
Bluehost offers top-notch security with SSL certificates, SiteLock malware protection, CodeGuard backups, and advanced firewalls, ensuring your website is safe, fast, and reliable.
They also offer many security features such as data encryption. automatic backups, and malware scans, our web hosting plans guarantee your protection.
You also get free SSL when you sign up with Bluehost.
Check out our FREE guide on the ultimate WordPress security.
Customer support
Bluehost offers many tools to help their customers with their issues such as 24/7 support via phone and chat. Bluehost also provides extensive online resources, including knowledge base and Academy which is a free WordPress course, to help customers find answers to common questions on their own. Overall, Bluehost is recognized for its reliable customer support, making it a popular choice for those looking for web hosting services.
Our experience with Bluehost customer support was really good.
We did reach out to Bluehost support via live chat, we had to wait for 2 minutes then we asked the support team range of questions related to
- Web hosting plans
- Site migration
- Price renewal
The support team was knowledgable and helpful as well.
You can reach out to Bluehost for help on social media as well, they are available almost on all popular platforms.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Uptime is really good | Some plans are confusing for example Shared web hosting is the same as WordPress hosting plan |
| Customer support is good and knowledge | The introductory pricing is just a away to get users foot into the door, there are hidden prices which are not displayed when you choose a plan. For example, you select a plan then before you pay you will be presented with more additional services you can choose from and this will push the prices up. |
| Bluehost offers free SSL security certificates with its hosting services | Response time always varies it depends on time you are contacting the support team, in some cases can take a bit of waiting time. |
| There are lots of plans to choose from based on your business needs and budget | Once a domain has been registered or renewed, it is non-refundable. |
| Bluehost offers a 30-day money-back guarantee for all hosting services, including WordPress hosting, | Renewal pricing can be expensive for example, if you sign up for 12 months then introductory price is $2.95 then $11.99 after 12 months. Click here for more details. |
| Bluehost‘s website is generally an easy place to navigate i.e signup, when login and accessing other services such as website, hosting etc | The monthly option is expensive compared to 12 or 36 months |
| Designed for WordPress and Bluehost is recommended by WordPress | To save money then you need to sign up for 36 months which is good in terms of saving money but not great if you are not planning to stay longer with Bluehost or don’t want to keep the site after 12 months. |
| You can pay with credit cards (American Express, Discover, MasterCard, Visa or you can pay with PayPal | Renewals are no longer refundable after 30 days, and premium domains are non-refundable. |
| To save money you can choose 12-36 month term, depending on the hosting service and chosen plan’s terms. | The 30 day money back policy excludes domain registration fees, setup fees, and fees for additional services. |
Do we recommend Bluehost ?
Yes, we do.
Bluehost, a major provider, offers various services like Shared, Cloud, and WordPress hosting, making it a significant player.
With Bluehost you can access to a hosting platform designed for WordPress, you have access to customer support who are ready to help you with any question you might have and you can reach out to them in different ways i.e giving them a call live chat, social media, email or check out the knowledge base as well.
While the pricing can go up once the plan you signed for expires however, Bluehost still offer an overall a complete package for those with limited experience in web design to create WordPress website.
Get started with Bluehost today