Bluehost Review 2024: Is it the Best Hosting Solution?
Founded in 2003, Bluehost is one of the most popular website hosting providers, and an official WordPress recommended hosting provider. Powering over 2 million websites, Bluehost is known for being easy to use, even for first-timers with an intuitive dashboard that makes set-up simple.
All of their plans come with a 30-day money-back policy, free SSL, WordPress staging environment, and an easy WordPress install feature (one-click install for WordPress). With Bluehost, you don’t have to worry about your website being slow even when there is a lot of traffic. They provide 24/7 live chat and phone support, including assisting with WordPress website launches.
In addition to offering a wide variety of hosting plans, Bluehost provides marketing training, free WordPress Themes, SEO services, social media marketing, web file manager, free drag and drop site builder, domain names, and local business listings to get your website running smoothly.
Who Is Bluehost Best For?
Bluehost is one of the trustworthy online web hosting service providers. They offer a wide range of hosting products and packages optimized for your needs and marketing training, tools for SEO, social media marketing, email and more. With excellent customer support and great uptime, Bluehost offers great value for the price you’re paying.
This is the perfect web hosting service for beginners who want to build their first website for their online businesses or blogs. As an official WordPress recommended hosting provider, Bluehost is also the best choice you can make if you’re hosting a WordPress site. So If you’re just getting started, then you really can’t go wrong with Bluehost.
Bluehost Review: The Pros and Cons
Pros
- Expert 24/7 Support: Their 24/7 expert support is always there to help when you need it by phone, email, or live chat.
- Free SSL certificate: All Bluehost customers have a free SSL Certificate available through Let’s Encrypt for all assigned and parked domains and subdomains. Having an SSL on your domain will help you for creating secure communication between client and server.
- Free domain included with all plans: Every new Bluehost account includes a free new domain registration or domain transfer for one year.
- Beginner-Friendly: Bluehost is one of the most beginner-friendly Web hosting companies on the market, and its intuitive dashboard makes it easy to create and manage a WordPress site.
- 30-day money-back guarantee: Bluehost offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on all plans. You may request a refund within 30 days from the date of transaction to receive a full refund on your hosting service only. However, The money-back guarantee does not apply to most add-on products, such as domains, those purchases are final.
Cons
- Higher Renewal Rates: Just like most web hosting providers, the renewal prices are much higher than the entry-level ones.
- No free site migration: Bluehost does not offer free site migration when you want help migrating your site. For $149.99 they’ll migrate up to 5 websites and 20 email accounts.
Key Features of Bluehost:
Bluehost is a popular web hosting provider known for its robust features and reliable service. Here’s a quick look at some of the key features that make Bluehost an excellent choice for hosting your website:
- Easy-to-Use Interface: With their intuitive and user-friendly dashboard, you can easily manage your website’s elements.
- WordPress Hosting: Bluehost offers optimized plans for WordPress websites, ensuring smooth performance and seamless integration with WordPress features.
- Domain Registration: Easy domain registration with a free domain for the first year. This can simplify the website setup process.
- Backups: The Bluehost CodeGuard feature automatically backs up your website daily, ensuring that your data is regularly saved and up to date.
- Free SSL certificates: These help you encrypt data to secure information exchange and boost SEO.
- Email Services: You can create personalized email addresses (e.g., you@yoursite.com) at no additional cost.
- E-commerce Features: Ready-to-use WooCommerce for setting up online stores.
- 24/7 Customer Support: Available via live chat, phone, and email for immediate assistance.
Bluehost Security
Nothing is more important in web hosting services than data protection. Bluehost offers a variety of security features to protect your website and its visitors’ data. Here’s an overview of the key security features provided by Bluehost:
- Free SSL Certificate: Bluehost offers a free Lifetime SSL certificate for all of your domains and subdomains when you purchase any of their Web Hosting, so you don’t have to worry about purchasing them separately. This ensures that sensitive information like login credentials or credit card details are transmitted securely.
- SiteLock Security: Bluehost offers SiteLock as part of its comprehensive security suite to protect websites from a variety of online threats. From malware scanning and automatic removal to DDoS protection and vulnerability patching, SiteLock ensures your website remains secure and performs optimally.
- Regular Backups: Regular backups are a crucial aspect of website maintenance and security. With features like daily automatic backups, incremental backups, one-click restore, and secure storage, Bluehost ensures that your website data is protected and easily recoverable in the event of any issues.
Bluehost Customer Support
Bluehost provides 24/7 customer support, ensuring you can receive assistance at any time. They offer support via a variety of channels to ensure you get the help you need promptly and efficiently. Here’s an overview of the customer support features provided by Bluehost:
- Live Chat: You can get immediate assistance via live chat, allowing you to connect with a support agent for real-time problem-solving.
- Phone Support: Direct phone support for personalized assistance. This option is ideal for more complex issues that require a detailed discussion.
- Email Support: For less urgent matters, email support allows you to send detailed inquiries and receive responses within a reasonable time frame.
Additionally, you get access to a vast library of articles, guides, and tutorials covering a wide range of topics from basic website setup to advanced configurations. These resources help you troubleshoot common issues independently.
Bluehost Review: Pricing
choosing the perfect web hosting plan for your business is extremely important. You need to understand your needs before selecting a web hosting plan. Bluehost offers the following plans:
Shared Hosting
Bluehost offers a wide variety of hosting plans, The most common plans they sell are called shared hosting accounts, which means you are using space on a server that is also utilized by other websites.
Bluehost offers new users a great starting place at a low cost. Their Shared Hosting plans offer a user-friendly interface and flexible options to fit your needs.
BASIC | PLUS | CHOICE PLUS | PRO |
---|---|---|---|
$2.95 | $5.45 | $5.45 | $13.95 |
One website | Unlimited websites | Unlimited websites | Unlimited websites |
Unlimited traffic | Unlimited traffic | Unlimited traffic | Unlimited traffic |
Free SSL certificate | Free SSL certificate | Free SSL certificate | Free SSL certificate |
Office 365 Mailbox (Free 30 days) | Office 365 Mailbox (Free 30 days) | Office 365 Mailbox (Free 30 days) | |
Automatic website backups | Automatic website backups | ||
Domain privacy | Domain privacy | ||
Dedicated IP |
Let’s take a look at the kind of features you get from this web hosting service, depending on the price that you choose.
If you are just getting started, then the Basic plan will be a great launching point for you. You can upgrade your plan when your company starts to grow.
What you choose is determined by a number of factors including your website goals, and the type of business you have. I highly recommend you take some time to look through each tier and its features before making any decision.
VPS Hosting
virtual private server (VPS) hosting, is a website hosting environment that allows for resources such as RAM, storage and bandwidth to be dedicated to you and your project. This allows for greater stability and performance of your website.
You also do not share the Operating System with any other users, providing better security for your website files. It offers three pricing plans, including:
STANDARD | ENHANCED | ULTIMATE |
---|---|---|
$18.99 | $29.99 | $59.99 |
2 cores | 2 cores | 4 cores |
30GB Disk Space | 60 GB Disk Space | 120 GB Disk Space |
2 GB RAM | 4 GB RAM | 8 GB RAM |
1 TB bandwidth | 2 TB bandwidth | 3 TB bandwidth |
1 IP address | 2 IP address | 2 IP address |
The cheapest hosting plan from Bluehost for VPS costs $18.99 per month, the Enhanced plan costs $29.99 per month, and the Ultimate VPS plan costs $59.99 per month.
VPS hosting is usually chosen by website owners who have outgrown shared hosting plans but still don’t need the resources of a dedicated server. The biggest difference when it comes to each VPS tier is the number of resources you get (storage space, bandwidth, and RAM). When choosing, one factor to evaluate and compare is the cost for your required amount of bandwidth and storage.
Dedicated Hosting
Bluehost Dedicated servers use the best hardware and software available to ensure your site is always up, and always fast. This is the fastest, best hosting platform they offer. With a Dedicated server, you won’t have to share resources with anyone. The security of your server is entirely in your hands.
Dedicated hosting plans are ideal for large organizations or websites with high traffic volumes. As your business is growing, a dedicated server can accommodate your growing business needs.
Here’s what you get from each available plan :
STANDARD | ENHANCED | PREMIUM |
---|---|---|
$79.99 | $99.99 | $119.99 |
4 cores @ 2.3 GHz | 4 cores @ 2.5 GHz | 4 cores @ 3.3 GHz |
500GB Disk Space | 1TB Disk Space | 1TB Disk Space |
4 GB RAM | 8 GB RAM | 16 GB RAM |
5 TB bandwidth | 10 TB bandwidth | 15 TB bandwidth |
3 IP address | 4 IP address | 5 IP address |
The cheapest dedicated plans cost $79.99 per month. The Enhanced plan will cost you $99.99 per month, and you also have the Premium plan, which is priced at $119.99 per month.
Unlike shared hosting where updates and maintenance are managed by Bluehost, having Dedicated Hosting comes with responsibility. You will be responsible for managing software updates and maintenance.
Which Bluehost Hosting Package Is Right for You?
Powering over 2 million websites, Bluehost is one of the most popular web hosting providers and an official WordPress recommended hosting provider.
As you may have noticed, Bluehost offers different hosting types, plans, and options to meet the needs of any website. This is the perfect web hosting service for beginners who want to build their first website for their online businesses or blogs.
If you’re on a tight budget and need to host only one website, then shared hosting is a great choice. A free domain is included with your new account.
VPS is ideal for Small businesses with outgrown shared hosting, and need more control over their server.
If you have a high-traffic website, a dedicated server is probably well suited to your needs than a shared service plan, but you can always start with a VPS, then upgrade later.