Bluehost, the official ‘WordPress’ recommended hosting provider is also the #1 rated web hosting for small businesses.
Well, there are a ton of reasons to say so.
And, in this Bluehost Review article, I’ll be discussing all the pros and cons of Bluehost.com Shared Web hosting (Global version).
Why Should You Trust My Review?
I have been a Bluehost customer since 2010.
The first site I’ve hosted on their shared hosting server is my tech blog (techzene.com), which used to get around 10K hits every single day.
Still the hosting server is able to handle the traffic without any downtimes or bandwidth exceeded warnings.
So, I am pretty confident of what I am suggesting since I am personally using their service to host several micro niche blogs of mine.
But, before reading our detailed review of Bluehost, you should understand a few things about the shared hosting sites (Read the FAQs).
BlueHost is one of the best shared hosting providers in the web hosting industry since a very long time.
They are known for their high quality shared hosting services with the powerful servers across the different parts of the world.
Guide: Know How to Migrate from Blogger to WordPress?
Features of BlueHost WordPress Hosting
Enjoy the below unlimited features with your standard WordPress hosting.
1.Unlimited Domains & Disk Space
You don’t need to have multiple hosting accounts in order to host multiple domains.
In addition to the domain hosting, you can as well host/upload unlimited amounts of data.
2.Free Domain Name
Don’t like to spend an extra amount on domain name, then get a brand new domain name of your choice for free along with the hosting.
Your domain stays with you for free for one year, after which you can renew it at a discounted price.
3.Free SSL Certificate
SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer.
It is an encryption protocol that ensures the data being transferred between your server and user’s web browser is not intercepted or read by unauthorized parties.
It is also a must for all the bloggers as the Chrome users who visit your website will see a ‘Site is Not Secure’ warning if you didn’t enable SSL.
4.Free Website Builder
Don’t you have any idea about creating a website? Don’t worry!
This is why BlueHost has introduced the website builder, which helps you create your first website with simple drag and drop with lots of ready made templates.
5.BlueHost Control Panel
With the in-built cPanel, you can manage all your hosted domains, databases, script installations, and files much more easily.
6.Email Support
Do you want an email address that represents your company brand?
In addition, you can create ‘n’ number of user accounts which can be given to your employees.
7.Technical Support
BlueHost has won the best support award continuously for five years.
Their team of technical persons understands the problems faced by the customers and respond in a friendly manner.
As of writing this post, BlueHost has support for Email, Phone and Live Chat.
Bluehost does offer the cheapest, yet best wordpress hosting plans on the web without any doubts..
But, just how cheap? Well, it depends on your blog requirements.
| Bluehost Plans | Basic | Plus | Choice Plus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Websites Allowed: | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Free SSL Certificate: | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SSD Storage: | 50 GB | Unmetered | Unmetered |
| Free Domain (1 Yr): | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Parked Domains: | 5 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Sub-Domains: | 25 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Email Accounts: | 5 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Email Storage: | 100 MB/account | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Free Ad-Marketing Credits: | $200 | $200 | $200 |
| Regular Price: | $7.99/month | $10.99/mo | $14.99/mo |
| Discounted Price: | $2.95/month | $5.45/mo | $5.45/mo |
| Buy Now | Buy Now | Buy Now |
1.Bluehost Basic Plan (for Starters)
It allows you to host 1 website (domain) and 25 sub-domains, 50GB Storage, 1 free domain, 5 email accounts of 100MB storage each.
It costs $2.95 per month for the first term and $7.99 per month when you renew it.
2.Bluehost Plus Plan (Most Recommended)
It allows to host unlimited websites with unmetered storage & bandwidth, 1 free domain, unlimited email accounts.
It costs $5.45 per month for the first term and $10.99 per month when you renew it.
3.Bluehost Choice Plus Plan (Advanced)
It has the same features of plus plan apart from 1 domain privacy and SiteBackup Pro, which are worth over $80 per year.
The plan costs $5.45 per month for the first term and $14.99 per month while renewing.
Another interesting and the most discussed feature that isn’t available on other sites is the “Anytime money-back guarantee”.
Yes, you can cancel your account anytime and get back your amount immediately. Isn’t it interesting!
How Much Does Bluehost Cost Per Month?
Based on the type of plan you select, the cost will range from $2.95 per month to $4.95 per month.
Bluehost Monthly Payment Options:
Unfortunately, Bluehost does not have or offer any monthly payment choices. As of now, they only offer the following terms.
- 12 months (1 year)
- 24 months (2 years)
- 36 months (3 years)
- 60 months (5 years)
BlueHost Server Uptime
If you’re facing server downtime/outage issues with other hosting providers, then BlueHost will come as a rescue for you.
Bluehost Is giving away an uptime guarantee of 99.98%.
However, do note that the downtime is also dependent on how you’re using your wordpress blog that may crash your site, such as:
- Using too many WordPress plugins that put load on the server
- Using heavy load scripts or flash elements on the site
- Etc…
Bluehost Hosting Refund Policy
All the Bluehost plans come with a 30-day money back guarantee.
And, if you decide to cancel after the 30 days period, you’ll still get a prorated refund for the hosting term that you didn’t use.
However, do note that the domain purchase fees are not refundable (No one offers that, though).
Bluehost Customer Care
This is the area where Bluehost hosting always gets mixed reviews.
They offer an excellent 24/7 WordPress hosting support through chat and phone calls.
But, some people find it difficult to get the help they needed even after trying the customer care number numerous times.
Pros of Bluehost.com
1.Reliability – Best Uptime Throughout the Year
Server uptime is the most important factor one should consider while purchasing a web host, especially if your business is dependent on your website.
After reviewing different shared hosting services, the ideal uptime is 99.93%.
It roughly calculates to 26 minutes of downtime every month and 5 hours every year.
2.Very Economical Pricing for Starters ($2.75/mo)
Though the normal price of the Bluehost basic plan is $7.99 per month, as a new user you’ll be getting the same at a discounted price of $2.75 per month upon using our coupon code.
In addition to that, you’ll also be getting a free domain with a free SSL certificate to start with.
3.Wordpress.org Official Recommended Hosting
As you know, WordPress is the most widely used CMS on the market with a lot of customization options for the users.
And, WordPress.org has been recommending Bluehost as their #1 hosting choice since the very beginning of their journey.
Till date, they haven’t found a worthy competitor or alternative to Bluehost.
4.Money Back Guarantee within 30 Days
If you don’t like their service within the first 30 days of using it, you’ll be able to claim full refund of your payment.
However, there are a few terms you should know:
- Domain names purchased through Bluehost cannot be cancelled as they’re bought through a domain registrar. Only your hosting fee will be refunded.
- In case you got a free domain name from Bluehost, a fee of $15.99 will be deducted from your payment refund.
5.Customer Support
Bluehost offers a dedicated knowledge base page where all the common queries were answered in detail.
However, if you want to have 1-on-1 support, you can use the live chat, email support and phone call options.
Though phone and email support options were very time taking, my experience with live chat is very pleasant.
Cons of Bluehost.com
1.Higher Renewal Rates
If you don’t know already, this is very common in the web hosting industry where they offer huge discounts during the upsells and later charge the regular fee after your hosting plan expires.
This is the same with every hosting site on the web.
2.Domain Renewals
The free domain you get with their plan has to be renewed after 1 year and the price is higher than what you pay on the domain registrar sites like Godaddy or Namecheap.
This applies to the other domains you purchase through Bluehost as well.
3.Doesn’t Offer Free Site Migrations
Many web hosting sites offer free site migrations and see it as a way to appease their customers.
Unfortunately, Bluehost charges a one-time fee of $149.99 to move your existing websites to their servers.
Though they say that the migration will be pretty quick without any downtime, the fact that you have to pay for the service, which is usually offered free by their competitors, is definitely a big drawback.
Still confused whether Bluehost is the right shared hosting choice for your WordPress website?
Well, most people prefer BlueHost for WordPress blogs as it is a more secure and reliable web hosting site.
It is also ranked #1 hosting company by many sites for offering a wide range of features at a very reasonable price.
Here are few reasons for you to decide:
- Pricing: Very economical for the starters
- Reliability: Very minimum downtime
- No hidden charges: What you see is what you pay
- Free domain: You get a free domain name for 1 year on all the packages when you sign up.
- One-click WordPress installer: You create a wordpress blog on Bluehost in seconds without having to manually install WordPress scripts by yourself.
- Free SSL Certificate: Secure your website and the clients as well.
- Easy to Use cPanel: You can access all your sites from a single dashboard, which is customizable too.
- Easy Upgradation: You can upgrade your plan to VPS or dedicated server without any site migrations.
- 30-day money back guarantee (No questions asked)
- 99% uptime guarantee.
- Over 2 million sites worldwide are using Bluehost.
Hope you liked our genuine, unbiased Bluehost Review of the shared hosting plans for WordPress blogs.
Bluehost Coupon Code
Use the below signup link to get a 60% discount on your hosting along with a free domain name of your choice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Bluehost, founded in 2003, but aquired by EIG (Endurance International Group) in 2010.
EIG also owns several other web hosts such as Small Orange, Arvixe, iPage, Hostgator, Dotster to name just a few.
The Bluehost data center is located at Provo, Utah, USA.
A Shared hosting is a type of web hosting where the service provider serves multiple websites (including yours) from a single web server.
In a simpler language, you’ll be using the same resources as the other websites hosted on the same server, which makes it less expensive (or probably cheap) than the dedicated hosting servers.
On the dedicated hosting plan, only your website is hosted, which make the costs go high.
While on the shared hosting plan, several other websites are hosted along with your site, thus making it economical for beginners.
A good hosting server like Bluehost can easily handle traffic up to 15-20K daily of a well-optimized WordPress blog.
And, if your site receives much higher traffic per day, then you can easily upgrade to the Bluehost Pro package, which gives you a dedicated IP along with increased server resources.
Bluehost offers unmetered bandwidth, which means your websites (all combined) can use unlimited bandwidth as long as those hosted sites are used for normal purposes (blog, website etc…).
In order to manage your domain that is not registered with Bluehost (ex: Godaddy, Namecheap etc…), you’ll need to change the nameservers at your domain registrar’s end..
The official Bluehost nameservers are: Ns1.bluehost.com and ns2.bluehost.com
GoDaddy, no doubt, is a popular domain registrar and hosting company.
But, when it comes to advanced hosting features with easy to use interface, it lacks big time in front of the Bluehost service.
GoDaddy also charges extra for certain features, which is not the case with Bluehost.
HostGator hosting plans are cheaper by a slight margin when compared to Bluehost packages.
But, their uptime is not that good compared to Bluehost.
SiteGround’s customer’s support is excellent and they have good expertise in handling WordPress sites.
However, their hosting plans are pricier than Bluehost.
But, you get free automated daily backups and restores on all their hosting packages. SiteGround is specially recommended for high traffic websites.
Bluehost is no doubt the best wordpress hosting provider on the web.
However, if you want advanced features, more tech support and free site migrations, then here are some good Bluehost alternatives – SiteGround, InMotion Hosting and WPX Hosting
Along with providing a free domain name, Bluehost also allows you to purchase domain names through their dashboard.
However, the prices are a bit higher compared to purchasing domains on sites like GoDaddy, which also offer discount coupon codes.
As of now, there are 3 different WordPress hosting plans that Bluehost is offering – Basic, Plus and Choice Plus.
However, they also have a ‘WP Pro’ plan, which is a managed WordPress hosting for demanding users.
It starts at $19.95 and goes up to $49.95 based on the type of plan you select (Build/Grow/Scale).
They also offer ‘WooCommerce’ plans for people who want to create eCommerce stores.
Bluehost Review (Editor Ratings)
$2.95
Pros
- Free domain name
- Free SSL certificate
- 99.98% uptime guarantee
- No hidden charges
- 30-day money back guarantee
Cons
- Renewal charges are high
- No free site migration support