Bluehost Review From Hostguid

Bluehost Review From Hostguid

Pros and Cons of Bluehost

There are always upsides and downsides to every hosting company.

Pros:

• Pricing:  The Bluehost hosting plans are within the budget range of the users, especially for beginners who initially start with a low budget. Though its first term is cheap. But the renewal rates are high. There is no hidden price while signing up for an account.
• Reliability: Bluehost hosting powers a huge number of websites with less downtime. The uptime test with Bluehost has always been great. Bluehost does not provide SLA (Service Level Agreement) unlike other websites that guarantee a minimum uptime.
• Free Domain: After signing up for Bluehost, you will get a free domain name for the first year. This is beneficial for beginners to do experiments with their sites to enhance their skills.
• Generous Storage: The shared hosting plans of Bluehost provide loads of storage. 
• Money-Back Guarantee: There are 30 days money-back guarantee provided on all plans. 

Cons: 

• Upselling Add-ons: Bluehost provides an aggressive upsell process during sign-up. But you can easily remove the add-ons in case you don’t need them. 
• Higher Domain Renewal Price: Bluehost’s free domain renewal price is higher than any average domain renewal cost. 
• Poor Backup Options: The entry-level plans of Bluehost have a poor backup option. 

US-Servers Only: Bluehost only provides the option to host your website in the US, unlike other hosting companies. If your traffic includes people from countries other than the US then they could face a very slow website loading problem.

General Info & Hosting Overview

Our Rating:	Our Verdict: 9.6/10
Speed:	688 ms
Uptime:	99.96%
Support:	24/7 Live Chat, Phone, Email, Knowledge Base
Apps:	WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, phpBB, and More Than 75+ Open Source Projects
Features:	Unmetered bandwidth, Unlimited Websites and Storage, Free Domain 1st Year, Free SSL Certificate and CDN, Spam Experts, Domain Privacy, 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee, WordPress 1-Click Install
Hosting Plans:	Shared, WordPress, VPS, Reseller, and Dedicated Servers
Site Transfer:	Single WordPress Site for Free
Pricing:	Starting at $2.95/mo (renews at $8.99/mo)

Bluehost Hosting Pros

Bluehost has been in business since 2003, so they know a thing or two about what makes a good hosting service.

Their initial pricing is reasonable, their customer service is responsive and friendly, and you receive a lot of valuable features with your hosting package. They also give dependable uptime and fast server speeds.

1. Reliability and Performance

We claimed Bluehost was trustworthy, and we meant it: Bluehost offers a 99.98 percent uptime guarantee. Because no web server can guarantee 100 percent uptime, 99.98 percent is an impressive achievement — it equates to around one hour and 45 minutes of downtime each year.

When it comes to picking a web host, uptime is one of the most important factors to consider. After all, if your site is down, your users won’t be able to access it. When shopping for hosting services, reliable uptime should be one of your top concerns.

The major performance metric one should look for is speed. It affects the user experience on your website as well as your WordPress SEO rankings.

However, studies show that a 1-second delay in the speed of the website can decrease the conversion rate by 7%. So, accordingly, a 3-second delay can result in 50% of your traffic. 

Bluehost Server Response Time

Bluehost’s average uptime in the past 10 months

• July 2021: 100%
• June 2021: 99.99%
• May 2021: 99.77%
• April 2021: 99.99%
• March 2021: 100%
• February 2021: 99.97%
• January 2021: 100%
• December 2020: 99.98%
• November 2020: 100%
• October 2020: 99.67%

While testing a live website with tools like Pingdom, you can see how everything on your website loads. This also comprises images that take much more longer to load than plain texts.

So as to get a more precise server response time, another tool can be used named Bitcatcha. This tool tests server response time without loading any data. 

As the Bluehost server response time in the US is faster than in other countries, targeting an audience from the US is more beneficial for your website. In other countries, the response is higher, but the server response time is less. Moreover, if your users are from other parts of the world, you can change the location of your server.

2. Fast Page Loading (820 ms)

This means that visitors are 32 percent more likely to abandon your site. Longer page load times exacerbate the problem.

In addition, Google is focusing more on mobile-first indexing. This implies that your website must also be optimized for mobile users, or you will lose visitors.

In any case, a sluggish website will almost always result in fewer visitors and, as a result, fewer sales. So, after uptime, the second most crucial factor that may make or break your website’s success is page loading time.

You will have to go for a fast website hosting company to get a faster website. A test was held to check how fast Bluehost really is. 

The test site was created using WordPress with the default Twenty-Twenty theme. Some dummy content for theme development was imported including images. Following this, Pingdom was used to test the speed of the website.

As a result, the test site loaded in less than 2-seconds. Except for the fact that the tested website did not use any caching plugins or speed optimization tips, hence the result was incredible.

Moreover, the test site did not have a large amount of traffic, so the speed test was not enough. 

Therefore, to check the Bluehost server’s response to increased traffic; a testing tool called K6, formerly called LoadImpact, was used to send virtual users to the website. 

As a result, the server load remained stable throughout the test, even at peak traffic.

The test concluded that if you prefer a really fast website, then Bluehost is a perfect choice. 
Bluehost set up a 100% uptime monitoring alert, while other hosting companies promise a 99.99% uptime guarantee.

3. Pricing

Bluehost’s standard pricing starts at $2.95/month, which is a discount off the normal fee of $9.99/month.

You get almost everything you need for a single website at this price. This includes 50 GB of SSD storage, unlimited bandwidth, and a free SSL certificate, among other things. As a result, you’d be receiving a fantastic deal for the money, especially considering their constant uptime and page loading speeds.

Even so, the lowest plan has a few limitations that we don’t agree with – but we’ll get to that later.

Bluehost provides a variety of hosting plans for all sizes and budgets including VPS, shared hosting, cloud hosting, WooCommerce hosting, WordPress hosting, dedicated hosting server, etc.

• VPS: VPS (Virtual Private Server) is something that falls in between dedicated hosting and shared hosting. It is an upgraded version of shared WordPress hosting. It allows you to share a server with other clients within a virtual wall in between your client’s project and yours. This type of hosting is for those who need special server configurations like using a specific programming language.

• Shared Hosting: A shared hosting plan is a good choice if you are managing a large project or need to geek around with your server’s configuration. This type of hosting is recommended if you are starting a new website with a low traffic volume. 

• Cloud Hosting: Cloud hosting is a more reliable upgrade to the shared hosting plan. This type of hosting allows you to utilize multiple cloud services by allowing your website to switch to another server automatically in case of high traffic or hardware failure. 

• WooCommerce Hosting: WooCommerce hosting is a widespread eCommerce plugin for WordPress. It allows you to start an online store easily with WordPress. This type of hosting offers all the required properties to start your eCommerce store.

• WordPress Hosting: Bluehost has a WordPress-oriented hosting service. WordPress hosting optimizes and protects the WordPress site from common threats. 

• Dedicated Hosting Server: This type of hosting server is for websites that generate heavy traffic. This hosting provides all the resources of the dedicated server to yourself. But you will have to manage this server on your own. 

All Bluehost hosting plans give you access to install WordPress in one click.

With every plan, you get an easy-to-use hosting control panel where you can manage everything, from managing your hosting to creating databases.

BlueHost provides easy access to control panels which is helpful for beginners. It also provides a personalized version of the cPanel hosting dashboard for more advanced options.

Bluehost offers a shared hosting package that is suitable for new websites. Their shared packages are available at four different levels.

Let’s take a look at the plans.

• Basic: the basic plan allows you to host only one website. It hosts one domain and 25 subdomains with 50 GB SSD storage, and 5 email accounts with a total of 100 MB disk space for each account. The first term payment is $2.75 per month. After the first term, the renewal payment costs $8.99 per month.

• Plus: The plus plan consists of unlimited websites with seamless webspace and bandwidth. You also get unlimited email accounts. The plus plan charges you $4.95 per month for your first term. After the first term, the renewal costs $11.99 per month.

• Choice Plus: The choice plus plan includes all the features of the plus plan. But with this plan, you will also get free domain privacy and automated daily backups powered by CodeGuard worth over $80/year. The price of the first term costs you $5.45 per month. After the first term, the renewal costs $16.99 per month.

• Pro: The pro plan includes every feature of the above plans. With it, you also get a dedicated IP address. The first term costs you $13.95 per month. After the first term, the renewal costs $23.99 per month.

If you are just starting your website, you can pursue any plan given above. You can easily upgrade your plans when your website grows.

Bluehost Starting Prices:

• Shared hosting: $2.95 per month, renews at $9.99 per month.
• Shared WordPress hosting: $2.95 per month, renews at $7.99 per month.
• WooCommerce hosting: $12.95 per month, renews at $24.95 per month.
• VPS hosting: $19.99 per month, renews at $29.99 per month.
• Managed WordPress hosting: $9.95 per month, renews at $29.99 per month.
• Dedicated hosting: $79.99 per month, renews at $119.99 per month.

4. Security Options and Features

We are glad to note that, while being one of the “cheapest” alternatives on the market, Bluehost does not compromise on essential security settings and features.

Bluehost already includes a free SSL certificate with their most basic service. You’ll also get a free CDN (Cloudflare), a one-click WordPress installation, multiple CMS integrations, and more eCommerce plugins.

Spam Experts, domain privacy protection, and server backups are included with higher-tier plans. You also receive additional advanced security tools like Site Lock, which helps protect you from malware attacks.

Another type of security is Codeguard, which provides daily backups so you may restore past versions of a site whether it is hacked.

The final security tool worthy of mention is Google’s Postini. It protects your email from spam, blocking anything questionable from getting into your inbox.

5. Easy to Use for Beginners

Only advanced users should regard some of the web hosts we’ve seen as one of the best. Bluehost, on the other hand, is excellent for beginners.

Their customer portal is easy and simple to be using (although, we have experienced it is a bit slow at times). Bluehost is much easier to use because of the structure of the cPanel control panel. cPanel makes it simple for beginners to install and use WordPress.In most cases, all you have to do is point and click.

You may start building a website with a website builder tool if you don’t want to utilize WordPress (such as Weebly or Drupal). After that, you may customize a template by simply dragging and dropping components onto your page

Advanced users who wish to construct their own website with their own coding could use Bluehost’s capabilities.

6. 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee

All of Bluehost’s hosting plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

You can test out the service for yourself and request a refund if you’re not completely satisfied. However, there are some words of advice.

Here’s what does and doesn’t come within that guarantee, according to Bluehost’s terms:

• You can only receive a refund on the cost of web hosting; you cannot get a refund on any other items such as domains or add-ons.
• If your plan included a free domain name, Bluehost would subtract $15.99.
• After 30 days, Bluehost does not refund any requests.

Some hosts have a no-questions-asked policy, but this isn’t one of them. So, before you sign up, make sure you agree with these points.

7. 24/7 Customer Support

Bluehost offers live chat, phone, and email ticket support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They also feature a large knowledge library with answers to frequently asked topics and useful information.

8. Free WordPress Website Transfer

This benefit is for you if you already have a website and want to switch to Bluehost’s hosting plan.

Bluehost has only recently started to provide a free site transfer with all of its hosting plans.

However, there are a few conditions attached to this free service. The site must first be a WordPress site. Second, the migration should be requested within the first 30 days after signing up for a hosting plan.

All you have to do is get in touch with their customer service team and follow their instructions. It generally takes 1-3 business days to complete the migration.

It costs $149.99 if you don’t have a WordPress website or if you have more than one. This allows you to transfer up to 5 websites and 20 email accounts.

9. Bluehost Customer Service

Opening a website to promote your skills or start a new business is always work that needs proper help. It is important to choose a web hosting company that offers the help and support you need.

Bluehost has an extensive knowledge base which consists of articles, tutorial guides and video tutorials, and many more to assist you. If you are a beginner, this can be a huge help for you and in the meantime, the most common issues can be quickly resolved by a simple search.

However, sometimes it’s necessary to talk to an individual to get more help.

Bluehost has an effective 24/7 support system with a helpful and friendly support team. You can talk to representatives by live chat or call support. This is really helpful because not every time you can DIY everything. They can provide the technical support you need, anytime.

One thing that’s missing is the ticket-based support system. Bluehost has recently eliminated ticket-based support to aim at a personal approach in live chat and call-based support.

It is possible that some users may still miss the ticket-based support system which can be really effective if your issue cannot be resolved in just one live chat or call session.

Bluehost Hosting Cons 

Bluehost’s hosting service offers several wonderful features, but there are a few faults as well.

While we appreciate the low initial costs, the renewal rates can be rather high. Let’s look at these disadvantages in more detail.

1. Higher Renewal Rates

Prepaying for one, two, or even three years in advance is the best method to receive the greatest hosting deal. Although the average monthly price drops, you are still paying hundreds of dollars upfront.

If you don’t like their service, you may request a refund using their 30-day money-back guarantee. However, once the original plan period expires, you may expect a significant increase in costs.

Let’s suppose you sign up for the lowest three-year plan, which costs $2.75 each month. Next the introductory term, the renewal pricing for the following period begins at $8.99/month with a three-year commitment.

The next period is three times more expensive than the first in this case.

2. Restrictions on the cheapest plan

Bluehost’s lowest shared hosting plan has a lot of limitations.

Only one website is allowed, storage capacity is limited, and the only security feature is a free SSL certificate. So, if you have multiple sites or want more security, you’ll have to pay at least twice as much for the following pricing tier.

Unfortunately, such restrictions on the most basic plan are all too common in the web hosting market. Companies compete to see who can attract customers with the lowest price, only to upsell a good hosting service at a greater price.

Types of Hosting and Features

Bluehost has six different hosting plans: shared, shared WordPress, WooCommerce, VPS, Managed WordPress, and Dedicated. In our Bluehost Pricing Review, we go through the details of each kind, but the differences may be summarised as follows:

• Shared: the most cost-effective and convenient general service.
• WordPress shared: server is the cheapest and most simple way to host a WordPress site.
• WooCommerce: is the best WordPress plugin for hosting an online store.
• VPS: more expensive than dedicated hosting, but still appropriate for business websites that need more than the basics.
• Managed WordPress: provides even more features for your WordPress-hosted site.
• Dedicated hosting: is the most expensive, but is also the most powerful.

WordPress and Bluehost

WordPress recommends Bluehost as its best web hosting service, which is no minor achievement coming from a business that has worked with a lot of web hosts. Bluehost is the best web host to go with if you're already set on having a WordPress site. If you already have a Bluehost account, you should definitely consider setting up your site with WordPress.org, which you can do with a single click from your Bluehost dashboard.

This tutorial will show you how simple it is to set up a WordPress website using Bluehost:

Quick Facts

• Money-back guarantee: There includes a 30-day money-back guarantee.
• Payment Methods: Major credit cards and PayPal are accepted as payment methods.
• Website Migration: Free website migration for one WordPress website. The price of other migrations is $149.99 for up to 5 websites and 20 email accounts.
• Free domain:  Yes, for the first year.

Additional Products

We now have knowledge of the extra charges that must be purchased in addition to your Bluehost plan. However, there are a number of features that come standard with every Bluehost plan. In reality, even Bluehost’s most basic, bare-bones plan (the Basic Shared plan, $2.75/month introductory price) still contains:

• 50 GB SSD storage
• Unmetered bandwidth 
• Free SSL certificate (remember those?!)
• 1 domain included 
• 5 parked domains
• 25 subdomains 

The number of websites, SSD storage, domains, parked domains, and subdomains is limitless if you upgrade to the Plus Shared plan (at an introductory price of $4.95/month). Plus, with Shared, you get 30 free days with one Office 365 mailbox and Spam Experts anti-spam email screening.

Do We Recommend Bluehost?

Yes, we do.

Bluehost has done significantly better in the past, but they continue to provide dependable service with good server speeds.

They also provide excellent security features, a great money-back guarantee, a multitude of user-friendly apps, and multiple levels of hosting services to suit different clients. With our exclusive offer, the monthly price starts at $2.795.

However, Bluehost isn’t without flaws. After the first signup period, the hosting plans’ renewal prices will skyrocket, and the cheapest plan has some significant limitations compared to the other tiers.

About Bluehost

Bluehost landed in 1996, and now it is the largest brand name when it comes to WordPress hosting. To date, it is one of the biggest web hosting companies and official WordPress hosting providers. It has a long-standing tie-up with the WordPress community.

Bluehost never disappoints its user on the grounds of speed and security, even when there is a lot of traffic. It also provides 24/7 customer service by email, phone, or live chat, to ensure that none of its customers get disappointed. 

However, Bluehost is tested to be reliable, affordable, and fast with friendly 24/7 customer service. Hence, it is recommended as one of the best WordPress hosting companies.

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Conclusion

Bluehost has often been ranked as the first web hosting provider by many websites. Bluehost users get a wide range of hosting options with a bunch of plans and features at different prices to help you build your website with ease. 
The most important thing about Bluehost is it provides affordable starter plans which is the best feature for beginners. It also provides 24/7 customer service that is managed by its skilled staff. 

frequently Asked Questions

1. Does Bluehost support live chat?

Yes. Bluehost supports live chats with their customers to resolve any queries that they face while using their service. It is an excellent way to get a human agent quickly to talk to Bluehost Customer Service about the customer’s problems. 

2. Is Bluehost good for beginners?

Yes. Bluehost is the most reliable WordPress hosting company for beginners. While signing up, it automatically installs WordPress for the users. It also provides a control panel that is easy to use and helps you to manage the hosting accounts. 

Apart from this, the customer service of Bluehost is accessible 24/7 to resolve your queries through emails, live chats, or phone calls. It also helps you with detailed video tutorials, user guides, and articles.

3. Can I trust Bluehost?

Yes. Bluehost is trustworthy. It is a reliable web hosting service and is worth your money. No other web hosting company guarantees a 100% uptime other than Bluehost.  

4. Why is Bluehost so cheap?

Bluehost is cheap for beginners generally for Bluehost web hosting initially. So, the main objective is to make the plans affordable for the users, especially for beginners. 

5. Which Bluehost plan is best for beginners?

Bluehost PLUS hosting plan is best for beginners. It has all the features that the user needs to start a blog including a Free SSL Certificate, a Free domain name, and ultimate websites at a very low price as compared to other web hosting companies.

6. How much does Bluehost cost per month?

Bluehost’s web hosting service does not provide a monthly payment option for its managed WordPress hosting and cheap shared hosting. Moreover, the users can choose monthly payment with Bluehost’s dedicated hosting plans or VPS hosting plans. 

7. How much is the Bluehost domain after the first year?

After the first year, the Bluehost domain price starts from $107.40/yr. It depends on the time period of the plan you choose.

8. Choosing Bluehost is good or bad?

Bluehost is bad as it can be easily hacked. If you prefer cheaper web hosting and go for Bluehost then it can make you suffer as it works till it works. If you are planning for serious business, Bluehost is not a good choice. 

9. Is Bluehost so slow or fast?

Every server of Bluehost is constantly monitored to ensure the optimal speed. But in some instances, the server can be overloaded and causes a slowdown in the site’s load time. These issues are temporary and can be resolved.

10. Is Bluehost the best for wordPress?

Yes. Bluehost is the best web hosting for WordPress. Bluehost is tested to be reliable, affordable, and fast with friendly 24/7 customer service. Hence, it is recommended as one of the best WordPress hosting companies. 

11. How long is a Bluehost term?

Bluehost has an original term of 24 months which costs about $8.95/month. The new term is 12 months, and it costs about $11.95/month. 

12. Is WordPress free with Bluehost?

Yes. WordPress comes with Bluehost for free and can be easily installed using the Bluehost account. 

13. Is Hostinger better than Bluehost?

Both Hostinger and Bluehost provide much to their users, each having its distinct pros and cons. Hostinger refers to those who want a bargain price and fast loading time. While, if one requires unlimited resources like storage, bandwidth, and websites or other supports then one can go for Bluehost.