You are probably thinking of the best web hosting company to go with, and maybe you’ve narrowed it down to Bluehost. Welcome to the ultimate Bluehost review. In this review. I will tell you everything you need to know about Bluehost
Bluehost overview
Bluehost is the most popular web hosting company online, with over 2 million happy customers. Offering top-notch 24/7 customer support, and a huge library of guides, videos and articles to help their customers.
Bluehost has a beginner-friendly interface and they are also officially recommended by WordPress [dot] org. when you sign up for any of their plans, you’ll also get a free domain name for one year.
Plus a 30-day money-back guarantee, so that even if you later change your mind within the next 30 days – you get your money back.
I don’t want this review to be biased so, along with the pros of Bluehost, I will also state the cons that I’ve found. So continue reading to find out what you will be getting and to see whether it offers the best value for your money.
Who is Bluehost best suited for?
Before we go deep into this review, it’s worth mentioning that Bluehost is best suited for beginners. If this is your first or second website then Bluehost is for you. Because they make it really easy for beginners to create a website even without any programming or coding skills.
Bluehost Pros and Cons
Pros
Here are some of the reasons why I would choose Bluehost over any other web hosting company.
Beginner-friendly
Bluehost offers its users a beginner-friendly interface. With their large resource of information, you can hardly go wrong with Bluehost.
When setting up your website, they offer you step by step instructions that you can easily follow to create your website or blog. There are no programming or coding skills needed to host your website on Bluehost.
Low introductory prices
The starter plan on Bluehost is very low, this makes it cheap for beginners to start with. Since they have a large number of customers they can easily reduce the cost for new customers.
Finally, when you go for a 2 or 3-year plan you get even lower plans. Make Bluehost the go-to place if you want to save some money on hosting.
Bluehost is recommended by wordpress
WordPress powers more websites on the web than any other website creation platform – over 30% of the internet’s websites worldwide. So when they recommend something you should take it seriously.
Although WordPress can easily be integrated with a website hosted by other web hosting companies, with Bluehost, it’s really a seamless process.
Bluehost is among the three web hosting companies that were officially recommended by WordPress
Quick site setup
With Bluehost, you can easily set up your website or blog within minutes. This was made possible because of the free templates that you can choose from, the thousands of free plugins that are available on WordPress and their excellent customer support on Bluehost.
One free website transfer
This is a new feature for Bluehost users and a wonderful one at that, formerly they didn’t do this. You can now transfer 1 website on Bluehost for free. But it comes with some conditions. Basically, the site has to be a WordPress website, and it must be one that was recently created (within the last 30 days)
Free CDN + SSL certificate
An SSL certificate proves your website’s identity and conceals some of your private information. On Bluehost you get a free CDN and SSL, so you don’t have to pay additional fees for security.
Free domain name for one year
The cost of a new domain name is usually around $10-$15/year, but on Bluehost (with any of their plans) you get a free domain name for the first year.
This I believe is really wonderful on their part, since it will relieve you of the pain of getting yourself a new domain name from another site and linking it to Bluehost. Also, the additional cost of purchasing one from Bluehost is eliminated.
24/7 customer support
We all need support at some point, even if you are not a beginner online. Bluehost has an excellent record of customer support. Think about it, not all web hosting companies can boost 24/7 customer support.
But on Bluehost, even if you chat with their support at night you can be sure to get a fast response. This is one of the reasons why I believe Bluehost is the best if you are just starting out.
30 Day Money Back Guarantee
Isn’t this awesome, you are probably at a stage right now where you aren’t sure which web hosting company you should use.
Bluehost takes the risk off your shoulders by giving you a complete 30-day money-back guarantee. So that even if after 28 or 29 days you change your mind about Bluehost, you can still get your money back.
Cons
Like I told you earlier, this won’t be the best Bluehost review online if I don’t tell you about the cons of Bluehost. So without wasting much time, let’s look into some of the cons.
High Charges for site migration
Bluehost only offers you 1 free site migration (with some conditions of course), after which you have to pay to migrate your other site(s). If you plan to stay on Bluehost forever, you don’t have to worry about this because you won’t need to migrate your site. But, if you just want to stay on Bluehost for a limited time, it would be nice to keep the migration fee in mind.
Higher domain renewal price
After your first purchase is over, the renewal price is usually higher than the starter plan. Bluehost uses the starter plan to draw you in as a customer before revealing their main price. This is one of the cons of Bluehost that I don’t really like.
Upselling add-ons
Before the final checkout is done, they aggressively promote additional products as upsells. Some newbies might mistakenly pay higher than they expected because these add-ons are checked automatically. But you can simply uncheck all of this before you pay to avoid additional charges.
Not suitable for high traffic sites
Yes, you heard read that right. Bluehost is not that suitable for high traffic sites. If you want high traffic, you should probably look for other web hosting companies, preferably you should get your own VPS server.
Bluehost Pricing
Bluehost has different pricing plans depending on your niche. But, if after reading about them here, you are still unsure of which plan you should go with, you can reach out for a free consultation.
WordPress Website
It is important to note that all the WordPress sites hosted by Bluehost enjoy automatic updates and 24/7 expert support.
WordPress Hosting
Provides you with all the WordPress tools, resources and support needed to make your site succeed. This plan starts at $4.95/mon but renews at their regular rate.
Managed WordPress
With managed WordPress hosting, you get access to scalable site features and bandwidth so that you can easily expand your brand. This goes for $9.95/mo and auto-renews at their regular rate
Online Stores
You can create an online store hosted on WordPress with trusted tools, assistance and security to sell anything online with confidence. This plan goes for $15.95/mo, also auto-renews at their regular rates.
Not sure which one to go with read on or click here to reach out for a free consultation from Bluehost.
Hosting plans
On Bluehost, there are three types of hosting plans available, these are
- Shared hosting
- Vps
- Dedicated
Shared hosting price
On Bluehost, their shared plan is $4.95/mo (normally $8.99) and it’s great for those just starting out with a website or blog.
Bluehost Vps Hosting Plan
VPS or virtual private server is good for websites that are growing already that need more traffic, and control. This plan goes for $19.99/mo (normally $29.99/mo
Bluehost Dedicated Hosting Plan
This is a plan for high traffic sites that needs super fast speed and performance. This plan goes for $79.99/mo* (normally $119.99)
All the prices stated above are for 36/mo term.
Other Bluehost Services
Bluehost website builder
This plan starts at $2.95/mo (regularly $10.99)
With Bluehost’s website builder, you can build beautiful looking websites faster and easier than other website builders.
Professional Services
Of course, Bluehost is popularly known for hosting, but their services don’t stop there. They offer other services that are worth mentioning. You can request any of these services from the Bluehost team.
Consultation
You can reach out to the Bluehost team for a free consultation. This is really important, especially if you are just getting started and you don’t know which plan is best suited for you.
Full service website
You don’t have to worry yourself over anything when you have the Bluehost team on your side. They will help you to design your website, market it, and assist you in content for your website. Learn more
SEO Services
If you are struggling to get your website noticed online, you can turn to Bluehost for help with SEO. They will help you rank for some useful keywords on different search engines like google, yahoo and Bing.
Website Migration
Want to move to another host? Go to Bluehost for help and all that is settled. They even offer free migration, and their paid migration includes up to five (5) websites plus one-on-one consultation before and after the migration.
Pay-per-click Services
Don’t worry about running unprofitable ads with the Bluehost team. They will help you target potential clients or customers within the search results.
FAQ
Is Bluehost good for beginners?
Yes! Bluehost aside from being one of the oldest web hosting platforms is also beginner-friendly. So, even if you are a newbie, creating a website on Bluehost will be really easy.
Should I use Bluehost for my WordPress website?
The simple answer is yes. Bluehost was officially recommended by WordPress because they are reliable. So if you create your website there you can boost of getting quality.
Aside from that, when you create your website on Bluehost, you’ll get the latest version of WordPress. You’ll also get access to hundreds of themes and plugins (free and paid), that will enable you to customize your website to your taste.
Do I need to have a credit card to sign up with Bluehost?
Yes, but if you don’t have a credit card, that won’t be a problem. Bluehost accepts other means of payment like PayPal. So you don’t have to worry about paying for your Bluehost plan.
Conclusion
That’s How we come to the end of this Bluehost review. Bluehost is a great place to build a beautiful website or blog. As I’ve said earlier. It is a really great place for beginners, this is because they have multiple guides and video tutorials that will help their customers do more in less time.
I hope I covered everything you expected to know about Bluehost, if you’ll like to learn more, just click here. Finally, if you have already used Bluehost before, kindly drop a comment to let others know about your experience with Bluehost.