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BlueHost Review

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One of the oldest names in shared hosting market, BlueHost today is now owned and managed by public listed company NewFold Digital. Features are unremarkable and while sign-ups may get you steep discounts, renewal prices are about on par with market average.


Suitable for: Beginners-friendly Hosting

Website: https://www.bluehost.com/

HostScore
53.3%
Promo Coupon*


What We Think About BlueHost Hosting

BlueHost Pros

  • Free domain name with all shaerd hosting plans
  • $100 free ad credits with all plans
  • Comprehensive and easy-to-navigate knowledgebase
  • Comprehensive and easy-to-navigate knowledgebase

BlueHost Cons

  • Renewal fees can be significantly higher
  • Many upsells on additional features
  • Add-ons can get expensive
  • Only US-based servers
  • Customer support can be better

Jump: See how many readers recommend BlueHost

BlueHost – Our Experiences & Findings

Performance What server speed features does BlueHost offer?

BlueHost offers dependable hosting services, with a focus on steady website functionality. While their hosting performance is not especially great, the web host incorporates essential technologies like HTTP-2, and various server upgrades to further enhance your website’s speed.

Security Are websites hosted at BlueHost safe?

BlueHost excels in security, offering top-notch measures to safeguard your website. Their platform boasts features like daily backup, to ensure your data remains secure and your site impervious to common cyber threats.

Supports Is BlueHost customer support good?

Customer support at BlueHost has room for improvement, with some users experiencing longer response times and less personalized assistance. You can reach out to their support team via phone, live chat, and email.

Value for Money Does BlueHost offer good value for its pricing?

BlueHost is not cheap but reasonable priced when weighed against its feature offerings and long-term cost. At $2.95 per month (renews at $11.99/mo), basic shared hosting allows you to host 1 website with 24/7 customer support, a free domain name, daily backup, and 30-days money back guarantee. Higher plans with better features like VPS starts at $29.99/mo, cloud hosting at $/mo and dedicated hosting at $89.98/mo.

Overall Users Satisfaction What other users think of BlueHost?

Based on our market research, BlueHost receives a mix of feedback regarding user satisfaction. Customers frequently appreciate its affordability and user-friendly interface, making it an appealing choice for beginners and small businesses. The simplicity of setting up and managing websites on BlueHost is often lauded.

On the other hand, some users report issues with server reliability and occasional downtime, which affects their overall experience. There are also instances of slow responses from customer support and technical services. If you’re thinking about choosing BlueHost, it’s important to take these customer complaints into account before making your final decision.

For additional insights, please refer to the user reviews section below.

Newbies Friendliness Is BlueHost suitable for beginners?

Yes. Newbies can feel right at home with BlueHost for several reasons. There is the capacity to scale up, cheap starter plans, WordPress optimization, and best of all, a very comprehensive and useful knowledgebase. Other key features which make BlueHost the web hosting choice for newbies include daily site backup, $100 in free ad credits, spam experts and domain privacy protection. More is available, but mostly as add-ons you need to pay extra for.

Small Business Friendliness Is BlueHost suitable for small businesses?

For small business owners, if you need to build a website quickly then BlueHost is also the right place for you since it has several website builders that you can choose from. Notably among them is the Weebly platform which is one of the best there is in the market

Web Developers Friendliness Is BlueHost suitable for developers?

Although web agencies and developers can take advantage of BlueHost’s WordPress staging, there isn’t much else to recommend on their shared plans. The only way you can make use of development tools would be to sign on for their more expensive VPS plans and configure the environment on your own. That is also one of the major reasons to switch to VPS hosting.

Onboarding Getting started with BlueHost is relatively pain-free. However, you have to be careful and consider what you really need before you sign up. Along the way, BlueHost will try to upsell you on other products besides their basic hosting plans. The disappointment here is that those additional options (which cost extra money) are selected by default. Unless you are prepared to get a shock at the amount you get billed, make sure that you de-select everything that you don’t want before you make your payment. Thankfully, everything else is a breeze and their excellent control panel coupled with that comprehensive help system will get you going in no time at all.

Learn more, visit BlueHost online.

BlueHost Plans & Pricing

BlueHost offers various hosting solutions, including Shared, VPS, and Dedicated hosting plans. Additionally, the company also provides specialty hosting services, such as Managed WordPress, Email, and Minecraft hosting.

When evaluating your options, it’s crucial to remember that many hosting companies offer substantial discounts during the initial signup period, but the pricing often increases significantly upon renewal. You should thoroughly research and compare the renewal prices, not just the introductory rates, to understand the true cost of hosting over an extended period.

To help you make a more informed decision, we have prepared two tables below which compare the initial signup and subsequent renewal costs of BlueHost services with several other providers that we actively monitor.

Review BlueHost Signup Price

Web HostSharedVPSDedicatedCloudWordPressWindows
BlueHost$2.95 - 13.95/mo$29.99 - 69.99/mo$89.98 - 139.99/mo$ - /mo$2.95 - 13.95/mo$ - /mo
DreamHost$2.95 - 2.95/mo$13.75 - 110.00/mo$149.00 - 399.00/mo$4.50 - 48.00/mo$16.95 - 71.95/mo$ - /mo
HostWinds$5.24 - 8.24/mo$8.24 - 395.24/mo$115 - 207/mo$4.99 - 328/mo$ - /mo$12.74 - 431.24/mo
LiquidWeb$ - /mo$45.00 - 105.00/mo$199.00 - 549.00/mo$5.00 - 350.00/mo$17.50 - 912.50/mo$65.00 - 145.00/mo
HostArmada$2.99 - 5.49/mo$29.95 - 74.23/mo$81.95 - 180.95/mo$ - /mo$2.99 - 5.49/mo$ - /mo
Nexcess$ - /mo$ - /mo$ - /mo$52 - 894/mo$17.5 - 912/mo$ - /mo

Review BlueHost Renewal Price

Web HostSharedVPSDedicatedCloudWordPressWindows
BlueHost$11.99 - 28.99/mo$79.99 - 142.99/mo$179.99 - 259.99/mo$ - /mo$11.99 - 28.99/mo$ - /mo
DreamHost$6.99 - 12.99/mo$15.99 - 114.99/mo$149.00 - 399.00/mo$4.50 - 48.00/mo$16.95 - 71.95/mo$ - /mo
HostWinds$6.99 - 10.99/mo$10.99 - 526.99/mo$115 - 207/mo$4.99 - 328/mo$ - /mo$16.99 - 574.99/mo
LiquidWeb$ - /mo$45.00 - 105.00/mo$299.00 - 549.00/mo$5.00 - 350.00/mo$17.50 - 912.50/mo$65.00 - 145.00/mo
HostArmada$11.95 - 21.95/mo$59.90 - 148.45/mo$163.90 - 361.90/mo$ - /mo$11.95 - 21.95/mo$ - /mo
Nexcess$ - /mo$ - /mo$ - /mo$52 - 894/mo$17.5 - 912/mo$ - /mo

Bottomline: Is BlueHost Right for You?

BlueHost users may experience higher renewal fees, numerous upsells for additional features, and only US-based servers. Despite offering a free domain name with all shared hosting plans and $100 free ad credits, the overall user experience is affected by these drawbacks. It’s crucial for you to weigh these factors, especially considering the below-average HostScore rating, which suggests there’s room for better performance and customer service​​.

To recap, here's what we like and dislike:

BlueHost Pros

  • Free domain name with all shaerd hosting plans
  • $100 free ad credits with all plans
  • Comprehensive and easy-to-navigate knowledgebase
  • Comprehensive and easy-to-navigate knowledgebase

BlueHost Cons

  • Renewal fees can be significantly higher
  • Many upsells on additional features
  • Add-ons can get expensive
  • Only US-based servers
  • Customer support can be better

Alternatives

DreamHost

HostScore: 66.9
%
Services: Shared, VPS, Dedicated, and Cloud

LiquidWeb

HostScore: 73.7
%
Services: VPS, Dedicated, Cloud, and Reseller

Web.com

HostScore: 37.8
%
Services: Shared

User Reviews: What Others Think About BlueHost



User Reviews Summary

Recommended: 5
Not Recommended: 3

8 thoughts on “BlueHost Review”

  1. Bluehost has had my money since November 2023 for a domain registration due to renew in mid December 2023. However, THEY NEVER REGISTERED MY DOMAIN. Now a company in Malaysia has my domain and Bluehost say I have to contact the domain name opportunist and try to get them to sell me back my domain.

    This is a project I have developed for 15 years and had registered and hosted by Bluehost for almost 10 years.

    They used to be great. After using them for everything (hosting, reg, extra services) for so long, spending a lot of money with them and recommending them often, I decided to go elsewhere because of the negligent ‘could-care-less’ customer care and their falling behind in tech in the past few years, while charging the same price or more of other modern hosts.

    I didn’t realise just how bad they could get. Now I have to deal with a law suit.

    Horrible service!

    No, Not Recommended
  2. We use WordPress on it. Web hosting is used with cPanel. We want to communicate our services to potential customers. It is a small website with not many visitors. You can use mulitiple installations of WordPress. We do not use the Bluehost email services. Hosting is acceptable for small sites. WordPress is running on a shared server.

    The website is slow. The speed is not reliable. Sometimes, sites would go down without warning. You would have to get a VPS to get consistent speed. If you have small website as a hobby, then Bluehost will be sufficient. Otherwise, I recommend looking for something more fast. Storage is good, but speed is lacking.

    No, Not Recommended
  3. Honestly I have using last 8 months but not facing any issue and also I tell you their customer support really amazing and helpful I get.

    Yes, Recommended
  4. One of the finest host you could be with. I have been using it for few of my sites since 3 years. Along with the decent performance, it also don’t put hole in my pocket.

    I agree renewal price is bit higher end, that’s why I renew it for longer period. strong recommended Bluehost Shared hosting if you have a small or intermediate level website.

    Starters, can opt for it without a second thought.

    Yes, Recommended
  5. I had to say pass after a while, found better options and for less money also much more reliable and better assistance. This is my opinion so take it as it is, maybe others hasn’t explore alternatives and go’s for big names.

    No, Not Recommended
  6. I was looking for a new hosting company as my existing I felt was continuously throwing advertising and making it more and more convoluted to move around in my control panel.

    I have not looked back with finding Bluehost, their Cpanel is so clear and simply I don’t have to jump form page to page just to find what I am looking for. I think the one thing that really did win me over to join up was their Chat & call staff, all had impeccable knowledge, were so helpful and happy, generally seemed happy to work their and take my call and solve my problem or questions.

    I can’t stress enough that it’s so nice to have a simple but yet effective and efficient cpanel… thank you for really figuring that out.

    Yes, Recommended
  7. Bluehost is the third web hosting company I’ve worked with and the clear advantage is reliability. It really is a case of out of sight, out of mind because I haven’t had to worry about outages other kinds of problems that plagued me with the other companies I tried.

    I will say that when I first made the switch over I heard all kinds of stories about how awful the customer service is, and the few times I had to contact them I found that to be true. However, recently I had had some technical issues I needed help with and I was really pleased with the change in service – truly night and day level difference. So with that, I can honestly say that I am happy to recommend Bluehost.

    Yes, Recommended
  8. Easy to use hosting even if you’re not very technical. It’s recommended by WordPress and they have special features for WordPress users such as more detailed analytics, themes, and a tutorial series to help you to set up everything.

    Also, one of the useful tools is a daily backup. It saved my site another day when I installed a plugin that wasn’t compatible with some existing plugins and the site stopped working. I didn’t have a backup but could restore everything with the help of customer service. A few years ago they had problems with customer support and it took time to get any replies. But looks like they improved their service.

    Yes, Recommended

Are You an Existing BlueHost User?

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