After using Bluehost for more than 2 years, I have a lot to tell you about. And in this honest, no BS and totally unbiased Bluehost review I am going to tell all that I’ve experienced. They are certainly one of the best hosting providers but my suggestion is that you don’t make an uninformed choice and read this review first before you merge into their waters. Every story has two sides.
Bluehost is the #1 rated web hosting provider. They are also officially recommended by WordPress.org. Their round clock uptime and prompt customer support are what I most admire. In my opinion, how a company handles their customers after the sale has been done, matters a lot.
I’d not lie that at one stance I was stuck doing a task as simple as setting up an FTP client. But they helped me out and I felt dumb for not contacting them asap.
What is so cool about Bluehost?
The reason that they’re officially recommended by WordPress.org ⏤ world’s best CMS, says a lot. Brad Smith from HostingFacts has tested it for 24 months and it gave a whopping 99.99% uptime. It is the top mark in the industry and Bluehost seems to fulfill it.
That being said, the thing which I admire most is their quick, easy, knowledgeable, and 24×7 customer support. I use their Plus plan on my blog which starts at $5.45/month and I’ve had my issues with Bluehost – changing nameservers, updating PHP version, etc. Their customer support has always found me a solution.
Speed is one of the most important factors for getting ranked in Google SERPs. It is an important factor and you should learn how to do basic SEO.
In a nutshell, Bluehost offers 365x24x7 customer support, 99.99% uptime, speedy loading times and all in all isn’t much costly ⏤ Basic plan starts at $2.95/month. Study the following table for concrete details:
Recommended Read: The Stupid-simple On-Page SEO Checklist.
| Our Recommendation | Bluehost is my #1 choice and I’ll definitely recommend you try it if you are starting a blog or site with WordPress.org. |
| Uptime | 99.99% |
| After Sales Service (Customer Support) | Satisfactory, 365x24x7 Chat |
| Integrations | WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and a few more site builders |
| Site Transfer | Available but not free |
| Extras | Officially recommended by WordPress since 2005 |
Bluehost Review: Plans, Pricing & Refund Policy
Many people had done Bluehost review and almost all of them agree with the pricing of their plans.
There are many plans depending upon what type of hosting you go with. Bluehost offers 3 types of hosting – Shared, VPS, and Dedicated. Let me throw some light in case you don’t know about these.
Shared hosting is the most common type of hosting and is mostly recommended for beginner bloggers and small businesses. Here the resources like RAM, storage, IP address are being shared by multiple sites. Use this if you’re just starting with WordPress, it works like a charm.
Dedicated hosting is the most powerful, enhanced performance and security. In this, you get your own server and all the possibilities of customizations. It is generally used by big businesses and large scale organizations. VPS aka virtual private server hosting is a middle ground in between these two.
Now let’s look at the pricing plans for each type of hosting provided:
Shared Hosting
| Basic | Plus | Choice Plus | Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Web Space | 50 GB SSD storage | Unlimited SSD storage | Unlimited SSD storage | Unlimited SSD storage |
| Included Domains | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Websites | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Email Accounts | 5 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Parked Domains | 5 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Subdomains | 25 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Price (Discounted) | $2.95/mo | $5.45/mo | $5.45/mo | $13.95/mo |
| Extras | None | Spam Experts | Spam Experts, Domain Privacy + Protection, Site Backup – CodeGuard Basic | Spam Experts, Domain Privacy + Protection, Site Backup – CodeGuard Basic, Dedicated IP |
According to Wikipedia, here’s what parked domains means, “Domain parking is the registration of an Internet domain name without that domain being associated with any services such as e-mail or a website. This may have been done with a view to reserving the domain name for future development, and to protect against the possibility of cybersquatting.”
Like the name suggests subdomains are domains that are part of another domain. For example, my blog domain is vivaciousvipin.com, so my subdomain could be store.vivaciousvipin.com or shop.vivaciousvipin.com
Now you get the idea about parked domains and subdomains. Subdomains are so much easy to create with Bluehost and it usually helps if you want to categorize broadly or make a site in another language.
VPS Hosting
| Basic | Plus | Choice Plus | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Space | 30 GB SSD storage | 60 GB SSD storage | 120 GB SSD storage |
| Cores | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| RAM | 2 GB | 4 GB | 8 GB |
| Bandwidth | 1 TB | 2 TB | 3 TB |
| IP Addresses | 1 IP Addresses | 2 IP Addresses | 2 IP Addresses |
| Price (Discounted) | $18.99/mo | $29.99/mo | $59.99/mo |
Dedicated Hosting
| Basic | Plus | Choice Plus | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Space | 500 GB (Mirrored) Storage | 1 TB (Mirrored) Storage | 1 TB (Mirrored) Storage |
| Cores | 4 cores @ 2.3 GHz | 4 cores @ 2.5 GHz | 4 cores @ 3.3 GHz |
| RAM | 4 GB | 8 GB | 16 GB |
| Bandwidth | 5 TB | 10 TB | 15 TB |
| IP Addresses | 3 IP Addresses | 4 IP Addresses | 5 IP Addresses |
| Price (Discounted) | $79.99/mo | $99.99/mo | $119.99/mo |
Refund Policy
I had to mention this my Bluehost review post in order to be transparent. Bluehost offers a full refund within 30 days of purchase. However, one thing to note down is “The money-back guarantee does not apply to most add-on products, such as domains, given the unique nature of their costs.”
After reading my Bluehost review, it’s very unlikely, however if you tried Bluehost and didn’t found it useful, ask for a refund. No hard feelings!
Complete Breakdown of Pros & Cons
Now let me breakdown the pros and cons of using Bluehost.
Pros
- The security features of Bluehost is remarkable – free SSL certificate, SiteLock, etc.
- When integrated with Cloudflare CDN, Bluehost improves the site performance and loading time up to a much greater extent.
- 1-click install for website builders like WordPress.
- Excellent uptime, 99.99%
- The loading time is around 5s which is outstanding according to standards.
- You get a free domain for 1 year with all plans.
- You can host e-commerce sites as well.
- Considering all that Bluehost provides, it’s worth the money.
Cons
Hey look, I am sorry I can’t sugar coat it all. There are some things which I don’t like and I have to be honest with you in this Bluehost review. And at last, it’s your call – whether you think Bluehost is worthy or not. So I am listing all the cons here:
- If you’re already hosted somewhere, I’m sorry website transfers are absolutely not free.
- Bluehost is aggressive in upselling, watch out your back before you make the final payment.
- Although I’ve always had a positive experience with their customer support, many people claim they had issues and didn’t get a satisfactory solution. (This can be subjective too, keep in mind)
Which Hosting is Right For You?
So, as we are approaching towards a conclusion, let’s tackle a big question – Is Bluehost right for you? To be 100 percent honest, this is really dependent on your preferences as well as where you’re in your entrepreneurial journey.
For a beginner, Bluehost is definitely recommended. Its ease of use and clear UI is gonna make everything easy. Also if you’re thinking to make with WordPress, look no further than Bluehost’s shared hosting plans. I have been using it, and believe me – I have had doubts at first, but now I don’t regret it at all. I have my all sites hosted with Bluehost.
If you’re a much-advanced user with a need for hefty resources, don’t go with shared hosting plans instead of opt-in for VPS or dedicated hosting.
Conclusion: Should You Go For It?
I started using Bluehost when I finally decided to take my free WordPress.com blog into the world of opportunities with self-hosted WordPress.org. I signed up via an affiliate link and got 40% off for the first time. At that time I was skeptical as I was a newbie.
All in all, if you’re a blogger and looking for reliability without much technical jargon, Bluehost might be the right choice. I know it for sure because I’m continuing to use it.
Hope my Bluehost review has been helpful, if you got any questions – I am all ears for you. Use the comment box below.
Affiliate Disclosure: I am an affiliate with Bluehost, meaning when you make a purchase via my link, I’ll earn a few bucks at no extra cost to you. It goes without saying that all my reviews are unbiased and are of my own perspective. 100 percent!