Bluehost Reviews

Straightforward Web Host, Full of Features

The value-based priced Bluehost web hosting packages come with some generous features like unmetered bandwidth, free backups, free SSL, and global CDN. Additionally, you get access to marketing tools and credits that will help you boost your site’s growth. 

No Uptime Guarantee But Solid Performance

Surprisingly, Bluehost doesn’t offer an uptime guarantee. This means that you won’t get any type of compensation if downtime occurs, as it's typically the case with other hosts. Comparing Bluehost vs DreamHost, for example, the latter has 100% uptime, which is even higher than the industry standard. While a lack of uptime guarantee is usually a red flag, Bluehost is one of the most trusted hosting services out there. In fact, as seen in many Bluehost hosting reviews, this hosting provider has the best uptime in the market, which is around 99.99% throughout the year. 

Good Site Loading Speed

Bluehost has only one datacenter based in the US, so no wonder they are the fastest there. But, surprisingly, they perform great in all parts of the world. Many reviews deem it as an A-ranked hosting provider that delivers excellent speed. Some customers that were dissatisfied with the speed used the shared hosting plans. It seems this is not an unusual occurrence, so if you have a more demanding site, you might be better off upgrading to more advanced options.

Intuitive Interface and Easy Onboarding

Bluehost is very easy to use for both advanced users and beginners. Multiple Bluehost reviews by users confirm this. The interface is intuitive, and the onboarding process is easy. You need to complete the registration process, log in to the dashboard, and you’ll have WordPress installed. Bluehost will take care of the backend — your job will be to customize your site. 

Unlimited Features

Bluehost provides excellent flexibility for shared plans. You can use as many resources as you need without restrictions. Everything is unlimited: the number of websites hosted, SSD storage, bandwidth, parked domains, and subdomains. Well, almost — you need to operate within the Terms of Use; otherwise, you may face limits on these features. Also, if you’re taking up too many resources, Bluehost may deactivate or delete your site. 

Free Extras

As we went on with this Bluehost review, we found out that there are a lot of extra perks. With each shared hosting plan, the vendor offers a domain name free for one year. Regular prices are $11.99/year for a .com extension, $8.99/year for .org, $12.99/year for .net, $4.99/year for .tech, $12.99/year for .co, and $1.99/year for .website. Each domain comes with easy management, auto-renewal, and domain lock. Additionally, you get up to $200 worth of advertising credits you can use for Bing/Yahoo and Google AdWords. 

Conditioned Free Migration

If you purchase a hosting plan and you already have a WordPress website, you can opt to migrate it for free to Bluehost. A team of experts will review your site (current secure plugins, PHO version, website size, and database size) to see if it qualifies for migration. If your website doesn’t qualify, you can use the paid migration service, which provides a more customized experience. 

The fact that migrations aren’t 100% free is one of the most common Bluehost reviews complaints. A Bluehost vs Hostgator comparison has shown that free migrations are where the latter excels. Not surprisingly, many Hostgator reviews praise this feature, so if you need a free migration, you could give it a try. 

Bluehost Website Builder Review: Weebly for the Win

If you want to build a professional-looking website but have no coding skills, Bluehost offers WordPress or Weebly as website builders. Both include some excellent templates, as well as plugins, drag-and-drop editors, and other features essential for building a functional website. 

Considered to be one of the best website building software, Bluehost Weebly is available in three versions: Basic, Pro, and Ecommerce. The Basic plan is free with every Bluehost account. It supports up to six web pages and provides basic SEO, RSS feed, blog maintenance, and video support. With more advanced features and multiple layers of security, the Pro version will cost you $8.99/month. You can also opt for the Ecommerce version for $2.99/month.

Bluehost SEO Tools Review

Bluehost’s suite of SEO tools allows you to develop a solid plan for search engine optimization and implement the best practices to drive traffic to your website and maximize ROI. From site submission and keyword discovery to access to personalized marketing reports and competitor monitoring, Bluehost will help you grow fast. Pricing-wise, the Bluehost SEO Tools Start plan costs $1.99/month or $23.88 when billed annually. This will quickly add up to the overall cost, but you’ll be getting great value for money. 

Robust Security Features

Security is an area where Bluehost shines. You get three layers of anti-spam protection, password-protected directories, two-factor authentication, IP addresses blacklisting, and SSH access. The single-click integration with CloudFlare adds another layer of protection and speed. If you choose their dedicated server, you’ll get RAID Level 1 support. This means that your data is mirrored to multiple disks, which boosts data security and reliability. 

Reviews of Bluehost praise the great complimentary features, including a free SSL certificate with all hosting plans and backups. The potential downside in terms of backups is that Bluehost performs backups at its discretion and doesn’t provide a guarantee for this service. For peace of mind, you’ll have to do your backups daily. Bluehost recommends that you use the cPanel to access Site Backup, a third-party software tool. All plans include a domain privacy feature. 

There’s an array of additional add ons, with the most notable being SiteLock — the tool that scans and removes any malware and uploads clean files to the site. The Free Scan service by Bluehost includes scans for up to 10 web pages, limited malware detection, and Google Blacklist Monitoring. If you want to use the more advanced SiteLock features, you’ll have to pay the full SiteLock price. Other forms of protection are CodeGuard, which provides daily backups, and Google-powered Postini for spam protection.  

Bluehost Support: Good Knowledge Base, Average Performance 

Bluehost offers 24/7 support through multiple channels, including live chat, phone, and email. The in-house trained experts are knowledgeable, friendly, and fast. Bluehost customer service reviews, however, are mixed. Some users love the service and share their positive experiences with the staff.

On the other hand, some users complain about the long waiting times (especially on the phone). They also share that there are always too many people waiting for help, which makes it almost impossible to get a hold of a specialized support agent. Additionally, some Bluehost customer support services are offered only via email with a longer wait time, which could be a deal-breaker, especially if you need help fast.

For the sake of this Bluehost review, we made a Bluehost vs InMotion customer support comparison. We consulted dozens of InMotion reviews to discover that the company provides reliable and fast support, and the team is knowledgeable and experienced. So if customer support is essential for you, you should consider InMotion as an alternative. 

Although there could be some improvements in the Bluehost customer service, the vendor’s knowledge base is excellent, with a wide array of guides, FAQs, tutorials, and articles that you can use to solve many problems. 

30-Day Money-Back Guarantee

Bluehost offers the industry-standard 30-day money-back guarantee. However, the Bluehost refund applies only to the costs of web hosting. Domains and other add-ons are not eligible for a refund. If you’ve decided to use the free domain in your plan, you’ll be charged a $15.99 fee upon cancellation. 

Bluehost Plans & Pricing

The company offers the most popular hosting options but lacks cloud and reseller hosting. The Bluehost pricing, however, is competitive, and the renewal fees aren’t as high as seen in other hosts. Note that there is not an option to choose a Bluehost monthly plan. You’ll need to select a 12-, 24-, or 36-month plan. Bluehost deals are better with longer plans. 

Bluehost WordPress Hosting 

Bluehost is one of the few web hosting providers recommended by WordPress. Our Bluehost WordPress hosting review showed that users appreciate this service. Mostly, they praise the versatility, performance, and ease of use. 

Coming with innovative features, versatile plugins, and themes, as well as $200 marketing credit, Bluehost is one of the best hosting sites for WordPress. Upon purchasing your plan, Bluehost will have the latest and most secure version installed. Your account will be kept up to date and secure even after you create the account. Microsoft 365 and Google My Business integrations are also available. 

All Bluehost WordPress hosting accounts have the Blue Flash service powered by a team of real WP experts trained to help you get started with WordPress. There’s also a live WordPress support that provides long-term value and is highly appreciated in Bluehost reviews. This on-demand support service comes in three options: Blue Sky Basic ($29/month), Blue Sky Plus ($49/month), and Blue Sky Pro ($99/month). 

There are three WordPress pricing plans to choose from:

• Basic — $2.95/month (renews at $7.99) — one website, 50GB SSD storage, five parked domains, and 25 subdomains
• Plus — $5.45/month ($10.99 after the initial period) — unlimited websites, unmetered SSD storage, parked domains, and subdomains, and one Microsoft 365 mailbox free for 30 days
• Choice Plus —  $5.45/month (normally $14.99) — ups the Plus plan with CodeGuard basic backup

Bluehost WP Pro Hosting

WP Pro is managed WordPress hosting optimized for site speed and equipped with the essential SEO, SMM, and email marketing tools. You can host an unlimited number of websites, and point as many domains as you need. Also, the plans include unlimited subdomains, web storage, and no traffic limit. Staging environment, spam protection, CDN methodology, and WP auto-updates are also part of WP Pro. 

There are, again, three pricing plans to choose from:

• Build — $19.95/month (normally $25.99) — marketing center, Jetpack Basic, daily scheduled backups, malware detection and removal, domain privacy, and protection
• Grow — $29.95/month (renews at $39.99) — includes everything in Build plus Jetpack Premium, business review tools, SEO tools, 10 GB video compression, and Blue Sky ticket support
• Scale — $49.95/month ($59.99 after the introductory period) — ups Grow with unlimited backups and restore, unlimited video compression, Jetpack Pro, PayPal integration, Blue Sky chat support, and ElasticSearch

Bluehost Shared Hosting

As confirmed by many Bluehost web hosting reviews, the shared plans offer great flexibility and unlimited resources. You can start with what you need and utilize more powerful options as you go. There’s resource protection that identifies websites that are overusing the resources and re-assigns them to isolated systems, ensuring optimal performance. You’ll also get marketing credits; $100 for Microsoft Advertising and $100 for Google Ads upon spending $25 on a new Microsoft Advertising or Google Ads account. 

There are four shared hosting plans to choose from:

• Basic — $2.95/month (normally $7.99) — one website, unmetered bandwidth, 50GB SSD storage, one domain, five parked domains, and 25 subdomains.
• Plus — $5.45/month (renews at $10.99) — unlimited everything: websites, SSD storage, bandwidth, domains, subdomains, and parked domains. Includes Spam Experts and one Microsoft 365 Mailbox free for 30 days.
• Choice Plus — $5.45/month ( $14.99 upon renewal) — ups Plus with domain privacy and protection, as well as CodeGuard Basic.
• Pro — $13.95/month ($23.99 after the first billing cycle) — provides high performance and includes a dedicated IP and 2 Spam Experts. 

Bluehost VPS 

Bluehost VPS offers excellent features at affordable prices. Using open-source technology, you get superb performance and flexibility that suits a range of needs. As confirmed by many Bluehost VPS reviews, the platform even offers convenient multi-server management from one place. You are in charge of all aspects of your account. 

Thanks to the complete access control granted, you’ll be able to create passwords and oversee who access specific aspects of your account. From the cPanel, you can also enable full root access. The dedicated cPanel includes the standard feature plus tools for VPS management and WHM control. The VPS resources are dynamic and will allow you to add more storage as you go (no admin assistance required) at a competitive price. 

There are three VPS plans to choose from:

• Standard — $18.99/month (normally $29.99) — 2 cores, 30GB SSD storage, 1 IP address, 1TB bandwidth
  Enhanced — $29.99/month ($59.99 upon renewal) — 2 cores, 60GB SSD storage, 4GB bandwidth, and 2 IP addresses
• Ultimate — $59.99/month (renews at $119.99) — 4 cores, 120GB SSD storage, 8GB RAM, 3TB bandwidth, and 2 IP addresses. 

Bluehost Dedicated Hosting

Bluehost dedicated servers are advanced and perfect for experienced users. You have complete control over everything. You’ll get the same features provided in the VPS plans but with more power. 

There are three dedicated hosting plans to choose from:

• Standard — $79.99/month (normally $119.99) — 4 cores @ 2.3 GHz, 500GB storage, 4GB RAM, 5TB bandwidth, and 3 IP addresses
• Enhanced — $99.99/month (renews at $159.99) — 4 cores @ 2.5 GHz, 1TB storage, 8GB RAM, 10TB bandwidth, and 4 IP addresses
• Premium — $119.99/month (normally $209.99) — 4 cores @ 3.3 GHz, 1TB storage, 16GB RAM, 15TB bandwidth, and 5 IP addresses

The Verdict

Considering Bluehost reviews and our research, we can say this is a top choice for WordPress hosting. While some areas could be improved, overall, Bluehost offers affordable services and many features and extras included in all plans. Scaling is straightforward, too — you can use the control panel to accommodate your needs and upgrade your package. However, if you’re looking for Windows servers, cloud, or reseller hosting, you should consider some of the Bluehost alternatives.