How did we come across this Bluehost review? We have tried different web hosting platforms over the years to find the right one for our website. When our website traffic started to increase, the server started to overload, and the site was plagued with slow loading speeds, which gave our visitors a bad experience.
We decided to look for a new web hosting provider that was not only reliable but also capable of handling our massive traffic and loading our website fast.
But that wasn't all we needed... It was also essential to make sure the web host had minimal downtime so that our website would stay up and running all the time.
Finally, the most important parameter was that our host was compatible with WordPress because our website is built on it. It was then that we came across Bluehost, which ticked all the boxes for us.
We've been using it for a while, and to help you decide if this is the right host for you, we've put together this review from Bluehost.
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Bluehost: A Detailed Review
Are you looking for a trustworthy WordPress hosting platform for your website? The many web hosting providers can make it difficult for you to know which one to sign up with.
Bluehost is one of the hottest names that will pop up when you search for web hosting. One of the earliest hosting providers in the world, Bluehost started in 2003 and has been recommended by WordPress since 2005.
But is it worth all the hype it generated? Let's find out.
1) Technical tests
To test the reliability of this Bluehost review, we used a dummy website (https://test.www.infomasta.com/).
We ran some tests to determine the effectiveness of Bluehost's web hosting for WordPress.
1. Speed test
The loading speed of your blog is extremely important from a user experience and SEO perspective.
In fact, the importance of page load speed has grown so much that starting in 2021, web essentials such as Largest Content Paint (LCP) and First Entry Delay (FID) will become staples. Ranking parameters.
It is therefore essential to make sure that you choose a web hosting provider that offers higher speeds.
And how did we test Bluehost?
We used Pingdom and Google PageSpeed Insights to test the website load speed.
For Pingdom, we defined the location in San Francisco.
Here are the results we got from Pingdom.
The fast loading speed despite the large page size is a testament to the speed of Bluehost.
Likewise, on Google PageSpeed Insights, the website gave a score of 62, which is pretty decent considering the size of the page.
PS You can get Bluehost for just $ 3.95 / month now.
2. Uptime
It is really important to make sure that your website stays up and running most of the time. Downtime can damage your user experience and you could lose some customers or visitors to them.
The web hosting provider you choose dictates your website's downtime more than anything else.
It is therefore essential that you choose a web hosting service provider that is capable of providing you with maximum uptime.
Bluehost mentions that it offers 99.99% uptime.
But does it live up to that number?
To find out, we ran an uptime test on our dummy website to determine if there had been any downtime. For this, we used Uptrends.
As you can see in the image above, although the page load speed may be slower in certain countries, the website is available everywhere.
This confirms that Bluehost is delivering on its 99.99% uptime promise.
3. Server response time
Server response time is a critical component of your website speed.
When the server takes too long to respond, the page will take a long time to load. This, in turn, can put off visitors to your website.
In order to get a clear idea of how quickly the Bluehost server responds, we used a tool called Bitcatcha.
It helps you find server response time without loading website data like other page load speed tools.
As we all can see, when it comes to server response times, Bluehost is perfect. The slowest server response time is only 4ms which makes it exceptionally good.
And that's not all...
When you compare other web hosting platforms, Bluehost also offers supreme performance.
2) User experience
What we like most about Bluehost is the user experience it offers.
1. Dashboard
When you log into your web hosting account, the intuitive dashboard makes it easy to find everything you need.
You can view your website and its thumbnail in the center of the page and log into WordPress directly from there.
By doing this way, you don't need to go through the process of accessing your WordPress login page.
But wait, there is more.
You can find all the important navigation links below.
Whether it's cPanel, file manager, phpMyAdmin or even databases, you can do it all from there.
In addition, you can also access the "My Sites" page from which you can manage all your websites.
It's also plausible to create a new website, browse your themes and plugins, or access support from there.
2. Manage the website
This is a great feature from Bluehost, in which you can manage your website directly through the Bluehost dashboard without having to go through WordPress. To do so, simply click on "My Sites" in the left sidebar. On the page that opens, select "Manage site".
When you do this, you will be taken to the website manager, which will look like this:
There you will be able to see how many plugins, users, updates, and themes are on your WordPress site.
You can then proceed to the Marketing Center, where you can run a Google Ads campaign directly on Bluehost.
When you proceed to the "Users" section, you can get information seamlessly about all users of your website, including administrators.
And there's more…
By navigating to the "Backups" section, you can check all the backups of your website that have been made through CodeGuard provided by WordPress.
It takes a backup of your website every day so that you can restore it at any time.
All you have to do is click "Restore", and Bluehost will do the heavy lifting for you.
Want to monitor the performance of your website?
Bluehost makes it possible thanks to the "Performance" dashboard.
With Bluehost, you can also take advantage of Cloudflare's content delivery network (CDN) without having to register separately.
In the "Performance" tab, you can choose between Bluehost's server and Cloudflare CDN for your website. You can also control the caching settings depending on the type of website you have.
Bluehost also allows you to easily manage the security of your website. All you have to do is to navigate to the "Security" section.
From there, you can manage all the security features of your website. These include, among others, SiteLock and SSL.
You can also scan the core files in your WordPress installation for any file integrity issues you might have.
From the website manager, it is also possible to manage all your plugins without having to log into the WordPress dashboard.
You can enable or disable plugins directly.
You can enjoy the convenience of Bluehost now for just $ 3.95 / month.
And finally, Bluehost also gives you full customization control for your website right in the website manager.
So, how to customize your website from Bluehost?
All you have to do is go to the "Settings" section. There you can enable or disable automatic updates of your WordPress core, plugins and themes.
Plus, you can control your content and comments on your website.
For example:
If you are building your website and need to view a "coming soon" page, you can set it up with one click.
It is also possible to permanently delete files from your website.
3. Customer service
The reason why many bloggers stated Bluehost as one of the best hosting providers is that it provides exceptional customer service.
The customer service team is available 24/7, and you can contact them through multiple channels as well.
Whether it's live chat or calls, they're available at any time to help you resolve your questions.
But wait, there is better...
This service is extended not only to registered members but also to new customers who might still consider purchasing accommodation from Bluehost.
Whether it's website migration or even the simplest problems, the customer support team helps you overcome it all.
3) Overview of hosting plans
Bluehost offers Managed WordPress, shared, VPS, and dedicated hosting options. With all plans, you get a free SSL certificate and domain for 1 year.
Let's look at the main features offered below.
WordPress hosting
With any WordPress hosting plan you subscribed or purchased, you will get automatic WordPress installation and updates.
Some of the features provided for each WordPress hosting plan are:
- Basic: This plan lets you host a single website and gives you 50GB of SSD storage. Along with that, you also get 25 subdomains, 5 parked domains, and a $200 marketing credit.
- Plus: You can build unlimited websites with this plan and get unlimited storage, parked domains and subdomains with it.
- Choice Plus: Choice Plus offers all the features provided in the Plus plan and also grants you access to CodeGuard Basic features.
WP Pro
WP Pro takes WordPress hosting to a whole new level. Here are the packages offered:
- Build: When you purchase this plan, you'll get free themes, backups every day, malware removal, domain privacy and protection, a marketing center and Jetpack (Basic) site analytics.
- Grow: If you get Grow plan instead, you'll get business assessment tools, Jetpack ads integration, Bluehost SEO tools, 10GB video compression, Jetpack Premium, and the plugin in charge of Blue Sky tickets.
- Scale: You will get the Pro version of the Jetpack plugin for your WordPress, unlimited backups and restore, plus PayPal integration. If your blog mostly contains videos, you'll get unlimited video compression from Bluehost. Other bonus features that are definitely useful for your blog are the 'Elastic Search' and the access of Blue Sky chat and ticket support at no additional costs.
E-commerce hosting
By using eCommerce hosting, you can easily manage your online stores. Here are the packages offered:
- Starter: With this plan, you get an online store, 100GB of SSD storage, and installed storefront theme, a free setup call, plus domain privacy and protection.
- Plus: You are able to host an endless number of online stores and also get unlimited storage. In addition to the other features of the Starter plan, you also get CodeGuard Basic.
- Pro: In addition to all the features that come with the Plus plan, you also get Bluehost SEO tools.
Shared hosting
Bluehost offers four shared hosting plans. They are:
- Basic: You can host a website using this plan and get 50GB of SSD storage. However, you get unlimited bandwidth, 5 parked domains, and 25 subdomains.
- Plus: This plan permits you to host an infinite number of websites and offers unlimited bandwidth and storage, domains, subdomains, and parked domains. You also get spam experts.
- Choice Plus: In addition to all the features offered with the Plus plan, you also get privacy and domain protection with CodeGuard Basic.
- Pro: The Pro plan offers all the features offered by the Choice Plus plan. However, you get high performance from it, two spam experts and a dedicated IP address.
VPS hosting
With VPS hosting, you can achieve superior website performance. Here are the packages offered:
- Standard: If you get this plan, you'll get 2 cores, 30GB of SSD storage, 2GB of RAM, 1TB of bandwidth, and 1 IP address.
- Improved: The Improved plan offers 2 cores, 60 GB of SSD storage, 4 GB of RAM, 2 TB of bandwidth, and 2 IP addresses.
- Ultimate: After purchasing the Ultimate plan, you get a 4-core server, 120 GB SSD storage, 8 GB of RAM, 3 TB of bandwidth, and 2 IP addresses.
Dedicated hosting
Bluehost also offers a quite selection of dedicated server hosting packages from which you can choose the one that suits your needs. Here are the schedules:
- Standard: The plan will get you 500 GB of mirrored storage, 4 cores at 2.3 GHz, 5 TB of bandwidth, 4 GB of RAM, and 3 IP addresses.
- Enhanced: The Enhanced plan gives you 1TB of mirrored storage, 4 cores at 2.5GHz, 8GB of RAM, 10TB of bandwidth, and 4 IP addresses.
- Premium: Finally, the Premium plan offers 15TB of bandwidth, 4 cores at 3.3 GHz, 1TB of mirrored storage, 16GB of RAM and 5 IP addresses.
So, what are you waiting for?
Get super-fast hosting from Bluehost now!
FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
What is their minimum contract duration?
When you purchase web hosting from Bluehost, you can subscribe to their web hosting plan for a minimum of one year. Alternatively, you can also purchase the hosting plan for two or three years.
Does Bluehost offer a free trial?
No, but Bluehost does offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. This means that you can try their web hosting plans and cancel the subscription within 30 days to get all your money back. Your plan will be renewed at special introductory rates after 30 days.
Does Bluehost offer free website migrations?
No. If you previously have a website hosted by another host, Bluehost does not offer any free website migration service. However, you can opt for a paid migration service.
As an alternative, you can contact their reliable customer support staff, and they can help you through the steps involved.
Does Bluehost support webmail?
Yes, Bluehost supports POP3 and IMAP webmail clients and offers three webmail solutions, including Roundcube and Horde.
But here's the real deal:
Most of their plans also allow you to create an unlimited number of domain-specific email accounts.
Is there a restriction to the number of websites we can host on Bluehost?
Yes. If you pick the Basic plans, you might have a limit on the number of websites you can host on Bluehost. However, most plans allow you to host an unlimited number of websites, even with shared or WordPress hosting.
What are the ways we can contact Bluehost customer support?
One of the biggest benefits of Bluehost is that you can contact their customer support team 24/7.
And that's not even the best part.
You can reach the customer support team by phone or live chat. This way you can solve your problems immediately.
For complex issues, the team will contact you by email once the issue is resolved.
Is Bluehost worth it in 2021 for your online business?
Website load speed is of the utmost importance and has even become a ranking parameter on Google. This is why it is important to use a hosting platform that offers good speeds, and Bluehost excels in providing lightning-fast speeds.
Is Bluehost a good web host option?
Bluehost is definitely a great web hosting service. As a matter of fact, it's one of only three web hosts recommended by WordPress. With excellent availability and fast loading speeds, this is one of the best on the market.
Can we trust Bluehost?
Yes, you can definitely trust Bluehost for hosting your website. In fact, it's even endorsed by WordPress and is one of the three hosting providers recommended by WordPress.
Why is Bluehost so cheap?
Bluehost is cheap in prices because you get a big discount when you buy any of their hosting plans initially. But, when you want to renew it, the rates are similar to other popular hosting services.
Is Bluehost good for newbies?
Bluehost is a great platform for newbies. Their portal is designed to help you manage your website without having to go into technical details. The intuitive dashboard also makes it effortlessly easy to manage multiple websites.
Which Bluehost plan is the best?
While Bluehost's basic plan is the best choice for anyone just starting out, the best plan for people with slightly more experience is the Choice Plus plan, which comes with a lot of features and lets you host unlimited websites.
Is Bluehost better than WordPress.com?
While WordPress.com is an amazing way to host your website, it offers limited flexibility as it is not self-hosted. On the other hand, WordPress.org offers more flexibility and recommends Bluehost for self-hosted websites. This makes Bluehost the better pick of the two.
Can you cancel Bluehost any time you want?
Definitely! You can cancel Bluehost at any time you want. However, for cancellations after 30 days, there is no refund. In contrast, for cancellations within the first 30 days, you get a 100% refund on your hosting service charges.
Can we pay Bluehost monthly?
No. Unfortunately, Bluehost doesn't offer a per-month payment plan. You must purchase a subscription for at least one year. The maximum period for which you can purchase a subscription at one time is three years.
However, if you go for VPS hosting, eCommerce hosting, or dedicated server hosting, Bluehost offers monthly plans.
Start your website with Bluehost
Conclusion
Bluehost is certainly one of the best web hosting platforms and lives up to the "Recommended" tag assigned to it by WordPress.
Fast server response times and fast page load speeds can help you improve your user experience and conversion rates as well.
With 99.99% uptime, you can rest assured that your visitors won't have to deal with downtime.
Wait, there is more...
The smooth user interface allows you to manage your website easily.
Without even logging into WordPress, it's possible to manage your plugins, security, performance, and more from Bluehost.
The excellent customer support team is available 24/7 via live chat and phone and can resolve your issues with ease.
Finally, the features provided with each hosting plan are worth every penny invested in web hosting.
Buy hosting from Bluehost now!
Disclosure: This article has a few affiliate links, which means if you click on it, we will receive a small amount of commission (at no additional cost to you).
