If you own a website or blog or planning to start soon, then you may already know you will need a hosting service. Whenever we talk about services, we prefer the best at the relevant price. The best hosting improves the performance and speed of the website.
Google has already said that the speed of a page is a ranking signal for the Google search engine. The speed of a web page is also affected by the hosting you are using. And of course, you don’t want to offer slow-loading web pages to your clients and readers.
Therefore, before making the decision to buy hosting, you must know what you need and what you are getting. If you are planning to buy hosting from BlueHost, read our full review on BlueHost’s hosting service before buying it.
BlueHost Review by WordPressMafia
WordPress Mafia is a group of organized bloggers who have experience in using different web hosting services and have the knowledge to make the best buying decisions. So, here we are presenting Bluehost Review with unbiased opinions.
About Bluehost
Bluehost is the most popular hosting company owned by Endurance International Group (EIG). EIG is the same company that owns hosting brands like HostGator, iPage, etc. You may not believe but BlueHost is also recommended by WordPress. Bluehost is currently powering more than 2 million websites.
I hope you don’t have any doubts and trust issues about the service and its performance. Therefore, let’s drill deep down into the major features of Bluehost.
Is Bluehost Suitable for Beginners?
Here suitability depends upon how you are utilizing it. A suitable for beginners must be easy to use, have affordable pricing, and be able to handle initial setup.
Bluehost provides its own control panel optimized for user experience. It means the panel is suitable for beginners and intermediates. Talking about the pricing modality, it offers a huge discount on the first purchase which is affordable. If you are curious about the handling capacity, even its basic plan is enough to handle basic initial setups.
General Overview of BlueHost
| Features | Remarks |
|---|---|
| Uptime | It has 99.99% uptime |
| Speed | The average TTB is below 400ms |
| Free Domain | Yes. For one year on an annual subscription of any plan |
| SSL Certificate | Free SSL Certificate |
| Site Migration | Not available for free |
| Support | 24/7 Live Support |
| Shared Hosting Plans | Yes. Basic, Plus, Choice Plus, and Pro plans are available |
| Supported CMS and Apps | WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and other PHP Scripts |
| Pricing | Starts from $3/mo |
Bluehost Pros and Cons
Here we are going to discuss why you should get Bluehost and why you may have to search for alternatives. Here are some pros and cons of Bluehost that we have found.
Pros
Some reasons we are recommending Bluehost are:
- Reliability: They are powering more than 2 million websites with minimum downtime
- Pricing: The pricing strategy is more you go, the less you pay per period. The pricing is beginner-friendly.
- Hidden Charges: There are no other hidden charges on the listed plans except for the sales tax depending upon the region you reside.
- Money Back: They provide 30 days of money-back guarantee with no question asked.
- Free Domain: A domain is included in any hosting plan subscribed for at least a year.
- Security: The hosting plan includes free SSL and Cloudflare integration for protection.
Cons
Not everything is perfect, so here are some cons of using Bluehost.
- Renewal Price: The renewal price is higher for both domain as well as hosting.
- No free site migration service: They won’t provide migration service for free.
Want to get rid of these cons?
Do not worry. We are here to support you in this situation. When the plan is about to expire, get a new plan at the discount offer. You will be able to get hosting at a cheaper rate and a different domain for half of the price.
Worrying about migrating the website?
You may be worried because Bluehost will not provide migration services for free. But, if you fulfill some criteria, we are providing a free website migration service to our readers. To claim this offer, you must buy Bluehost hosting plan from our affiliate link.
Performance of Bluehost
When you get hosting, the first thing you want to check is the speed and the performance. We did the same. We installed WordPress and used the Astra WordPress theme. Then checked the performance test in GTMetrix. It was satisfactory.
As you can see, the whole page loaded in less than a second. Which is loved by everyone including search engines. This speed will definitely drop when you start modifying and designing the website. But for reference, you can see the above results.
Free Domain and Free SSL Certificates
Having your website hosted on WordPress with hosting two things are most important one is Domain Name and the other is SSL certification for HTTPS domain type. The best part of BlueHost is, you will get 1 year of Free domain initially when you sign up.
But you will not be forced to choose the domain name instantly. If the domain name is yet not decided, then that can be redeemed in the future. For this simply click I’ll create my domain later.
Similarly, you will also get a free SSL certificate for any number of sites you are adding to your hosting account. The SSL certificate gets installed on your site automatically if you are using nameservers that directly point to Bluehost.
Standard Control Panel (cPanel)
The Control panel is that controlling system from which you can control all the backend of the sites hosted on the hosting provider server. BlueHost offers the simplest interface of the c-panel, which is the most common type of control panel. You will have access to the database and files of your website directly.
Money Back Guarantee
Bluehost offers a no question asked money-back guarantee for 30 days. This is pretty nice as 30 days time period is enough for testing purposes. The refund will not be applicable for other than hosting services. If you have added a domain or any other services, only the balance after deducting the charges for such additional services will be refunded.
Bluehost Plans
Bluehost offers a large number of hosting plans. Depending upon the requirements, you can buy any plan available there. But for starting a blog, you can either choose a shared hosting plan or the WordPress hosting plan which has the exactly same pricing. Upon selecting the tri-annual plan (36 months), you can get the hosting as low as $2.95/mo. Which is very much affordable.
Basic Plan:
The basic plan includes the following features:
- 1 Website Hosting
- 10 GB SSD Storage
- Custom Themes
- 24/7 Customer Support
- Free Domain – 1 year
- Free CDN Included
- Free SSL for the 1st year
Plus Plan:
Plus plan includes the following features:
- Unlimited Websites
- 20 GB SSD Storage
- Custom Themes
- 24/7 Customer Support
- Free Domain – 1 year
- Free CDN Included
- Free SSL Certificate
Choice Plus Plan
Choice Plus plan is an extended version of the Plus plan that offers more storage and backup option at the same price. The only difference is its renewal price which will be higher than the plus plan.
PRO Plan
Ideal for high-traffic blogs and business websites. It includes the following features:
- Unlimited Websites
- 100 GB SSD Storage
- Custom Themes
- 24/7 Customer Support
- Optimized CPU Resources
- Free Domain – 1 year
- Free CDN Included
- Free SSL Certificate
- Free Domain Privacy
- Free Automated Backup
- Free Dedicated IP