Since I’ve hosted several sites using Bluehost, I can attest to its reliability, affordability and efficiency. It’s not only the sixth most popular web hosting service on the market, it also earned the trust of over 2 million site owners.
You might be wondering if Bluehost’s service actually lives up to its reputation and if it’s worth it for your website.
Based on experience and collaboration with seasoned professionals in the industry, I’ll share with you my insights to help you decide if Bluehost is the best-suited for your website.
Table Of Contents
- Bluehost Review: Hosting Features
- Performance
- Pricing for Web Hosting Services
- Bluehost Domains Review
- Customer Support: Can They Help Me?
- Bluehost Complaints
- Pros & Cons
- Why is Bluehost so Popular in the Hosting Space?
- Other Tools And Platforms Integrated by Bluehost
- Does Bluehost Observe Green Web Hosting?
- FAQS
- Our Verdict on Bluehost Review
Bluehost Review: Hosting Features
With years of interaction with the web hosting platform, I discovered the wide range of hosting plans and services they offer, including:
The Shared plans are by far the most popular, so we’ll use these as the baseline for investigating Bluehost’s features.
1. “Unlimited” Disk Space
Bluehost’s basic plan provides 50GB of SSD disc space storage. All of Bluehost’s other shared hosting plans include “unlimited” storage (also referred to as “unmetered bandwidth” on Bluehost’s website).
A fair use policy does apply to prevent any single website from using up so many of a server’s resources that it impacts the other websites sharing the server.
Bluehost uses statistical analyses to determine the average patterns of normal website usage across its customer base. Anyone who is using more resources outside of the patterns established as “normal” may experience restrictions.
2. Free Backups, Sometimes
Unlike most other reputable web hosting companies, Bluehost only offers free backups on their most expensive tiers, and even then, limitations apply. For instance, they take no responsibility for failed backups.
Even though Bluehost offers backups on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis on their higher-priced tiers, they’re “not guaranteed in any way.”[1]
Instead, it’s recommended that you purchase an additional subscription with CodeGuard.
It’s also worth noting that Bluehost doesn’t offer redundant or mirrored backups.
Redundant data storage provides a fail-safe against hard drive failure.- Mirrored backups are exact replicas of your data that can be rebooted in case something goes wrong.
If anything ever happened, you’d likely be left hanging without a website if you couldn’t access the backup data on Bluehost’s servers for whatever reason. Being left without a website is among the top complaints the company receives on Trustpilot.
3. Limited Out-Of-The-Box Security Features
As with the backups, Bluehost lacks other features that competing web hosting companies include in their out-of-the-box plans and services.
For instance, domain privacy and spam protection are features included for free by many of Bluehost’s competitors. However, with Bluehost, these require an additional expense.
It comes down to budget cuts on the core services so that Bluehost can pass lower costs to customers on their hosting packages.
| Free SSL Certificate | Yes (Let’s Encrypt) |
|---|---|
| Free Domain Privacy | Only on Expensive Tiers |
| Hotlink Protection | Yes |
| Spam Protection | Yes (Akismet) |
| Free Auto Backups | Only on Expensive Tiers |
| Web Application Firewall | Yes |
| DDoS Protection | Yes |
| Brute Force Protection | Yes |
| Bot Blocking | Yes |
| Malware Protection | Yes (Daily Automated) |
| 24/7 Server Monitoring | No |
| WP Security Plugin | No |
When comparing web hosting plans and services, it’s likely you’ve seen them all mention their security is a top priority and that a free SSL certificate is included.
Honestly, there are far better-hosting options that constantly invest in their in-built security features for all shared plans. SiteGround and WPX are our top choices, to name a few.
4. Servers
Bluehost’s servers and data centers are not made prominent on their website. We reached out to their customer support and asked for further information on their web hosting service.
As it turns out, their servers are only available in Utah, US.
If your audience is primarily based in the US, you should have no issues. Paired with a decent CDN (content delivery network), you can still easily distribute your content all over the world.
However, if you have an international audience and require servers in a different location, Bluehost may not be the best option for your needs.
Performance
Below, you’ll find out how Bluehost’s services stood up to our rigorous performance tests.
You’ll see how the data gathered lends insights into whether Bluehost lives up to its claims or not and whether it’ll be the right solution for your website.
Speed: Is It Fast?
To provide you with accurate speed performance, we created a test WordPress site through GT Metrix and Pingdom to simulate the actual timeframe.
The same WordPress website was used and tested three times on each tool for each location.
It’s important to mention we didn’t try and fix anything after running these tests. We wanted to see how the web hosting service performs for beginner users who likely won’t know how to optimize their website correctly.
A fast web hosting company should perform reasonably well regardless of what optimizations are done on their customer’s websites.
Here are the results of our findings:
GT Metrix
| GTMetrix Performance | GT Metrix TTFB | |
|---|---|---|
| San Antonio | 0.53 | 647ms |
| Vancouver | 0.67 | 559ms |
| London | 0.39 | 439ms |
| Sydney | 0.34 | 872ms |
Pingdom
| Pingdom Performance | Pingdom Load Time | |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | 71 | 3.41s |
| Frankfurt | 71 | 2.94s |
| Tokyo | 71 | 3.15s |
| London | 71 | 1.5s |
| Washington DC | 71 | 1.63s |
| Sydney | 71 | 3.14s |
Uptime: Is It Reliable?
After speed, uptime is an important performance metric that indicates how reliable your web hosting servers are.
It is ideal for your servers to be up all the time; otherwise, your website will experience periods where users cannot access it. In reality, however, every web company experiences downtime.
The industry standard is 99.90%; however, Bluehost guarantees 99.98% uptime. This equates to around 1 hour and 45 minutes of downtime per year. For the most part, Bluehost has been able to meet this guarantee.
| 2018 Uptime | 2019 Uptime | 2020 Uptime | 2021 Uptime |
|---|---|---|---|
| 99.99% | 99.98% | 99.96% | 99.98% |
In 2020, there was a decline in performance. But, it was still higher than the industry benchmark of 99.90%, which is more than most other cheap web hosting companies can say.
Pricing for Web Hosting Services
If there are two things Bluehost is known for, it’s their pricing and reliability. We’ve already confirmed that, for the most part, Bluehost’s web servers live up to their promised reliability.
Bluehost’s shared hosting packages are their most popular due to their incredible affordability. The prices are among the lowest on the market, and all plans come with a free domain name to boot.
It goes without saying that the prices below are subject to change, especially during peak sales periods like Black Friday or Cyber Monday. So it is possible that you may score even lower rates.
| Plan | Promotional Pricing | Renewal Pricing |
|---|---|---|
| Basic Tier | $3.45/month | $9.99/month |
| Plus Tier | $5.45/month | $13.99/month |
| Choice Plus Tier | $5.45/month | $18.99/month |
| Pro Tier | $13.95/month | $28.99/month |
To secure such low promotional rates, you will need to commit to a 36-month term in advance. You will also need to consider what features you require, as you may need to account for additional tools to cover the functionality Bluehost does not offer natively.
Besides the lowest tier, all other shared plans give you access to unlimited domains hosted along with unlimited storage and other bonuses suitable for most small business websites.
2. Managed WordPress Plan
Bluehost is recommended by WordPress.org as one of the top three managed WordPress hosting services. You can use either shared hosting or managed hosting for your WordPress website.
However, managed Wordhosting helps take the burden off your shoulders with setting up and maintaining an automatic WordPress installation, even for e-commerce stores. Bluehost also has a website builder designed especially for the WordPress content management platform.
Whether you have an online store, a service-based business, or an affiliate site, Bluehost has a range of managed WordPress hosting options you can choose from. If you have multiple websites in your portfolio, you can also set up unlimited websites on some plans.
Managed WP Hosting
| Plan | Promotional Pricing | Renewal Pricing |
|---|---|---|
| Build Tier | $9.95/month | $19.95/month |
| Grow Tier | $14.95/month | $24.95/month |
| Scale Tier | $27.95/month | $37.95/month |
Woocommerce Hosting
| Plan | Promotional Pricing | Renewal Pricing |
|---|---|---|
| Standard Tier | $12.95/month | $24.95/month |
| Premium Tier | $24.95/month | $39.95/month |
3. VPS Hosting Plan
Bluehost also offers VPS hosting. VPS stands for “virtual private server”. It’s is a hosting service that acts like a shared server while also allowing you to access private resources that would otherwise only be available on a dedicated server.
It’s the perfect interim between shared hosting and dedicated hosting, with a decent price point for anyone on a tight budget.
Bluehost’s Virtual Private Server plans start at $19.99/month and increase depending on the level of resources your website requires.
| Plan | Promotional Pricing | Renewal Pricing |
|---|---|---|
| Standard Tier | $19.99/month | $29.99/month |
| Enhanced Tier | $29.99/month | $59.99/month |
| Ultimate tier | $59.99/month | $119.99/month |
These prices are available on a 36-month term. Unlike shared hosting, there are also fewer perks.
For instance, you do not receive a free domain name on these plans. For some people, not having a free domain is a dealbreaker. However, the benefits of having private resources all to yourself far outweigh the risks of being on a shared server.
4. Dedicated Hosting Plan
If the idea of sharing a server doesn’t sound like a good fit for you either due to security concerns or limited resources, then dedicated hosting will be right up your alley.
Dedicated hosting gives you an entire server all to yourself and you can use the resources on that server however you like.
The pricing is significantly higher than for shared hosting and virtual private server hosting, but you get access to the entire server and all it’s resources.
That’s why dedicated servers and dedicated plans cost significantly more than what a shared web hosting service does.
Here are Bluehost’s prices for a 36-month term of dedicated hosting.
| Plan | Promotional Pricing | Renewal Pricing |
|---|---|---|
| Standard Tier | $79.99/month | $119.99/month |
| Enhanced Tier | $99.99/month | $159.99/month |
| Premium tier | $119.99/month | $209.99/month |
Bluehost Domains Review
Bluehost offers a free domain name with its shared hosting and WordPress hosting services.
However, the domain name is only free for the first year. Additionally, it does not include domain privacy. All domain names purchased through Bluehost require additional privacy which starts at $15 per year.
If you’re interested in VPS or dedicated servers, unfortunately, you won’t enjoy a free domain on these packages.
Pricing
| TLD | Registration | Average | Renewal | Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| .biz | $9.99 | $14.56 | $16.99 | $17.59 |
| .co | $27.99 | $23.99 | $29.99 | $29.74 |
| .co.uk | $27.99 | $12.50 | $29.99 | $15.00 |
| .com | $12.99 | $11.57 | $18.99 | $14.83 |
| .info | $11.99 | $11.81 | $15.99 | $17.67 |
| .io | $11.99 | $47.16 | $60.99 | $52.08 |
| .me | $17.99 | $12.00 | $17.99 | $20.62 |
| .net | $14.99 | $13.61 | $18.99 | $15.63 |
| .online | $4.99 | $16.31 | $12.99 | $32.20 |
| .org | $9.99 | $12.09 | $17.99 | $15.47 |
| .site | $2.99 | $13.78 | $12.99 | $27.71 |
| .space | $1.99 | $10.86 | $12.99 | $21.00 |
| .store | $12.99 | $24.73 | $34.99 | $48.06 |
| .tech | $4.99 | $21.51 | $19.99 | $13.51 |
| .us | $5.99 | $10.45 | $15.99 | $12.99 |
| .xyz | $14.99 | $6.70 | $19.99 | $54.70 |
All in all, Bluehost’s domain prices are on par with the industry averages, even with most of the renewal costs. Some domain extensions are more expensive than the average but still within reason.
We’ve seen several other domains and hosting companies who consistently charge well above the industry averages with all renewals, as you’ll see in our post on the cheapest places to buy domains.
Customer Support: Can They Help Me?
Excellent customer support is crucial. In our book, customer support differentiates good web hosts from excellent ones.
To examine Bluehost support performance, we turned to Trustpilot.
As far as customer support is concerned, Bluehost has a long way to go. With less than 35% of ratings marked as “excellent”, you may be likely left hanging during critical moments when you would expect support.
As you’ll note below, the biggest complaint people have comes down to users being left with no help, no backups and no options when things go wrong.
If customer support is as important to you as it is to us, we recommend checking out alternative web hosting providers like WPX or Siteground. They offer some of the best web hosting services.
Both offer unparalleled support compared to most hosting providers that are known for their cheap shared plans.
Bluehost Complaints
As mentioned, the biggest complaint about Bluehost and its hosting services, which is also quite concerning, is that people have lost many months of hard work on their websites.
Even when reaching out to support, the unreliability of the support team of this hosting provider paired with the low-quality responses has left many Bluehost users high and dry without a website and with no usable backups to help.
Other serious complaints include:
- The decline in VPS server performance
- Poor support for hacked sites
- Different support agents say different things. Customers end up chasing the “correct” solution for months, often without resolution.
- Billing issues have been known to disrupt website performance, and it’s not always the customer’s fault.
- For a managed WordPress site, Bluehost’s plans sometimes require users to stay on outdated versions of WordPress – a huge red flag.
While Bluehost is among the cheapest solutions on the market, there is a far greater cost than you may initially realize. It’s up to you to decide what level of support you think you will need and what kind of issues you can easily resolve yourself.
Pros & Cons
- Bluehost offers beginner-friendly hosting plans
- Free SSL certificate
- Bluehost offers unlimited SSD storage
- Free domain with most plans
- Low prices
- Historically has had good uptime and server reliability
- Recommended host for WordPress websites
- 30-day money-back guarantee
Bluehost offers beginner-friendly hosting plans- General speed performance needs improvement
- There are better backup policies on the market
- Limited server locations
- Customer support could use improvement
General speed performance needs improvementWhy is Bluehost so Popular in the Hosting Space?
Bluehost is popular in the hosting space because of its beginner-friendly hosting interface and cost-effective offers.
I’ve been using Bluehost hosting plans for quite some time now and I’ve gleaned the following information:
- There are only three hosting providers that WordPress officially recommends, and Bluehost is one of them.
- Bluehost is a hosting provider that has tailored its services around the WordPress content management system (CMS), which powers 34.5 percent of all websites.
- From signing up to publishing a blog live, the procedure is often praised as the quickest and most user-friendly available.
In comparison to other web hosts, their rates are consistently the most affordable. And on top of everything, client websites hosted on Bluehost often boast an industry-leading 99.99% uptime.
Other Tools And Platforms Integrated by Bluehost
While WordPress is the most widely used application, and is the primary feature of the website, Bluehost integrates other platforms to complement their hosting services, including:
- E-commerce platforms
- Virtual Private Servers (VPS)
- Analytics tools
Does Bluehost Observe Green Web Hosting?
Bluehost observed green web hosting by transitioning from a traditional company and purchasing renewable energy sources to reduce its carbon footprint. As a result, your web hosting provider becomes eco-friendly if you opt to employ the services of Bluehost.
FAQS
Is WordPress Free With Bluehost?
WordPress is not free with Bluehost. But Bluehost does offer WordPress hosting for as little as $2.95 per month for a one-year plan. When you sign up for this Bluehost package, WordPress will be pre-installed for you.
Can I Cancel My Bluehost Subscription at Any Time?
You can cancel your Bluehost subscription at any time. There is a 30-day money-back guarantee. However, after the initial 30 days, no money will be refunded.
Why Use Bluehost for Domain and Web Hosting?
People use Bluehost for their domains and web hosting because of the cheap prices and decent uptime performance. Compared with other cheap hosting companies, Bluehost has better performance.
Our Verdict on Bluehost Review
I found that Bluehost’s shared hosting has admirable feature set, and budget-friendly prices, but I’ve experienced a few pitfalls in the realms of security and customer support.
Bluehost’s offering stands out for its impressive affordability paired with above-par performance metrics.
Still, it’s important to recognize that despite the dedicated efforts of its extensive team, Bluehost is on an ongoing journey to reach the gold standard of industry-leading services.
If you want to find a top-tier web hosting service that prioritizes stellar performance and takes extraordinary care of its customers, then you might want to take a closer look at Siteground.
Our #1 Recommendation: Siteground
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