About Bluehost

When building a website to connect with your customers, it’s crucial to choose a web hosting service that is stable, user-friendly, and cost-effective. Bluehost distinguishes itself with a new website builder that seamlessly integrates WordPress functionality, enhancing the flexibility of this popular content management system.

Bluehost, headquartered in Utah, was established in 2003. Over the years, it has emerged as one of the foremost providers of web hosting services and is presently owned by The Endurance International Group. Bluehost’ s services power over two million websites globally, with the majority being hosted from its data center in Utah.

Bluehost excels in striking a balance between affordability and features, providing services suitable for both hobbyists and business professionals. With Bluehost, you can expect reliable hosting solutions that meet your needs without breaking the bank.

Types of Web Hosting Available

Bluehost stands out as a dependable hosting provider due to its diverse range of hosting types, robust features, and budget-friendly beginner plans. Bluehost provides six distinct types of hosting: shared, shared WordPress, WooCommerce, VPS, managed WordPress, and dedicated hosting. Particularly notable is Bluehost’s excellence in hosting WordPress sites, making it the top choice for WordPress users. Additionally, Bluehost is well-suited for hosting e-commerce websites, offering reliable and feature-rich solutions for online stores.

Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is a suitable choice for individuals or businesses with websites expecting moderate levels of traffic. The main advantage of shared hosting is its affordability, making it an economical option for hosting your website. However, since multiple websites share the same server resources, there is a downside: if one website on the server experiences a sudden increase in traffic, it can potentially impact the performance of other websites hosted on the same server.

VPS Hosting

If you require more power, anticipate high levels of website traffic, or have specific compliance needs that make shared servers unsuitable, Bluehost’s virtual private server (VPS) options are worth exploring.

Virtual private server (VPS) hosting shares similarities with shared hosting in that multiple sites share server resources. However, there are two significant differences: VPS hosting accommodates far fewer sites per server, and the provider guarantees users a specific amount of server resources. With VPS hosting, your site can handle significant traffic spikes and remain operational.

Dedicated Web Hosting

Dedicated hosting provides your website with exclusive access to full server resources, making it a powerful solution for handling high levels of traffic. If you anticipate significant traffic numbers, dedicated hosting is essential for ensuring your site can withstand the demands of the internet. Bluehost offers a variety of Linux-based dedicated server configurations to cater to different needs and requirements.

Bluehost’s ENHANCED dedicated hosting plan, positioned as their recommended option, offers enhanced features compared to their basic dedicated plan. This includes increased CPU power, a larger cache, expanded RAM, double the storage capacity, and twice the bandwidth allowance.

WordPress Web Hosting

WordPress is a widely used content management system, powering approximately one-third of all websites. Known for its user-friendly interface, WordPress boasts a thriving ecosystem of themes and plugins that enable users to enhance their website’s functionality easily.

Website Builder

Bluehost offers a variety of tools for website building, email management, spam filtering, domain management, and site statistics collection. You have multiple options for creating a website with Bluehost, including using the WordPress content management platform, Weebly, the goMobi Mobile Web builder, FTP or File Manager, or the Bluehost Website Builder specifically designed for WordPress.

The standout feature is the Bluehost Website Builder for WordPress, which seamlessly merges the simplicity of a website builder with the full capabilities of WordPress. Users begin with a single theme that provides numerous layout options, offering a versatile starting point for website creation.

Bluehost offers several themes to select from for your website. However, once you start editing, you’re unable to change the theme directly; instead, you’ll need to delete the current instance and begin anew if you wish to switch themes. Nonetheless, the tool provides extensive design flexibility, boasting over 1,000 layout options to tailor your website according to your preferences.

Within the chosen theme, you have the flexibility to click and drag various sections of the site to customize their arrangement, as well as add new sections as needed. You can seamlessly transition between the builder and standard WordPress site management, allowing for efficient workflow. The user-friendly interface makes it easy to create an appealing website in a short amount of time.

Plans and Prices

Shared Hosting Plans

Bluehost does not provide month-to-month options for shared web hosting. Instead, it mandates signing up for an annual plan. Under the Basic plan, users pay $2.95 per month for one-, two-, or three-year commitments. Following the initial commitment period, the price for the Basic plan increases to $10.99 per month for an annual commitment, or $9.99 per month with a three-year commitment.

With the Plus package, priced at $5.45 per month for a one-year contract (increasing to $13.99 per month upon renewal), users enjoy an expanded set of features. This includes 20GB of storage, an antispam tool for a single domain, and the ability to host unlimited websites, storage, and mailboxes.

Under the Choice Plus package, also priced at $5.45 per month for a one-year contract (increasing to $19.99 per month upon renewal), users receive 40GB of storage. This plan enhances the Plus package by including free automated backup for one year and domain privacy.

Meanwhile, the Online Store plan, available at $9.95 per month with a one-year contract (renewing at $24.95 per month), incorporates all features of the Choice Plus package. Additionally, it boosts storage to 100GB and offers numerous e-commerce tools and plugins to facilitate online store management.

VPS Hosting Plans

Bluehost provides three tiers of Linux-based VPS hosting, with plans starting from $39.99 per month for the Standard tier. This plan includes 30GB of solid-state storage, 2GB of RAM, and 1TB of monthly data transfers. The Ultimate tier, priced at $119.99 per month, offers , 8GB of RAM, 120GB of SSD storage, and 3TB of monthly data transfers. Similar to the shared web hosting plans, Bluehost offers discounts for longer-term contracts on VPS hosting plans.

Dedicated Web Hosting Plans

Bluehost’s dedicated plans commence at $99.99 per month with a 12-month subscription, renewing at $119.99 per month. This initial subscription offers a 33% monthly savings. Bluehost’s dedicated servers can be customized with up to 2TB of hard drive space, 16GB of RAM, and 15TB of monthly data transfers.

For users seeking full control over their websites without extensive traffic needs, the affordable Standard plan suffices. However, for those anticipating significant traffic surges, such as during online sales or event bookings, the Enhanced plan is better suited due to its enhanced features and capabilities.

WordPress Web Hosting Plans

For users seeking enhanced WordPress capabilities, Bluehost offers three managed WordPress “professional” tiers. These tiers provide comprehensive management of your site’s backend, along with a range of SEO, email marketing, and social media, tools. Bluehost’s WP Pro plans—Build, Grow, and Scale—include unlimited site hosting, domains, subdomains, monthly data transfers, and storage.

The Build, Grow, and Scale plans from Bluehost’s WP Pro renew at $29.99, $39.99, and $59.99 per month, respectively.

Traffic restrictions do not apply to any Managed WordPress plan. The Build plan includes daily scheduled backups, malware detection and removal, and domain privacy protection. As an extension of the Build plan, the Grow plan incorporates SEO tools, 10GB of video compression, and live ticket support. Scale stands out among all managed plans with the inclusion of Blue Sky live chat support, unlimited backups and restore capabilities, unlimited video compression, and PayPal integration.

Website Speed and Uptime

The server speed, often measured by the time to first byte (TTFB), indicates how swiftly a host’s servers can transmit the initial byte of data to a user accessing your website. Additionally, a host’s uptime or online time reflects the reliability of their servers in remaining operational and keeping your website accessible to visitors.

The average load time of your website refers to the duration it takes for a web page to be completely loaded and fully functional, allowing users to interact with its elements by clicking on them.

Bluehost advertises an uptime guarantee of 99.98%. While no web host can promise 100% uptime, this figure represents a robust performance. In practical terms, it equates to approximately one hour and 45 minutes of downtime per year. To assess the performance metrics of the host, GTMetrix can be utilized to evaluate the performance of a website hosted on BlueHost.

A sample website hosted on Bluehost exhibited a remarkably impressive Time to First Byte (TTFB) of 150 ms, indicating swift server response. However, it had a fair fully loaded time of 2.0 seconds. Despite this, it achieved an excellent overall performance rating of 94%.

Website Security

The most reliable indicator of a secure website is an SSL certificate. SSL certificates assure users that any information they share on your site will be protected. These certificates are denoted by the padlock icon and the “https” at the beginning of a web address, signifying a secure and encrypted connection.

Every Bluehost plan includes a complimentary SSL certificate, ensuring that visitors won’t receive warnings about the site’s security. For those seeking additional security measures, premium SSL certificates are available for purchase, starting at $49.99 per year.

Bluehost provides three anti-spam tools—Spam Experts, Apache Spam Assassin, and Spam Hammer—along with hotlink protection to safeguard your website against spam and unauthorized linking. Additionally, you can create email account filters, password-protect directories, establish IP address blacklists, and manage private keys and digital certificates for enhanced security and control.

Bluehost incorporates CloudFlare, a service that boosts a website’s performance and enhances security features. If you’re interested in implementing SSL on your site or are concerned about potential distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, CloudFlare is a valuable option to consider for added protection and peace of mind.

Ease of Use

BlueHost offers a contemporary, revamped version of the traditional cPanel control panel, enabling you to oversee all aspects of your hosting and website backend through a unified dashboard. To access your cPanel, just click on “Advanced” and follow the prompts to input your login details. From there, managing your hosting and website becomes a streamlined process.

With BlueHost’s plans, particularly their shared and WordPress options, WordPress is automatically installed once you complete the checkout process. Additionally, BlueHost’s website builder is tailored specifically for creating WordPress websites. Furthermore, your WordPress installation is regularly updated automatically, eliminating the need to worry about installing the latest version of your website.

Customer Support

Bluehost offers a range of support options, including live chat, email support tickets, and 24/7 phone support. Additionally, Bluehost’s hosting packages include a standard 30-day money-back guarantee.

• Phone: 888-401-4678

Prefer to troubleshoot issues independently without waiting in queues? BlueHost’s knowledge base, equipped with a powerful search engine, contains answers to nearly every question you may have, allowing you to find solutions efficiently.

Conclusion

BlueHost stands out as an exceptional web hosting provider, particularly for WordPress users. The new Website Builder for WordPress is an outstanding tool that combines the simplicity of a website builder with the robust features of the already excellent content management system. With drag-and-drop functionality, it streamlines the website creation process and offers enhanced flexibility for users.

With reasonably priced plans and stellar performance, BlueHost offers excellent value for money. Their straightforward suite of packages ensures ease of use, making it accessible even for hosting newcomers.