#1 Best Web Hosting Company — Bluehost (Review)
Tags: Web Hosting Services, Web Hosting, Bluehost Review, Bluehost, Web Hosting Provider

Bluehost is home to almost 2 million websites, in case you didn’t know.

That’s a lot.

The fact that they have such a large customer base is sufficient proof that they are doing something well. Their uptime is reliable, server speeds are fast, and all of their hosting plans include features that are beneficial to both beginners and intermediates.

Bluehost also offers live chat and phone assistance 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

However, there are certain drawbacks, such as higher renewal costs and limitations on the cheapest plan.

All of our assessments are based exclusively on real-world statistics such as uptime, speed, and pricing.

So, without further ado, let’s take a deeper look at Bluehost to see if they can give you with the high-quality website hosting that you require.

General Info & Hosting Overview

Pros of Using Bluehost Hosting

Bluehost has been in business since 2003, so they know many things about what makes a good hosting service.

Their beginning costs are reasonable, their customer service is responsive and friendly, and you receive a lot of valuable features with your hosting package. They also give dependable uptime and fast server speeds.

Let’s look at Bluehost’s strong qualities in greater depth.

1. Consistent uptime over a 12-month period (99.95% )

When it comes to choosing a web host, uptime is one of the most important factors to consider. After all, if your site is down, your users won’t be able to access it. When looking for hosting services, continuous uptime should be one of your top objectives.

Our benchmark for “good” uptime after assessing numerous web providers is 99.93 percent. We don’t want to see anything less than that in the ideal world.

The good news is that Bluehost significantly exceeds this criterion, keeping our test site up and running for 99.95 percent of the time during the last year. For the entire year, the total downtime was little over five hours.

Here’s the breakdown of Bluehost’s average uptime in the past 12 months:

July 2021: 100%

June 2021: 99.99%

May 2021: 99.77%

April 2021: 99.99%

March 2021: 100%

February 2021: 99.97%

January 2021: 100%

December 2020: 99.98%

November 2020: 100%

October 2020: 99.67%

September 2020: 100%

August 2020: 99.99%

2. Quick page loading time (713 ms)

According to Google’s research:

“As page load time grows from 1 second to 3 seconds, the likelihood of a bounce increases by 32%.”

This means that visitors are 32 percent more likely to abandon your site. Longer page load times exacerbate the problem.

In addition, Google is focusing more on mobile-first indexing. This means that you must also optimize your site for mobile visitors, or you will lose traffic.

In either case, a website will almost always result in less traffic and, as a result, fewer sales. So, after uptime, the second most essential factor that can make or break your website’s success is page loading time.

3. Low Starting Pricing ($2.75/month)

Bluehost’s standard pricing starts at $3.95/month, which is a discount from the typical fee of $8.99/month.

The good news is that we were able to work out a bargain with Bluehost for our readers that reduces the starting price to $2.75/month.

You get almost everything you need for a single website at this price. This includes 50 GB of SSD storage, unlimited bandwidth, and a free SSL certificate, among other things. As a result, you’d be receiving an excellent deal for the money, especially considering their continuous uptime and page loading speeds.

Even so, the cheapest plan has a few limitations that we don’t agree with — but we’ll get to that later.

4. Packed with Security Options and Features

We are delighted to notice that, while being one of the “cheapest” solutions on the market, Bluehost does not skimp on key security settings and features.

Bluehost already includes a free SSL certificate with their most basic service. You’ll also get a free CDN (Cloudflare), a one-click WordPress installation, several CMS integrations, and other eCommerce plugins.

Spam Experts, domain privacy protection, and server backups are included in higher-tier services. You also get additional advanced security tools like SiteLock, which helps protect from malicious threats.

Another type of protection is Codeguard, which provides daily backups so you may restore past versions of a site if it is hacked.

The final security tool worth mentioning is Google’s Postini. It protects your email from spam, preventing anything suspicious from getting into your inbox.

5. Beginners will find it simple to use.

Only sophisticated users should regard some of the web hosts we’ve seen as the best. Bluehost, on the other hand, is excellent for novices.

Their customer portal is simple and easy to use (although, we have experienced it is a bit slow at times). Bluehost is considerably easier to use because to the structure of the cPanel control panel. cPanel makes it simple for beginners to install and use WordPress. In most cases, all you have to do is point and click.

You can start building a website with a website builder tool if you don’t want to utilize WordPress (such as Weebly or Drupal). After that, you can personalize a template by simply dragging and dropping pieces onto your page.

Advanced users who want to develop their own website with their own coding can use Bluehost’s services.

6. 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee

All of Bluehost’s hosting plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

You can test out the service for yourself and request a refund if you aren’t totally happy. However, there are a few words of warning.

Here’s what does and doesn’t fit within that guarantee, according to Bluehost’s terms:

You can only get a refund on the cost of web hosting; you cannot get a refund on any other products such as domains or add-ons.

If your package included a free domain name, Bluehost would deduct $15.99.

would deduct $15.99. After 30 days, Bluehost does not refund any requests.

Some hosts have a no-questions-asked policy, but this isn’t one of them. So, before you sign up, make sure you agree with these points.

7. 24/7 Customer Support

Bluehost offers live chat, phone, and email ticketing assistance 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They also feature a large knowledge library with answers to frequently asked queries and important information.

We tried out their live chat option, and it was a good experience.

We received prompt responses to our questions from a qualified employee. Although several of the responses seem to be copied and pasted, the follow-up questions produced improvised and helpful comments.

8. One Free WordPress Site Transfer

This benefit is for you if you already have a website and wish to move to Bluehost’s hosting plan.

Bluehost has only lately begun to include a free site transfer with all of their hosting options.

However, there are a few conditions attached to this free service. The site must first be a WordPress site. Second, the migration must be requested within the first 30 days of signing up for a hosting package.

All you have to do is get in touch with their customer service department and follow their instructions. It normally takes 1–3 business days to finish the migration.

It costs $149.99 if you don’t have a WordPress website or if you have more than one. This allows you to migrate up to 5 websites and 20 email accounts.

9. WordPress.org’s Official Recommended Host

WordPress is the most popular website platform on the market, accounting for 44% of all websites on the Internet.

When it comes to hosting solutions, it’s safe to say they have the final say. Only three hosting partners are officially recommended by WordPress for use with WordPress sites.

To establish a WordPress site, you may, of course, use practically any web hosting company. Bluehost is one of the few officially acknowledged partners, which is encouraging.

Cons of Using Bluehost Hosting

Bluehost’s hosting service has some amazing features, but there are a few flaws as well.

Although we appreciate the cheap starting prices, the renewal rates can be quite high.

Let’s look at these drawbacks in more detail.

1. Higher Renewal Rates

Prepaying for one, two, or even three years in advance is the best method to get the greatest hosting deal. Although the average monthly price drops, you’re still investing hundreds of dollars up front.

If you don’t like their service, you can receive a refund using their 30-day money-back guarantee. However, once the first plan period expires, you should expect a significant increase in charges.

Let’s say you sign up for the cheapest plan, which costs $2.75 per month, for three years. Following the introductory period, the renewal pricing for the following period begins at $8.99/month with a three-year commitment.

2. Cheapest Plan Restrictions

Bluehost’s cheapest shared hosting plan has a number of restrictions.

Only one website is allowed, storage capacity is limited, and the only security feature is a free SSL certificate. So, if you have many sites or want better protection, you’ll have to pay at least twice as much for the following pricing tier.

Unfortunately, such limitations on the most basic package are all too frequent in the web hosting industry. Companies fight to see who can attract customers with the lowest pricing, only to upsell a good hosting service at a higher cost.

Do We Recommend Bluehost?

Yes, we do.

Although Bluehost has done slightly better in the past, they continue to provide a dependable service with fast server speeds.

They also provide excellent security features, a fantastic money-back guarantee, a variety of user-friendly apps, and numerous tiers of hosting services to suit different consumers. With our exclusive offer, the monthly price starts at $2.75.

However, Bluehost isn’t without flaws. After the initial signup time, the hosting plans’ renewal costs will increase, and the cheapest plan has some significant limitations compared to the higher tiers.

Bluehost, on the other hand, provides good performance and good value for money.

Sign Up With BlueHost

We recommend that you take a few minutes to see for yourself exactly what BlueHost has to offer. Visit the BlueHost Official Website.