Bluehost.com is a web hosting company founded by Matt Heaton and Danny Ashworth in Provo, Utah. A staff of 750 people are working around the clock. Bluehost.com is the #1 recommended hosting by Wordpress.org. As such they feature 1-Click installations in all their plans.
Plans and Pricing
Bluehost.com offers five main types of hosting plans:
- Shared hosting
- VPS hosting
- Dedicated hosting
- WordPress hosting
- Cloud Sites
With dedicated hosting, you are essentially renting a physical server. VPS hosting is a middle-ground option where you share a physical server with others, but you have your own virtual operating system, so the server functions as if it is physically yours. WordPress hosting is of course what it sounds like—hosting optimized for WordPress customers. Let’s take a look at the plan tiers for each.
Shared Hosting
- Starter: Beginning at $3.49 per month, this plan jumps up to $7.99 per month at the regular price.
- Plus: This plan is regularly $10.49 per month.
- Business Pro: This plan is $23.99 per month.
Email accounts and storage are unlimited, along with $200 in marketing offers. Plus includes Global CDN and one SpamExperts (over $24 per year in extra benefits).
The Business Pro plan includes up to $180 in annual extra benefits, including two SpamExperts, one SSL, one dedicated IP address, domain privacy, enhanced performance, and SiteBackup Pro.
VPS Hosting
- Standard: $14.99 your first month, up to $29.99 after that
- Enhanced: $29.99 your first month, up to $59.99 after that
- Premium: $44.99 your first month, up to $89.99 after that
- Ultimate: $59.99 your first month, up to $119.99 after that
Dedicated Hosting
- Standard: $74.99 your first month, $149.99 per month after that.
- Enhanced: $99.99 your first month, $199.99 per month after that.
- Premium: $124.99 your first month, $124.99 per month after that.
WordPress Hosting
- Blogger: $12.49 your first month, $24.99 after that
- Professional: $37.50 your first month, $74.99 after that
- Business: $60.00 your first month, $119.99 after that
- Enterprise: $85.00 your first month, $169.99 after that
WordPress hosting on Bluehost.com is a big deal, however, and one of the company’s most popular services (with more than a million sites hosted by the company).
Features include at the Blogger level include 100 million visits per month, 30 GB of storage, 30 GB of backup space, 2 GB of RAM, and up to five sites. You get one included domain and one IP address. Additional features include enhanced cPanel, SiteLock CDN, and SiteLock Pro for added security.
The top-level Enterprise plan gives you unlimited monthly visits, 240 GB of storage and backup space, 8 GB of RAM and up to 30 sites. You get one included domain and IP address. Along with enhanced cPanel and SiteLock CDN/WAF Pro, you get SiteLock Enterprise and Positive Wildcard SSL.
All plans are backed by 24/7 service and a money-back guarantee. These plans also include automatic plug-in updates and regular backups.
These are all excellent features, but still, you may be asking, “Why would I pay this much for WordPress hosting?” Bluehost.com plays a very active role in the WordPress community and has a core staff of developers. That means that Bluehost.com can offer first-class customer support and troubleshoot even complex problems which are specific to WP.
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eCommerce Features
It is easy to set up an online store with Bluehost.com , which offers a number of different shopping carts: Zen, Cube, Agora, and OS Commerce. You get SSL security for your transactions, a certificate generated for free, and OpenPGP/GPG Encryption.The fact that you get unlimited storage space starting at the Plus level with shared hosting means you are good to go adding as many products as you want to your shop. Unmetered bandwidth means your costs are steady and predictable even if you have months where you get a great deal of traffic (maybe over the holidays, or as your business is growing).
The $200 in free marketing credits is also a big help if you are a store owner. You can use these to promote your business through Google.com, Facebook.com, Bing, and Twitter.
All of that having been said, Bluehost.com is not particularly known for eCommerce, and there are sites that make it easier and faster to set up a shop. But Bluehost.com is an economical choice, and you will get access to a ton of great features to help you sell online.
Security Features
Security is definitely an area where Bluehost.com excels. You get three layers of anti-spam protection in the form of Spam Experts, Spam Hammer, and Apache Spam Assassin. You get protection for your inbox as well; it is easy to set up filters. Your directories are all password-protected.If you need to block access to your site, you have the option to blacklist IP addresses. Another top-notch feature is secure shell (SSH) access. This allows you to access configuration files individually and securely.
Bluehost.com also offers single-click integration with CloudFlare, which provides even more excellent security features and speeds up your site! CloudFlare is particularly good for thwarting DDOS attacks.
You also get a lot of options to upgrade:
Refund Policy
Bluehost.com covers its plans with a 30-day money-back guarantee. That means if you cancel within the first 30 days, you will get a full refund. If you choose to cancel after that, you will get a prorated refund for the period of your hosting term which you have not used. Domain fees are not refundable.Ease-of-Use
Bluehost.com makes it a breeze to set up your website and manage it. The enhanced cPanel interface is as easy to use as it gets—you just click on the icons to get to where you need to go.You can take care of everything with your websites and email addresses in one central location. You can customize the layout of the control panel to your needs. That way you can get quick access to your favorite features.
Customer Service
Here is an area where Bluehost.com gets mixed reviews. There are many customers who report positive experiences with fast, helpful, friendly customer service agents. Unfortunately there are also a lot of customers who report that they were unable to get the help they needed even with numerous phone calls.Another problem with Bluehost.com is excessive upselling. This is a company that loves to try to sell you on add-ons and upgrades, and there are a lot of areas where you flat-out need add-ons for full functionality. That is a problem if you are on a tight budget.
Who is Bluehost.com Best For?
- Customers who are looking for a reliable web host with a strong reputation. Bluehost.com is one of the oldest names in the business and has established trust.
- WordPress customers who are able to pay extra in order to get access to more features and a dedicated support team of WP experts.
- Owners of both large and small businesses. Bluehost.com is fine if you are on a budget and just want general-purpose shared hosting. Just watch out for the upselling.
Pros of Bluehost.com :
- Most plans include unlimited disk storage, domain hosting, email addresses, and bandwidth.
- You get a free domain name for a year included with your purchase.
- The enhanced cPanel is really easy to use and offers fast access to features.
- The security features on Bluehost.com are flat-out excellent.
- Numerous databases are available, including MySQL, PostgreSQL, CGI-BIN, PHP 5, Phython, Perl 5, Ruby on Rails, and much more.
- Tons of free website scripts are available, including social networking scripts, blog support, mailing lists, message forums, Joomla and Drupal and Tikiwiki.
- eCommerce features are good with multiple shopping carts available and SSL security.
- Most customers report that Bluehost.com is fast. Integrate with CloudFlare and you’ll get even better performance.
- If you can afford it, the WordPress hosting on Bluehost.com is considered to be top-notch.
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