In this Bluehost review, I’ll explain the pros and cons of Bluehost and let you know what’s new. I’ll also go through the best Bluehost features, compare them to the competition, who I think Bluehost is best suited for and who it’s not so good for.
By the end of this blog, you’ll know if Bluehost is the best web hosting company for you. So let’s get started.
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Pros of Bluehost.
1. Bluehost is recommended by WordPress
Bluehost is one of only three website hosting companies recommended by WordPress. So this is a massive endorsement because WordPress is the world’s most popular website builder. 39% of the web is built on WordPress. And this number keeps growing every time I look it up. So you should be be very impressed by this recommendation from WordPress. There are literally thousands of web hosting companies out there but Bluehost is at the top of their list because Bluehost has great speed, security and performance which is important for sales and search rankings.
Bluehost is also a very established company. They’ve been around for almost two decades. So they are very unlikely to go out of business unlike some of their newer competitors.
Bluehost has legendary support which we’re gonna cover later in this blog. This recommendation from WordPress is so powerful that for a lot of people it’s all they need to know in order to choose Bluehost. S
2. Bluehost gives you generous extras
Bluehost you get a free domain for the first year saving you about $15. You get a free SSL certificate that makes your website more secure and will help you with your Google rankings.
Bluehost also have a 1-click WordPress install making it really easy to set up a WordPress website and they have 24 hours support which we’ll look at in more detail later on. So you get all these at no extra cost.
So that’s pretty generous. What’s new is that Bluehost just recently added free site migration. This means that you can migrate or move your site from wherever it’s currently hosted to Bluehost for free. Bluehost will take care of all the technical work of relocating your site, getting all the files moved over et cetera and this is a pretty cool extra because this as a service normally can cost about $100 or more to do.
3. Bluehost offers low cost web hosting
Bluehost starts at 295 per month which is very affordable compared to competitors. So for people looking for low cost hosting Bluehost is a great option. I’d recommend the basic plan if you just need one website or the choice plus plan where you can set up unlimited websites for a little bit more per month. You can also upgrade your plan any time. So if you’re unsure which plan to choose, I’d recommend you start with the basic plan and upgrade it later.
All Bluehost hosting plans come with a 30 day money-back guarantee. So you’ll have plenty of time to test them out. Now one thing to point out is that during the signup process you will see the option to add package extras. These are additional costs for pretty much every hosting company. So there’s no real pro or con here but people often ask me, do they need these extras? So here’s my recommendation.
I would say not to add them to begin with because they add extra cost and you can always enable them later as you earn money from your website. The only package you might want to add at this stage is privacy protection. Privacy protection hides your personal details from the public, which will save you from a few spam emails and calls.
4. Bluehost is very easy to use for beginners
In fact, I think this is what really separates Bluehost from the competition. They’ve really thought about how to make it easy for beginners to set up a website. And this really does show up in their features which beginners really appreciate.
One Bluehost feature that I really like is that during the signup process you have the option to choose a domain name later. I have not seen this feature in the signup process of other hosting companies and I think it’s a great feature because choosing a domain name can be a real stumbling block for beginners and stop them from getting started. So if you want to get practice, building a website now without committing to a name then Bluehost is a great choice because of this feature. Bluehost also have made the process of setting up a WordPress website very easy. I won’t go through it all, but it looks a lot less technical than other hosting companies and it’s really easy for beginners to follow.
Once you set up your site, you’ll get to the Bluehost dashboard where you can manage everything about your website in one place. Another feature I really like about Bluehost is the professional looking coming soon page that is automatically displayed while you’re working on your site. With other hosting companies, you may need to download a paid plugin to set this up, which can actually be a little bit of a headache if you’re a newbie. So because of these features and more I think Bluehost is the perfect choice if you’re a beginner.
5. Bluehost has 24 hour support
Bluehost have excellent support and support is very important because every minute that your website is down or not working properly could cost you hundreds of dollars in lost leads and sales. So as a website owner having fast and reliable support to turn to is really essential.
Bluehost support is available 24/7 365 days a year at no extra cost, even on the basic plan. You can access support on LiveChat, email and phone. Personally, I like the LiveChat function because I’ve never had to wait long in the queue and my issues always been resolved quickly with their expert help.
So if you’re a newbie and you think you’re going to need some help, then Bluehost is an excellent choice because of their great support. So that wraps up the five pros that we’ve looked at.
Cons of Bluehost.
1. There’s no month-to-month pricing.
Bluehost has excellent prices they do not offer month-to-month pricing, so you cannot just pay for one month.
You need to pay for at least 12 months in advance or 36 months in advance to get the best discounts. This is standard for hosting companies but I have been asked for an alternative hosting company with month-to-month pricing
2. That wraps up this Bluehost review.
Overall Bluehost offers great inexpensive website hosting that will work for any type of website, whether it’s a blog, a personal site or even an e-commerce site.
Their user-friendly interface and excellent support really make it ideal for beginners but they can handle much bigger websites as well. I’ve been a Bluehost customer for over eight years and they’ve never let me down, so this is a personal recommendation as well.