Bluehost Review: Is It the Best Host for Your Website?

If you spend a few minutes studying the finest web hosting services, Bluehost will quickly come to mind because it is widely utilized and extremely popular. But what distinguishes Bluehost from the pack? Does it have what you're searching for, or is another source a better fit?

We'll go over the most significant factors in detail, but first, here's a quick overview of Bluehost:

We conducted our own research on the top hosting companies and compared our findings for each provider to ensure the most accurate ranking possible. The good news is that Bluehost has secured the top rank, scoring 4.8 out of 5 overall. Bluehost's special strengths are VPS, dedicated, and WordPress hosting.

Who Is Bluehost Best For?

Bluehost is a trustworthy hosting company because of its extensive feature set, inexpensive starter plans, and variety of hosting options. For this reason, we have ranked it as the industry's top overall hosting company. Additionally, Bluehost is the greatest option for hosting a WordPress website. WordPress has been endorsing Bluehost since 2005, and it has been named the best WordPress hosting provider in our analysis, scoring 4.6 out of 5. If that's your thing, we also think it's pretty amazing for hosting e-commerce websites.

The Utah grilled cheese sandwich eatery "Melty Way," a Bluehost client, talks about how Bluehost has aided in the expansion of their small business in the video below:

Bluehost Pros & Cons

Pros

• Seamless WordPress integration: It couldn’t be easier to set up a WordPress site through Bluehost
• Budget-level pricing: Bluehost has an overall value score of 4.7 out of 5 – prices are still competitive even after the first year, and a variety of tiered pricing plans means there’s an affordable option for every site
• Dependable features: Bluehost’s plans are rich in features, including unmetered bandwidth, a free domain, and cPanel access

Cons

Restricted entry-level plans: Although they won't be sufficient for you if you want to expand online, Bluehost's most affordable plans can help you get started.
Unreliable uptime Unfortunately, Bluehost did not fare well in our site performance and uptime tests, even though they claimed to have a 99.98% uptime.

Features and Hosting Types

Six different hosting options are available from Bluehost: managed WordPress, VPS, shared, shared WordPress, shared, and dedicated. Although we've dissected each type's specifics in our Bluehost Pricing Review, in general, you can consider the variations as follows:

Shared: The most convenient and affordable general service 
The simplest and least expensive option to host a WordPress website is using shared hosting.
WooCommerce: The ideal WordPress plugin for hosting an online business
VPS Cloud: Still suitable for corporate websites that need to do more than the basics, but not as costly as dedicated hosting
WordPress managed: Additional functionalities for your hosted WordPress website
Dedicated: The priciest yet most potent type of hosting available

Although our study has shown that Bluehost is particularly good at VPS, dedicated, and WordPress hosting, it is still a great option for any kind of hosting. Bluehost has actually risen from third place to the top in a few categories! For instance, it currently receives 4.6 out of 5 for VPS hosting and an astounding 4.9 out of 5 for dedicated hosting!

Bluehost's Best Prices

Bluehost receives a score of 4.7 out of 5 overall, placing it in the top spot in our assessment for value for money. Furthermore, Bluehost offers the most affordable VPS, dedicated, and WordPress hosting options. The finest aspect? Bluehost offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on all of its plans.

Bluehost's most affordable plan, which costs $2.95 per month for the first year and $9.99 per month thereafter, is available with shared hosting. Naturally, dedicated hosting has the most expensive plans; a 12-month term starts at $99.99.

To maintain uniformity in our hosting evaluations, we will be concentrating on Bluehost's initial costs for a 12-month duration. The cost will typically be less if you commit for a longer term!

 

Security System

An SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate is the best sign of a secure website. The padlock icon and the prefix "https" at the start of a web address are indicators that a site has SSL certifications, which reassure visitors that any information they share will be secure.

Bluehost provides a free SSL certificate with every plan, so you never have to worry about visitors seeing a notice on your website informing them that it is not safe. An additional option for increased protection is to buy a premium SSL certificate, which costs $49.99 a year. Any website where users will be required to enter their login and password and/or provide sensitive information (such as credit card details) would benefit greatly from investing in this.

Additional free security features offered by Bluehost include Secure Shell access, hotlink protection, and spam assassination prevention. Basically, Bluehost has more than enough security features to launch a basic website; however, if you plan to grow your website or make online sales, you might want to consider adding a few extras.

Bluehost has a plethora of extra security options, but it's crucial to make informed decisions because they can quickly mount up and raise your costs. For instance, advanced e-commerce protection from SiteLock Find is only $1.99/month, but you have to pay $23.88/year to purchase it. Although it's still not much to protect your online customers, it can be difficult to avoid being taken aback at the register.

Bluehost's Help and Support

Numerous support channels are available from Bluehost, such as email support tickets, live chat, and round-the-clock phone assistance. Bluehost receives an average rating of 3.5 out of 5 for assistance and support for each type of hosting, with a top rating of 4.6 out of 5 for WordPress hosting support.

One user rated Bluehost’s customer support as “top notch,” citing his own experiences with the live chat option:

“I’ve had a few issues caused mainly by my own errors, and they’ve always helped me rectify them. They’re easy to contact via live chat, and I genuinely don’t think I’ve had to wait more than ten minutes to chat to someone.”

However, there’s still a lot to like about Bluehost’s live chat feature. When we tested it ourselves, agents’ responsiveness to our questions singled Bluehost out from other top competitors:

Additionally, Bluehost has three alternative technical support numbers that you can use in place of live chat, depending on your needs:

• General questions
  Dedicated hosting and VPS
  Help with WordPress
  One wonderful feature of Bluehost's website is that for some of the more common problems, it provides immediate solutions directly on the main support page. For instance, if you are having trouble transferring your WordPress website from another server, you may click on that problem on the support page to see several solutions, such as a link to a help article, a live chat feature, and the number to call specifically.

Try searching Bluehost's help forums for the solution on your own if you consider yourself to be particularly tech-savvy. Doing the study on your own will usually take less time and lead to a greater understanding of how a website functions. 

If you value assistance and support, Bluehost is often a great option. Having said that, no hosting company can match HostGator's level of assistance.

Bluehost Review: Summary

With a score of 4.8 out of 5, we can declare with confidence that Bluehost is the finest hosting company overall thanks to our research on hosting. It ranks top, ahead of industry titans in hosting like GoDaddy, InMotion, and HostGator.

Bluehost is the top choice for VPS, dedicated, and WordPress hosting, according to specific categories. It's also the greatest hosting company to run an online store with.

Look no farther if feature-rich plans, dependable assistance, and reasonably priced plans are what you're wanting! Although there are extra fees and features to take into account, Bluehost is our top pick for a reason.

Our verdict? It all depends on the objectives you have for your website, but Bluehost is a good choice if you're searching for stability and price.

FAQs

• Is a WordPress website required to use Bluehost? 

Indeed! Although other website builders will function just well, Bluehost is very user-friendly for WordPress websites. However, it's not a need. 

• What is ``server status``? 

Your web server's status is referred to as server status; a good status indicates that there are no outages that could cause downtime. With Bluehost, you can always search your domain to see the server status of your website. 

• Which is better, WordPress or Bluehost? 

WordPress is a content management system and website builder, while Bluehost is a hosting company, despite the strong relationship between the two services. You may use Bluehost to host your WordPress website; in fact, WordPress itself suggests Bluehost as a hosting provider! Thus, the person you select will rely on the requirements for your website.

• What are the cons of Bluehost? 

Even though Bluehost is the best hosting company we've found, there are a few drawbacks to note. If you want to scale up, you'll need to commit to a more expensive plan because its most basic plans will restrict your growth. Furthermore, our tests revealed that Bluehost has subpar uptime and site speed ratings. We suggest using IONOS, an alternate hosting company, if this is crucial to you.