Bluehost Full Review: Why it's so popular?

Are you thinking of a host for your online store? Something affordable, probably? Well, Bluehost is one of the best 20 web hosting sites created by Matt Heaton and currently owned by Endurance International Group. 

With hosting over two million sites, their mission is “To empower people to harness the web.” The company is well-known for its low prices, excellent customer service, and scalability options that even WordPress recommends it.

After reading several reviews, here are the results:

If you’re starting a new project, a shared hosting plan is what you need. You’ll be sharing a server, but you’ll own hosting space for a lower price.

Unlike other websites, Bluehost offers an annual shared hosting plan varying from 1-3 years. Bluehost’s shared hosting prices decreases as you subscribe for a longer time. If you want to sign up for website hosting for 36 months, prices range between $8.99 and $26.99.

There are four different shared hosting plans on Bluehost: 

If you are just starting your website, you can choose any plan and later on upgrade to another one.

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Ease of Use

If this is your first website, you’re probably looking for something easy to use. Bluehost is an adaptable hosting service; using the Weebly drag-and-drop website builder is an extra for users with no experience developing websites. The tools available makes it easier for a beginner to build a website. Likewise, the free domain and the SSL certificates for the first year helps in maintaining the website. 

Customer Service

If you feel a bit confused or lost, Bluehost offers great customer service support to help you with any problem you face. Don’t feel like contacting anyone? Not a problem! Bluehost has a blog full of articles, step-by-step guidelines, and video tutorials to help you with any problem you face. 

When you can’t find a solution, you can resort to another way to contact an agent that will support you through live chat, email, or even phone support. They even encourage customers to contact them on social media. However, they don’t have a ticket-based support system, which is essential for issues that cannot be solved over live chat or phone. 
 

Despite not including a month-to-month plan, Bluehost offers affordable introductory shared hosting packages and has a lot to offer for the value of money spent. And if you decide to choose a plan, you can easily upgrade to a more advanced plan with a few clicks, which is vital for small businesses.

However, renewal prices are higher; that’s why it’s better to prepay two or three years upfront; the average monthly price decreases, but you’ll be paying in advance. You’ll also get a free domain for the first year and be charged afterward for $17.99. Don’t worry! Your money won’t go to waste if you decide to go in a different direction; there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee.

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You’re probably wondering if Bluehost is secure? To answer your question, the best indication is the inclusion of SSL certificates to ensure the information shared on your site is safe and encrypted. To make it better, every shared hosting plan on Bluehost comes with a free SSL certificate. 

Is there anything else to protect your site? 

Yes! Bluehost offers other security features to ensure the safety of your websites, such as Spam Assassin protection, hotlink protection, and secure shell access, making it one of the safest web hosting services.
 
It is recommended for eCommerce sites to invest in extra security like the SSL premium certificate, which is only for $49.99/year. This is important for sites selling online as users might be adding personal information (credit card details); therefore, it’s essential to keep their data secure and encrypted.  

Did I forget to mention they include a free CDN? Yes, that’s right, you get the chance to access free CDN after Bluehost partnered with Cloudflare recently. 

Load Times, Reliability, and Features

Despite hosting many websites, Bluehost has an uptime of 99.98%, with a total downtime of only one hour a year, making it one of the fastest services, as well as, the automatic daily site backups help prevent major website disruptions. 

Bluehost includes many features that can make it easy to set up and maintain a secure online store, while the free SSL offered with each plan keeps the data secure and encrypted. There’s also spam protection and 24/7 network monitoring included in the platform’s security.

Bluehost offers several customization tools for developers. In addition, free website scripts provided by the platform include social networking, Drupal, and Joomla. 

Sadly, these plans come with poor backup. On the bright side, you get an unlimited storage feature when you have any shared hosting plan except when you have the Basic plan.

E-Commerce

There are plenty of E-Commerce tools that can be bought on Bluehost to enhance your marketing. Some of the marketing tools you might need can be DaDa Mail, which costs $34.95/year and lets you send emails to your subscriber list.  If you’re an online store, you might also need an application to accept payments. 

Constant Upsells

The downside of working with Bluehost is their constant upsell pitches, especially during the sign-up process. Luckily, you can easily uncheck any add-on if you don’t need it.  

Especially if you choose the basic plan, which comes with some heavy restrictions, you’ll have to buy anything extra, like more security, or have multiple websites you’ll have to go for at least the next pricing tier, which is twice as expensive. Unfortunately, these restrictions are standard on the cheapest plans of any web hosting site used. 

Bluehost Website Building

You can use plenty of website builders to organize your websites on Bluehost, such as WordPress or Weebly. Using the drag-and-drop function can let you build a page with whatever content you might need. The free Weebly version allows you to add custom HTML and build up-to six pages, but you can upgrade for the professional building for $8.99/month, which offers more services.

Final Verdict

If you’re not sure Bluehost is the right decision for you, remember that it is highly recommended and ranked the #1 company by many. Over the years, it is hosting over two million sites and downloaded various products to improve its service. After all, you can try it for the first 30-days and get your money back if you didn’t like it.  

Like any other website, it has its pros and cons, so if you’re looking for unlimited bandwidth with high speed and a drag-and-drop builder, Go for it! After all, there’s a solution to every problem, and money value is seen in the features offered in every package!

What are you waiting for? GO FOR IT!

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