Bluehost Review - Cheap WordPress Hosting for Bloggers

Bluehost is one of four companies belonging to the group of hosting companies managed by Endurance International Group (EIG). It is one of the oldest and at the same time, one of the largest hosting companies in the world. Besides, Bluehost is the official hosting provider recommended by WordPress.org. And this is, as a consequence, one of the most popular hosting providers on Earth. But is it enough? In this article, I have prepared a thorough Bluehost review, the pros, and cons of its offer.

First of all, recognition on the web hosting market, secondly a well-designed offer aimed primarily at novice users, further low prices – all this makes Bluehost at the top.

Meanwhile, when you look to the internet to check the reviews about Bluehost, there are many unhappy users. Let’s look at all aspects, honestly. To start with, let’s take a closer look at the company’s offer and consider the pros and cons of using their services. Let’s see if quality and commitment go with popularity.

If you’re interested in the best blog hosting, please read our other reviews: SiteGround review and Kinsta review.

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So let’s look at Bluehost review point by point.

Bluehost’s WordPress shared hosting plans

WordPress hosting plan in Bluehost - cheap WordPress hosting — Bluehost WordPress Plans

You can choose from three shared WordPress hosting plans, in each of them, you will receive a free SSL certificate and a free domain name for one year. And most importantly, all contain automatic WordPress installation and automatic WordPress updates.

Disclosure: Please note that when you purchase hosting using our Bluehost affiliate link, they compensate us, which helps us make our blog & themes free of charge to you. Know that we recommend only products, tools or services that we have tested.

The Basic plan is the smallest hosting plan offered by Bluehost starts from $7.99/mo (or $2.95 with our discount). It is perfectly tailored for a novice blogger, offers 50GB of disk space, and gives you the possibility to host one website. It is cheap and consequently trendy.

Furthermore, two more are almost identical. The Plus plan – the most cost-effective option gives you the ability to host an unlimited number of sites and an unlimited number of domains. What’s more, it offers unlimited storage on the server. In turn, the Choice Plus plan – the highest of the offered additionally includes one domain privacy and CodeGuard Basic Backup, which means daily backups and monitoring of the website for changes.

Of course, Bluehost’s offer is much more comprehensive. It includes, in addition to shared hosting plans, VPS hosting, dedicated hosting, eCommerce, or Wp Pro manage WordPress hosting. You will undoubtedly find something for yourself from this full offer.

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Pros and Cons of using Bluehost – Bluehost review

The first element of Bluehost review will be the price.

1. Price

Best Hosting For Bloggers

Bluehost is famous for its active pricing policy. The offered prices of shared hosting in Bluehost for the first period of use are very beneficial and competitive in comparison with other web hosting providers. However, you must know that the shorter the period you choose, the higher its price will be. The cheapest option is the selection of hosting for the longest possible period, i.e., 36 months.

The price of shared hosting at Bluehost is very favorable, so you should consider their offer. The cheapest package is ideally suited for a novice blogger. It contains everything you need at the beginning of your blog career, the perfect plan when your site is light with low traffic.

Meanwhile, the second thing you need to prepare is a practice that, unfortunately, all hosting companies use. The renewal of hosting is two or even three times more expensive than the initial one.

Higher rates for renewal is the practice used by almost all hosting companies. Therefore, before you decide on the cheapest option, check the cost of the renewal.

Pros
Pricing: They are very competitive so that they are within reach of most users, especially those who are just starting.

Cons
Higher rates for renewal: The renewal of hosting is almost three times more expensive than the initial one. Unfortunately, all hosting companies use this practice.

Now, let’s move to the second factor on Bluehost review – a free domain name.

2. Free domain name

Unlike SiteGround, Bluehost offers a free domain name for one year when purchasing hosting. So if you’re starting to blog and looking for the perfect domain name, it’s a good idea to register it at Bluehost. It will reduce your initial costs.

The cost of domain name renewal depends on the type of domain you have. For example, renewing your Original Top Level Domain Names like .com at Bluehost costs $ 17.99. And it’s more expensive than average.

Bluehost Domain Renewal - cheap hosting in Bluehost — Domain Name Renewal in Bluehost

Pros
Free domain: You get a free domain name for one year with a hosting plan.

Cons
Higher domain renewal price: The cost of domain name renewal is more expensive than average.

Let’s move to the third element on Bluehost review – WordPress.org recommendation

3. Recommended by WordPress.org

Bluehost is not only one of the largest, but also one of the most popular hosting providers in the world. It meets all WordPress requirements, hence it is one of three hosts (except SiteGround and DreamHost) recommended by WordPress.org. Therefore, it is worth considering Bluehost as your hosting provider.

Pros
Recommended by WordPress.org: Automatic WordPress install and updates. A great convenience for beginners.

The fourth factor on Bluehost review is a money-back guarantee.

4. Hosting money-back guarantee

When buying hosting at Bluehost, you have 30 days to make a decision. During this time, you can change your mind because the company will provide a 30-day money-back guarantee. But beware, the refund applies only to hosting services and does not include other add-on services.

Like other hosting companies, Bluehost also gives you the option to withdraw from the contract. Thanks to this, you can try the service, and when you are not satisfied, give it up calmly, without incurring any costs.

However, there are some caveats you must know about.
If you cancel the service within 30 days, you will receive a full refund only for the hosting service. And most importantly, the Money-back Guarantee Refund is valid for credit card payments only.

The money-back-guarantee does not apply to most additional products, such as domain names, domain privacy, SSL certificates, AppMachine, Site Backup Pro, Pay Per Click Marketing (PPC), cPanel QuickStart, WordPress QuickStart, Site Doctor, website transfer, Design Service Standard, Design Service Plus, Design Service Premium, SEO Package, SiteLock, and many others.

If you have chosen a plan with a free domain name, Bluehost will deduct a non-refundable domain fee of $ 15.99 from the refund.

Pros
30-day money-back guaranty: Only for the hosting service.

Cons
The money-back guaranty does not include add-on services.

The fifth factor on Bluehost review is site migration.

5. Paid site migration

If you already have your website and are looking for a new host, you will be interested in migrating your site. And here comes the problem. Bluehost does not offer free website transfer.

You need to pay $ 149.99 to transfer your site to Bluehost. The site transfer service allows you to migrate up to 5 websites and 20 email accounts from one account at your old hosting company.

Unfortunately, this service does not include transferring domain name registrations. Therefore, you must transfer your domain yourself using the domain name transfer tool.

Paid site migration is a big problem for any website owner who can’t handle the technical side of blogging. And, at the same time, a significant financial burden.

Site Transfer in Bluehost - affordable WordPress Hosting — Bluehost Site Migration

Cons
Site Migrations Aren’t Free: They charge a hefty fee of $ 149.99 for site migration.

And what about a knowledge base on my Bluehost review?

6. Great knowledge base

7. Outsourcing technical support

They also provide 24/7 support via LiveChat online, telephone, and even email by trained internal experts.
While the knowledge base and tutorials are beneficial, technical support leaves much to be desired.

Despite all these forms of help, it turns out that support in Bluehost is not enough, and people are not adequately trained.

The customer service team gets a variety of reviews – both positive and negative. This demonstrates poor preparation, lack of experience, and diverse, insufficient knowledge of support experts.

Just look at customer feedback — unsatisfied, frustrated, and helpless customers who have not received adequate support. The response time for a newly opened ticket is quite long, constant changes of the leading expert and closing the ticket as solved despite not resolving the issue.

Cons
It looks like Bluehost should work on technical support more

Let’s move to the eighth element on Bluehost review – an interface.

8. Easy to use & user-friendly interface

9. Security options

The Bluehost security package is excellent, so you don’t have to worry about it. Safety is also a priority here.
What security options does Bluehost have for us?

SSL Certificate

First of all, a free SSL certificate in all available hosting plans. The SSL certificate protects confidential information – such as passwords, usernames, and credit card numbers – from third parties. It is also essential for search engines like Google. Search engines consider certified websites to be safe and reliable, which in turn causes such sites to appear higher in search results.

SiteLock Security

Next is SiteLock Security, which automatically scans your entire site for malware every day to make sure it’s not blocked or spammed. SiteLock is additionally payable in all hosting plans. SiteLock security checks the database and all available installed applications (such as WordPress) for vulnerabilities.

Codeguard Basic

Also, Codeguard Basic – that is, daily backups of your site, so you can restore the previous version of the site with one click in the event of a disaster. Free only in the Choice Plus plan.

Domain Privacy Protection

Additionally, domain privacy protection available for each plan but free only in the highest Choice Plus plan, which will help preserve the privacy of personal data used during domain registration. Your contact details will not be available through whois information.

Besides, tools such as Spam Hammer, SpamAssassin, and paid SpamExperts to limit spam received from spammers. HotLink protection – to protect photos and other files or Validation Token checking whether you are an authorized user of the account.

And additionally, integration with Cloudflare, ensuring security, performance, and reliability.

As you can see, the Bluehost security package is very extensive and covers all vulnerable vulnerabilities.

Pros
Excellent Security Options: In all sensitive areas.

Cons
Some of them are additionally paid

The tenth element of Bluehost review – integration with applications.

10. App Integrations

Thanks to cPanel, managing your account at Bluehost is a child’s play. Furthermore, integration with many applications allows you to use any services.

You can install various content management systems (CMS) such as Joomla, Drupal, and WordPress with one click. You can run an e-commerce store, configure Cloudflare, and even G Suite, thanks to integration with cPanel.

Pros
App Integrations and Auto-installers

Let’s move to the eleventh element on Bluehost review – Upsells.

11. Upsells

Paid add-ons are the bane of all hosting providers, but Bluehost beats everyone.

Once you decide on a specific hosting plan and start filling out the registration form, you will receive a whole list of paid extras. It will be extra SEO tools, domain privacy, dedicated IP, and much more.

Skip all add-ons if you don’t need them. You can always buy them later if you change your mind.

Shared Web Hosting Addons - Bluehost review — Package Extras in Bluehost

Cons
Lots of upsells

And finally, the twelfth element on Bluehost review – Unlimited options.

12. Unlimited options in hosting plans

Looking at the Bluehost offer, you’ll notice that there are many unlimited options — an unlimited number of websites and subdomains, an immeasurable site space or database, etc.
You get precise information about the lack of any restrictions in some areas of your site. However, be careful.

In this case, the lack of any restrictions, unfortunately, does not mean that they are not there. Bluehost requires customers to comply fully with the terms of service and disk space and bandwidth in a manner consistent with the normal functioning of the website.
This only means that if they find that your site is not working under the terms of the service, your account will be subject to restrictions.

Cons
Limited ‘Unlimited’ Hosting