Bluehost is one of the largest web hosting companies. Does it offer the reliability and service that you need? Here are some things that you need to know about Bluehost.
Reputation
Bluehost has a solid reputation in the web hosting industry. WordPress.org rates Bluehost as the number-one hosting provider in the world. Ratings from PC Magazine are a little less impressive, but still not too shabby. Bluehost Review gives it 3.5 out of five stars.
What types of hosting plans does Bluehost offer?
You can choose from three different hosting plans. Read the details on these plans below.
Basic plan
The basic plan costs $7.99 a month, which is highly affordable for the features that you get in return. This plan allows you to host one website and comes with one free domain. When you sign up for a basic hosting plan, you will receive 50 GB of website storage space.
The basic hosting plan also comes with five email addresses. You can also store up to 100 MB of data in each email account.
Plus plan
The plus plan costs $10.99 a month. In exchange for the slightly higher fee, some of the limitations of the basic plan are lifted. You will be allowed to host an unlimited number of websites on your plus hosting plan. This means that this package might actually be much more cost-effective for customers looking for hosting for multiple domains. However, you are still only given one free domain when you purchase hosting, so you’ll need to pay separately for additional domains.
Website storage space is also unlimited, which makes this a reasonable plan for customers with starter websites that are expected to grow quickly or people with large sites migrating from another hosting provider.
The plus plan also comes with an unlimited number of email accounts and email storage capacity. Email security is exceptional and a number of spam prevention tools minimize frustrations and the risk of contracting malware.
Prime (Choice plus) plan
The top-tier hosting plan at Bluehost is often referred to as both the prime and choice plus plan. This plan costs $14.99 a month. The majority of the features covered under this plan are already available with the plus plan.
However, it also comes with a couple of other features that you might find worthwhile. You will receive one free domain privacy certificate. This plan also offers automated backups with CodeGuard basic.
Excellent uptime guarantees
According to a recent test by a web hosting expert, Bluehost has an excellent uptime service guarantee. This test used a website monitoring tool that would ping the webmaster if any of their sites was not accessible for more than 60 seconds. Over a two-week time period, they didn’t get a single notification that the sites were down.
Customer Support
Bluehost has a decent customer support system. Customers that need technical support have the option to call, use an online chatbot, or submit a support ticket.
They offer the flexibility customers need, which is coupled with a timely response from a qualified technical support specialist.
Website security
Bluehost has a number of security features that differentiate it from other hosting providers in its class. All hosting plans come with three different spam detection and prevention tools.
Your websites also come with an SSL certificate, which both improves the security of your websites and prevents web browsers from triggering warning messages to your visitors.
Speed
Bluehost isn’t known for having the fastest servers. Their web hosting plans are faster than those of HostGator and EIG Cloud Sites. However, they are 10% slower than iPage, 60% slower than Godaddy and Media Temple and almost 75% slower than 1&1 Hosting.
Server Support
Although there are a number of great benefits of selecting Bluehost for your hosting provider, there are also some important limitations to be aware of as well.
Aside from slow speed, the next biggest drawback with this hosting provider is that it doesn’t offer any Windows-based servers. You need to use a Linux-based server, which may not be ideal for all webmasters.
Overall Rating
Bluehost Review is one of the top hosting providers. However, the hosting service isn’t perfect. It isn’t known for its speed and doesn’t offer Windows servers.
These limitations shouldn’t be a problem with small to mid-sized websites but could be a limiting factor for larger sites. Bluehost Review gives it 3.5 out of five stars.
