Bluehost Reviews (2024)

Bluehost Reviews (2024)

  • 50Gb Diskspace
  • Unlimited Bandwidth
  • Backups Included
  • 1-click WordPress Install
  • CPANEL
  • Free SSL Certificate
  • 30 Day Money Back Guarantee

From $2.95/mth

View BlueHost Plans

Bluehost Reviews

Bluehost was founded in 2003 and has been a stalwart in the blog scene for many years as one of WordPress’ official recommendations. Bluehost is owned by EIG (along with Hostgator, Site5 and Arvixe)

Bluehost Review

For our Bluehost review, we signed up for Bluehost’s Basic Plan which is their most popular plan with WordPress users, and is one of just four hosts offering new account plans at <$3/mth which is an amazing deal and one of the reasons Bluehost is on our short list of top #3 host recommendations.

Bluehost Provisioning and Installation

One of the reasons Bluehost have been a long time favorite in WordPress community is that they make it very easy to signup. Provisioning is instant 24/7 and they have partnered with Mojo Marketplace to make installation generally painless. Though we do agree with other reviewers that Mojo can be confusing compared to the usual Cpanel installers.

Bluehost Systems and Support

One of the benefits of working with a big provider like Bluehost (EIG) is that they offer comprehensive support, including 24/7 chat and phone support. Phone support is the exception rather than the rule so this will be a real draw for some people.

Bluehost Load Impact Test Results

Bluehost hosting review results

Bluehost’s performance our most recent load impact test was again very strong, and most importantly reflects a very consistent performance over the last 6 months. The average user load time remained <1 second for most of the test right up to 100 concurrent users.

Bluehost was in the top performing group, and while they did not have the fastest average Load Impact test time I don’t think you could tell the different between the top 6 performers anyway, so from a practical point of view it is pretty even. No server request failures were recorded.

See our rankings of the best WordPress hosting providers.

Bluehost Page Speed & Uptime

BluehostResult
YSlow Score86
West Coast Load Time0.685s
East Coast Load Time0.622s
Average Page Load Time0.654s
Bluehost Uptime100%

So not only did Bluehost do well in our load testing, they also scored the second highest YSlow grade at 86 for an out of the box installation of WordPress.

Bluehost are the fastest WordPress hosting as measured by Pingdom average home page load time. Along with A2 Hosting, Arvixe and Siteground they are one of only 4 hosts in our test to score an average home page load time below 1 second in the Pingdom test.

Also noteworthy, Pingdom has reported 100% uptime for our Bluehost test site in the last 30 days. There is no denying that Bluehost’s server infrastructure has benefited from ongoing investment and it is paying off.

Check here for a comparison of Bluehost vs Hostgator, or our post on the top Bluehost alternatives.

Best WordPress Hosting

WPX logo
1-click WordPress Install
10GB Storage
100GB Bandwidth
Free SSL Cert
Free Malware Removal
30 Day Money Back Guarantee
 From $20.83/mth
Pressable logo
1 WordPress Install
20GB Storage per/mth
WP Cloud Platform
30,000 Visits per/mth
Free Site Migrations
30 Day Money Back Guarantee
 From $25.00/mth
Siteground logo
Free WP Installation
10 GB Web Space
10,000 Visits Monthly
Free SSL Cert
Free WP Migrator
30 Day Money Back Guarantee
 From $3.99/mth

About Bluehost

Bluehost is owned by the Endurance International Group, which also owns Hostgator, Site5 and Arvixe, among others. Bluehost has been around since 1996, which makes it one of the grizzled old-timers in this business, and claims to host over 2 million sites.

Along with 24/7 support (from “U.S.-based trained, in-house experts”), they offer a money-back guarantee, saying there are no hidden fees, gimmicks or locked-in contracts. The company designs and maintains their own servers in-house and develop their own software.

Prices are on the low end for complete hosting offerings. They offered shared (or “virtual”) hosting, popular among companies looking for less expensive reliable hosting options, where your site shares partitioned space on a server with other sites. Bluehost also offers dedicated server hosting, and the obligatory hosting package for the fantastically popular WordPress.

They offer VPS, or Virtual Private Server hosting. This is kind of like a cross between shared and dedicated servers, good for high-traffic sites, or sites with quite specific server requirements, who want a somewhat less expensive option than full-blown dedicated server hosting but specialized server requirements that simple shared hosting usually can’t offer.

Bluehost FAQ’s

Does Bluehost Provide Email Hosting Aswell?

Bluehost allows users to create and manage unlimited email accounts. Features include forwarding rules and account filters, Secure POP3 and IMAP support, third-party client compatibility, spam protection, and unique user account controls.

How Often Does Bluehost Backup My Site?

They automatically create daily, weekly, and monthly backups of your entire account. You can restore your complete data with the click of a mouse, or use the optional PRO backup service to restore specific files and databases.

Does Bluehost Provide Cpanel

They do, but with a difference. While it’s built on cPanel, they designed an enhanced interface with additional tools that make it easier to manage your websites, domains, emails, files, and more, all from one central location.

Is My Site Protected from Other Sites’ Excess Usage?

Yes, that’s a specific thing with Bluehost: Their technology identifies websites using excessive resources and temporarily re-assigns them to isolated systems. This defends your website performance and mitigates the risk normally associated with shared servers.

Does Bluehost offer VPS hosting?

Yes, their VPS solutions are built on cloud technology, using their enhanced cPanel environment with full root access to CentOS. With a KVM hypervisor virtualization, the resources you purchase are guaranteed to always be available.

Can I Scale My Website on Bluehost?

Yes, Bluehost is set up so you can start with what you need and move to more powerful options as your website grows. The custom technology makes it fairly easy to upgrade your account to VPS or dedicated servers.

What Are the Sign-Up and Payment Procedures?

All new hosting accounts are paid for upfront and in full at sign up. All Setup fees are non-refundable. All accounts canceled in the first 30 Days of service qualify for a full refund at the monthly rate — some qualifications apply, check the site for further details.

How Do I Cancel My Bluehost Account?

When canceling your Bluehost account prior to your account’s end of term, or down grading your account to a term for less than a year, you forfeit the Domain Registration coupon and Bluehost deducts $15.99 from your final refund amount to cover their costs for registering your new domain on your behalf for one year.

Subject to the terms of your domain registration agreement, you will retain ownership of your domain until the end of its registration period.

What Add-Ons Does Bluehost Offer?

To give you an idea, here are some of the most popular options and sample prices:

Additional Domain Names: $15.99 per year of registration
Dedicated IP: $3.99 per month
SSL Certificates: $59.88 per year
SpamExperts Mail Filtering: $2.99 a month per domain name
Privacy: $11.88 Domain Privacy per domain per year
SiteLock: Starting at $23.88 per domain per year
Site Backup and Restore Pro: $23.88 per year

Bluehost Comparison & Alternatives

Rank Host Price Action
1 Siteground From $20.83/mth View Plans / Full Review
2 Siteground From $25.00/mth View Plans / Full Review
3 Siteground From $3.99/mth View Plans / Full Review
4 Bluehost From $2.95/mth View Plans / Full Review
5 GreenGeeks From $2.95/mth View Plans / Full Review
6 Arvixe From $7.00/mth View Plans / Full Review
7 Site5 From $4.95/mth View Plans / Full Review
8 iPage From $1.99/mth View Plans / Full Review
9 A2 Hosting From $3.92/mth View Plans / Full Review
10 Dreamhost From $7.95/mth View Plans / Full Review
11 Hostgator From $3.82/mth View Plans / Full Review
12 GoDaddy From $2.49/mth View Plans / Full Review
13 InMotion Hosting From $4.99/mth View Plans / Full Review
14 Web Hosting Hub From $4.99/mth View Plans / Full Review

Disclosure

This page contains affiliate links which means we earn a commission if you click through and signup. This is at no extra cost to you and helps us maintain this resource for all webmasters’ benefit. We own and pay for all the hosting accounts we use in our reviews and performance testing. Read our full disclosure statement here. Thanks for your support.

Real Bluehost Reviews from Customers

30 reviews on “Bluehost Reviews (2024)

  1. Tyler | SnapTik Fan says:

    Bluehost has been a great hosting company compared to my previous work with SiteGround. I would recommend it as well for a smaller website.

  2. Tyler Rice says:

    Nice review of Bluehost. I certainly think they are one of the top choices for consumers who aren’t managing multiple accounts. The customer service is pretty good as well! For an agency, I would go with something more professional and with faster service.

  3. Jess says:

    Smooth experience upgrading to a VPS! We didn’t have to move our website. A very dependable provider if you ask me. Consider them for your WordPress needs and you won’t regret it! When I started out I consulted with Customer Support regarding some of their offerings and differences so I could assess if it was worth the upgrade before jumping the gun. They were very kind and didn’t force any upsells on you which I super appreciate. Thank you Bluehost!!!!!!!!

  4. Mrs Groves says:

    I am a pretty no nonsense person so I usually go with what works and what others have recommended. I know Bluehost is a popular provider so I went with them. Their uptime and load speeds don’t give me a headache compared to one provider that who must not be named (that is actually a close competitor to Bluehost). For the price and quality service you get, I say that is bargain my friend.

  5. Gary says:

    I have been a client for a while now I should probably get a loyalty reward. Meh, I don’t feel the need to change providers anyway! I have had friends who asked me who my hosting provider is and I am proud to say it has always been Bluehost. Some of them grumble because of the fee Bluehost asks for site migration from a different provider to Bluehost, but the ones who do come through have found it worth the migration cost. Only seldom does downtime occurs, which is a BIG plus in my book. I have read some others have provided cheaper prices but it seemed pointless because uptime wasn’t reliable.

  6. Victor says:

    There are more expensive options out there that do not give you a free SSL certificate. I know some of you don’t want to waste your time getting one, but oh boy you’d learn your lesson when your site has been compromised with your lack on of little investment with regards to more security. I know Bluehost has a ton of other good things that I could highlight, but I have been at odds with SSL certificates as add-on purchases with this potential provider I was supposedly going to sign up with. That and Customer Support, the Bluehost crew tries to understand your needs before giving out any suggestions. That’s what you call good business practices.

  7. Ankit says:

    Hey,
    You did a great job man. Enjoyed reading the article above , really explains everything very well and also the article is very interesting and effective. This article gonna help me a lot. Thank you for sharing.

  8. Jaydip Barad says:

    I am using Bluehost from more than 6 months. I am very happy to have it. Thanks for this nice article.

  9. Rihana says:

    Dude, this is a great review. I have pretty much the same thinking about BlueHost. They are good.

  10. Mandy says:

    On my previous site I used BlueHost and was very happy with it. I started up a new site a few years later and used a different host just because I was given a promotional offer to use them.

    I have been having some issues with this new host that I never had with BlueHost. After realizing that, and seeing that BlueHost is still great, I am in the process of switching back over!

  11. Tyler says:

    I feel like BlueHost and WordPress work so well together. BlueHost made everything super easy to set up as far as far as my domain name, and were able to get everything transferred easily to use WordPress.

    I have had no issues with BlueHost and would definitely recommend using them to anyone starting a website.

  12. Nick Nalbach says:

    Been using BlueHost with WordPress for a few months now and love it. I have recommended it to all of my readers strictly for the ease of use and set-up, as well as the cheap price point.

    I have had issues with other hosting platforms in the past, and I have yet to encounter any issues since starting with BlueHost.

  13. Melissa says:

    Bluehost makes it so easy to transfer your WordPress blog to their hosting service. It was pretty straightforward (even though I had to export several times since I had so many posts), but I managed to get it done. It’s also so affordable and easy to navigate!

  14. Megan | Ginger Mom and Company says:

    I love the customer service we receive with Bluehost. I had issues migrating my site over from WordPress.com so I reached out to the Bluehost support team. Within a day, my site was fully migrated and I was back up and running.

  15. Chris J says:

    Been using Bluehost for a few months now, have used them in the past as well. Easy setup and fast customer service I’d got have a question. Love the WordPress integration, makes it easy to login and other services available if needed. Great hosting that won’t break your budget!

  16. Elizabeth Tolia says:

    Bluehost is awesome!! so affordable and easy to use!!

    Anytime I was in need of support – they were right there walking me through it!!

  17. Veronika B says:

    Bluehost is simply the best! Not only well priced, great quality hosting services, but their customer support is second to none!

    Ever since joining, we have felt that we are in great hands. 🙂

  18. MELLIE MEE says:

    I’ve used Bluehost as my web host for about 10 years. I stay with them because their control panel is streamlined, easy to use and it is easy to get assistance if you really need it. I’ve been with two other hosts for work environments, and they just don’t compare. The only thing I would say as a negative, is that when it comes time for renewal, Bluehost knows they are the best, out there so you don’t always get the best deals as a long-term customer. Which is a bummer, so sign up for the longer-terms if you are able to. (As they usually have the best rates.)

  19. Jay Russell says:

    I’ve been using Blue Host for a few months now. I’ve only ever used maybe two others over the years. It’s by-far the best hosting company I’ve used.

    Only issue I’ve ever had is once I had to call in to find out why my site was down. They told me that had a serve issue that they were diligently trying to fix.

    I felt they could have at least announced the server issue on their social media accounts or something, so website owners like myself don’t go into ‘Panic Mode’.

    The customer service were very polite, educated and gave me several other tips for various things during our conversation.

  20. Madhavi says:

    I love Bluehost. Their interface is easy to use — when I started out, I was a total newbie, and I learned so many things just watching / reading their help videos / articles. And when all else fails, one can simply click on the chat or write an email to the customer service. The service is prompt, courteous, and they do the job really well.
    I’ve even heard stories from friends who aren’t as tech-savvy as I am about how the customer service rep spent hours trying to help / fix their site issues.
    In my experience, this is above and beyond service.
    What more can a person ask for? Great value for money, great customer service, and great experience overall.
    Not only do I have all my sites hosted here, I have also hosted my clients’ sites here as well.

  21. Kate J says:

    Bluehost worked with me to remove malware, install necessary updates and improve security on my website. They also helped me to restore some lost database information, which was the icing on the cake for me. I probably called Bluehost 5+ times over two or three days, and everyone I spoke with was always courteous and friendly, but most of all respectful toward my incompetence in doing these types of website-related things myself. The customer service and support I received was the best of the best, and I just want them to know how thankful I am for all of their hard work.

  22. Priscilla says:

    Bluehost gives you the choice of a live person, 24/7 Chats, and a host of tutorials and blogs to make your website awesome!!! The support, features, value, and Uptime, ROCKS!
    As an entrepreneur you hold every title in your business and that’s overwhelming.
    One day I needed a live person to help me or I was going to quit! I called and Mark held my hand via the phone for over an hour troubleshooting the back end of with my WP site, and now it is up.
    Not only that Mark emailed a load of You tube tutorials, (Bluehost created) that helped me exponentially!
    Being backed by a company that cares about you and not your money, is wonderful. Thanks!

  23. Dan says:

    While I do have some reservations about shared hosting, the Bluehost service ‘VPS solution’ for shared hosting is about as good as I can get for the money.
    What makes it good?
    For me, it is quite simply the Live Chat support. I am a blogger not a PHPMyAdmin guru! When I have issues, including just recently when my WP database required updating and I couldn’t get in to even check out what was going on, it all had to be done server side and I was totally in over my head.
    So onto Live Chat early morning Australian time, and I got Chad who patiently worked through the entire issue with me whilst remaining fun and informative. We were on chat for over 50 mins and I couldn’t have got back online without him.
    Not a single incident either, similar tech support has been provided in the past which is why I am rating their support so high.

  24. Bluehost is very helpful and easy to understand. The other day my wordpress blog went completely blank and I couldn’t figure out how to fix it. I logged on to the Bluehost live chat and tech support instantly fixed it for me. I thought I lost all my data but thanks to their prompt action, everything was back to normal.
    Although it can be a little expensive with its pro packages and the fact that things that you don’t even need are suggested to you as a must-have (like a security certificate when you’re a plain blog). Still, it’s quite user friendly and easy for people who don’t have detailed website making knowledge.

  25. Emmy says:

    After deciding to rebrand my blog & change names, I was really nervous about having to switch everything over and was terrified that something would go wrong. But, I called Bluehost support and in less than 10 minutes everything had been switched and I got the notification email that the rename was complete. Most painless, easy, and quick domain transfer I’ve ever done.

    Would definitely recommend Bluehost to other bloggers (However the requirement for 70 words in a review seems a little archaic, truth be told, maybe I’m just verbally succinct).

  26. We had Homestead hosting before Bluehost. There is no comparison. Homestead had terrible site building, high prices and were impossible to contact, even removing their phone number from the user site, so users can’t call them. When our credit card renewed they automatically seized our site & email without warning. It took me 2 days to reach them to find out why. That is disgraceful. Your site-building is easy, your apps & stat options are amazing. Most of all your customer service is extraordinary and so is the price. Besides all that, our hits have gone up thousands since changing. We are very happy with Bluehost and wish we’d changed years sooner.

  27. Tyler Regas says:

    Normally, one who gives great marks to a host would have no issues giving said host five stars. Unfortunately, regardless of how good BlueHost is, it can never earn five stars because standard hosting is on shared boxes, and shared boxes are not suitable for professional-grade sites. Period. That said, BlueHost is phenomenal in many, many ways. Please note that I have the Plus service @ $7 a month, and well worth every dime.

    There are a lot of features that I won’t go into, but the most important ones are unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth, and very high caps on things like databases, email accounts, and whatnot. It’s easy to install most popular site packages with their script installer, and it will even keep them up to date. I’m never at a loss for technologies like PHP, MySQL, Perl, and even Python and Ruby. If you want to install something manually or that isn’t offered by the script installers, go ahead.

    There are a few things I’d like to see them change, however. I generally use WordPress, and the script installer adds on a rather invasive plugin (it’s easy to remove). I’d also like to see a lot of the promotional stuff taken out of the cPanel dashboard. You can rearrange the dashboard to move that stuff down, but it’s kind of a pain. The prices for domains is a bit high, so I use Name.com. Adding domains can be a bit complex and the reliability of getting it verified has been a crapshoot, but it’s super stable once it’s done. Finally, the support system uses a completely separate login, which can complicate things.

    Support, however, is excellent. They are responsive and knowledgable. Of late, however, it’s taken longer to reach them, but it’s still not terrible. I hope they keep an eye on that.

  28. chad says:

    I’ve been using Bluehost for 2 months now, and I can say that it’s very easy to use, and the customer service is always on the job to work thing up, for me and for my clients. I found Bluehost after searching online for what type of hosting is the easiest to use. I found a tutorial on how to setup a website using Bluehost within 20 mins…and while I didn’t manage to do it that quickly, it was very simple. Highly recommended.

  29. I manage somewhere around 20 to 30 websites most of which I host with Bluehost. I got into this business sort of sideways about 8 years ago as a 2nd revenu source. I seem to be good at it and people were willing to hire me to do their websites, so I did.

    Back then I researched similar services and thought Bluehost was a good fit for me and at affordable prices allowing growth over time. I never looked back. I especially like the live chat support which I can get at any time day or night. Support is key because you won’t always know exactly what to do and how to do it. They have solved, help me solved, or pointed me in the right direction on many many issues.

    I have seen and tried other similar services because of clients who had their original websites on other platforms but so far I have not seen any of them challenging seriously the quality of Bluehost’s support…services ? maybe some come pretty close and on par, but not when it comes to support, not that I’ve experienced.

  30. daniel noormohamed says:

    Excellent, Support is perfect, used their support on several occasions where i was given quick, well documented support. and even if it was something that wasn’t their responsibility they would help as much as they could or provide advice/tutorials for me to do it. Service has never been down this is my second package being a customer for the last 5 years now. have recommended many to join who have successfully made accounts.

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