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If you are looking for a web hosting provider that offers low prices, fast speed, and excellent features, you might have heard of Bluehost. Bluehost is one of the most popular web hosting companies in the world, hosting over 2 million websites. But is Bluehost really worth your money? In this article, we will review Bluehost's pricing, plans, performance, security, support, and more to help you decide if Bluehost is the right web hosting provider for you.
Bluehost Pricing and Plans
Bluehost offers four types of web hosting plans: shared hosting, WordPress hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated hosting. Each type of plan has different features and prices depending on your needs and budget.
- Shared hosting: This is the cheapest and most basic type of web hosting plan that Bluehost offers. It is suitable for beginners and small websites that do not require much resources or customization. With shared hosting, you share a server with other websites, which means that your website's performance can be affected by other websites on the server. Bluehost's shared hosting plans range from $2.95 to $13.95 per month for a 36-month term. The cheapest plan includes one website, 50 GB SSD storage, free domain name for the first year, free SSL certificate, free CDN, and custom WordPress themes. The most expensive plan includes unlimited websites, unlimited SSD storage, free domain name for the first year, free SSL certificate, free CDN, custom WordPress themes, daily website backup, domain privacy, malware scanning, and optimized CPU performance.
- WordPress hosting: This is a type of web hosting plan that is optimized for WordPress websites. WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS) in the world, powering over 40% of all websites. With WordPress hosting, you get a faster and more secure WordPress website with features such as automatic WordPress updates, WordPress plugins, WordPress themes, and WordPress support. Bluehost's WordPress hosting plans are similar to its shared hosting plans in terms of pricing and features. The only difference is that Bluehost's WordPress hosting plans also include a free WP migration tool and Yoast SEO plugin.
- VPS hosting: This is a type of web hosting plan that offers more power and flexibility than shared hosting. VPS stands for virtual private server, which means that you get a dedicated portion of a server that is isolated from other websites on the server. This gives you more control over your website's resources and settings. Bluehost's VPS hosting plans range from $19.99 to $59.99 per month for a 36-month term. The cheapest plan includes 2 GB RAM, 30 GB SSD storage, one IP address, and unlimited bandwidth. The most expensive plan includes 8 GB RAM, 120 GB SSD storage, two IP addresses, and unlimited bandwidth.
- Dedicated hosting: This is the most expensive and advanced type of web hosting plan that Bluehost offers. Dedicated hosting means that you get an entire server for your website only. This gives you the highest level of performance, security, and customization possible. Bluehost's dedicated hosting plans range from $99.99 to $139.99 per month for a 36-month term. The cheapest plan includes 4 cores at 2.3 GHz CPU speed, 4 GB RAM, 500 GB storage (mirrored), five IP addresses, and unlimited bandwidth. The most expensive plan includes 4 cores at 3.3 GHz CPU speed, 16 GB RAM, 1000 GB storage (mirrored), fifteen IP addresses, and unlimited bandwidth.
As you can see, Bluehost has a variety of web hosting plans to suit different needs and budgets. However, there are some things you should know about Bluehost's pricing before you sign up:
- Bluehost's advertised prices are only valid for the first term of your contract. After that, the prices will increase to the regular rates, which are much higher. For example, the cheapest shared hosting plan will go from $2.95 per month to $8.99 per month after the first 36 months.
- Bluehost's prices are paid upfront, which means that you have to pay for the entire term of your contract in advance. For example, if you choose the cheapest shared hosting plan for 36 months, you have to pay $106.20 on day one.
- Bluehost's prices do not include taxes, which may vary depending on your location and payment method.
- Bluehost's prices do not include some optional features that you may want or need for your website, such as domain registration, domain privacy, website backup, malware scanning, SEO tools, and more. These features are available as add-ons that you can purchase separately.
Bluehost Performance and Reliability
Another important factor to consider when choosing a web hosting provider is how fast and reliable it is. After all, you want your website to load quickly and be available at all times for your visitors. Bluehost claims to offer fast and reliable web hosting with a 99.9% uptime guarantee and a free CDN (content delivery network).
A CDN is a network of servers that are located in different parts of the world. When a visitor accesses your website, the CDN will deliver the content from the server that is closest to them, which reduces the loading time and improves the performance of your website. Bluehost uses Cloudflare as its CDN provider, which is one of the most popular and trusted CDN services in the world.
However, Bluehost's performance and reliability may vary depending on the type of web hosting plan you choose, the location of your server, the traffic of your website, and other factors. To get a better idea of how Bluehost performs in real-world scenarios, we can look at some third-party tests and reviews that measure Bluehost's speed and uptime.
- Bitcatcha: This is a tool that tests the server response time of a website from eight different locations around the world. According to Bitcatcha, Bluehost's server response time ranges from A+ to B+, which means that it is faster than most web hosting providers.
- Hosting Facts: This is a website that monitors the uptime and speed of various web hosting providers. According to Hosting Facts, Bluehost's average uptime in 2023 was 99.96%, which is slightly higher than its guarantee. However, its average speed was 1.24 seconds, which is slower than the industry average of 0.8 seconds.
- Website Builder Expert: This is a website that reviews and compares different web hosting providers. According to Website Builder Expert, Bluehost's speed score was 4 out of 5 stars, which means that it is faster than most web hosting providers. However, its uptime score was 3 out of 5 stars, which means that it is less reliable than some web hosting providers.
As you can see, Bluehost's performance and reliability are not consistent across different sources and tests. However, based on these results, we can say that Bluehost is generally fast and reliable enough for most websites, especially if you choose a higher-tier plan or use a CDN.
Bluehost Security and Support
The last two factors to consider when choosing a web hosting provider are security and support. Security refers to how well your website is protected from hackers, malware, spam, and other threats. Support refers to how well your web hosting provider helps you with any issues or questions you may have regarding your website or account.
Bluehost offers some basic security features for all its web hosting plans, such as free SSL certificates, free CDN, spam protection, password-protected directories, and secure shell (SSH) access. SSL certificates encrypt the data that is exchanged between your website and your visitors' browsers, which prevents hackers from stealing sensitive information such as passwords or credit card numbers. CDN also helps with security by blocking malicious traffic and attacks from reaching your website.
However, Bluehost's security features are not enough for some websites that need more protection or backup options. For example, Bluehost does not offer free website backup for its shared hosting plans or WordPress hosting plans. Website backup is important because it allows you to restore your website in case something goes wrong or you lose your data. Bluehost does offer paid website backup as an add-on feature for $2.99 per month or $35.88
