Bluehost Review – The Good and Bad for 2024

Bluehost is one of the leaders in website hosting and powers more than two million sites worldwide. It’s also one of our top recommendations for anyone looking for a web host. You can secure quality hosting on feature-packed plans while enjoying reliable uptime at an affordable rate.

Bluehost is the ideal choice for building and hosting WordPress websites, and it comes with everything you need to succeed—including a free domain for one year, a free CDN, an easy-to-use site builder, and a free SSL certificate. We think Bluehost is excellent, but is it right for you? Let’s find out.

Bluehost Compared to the Best Web Hosting Services

Bluehost delivers everything you could possibly need in a hosting provider, which is why it ranks second on our list of the best web hosting services. While Bluehost is a great option for many websites, a few options make a compelling argument for different needs or specific use cases. Take a look at our favorite alternatives to Bluehost below.

Out of all the web hosts available, Hostinger is our top choice overall. It provides a whopping 50 GB of SSD storage with its entry-level hosting tier, which is roughly five times what you’re getting from other hosts that charge more for similar plans. And that’s just the start of what it offers. Start using Hostinger risk-free with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

HostGator is a great choice for starting on one plan and easily scaling to another as your site grows in popularity. Receive a free year of your preferred domain when you sign up for a HostGator plan.

Web.com is ideal for simple business websites because it comes with quality web hosting and an easy-to-use website builder under one roof. Save up to 70% when you sign up for Web.com.

Bluehost: The Good and the Bad

Every web hosting service has its flaws, even the most exclusive. Here’s an in-depth look into Bluehost’s top good and bad features.

What Bluehost Is Good At

Bluehost is a very well-rounded hosting provider, offers a blend of superlative support, security, and reliability at a easy-to-stomach price point.

Great security: Bluehost has some of the best website security measures on the market to give you peace of mind. All plans come with resource protection, and CodeGuard Backup Basic can be added for an additional $2.99 per month fee. CodeGuard will help you with daily backups and monitoring while notifying you of any changes. On more expensive plans, you can also unlock automatic backups and 24/7 network monitoring.

Bluehost's summary of security attributes and an image of a woman holding an open padlock

Fast support: We love Bluehost’s extensive and swift customer support portal. Quality support is paramount for any web hosting service to have, but finding a service that has fast and efficient support can be tougher than you might think. Most users rave that Bluehost’s customer support is very helpful when you need immediate resolution of issues.

Live chat support is available to you 24/7, and Bluehost also offers phone and email support. On top of that, you always have the option to browse the extensive knowledge base and forum for getting answers to FAQs and finding videos, in-depth articles, and resources on everything related to web hosting.

Easy to setup: Not only is Bluehost one of the most popular web hosting services on the market, it’s also incredibly easy to get the hang of managing. Bluehost has an easy onboarding process that takes just a few minutes to complete and an intuitive interface.

If you utilize its site builder in addition to the web hosting service, Bluehost’s setup wizard will ask you to fill out a form that includes your website goals, what you want to add to your site, and what you want the name and tagline of your site to be. After answering these questions, you get to choose a theme of your choice from the Bluehost Marketplace, and then it automatically installs WordPress for you. All you have to worry about is customization, while Bluehost takes care of the backend and the technical nitty-gritty.

High-performing servers: With Bluehost, you’re getting access to high-performance servers on the Pro plan and higher. Although it’s not always ideal for every user to fork over more money, we think you get what you pay for in this case, because it unlocks servers that utilize dual quad-core processors for swift loading speeds.

This is an excellent option for larger, more media-heavy websites because Bluehost makes sure there are fewer users per server—with an individual file count of 300,000—so there are no slowdowns for anyone hosting their sites on them.

Reasonable pricing: The monthly price for most Bluehost plans is relatively low compared to their peers. You also receive a free domain name for the first year if you are a new customer, as well as a 30-day money back guarantee so you don’t have to worry about the risk if Bluehost doesn’t meet your needs right away.

Bundling hosting with domain registration: Normally, we recommend sticking with web hosts for hosting and domain registrars for domains—even though most providers of each service tend to offer the other. But Bluehost is one of the exceptions. For beginners and new websites, it’s a great way to get a free domain name for one year with an affordable hosting package from the same provider. This bundle is more than just a great value. It simplifies the website creation process, and it’s just one less thing you have to do when you’re getting started.

You can claim your free domain after you select a web hosting package from Bluehost. It takes just a few extra seconds, and you’ll have everything you need to proceed and go live. If you haven’t decided on a domain name yet, that’s ok. Bluehost still lets you sign up for a hosting plan, and you can always claim your free domain later.

Pop-up window from Bluehost during web hosting checkout with the option to choose a free domain name later

What Bluehost Is Lacking

Here’s where we’ll dip into some downsides of Bluehost. Some of these may not affect your hosting provider decision much, but others may find one or more of these flaws to be a deal-breaker.

Free migrations: Bluehost only offers free migrations for WordPress websites that meet specific eligibility criteria. Even if you do meet the criteria, the free migration still requires some DIY steps on your end involving the installation of Bluehost’s migration plugin. Lots of other hosting providers on the market offer free migrations without so many stipulations.

Otherwise, you can expect to pay a hefty $149.99 for Bluehost to migrate up to five websites and 20 email accounts. Although this service comes with 24/7 support, a complete review, and an uninterrupted transition, it’s still quite expensive for most users—especially when many other web hosting services will transfer your website for free. What’s also not ideal is that this migration service does not cover higher-octane hosting options like VPS or dedicated.

No uptime guarantee: Unlike most other web hosting services, Bluehost doesn’t offer an uptime guarantee on any of its plans. Downtime can be quite costly for website owners, as you can lose potential customers if your website is experiencing this.

An uptime guarantee gives users that extra peace of mind and shows them that the provider will keep your website up and running in the most efficient way possible—and that they’re serious about meeting their customers’ needs. Even though this may be an issue for some folks, many users have still applauded Bluehost for its uptime, regardless of the lack of guarantee.

Constant upsells: Once you select a pricing plan from Bluehost, you’ll get constant reminders of other features that you can buy during the checkout process. And it doesn’t end there, with popups and other marketing communications that try to convince you to subscribe to a more expensive package. It’s a bit annoying, but these pitches ultimately don’t affect the quality of hosting and service you get in other facets.

No managed WordPress hosting: Bluehost has been recommended by WordPress since 2005, and they do offer WordPress hosting plans. However, they no longer offer managed hosting plans.

The best managed WordPress hosting providers offer additional services beyond one-click WordPress installations and optimized servers. Bluehost’s WordPress plans are essentially an enhanced version of the shared packages with WordPress-specific features. But it doesn’t come with the extra service enhancements that you’ll get from a fully managed host.

Bluehost Pricing and Options

Bluehost offers quite a few different hosting packages, like most other providers. We’ll break down a few of the most popular options below, with their benefits and pricing.

Bluehost Shared Hosting

The Bluehost shared hosting plan offers a great starting price point and is the most popular among first-time Bluehost users. This specific package is best for blogging, hobbies, or small business websites.

The best feature you won’t find everywhere else is that Bluehost manages and monitors their shared servers, so users can get solid performance from a budget hosting plan.

Some other features of their shared hosting packages include:

Domain manager
Resource protection
SSL certificates
Google Ads

Interestingly, Bluehost is currently running better introductory rates on its 12-month pricing terms (as opposed to the longest contract term of 36 months). Let’s compare the pricing for those two contract terms across the three shared hosting plans:

Basic: $2.95 per month on a 12-month term; $4.95 per month on a 36-month term
Choice Plus: $5.95 per month on a 12-month term; $7.45 per month on a 36-month term
Pro: $13.95 per month on a 12-month term; $18.95 per month on a 36-month term

Each successive plan adds extra benefits, such as daily website backups, malware scanning, and access to Yoast SEO.

With that said, all pricing plans include a free domain for one year, a free CDN, a free SSL certificate, custom themes, and 24/7 support.

While the 12-month contracts have a cheaper monthly rate, you still save more in the long run by locking in a 36-month agreement. That’s because your plan will automatically renew at the normal rate after your introductory offer expires.

So let’s say you sign up for the Basic plan for 12 months that auto-renews at $10.99 per month after the first year. You’d actually save about $120 over three years if you went with the 36-month term initially.

Bluehost Online Store

Bluehost’s specific shared hosting plan for online stores comes in one simple flavor, but packs a bunch of key features into it.

You can unlock access to Bluehost’s web store theme, ecommerce analytics, gift cards, unlimited product listings, a boatload of unique WordPress plugins, and a whole lot more.

Bluehost online store landing page with image of a woman planting flowers

Pricing for this plan starts at $9.95 per month for a 12-month contract, or $12.95 per month on a 36-month term.

Bluehost also has an online store plus marketplace offering. This is built for people who want to sell through marketplaces like Amazon, Etsy, eBay, and more, in addition to an ecommerce website.

The marketplace plan starts at $12.95 per month with a 12-month contract or $19.95 per month for a 36-month commitment.

Bluehost WordPress Hosting

Bluehost and WordPress go hand-in-hand, and there’s no better way to run your website than with its official WordPress hosting. Bluehost crafted this specific hosting package to boost your website, with resources and tools that seamlessly integrate with WordPress.

Bluehost and WordPress features: themes and plugins, reliable stability, and open source

With maximum compatibility with any WordPress website, this hosting plan will work best for starting a blog, a website, or a new online store. You can choose from a unique range of themes and templates from the Bluehost Marketplace, specifically tailored to WordPress.

Pricing here is identical to the shared hosting packages we discussed a little bit earlier. To recap, here’s how those plans’ pricing breaks down on tow different contract lengths:

Basic: $2.95 per month on a 12-month term; $4.95 per month on a 36-month term
Choice Plus: $4.95 per month on a 12-month term; $7.45 per month on a 36-month term
Pro: $13.95 per month on a 12-month term; $18.95 per month on a 36-month term

Bluehost VPS Hosting

Bluehost’s VPS plans are perfect for high-performance websites or developers and designers who want to manage multiple sites under a single plan. These virtual private servers also come with root access, so devs can make changes at the server level without limitations.

The best part about Bluehost’s VPS is that it offers tons of flexibility and customization options without the enterprise-level price tag.

You can use it to host unlimited domains and websites while dividing your server resources and environment in any way that you see fit.

Bluehost VPS hosting landing page with a man with a beard in a blue coat picking up small boxes in a retail shop

There are three different VPS plans to choose from:

Standard VPS: $29.99 per month for 36 months
Enhanced VPS: $39.99 per month for 36 months
Ultimate VPS: $69.99 per month for 36 months

Just be aware that like most of Bluehost’s hosting products, the renewal rates are a bit steep at more than double the promotional price—renewing at $79.99, $114.99, and $142.99 per month, respectively.

All plans come with cPanel and a single dashboard to manage all of your tools in one place. You’ll also benefit from unlimited bandwidth with no restrictions on traffic.

Bluehost Dedicated Hosting

Dedicated hosting is an excellent package for large businesses that need a massive increase in storage, power, and control from their hosting plan.

A dedicated hosting server provides the highest level of protection, security, and control to its users. These servers are separate from one another, so each user gets full access to the server without being affected or affecting another user’s experience.

With Bluehost dedicated hosting, it guarantees every user stable and predictable website performance, with full control and privacy.

This package is best for users that have high traffic websites, as you will need the full spectrum of RAM and CPU to run your website efficiently—which is exactly what dedicated hosting does.

Bluehost Dedicated Server Hosting website page

Some additional features and benefits you get on dedicated hosting include:

Extreme speed
Fast provisioning
RAID storage
Root access
Dedicated support
Storage upgrades
Free domain for one year

This package is on the high-end side of web hosting, so it focuses on performance and security while coming at a steeper price than the previous options:

Standard: $89.98 per month with 1 TB storage, 8 GB RAM, and 4 core CPUs
Enhanced: $119.88 per month with 2 TB storage, 16 GB RAM, and 8 core CPUs
Premium: $139.99 per month with 2 TB storage, 30 GB RAM, and 8 core CPUs

All the prices above apply when you commit to a 36-month contract term.

The Enhanced plan is the a better value compared to the Standard option when you consider the fact you’re getting double the storage and computing power for just $30 more per month.

Plus, both of these plans renew at the exact same price of $179.99 per month after the initial promo period ends. So the Standard plan isn’t really saving you much money in the long run.

Bluehost also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on these plans, which isn’t common in the web hosting industry at the dedicated server level.

Expanding Your Knowledge: Bluehost

Is Bluehost good for web hosting?

Bluehost is one of the best web hosting provider on the market today. It’s a great option for new websites looking for a fast and reliable hosting service that includes a free domain for one year and a free SSL certificate.

Bluehost also provides world-class support available 24/7. There are plenty of plan options to choose from, including shared hosting packages, VPS hosting, dedicated servers, online store hosting, WordPress hosting, WooCommerce hosting, and more. Sign up now to get started with Bluehost.

You can trust Bluehost with your web hosting needs. Bluehost powers more than two million websites worldwide, and it’s one of just three web hosting providers that’s recommended by WordPress.

Bluehost even offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. So if you’re not happy with the service or you feel like it’s just not delivering what you’d hoped for, you can always request a full refund for your web hosting service—no questions asked.

Is it better to use Bluehost or WordPress?

Bluehost and WordPress work best when you use both of them together. That’s because Bluehost is a web hosting provider, and WordPress is a CMS.

Bluehost offers plans with one-click WordPress installations for simple setups. You can even get WordPress-specific hosting through Bluehost, where WordPress is automatically installed and updated to ensure high-level performance and security. Bluehost has been recommended by WordPress since 2005, and the WordPress experts at Bluehost are available 24/7 to help you with setups, migrations, designs, and ongoing support.

Is Bluehost better than GoDaddy?

Bluehost is better than GoDaddy for web hosting. In fact, Bluehost ranks first on our list of the best web hosting services on the market, whereas GoDaddy did not make our list.

Bluehost is cheaper than GoDaddy, and GoDaddy’s features are a bit more limited than Bluehost’s. It’s worth noting that GoDaddy is a larger domain registrar than Bluehost. But you can still get a free domain name with your Bluehost web hosting plan. Check out our side-by-side comparison of Bluehost vs. GoDaddy for more information.

Does Bluehost have special promo codes right now?

Right now new customers can get web hosting from Bluehost for just $2.95 per month with a 12-month contract. This plan normally costs $10.99 per month, so it’s a great discount that you can unlock here without having to enter a promo code.

The special offer comes with a free domain name for one year and a free SSL certificate. All purchases are backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee from Bluehost.

Is Bluehost better than DreamHost?

Bluehost is better than DreamHost for new websites that want to bundle domain registration with web hosting and a website builder, all from a single provider. DreamHost is cheaper than Bluehost, and it’s a better option for websites seeking month-to-month plans—something that Bluehost does not offer. DreamHost also has a 97-day money-back guarantee compared to Bluehost’s 30-day refund policy.

Check out our side-by-side comparison of Bluehost vs. DreamHost for more information.

Is Bluehost better than HostGator?

Bluehost is better than HostGator for WordPress hosting. It’s also easier to use than HostGator and provides everything you need to build and host your website under one roof. HostGator ranks just behind Bluehost, and it works well for websites seeking an uptime guarantee and scalable resources when your website gets more traffic.

To determine whether Bluehost or HostGator is right for you, refer to our complete guide comparing Bluehost vs. HostGator.

Is Bluehost better than SiteGround?

Bluehost is overall better than SiteGround. It’s a better option for shared, WordPress, and VPS plans. Bluehost is also more affordable than Siteground. While SiteGround offers significant discounts on its promotional prices, it renews at a higher rate than Bluehost.

However, some of SiteGround’s plans offer a better value than Bluehost when you compare the cost against features and resources. Read our Bluehost vs. SiteGround comparison to learn more about these top web hosting providers.

Why is Bluehost so cheap?

Bluehost is cheap because it provides shared web hosting. With shared plans, multiple websites share the same server and the same server resources. This isn’t as costly for Bluehost to maintain, so the savings get passed to the customers.

Bluehost also offers cheaper plans to new customers. These promotional rates are up to 60% cheaper than the regular pricing when you lock in a 12 or 36-month contract. But the cheap Bluehost plans will automatically renew at the normal rate when the initial contract expires.

Comparing the Best Web Hosting Services

We spent hours reviewing different web hosting services. You can check out our comparison guide here.

Hostinger – Best web hosting for lots of storage

Bluehost – Best for new WordPress users

HostGator – Best for scaling your small business easily

Web.com – Best for simple business sites

DreamHost – Best for straightforward web hosting needs

SiteGround – Best hosting for 99.99% uptime

InMotion – Best price for hosting two websites on one plan

Nexcess – Best for experienced WordPress users

A2 Hosting – Most dependable web hosting for global traffic

Overall, Bluehost a great choice for those who are new to WordPress because it comes with everything you need to get started with WordPress—from a free domain name and automatic WordPress installation to a free drag-and-drop page builder and thorough step-by-step instructions for every step of the way.

With extensive product offerings like WordPress hosting, shared hosting, dedicated hosting, and multi-tiered pricing plans, we think most users will enjoy the Bluehost experience.

Even though Hostinger is our top recommendation in this category, Bluehost is definitely a web hosting service worth looking into.

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