Is It Worth Signing Up for This Web Hosting Company? Bluehost Horde
Bluehost is home for more than 2,000,000 websites.
This is quite a lot.
It is clear that they are doing something right by having such a large customer base. Their hosting plans are reliable and fast, and they offer helpful features for beginners as well as intermediates.
Bluehost also provides 24/7 live chat and telephone support. They offer a 30-day money-back guarantee so you can give them another chance.
There are also some downsides to this plan, such as higher renewal costs and restrictions on the cheapest one.
We only use real data to base our reviews, including uptime, speed, cost, and other relevant information.
So, without further ado, let’s take a closer look at Bluehost and find out if they can provide the high-quality website hosting service that you need. Bluehost Horde
Bluehost Video Review
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General Info & Hosting Overview
Our Verdict: 5.0
SPEED: 688 ms, April 2020 to March 2021
UPTIME: 99.96% (April 2020 – March 2021).
SUPPORT: Live Chat, Email, Phone, Knowledge Base, 24/7 Support
APPS: WordPress. Joomla. WordPress. Drupal. PHPBB. Plus More Than 75+ Open Source projects
FEATURES: Unmetered bandwidth, Unlimited Websites and Storage, Free Domain 1st Year, Free SSL Certificate and CDN, Spam Experts, Domain Privacy, 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee, WordPress 1-Click Install
HOSTING PLANS: Shared, WordPress, VPS, Reseller, and Dedicated Servers
SITE TRANSFER: Get a single WordPress site for FREE starting at $2.75/mo Bluehost Hosting Bluehost was founded in 2003. Their experience has allowed them to understand what makes hosting services great.
Their introductory prices are affordable, customer support is easy to reach and helpful, and you get many useful features to go with your hosting plan. They offer high uptime and reliable server speeds.
Let’s take a more detailed look at Bluehost’s strong points. Bluehost Horde
1. Great uptime during 12-months (99.96%)
The most important aspect of choosing a webhost is uptime. Your users won’t have access to your site if your website is down. So, consistent uptime should be one of your top priorities when looking at hosting services.
Over 40 web hosts were reviewed and our benchmark for “good” uptime was 99.93%. We prefer 99.93% as our benchmark.
Bluehost is able to easily exceed this benchmark and keep our test site online for 99.96% of its time in the past 12 months (April 2020 – March 2021). The year-long total downtime was slightly less than four hours.
Bluehost average uptime
March 2021 – 100%
February 2021: 99.95%
January 2021: 100 %
December 2020: 99.98%
November 2020: 100%
October 2020: 99.67%
September 2020: 100%
August 2020: 99.99%
July 2020: 99.98%
June 2020: 100% Bluehost Horde
May 2020: 99.90% (scheduled maintenance)
April 2020: 99.99%
2. Rapid Page Loading Speed (688ms)
Google has conducted research and found that people who wait longer for pages to load are 32% more likely than others to abandon your website. The problem only gets worse when page load times are longer.
Google is also more mobile-first.
Also, your site should be mobile-friendly. Or else you risk losing customers.
Either way, a slow website almost always means less traffic and, therefore, lower sales numbers. Page loading time, after uptime is crucial for website success.
See stats Bluehost’s test site has an average load speed 688 ms in the past year. It isn’t the fastest but it’s not bad. Bluehost Horde
3. Low Introductory Pricing ($2.75/mo)
Bluehost’s default pricing starts at $3.95/month, which is an introductory price from the regular $8.99/month rate.
Bluehost is able to offer a special price for our readers. It’s $2.75/month. For that price, you get all the features you need to have a website. This includes 50GB SSD storage, unlimited bandwidth, a free SSL certificate, as well as unmetered bandwidth. You’d get a good deal for the price and a consistent uptime.
The cheapest plan is not without its limitations, but we are not completely satisfied with them. More on this later.
4. Enhanced Security Options and Features
Since Bluehost is one of the “cheapest” options on the market, we are pleased to see that they don’t cut too many corners on critical security options and features.
Bluehost already provides a free SSL certificate to your site as part of the lowest plan. Enjoy great features like a Cloudflare CDN (free CDN), a one button WordPress install and multiple CMS integrations.
Higher-tier plans include Spam Experts, domain privacy protection, server backups, and Spam Experts. Also, you get more advanced security features such as SiteLock, which helps prevent malware attacks.
Codeguard is another protection option that offers daily backups, so that you can rollback older versions of a site if it gets hacked.
Postini, from Google, is the final security tool worth noting. It protects your email from spam, so any suspicious emails are blocked. Bluehost Horde
5. Simple to Use for Beginners
Only advanced users can consider some of the top web hosts. But, Bluehost is great for beginners, too.
Their customer portal is intuitive and clean (although, we have experienced it is a bit slow at times). Bluehost is made even easier by the layout of the cPanel panel. It is easy to install WordPress and get started with it through cPanel. All you need to do is a point and click in most cases.
You don’t have to use WordPress. Instead, you can create a website using a website builder tool such as Weebly and Drupal. You can then customize a template by just dragging and dropping elements on your page.
Bluehost has advanced features that allow you to use your code to create your website.
6. 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee
Bluehost offers a 30-day money back guarantee on all hosting plans.
You can test out the service and ask for a full refund if you aren’t satisfied. A few words of warning, however.
Bluehost’s terms state that these are the conditions under which Bluehost will guarantee your satisfaction.
Only the cost of web hosting can be refunded.
Bluehost would subtract $15.99 if you got a free domain in your plan.
Bluehost will not issue a refund if a request is made after 30 days.
It isn’t like the host’s “no-questions-asked” policy. These points should be agreed upon before you sign up. Bluehost Horde
7. 24/7 Customer Support
Bluehost offers 24/7 customer care via live chat and phone as well as an email ticketing system. A vast knowledge base is available that contains answers to frequently asked questions as well as useful information.
We tested the live chat option and were pleased with the results.
We received quick answers and were well-informed by the representative. Yes, there were some duplicate responses, but the follow up questions encouraged us to create our own and more helpful answers.
8. One Free WordPress Site Transfer
This perk is available to those who already own a website and wish to switch to Bluehost’s web hosting plan.
Bluehost only recently started offering a free site transfer with all of their plans.
There are a couple of terms to this free service, though. First, the site needs to be a WordPress site. Second, you must request the migration within the first thirty days of signing up for hosting.
You simply need to contact the customer service team and follow their instructions. The average time it takes to migrate is 1-3 business day.
It is $149.99 for those who don’t have WordPress websites or have more than one. You can migrate up to five websites and 20 email accounts.
9. The Official WordPress.org Recommend Host
WordPress is the most commonly used website platform on market. WordPress accounts for approximately 44%.
It’s safe to say that they have an authoritative word when it comes to hosting solutions. WordPress only recommends three hosting partners that can be used in conjunction with a WordPress site. Bluehost Horde
For a WordPress site, you can use nearly any web hosting company. But the fact that Bluehost is one of the few officially recognized partners is encouraging.
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Cons of Using Bluehost Hosting
Even though we’re happy to see such low introductory prices, the renewal rates can get a bit steep.
Let’s take a closer glance at these downfalls.
1. Higher Renewals Rates
Prepaying for hosting upfront is the best way for you to get the lowest price. While the average monthly price of hosting drops, you still have to commit hundreds of dollars upfront.
You can still use their 30-day money-back guarantee to receive a full refund if you aren’t satisfied with their service. But, the rates will go up sharply once your plan is finished.
Let’s say that you choose the cheapest plan for three year, which costs $2.75/month. After the initial period, the next period’s renewal price starts at $8.99/month with a three-year commitment.
The third period is more expensive in this example than the first.
2. Cheapest Plan Restrictions
Bluehost’s cheapest shared host plan comes with severe restrictions.
One website is allowed, but storage space is limited. The only security feature that you receive is an SSL certificate. If you need more security or have multiple sites, you must upgrade to at least the next pricing tier. This is twice as much.
These restrictions on the cheapest plan in web hosting are unfortunately quite common. The companies fight over who can get customers to sign up for their services at the lowest cost. Bluehost Horde
Bluehost Pricing, Hosting Plans & Quick Facts
Here’s what Bluehost’s shared hosting pricing plans look like:
| Pricing | $2.75/month Renews at $8.99/mo |
$5.45/month Renews at $11.99/mo |
$5.45/month Renews at $16.99/mo |
$13.95/month Renews at $26.99/mo |
| Websites | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Bandwidth | Unmetered | Unmetered | Unmetered | Unmetered |
| Storage | 50 GB | Unmetered | Unmetered | Unmetered |
| Email Accounts | 5 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Other Features | – | • Spam Experts | • Spam Experts • Domain Privacy & Protection • Codeguard Basic |
• 2 Spam Experts • Domain Privacy & Protection • Codeguard Basic • Dedicated IP |
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Quick Facts
- Money-Back: 30-day money-back guarantee
- Website migration: 1 WordPress website transfer is free Other migrations can be done for $149.99 and up to five websites.
- Free domain? Yes, the first year. After that, the renewal fee is $15.99 per year.
- Sign Up Easier: Simple and Guided Sign-up Process
- Payment Methods – Major credit cards and PayPal.
- Hidden fees and clauses: Domain names cannot be refunded. Hosting and domain renewal rates can be much higher than those at the beginning.
- Upsells: Some upsells during sign-up, but nothing too aggressive.
- Account activation: Most cases are instant. Activation could be delayed if incorrect information is provided or suspicions of fraud.
- Control Panel and Dashboard experience: Easy-to-use cPanel
- Installation of Apps & CMS (WordPress Joomla etc. Mojo Marketplace makes it easy to install apps. Bluehost Horde
Bluehost – Do We Recommend?
Yes.
Bluehost’s performance has been slightly better than in the past. However, they still provide reliable services with decent server speeds.
You also get strong security options, a money-back guarantee, lots of user-friendly applications, and multiple tiers for hosting packages to suit different customers. The pricing starts at $2.75/month with our special discount.
Bluehost isn’t perfect. The renewal rates of hosting plans will go up dramatically after the initial signup period. Additionally, the cheapest plan comes with some significant restrictions that can be compared to the other tiers.
Bluehost offers good performance and value for money.
Bluehost are you familiar with their services? You can leave a review below, good or bad, as long you are helpful to other visitors. Bluehost Horde
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