Bluehost is one of the biggest web hosting companies in the world and an official WordPress recommended hosting provider. Bluehost offers a wide variety of hosting plans for beginners and for medium to large businesses with 24/7 customer support. See the complete Bluehost review by our experts to find out if Bluehost is the right choice for you.
In this comprehensive Bluehost review, we’ll put their promises to test with a rigorous and through analysis using industry standard benchmarking tools.
Following are the areas we’ll look into:
- Speed: How fast will your website load with Bluehost? We will test their speed and server response time to assess that.
- Performance: How does Bluehost perform under traffic spikes? We’ll test that by performing the stress test and see how well it performs under traffic.
- Reliability: Will your website be available 24/7/365 without any downtime?
- Customer Support: Can you count on Bluehost’s customer support when you immediately need help with your website?
- Features: Do they offer all the features that you’ll need to build your website?
- Pricing: Do they have the best pricing in the industry? Are there any Bluehost deals that can save you money?
This is our complete Bluehost review and we’ll be doing an in-depth analysis of Bluehost pros and cons. If you don’t want to read the full review, here is the quick scorecard of Bluehost with our verdict right below it.
| Bluehost Review Summary | |
|---|---|
| Performance grade | A+ |
| Average load time | 1.48 ms |
| Average response time | 1.26 ms |
| Free domain | Yes |
| Free SSL | Yes |
| 1-click WordPress | Yes |
| Support | Phone / Live Chat / Knowledge base |
| Start with Bluehost | |
Bottom line: In our Bluehost review, we found them to be reliable, fast, and affordable with friendly 24/7 customer support.
That’s why we’ve chosen to recommend Bluehost as one of the best WordPress hosting companies.
Now let’s dive into our detailed Bluehost hosting review so that you can decide for yourself.
About Bluehost
First, let’s take a look at the company itself.
Bluehost started in 1996 and steadily grew to become one of the largest web hosting companies in the world. It now powers more than 2 million websites from all over the world.
Bluehost has a long-standing relationship with the WordPress community. They are an official WordPress.org recommended web host since 2006.
They pride themselves in their 24/7 customer support, great hosting infrastructure, and support for the free open source software like WordPress.
Pros and Cons of Bluehost
All best web hosting services have their pros and cons. Some you can live with, and some you cannot ignore.
Here are the pros and cons of Bluehost that we learned.
Pros
First, let’s take a look at the advantages that make Bluehost the top choice.
- Pricing: Their hosting plans are well within the reach of most users, particularly those who are just starting out.
- Reliability: They power a large number of websites with minimum downtime.
- No hidden charges: There are no hidden fees when signing up for your account.
- Free domain: You get a free domain name for the first year when you signup.
- Free CDN + SSL: For each website, you get a free SSL certificate and free Cloudflare CDN to block malware and improve security.
- Money Back Guarantee: They offer a 30 day money back guarantee on all plans.
Cons
As we mentioned earlier, there are always downsides with every hosting company. The following are some disadvantages of choosing Bluehost as your host.
- Higher domain renewal price Their free domain renewal price is higher than average.
- Upselling Addons: They have an aggressive upsell process during signup. But you can easily uncheck SiteLock and all other addons if you don’t need them.
Bluehost Performance Tests
The most important performance metric that you should look for is the speed. It not only affects user experience on your site, but it also affects your WordPress SEO rankings.
Studies show that a 1-second drop in website speed can decrease your conversion rate by 7%. A 3-second delay can cost you 50% of your traffic.
Let’s see how fast your website will load on Bluehost.
Bluehost Speed Test Results
For a faster website, you will need to choose a fast website hosting company. Keeping this in mind, we created a test site to see how fast Bluehost really is.
Our test site was created using WordPress with the default Twenty Twenty theme. We imported dummy content for theme development including images. After that, we used Pingdom to test the website speed.
Here are our test results:
As you can see, our test site loads in less than two seconds. Considering the fact that our website wasn’t using any caching plugins or speed optimization tips, this result is remarkable.
However, the speed test alone isn’t enough because this test site didn’t have large amount of traffic.
To test how Bluehost servers would respond with increased traffic, we used a testing tool called K6 (formerly LoadImpact) to send virtual users (VU) to our test site.
We used it to gradually built up to 100 visitors to see how the server would handle increased requests from multiple connections at once.
Here is a screenshot of our results.
The green line is the number of active virtual users on the site, and the blue line is the server load time. As you can see the server load remained stable throughout the test even at peak traffic.
This test indicates that if you are looking for a really fast website, then Bluehost can be a perfect fit for you.
It is also important to note that we didn’t record any downtime during our testing.
Many hosting companies promise a 99.99% uptime guarantee. We set up an uptime monitoring alert for our test account. See the screenshot below for a detailed look at Bluehost server uptime.
Bluehost Server Response Time
When you are testing a live website using tools like Pingdom, you are basically seeing how everything on your website loads. This includes images too, which take much longer to load than plain text.
In order to get a more accurate server response time, we used another tool called Bitcatcha. It allows you to test server response time without loading any data.
As you can see Bluehost server in the US performed under the fraction of a second. In other locations, the response was a bit higher but still under less than a second.
If your target audience is in the United States, then this would benefit your website. However, if more of your users come from other parts of the world, then you can change your server location.
Bluehost Hosting Plans and Features
Bluehost offers a variety of hosting plans for all budgets and sizes. This includes shared hosting, VPS, dedicated server, cloud hosting, WooCommerce hosting, managed WordPress hosting, and more.
Let’s take a look at Bluehost hosting plans and their features.
- Shared hosting: Shared hosting is the perfect way to start a new website with low traffic volume. In a shared hosting environment, your website shares server resources with other websites.
- Cloud hosting: A more reliable upgrade to the shared hosting plan. It allows you to utilize multiple cloud servers, allowing your website to automatically switch to a different server in case of a hardware failure or high traffic.
- WordPress hosting: Their WordPress plans are designed specifically for WordPress powered websites. It is optimized to run WordPress and can even protect your WordPress site against common threats.
- WooCommerce hosting: WooCommerce is the most popular eCommerce plugin for WordPress, it allows you to easily start an online store with WordPress. WooCommerce hosting offers you all the essential features to kick start your eCommerce store.
- VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting: An upgrade to shared WordPress hosting, VPS hosting allows you to virtual dedicated resources in a shared environment.
- Dedicated hosting server: A dedicated hosting server for your website, means you will have all the resources of the dedicated server to yourself. The downside is that you will have to manage the server on your own.
All Bluehost hosting plans allow you to install WordPress with 1-click.
All plans come with an easy-to-use hosting control panel where you can manage your hosting, create databases, etc.
Bluehost has a custom control panel that improves ease of use for beginners. It also uses a customized version of the cPanel hosting dashboard for more advanced options.
Breakdown of Bluehost’s Shared Hosting Plans
Bluehost offers a shared hosting package suitable for starter websites. Their shared plan is available at four different levels.
Let’s take a look at Bluehost pricing and what’s included in each plan.
- Basic: The basic plan only allows you to host one website. It hosts one domain and 25 subdomains, 50GB SSD storage, 5 email accounts of 100 MB disk space for each account. For the first term you’ll pay $2.75 per month. When you renew the account, you’ll have to pay $8.99 per month.
- Plus: The Plus plan includes unlimited websites with unlimited storage space and unmetered bandwidth. You’ll also get unlimited email accounts. The price for the first term starts from $4.95 per month. When you renew the account, you’ll have to pay $11.99 per month.
- Choice Plus: The Choice Plus plan includes all features of plus plan. You will also get free domain privacy, and automated daily backups powered by CodeGuard as extras worth over $80/year. The price for the first term is $5.45 per month. When renewing, you’ll have to pay $16.99 per month.
- Pro The Pro plan starts from $13.95 per month for the first term after that you’ll pay $23.99 per month. It includes all features of above plans + dedicated IP address.
If you are just starting your website, then you can select any of these plans. You can easily upgrade your hosting plan as your website grows.
Bluehost Customer Support and Service
We all need help every now and then. It is really important that you choose a web hosting company that offers help and support when you need it.
Bluehost maintains a huge library of articles, step by step guides, and video tutorials as part of their extensive knowledge base. This is a huge help for beginners and most common issues can be quickly resolved by a simple search.
However, sometimes you may need to talk to an individual to get more help.
Bluehost offers a 24/7 support system where you can talk to their support team representatives using live chat or phone support. This is really helpful when you need quick help from technical support staff and you know they are just one-click away.
One thing that is missing is the ticket based support system. Bluehost recently decided to eliminate ticket-based support to focus on personal approach of live chat support and phone-based support.
However, some users may still miss the ticket-based support system which is particularly good if your issue cannot be resolved in one live chat or phone session.
Conclusion: Is Bluehost the Right Choice for You?
After reading this review, you might be wondering if Bluehost is the right choice for your website?
Bluehost is often ranked #1 web hosting provider by many websites. They offer a wide range of hosting options with tons of features that help you easily build your website.
All their hosting plans include expert 24/7 customer support from knowledgeable staff.
Most importantly, they offer affordable starter plans that fit any budget requirement.
If you are just starting out, then you cannot go wrong signing up for a Bluehost shared hosting plan. It’s easy on your pocket and comes with all the right tools. As your site grows you can easily upgrade your hosting plan accordingly.
Ready to start your website with Bluehost? Click here to select your Bluehost plan.
Bluehost Coupon
WPBeginner users get an exclusive 60% off discount and a free domain with our Bluehost coupon code.
All you have to do is click on this link to purchase. The discount will be applied automatically.
Remember, you must use the link above to get the exclusive discount. If you visit the Bluehost website directly or use another link, then you won’t get the special offer.
FAQs About Bluehost hosting
In this detailed Bluehost review we have tried to cover all the aspects of their hosting services. The following are some of the most frequently asked questions about Bluehost that we hear from our users.
1. Can I make an online store using WooCommerce on Bluehost?
Yes, you can. In fact, Bluehost is one of the best WooCommerce hosting service provider. Their starter plan is perfect to start an online store.
However, keep in mind that you’ll need to upgrade as your store starts getting more traffic. Hopefully, by that time you’ll be making enough money to justify the upgrade costs.
2. Is Bluehost good for beginners?
Yes. Bluehost is the most beginner-friendly WordPress hosting company on the market. They automatically install WordPress for you when you sign up. They also have an easy to use control panel which allows you to manage your hosting account by yourself.
There is plenty of help available with detailed guides, video tutorials, and articles. You also have 24/7 access to their expert support via live chat and phone.
3. Can Bluehost handle high traffic?
Their shared hosting plans are suitable for starter websites and small businesses. In our stress test, their shared hosting plan was able to handle 100 virtual users without any slowdown.
These plans can handle reasonable and sudden traffic spikes. However, they are still quite limited in server resources. If you are expecting high traffic then you’ll need to upgrade your hosting plan.
4. Why use Bluehost for WordPress?
Bluehost is one of the largest hosting companies in the world and an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider. They have been supporting the WordPress community for a very long time and know WordPress very well.
Their platform is highly optimized for WordPress websites and engineered to run WordPress at peak performance. They also have WordPress engineers in their team so you know your website is in safe hands.
5. Do I need a credit card to sign up with Bluehost?
Bluehost accepts credit cards but you can choose to show more payment options during checkout and select PayPal as your payment method if you wish.
6. Is Bluehost better than GoDaddy?
Bluehost is better than GoDaddy because we believe Bluehost support is better. Their My Sites dashboard and overall onboarding experience is a lot more beginner friendly. Not to mention, Bluehost offers better pricing for small businesses.
7. How does Bluehost compare with SiteGround and HostGator?
When comparing Bluehost with SiteGround and HostGator, there are several pros and cons you should be aware of.
Bluehost offers more value for the price when compared to SiteGround. Their plans start at $2.75 per month and includes a free domain, whereas SiteGround plans start at $4.99 and does not include any free domain.
On the other hand, SiteGround platform comes with better speed and security features. For more details, see our comparison of Bluehost vs SiteGround vs WP Engine.
In terms of Bluehost vs HostGator, they’re pretty similar when it comes to hosting CPU resources, functionality, site migration tools, pricing, and more. Bluehost is also more comparable with shared hosting providers like Inmotion hosting or Dreamhost. We find Bluehost user experience to be slightly better as they’ve invested heavily in their WordPress website builder platform.
8. Where are Bluehost servers located?
Bluehost operates its own in-house data center located in Utah, US. It is a massive 50,000 square feet facility that serves as their primary data center.
9. What Bluehost plan should I get?
If you are just starting out a brand new website, blog, or online store, then we recommend starting with their basic plan. It is good enough for a starter website and you can always upgrade later.
Ready to start your website with Bluehost? Click here to select your Bluehost plan.
Man Yee Keung says
Bluehost is great so far! I purchased a discounted Bluehost subscription a few months ago through an affiliate link. I found Bluehost because after searching for hosts for my website, Bluehost came up as one which was highly reputable and very easy to manage. I have not launched my blog yet, but Bluehost has not given me any issues at all thus far. There are numerous features and a helpful checklist to get my blog up and running. I love the look of my blog already, even though I don’t have any experience building websites.
Andrius Gudaitis says
very happy with account, easy to use, speed good. Has excelent customer support with any issue
Joyce Derenas says
I’m delighted with Bluehost for managing my WordPress website. As I continually learn more about running an efficient site, Bluehost has more than enough services and 3rd party add-ons to make me happy.
I’m slowly starting to turn my site into an English / French site and again, it’s easy on Bluehost. They are very responsive to any phone calls or emails from me. I’m a customer for life.
Irene Martin says
Really easy to build a website with BlueHost and WordPress, lots of tutorials online. I have no background on building website and had mine running in 5 days. Great tool.
Alan Snelson says
Bluehost and wpbeginner helped me to get a complex website on line in a fairly straightforward way. Although I had created several websites using a variety of software I was a complete beginner with WordPress. Without the guidance and support of Bluehost I wouldn’t have had much idea how to get things set up. The hosting has been super reliable too, with no discernible downtime and all for a very reasonable cost.
ELFADIL ABDALLAH BAKER says
Bluehost is awesome for me, it has cool tools all tool in one place for use when you need it, This helps me gain time and complete all tasks quickly and easily,
Dan Lovallo says
I switched my domain from Namecheap, including EasyWP to Bluehost, where my domain and WP now rest. The transition was seamless and Bluehost has been terrific, when it comes to support. I hope to remain with Bluehost for a longtime.
Imad Abou Jaoude says
Best Hosting Company online!
Harsh Mankad says
My experience with Bluehost has been very positive from setting up my website hosting to the support I received for developing and launching the site. I’m very happy with my decision to go with Bluehost!
Given Hoffman says
With Bluehost setting up a website was so easy. Phone assistance from Bluehost was great. They helped me through a couple issues I had with WP that they totally didn’t have to help me with but did anyway. I have been so pleased with their customer serve, their pricing, and their hosting.
Komar Adriant says
so far, i like bluehost, better than my previous provider. provide an easy control panel to learn and use even for new user, have a useful feature, good performance and helpful (documentation and customer service). Simply i feel happy and satisfied from all aspect because it meet my expectation of a professional provider
Jennifer Hamm says
I had always wanted to start a blog, but had no idea where to start. With no experience with creating websites I was a little intimidated. However bluehost made it easy. Everything was laid out in an understandable format and all the tools I needed where right at my fingertips. I am now up and running and I couldn’t have done it without bluehost. I couldn’t imagine creating my content using any other host out there.
Tom merrett says
Blue host offers great functionality and customisation options. I wouldn’t choose any other platform
Megan Flynn says
I’ve been using BlueHost for the last couple of years for a couple of different projects, most recently to launch my own company. I chose them after an extensive, careful review of all the various options out there—specifically those that work best with WordPress. I’m so glad I chose BlueHost, and I recommend it to all of my clients. It’s affordable, their support team is responsive, and their services work beautifully with WordPress!
Sarah Hull says
I was looking for a new hosting company as my existing I felt was continuously throwing advertising and making it more and more convoluted to move around in my control panel.
I have not looked back with finding Bluehost, their Cpanel is so clear and simply I don’t have to jump form page to page just to find what I am looking for. I think the one thing that really did win me over to join up was their Chat & call staff, all had impeccable knowledge, were so helpful and happy, generally seemed happy to work their and take my call and solve my problem or questions.
I can’t stress enough that it’s so nice to have a simple but yet effective and efficient cpanel… thank you for really figuring that out.
Tara Freeland says
BlueHost has been easy to work with and dependable, definitely recommend for website hosting. Two thumbs up.
Sarah Chung says
I moved from GoDaddy to BlueHost, I found that BlueHost understand the customers’ emotion, wants, and needs. They are passionate, flexible and have compassionate. I also paid for the BlueSky, employees are knowledgeable and patience. I strongly recommend BlueHost.
Mike Brailey says
I have been using Bluehost for more than a year to host a number of client sites. The platform is reliable and the support team (who helped me in the early days) were knowledgeable and keen to assist. I recommend Bluehost as a comprehensive partner for anyone considering setting up a WordPress website.
Josh Stoler says
I love Bluehost to be the provider and keeper of our organization’s domain. It was extremely easy to setup and an even better experience to interact with their support team when we have questions. They are fantastic!
Rae Greenip says
Bluehost is amazing. The customer service is excellent and I can’t say enough about the value Bluehost offers. They have provided prompt, incredible support every time I’ve been in a jam with multiple websites. The staff are not only super knowledgeable but friendly as well.
Megan Shrestha says
I’m a freelance graphic designer and use Bluehost all the time to support my clients’ websites. For the most part, I’ve found their platform to be easy to use to get new sites up and running. I have had a few stumbling blocks with getting the SSL certificates activated appropriately, and images not working when that transition happened, BUT was able to work with their support team and resolve it quickly. One client had a major site slowdown and we had to transfer to another host, but I think it was a fluke. Overall I’d say they’re a good choice.
Tim Jacox says
My review is short, just like the time it took me to figure out the ins and outs of Bluehost. Everything was easy to find and I was able to get my original site up and running within a couple of days. I have since changed the layout and am considering changing it again, although I really need to find the time to work on it. Just been super busy lately. I know that when I do return it will be just as easy to use as the first time.
Thank you for providing a great service!
Caroline McCormick says
This is my first time using Bluehost and I love it! It was easy to understand, pricing seemed reasonable (compared to other hosting sites I checked out), and there has been no issue with using WordPress with Bluehost. This is my first webpage ever, so more to come, but so far everything has been great! Thank you!
Stefano Faso says
I have been using Bluehost and WordPress for a short time, but I have liked every single second of it.
Their customer service is great as well and will assist you in chat.
Overall, I’m very happy with them.
Rae Greenip says
Bluehost has amazing customer service. They have gotten me through so many jams with clients’ websites, they are absolutely my go to. The interface is so user friendly for can train my clients to do their own website maintenance. I can’t say enough about the incredible value Bluehost offers!!!!
Maggie Shewack says
I am loving the ease and convenience of Bluehost! While I was torn about how to start my website- I absolutely made the best decision! I am so happy with this choice.
I can’t wait to watch my website grow even more in 2020 and I owe it all to Bluehost!
Alex Brune says
I was originally on another host. But I kept having issues and the pricing wasn’t right for me. I made the switch to square space last year, and was able to get a great price when purchasing years ahead. Now I have great support and a great platform for my WordPress business site.
Alkia Mitchell says
I really enjoy using bluehost. It has made my web development work much easier. Anytime I have issues, I contact support and they get it squared away immediately. I wouldn’t choose any other hosting provider.
Raluca Anghel says
I am really pleased with BlueHost. I have very little knowledge on how to design and publish a wordpress website and how to navigate the system, but I appreciated the most about BH (besides the articles full of instructions), their call line support has been very helpful! I called in the middle of the night from Lisbon, Portugal and they helped me figure out my situation.
Even though the pricing system confused me at the beginning and I ended up paying more than I needed to, because of the pluses BH brings, I will of course continue my subscription.
Shannon Phillips says
I’m so glad I switched over to Bluehost. The technical support I’ve received while transitioning was outstanding, plus that same level of support has been upheld during any issue that has arisen for me. The ease of use with Bluehost has been incomparable to other web hosting tools. I highly recommend this service to all users.
Amber W says
I chose Bluehost (and WordPress) about 7 months ago for my first website/blog. I chose Bluehost after researching online and seeing the good reviews, especially for beginners. So far, so great. The platform is pretty user friendly and I didn’t have any problems setting it up. I’m satisfied and would recommend Bluehost.
Stephanie DeLong says
My company and site are very new, but Bluehost has provided timely support to all our issues and made getting started very easy!
Kris Spencer says
I’m a brand new first time blogger without a lot of tech knowledge. Bluehost was recommended as a solid, reasonably priced place to start.
Kris Spencer says
I’m a brand new, first time blogger without a lot of tech knowledge. Bluehost was recommended as a solid, reasonably priced place to start.
Amber Waugaman says
I’ve been using Bluehost now for about 5 months. I am a beginner at website making and wanted to start a blog. After reading several reviews on best hosting sites, I decided to go with a Bluehost and WordPress combo. Everything has been running seamless so far and I’m finding it very easy to use. I recommend Bluehost.
Corrie S says
Bluehost has been an amazing platform to launch my site from. They have great customer/technical service and offer fast and thorough support.
Senka says
I like the way bluehost keep things simple. Thou price could be lower I think I’m goona keep my host for another year
Matthew Escobar says
Bluehost gives the best value for your dollar. With great rates for pricing and a powerful, yet user-friendly platform, Bluehost is my recommendation for anyone that needs to host their website. Their interface is so easy to use, even for a beginner, and I have never had anyone report issues with down time or lag with my site. Great hosting service!
Oliver Pettyfer says
Bluehost is great and have never had any issues with the service they have provided. The only issue I some times see if speed performance compared to some other hosts such as site ground.
C Spector says
Bluehost is easy to use for moderate users. There is somewhat of a learning curve, but someone familiar with computers, even if they have not done websites before, can get up a basic but pretty nice looking site in a few hours.
John Paul says
Working with Bluehost is a seamless process. The hosting capabilities and user-friendly interface makes it easy to create a great website. There are plenty of tools to make your website efficient. Reliable, fast hosting for any business, I’d recommend Bluehost to anyone.
David Denis says
Absolutely love Bluehost! Their customer support is off the chain and they never give me the stiff arm. It’s perhaps the easiest way to manage a group of websites and wouldn’t dream of going somewhere else!
Mohamed Saadeldin Hassan says
More than a year ago, and due to the stellar reputation of Bluehost, I decided to switch my host to be there, and really it was worth it.
It’s so easy to set up your website and manage it.
A user-friendly cPanel interface.
Live instant support from a helpful professional team.
Uptime: 99.99% throughout the year.
The website load speed is almost 0.4 second.
So it is always officially recommended by WordPress.
Tom Treacy says
The service has been great. I am not very experienced with building websites and have been teaching myself. Bluehost makes this process easy and they have a relationship with WordPress
nick says
It’s affordable and easy to use. The customer experience is very good for managing wordpress sites.
Sabina Baholli says
I did some research before choosing to use Bluehost and was not disappointed. It is indeed very intuitive and I really like how it notifies me for any update regarding my domain status, renewals or any other issue related to my account.
Jack says
I started blogging over 1 year ago using Squarespace however just made the switch to Bluehost & WordPress a few months ago. Probably the best thing I have done for my website. There is so much flexibility when it comes to building your website and at a faction of the cost. Bluehost is only a £2-3 per month which is 10 times less then what I was paying before. The Bluehost dashboard also fits in seemisly with my WordPress. I recommend Bluehost.
Daniel Johnson says
As a charity organisation, we decided to develop a website to show an online presence and after various investigations we resulted to Bluehost using WordPress and decided to subscribe last year. The package was good value for money.
Arildo says
great customer service and very good speed for wordpress websites
Sara Toth says
Bluehost is incredibly reliable and helpful service. I love the way how they make my website, email management smooth. Thanks!