BlueHost Web Hosting Reviews

Bluehost, which was established and instituted in 1996, is considered among the oldest providers of web hosting needs around the world.  But, what are webmasters saying about them? This BlueHost Review should provide you with enough information to decide if they are right for you. The company offers top-rated network infrastructure system as expected from a web host that has engaged in the business for quite some time now and has already gained the reputation for being one of the most successful web hosting companies. The Bluehost system data is outfitted with up-to-the-minute and state-of-the-art processor servers, efficient storage backup system, reserved power generator (UPS/Diesel) and a technical staff that monitors the system data 24/7/365. The connectivity of the company is very remarkable with a powerful backbone connection (OC-48) that provides a high bandwidth at 2GB per second.

Whenever I review a web hosting company I am looking at a number of different things.  I want to know what features they offer.  What their uptime is like?  How reliable are their servers?  Is there customer support fast and helpful?  And, last but not least what is their price compared to other web hosting companies.

BlueHost Features

BlueHost offers a number of different plans.  In the past they only offered shared web hosting, but over the years they have progressed a lot and now offer VPS, dedicated, and now reseller hosting.  Whether you run a small website or large enterprise site BlueHost can easily support anything you desire.  Their prices are as follows:

Shared Plan

Bluehost has lots of features for their one and only shared plan.  This plan is fantastic for blogs, local shops, small businesses,  photo galleries, and any other website that isn’t going to get a substantial amount of traffic. It’s a common web hosting trend these days to simplify plans with a wide range of product lines that provide a “one-size-fits-all” package. This is how Bluehost came up with their “Platinum Pak” Plan; which is just as well, because a lot of webmasters seem to favor the idea of only just one plan to consider when making a choice, especially for the neophytes. It makes sense as you don’t have to rack your brain trying to decide which plan to take. It’s almost like an automatic thing. The great thing is for a very affordable price of $5.99 per month, you get almost all the features you could ask for – the most significant ones, anyway.

Bluehost Web Hosting is perhaps the web hosting company that has the most comprehensive package, which includes unlimited number of full Domains, plus unlimited number of sub-domains, both under a single account. It also offers 15000 GB of disk storage space and another 15000 GB per month for data transfer/bandwidth. This is a lot more than Hostgator would allow you for a shared package.

 BlueHost is a recommended web hosting company by WordPress since 2005.

BlueHost does have specials from time to time which makes them cheaper than the the $5.99 price tag, but typically they are tad bit more expensive for shared hosting plans.  However, if you’re on a really tight budget and you just can’t swing the $5.99/month.  I would recommend that you check out my WebHostingHub review.

VPS Plans

For VPS plans BlueHost offers 4 different plans for you to choose from.  These come as either fully managed or unmanaged giving you full control over your server.  They are integrated with cloud technology where you’ll be able to use the “Enhanced cPanel” control panel.  The prices are as follows:

• Standard – $29.99/month (first month $14.99).
• Enhanced – $59.99/month (first month $29.99).
• Premium – $89.99/month (first month $44.99).
• Ultimate – 119.99/month (first month $59.99).

Reseller Plans

BlueHost also offers reseller plans.  They offer 3 plans; the prices are as follows:

• Sky Blue – $19.95/month.
• Electric Blue – $49.95/month.
• True Blue – $99.95/month.

Each of these reseller plans will provide a flexible way to administrate your control panel.  You can simply update your billing, prices, etc. all in one place.

Dedicated Plans

BlueHost also offers three dedicated plans.  The prices are as follows:

• Standard – $149.99/month (first month $74.99)
• Enhanced – $199.99/month (first month $99.99)
• Premium – $249.99/month (first month 124.99)

With each dedicated plan you’ll have root access, dedicated support, mirror storage, enhanced caching, storage upgrades, etc.

cPanel

BlueHost uses cPanel.  The Fantastico Scripting support that BlueHost provides through the BlueHost cPanel is perhaps the most fantastic come-on among the features that this web hosting company offers. This versatile tool allows effortless installation as well an upgrade of a huge number of functional software packages ranging from blog packages, CMS (content management system), forums, polls and online surveys, picture galleries and more. Fantastico has developed quite an estimable reputation and BlueHost is able to capitalize on this when they made it available as part of their package. It definitely increased the value their already top notch web hosting packages a great deal.

Of course, you always have a choice to opt out of Fantastico and use SimpleScripts. If you’d rather install your scripts the traditional way or manually, you have plenty of choices from an array of typical scripting languages used by most in the industry, such as PHP4 and 5, Python, CGI or Ruby or Ruby on Rails. As with most web hosting services, Apache .htaccess files, Custom php.ini settings, as well as CRON jobs for executing scripts at customary intervals are all supported.

Extras

Not surprisingly, Bluehost, in accordance with the typical trend among web host providers, equips clients with the standard cPanel for your website administration. The Bluehost edge is that apart from giving you the usual configuration options, it also offers a web-based File Manager and the easy-to-use Page Wizard. This allows you the use of a website builder that helps you create relatively professional-looking web pages in a no-nonsense manner.  Also among the noteworthy features is the SEO tool that works as an automatic sitemap generator and which efficiently maximizes the traffic to your website. It’s interesting to note that BlueHost has almost one million, strong clientele of domain owners and webmasters.

BlueHost Uptime and Reliability

Performance

You can always trust BlueHost.

BlueHost uptime and reliability are top notch. Being on the top is not a reason for BlueHost “rest on their laurels” and stop making improvements in the services they provide. The company continuously works to make their servers work faster, which they can echo on your website.  I have worked on a number of sites hosted with BlueHost and their reliability is really a great asset.

Uptime

BlueHost currently holds an overall uptime in excess of the “Magic 99%” that other web host providers almost always claim to provide. It should be noted that during monitoring done in a period of three months, there has only been one, short 30-minute duration of a recorded outage; another proof of the outstanding reliability of BlueHost.

BlueHost Customer Service

BlueHost has great customer service. I have talked to them various times via live chat, support ticket, and on the telephone. They are always knowledgeable and helpful.  The response time is amazing! Mostly, I talk to there legal team because I have a real problem with people trying to copy my reviews word for word on tbwhs.com and have to send a DMCA complaint to get content removed which is copywrited to my site. It is always a relief to work with BlueHost and I also trust that any issues that might be problematic will be taken care of in a timely manner.

BlueHost Summary

BlueHost has offered world class web hosting services in terms of performance, pricing and reliability for many years. The company just has about everything that you need when it comes to web hosting with VPS, dedicated, and reseller packages now. They are one of the few EIG owned companies I would recommend. User reviews that have been submitted have been mixed over the years. With some webmasters swearing by them and others expressing their frustration.

If they won’t work for you I would  recommend you read my InMotion review. Please feel free to leave your comments in the review field up above if you have any experience working with BlueHost. As always, if you found my review helpful please share it by pushing the buttons down below. Thanks for reading.

I started this special section for BlueHost so I could show you the research I have done on their company.  I spend a considerable amount of time researching every company that I have reviewed.   There is a lot of good information available online from different sites that address experiences with BlueHost.

I write a short summary of the content I have found and then publish it on tbwhs.com for everyone to read.  Depending on the content I find it will be placed in one of the three categories down below; positive, negative, or neutral.  Please view the research I have done on BlueHost down below:

I started this special section for BlueHost so I could conduct email interviews with webmasters that have used their service in the past.  The goal for this section is to get some 1 on 1 incite on what it’s like to host with BlueHost.  When I get an interview on BlueHost I post it up on tbwhs.com for everyone to read.

If you have experience with BlueHost I am looking to talk with you.  Please contact me through my contact form.  If you would rather get in touch with me through Twitter feel free to send me a tweet @tbwhs.