Powering over two million websites worldwide, Bluehost is a well-known brand in affordable web hosting. Let's review Bluehost in 2021!
Whether you're new to the digital marketing industry or you've worked in the field for years, you've probably heard of Bluehost. Powering over two million websites worldwide, Bluehost is a well-known brand in affordable web hosting. Their quality service and great discounts speak for them.
You can do a Google search for the best web hosting solutions, online, and Bluehost will appear at the top of the SERPs due to its popularity. Bluehost is a great hosting option for beginners and small businesses.
But what really separates Bluehost from the competition? Is it exactly what you are looking for, or should you choose another provider? In this unbiased Bluehost review in 2021, we will detail the most important deciding factors.
But first, let's take a quick look at the company itself.
BlueHost Overview in 2021 – Key Features
The figures below show Bluehost's ability to be the fastest web hosting service. The important points will be shown below for users to refer to in case they use Bluehost to do their web hosting service.
Overall rating | Rank #1 – Web hosting |
Speed | 446ms |
Operating time available | 99.99% |
Customer support service | Live chat 24/7 |
Feature | Unlimited bandwidth, 10GB storage, website builder, and free e-mail |
Support site migration | No free |
Price | Starting at $2.95/month ($7.95/month for auto-renew) |
Bluehost company overview
Founded in 1996 by Matt Heaton, Bluehost is officially a free hosting company called 0catch.com. They were renamed Bluehost in 2003 and have grown rapidly to become one of the most popular, reliable, and affordable hosting providers worldwide.
In 2010, Bluehost was acquired by Endurance International Group (EIG), the same company that owns HostGator and many other web hosts in the industry. Mike Olson was appointed CEO in 2015.
Bluehost offers various web hosting solutions, all designed to help you create a website or eCommerce store with ease – from web hosting to website building software.
Moreover, their hosting plans have the best uptime, free CDN, unlimited additional domains, free backups, great loading speed, and reliable security. Finally, Bluehost now has a team of over 750 employees – and hosts over 2 million websites worldwide.
Bluehost Service Review In 2021
After we have shared a brief background on the hosting company, we will focus the next section on a detailed and thorough Bluehost review.
We will look at different reasons why Bluehost is the preferred hosting choice for beginners and small businesses. We'll also take a look at Bluehost's hosting plans and pricing, as well as their general pros and cons.
Now, if we're still together, bring your seats and get some cold water while I reveal to you a hot and timely Bluehost review.
11 reasons why Bluehost offers great web hosting in 2021!
This is an industry with a lot of competition – so what can Bluehost offer their customers?
It's pretty simple: Bluehost offers every single web hosting you could ask for, including shared hosting, WordPress optimized hosting, eCommerce hosting, VPS hosting, and machine dedicated owner.
With their managed hosting plan, all technical aspects of your website will be handled and supported by the company, including:
- Keep those pesky WordPress plugins up to date
- Core Update
- Take care of security issues
- Etc.
But beyond these benefits, here are some of the features we love in Bluehost and why we recommend it to you.
1. Impressive page load times
While looking for a good web host, one of the most important performance metrics that you should always look for is speed. It not only affects the user experience of your website but equally affects your website rankings in the search engines.
Studies done by Strange Loop Networks show that a 1-second delay in website load time can reduce your conversion rate by 7%. It will also result in an 11% loss of page views and a 16% decrease in customer satisfaction. In other words, slow websites often lead to lower sales.
This is clearly a concern. Also, a recent Google report found that the majority of mobile sites are too slow. Now, that's a big deal for two reasons: Google's mobile-first index can boost or hide your site in user searches based on load time.
Therefore, after uptime, the second most important factor that can greatly affect the success of your website is how fast your page loads. And the web host you choose often has an important role to play here.
Impressively, Bluehost records excellent download speeds averaging 398ms from 2017 to date.
This is clearly something worth mentioning in this review.
2. Low start-up costs
At just $2.95 per month, Bluehost offers one of the cheapest hosting prices on the internet. And you'll get everything you need to comfortably host a website for an incredibly cheap price. That includes:
- 50 GB SSD Memory
- Free SSL Certificate
- Asymmetric bandwidth
- Free domain name registration
- And many more things
So with all of this, you will absolutely get great value for your money, in addition to their amazing page loading speed and great uptime.
Trust me; This is one of the lowest prices you'll ever see anywhere online. So it's a great deal if you're looking for a new affordable web host.
3. Impressive Uptime Guarantee
Uptime is another important thing to consider when planning to buy a host. Remember that people cannot access a broken website. So maintaining a consistent uptime should be one of your priorities.
Interestingly, this is another place where Bluehost really excels. It comfortably kept up to 99.99% uptime for the past three years.
4. New User Friendly
Some of the hosting providers out there are best suited for advanced users.
For example, services like LiquidWeb and CloudWays are great if you're tech-savvy. However, their interface is not very novice-friendly, especially for non-tech-savvy users. So, as a beginner, it will be difficult for you to create a website on these servers.
Bluehost's control panel (cPanel) is easy to use. But that's not all; they also have features for advanced users, so it's not entirely just for beginners.
But if you are new to the business, you can easily install and get WordPress up and running in minutes. Or, you can simply use a Bluehost website builder (like Weebly) to get started.
It has a ton of beautiful drag and drop templates that you can customize to suit your taste and style.
5. Flexibility and scalability
Bluehost is a major web hosting provider, and as such, they made it easy to upgrade your hosting plans once your site outstrips your current plan. So you'll never be stuck with a traffic spike.
You can easily switch to a higher tier hosting plan or a completely different plan, like changing from shared hosting to WordPress managed to host.
Their hosting team will be there to help you every step of the way, ensuring that your website stays up and running throughout the process. You can also monitor your server from their custom dashboard to know when to upgrade your hosting plan.
6. Third-party integration
You will also have access to a large number of third-party integrations that you will need to manage your website effectively.
For instance, you can easily install your favorite content management systems (CMS) like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and even WooCommerce directly from your cPanel.
Furthermore, you will have access to a Content Delivery Network (CDN), which will help reduce the work on your server and increase loading speed.
7. Great customer support service
Perhaps, customer support isn't something you'll use often; however, when something goes wrong, you'll definitely want to have a trusted support team around you. While Bluehost's support isn't quite outstanding (when compared to services like SiteGround and WPX hosting), they're still good enough.
Bluehost focuses heavily on customer support by offering a wide range of different support channels. You'll find phone support, live chat, as well as social media support. The easiest way to contact customer support is through the phone. And Bluehost will always come to your aid once you call them.
Although, sometimes your request may be put on hold, depending on how many calls they receive at the time. But you can be sure to talk to an expert who will help solve your problem in the end.
They also have a huge support library containing an in-depth series of questions and tutorials to help you troubleshoot common issues you may encounter along the way.
8. Bluehost Backup
Backups are often an overlooked part of running a blog. It's usually not something you even notice until it's too late, which is why automatic backups of your database are a real lifesaver.
Like most premium hosting brands, you'll enjoy daily backups and restores on most Bluehost plans. However, backups have some limitations (depending on the plan you choose), which is why it's a good idea to use a 3rd party backup solution or simply upgrade your plan.
However, including basic backups in all their hosting plans is still great. If something happens to your site, all you need is to restore it from a previous version. This will save you from rebuilding everything from scratch.
9. Security Options
Even as a pocket-friendly hosting solution, we're happy to see Bluehost not holding back or trying to skimp on important features like security. Bluehost offers a lot of great security features like a free SSL certificate, which comes with every plan.
Additionally, every plan includes a “domain privacy” option, designed to protect your personal information from the public (more on this later). This prevents cybercriminals from detecting and using this information for shady activities.
You'll also love the SiteLock feature, which protects your site from malware attacks. Unfortunately, these attacks are quite common on WordPress-powered websites.
That's not all; also features CodeGuard, which backs up your database. With this, even if your site is compromised, you can quickly restore previous versions and shame the hackers.
Overall, with your site hosted on Bluehost, you can always sleep with both eyes, knowing that the company is always there to protect your site from malicious attacks.
10. Officially Recommended by WordPress.org
WordPress is the most popular content management system on the market. I bet you already know that.
What is more interesting, however, is that Bluehost is one of their officially recommended web hosts for building a WordPress website, apart from SiteGround and Dreamhost.
Obviously, you can use almost any web hosting solution to build a WordPress website. However, the fact that Bluehost is one of the officially recognized partners is truly something to be proud of.
11. Money Back Guarantee
Bluehost also offers users a generous money-back guarantee (30 days). While not too long when compared to some other hosting guarantees, such as Dreamhost offering 97 days or InMotion hosting offering 90 days, or even HostGator offering 45 days, it is still long enough to decide if Do you really like their service or not?
Provided you cancel within the 30-day refund period, you will definitely get a refund.
However, if you cancel after the 30-day warranty period, you will receive a prorated refund for the remainder of the term.
Three things that Bluehost in 2021 can further improve
Bluehost is a very cool host with some impressive features. However, it is still lacking in three main places. Here are three things that you need to take care of:
1. Higher renewal rate
While Bluehost in 2021 offers extremely low hosting prices, their renewal rates are really something else. This is a common thing in the industry, but it is still a problem.
Most web hosting providers use their cheap introductory prices just to lure you as a customer, but you will learn the actual price during the renewal process. This is exactly the same case with Bluehost.
Therefore, while considering whether or not to use Bluehost, keep in mind that you will pay more once your initial period ends.
But if you want to enjoy the referral rate for a long time, then you can consider getting up to two or three years of upfront hosting initially. This way you will save even more on storage.
2. No free site migration
Most of the quality hosts out there, such as SiteGround and WPX Hosting, will help you migrate your existing website to their servers for free. This is a necessary service that will make things easier for new customers.
But sadly, Bluehost charges for site migration.
If you want them to migrate your site, then you will have to pay a one-time fee of $149.99. For this fee, they will transfer your websites (up to five), email accounts, and other database files for websites.
While they assume the process will be quick and quick and there won't be any downtime or delays, the fact that it's not free (and expensive) is a huge turning point.
3. Does not support Windows Hosting
Bluehost only offers Linux hosting and does not support websites that need a Windows server to work perfectly.
This probably won't be a noticeable issue for most people; however, this is not a recommended option for individuals who will need to run a Windows server.
Conclusion
In this article, we have reviewed Bluehost in the year 2021.
Bluehost in 2021 is a reliable and high-performing web host. With their uptime and speed consistently ranking high in the industry, you should definitely consider them.
Plus, their plans are affordable and packed with a lot of features. And with the different hosting plans available, you're sure to find something to suit your new website.
Finally, they are also a good choice if you are looking for a reliable WordPress-managed host. Their WordPress optimized hosting is trusted and highly recommended by WordPress itself.
Bluehost Reviews
Everything your website needs from start-up to success.- Polularity5/5 AmazingRecommended by WordPress & Best Web Hosting 2021!
- Uptime4.9/5 AmazingUptime reaches 99.99%
- Support5/5 Amazing24/7 online support
- SSL/HTTPS5/5 AmazingFree SSL security certificate
- Stability5/5 AmazingDowntime detects 0.001%
- Benefits5/5 AmazingWordPress based builder available & 1st year Free Domain
Bluehost's Pros
- Impressive page load times
- Low start-up costs
- Impressive Uptime Guarantee
- New User Friendly
- Flexibility and scalability
- Third-party integration
- Great customer support service
- Bluehost Backup
- Security Options
- Officially Recommended by WordPress.org
- Money Back Guarantee
Bluehost's Cons
- Higher renewal rate
- No free site migration
- Does not support Windows Hosting