Who Are You Going to Deal With? – Company Info

The BlueHost is an American product, as it came from the minds of Matt Heaton and Danny Ashworth. Basically, the BlueHost, as an idea was born in 1996, in Provo, Utah, then the actual brand launched in 2003. This means, the BlueHost as a known web host service has been online for 14 years now. Today, the BlueHost is part of a much bigger company – though it grew a lot on its own in the first few years – and the original CEO, Matt Heaton resigned back in 2011. The BlueHost has been acquired by the EIG (Endurance International Group), a huge company which now has some of the major web hosting services (Host Gator, iPage, etc.). EIG is a US-registered company, and it’s listed on the NASDAQ too. It has a long history; what you have to know is that the company reborn in 1997, and has been on a roll since then. Being such a big fish in the vast ocean of the online businesses, the EIG ensures a great service, and you get quality for your money. Currently, BlueHost hosts more than 2 million websites.

Awards Won by BlueHost

The first thing that comes to mind when one looks up BlueHost, is that it’s fully endorsed by the WordPress team, and it’s the No 1 recommended host for WP users. This means you can choose BlueHost as you hosting service when you upgrade from WP basic to something larger. Apart from that, the BlueHost is a highly appraised service, and many review sites and users’ choice awards have been won by it. Just look it up, you are going to find monthly and annual awards won by BlueHost… all in a line!

Hosting Service Types

Shared Hosting:

BlueHost offers one of the best shared hosting services. It’s the most budget-friendly solution, and at this company, the quality is better than what you might expect for such a price. Back in 2005, when the real BlueHost business started, this host provided only shared hosting service, and it was the best one back then, and it’s still is. Basically, shared hosting means that you share the server space, the processing power and the bandwidth with other sites (usually a few hundred of those). It may not feel right to newbies, but believe us, in most cases, you don’t need better than this. The shared hosting service of BlueHost includes 1-click WordPress install, and a free domain (in all packages), and nowadays, the shared power is large enough to have a simple personal or small business site running. If you are new, or you don’t expect hundreds of millions views per month in the next 2-3 years, the shared hosting service of the BlueHost would be a great choice.

VPS Hosting:

The VPS stands for Virtual Private Server, which means that you can place your site on a virtual private server that works like an actual server. A virtual server is just like a real server: it’s a virtual computer with RAM, multi-core processor, storage place and everything you need. It runs on a physical server, and at BlueHost (and most other providers), you won’t notice that the server your VPS runs on has other VP Servers running. Back in the days, you could only choose from shared and dedicated servers, until VPS dropped. It’s a great option for businesses and web-shops, as this kind of BlueHost hosting service offers better stable, large computing power and it’s actually an all-round server, only it’s much cheaper than the dedicated ones.

Cloud Hosting:

It’s the latest craziness online, and if you thought cloud storages are crazy, you will find the cloud hosting even crazier. But not in a wrong way. If we would rank the different hosting services of BlueHost, this one would be the second best, as it’s stable, affordable and easy to set up. The cloud host service of the BlueHost is the silver lining of hosting: it’s better than shared, cheaper than VPS or the dedicated, yet it’s still not the best solution for some. Also, the BlueHost cloud hosting doesn’t include cPanel, you have to use a unique proprietary panel to manage your site. We would say that mid-size business, affiliate marketers and others who expect larger traffic and want a flawless service, should consider the BlueHost cloud service. It has a superb price per value rate.

Dedicated Server:

It is the best one you can get. All large enterprises have dedicated servers because they need the extra power, and they can afford it too! At BlueHost, there are three packages for dedicated servers, and if you think big, you should choose one. A dedicated server means that your website gets its own server, and it doesn’t share the computing power, the storage or the RAM with other sites. It’s the ultimate server choice, and if you grow big, you can migrate your site from any of the BlueHost services to a dedicated server. You get real power for a great starting, and industry-standard renewal price.

Special Hosting Services:

WordPress Special Hosting:

The BlueHost launched its WordPress hosting service not so long ago. It’s a VPS-based hosting solution, which offers full support for WordPress. Setting up your WordPress site on BlueHost is very simple, and since it’s a VPS host, you get great performance, along with top-notch security measures to keep your (and your clients’) info safe. It is a bit pricey, but if you want a WordPress-site with VPS features, this is a perfect choice.

E-Commerce Hosting:

A special BlueHost offer for those who would like to launch an online store, and still want to use WordPress. The e-commerce hosting is quite cheap, and it features two very important extras: SSL certificate to ensure safe payments through your site, and a dedicated IP for the same reason. If you choose the e-commerce hosting from the BlueHost, you also get a dedicated 24/7 support line. Also, setting up your online store is easy as 1-2-3.

Additional Features: Email, Domains, Backup, and Builders

These three features are not to be taken lightly. If you would like to run a serious a site with high traffic and active emailing, then you must ensure you choose a BlueHost package which grants you the best possible solutions.

Email:

It does matter! At BlueHost, the starter and basic packages contain only limited email addresses and email storage. Usually, if you go for the cheapest options, you get 1-5 email accounts for your site and 100 Mb storage per account. If you pick a middle-option (usually that’s the recommended and hyped one), you get unlimited email accounts and storage. This ensures that you can create as many email accounts as needed – you would be surprised to see how many different accounts even a small web-shop maintain.

Domains:

Basically, you can get a domain for free if you choose the BlueHost. If you have a domain name already, it’s easy to register with that. Migrating your free WordPress blog is also quite simple. Most of the advanced packages also offer one main domain, and unlimited parked and subdomains. At BlueHost, you can have a free .com domain with your package, and that’s a quite good deal.

Backup:

All BlueHost services include a basic backup package, for an advanced version, you have to pay a yearly fee. A backup of your site could be made daily, weekly or monthly, so if bad things go down, you can still have it back up in no time. The default backup is the cPanel’s basic backup service.

Website Builder:

Even if you are not a tech-geek, you can build your own website really easily. You could choose a WordPress theme, and get your site rocking, but if you need something more interesting, there is a drag-and-drop kind of website builder too: Weebly is the most popular nowadays, and its free version is included in all plans. If you upgrade, you can get even more options to fully customize your website, add webshop features and many other features.

Extras You Can Choose

When you sign up at BlueHost to launch your own little portal, you can choose additional features. Most of which are related to security. Such bonuses are:

SiteLock Security:

It grants you malware monitoring, spam monitoring (basic), you can verify your business and your identity, so your visitors know that you are legit. One of the best features is that it monitors the blacklists too: you can find out which search engine blacklisted your site, so you could take the necessary steps.

Domain Privacy:

We advise against using it. This feature hides your WhoIs information. If you run a legit business, why would you pay to hide your information? Mostly scammers and paranoid people use this feature, and if you have it enabled, it might make your clients, costumers think you are up to no good.

Search Engine Starter Pack:

This is a nice feature, which can help you get your site indexed and listed on search engine result pages faster. It includes rapid indexing, SEO settings, an e-book and detailed site analysis.

SpamExperts:

It’s an internal email filtering/monitoring service, which further increases your security by instantly removing malware, spam, and viruses.

SSL:

A bit pricey addition, but it gives you higher security, and a SSL seal on a website always makes the visitor feel safer.

CloudFlare:

Taking advantage of the cloud can make your site faster, and it also enhances the security.

Bonuses

When you sign up to the BlueHost, you get some advertising credits too (with most packages, except the shared basic for example). Some beginners might think that they don’t need this, but it’s good to have. After all, apart from good SEO, one of the main forces to drive real and relevant traffic to a site is to display ads at relevant places for people who are interested in that field. The advertising credits you get are usually for Google, Bing, Yahoo, Facebook, and sometimes for Twitter. Make sure to use them after checking the terms.

Learning Material

One of BlueHost’s main features is that it has a vast support page. Its YouTube channel is overloaded with tutorials and step-by-step guides. You have to see it to really get to know the BlueHost cPanel and to familiarize with the different services, add-ons, plug-ins, and features. Even if you are an experienced person, you might find useful information in the videos. And best of all: you can have most of your questions answered without waiting for the support team to get to you!

What Does Unlimited Mean?

You will find that “unlimited” hosting is the commonly used expression in the online business. But, there is no such thing as to “unlimited”. Until they don’t invent the unlimited bandwidth and the limitless power source, your options will remain limited. BlueHost doesn’t restrict your hosting, however, as your site grows, you will have to upgrade your plan. There is a limit to the storage, though: the inode count can’t exceed the 200,000 marks, and your MySQL tables or other database files can’t be too large (check the terms for actual numbers). Anyhow, if you generate real traffic, and you run a real business, you won’t have any problems with BlueHost.

As we already told you, the BlueHost has six service types. Their prices vary, and all services offer you three, sometimes four different packages.

The most basic solution, the shared hosting is available in Basic, Plus and Prime packages, with the Basic starting at $2.95 per month and the Prime at $5.45 per month (for the first term only). There is a Pro shared service with a bit more features (faster server, SSL certificate) for a starting price of $13.95 per month.

Cloud hosting at BlueHost is only slightly more expensive than the shared. The starter package could be yours for a $6.95 per month price, or a better on at $8.95. In our opinion, the cloud hosting technology is advanced enough to be a good choice for first-timers and experienced website owners too.

VPS packages start from $19.99 (with a three-years contract). It might look a bit pricey, but it’s a great option if you want a stable background for your site, or you want to migrate an already popular site from another host. The WordPress service (which is an enhance VPS service actually), also starts from $19.99. The other special, the e-commerce plan starts at $6.95, but you need to take a 3 years plan for that price.

The Dedicated hosting, of course, is the most expensive. The basic (which, of course, is much better than any of the previous services’ best pack) dedicated hosting start at $79.99, which would serve the needs of anyone who runs the small or medium business.

The renewal prices of the BlueHost are near the industry standards, though in some fields they are a bit too expensive, and there are also some features (e.g. moving your site to another provider) that cost quite a bit of money. But, the BlueHost is quite good to make any website owner want to stay around for the long run. You can use PayPal or credit cards to pay for your hosting.

Powerful Servers

One of the most important benefactors of the BlueHost is the reliable and stable service it provides. The company has been around for long enough to know when they have to upgrade their servers. Thus, you can always rest assured that your website will be online when it has to, and apart from unexpected issues, you don’t have to worry about availability. On average, the speed of the BlueHost hosted sites is below 400 ms, so you have will find your site loading fast, thus your business won’t be hurt.

Uptime

BlueHost has the industry standard uptime level, and there is nothing surprising about it. After all, the BlueHost is one of the services which set the standards! Basically, the average yearly uptime of the 99.89 is really great. In most cases the downtimes are short, they last less than 2 minutes.

Security

The BlueHost uses top-notch security measures, and your account info, your payment info, and your site’s content are kept safe. You can enhance your own security by opting-in for CloudFlare, SSL, SiteLock and other security features.

The support of the BlueHost is good, although it always receives mixed ratings. Some customers are all happy about it, while others got mad at them. However, we really had a very nice experience with support team, every time we contacted them. You can reach the support via phone, live chat or email. For a fast solution, the phone would be the best choice, as it might take a long time to get up to the first place in the chat query. Nevertheless, when you get to them, they can help you, even if their answers are a bit slow. The BlueHost support brings the standard quality.

We could say that we recommend the BlueHost to everyone, but that wouldn’t be true. If you are on a budget, and you think you can stay at one place for at least three years, you can get yourself an awesome deal at BlueHost. For even the discounted prices, you get top-notch services!