Consumers or businesses that need a reliable web-hosting provider but do not foresee the need to use a VPS or dedicated server should give Bluehost (www.bluehost.com) a very serious look.
Those who feel that there is as serious possibility of needing a VPS or dedicated hosting solution down the road will probably want to consider the potential downtime involved in switching providers before giving a Bluehost a second glance, because shared hosting solutions is all the company has to offer. That is not necessarily a bad thing, because Bluehost offers a wide array of features, quick and friendly customer service, and a price that is hard to beat once one takes into account the features that they get.
On the subject of price, it is possible to spend as little as $6.95 per month for a Bluehost account, which figures in a 36-month agreement. While this price is not the absolute best price on the market, many of Bluehost’s rivals do not necessarily offer everything that Bluehost does at no cost, and some of Bluehost’s additional features are quite affordable. Before covering those features, it might be worth spending a few moments going back to square one and seeing just what one can expect for $6.95 per month.
Screenshot of the Blue Host Control Panel
Bluehost’s Value Will Make Customers Feel Anything But Blue
Unlimited disk storage, the ability to host unlimited domains (which do cost extra and will be covered in a moment), unlimited sub-domains, unlimited monthly bandwidth, 2500 e-mail accounts, 1000 FP accounts, 100 MySQL databases, 100 PostgreSQL databases, support for PERL 5 & PHP 5, Python support, Ruby/Ruby on Rails, hotlink protection, WordPress & b2evolution support, Drupal & Joomla! support, integrated help-center tools, an array of e-commerce tools, and a shared-SSL certificate for those that want it as well as the option to buy additional SSL certificates for an additional fee that will be covered in the next paragraph.
These features are just the tip of the iceberg, and Bluehost’s website contains hundreds of features, though some of them may not be all that useful to serious designers and bloggers, such as the WYSIWYG page-creator and its library of included templates. Not that there is anything wrong with these features, but they are probably best suited to those just starting to explore web hosting in general, and are not necessarily designed to meet the serious needs of those making an investment in their web presence. In short, if there is a technology out there that can be used by a shared web host, then there is a very good chance that Bluehost offers it. This is due in large part to their decision to use cPanel, which is extremely flexible.
All Bluehost accounts come with a free domain name registration despite there being no initial setup fee. This means that consumers are more or less financing the cost of a single domain over the course of any contract, though additional domain names cost an additional $10 per year. Those looking to host large volumes of domains may find better registration prices with third parties, but only if they deal in high volume. If additional domain names require additional IP addresses and SSL certificates, Bluehost charges $30 and $40 per year respectively. This would mean that a person or business owning 10 sites, perhaps blogs they are monetizing, would pay the base fee of $6.95 per month and $700 per year, which comes out to just over $58 per month. These prices are likely to prove extremely attractive to bloggers and others hoping to monetize a handful of websites. Considering the $10 domain registration and $70 per year SSL/IP combination, it should be fairly easy to calculate just when the investment in web hosting will pay off.
Customer Service is Great
3 e-mails, 3 calls, and 3 chat sessions at different times of the night and day were placed to Bluehost prior to and during the course of writing this article, and Bluehost always had a very quick response. Bluehost deserves extra kudos, answers were quick and accurate, which is just what serious web designers want when things go wrong or if they cannot figure something out. Bluehost has made substantial investments in their datacenter and network infrastructure to ensure that they themselves should never be the cause of such problems despite the lack of any uptime guarantees made on their behalf. Such investments include a diesel powered backup generator, UPS power backups on the quad-core servers as well as on the network routers, and a direct connection to an OC-48 backbone.
The Bottom Line
The bottom line is that there are cheaper shared web hosts on the market for those that need to do nothing more than put up a single website for their family. Those looking to monetize their web presence have higher standards, and Bluehost appears to have tailored their offerings around those needs, and have done so at prices that are very competitive. Their customer service is extremely professional, and as a result it would be hard not to recommend them as a host for anyone who is interested in shared web hosting plans. Visit Bluehost now to sign up before they come to their sense and start to charge setup fees!
Get Started with Bluehost Shared Hosting »
Disclosure: We may receive compensation from the companies whose products we review. See Disclosure Policy.
Make More Money From Your Blog
Learn how to make more money with actionable no-nonsense marketing tips. Sign-up below and immediately receive our 5 part blog marketing crash course.
Written by Nick Reese
Nick Reese is the author of Traffic and Trust, and all round happy dude. When Nick isn't managing web properties he enjoys biking, shooting video, and drinking tea. You should follow Nick on twitter here.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I have transferred to Bluehost after trying out a reseller hosting account of a relative. I can say that they have great service.
I am non-techie so I have so many questions and they have awesome phone and chat support every time I needed help.