Bluehost Review
"We love Bluehost! Whenever we have a question we can talk to someone fast! I wish I could say the same for our phone company."
dmpg.net, Katherine
Total score: 94%
See rating details
Plan Professional
Web Hosting Search
Exclusive Offer
$3.95/Month
Save $72 / 24 months plan
Basic Specs & Features
- Sub Domain unlim.
- Monthly Transfer (GB) unlim.
- Email Accounts 2500
- Diskspace (GB) unlim.
- Add-on domains unlim.
Included Features
- Free Domain
- Free Setup
- Commerce scripts
- SQL databases
- Spam filter
Our Offer
This plan is also available for $4.95/Month if you sign up for a 12 month plan
Advanced features
Control Panel
- cPanel
Databases
- PostgreSQL
- PHPMyAdmin
- MySQL
Dedicated Server Features
- Shell Access
- KVM over IP
- Dedicated IPs
Easy-install Blog Scripts
- WordPress
- b2evolution
Easy-install CMS
- Mambo
- Drupal
Ecommerce Features
- Zen Cart-
- SSL
- Shopsite-
- osCommerce-
- Ecommerce Scripts
- CubeCart-
- Agora Shopping Cart-
Email Features
- Webmail Interface
- POP3
- IMAP
- Email Forwarders
- Auto Responders
- Anti-Spam
On-site Site Building
- SiteBuilder
- FrontPage Extensions
Photo Gallery
- Coppermine
Platform
- Linux
Server Side Scripts
- Ruby on Rails
- PHP
Support
- Ticket-based Support
- Phone Support
- Email Support
- Available 24 hours
- Available
- Av
Web Statistics
- Webalizer
- AWStats
- Analog
Top Domains
- net
- info
- com
- biz
Bluehost Information
- Country United States
- State Utah
- Founded 1996
- Hosted site
- Support phone 1.888.401.4678
Address
1215 N. Research Way, #Q3500
Ordering Process
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Bluehost Profile
Bluehost keeps it simple. They only provide shared web hosting, and only offer one plan. But that plan beats most, if not all, competition.
The company has been a part of the web hosting business since 1996, and is currently hosting over 630,000 domains, certain signs of stability and reliability in the web hosting business. Their plan costs $6.95, but while the price is small, it includes unlimited storage and data transfer! With this plan, you get enough space to run a profitable eCommerce business, while being at the price of a small private web site.
The plan supports most scripts, and is a good choice if you're planning to start a company blog, as several blog tools are included. They also throw in several eCommerce features in the deal, such as carts and different forms of encryption, and if you're setting the site up yourself, there's a drag and drop site builder, which is very convenient.
For promoting your website Bluehost helps you out to rank high in the search engine results with their keyword analysis and position reports. When you've figured out your domain name, it can be registered for free, also you get an unlimited numbers of add-on domains as well as subdomains.
Regarding support, Bluehost has round the clock service on a toll-free number and can also be reached through email. From what we've seen, their help desk is very attentive and competent. The company operates out of Orem, Utah.
Uptime Summary For Bluehost
Bluehost have always had very stable services and that is reflected in the statistics as well. Please note that these statistics is not something that you can use in order to clain the uptime guarantee. Tha statistics is based on the number of failed connection attempts from us us to them. In other words, the reson for the downtime might be ours.
Since February 28 2007- Outages: 38
- Total uptime: 99.910%
- Last Check: November 7 2009 at 10:18 PM
2009 statistics for Bluehost
| Month | Outages | Uptime % | Downtime |
|---|---|---|---|
| November | 0 | 100.000% | 0 minutes |
| October | 0 | 100.000% | 0 minutes |
| September | 1 | 99.942% | 26 minutes |
| August | 1 | 99.941% | 26 minutes |
| July | 1 | 99.942% | 25 minutes |
| June | 8 | 99.371% | 5 hours, 5 minutes |
| May | 1 | 99.940% | 26 minutes |
| April | 0 | 100.000% | 0 minutes |
| March | 1 | 99.939% | 27 minutes |
| February | 0 | 100.000% | 0 minutes |
| January | 0 | 100.000% | 0 minutes |
Ratings & reviews of Bluehost
We would love the hear your opinion about Bluehost
Average rating based on Editorial and User Reviews
Pros:
- 30 day Money Back Guarantee
- SimpleScripts Installer for over 30 popular script
- 24/7 Free Live Chat Support - US BASED
Cons:
- They only have one plan
Bluehost Editorial Ratings and Reviews
Blue Host is one of those companies that think it's better to do something to perfection rather than doing things ok and they have therefore decided to concentrate all of their attention on just providing shared hosting and only one hosting plan. The fact that they're now hosting over 750,000 domains, and counting, is an excellent proof that their customers seem to be pleased with their decision.
Yes, their shared hosting has to be accounted as one of the best in the business and no; Blue Host is not a good alternative for everyone. If you're looking to set up a large business web site where the sole use of a server is needed - then you probably need to look for your hosting elsewhere. BlueHost is however a great alternative for all of us that only are going to setup a personal or small business website.
Bluehost Reviews
Requests I sent to the help desk were never answered once I was a customer. Long waits for phone support were the norm. If you put executables or mp3's on your site (even for personal use with single user access) they will disable your site.
Good web hosting services
Bluehost is in the niche of low-price hosting, and as such, there is a certain lowering of expectations that must occur. If you need hand holding or want help developing your website, then no low-end hosting site is in your best interest. I have been with them for four years now and I am a low-maintenance customer. I have only had to deal with them maybe three times, but each of those times have been horrible and could have ben avoided. Once was for auto-renewal. My credit card had expired from when I had entered it two years previously. No problem, right. You send out an email saying that renewal is coming and the card is expired and it needs to be updated for renewal to continue, right? I deal with a number of hosts, and this is the way they handle it. Bluehost only sent me notification that my website was down after the fact and did not say why. I called them and got the details as to what happened, entered the current credit card on the site. 24 hours later, my site was back up. So, I had a total of about 48 hours of downtime that could have been avoided with a simple email. Then after having been with them three years, their plans had obviously changed for the better (more space / banwidth). I wanted to do something that required more space than I had but was within the current specs and even the previous years specs. So I asked them to just give me the same space that was current (they hadn't upgraded my spec in the entire time). They said that they did not do this until I ran out of space. In other words, until my site crashed they would not put me on the current plan. After arguing with them and them reciting repeatedly that their policy was not to upgrade until too late, I relented and gave up my ambitions. Then, today, my website was down. I checked my email where they send notifications and they had sent an email that my site was down and that I needed to call them. I called them and they said that they had shut it down because I had stuff there that was not related to the website. The stuff? It was the files that I had uploaded before when I tried to get my space increased. It was all image files that were not used because they had not put me on a current plan (see previous paragraph). Again, they could have sent me an email and this would have been avoided. In summary, if anything goes wrong, no matter who is at fault, they shut down your site. They could handle things through email, but they view the customer as an adversary. I have been in IT for 25 years, and I have seen this many times in many scenarios -- it is tough to battle but it MUST be battled. Helpdesk people have to deal with many idiots, but they have to avoid treating all customers with disdain or their mission gets sacrificed. I am sad to say that BlueHost has become this company where the customer is the enemy. While my interactions with them have been few, they have been awful, and as such, I will never recommend them to anyone again.
I have been with bluehost for about a year now. Their live chat support is great. And my website is fast and up all the time.
They suspended my account without a warning or a specific reason! "Your web hosting account for domain.com has been deactivated (reason: site causing performance problems). Although your web site has been disabled, your data may still be available for up to 15 days, after which it will be deleted." I couldn't even access my log files to see what could have happened.
Bluehost have been nothing but nice to me and my website. Cheap hosting – Check, Great uptime – Check, Nice features – Check, Good support – Check… I recommend!
Solid hosting plan! A lot of features, and you have control a lot of control. Never seen my site down. I wish there was some better documentation for some things but I cant complain. I recommend this to anyone looking for a lot of features for a low price.
I don't understand why a couple of people here bash Bluehost. I have NEVER experienced anything really bad with web hosting. Sure, I've had some downtime but tell me one web host that has 100% uptime - they don't exist. I like BlueHost very much.
Customer Testimonials
I have been a Bluehost customer for over 3 years, and have hosted over 15 websites with Bluehost. I have been very impressed with the knowledgeable support staff that I have spoken to. It is also refreshing to know that when I have a question I can quickly contact them anytime day or night and speak to someone that does not speak broken English located somewhere across the world. Huge plus! Compared to other web hosting server services that I have used, including a dedicated server service, Bluehost has hands down been the most reliable company I have worked with. In addition, the amount of services that they include with their affordable monthly service fee has been wonderful! I have referred several of my friends to Bluehost and will continue to refer more as a result of their competitive price, superior support staff and reliable service.
scottjensenvideo.com, Scott Jensen
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