BlueHost Review

BlueHost stands the test of time, a popular choice for marketers and those new to online marketing. With a smooth design, quality service, bright fun branding and simplicity BlueHost has a the makings of a hosting powerhouse.

They claim to be the best hosting on the planet, we take a look at what they do to qualify for that claim to fame.​

• 87
  Performance
• 85
  Accessibility
• 80
  Reliability
• 85
  Cost
• 50
  Service
• 3.875.08077
  Overall

Detailed Review of BlueHost Hosting

Designed with brains and brawn. BlueHost claims they have the solution to making hosting simple.

About The Company

​BlueHost is a big name is hosting, mentioned by marketers like Pat Flynn and Ryan Moran. Having a very reputable corporate image and clean design BlueHost stands out as a professional brand in the hosting market place. I will say this multiple times during this review “I am impressed with the marketing of BlueHost”.

Founded in 2003 and hailing from Utah, BlueHost is part of the Endurance International Group or EIG for short. EIG is a large collective of brands that empower the small business owner. In 2010 BlueHost was added to the EIG family, along with many other hosting providers.

The company began to provide small business owners with focused business website hosting services. The features and functions BlueHost provides, even on the most basic shared hosting plan customers will see benefits of its use. Super fast hosting and completely scalable, they have made the service as newbie friendly as possible with 1 click installs.

Who Would Use BlueHost?

​Narrowing down the appeal of BlueHost to a particular demographic, doesn’t do the hosting provider any justice. ​BlueHost is one of the best all rounder in the hosting space. Perfect for those starting their first blog, small to medium businesses and ecommerce and larger businesses on a the more robust hosting plans.

BlueHost Features

Speed

BlueHost does provide a very fast ​hosting solution, but it could be better. The statement here is yes the BlueHost service is fast but, you want to be using the mid and top tier plans to really see the benefits of BlueHost. I am saying BlueHost provides a fast hosting solution, but if you want blazing speeds then the higher priced plans will allow for improved speed.

We tested a standard WordPress installation with 8 pages and using images and video embeds. The result was a 8ms load time, faster than a snap of the fingers. Ecommerce websites and those running extensive applications and resource heavy items may experience different results

Running a larger website with hundreds of pages, resource heavy CMS look at combining BlueHost with a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to reduce the load. If you are doing a lot of business online, and serving your website to people located mainly in the US consider using a CDN. This is not required but would compliment your website if it is running slow. The BlueHost central servers can be enough for most websites but you should assess your needs and work out if you need to run a CDN. ​

Reliability

I like to see a hosting provider have a transparent window in regards to uptime. There are a handful of providers that do have a built in uptime monitoring page, BlueHost has a uptime status page for your reference. ​This gives me a sense of relief knowing that are publicly putting their product quality on show with no curtains. BlueHost says that they can provide a 99.98% uptime, read Security section below for more information on how they can do this.

There is a dedicated page for monitoring the BlueHost servers, this is kind of a standard feature for most hosting companies but it is a useful resource to supply customers with.​

BlueHost provides Free SSL Certificates. A secure alternative for eCommerce sites and adds a boost in conversion rate for your website just by having secure browsing enabled. Consumers want to know they are safe online especially when it comes to exchanging bank details. The free SSL certificate is available for selected plans, these will not be the shared basic accounts.

Customer Support

There is enough support to fix any problem that you will encounter. ​BlueHost boasts a support method for every channel. Support is provided in a multitude of ways with the focus being on ticket submission. You will have the option to contact BlueHost by live chat, email and knowledge base.

​Ive contacted support 3 times with relatively easy to solve problems. What i can tell you is that each time I was greeted and then passed on to another team member. I believe this happens so that BlueHost can try to lower the support times of initial contact and it worked my wait time ranged from 4 minutes to 8 minutes. The first contact representative was processing my request, and sending me to another team member who was then able to help solve my issue.

BlueHost customer support team was equipped to answer my problems within two touch points. I found them to be pleasant and knowledgable, I cant complain about customer service. I also understand why they process requests as they do, being one of the most popular hosting companies they must get a metric tonne of requests daily.

The options to submit your support request are very easy to navigate and you have options. When it comes to problem solving and hosting its always good to have options. I prefer live chat and telephone contact for support issues.

One gripe I do have is having my customer service representative chew gum while on the phone. Its a small price to pay for problem solving my hosting issues. The representatives are very helpful and this was an isolated incident, BlueHost has very friendly and helpful support people.

Conclusion

“BlueHost is the nightclub that you want to be at, but have to pay the bouncer to listen to the music”​

In conclusion ​BlueHost is a very professional provider of hosting. They said they were designed with brains and brawn but possibly left some of the brawn sitting on the bench. BlueHost is pay to play, you get a very basic package on the shared plans.

All said and done, BlueHost is a very solid hosting provider and considered the best all rounder. I would not go as far as saying they are the best all rounder, they have some very good elements but need more work for that title.

They have extremely clever marketers working on their brand, I feel that there was many smoke and mirrors marketing techniques applied to get me to subscribe to a monthly plan. BlueHost is a smart choice for anyone marketing online, the product is almost as good as advertised.

Picking the right plan, I think if you want the best overall plan with BlueHost go with the Plus monthly plan.​