BlueHost Review by our Experts and 14 Users

BlueHost Editor's Review

Click here for BlueHost User Reviews

BlueHost Company Overview

BlueHost is one of the oldest web hosting providers and was founded in 1996. Surviving the tough competition in this industry for such a long time tells a lot about the quality of provided services. The strong reputation BlueHost.com built up in this time, made them one of the big players, hosting already more than 1 million domains and setting up 20,000 new customer's hosting accounts per month.

BlueHost provides high standard, but low-cost web hosting solutions. Customer service is available 24/7 through a toll-free telephone number and by a tracked-tickets-system. When we contected support with an invented issue, they were responsive, friendly and competent. The issue was solved within minutes.

Offering highly reliable hosting, BlueHost's technical infrastructure is impressing. There is only one single hosting plan to choose, including a free domain name, unlimited storage space and unlimited bandwidth at $6.95 / month. It is hard for competing hosting providers to beat that. The signup steps are easy. If a customer decides to transfer an existing domain from another hosting provider, Blue Host supports this procedure. Many of our staff members hosted at Bluehost already in the beginning of 2000, so most of us have multiple long-term experiences with this provider.

Price Value

More and more web hosting providers simplify their hosting plan offerings, by only providing one single hosting plan with exceptional values. BlueHost went this way many years ago already. The so called Platinum Plan provides customers with a free domain name, unlimited disk space, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited eMail accounts (also web based), 50 mySQL Databases, FTP, PHP, Ruby on Rails (RoR), CGI, cPanel, Fantastico Scripts, unlimited add-on domains, many ecommerce applications, and much more. The price for this hosting package is $6.95 / month - a normal price compared to other hosting companies and bearing in mind all of this functionality.

This hosting plan satisfies even the most demanding customers. The price is not the highest in the industry, but neither the cheapest - we see it quiet in the middle field compared to Bluehost's competitors.

Reliability and Performance

BlueHost has an impressing, up-to-date infrastructure. The data center is 24/7 operated and monitored by competent staff and equipped with quad core Opteron processor servers and RAID units with mirrored backup storage devices. This infrastructure is very reliable and the servers have a higher processing power than most of the competition's machines. To asure uninterrupted service in case of a power outage, there are sufficient UPS and Diesel backup power generator capabilities. The data center is connected to the internet by a powerful OC-48 optical fiber backbone, providing a maximum possible bandwith of 2 Gbit/second.

We tracked Blue Hosts uptime through monitoring tools for 3 months and there indeed was only one short downtime for maintanance, wich was announced before however. That meens, the often-quoted "99.9% uptime" was achieved.

We think BlueHost grants a very high realiability and a high performance through their superior technical infrastructure.

Features and Control Panel

The Cpanel control panel, BlueHost uses, is popular for many good reasons. The navigation is intuitively understood and used. The large and logical icons help to perform desired changes with ease. Blue Host integrated a web based file management software to transfer and manage data without an installed FTP client from within the control panel. There is a Page-Wizard, helping customers to create a reasonable website with a minimum of learning and work. Fantastico script support is installed as well, that helps webmasters with the installation of forums, blogs, community systems and other useful applications in a comfortable and fast way. Furthermore, BlueHost's hosting plan supports custom php.ini settings, including Apache .htaccess files and the creation of own CRON jobs for the time-triggered execution of scripts.

The control panel (Cpanel) BlueHost uses fulfills all necessary functions as a software for managing hosting accounts.

Support

When we called with a self-made support issue, Bluehost's help center reacted in a timely manner. The support person was friendly, competent and responsive. Phone support is available 24/7/365 and the call is toll free. We also tested the support ticket system and opened another problem case. The answer was given in a timely manner as well and included an accurate and helpful advice what to do to solve the issue.

Bluehost offers a variety of possibilities when it comes to technical support. Mostly, the fastest way to solve one's issue is to browse the existing knowledgebase oneself. Although this seems uncomfortable, we found out at many times, it was easier and faster than contacting a support person with every hosting provider we experienced. The available knowledgebase at Blue Host is huge and provides beginners to experts with a lot of background information to solve one's issues.

Our test showed that Bluehost's support is of good quality. Although we already experienced even faster and better support at other hosting companies, we were satisfied. It can be said, that Bluehost's support level corresponds to their high rankings in the other categories.

Conclusion

Our overall experience with Bluehost was very satisfying.

There were no strange events or unexpected occurences. Their service proved to be of high performance and reliable. Technical support was responsive and solved our issues within minutes.

The price is reasonable for a hosting plan with unlimited storage and bandwidth and many, many features.

In fact, researching and compiling this review, Bluehost impressed us so much, that we plan to host our next project there.

We consider BlueHost to be a premier web hosting provider at a reasonable price. In our opinion, BlueHost is high quality, stable and trustworthy.

Visit BlueHost Now

Michael Lederstatter

Editor-In-Chief

Michael loves helping people like you finding the best hosting provider for their individual needs.

Michael is founder of Buy-Hosting.net and the web agency www.website-werkstatt.de. He works as a web designer and server admin since 1998.

When he's not blogging, he's probably outdoors growing food in his garden or doing something awesome with his dearest and the kids.

BlueHost Editor rating: 4.5
Price Value:	4.0
Uptime:	5.0
Features:	5.0
Support:	4.0

Affordable hosting with high quality and many features Unlimited storage and bandwidth High-performance infrastructure Toll-Free support number

Only offers shared Linux hosting

Screenshot of BlueHost's web site

BlueHost Reviews by 14 Users

Click here for BlueHost Editor's Review

Summary:

Total User Reviews: 14

recommended: 12

not recommended: 2

Total Rating:	4.2

Price Value:	4.3
Uptime:	4.0
Features:	4.4
Support:	4.1

14 User Ratings

5 Stars

4 Stars

3 Stars

2 Stars

1 Star

Benny Sherman

Canada

Knowledge: Intermediate

Total: 5.0 recommended
Price Value:	5.0
Uptime:	5.0
Features:	5.0
Support:	5.0
submitted: July 5, 2013

I have had to call a few times in the past few months, because of a site migration. They are extremely helpful and their staff is able to help me resolve any issue in a timely fashion. They speak to you in everyday language. so even if you are not an IT tech, you are going to be able to understand the words they are using and the steps they tell you to follow. I love their layout, their plans, and the service. We have had a few other hosts in the past and none of them compare to what Bluehost has offered to us with their plan.

Anna

United States

Knowledge: Intermediate

Total: 4.1 recommended
Price Value:	4.5
Uptime:	3.5
Features:	4.5
Support:	4.0
submitted: May 10, 2013

I had to cancel my service with Blue Host as I wanted to run several sites but was having problems with domain issues. I was happy to see that they did provide me with a full refund as they guaranteed. They did not question why I was leaving and they did not give me a hard time as to why I was trying to get out of the services they offered. I found them to be an honest company, even though I only dealt with them for a few weeks. What I did see, I liked. their sites are easy to build and their features are clear. I liked their plans and pricing but had a conflict with another host. Glad to see they stand up to what they promise and did refund me.

Boris Carroll

USA, Illinois

Knowledge: Intermediate

Total: 3.8 recommended
Price Value:	4.5
Uptime:	2.5
Features:	4.3
Support:	4.0
submitted: May 25, 2012

I have been with them for three years. Over the past few months, it seems to me a few changes have been made. In fact they guarantee 99.9% uptime, but over a two day period, my site was inaccessible - I could not even do any work on it from the master owner side.

I was not able to see what was going on and when I called in to the service team, all they could tell me was that they are having a few technical issues. I could have figured that one out on my own.

I do appreciate their low price plans and how quickly you do get on to the site when you go through them. But I hope they are only having a few glitches which are going to be resolved.

Laura Watson

USA

Knowledge: Intermediate

Total: 3.3 recommended
Price Value:	3.0
Uptime:	3.0
Features:	3.5
Support:	3.5
submitted: May 15, 2011

Although I have been with them for years, I do remember times when they were very unreliable. Downtime exceeded the amount of time that I would expect it to for such a large company. But overall, they have been pretty good to me. Their features are great and their unlimited features really do mean unlimited. I like their control panel. c panel is quite frankly the easiest thing to learn. Even a person who does not have technical knowledge is going to be able to build a site. I also love their support. I never waited too long for an answer and they were always polite. Overall, I have had a great experience and feel they are a good host.

Enzo

Milano

Knowledge: Experienced

Total: 5.0 recommended
Price Value:	5.0
Uptime:	5.0
Features:	5.0
Support:	5.0
submitted: May 8, 2011

Looking for host, a friend suggested this company. I was skeptical, but decided to give them there shot. Am happy that I did. Not only was I surprised with there features but also the ease of building and maintaining site.
I like there low price. and I appreciate the fact that first time I ran in to issue with technical services, I was able to speak to a service tech. he helped me immediataly.
Although it has only been few months, I can't complain with there deal. Not only because its cheap. Bluehost offers more features than do other companies. Util now are reliable, there downtime is virtually null. Excellent!!!

Donald

Australia

Knowledge: Intermediate

Total: 5.0 recommended
Price Value:	5.0
Uptime:	5.0
Features:	5.0
Support:	5.0
submitted: March 12, 2011

My site was hacked and they were there immediately. they called me to let me know security breaches occurred and they took all steps to protect me. They were also great in helping me with my PHP upgrade. as I did not know what I had to do, they walked me through the entire process. The security breach was my error. but, they responded right away and no questions asked helped me protect my site and get things back up and running in a very short time. I am very thankful. they were honest, reliable and looked at everything through their end to ensure my site and information were secure. If I were to build a new site I would go through them for hosting, no question. I'd provide a positive review for them, if I had a friend who needed a new host.

Dick L.

USA

Knowledge: Intermediate

Total: 5.0 recommended
Price Value:	5.0
Uptime:	5.0
Features:	5.0
Support:	5.0
submitted: October 27, 2010

For my blog sites, I really love the fact that bule host is so simple to use when it comes to building. even when I use the wordpress themes, I do not have any technical issues in moving forward in the development phase as I have had in the past with other hosts. I like the fact that they really do offer unlimited space and bandwidth. their site operation features are exceptional and their support team is quite possibly the best I have ever dealt with. I can say this in terms of answering their calls as well as their emails in a very short period of time. I have been with blue host for a few years and have built quite a few blogs with them. After the ease of use I have experienced and the very low prices I can say that I love their services.

Aron Savage

New York

Knowledge: Newbie

Total: 4.4 recommended
Price Value:	3.8
Uptime:	4.5
Features:	4.5
Support:	5.0
submitted: April 7, 2010

Since our company hosted with Blue Host for the last years now, I want to review them. They really deserve a great feedback.

Before we signed up, I thought they would be like any other huge, faceless hosting company. Nothing special. However, having experience with their support staff now, I'd say they offer the best service quality I ever saw.

Problems were solved in a snap, every time. Their crew was appologizing for things that won't work and immediately make it work. Additionally I got some great advice on some occasions that helped me speed up our site significantly.

Marshall Flores

Ohio

Knowledge: Newbie

Total: 4.6 recommended
Price Value:	4.3
Uptime:	4.5
Features:	5.0
Support:	4.5
submitted: September 8, 2009

Blue host offers great tools for one-click installation of content management systems like Joomla!, Wordpress or forums. I had my site done in half of the time, then I estimated before it would take.

They have a decent support with nice people who know what they are doing. The 2 problems I encountered during creating my website were solved in a matter of minutes.

Grady Sheppard

Oregon

Knowledge: Newbie

Total: 4.6 recommended
Price Value:	4.3
Uptime:	4.5
Features:	5.0
Support:	4.8
submitted: June 7, 2009

Blue Host is reliable, fast and feature rich. Over the course of the many years I worked with them, I was always happy. Support is knowledgable and friendly. They kept what they promised in every sense.

Frank

USA

Knowledge: Newbie

Total: 2.4 not recommended
Price Value:	3.5
Uptime:	2.5
Features:	2.5
Support:	1.0
submitted: March 23, 2009

I lost a lot of time with blue host. Indeed most of what I heared before signing up seems to me like a made up story now. Why would you want to host your site at such a provider? not me!

Keith

Knowledge: Newbie

Total: 4.9 recommended
Price Value:	5.0
Uptime:	4.8
Features:	5.0
Support:	4.8
submitted: March 20, 2009

It was easier for me than I thought to build my website with bluehost. The site builder and their templates are pretty straight forward. In addition, they offered helpful demo videos on how to use their cpanel. I learned that quiet easily and today I am able to handle all my stuff on my own.

Fred

USA

Knowledge: Newbie

Total: 2.2 not recommended
Price Value:	2.5
Uptime:	1.8
Features:	2.5
Support:	2.0
submitted: December 17, 2008

I don't like blue host at all. Only for cheap, small websites with few traffic I would recommend them. As soon as more powerful scripting or high availability becomes key to a project, I'd choose another provider.