BLUEHOST REVIEW 2022 –EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW AND HOW TO GET STARTED
Bluehost currently powers more than 2.5 million websites globally. It performs a huge task by simplifying the whole process of setting up a website for beginners. Most especially, if your choice of a website is via WordPress. All Bluehost website plans include a free domain for the first year, great and excellent uptime (based on real-life data), a free CDN, an easy website builder, and a free SSL certificate. Everything you need is in one place. Is Bluehost right for your next website launch in 2022? Let’s find out.
Having officially begun serving customers in 2003, Bluehost needs no introduction as a long-standing player in the web hosting space. Numerous greenhorns in the blogging sphere can, in fact, reckon that they are pretty familiar with Bluehost as a web hosting company.
While there are dozens of interesting online reviews about Bluehost, this post is bound to expand the existing body of honest Bluehost reviews. The post is a comprehensive Bluehost review that pays special attention to Bluehost’s amazing features, hosting plans, the Bluehost Portal, and how to purchase a hosting service from Bluehost.
Has Bluehost Really Got Amazing Features?
If you really prefer a popular web hosting company with a comprehensive array of features and functions, Bluehost will likely appear on your priority list. To make the most out of web hosting, you really need to opt for a web hosting company with lots of amazing features and functions. While Bluehost readily falls among the highly recommended web hosting companies out there, here are some of the Bluehost features you’ll find amazing:
Unlimited storage: Though not with all of the hosting plans, unlimited storage is guaranteed by Bluehost. Unlimited storage is a pretty amazing capability that lets you maintain a website that’s absolutely free from storage issues. In other words, you can store lots of files on the website without getting worried about any storage limit. You can enjoy this capability with three out of Bluehost’s four plans.
Free website scripts: Bluehost offers a good deal of website scripts –including Drupal, Joomla, WordPress, Moodle, message forums, etc. –that you can freely access
Free domain name: Though for a time limit of one year, Bluehost’s free domain name is another exciting feature of the web hosting company. After one year of subscription to Bluehost’s hosting plan, you’ll be required to pay in order to continue using the domain name
eCommerce features: If you’re looking to engage the hosting service of Bluehost for your e-commerce website, the interesting e-commerce features you should anticipate are as follows: Agora Shopping Cart, SSL secure server, Cube Cart Shopping Cart, and OS Commerce Shopping Cart
Comprehensive email service control: With regard to email service, Bluehost fulfils your web hosting needs by providing such relevant features as three different webmail solutions, forwarding, POP3/POP3 Secure and IMAP email support
Sophisticated technology: Bluehost guarantees a full-fledged high-grade tech package which incorporates UPS power backup, dual quad processor performance servers, site backups, 24/7 network monitoring
Getting Started with Bluehost: How to Purchase a Hosting Service from Bluehost
If you’re a beginner just getting started with Bluehost or web hosting in general, Bluehost’s Basic plan is likely what you’d consider for your initial subscription. Regardless of the hosting plan, you’re opting for, here are the steps to follow in order to purchase Bluehost’s hosting:
- Click the link here to access the homepage of Bluehost.com and receive up to 75% OFF any Chosen Plan
- Then scroll to the Get Started button and tap it
- Tap the Select button to make your choice of the Bluehost plan
- Provide your domain name –You can create a new domain name or use an existing domain name owned by you
- After choosing a domain name, it will be indicated whether your chosen domain is available or not. If it’s available, you can proceed to the account information section
- Feed the necessary details into the provided fields in the account information section
- As for the Package Extras section, you can pick some additional features you’d like to include in your hosting package. Be informed that picking these extra features increases the fee you’ll be ultimately charged for the entire hosting package. To avoid incurring a total fee higher than your budget, you can easily skip (i.e. fail to select) the options you don’t need in the list of package extras. While some extras will appear to have been selected automatically, you’re free to skip the remaining extras if you think you don’t need them for now. By way of upgrading your Bluehost account in the future, you’ll be able to include a couple of desired extras in your package
- After ticking the boxes to select your desired extras, specify if you prefer that Bluehost send you emails. Then click the Submit button
- With the above steps duly completed, rest assured that Bluehost will process your information and payment for the chosen plan. Once the processing is complete, a new page will appear with a message confirming the success of the process
- At this juncture, you’re believed to have purchased Bluehost’s hosting service. To begin using the hosting service (just purchased) for your WordPress site, you need to create a Bluehost account. Read on to learn how to create the account
Steps for Creating a Bluehost Account
- After successfully purchasing Bluehost’s hosting package, click the blue-coloured Create your account button
- You’ll be taken to the login page where you’ll observe that the username field has been automatically filled with your domain name. Now, fill the password field using a very secure new password, hard for others to guess
- Re-enter the new password and then click the Login button
- This login process will enable you to access the Bluehost Portal. With the aid of this portal, you’ll be able to define Bluehost as the new host for your existing website. Alternatively, you may simply create a new website via the portal
- If your preferred option is building a new site via the Bluehost Portal, you’ll be questioned as regards how much help you want. We suggest you pick the second (A little help) option, especially if you don’t really seem to know your way around site creation
- Subsequently, click the option that suits the type of site you wish to build
- For the actual site-building, you’ll now have to select any of WordPress and the Bluehost-developed website builder, as shown on your screen. If WordPress is what you prefer for the website building, simply select the Get Started button within the WordPress section of the screen
- To feed the (site building) AI system with information that suggests what you want the site to look like, you’ll be presented with questions you’re expected to answer. Nonetheless, you can avoid the questions (and simply scroll past them) if you feel you can always tweak the site to your taste after creating it
- Once you’re done answering (or skipping) the questions, you’ll be asked to select your preferred premium or free theme for the (WordPress) site you’re creating. Since you can change to your desired WordPress theme after the site setup, you may not want to waste your time dwelling on which of the available free themes would be nice for the WordPress site. You can pick any theme so as to quickly complete the site setup
- At this point, you’re believed to have created a WordPress site hosted on Bluehost and which you can access via the Bluehost Portal. In other words, the just-created WordPress site is connected to Bluehost and using the Bluehost Portal, you can easily log in to the site’s dashboard for whatever site aspect or settings you wish to access. Later in this post, you’ll find more insightful information about the Bluehost Portal which lets you manage your (Bluehost) hosting account and the sites hosted on the account
Bluehost Hosting Plans –Here’s Every Thing to Know about Them
There are four Bluehost plans you can subscribe to for the hosting of your WordPress site. In deciding the ideal Bluehost plan for the site, you need to factor in your hosting needs, preference and budget. Here are Bluehost’s four hosting plans.
The Pro plan –At a monthly price of $13.95, this is clearly the costliest hosting plan offered by Bluehost. With this plan, the several resources you’ll get for free are as follows: dedicated IP, Office 365 (though for one month), SSL certificate, domain privacy, domain (though for one year), and CDN. While you’ll also enjoy free automated backup, the other benefits that come with the Pro plan include round-the-clock customer support, (ability to host) unlimited websites, optimized CPU resources, custom themes and unlimited storage.
The Choice Plus plan –While this plan comes at a monthly price of $5.45, the resources it offers you for free are domain privacy, CDN, domain (though for one year), Office 365 (though for one month), and SSL certificate. Along with free automated backup, the other benefits of the Choice Plus plan are 24/7 customer support, (ability to host) unlimited websites, custom themes and unlimited SSD storage.
The Plus plan –This plan comes at the same $5.45 monthly price of the Choice Plus plan. With the Plus plan, the resources you can freely access are Office 365 (though this is free only for one month), SSL certificate, CDN and domain (this domain is free for one year). The other benefits available with the Plus plan include unlimited storage, round-the-clock customer support, (ability to host) unlimited websites, custom themes and unlimited SSD storage.
The Basic plan –This is the lowest (and cheapest) of Bluehost’s four plans. At a monthly price of $2.75, the Basic plan guarantees SSL certificate, CDN and domain all for free. However, the domain is free only for one year. The other interesting benefits of this plan are 24/7 customer support and custom themes. Just like the other plans, the Basic plan also offers SSD storage but the snag here is that the storage limit is capped at 50 GB. Another snag of the Basic plan is the inability to host unlimited websites just as the plan covers only 1 website.
Dissecting the Bluehost Portal –Here’s What You’ll Find
As mentioned earlier, the Bluehost Portal lets you access your hosting account and manage all the sites you hosted on Bluehost. After logging in to the portal, you’ll find a dashboard with various sections notably My Sites, Marketplace, Email & Office, Domains, Marketing Tools, and Advanced.
The My Sites section is where you can easily manage all the sites you’ve hosted on Bluehost. You’ll as well find the “Add Site” feature that lets you define Bluehost as the new host for an existing site owned by you. Rather than migrate an existing site to Bluehost (hence defining Bluehost as its new host), you can simply create a new site using the same “Add Site” feature.
Marketplace, which is the next section below the My Sites section, is one pretty angle from which you can always get site-enhancing plugins and themes. No matter how picky you’re, there’s a high likelihood that you’ll get your desired WordPress theme in the Marketplace section.
The third section –Email & Office –lets you manage a self-created professional email domain. Courtesy of this section, you’ll be able to build your own domain-based email rather than stick to Gmail’s free email. In creating your email via this section, you’ll be provided with Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. While you can create a nice email using any of the two options, Microsoft 365 is clearly the cheaper alternative.
Domains, which come next below Email and Office, is the tab designated for domain verification, DNS control and domain settings. The Domains section also allows for the control of transfers, redirects, etc. You can always have recourse to this Domains section for almost anything that pertains to domains.
There’s a specialized section –precisely the fifth tab –that helps facilitate site marketing. Known as Marketing Tools, this section links you to top marketing channels such as Bluehost SEO, Google Ads, and Google My Business.
The last section –precisely the Advanced tab –works pretty much like a control panel where you can access certain complex settings regarding your Bluehost hosting account. Some of the tasks you can execute via the Advanced tab are security setup, database management and email control. The Advanced section is probably a way to find out how you can handle the complex settings of your hosting account. You should therefore avoid tampering with the advanced settings therein, especially if you’re still a beginner with only a little knowledge.
Summarizing the Pros and Cons of Bluehost
Having read our Bluehost review thus far, you’ll likely have a hint about the pros of Bluehost. To help summarize the good sides of the web hosting company, here’s a quick rundown of Bluehost’s pros:
- Allows for swift and hassle-free setup
- Offers specialized WordPress hosting
- Has excellent (round-the-clock) customer support
- Guarantees great uptime
- Has a fantastic control panel, considered well suited for beginners
- Guarantees impressive response time
Aside from the fact that its additional features appear expensive, Bluehost doesn’t seem to have other noticeable downsides. This is why it might just seem hard to point out many flaws while discussing the cons of Bluehost.
Does Bluehost Have a Refund Policy?
Yes, Bluehost does have a refund policy: this makes it possible for dissatisfied customers to access the company’s money-back opportunity after purchasing its hosting service. Though Bluehost doesn’t refund domain registration fees, the company’s money-back policy permits its customer to get a full refund of whatever amount they paid in purchasing a hosting package.
However, the customer can get this full payment refund only between a 3—30 day period from the time of purchase. Note that as a customer, after a 30-day elapse from the day you purchased the service, you’ll not be able to get any refund.
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Conclusion
Frankly enough, the features of Bluehost are great benefits that both beginners and pros would like to reap in terms of web hosting. These features, coupled with Bluehost’s unwavering popularity, testify that Bluehost is an ideal web hosting solution for all categories of bloggers.