If you're in a field that requires you to have a portfolio, you will often need to build a website. This ranges from if you're a Copy Writer, Designer, Photographer, you want a place that can show your body of work. Part of having your own website means you need a hosting service for that website. When I was first looking into a hosting service, I noticed Bluehost was recommended by several influencers. Here is my review of Bluehost web hosting.
Costs:
At the time of this writing, the Bluehost Basic Web Hosting plan starts at $2.95 a month. This sounds very affordable on paper but once you get to the checkout, Bluehost packages the 2.95/month fee into 36months. So to get this price, you must pay $106.20. The misleading price should have been my first red flag. Bluehost prices their fees annually, so the cheapest you can expect is $4.95/month ($59.40/ 12months).Also, you have 30 days to cancel your subscription to Bluehost. This can be tricky to evaluate a web hosting company. Partially if your website is brand new you may not have enough promotional content to attract visitors yet. If you moved your website from an existing host it probably is a lot easier to evaluate a hosting service. Canceling your Bluehost subscription must be done over the phone and not online.
Additional Costs:
There are additional costs when selecting a hosting company. With Bluehost, you will either need to select a domain or already having an existing one available.
- Domain Privacy Protection: $0.99 per month
- Site Backup Pro: $2.99 per month
- Search Engine Jumpstart - $2.99 per month (Billed annually at $35.88/yr)
- SiteLock Security: $1.99 per month (Billed annually at $23.88/yr)
So initially the hosting fees appear affordable, but can quickly add up.
What You Get:
With the basic plan you get:
- 50GB Website Space
- 1 Domain
- 25 Subdomains
- 5 Email Accounts
In terms of support, Bluehost offers phone and chat support. There is a significant wait time when selecting either option.
What You Won’t Get:
Reliability is one thing you won't be getting when you use Bluehost. During my time with Bluehost, I experienced a lot of unexpected website crashes. When you consider how much Bluehost charges this is unacceptable. There were instances when I reviewed my statistics and I found my website would go down with even mild web traffic.Also, customer service was an issue. Particularly I found their service to be slow. For instance, you could end up waiting for some time if you select the chat service. Enough time where you would forget that you had selected that option.
Summary Review of Bluehost Web Hosting:
In conclusion, I would not recommend Bluehost as a hosting platform. My In Review of Bluehost Web Hosting one critical issue that all services should have is reliability. A web host, in my opinion, should not experience as many service down issues as I had with Bluehost. It's sometimes hard to gauge the reliability of a web host. If you're uncertain about a web host, my recommendation is to select the monthly plan. From there you should test how the host behaves in the first few weeks. If you have an existing website, and you're transferring over to a new hosting service it usually is easier to evaluate.Bluehost is owned by EIG (Endurance International Group). EIG is a large corporation that is known for buying small to medium web hosting companies. If you search the internet you will find tons of reviews from former customers who have noticed that their service degrades over time. It's possible that Bluehost was a good provider at some time. However, at this time I recommend avoiding Bluehost or similar EIG company.