Looking for a good web hosting company is one of the most important steps in starting a blog. This article looks into some of the features available in the BlueHost shared hosting plan.
Why Bluehost? No web hosting company is 100% perfect. If you search online about people’s experiences or reviews of using Bluehost, you will find some praising it and others condemning it with equal measure.
I have used Bluehost and I have found that it meets the standards of a good web hosting company. Below are some of its features.
1. Free domain for one year
If you sign up for any Bluehost plans, you will get free domain registration for the first year. This is applicable to new domains only.
2. Free SSL Certificate
Unlike Godaddy, Bluehost provides a free SSL certificate by Let’s encrypt. You can install the SSL certificate by clicking WordPress tools at the top menu, then security, and then enable.
3. Affordable Hosting
The cheapest shared hosting package with Bluehost starts at $7.99 per month with 50GB SSD storage, Unmetered Bandwidth, and up to 5 parked domains and 25 subdomains. The Plus plan which goes at $14.99 monthly provides unlimited SSD storage, unlimited domains, and unlimited subdomains.
4. cPanel Account
Any Bluehost package comes with a free cPanel account with lots of pre-installed apps. However, you cannot install third-party apps on shared hosting.
5. Free Email
You can create a free email account on Bluehost using the control panel. Click the email tab available at the top menu of your account and click create an email account. You can use Roundcube, Horde, or Squirrel Mail webmail clients to access your email.
Note that this email is not ideal for large-scale use like bulk mailing. You can always access your email via bluehost.com/webmail.
6. G Suite and Office 365 email
You can set up your G suite MX records easily in Bluehost via DNS Zone Editor section or search for Gsuite in your cPanel account and follow the provided process to set up.
7. One-Click WordPress Install
Bluehost is the number one recommended hosting for WordPress and by WordPress.org itself. The process of installing WordPress on Bluehost is so seamless. Search for WordPress in your cPanel account and click install. You can manage your WordPress core, plugin, and theme auto-updates and performance using the WordPress Tools tab.
Other CMS you can install include Moodle, Tikiwiki, Drupal, and Joomla
8. Payment methods
Bluehost accepts credit cards and PayPal as its payment methods. Payment can be made monthly or yearly. It is advisable to go for yearly payments since they are discounted.
Official payment currencies accepted include the Indian rupee (INR), US (United States) Dollars (USD), Euro, Canadian Dollar (CAD), British pound for UK (United Kingdom), and Australian Dollar. You should however not be concerned with currency as your credit card provider (Visa or Mastercard) can handle the conversation even if your bank account currency is not among those that have been mentioned.
9. Hosting types
There are three types of hosting provided by Bluehost. Shared, Dedicated, and VPS.
Share Hosting: Bluehost shared hosting means that your website will share a server and IP with multiple sites. It is the cheapest amongst the three.
VPS hosting: Bluehost VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting means that you will share a server but unlike shared hosting where if one site overuses the available space in the server affects other websites, VPS allows division of ram equally amongst websites residing in the same server. Therefore, if one website overuses its allocated space it does not affect others. Compared to dedicated hosting, VPS is less expensive. It also gives you access to website features not available in shared hosting like root access to OS.
Dedicated Hosting: Bluehost dedicated hosting means that you will be provided with a static IP address and server that you will not share with anyone. This is ideal for huge sites with massive traffic like eCommerce sites.
Compared to shared hosting, dedicated hosting promises fast load speed as your website will run on the cloud. You also have access to WHM which means you can host your website without cPanel and install third-party apps. It is the most expensive of the three
10. Cloudflare
Bluehost makes it easy to enable Cloudflare with a click of a button as it is integrated within its cPanel. If configured well, Cloudflare makes your website load faster which is good for SEO. You can also upgrade to the Pro or Business plan which allows your website content to be delivered from a data center near your city.
11. Customer Support
In comparison to GoDaddy, Bluehost standouts when it comes to customer support. If you want to contact Bluehost, just click the chat button available at the footer of the website and a customer representative will be available in minutes to address your concerns.
12. Free Website Migration
Bluehost offers free website migration for WordPress-powered websites. It should however be noted that this service is available for small websites. You can contact Bluehost and ask whether your website meets the requirements of free website migration.
13. Operating System
All shared hosting accounts on Bluehost run on Linux with Dual Quad Processor. Bluehost uses Apache and Nginx as its web server. For databases, it uses MSQL and PostgreSQL. It also supports HTTP/2.
Company Details
Headquarters: Burlington, Massachusetts, USA
Twitter: @bluehost
Official Website: Bluehost.com
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