WhereAbouts of BlueHost

Officially recommended by WordPress organization, it has been over a decade since Blue Host got in the business. The hosting company now has more than 2 million client websites. Blue host is a part of Endurance International Group. The later provides tools for web hosting, marketing and designing to over 5 million around the globe.  HostGator, BigRock, Domain.com, and Constant Contact are some of the renowned partners of the group.

BlueHost Price plans

They have three pricing plans:

• Basic $2.95
• Plus $5.95
• Prime $5.95

Their Basic Plan

Blue Host offers a basic plan. Their basic plan is the cheapest of the plans they offer. Their basic plan is less advertised and whatever the reasons may be it is still a reasonable price to pay for it.

Here is what it offers:

A Free Domain

Blue Host offers its customers a free domain name unless they have an already existing website.

Unlimited Number of Subdomains

It offers an unlimited number of subdomains for a single website.

SSL Certificate

Although it is a prerequisite for business websites all websites should have one. Blue Host has it. Bluehost provides these certificates for free to all accounts on a shared server. This includes their basic web hosting plans, WordPress plans, and their cloud business plan.

People intent on setting up an e-commerce website ought to check this out. The user’s customers will be wary of entering payment information on the website if it’s not stamped by the secure seal. An SSL certificate will move the website to a secure HTTPS domain and show visitors that the website is safe.

The users can have an SSL certificate on just the checkout of their website or the entire site.

If anyone wants to install a private SSL certificate, he will first need to purchase a dedicated IP address. this can be done from Bluehost’s control panel. This is recommended for business accounts.

With a shared SSL, users will be using the Bluehost domain which may cause warning messages to pop up on site. A private SSL uses the user’s domain and won’t cause these warning messages. This is why business or e-commerce websites are recommended to use private SSL certificates.

Automatic WordPress Updates

Your WordPress will be automatically updated with Blue Host.

Easiest WordPress Installation Process

It has a one-click WordPress installation process.

Unmetered Bandwidth

Although Blue Host offers a limited disk space it comes with unlimited bandwidth. The disk space it provides is adequate to run a small personal website.

Monitoring Resources

Blue Host monitors your resources and temporarily re-assigns your website to an isolated system if it is using excessive resources. This will make sure that the user’s website does not suffer from an unexpected increase of users.

But then again, this looks good only for small websites. Hosting larger projects on shared servers with unlimited bandwidth puts up a higher risk of CPU throttle if the websites are using heaps of the resources. This can slow down the user’s CPU and freeze its resources.

Their Clouding Plan

For businesses, Blue Host provides web hosting on their robust Cloud infrastructure.

Higher Traffic

It can handle higher and unexpected traffic with changing visitor volume. Resources are scaled instantly with one click, so you can handle traffic spikes without a problem.

Unlimited Domain Hosting

Some Blue host cloud plans also allow for unlimited domain hosting so businesses can host multiple websites.

Cloud is Reliable

Websites hosted via the cloud will be more reliable. This is because the user’s website data is duplicated and mirrored across three different drives. In case of any glitch on one of the drives, two copies of the website work together to redevelop. While this is occurring, the remaining one copy of the website continues running. As a result of all this, user’s website won’t experience outages or reboots when issues arise.

It’s Faster

Another benefit of cloud hosting is faster speeds. Blue host’s low-density servers make sure that the user’s website always has the resources it needs to continue running smoothly.

Varnish Catching

Cloud hosting includes Varnish caching so that dynamic website content requests can be processed quickly and delivered to your website visitors. Varnish is a remarkable technology that significantly accelerates your site loading speeds.

Regarding loading speeds, consider the following: sites run on Blue host’s shared hosting load in 372ms while those on their cloud plans load in just 151ms.

When the user’s business starts getting more and more successful, he may find that he needs even more resources. This is not an issue with Blue host. The user needs to just ramp up his CPU or RAM from the control panel or upgrade to a higher-level plan.

Managing Accounts

The accounts are fully managed. The users do not have to worry about maintain their hosting environment.

Blue host manages:

• Security patches
• Port access
• Maintaining languages
• Response to attacks on servers
• Response to server down incidents.

Bluehost’s cloud hosting is cheaper than both GoDaddy‘s and MediaTemple’s. However, it is not cheaper than HostGator‘s. Users can enjoy the same amount of Memory and CPUs with HostGator for a couple dollars less per month.

Control Panel

Blue Host uses the renowned control panel interface, cPanel, to ensure account administration is as simple as possible for all users. In-depth instructions and clear, easy-to-use navigation mean running your account really is a piece of cake, even for novices. Database administration, script implementation, web stats, domain management and configurable email addresses are just a few of the easily used features.

The Distinctive Features

Hosting Plans that Fit All

Blue Host offers a hosting plan ideal for everyone, whether it’s a personal website, a small business or a large company. The wide range of features included for the price means it is one of the best available.

Services Offered Free of Charge

The users get a lifetime domain name, setup and privacy registration all for free, with a massive storage allowance and transfer limit. All new registrations get a range of special offers including free submission of websites to the search engines and $50 worth of advertising at both Google and Yahoo Search Marketing.

Also included in the hosting plan is a free site builder, great for helping those with little or no programming or web design skills get their website up and running in no time.

Security Features

Security is an area where Bluehost triumphs. The users get three layers of anti-spam protection in the form of Spam Experts, Spam Hammer, and Apache Spam Assassin. They get protection for inbox as well; it is easy to set up filters. All the directories are password-protected.

If the users need to block access to the site, there is an option available to blacklist IP addresses. Another top-notch feature is secure shell (SSH) access. This allows users to access configuration files individually and securely.

Bluehost also offers single-click integration with CloudFlare, which provides even more excellent security features and speeds up the site! CloudFlare is particularly good for thwarting DDOS attacks.

 

Add-On Features

Many extra features are included in a Blue Host account with live chat, a discussion forum, auction software, Flash support, and a variety of shopping cart plug-ins among the highlights.

Blue Host Vs. Host Gator

Let us compare their business plans!

Host Gator has:

• Free SSL Certificates
• Unlimited websites
• Unmetered storage
• Unmetered bandwidth

Blue Host has:

All of the above features plus

• Free domain
• Site backup and restore

Our Ratings

Cost 5/5
Features 5/5
Storage Allowance 5/5
Bandwidth 5/5
Reliability 5/5
Customer Service 2/5
Technical Support 3/5
Response Times 5/5
Overall Usability 4.5/5

Total Score: 95% 

How Much Can You Rely On it

Blue Host operate a first-class data center, complete with powerful Quad Opteron servers, UPS backup and monitoring 24/7 to ensure your website remains online. Mirrored storage backups safeguard your data in the event of equipment failure. All these features combine to give top class reliability.

The Customer Support

Their technical support line is toll-free and claims to available 24/7 – with an average waiting time of only 2 minutes. but this is not the case. During the peak hours, it takes about 47 minutes for an operator to get back to you. Blue host is one of the least impressive hosting companies when it comes to customer service and technical support.

There are several ways of contacting their friendly, efficient team – a free phone line manned 24/7, email, or a great online chat service, which doesn’t cost a dime. There’s also a large online help section with Frequently Asked Questions, an advanced support ticketing system, and a discussion forum where Blue Host members can give advice and support to each other.

the only problem is their response time.

Perfect for those operating several websites, Blue Host allow an unlimited number of domains to be held on each individual account and for a limited time only