Server speed, security, support & price are the four main aspects you have to take into consideration before purchasing web hosting. Changing your hosting is a big hassle and the downtime will affect the user experience negatively. However, we tested multiple web hosting companies before writing this article. And wasted our money with a few web hosting companies which you don’t have to (luckily). Also, we have long years of experience working with many other companies. So our review definitely matters. And you can take advantage of it.
Assuming you are going to build a WordPress website or blog, and you need web hosting at an affordable price. Please note that we are not going to give you the names of the cheapest hosting company in the world. Because we have to ensure the quality as well.
Bluehost is the best web hosting company for WordPress websites. And this is what we can recommend you based on our long years of experience. Based on their server speed, security, customer support & reasonable price, it’s just awesome! You won’t regret it.
Bluehost is also recommended by WordPress itself. They also recommend two other hosting companies: DreamHost & SiteGround. And those are also good companies for WordPress hosting. But comparing to Bluehost, and based on price & a few other factors, we can definitely recommend Bluehost as number# 1. However, we don’t recommend SiteGround because of its pricing plans.
Why Bluehost is The Best -Features & Benefits
It’s specially built for WordPress websites. On the other hand, WordPress requires support for PHP, MySQL or MariaDB, SSL (HTTPS), Apache or Nginx. We will not go through the detail of these environmental components, just keep in mind that these are required. We just can not through a tree to grow in cement. Because a tree needs soil, water, oxygen, etc to live better. Likewise, as a CMS, WordPress also needs a favorable environment to live better. Most importantly, technology changes over time, and PHP, MySQL, Apache, etc continuously upgrade their versions. However, not all the hosting companies upgrade the versions on their end and do not have support for cutting edge or LTS versions. But we saw that Bluehost has been upgrading the environments continuously. Below we mentioned few cool features & benefits:
Server Speed
It has SSD storage in all types of hosting plans. SSD stands for solid-state drive and it does the same thing as hard drive, but the data is stored in flash-based memory chips. It doesn’t have any moving parts like HDD (hard disk drive). So obtaining & inserting data is way faster than ever. The main purpose of SSD is speed & performance.
Security & SSL
In most cases, your website security depends on the code you have written or uploaded. To clarify, security depends on the theme & plugins, especially the forms. So Bluehost or any other hosting company doesn’t have anything to do with it. Because it’s your choice about the theme & plugins. Other than that, Bluehost is a secured environment. Also, they offer a regular scanning option (SiteLock) and support security plugins like All In One WP Security & Firewall, Wordfence Security – Firewall & Malware Scan, BBQ Firewall, Sucuri.
On the other hand, Bluehost offers FREE SSL certificates with all packages. SSL refers to a secure sockets layer and it’s an encrypted connection & a small data file between browser & server. In simple words, it indicates that your visitors are safe to browse your website and no personal data will be stolen.
Customer Support & Service
This is what I like most personally. Their support team is super excellent and they are available 24/7. Also, they will not keep you on hold for a long time. Generally, it takes only 1/3 minutes to connect with a customer support agent. They are really friends indeed. Also, their customer support agents are categorized based on the service you need. And they will connect you with a proper service agent based on your service query. For example, their Billing Support Agent is different than Maleware/Security Support Agent. Thus you get the best service possible. You can do Live Chat with them by following this link: https://helpchat.bluehost.com/
I have a few negative experiences with other web hosting companies. In most of the cases, I found them offline exactly when I need their help. Also, all the companies are not available for support every day, nor 24 hours a day. So you may end up waiting if it happens to you.
Pricing Plans
Their pricing plans are very competitive and reasonable. However, the monthly pricing plans you see are calculated based on a 36 months term. You can purchase any package for 12 months but the monthly cost will be a little bit higher in this case. But this is not too much.
Let’s say you want to buy “Shared Hosting” (Hosting => Shared Hosting).
The basic package will cost $71 for 1 year. On the other hand, the Choice Plus (Recommended) package will cost $107 for a 1-year subscription. However, you can build Unlimited websites in the same hosting plan and if you buy the Recommended (Choice Plus) package.
Not to mention, one or more package extras may be selected automatically such as Codeguard Basic, SiteLock Security, etc. And it will cost you additional money. Honestly, you don’t need those package extras. So feel free to UNCHECK the package extra and move forward.
cPanel & Email Hosting
Bluehost has easy to use cPanel from where you can make your websites very easily. Also, they have a one-click WordPress installable feature. On the other hand, you can create Unlimited numbers of EMAIL accounts and it’s FREE. Once you created the email, you will be able to login to your email by following this URL: https://login.bluehost.com/hosting/webmail and you can use the email accounts with popular webmail clients such as Roundcube, Horde, SquirrelMail.
Free Domain
You can get 1 (one) FREE Domain with any hosting package. Also, you’re free to buy additional domains from Bluehost in the future. And the domain cost may vary depending on the extension or TLD (.com, .org, .net, .info, etc).
Free CDN
CDN stands for Content Delivery Network. It helps the static files to load faster around the globe. Depending on the distance between your website visitor & sever, CDN will load static files from the nearest physical location. Alternatively, you can use other CDNs for your website. One of the popular CDN is Cloudflare. You need to replace your existing Namevers with Cloudflare-Nameservers to be able to use their CDN.
These are the main gist for which we can definitely recommend Bluehost for your web hosting. However, they have a few different types of hosting such as WordPress Hosting, Managed, eCommerce, Shared, Dedicated & VPS. It’s really confusing depending on their names. Because people generally think they need WordPress Hosting for building a WordPress website, or they need eCommerce Hosting for building an eCommerce website. But this is not the case actually. Let’s clarify it:
Which Package You Should Buy
The main difference among packages is performance & environment. Assuming you have less than 10,000 (ten thousand) visitors per month on your website. To keep things short and clear, you actually need Shared Hosting. No matter if you’re going to build WordPress, eCommerce/WooCommerce, or memberships website. You can definitely use Shared Hosting for them.
On the other hand, Shared Hosting has four different plans. Now, the question is which one you should buy? We highly recommend you to buy the “Choice Plus” plan and it also recommended by Bluehost itself. Because you can build multiple numbers of different websites on the same hosting. But if you are sure that you will not build more than 1 (one) website, then you can definitely buy the Basic Plan & it will cost you only $71 for one year.
To buy your preferred plan, go to BLUEHOST, on the top-left edge find the option Hosting and then Shared Hosting from the dropdown.
Now scroll down and choose either Basic or Choice Plus and move forward. If you want to buy for 1 year, then click the tab “12 months”. You can also change the duration on the cart page as well.
Once you selected a plan, you will be redirected to the next window where you can get a FREE domain with your hosting plan, or you can use your existing domain if you already have, or even you can leave these option for now by clicking the option called “I’ll create my domain later“.
Once you are done with domain selection, you will be redirected to the cart page. Just fill out your account information and again make sure the 12 months are selected under Package Information.
And also make sure all the package extras are UNCHECKED under Package Extras.
And you’re almost done! They will send you a confirmation email. Your hosting may take 1/2 hours to be ready for building your website. If you need any help or if you are unsure about anything, you can always ask the support agent in LIVE CHAT.
