US$5.45
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Bluehost is a popular web hosting provider, and as this Bluehost review will show, it’s suitable for many creative professionals. Why do you need a web host at all? Well, few creative professionals can get by without a website to share their ideas, post their resumes, or showcase their talent. For this, you’ll need a web host – a company that stores the pages and files of your website on its servers so users can visit your website 24/7.
If you’re looking to create a website for your creative business or to showcase your portfolio, you’re probably comparing the best web hosting services and wondering which is right for you. One option is Bluehost, which was founded in 2003 and now hosts over 2 million websites. It’s a popular option, though this may be due more to its aggressive marketing strategy as much as its quality. In our Bluehost review, we assess its pricing, features, interface, and support to find out whether it lives up to the hype.
Bluehost Review: Plans and pricing
Bluehost subscription options:
12-month plan – US$2.75 per month (US$33 total cost)
There are many pricing options with Bluehost, and you need to be careful not to end up paying more than you expect—Bluehost looks cheap at first.
The cheaper plans cover shared hosting, which means your website will share a server with other Bluehost sites, rather than having a private server. Shared hosting is sufficient for most small or medium creative sites, so that’s what we’ll focus on. The Basic plan starts at $2.75 a month and allows you one website and 50GB of storage. The Plus plan starts at $4.95 and comes with unlimited websites and storage. Then, there are Choice Plus and Pro plans, starting at $6.95 and $13.95 a month.
But these low prices require a 36-month contract. If you don’t want to commit for that long, you’ll pay more; the Basic plan costs $3.95/month for 24 months or $4.95/month for 12 months. Even these prices only last for that contracted period—if you go for the $2.75/month Basic plan and want to renew after your 36 months are up, the price rises steeply to $8.99/month.
So, while Bluehost looks cheap at first, it becomes more expensive over time, which is why it suffers in comparison to other hosts, such as DreamHost, which starts at a similar price and stays that cheap.
Bluehost: Features
(Image credit: Bluehost)
Bluehost’s shared hosting has a long list of features. It’s a scalable system, meaning you can start small with the cheapest plan and upgrade later when you need more features. There’s a domain manager that you can use to transfer, manage, and purchase domain names for your website, and you get a free SSL certificate with every plan. This means all data sent between your visitors and your website is encrypted, keeping e-commerce transactions safe.
Weebly
Bluehost doesn’t have its own website builder, but it does offer the one-click installation of Weebly, a popular website-building tool. With Weebly, you can drag and drop elements onto your website and add powerful features without touching a line of code.
WordPress
WordPress is a popular content management system that powers around 30% of the internet, and it comes pre-installed with your Bluehost account. You can also use WordPress to access detailed analytics statistics, which show you how many people are visiting your website. Several WordPress plug-ins are available, such as WooCommerce, which can help you set up an online shop as part of your website. However, WordPress does have a habit of trying to add plug-ins that you likely won’t need, which can clutter the interface.
(Image credit: Bluehost)
WooCommerce
Bluehost’s main e-commerce solution is WooCommerce, which works in tandem with WordPress. With Bluehost, WooCommerce can be automatically installed with support for unlimited products, site optimization, a customer product review, website traffic analytics, and online payment processing support. It’s a simple way to have a powerful online store in a matter of minutes.
