Shared hosting is a good option for people who don’t expect much traffic to their website The upside? It’s cheap web hosting. The downside? Your website shares server resources with other sites, so your site’s performance can be affected if one of its server mates experiences a traffic surge.
The Linux-based Bluehost doesn’t offer month-to-month shared web hosting options. Instead, it requires you to sign up for an annual plan. With the Basic plan, you pay $2.95 per month whether you sign up for one-, two-, or three-year commitments. After your initial commitment, Basic’s price rises to $9.99 per month for an annual commitment, but the price drops to $8.99 per month if you decide to renew for three years. If you need short-term hosting, check out HostGator’s excellent month-to-month options.
The Basic shared hosting package includes a free domain name you can keep as long as you use Bluehost, a free domain name transfer, the ability to host a single site, 50GB of storage, unlimited monthly data transfers, and five email addresses. The Plus package ($6.95 per month with a one-year contract, rising to $13.99 per month upon renewal) adds an antispam tool for a single domain, as well as unlimited websites, storage, and mailboxes. The Choice Plus package ($6.95 per month with a one-year contract, rising to $18.99 per month upon renewal) builds upon Plus with free automated backup for one year and domain privacy, so that you can mask your physical location for enhanced security. The Pro plan ($18.95 per month with a one-year contract, renewing at $28.99 per month) has all of Choice Plus’ features, plus a free, dedicated IP address.
