Bluehost Web Hosting Review 2023: Is It the Best Web Host for Your Business?

Bluehost’s web hosting services provide a lot of bang for the bucks and primo WordPress plans to please the WP faithful.
Best for Low Budgets
BlueHost
4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5
Starts at
$4.95
/mo
  • pro
    Beautiful, user-friendly interface
  • pro
    Wide array of features
  • con
    No month-to-month options
  • con
    No Windows servers
Plan name
Starting price (per month, 36-month minimum)
Get started
Shared$4.95
WordPress$4.95
VPS$19.99

Data effective 12/14/2022. At publishing time, pricing and features are current but are subject to change. Offers may not be available in all areas.

We are committed to sharing unbiased reviews. Some of the links on our site are from our partners who compensate us. Read our editorial guidelines and advertising disclosure.

Bottom line: Bluehost is best for small businesses in need of user-friendly web hosting that performs heavy lifting for a (relatively) light price. But you'll need to commit to multiple years at a time. Plus, there are much cheaper hosting providers out there if you just want a dirt-cheap provider.

If you have some time: Orem, Utah, company Bluehost has been in business since 2003, providing web hosting services for some of the most attractive and stylish people on the internet (at least that’s what you’d gather from a glance at Bluehost.com). It’s a full-service vendor, offering every type of industry-standard web hosting, as well as domain registration, website construction and marketing, and 24/7/365 support.

Bluehost is also one of only three web hosting companies officially recommended by WordPress to accommodate its popular content management system—which could explain why Bluehost’s WordPress plans are a little costlier than most. But everything else Bluehost offers is somewhat reasonably priced, considering the level of performance guaranteed and—according to the owners of 2 million Bluehost-ed websites around the world—usually delivered. It’s also featured as one of Business.org’s best web hosts.

Bluehost is owned by Endurance International Group, which also holds web companies like HostGator, iPage, SiteBuilder, Domain.com, Constant Contact, and others in its corporate stable. On the upside, this means Bluehost has a wide variety of in-house resources to draw upon for the benefit of its customers. But those allergic to brand conglomerates and potential bonus levels of bureaucracy should be aware that Bluehost is very much entrenched in the mass-biz matrix.

Wix: The affordable business website builder that doesn't skimp on good design
Wix's intuitive platform and beautiful designs make it one of the best choices for any business, regardless of your budget.

Compare Bluehost business web hosting plans in 2022

Plan
Starting price (per month)
Features
Learn more

Shared

$4.95

1 free domain, unmetered bandwidth, free SSL

WordPress

$4.95

1 free domain, 1-click install, free SSL

VPS

$19.99

1 free domain, managed hosting, free SSL

Dedicated

$79.99

1 free domain, full customization, free SSL

Data effective 12/14/2022. At publishing time, pricing and features are current but are subject to change. Offers may not be available in all areas.

*Requires 36-month commitment.

Bluehost’s web hosting plans range in price from $4.95 a month (the basic shared tier) to a still economical $119.99 a month (the primo dedicated tier), with plenty of options in between—if you’re prepared to lock into a three-year commitment (Bluehost doesn’t do month to month, and prices go up upon eventual renewal).

The 16 plans, which all guarantee 99.9% uptime reliability, also offer a fully loaded menu of features designed to not only keep things simple and unintimidating for website newbies, but they also provide deeper performance layers to satisfy more demanding developers. You won’t need to be an expert to get a site up and running quickly with Bluehost, and experts won’t be limited by dumbed-down functionality.

Expert Advice, Straight to Your Inbox
Gain confidence in your business future with our weekly simple solutions newsletter.

By signing up I agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Bluehost shared web hosting plans

Strengths
pro Cheap plans
pro Quick setup
Weaknesses
con Limited features
con Limited scalability

With shared web hosting, you share server space with other clients of the host—you’re also sharing costs, which makes this a cheaper option. It’s an easy starter choice for sites not expecting heavy initial traffic, but there are caveats: If another site sharing the server starts drawing a large amount of hits, it’ll affect your site’s performance until usage normalizes. Or if yours is the site that generates the increased traffic, you could be charged overage fees.

Bluehost’s shared plans are inexpensive, if not exactly brimming with features. The $2.95 a month Basic plan gives you a single website, 50 GB of storage space, five email accounts, and scant much else—good for a simple blog, but that’s probably all. The Plus and Choice Plus plans, both specially priced at $5.95 a month (normally $10.99 and $14.99, respectively), offer a few more no-limit features for just slightly more money. Shared plans can get you online quickly and cheaply but, if you’re planning on expanding your web reach and functionality, be prepared to upgrade.

Compare shared web hosting plans

Plan
Price (per month)*
Features
Learn more

Basic

$4.95

1 website, unmetered bandwidth, free SSL

Plus

$7.45

Unlimited websites, unlimited email accounts, free SSL

Choice Plus

$7.45

Unlimited websites, unmetered bandwidth, CodeGuard Basic

Pro

$18.95

Unlimited websites, unmetered bandwidth, CodeGuard Basic, free dedicated IP, optimized CPU resources

Data effective 12/14/2022. At publishing time, pricing and features are current but are subject to change. Offers may not be available in all areas.

*Requires 36-month commitment.

Bluehost WordPress web hosting plans

Strengths
pro One-click installation
pro Expert support
Weaknesses
con Costlier plans
con Limited IP addresses

If you’re already a devotee of the ubiquitous WordPress CMS (content management system), Bluehost is an obvious choice. It’s one of only three web hosting companies recommended by WordPress itself, and Bluehost keeps full-time WordPress Core developers on staff to back up its expertise with the platform—at a slightly higher price than most other WordPress hosting services, that is. But with a bottomless well of available themes and plug-ins, as well as managed support and simple installation, Bluehost earns its price tag.

Bluehost’s “Optimized WordPress Hosting” service runs on its managed virtual private servers (VPS), and the pricing reflects it. At $19.99 a month, the WP Standard plan “limits” you to 100 million monthly visits—generous for a new small-biz website. WP Enhanced, at $29.99 a month, raises that ceiling to 300 million monthly visits. WP Premium, at $39.99 a month, ups it to 600 million. Bluehost’s Cadillac WordPress plan, WP Ultimate, does away with the visitor cap altogether for $49.99 a month. Each plan includes one domain, one IP address, an SSL certificate, and SiteLock security features.

Compare WordPress web hosting plans

Plan
Price (per month)
Features
Learn more
Basic$4.9550 GB SSD storage
Plus$7.45Unmetered SSD storage
Choice Plus$7.45Unmetered SSD storage
Pro$18.95Unmetered SSD storage
Build$19.9520 GB web storage, 20,000 visitors
Grow$29.9540 GB web storage, 60,000 visitors
Scale$49.9580 GB web storage, 200,000 visitors

Data effective 12/14/2022. At publishing time, pricing and features are current but are subject to change. Offers may not be available in all areas.

Bluehost VPS web hosting plans

Strengths
pro Scalable performance
pro Managed maintenance
Weaknesses
con Pricier plans
con Limited domains

VPS (virtual private server) hosting mimics a dedicated server within a segregated shared server, with its own operating system, storage, RAM, and data transfers for more static and isolated site efficiency. VPS hosting provides most of the benefits of a dedicated server, but since it’s technically using a shared server, the prices are lower. If you’re at an in-between point with your online business and currently accommodating higher volumes of site traffic, but not yet in Amazon territory, VPS is a solid option.

Bluehost’s VPS hosting plans come in three flavors: Standard, at $19.99 a month; Enhanced, at $29.99 a month; and Ultimate, at $59.99 a month. The only real difference between the tiers is the amount of storage, RAM, and IP addresses included, and the VPS hosting plans are managed, meaning that Bluehost takes care of any needed maintenance and upgrades, and users are provided root access to the server.

Bluehost VPS web hosting plans

Plan
Price (per month)
Features
Learn more

Standard

$19.99

Managed support, 30 GB storage, unlimited bandwidth

Enhanced

$29.99

Managed support, 60 GB storage, unlimited bandwidth

Ultimate

$59.99

Managed support, 120 GB storage, unlimited bandwidth

Data effective 12/14/2022. At publishing time, pricing and features are current but are subject to change. Offers may not be available in all areas.

Bluehost dedicated web hosting plans

Strengths
pro Superior performance
pro Increased security
Weaknesses
con No Windows servers
con Limited domains

If you want all of the control, computing power, and privacy possible for your site, a dedicated web hosting service is the way to go. As the name implies, you get a server (which is designed, built, and maintained by Bluehost) that’s appointed to your account only, which will operate unaffected by the usage of any other clients. Dedicated web hosting is the most stable, secure, and robust site service money can buy—and as you’d expect, it demands some serious cash.

Bluehost’s dedicated web hosting plans are designed to handle heavy traffic and usage, beginning with the Standard plan at $79.99 a month, moving up to the Enhanced plan at $99.99 a month, and topping out with the Premium plan at $119.99 a month. The speed and storage stats are impressive across the board, though each plan includes only a single domain—at least they throw in multiple IP addresses (three for Standard, four for Enhanced, and five for Ultimate).

Bluehost dedicated web hosting plans

Plan
Price (per month)
Features
Learn more

Standard

$79.99

500 GB storage, 4 GB RAM, 4-core/8-thread speed

Enhanced

$99.99

1 TB storage, 8 GB RAM, 4-core/8-thread speed

Premium

$119.99

1 TB storage, 16 GB RAM, 4-core/8-thread speed

Data effective 12/14/2022. At publishing time, pricing and features are current but are subject to change. Offers may not be available in all areas.

Compare Bluehost vs. competitors

Brand
Entry-level pricing

$4.95/mo.

$2.99/mo.

$2.29/mo.

$20.00/mo.

Uptime guarantee

99.99%

99.99%

99.9%

99.9%
Hosting for any website
bulletYes
bulletYes
bulletYes
bulletNo (WordPress only)
Free SSL certificate
bullet

2 cores

bullet

2 cores

bullet

3 cores

bullet

4 cores

Free CDN
bulletYes
bulletYes
bulletNo
bulletYes
Free domain name
bulletYes
bulletNo
bulletYes
bulletNo
Money-back guarantee30 days30 days90 days60 days
Unlimited free emails
bulletYes
bulletYes
bulletYes
bulletYes
Automated backups
bulletNo
bulletDaily
bulletNo
bulletDaily
Get Started

Data effective 12/14/2022. At publishing time, pricing and features are current but are subject to change. Offers may not be available in all areas.

Standard Bluehost features summary

Web hosting

  • cPanel control panel (with site stats, error logs, shopping carts, blog platforms, forums, counters, custom error pages, web-based file manager, redirect URL, etc.)
  • Unmetered bandwidth, subdomains, FTP accounts, and email accounts (most plans)
  • SSL certificate
  • Drupal, Joomla, and Weebly website builders
  • Add-on domains, subdomains, and parked domains
  • FTP access
  • Spam Assassin protection
  • Courtesy backups

Domain registration

  • Options to purchase, transfer, or manage domain names directly through Bluehost
  • Auto-renewal, domain locking, and domain privacy protection
  • Various domain extensions (.com, .club, .co, .space, .us, .website, .org, .net, .me, .biz, .info, .host, .online, .site, .tech., and hundreds of others) available upon search

Email

  • Unlimited POP3 email accounts (most plans)
  • Roundcube, Horde, and SquirrelMail webmail options
  • Auto-response, mail forwarding, and email aliasing

Ecommerce

  • SSL secure server
  • OS Commerce, Agora, Cube Cart, and Zen Cart shopping carts
  • Password-protected directories
  • OpenPGP/GPG encryption

Customer support and guarantees

  • 99.9% uptime guarantee
  • 24/7/365 phone, live chat, and email ticketing system support
  • System status updates
  • Online knowledge base with walk-through articles and videos
  • 30-day money-back guarantee

The takeaway

Bluehost offers solid and speedy web hosting that’s loaded with features and options—even more so if you’re a WordPress fan willing to pay a bit more for WP functionality and built-in expertise. With the exception of its shared plans, any of Bluehost’s hosting packages could be scaled up quickly to handle burgeoning business and traffic growth for less money than its nearest competitors. Web novices will appreciate Bluehost’s simplicity of operation, and more experienced developers won’t be frustrated by a lack of deeper-dive features. Overall, Bluehost’s bang-for-your-buck quotient is loud.

Methodology

We carefully analyzed Bluehost's overall value for the money, suitability for beginners, customer service quality, ease-of-use, hosting performance, technical specifications (such as disk space and bandwidth), and other factors.

Disclaimer

At Business.org, our research is meant to offer general product and service recommendations. We don't guarantee that our suggestions will work best for each individual or business, so consider your unique needs when choosing products and services.

Bill Frost
Written by
Bill Frost
Bill Frost has been a writer, editor, journalist, and occasional graphic designer since the grunge-tastic ’90s. His pulse-pounding prose has been featured in Salt Lake City Weekly, Coachella Valley Independent, Wausau City Pages, Des Moines CityView, Tucson Weekly, Las Vegas Weekly, Inlander, OC Weekly, and elsewhere; he’s currently a senior columnist at SLUGMag.com. When not cranking out quips, Bill actualizes beer money as a musician and podcaster. You can reach him at bill@business.org.
Recent Articles
web design screen on laptop
Best Free Website Builder for Small Business
Need a no-cost website builder? Check out our rankings to find the best one. Best...
person using computer on abstract background
Best Website Builders for Small Businesses 2023
We tested nine website builders to find the right one for your small business and...
GoDaddy Website Builder Review
How to Sell Your Website
Are you ready to sell the site of your online business? Learn how to sell...
woman using laptop in a plant shop
How to Create a Business Website
Building a website can feel overwhelming. That’s why we created this simple but thorough guide...