BlueHost Review
I was excited to write a review about BlueHost, mainly because I’ve heard a lot of good things about them. With so many web hosts, and so few (good and honest) reviews, it’s really hard to tell who’s good and who isn’t.
From looking at the BlueHost.com web site, the company appears to be a serious and professional web host. A visually appealing web site, clearly posted contact information, lots of awards (from legitimate places), and grammatically correct text on site, all help make BlueHost seem like a formidable web host. A great feature (that seems to be awfully rare) is that BlueHost provides a demo of their control panel (a very slightly customized cPanel using the X skin) that actually works and isn’t impossible to find. It’s a great feature that allows you to review how cPanel works if you aren’t familiar with it.
BlueHost Features and Pricing
The features BlueHost provides seem pretty standard (nothing lacking) with all of the expected features of a web host such as cPanel, multiple database support, FTP, email, etc. BlueHost’s one (the only one I could find, at least) package features 1500 GB of diskspace, and 15,000 GB of bandwidth. There’s a limited number of databases (50 each for MySQL and Postgre) and more FTP and email accounts than you could ever use (1,000 and 5,000, respectively). Unlimited numbers of addon domains, parked domains, and subdomains are given. Pricing varies depending how long you sign up for:
- 3 Months: $9.95/month + $30.00 Setup + Domain ($10.00 if purchased from BlueHost)
- 6 Months: $8.95/month + $30.00 Setup + Domain ($10.00 if purchased from BlueHost)
- 12 Months: $7.95/month (no setup fee, free domain included)
- 24 Months: $6.95/month (no setup fee, free domain included)
I have never been a big fan of a minimum of three months contract, and you do have to click around (to the second step in their order process, actually) just to find out the price. Ignoring the minimum contract length, pricing is quite competitive.
Terms of Service
BlueHost has a very unique Terms of Service - there’s no legal jargon at all. It’s just some bullet points on a page with the major points included in most Terms of Service agreements. The shady point is “All activities may be monitored, recorded, and examined by any authorized person, including law enforcement.” with a semi-shady “Any violation found or fraudulent activity that system personnel deem inappropriate may have your account immediately terminated without notice and any recorded evidence reported to authorized persons.” However, in fairness to BlueHost, the points are quite clear, and not hidden within a 10 page agreement.
cPanel Control Panel
Two clicks later, I was into my control panel. If you know about cPanel, you can probably skip this paragraph. It’s all very standard. You have the same SQL, subdomain, email, etc. features as every other cPanel. There’s a few nice addons such as a domain manager, a sitebuilder, and some options to manage your account (basically, it just logs you into their billing system, but still convenient). BlueHost has Fantastico, which from what I saw, was up-to-date with the latest stable versions of all of the scripts. The cPanel went very fast and did everything it was supposed to do.
Script Installation
Like a lot of cPanel hosts, BlueHost supports addon domains. I set up a few addon domains, and everything worked well, and without any problems. BlueHost doesn’t allow SSH/Shell Access by default, but says it will enable shell access for your account if you fax a copy of your driver’s license, passport, etc. to them. I installed some basic scripts (a blog, a CMS, a forum) without any problems. Speed was about average, and BlueHost seems to keep up in terms of software updates and the like.
BlueHost Support
I called their support department using their toll-free number. I was talking to someone within about 30 seconds after dialing. I asked some basic questions: Do you support mod_rewrite (Yes), do you support mod_security (didn’t know, but checked), and do you keep your Fantastico up-to-date with the latest versions (Yes)? Support was nice enough, and keep to know what they were talking about. The representative obviously wasn’t reading from a prompt (no delay with answers).
I decided to test the BlueHost support out with some more complicated issues that an average webmaster may run across. I was caller #2, and had to wait about a minute or two. I spoke to a different representative (meaning they have more than one tech on duty, always nice) and asked does BlueHost support PHP5 (they have two servers that do, and can move your account if needed), if they support Ruby on Rails (nope), and if I should use ‘localhost’ as my host name with the script I was trying to install (Yes). I reworded the questions slightly and sent them to BlueHost support via email at 4:50 PM on a Monday. By 5:17 PM, I had a helpful response.
All and all, BlueHost seems like a good web host. The company certainly has their act together and by all means can be labelled as a top quality web host with great features and support.
Pros: Good control panel (cPanel) with a few nice extras, plenty of space and bandwidth, good support, fair pricing
Cons: Semi-shady points in TOS (nothing too major, and clearly outlined), 3 month minimum contract length, pricing is relatively hard to find
Bottomline: BlueHost is a good web host that provides a good hosting experience with a top-of-the-line control panel as well as helpful support for a reasonable price.
Rating: 
–Reviewed by Douglas Hanna
Visit BlueHost.com
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As a fellow webmaster, i would advice all those registering their domains online to avoid netfirms.com - they are thieves. We had recently registered our domain on their site and with proof of purchase and a receipt later, we realized the domain has been sold to someone else half a day after our official purchase!
I would recommend many other domain providers, but that seem like i’m endorsing them, i merely conclude to beware when dealing with this India based IT institution.
Last word of advice, if they realize the worth of a domain after you have purchased it, they will revoke their claim and purchase it themselves, so that they can later resell it.
Theses people shut my dad’s website down because he wanted them to fix a problem on there end. then kicked us off there server, i would say avoid these people like a plague because if they don’t like you they will kick you off there server. AVOID AVOID AVOID
and still havent refunded us the money that we paid them for the month
I build websites for a living.
I have been using Bluehost for several years now.
They do give a lot of features for a good price.
Tech support had always been good in the past but recently has taken a dive. Dec. 2007
They “upgraded” their email servers and email went down for a day. I would think that an upgrade would be something that is planned so notice should be sent. But no notice was sent and customers email was not delivered.
Ok not a good practice. I was not informed till my customer asked why they where not recieving their email and I contacted Bluehost and got a canned answer that I could hardly give my customer.
I contacted them again for clarification and did not get any answer.
Having to deal with support issues myself I try to always be polite and to the point when dealing with any tech support personnel.
So have I made this assessment from one poor blunder?…no it seems a few of my last support questions have gone totally unanswered.
Which leads me to wonder if they are out growing their support.
I have to be proactive in insuring my current and future customers happiness.So I believe I am going to find a different hosting solution.
So far 1&1 seems to get high marks with some other web designers.
I am here posting just to help other designers not to slander Blue host. But I feel that for about the same money there are more professional hosting companies out there.
I have been using Bluehost for about 2 years. I had to fight every single time I needed support. Every time they kept trying to convince me that the problem was in my applications. Almost every time they were wrong. Bluehost cannot be trusted for a serious business.
Service is aweful, price great, bandwidth great. I wouldn’t recommend them unless you have bandwidth options. Not reliable at all.
To the poster above…avoid 1and1 internet. Short version story. They sent my account to a collection agency by “accident” and are now requiring me to pay the collection agency before they will unlock my website. I’ve sent proof of payment to 1and1 and the collection agency, and 1and2 still refuses to budge; they also are not willing to refund my money for services paid in advance. Bottom line…if they make a mistake…you pay!
Hi,
Don’t believe any good news about bluehost! Here is my story:
I reserved with them almost a year ago. What i noticed first was that they are very slow and you should always beg to get a reply from them. . . then one day i received an email from them saying that they want to move my account to a new server (because they care about us and about our their service). The website(s) was blocked with 403 error. In the same email they said that the moving will need two or three days, but if the account was not activated within 2 days then contact us just in case.
That’s exactly what i did in two days. There was no reply by email, but a cold email saying that we should open a ticket.
I opened a ticket but again no reply. After a day, i tried to catch one of them on their said-to-be “live chat”, first i got someone from sales, then i got someone from technical who seemed to be working on the issue, but he cut the connection. I tried to connect again several times but with no reply!!!!!
I tried phone several times. I explained my problem, and the person on the other end was kind to look into it. He said that moving between servers take time!!! come on! it’s just 100G that can be moved with 10minutes between two servers!!!! and during all that time the websites and all the business is black! nobody can access the site and everybody is getting 403 error including myself. I can’t even access the control panel!!!!!
Five days passed and nothing, so i opened two other tickets and i was tyring to get more of their attention through live chat, but to no avail.
Now i quite up and i advise anybody NEVER WORK with BLUEHOST . They are not professional, and they are very tight on everything. . . don’t be tempted by the size and space they give. . . everything is tied up!!! you can’t do anything. Everything should be activated manually and after several emails: activate perl, activate ImageMagick, activate some commands. . .etc. Although I asked specifically for these things before i join them in and they said that everything is available to us!!!!!!!!
Try any other server but stay away from bluehost. Otherwise you will be loosing your money, your sites, your investment and your clients!!!
my 2 cents
forgot to add: everything i said here can be checked with me if you want the truth. My domain is free4mob.com and my email is Ramez.Bali (at) gmail (dot) com
Hi I have been with them for 12 months now
And I have not had any trouble
John
Doctors Employment
doctorsemployment.com
I went to the BlueHost website because they came highly recommended by Pandecta Magazine—what a bad experience! In an attempt to obtain clarification on several issues regarding their webhosting promotion, the person I was chatting with came off with a “major” brown-hole attitude before we even got through the first question. They obviously have no regard for customer service, which is a direct indication of poor management and an unprofessional business. I highly recommend anyone considering doing business with BlueHost to think twice—or maybe three times! Find a legitimate, professional hosting business that is geared toward your needs as a paying customer, not one that thinks they are doing you a favor. Bottom line: BlueHost is a joke and will probably be out of business soon due to lack of common sense.
What are you guys on about? Many, many people have horror stories to tell about BlueHost:
1. http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=662557&highlight=bluehost
2. http://inetintegrity.com/weblog/?p=1
3. http://mattheaton.com/?p=115
Basically they oversell their servers and take some pretty unprofessional approaches to server upgrades. I’d recommend Site5 or Dreamhost to people looking for cost-effective but highly professional hosting.
Interesting, MK. From reading those threads, it looks like BlueHost has been having “major problems” since late December because of an apache/php5 upgrade and load times. That, along with the insane number of new customers signing up (850 in one day) explains all the sudden negative comments about BlueHost posted here.
I am not a BlueHost apologist, but since Matt Heaton has publicly admitted the problems and taken responsibility, it seems reasonable to wait out the “growing pains” and see if things return to normal. My .02 worth.
Thank goodness for these forums to release all the stress I have acquired from the poor support, management, and web development. I would have benefited more if I used the money I lost to blue host as toilet paper. If did not design the website and manual insert text and correct all the spelling mistakes, the website would not have gotten aware. It has been 7 months since my initial payment and the blue host website is still not online and has more problem as they pretend to email me saying that they performed work with no action really taken. If there was ever a hell on planet Earth, it would have originated from bluehost. It’s truly embarrassing to even be associated with bh. I wish there was redemption process to get back all the lost time and money and life they took from me.
BH, are you saying that BlueHost was developing your site? I didn’t know that BlueHost offered web development services. In fact, I checked their site and cannot find any such product. To my knowledge, BlueHost only offers one product: a shared web hosting package. Perhaps you would be willing to explain in more detail what happened?
Maybe I missed something (I don’t need tech support too often), but I have nothing but great things to say about BlueHost. The few times I’ve had to contact support they were really helpful AND they’re actually based in the US. No language barriers, no repeating yourself 29 times so some guy in India understands what you’re saying. I have no doubt that there are some issues, especially if they’re taking on new customers in such large volume, but I can honestly say I’d recommend them to anyone.
My wesbite went offline for two hours (off peak time - no huge deal) but then at 11:30AM Sunday 2/10 it went down and is STILL DOWN almost 24 hours later.)
If Blue Host is such a wonderful web hosting site why is it grandecom.net has cut them off and won’t let them forward e-mail to my or wifes e-mail account?? We have had our web site @ Blue host for 2 years with very little problems except this one. We have not been able to resolve it in the last year. If this is the norm of things to come then the internet is doomed as any isp who takes a notion can cut another off.
Fred, did you ask grandecom.net why they blacklisted BlueHost?
WOW! It seems, I am not alone. Get ready for this one folks. I am a BH customer with multiple websites being hosted under my main domain. I officially complained about my customer service issues with the BBB of Utah. Now that I have an active complaint online with them, BH has elected to terminate my web services without notice. Is this what you think an internet presence provider should do in response to negative reaction to their inept service department? Take note here and if you are considering using BH for your Internet Presence, take the time to consider it carfully.
Jim, do you mind me asking the official reason that BlueHost gave you for terminating your web hosting account?
I have three words to describe Bluehost. Unreliable, unreliable, unreliable.
Read about my horror with Bluehost at Bluehost Blues!
I have been using Bluehost for awhile now and they have been great. Recently things have started to take a turn for the worst. Their support has been less helpful and certain sites that I have setup have been going down…with no notice or apology from Bluehost. I am now removing all my sites.
STAY AWAY FROM BLUEHOST!!!
You can say what you want about BlueHost’s upgrade issues, but I have to hand it to the guys for sticking to their policy of not hosting pornographic sites. Be it for moral reasons or resource consumption, some people can sleep a little better knowing their files aren’t rubbing up against PeeWee Herman.
Jonny, what was the reason BlueHost gave for your sites going down? Was it related to the problems discussed earlier in this thread? Please give some more details, thanks.
Bluehost was okay for about 1.5 years as I used them. Unfortunately, they have no sense of planning or policy. We noticed this repeatedly with unannounced changes and a many times malfunctioning control panel.
They migrated our sites to a new server without telling us. Unfortunately, the new and the old didn’t match and they broke the sites. They cost us $900 for the developers to go back in and fix things.
Liquidweb is the better bet if you have the budget otherwise hostgator.
Spencer
bluehost SUCKS, STAY AWAY FROM bluehost THE PLANS ARE FAKE, THEY WILL SUSPEND YOUR PAGE if you need even atlease 100mb bandwidth.
Bluehost = FAKEHOST
LOL, BlueHost only offers 1 plan and it’s 15,000 GB bandwidth.
Obviously the plan is fake, common thieves who overselling, 15,000 GB for sure its a fake value, especially in a shared hosting, fooling inexperienced webmasters, No one is going to use even the half of the space, and i bet if a client try to use even the 1/100 of the offered space, they will fix this using ether hidden charges, or limits-CPU usage etc, at the end, this is why there is a TOS/term, probably you will end up with a suspended account begging for refund.
Great Review Douglas. I am amazed by some of these comments that some people still find a way to complain. For such a low price, Bluehost gives you so much with webhosting. My group has had our Bluehost account for 3 years now. And rarely do we have any issues. When we do, we just hop onto the online chat with the techies and they are usually very good at resolving our problems. Seriously, if you complain about Bluehost you are going to end up complaining about any service you have.
Fastdomain also has the same address as that of bluehost. i guess bluehost, fastdomain and hostmonster are the same. why do they have to brand themselves into a lot of names?
Jonee, I have read that BlueHost wanted Fastdomains because it is an official ICANN registrar. It makes sense to me because BlueHost and HostMonster are now able to go through the process of registration faster and easier without having to use a third party registrar.
I am really glad I have found this BH despite all the support WordPress is throwing at them seems almost as bad as Dot5Hosting… 5 minutes to login, 8 to get a post page which only posts half the time after another 5 minutes or more… This was after they “fixed” their upgrade.
@Emory Rowland concerning BHBASTERD comment about Bluehost and web development.
http://design.bluehost.com/design/index.php
Crazy Penguin, thanks for sharing that design page. It’s interesting that there is no link to that page from the bluehost.com main page. I wonder how they are promoting it?
Personally I’ve been hosting my website (www.thisismyurl.com) with BlueHost for two years now and never had a problem with them, I think as with most aspects of life you get what you give.
Emory, great comeback for Crazy, and notice if you will that BlueHost only recommends this service. It’s by http://www.edynamo.com
With a half a million domains, there are bound to be a few problems. You can’t avoid the statistics.
@Chris I can see why you have “no problems” with Bluehost.
You are selling Bluehost at least through one of your sites. So does [potentially offensive link removed by editor] sound familiar to you. I see Bluehost banners in two places on the site.
What is funny to me is if type in your url thisismyurl.com you provided in the above comment at http://serverstatus.bluehost.com/ it tells all kinds of history about what is going on with you at Bluehost.
If you are a shill or an affiliate either way you are biased on what you are promoting from you point of view concerning your comment.
They oversell. If you need more space, they shift you to a new server, resulting in downtime and may be data loss too …
Jacob C [1:15:52 PM]: Welcome to our real-time Sales chat. How can I help you today?
rick [1:18:20 PM]: are you real ?
[1:18:35 PM]: type rick
[1:19:22 PM]: no one ?
Jacob C [1:20:51 PM]: Rick
[1:20:59 PM]: Yes I am real, how may I help you?
rick [1:21:15 PM]: ohh great
[1:21:17 PM]: thanx ..
[1:21:24 PM]: I need hosting ..
[1:21:55 PM]: before i buy your hosting .. i need to know few things
Jacob C [1:22:31 PM]: Ok
rick [1:22:38 PM]: what is your server configuration ?
Jacob C [1:23:24 PM]: Linux servers running Apache 2.2.8, CentOS 4.6, OC-48 backbone, PHP 5.2.5, Python 2.4.3, Ruby 2.0.1(Rails 2.0.2), Perl 5.8.8
rick [1:23:48 PM]: hardware configuration ?
Jacob C [1:26:20 PM]: OUr servers have dual Quad Core CPUs with 8GBs of RAM and RAID Redundency.
rick [1:27:01 PM]: and what is the HDD capacity and how many HDD’s to 1 server ?
Jacob C [1:28:39 PM]: I am not sure, I believe that the servers have 8 HDDs per server.
rick [1:28:58 PM]: Do you oversell ?
Jacob C [1:30:26 PM]: We do not allot the 1.5TBs upfront, but if you need the space then we will give it to you.
[1:30:37 PM]: So no, we do not oversell.
rick [1:32:03 PM]: So if i signup now and in 6 months i start using the actual space .. i.e 1.5 TB or less … what will happen ?
[1:32:16 PM]: Will I be shifted to new servers ?
Jacob C [1:32:42 PM]: Yes you could be migrated to a different server.
rick [1:33:05 PM]: so there will be downtime .. and may be data loss …
Jacob C [1:33:46 PM]: Yes there could be downtime, but we will try to schedule the migration with you.
rick [1:34:09 PM]: so initially how much space do you allot?
Jacob C [1:35:42 PM]: I am not sure, but the space would dynamically expand.
rick [1:36:07 PM]: Can you find out ?
Jacob C [1:36:46 PM]: No I can not.
rick [1:38:06 PM]: You mean to say … you have no idea how much space will be provided ?
Jacob C [1:39:10 PM]: I mean to say that you will not have to worry about the space, we are building brand new servers everyday and so you will not have to worry about aging hardware or cramped servers.
rick [1:41:19 PM]: the reason to ask for the space details is that I currently host a video blog website. I needed to know how much space would be provided to me. My current website is about 750 GB
Jacob C [1:42:36 PM]: You will be given 1500GBs. You will not need to worry about the space on the server.
[1:43:16 PM]: If the idea of the disk space dynamically expanding worries you then you may need to look into VPS or a dedicated server.
[1:46:57 PM]: Is there anything else I may assist you with?
[1:47:52 PM]: It appears you are having difficulty responding, please feel free to open another chat anytime if you have further questions. Have a great day!
I dont recomend blue host. about 2 weeks after buying the 2 year package i was contacted by my building socity (Bank) Fraud sqad and was told that the company tried to put a compromise on my account, not sure what it ment i asked, they told me if Bluehost had lifted any money after taking just £1:00 they would be able to clear out my accound without a trace, so i give bluehost 2 stars, Why you ask, because my bank has closed my account and created me a new one with full money back and i still have my account at bluehost
they must have overlooked it, What a bunch of ejits 
Despite plenty of reviews suggesting I should look elsewhere for a webhost, I plumped for Bluehost.
So far, I am very impressed with the service. After updating my DNS settings with my old Lycos package, my website was up and running within a couple of hours, with excellent download speeds.
Good stats and logging facilities too.