Do not listen to bloggers and YouTubers promoting Bluehost.
Bluehost is terrible and these people only want to make affiliate commissions by creating “how to start a blog” content and writing untruthful Bluehost reviews. I encourage you to join the WordPress Hosting and WP Speed Matters Facebook Groups to get unbiased hosting opinions.
In these Facebook Groups, it’s widely known that Bluehost is slow, owned by EIG, and have bad support and downtimes. This explains why they have a 1.5 star review on TrustPilot. You also have to sign up for 3 years to get their advertised prices. There’s not one Bluehost affiliate link in this review because I don’t recommend them. My blog is about about quality, not being cheap.
An Honest Bluehost Review
- The only people promoting Bluehost are affiliates
- Bluehost pays a hefty price to be recommended by WordPress
- Bluehost has a slow TTFB
- Owned by EIG who has a stock ticker
- Support is mediocre at best
- Downtimes can be long and frequent
- Advertised pricing is only if you sign up for 3 years
- Unlimited everything is not true
- Shared hosting can’t handle WooCommerce or high CPU plugins
- Hosting features
- Bluehost pros and cons
- Bluehost reviews on TrustPilot (1.5/5 stars)
- What people say about Bluehost in Facebook Groups
- How And Where To Move Away From Bluehost
- FAQs
1. The only people promoting Bluehost are affiliates
They’re all sellouts.
WP Beginner, Pat Flynn, and the endless amount of “how to start a blog” YouTubers and bloggers. All these people care about are making commissions and it really, really needs to stop.
Bluehost pays up to $150+/sale per affiliate commission. Do the math: If someone signs up for a $6.95/month plan for 2 years, that’s $166.80. The leftover $16.80 is basically the “real value” of their hosting and is why Bluehost doesn’t invest in better support, servers, or speed technology.
2. Bluehost pays a hefty price to be recommended by WordPress
How much does Bluehost pay to be recommended by WordPress?
We’ll never know, but none of these are good choices including SiteGround. If you look at the actual WordPress optimization guide in the upgrade hardware section, you’ll see DigitalOcean is buried in there (an actually good recommendation). But I think we can all agree Bluehost will spend more on the affiliate program than taking care of customers. It’s a money-driven industry.
3. Bluehost has a slow TTFB
How many Bluehost reviews do an actual performance test?
I signed up for Bluehost’s most popular Plus Plan and tested it’s TTFB in various tools. I even signed up for 15+ other hosts and did the same thing. All use the exact same environment: same Astra Starter Site, plugins, SSL, no cache plugin, no CDN. Only thing different is server location.
Visit blhstserver.com to see for yourself (run your own tests or click through the pages to see how fast it loads). The only reason I continue to pay Bluehost for this is to let people do this.
Bluehost Reports
Here’s a Pingdom summary showing each host’s median load time:
This is just one complaint about their servers, but they are many.
4. Owned by EIG who has a stock ticker
You may have heard of EIG.
If you haven’t, they are a publicly traded company (here’s their stock ticker) known for buying 60+ hosting companies and running them into the ground with a sole purpose of cutting costs. By cutting these costs, they have worse support, slower servers, and long and frequent outages.
5. Support is mediocre at best
It’s somewhat common for websites to be down for 24 hours.
But the worst part is when Bluehost takes no accountability which is typical. It can take hours to reach Bluehost support, and when you do, you usually won’t get a helpful response. In fact, most of Bluehost’s bad TrustPilot reviews are about their terrible support. Normally I recommend Cloudways for speed, but Liquid Web has the best support of any hosting company I have seen.
Most shared hosts don’t have great support.
6. Downtimes can be long and frequent
One of the things many Bluehost customers experience is downtimes.
This can be anywhere from a few minutes to a full day. Bluehost even wrote an apology letter back in 2016 when this got so bad. Even if there’s something as simple as a power outage, Bluehost does not have a backup plan to keep your site up. Instead, you may suffer downtimes and rely on them to resolve the issue. If you’re serious about your website, this can be painful.
7. Advertised pricing is only if you sign up for 3 years
You have to sign up for 3 years to get Bluehost’s advertised prices.
The main problem with this is that as your website changes and you add more plugins or get more traffic, your website will require more server resources to accomodate these things. But since you signed up for 3 years, your plan may not have enough resources and you will need to upgrade anyway. Not to mention, once you find out how bad Bluehost is, you’ll want to leave but can’t because you’ve already paid upfront. And at the point, the money is considered sunk costs.
8. Unlimited everything is not true
Any host advertising unlimited traffic, storage, or websites is full of crap.
Just check Bluehost’s user agreement.
Bluehost resources must be consistent with a shared hosting environment and must otherwise comply with this Agreement. Accounts with a large number of files (inode count in excess of 200,000) can have an adverse effect on server performance. Similarly, accounts with an excessive number of database tables (i.e., in excess of 5000 database tables) or of an excessive database size (i.e., in excess of 10GB total database usage or 5GB database usage in a single database) negatively affect the performance of the server.
In other words, if you aren’t within the resource limits set by Bluehost, they’ll slow down your site and you may get 503 errors (server overload) which prevents it from consuming resources.
Like anything in life, nothing is truly unlimited.
9. Shared hosting can’t handle WooCommerce or high CPU plugins
This doesn’t apply to just Bluehost but all shared hosting.
Shared hosting usually can’t handle resource-hungry plugins or themes (WooCommerce, Elementor, Divi, WPML, others). Some things simply require too many server resources for shared hosting and will run much smoother on cloud hosting. If you’re using a high CPU plugin or theme, I would reconsider shared hosting all together since they make your website slower.
10. Hosting features
You can see a demo of Bluehost’s cPanel here.
One thing I’ll give Bluehost credit for that when even cPanel increased prices, Bluehost continued to use it while other companies like SiteGround abandoned it immediately and replaced it with their own version of Site Tools (which is far inferior in my humble opinion).
cPanel makes it easy to install WordPress, SSL, take backups, and activate Cloudflare’s CDN.
11. Bluehost pros and cons
Bluehost Pros
- Relatively cheap
- cPanel is user-friendly
- Easy to add SS in cPanel
- Easy to take backup in cPanel
- Easy to install WordPress in cPanel
- Easy to activate Cloudflare in cPanel
Bluehost Cons
- Bluehost has a slow TTFB
- Advertised pricing is only if you sign up for 3 years
- Puts more effort into affiliate program than customers
- Support takes a long time to reach and is often unhelpful
- Owned by EIG whose primary motive is to increase profits
- Can’t handle high CPU plugins or themes like WooCommerce
- Many customers experience long downtimes with no resolution
12. Bluehost reviews on TrustPilot (1.5/5 stars)
Take a look at Bluehost’s TrustPilot reviews.
Even though these aren’t completely unbiased (Hostinger writes fake reviews and SiteGround support directs customers here), the 1.5/5 stars still tells a story. In Bluehost’s case, their rating accurately reflects the quality of their hosting since I really don’t think they try to influence this.
13. What people say about Bluehost in Facebook Groups
It’s a negative.
Join the WordPress Hosting + WP Speed Matters Facebook Groups to get unbiased opinions.
14. How And Where To Move Away From Bluehost
Obviously I don’t like Bluehost, so who do I recommend?
Cloudways is my #1 choice and is who I use. They were #1 in most recent Facebook polls, the fastest host in my speed test, and highly recommended in Facebook Groups. The only downside is they don’t use cPanel and are a little more technical. But they do free migrations and it’s still easy to do basic things like install WordPress, add SSL, take backups, create a staging site, etc. It’s also pay-as-you-go monthly pricing with a free trail which gives you a chance to test them out. Especially for speed, Cloudways is legit.
A2 Hosting if you’re just starting a website and want cPanel. I use them for my girlfriend’s restaurant website and it does the job. It’s one of the fastest shared hosts I have used, had good results in my performance tests, and they’re not owned by EIG. Keep in mind the restaurant website doesn’t use bulky plugins or get too much traffic, in which case I would have put her on Cloudways. But she liked that it’s cheap and easy.
15. FAQs
Is Bluehost good for WordPress?
Bluehost is fine if you're just starting a website, but very few serious WordPress users are on Bluehost. They are mainly only promoted by affiliates. Their speed, support, uptimes, and overall reliability are not the best.
How much is Bluehost's pricing?
Bluehost's WordPress hosting pricing ranges from $3.95 - $6.95/month but that's only if you sign up for 3 years. Otherwise it's $5.95 - $8.95/month for 1 year and $4.95 - $7.95/month for 2 years depending on your plan.
Is Bluehost fast?
No, Bluehost had a slow TTFB in multiple performance tests and this is often complained about in Facebook Groups. After all, it's shared hosting.
How is Bluehost's support?
Bluehost's support can take hours to get ahold of, and when you do, they are not always willing or able to fix the problem. Bluehost's less than average support is the main complaint in their TrustPilot profile.
What are the main complaints about Bluehost?
Slow load times, unhelpful support, and frequent downtimes are the 3 main complaints about Bluehost.
See Also: Cloudways Review
I hope this Bluehost review was helpful! If you need help choosing a hosting plan or want to leave your own feedback on Bluehost, drop a comment below!
Cheers,
Tom
Thanks for the review.
Hey Tom,
I host my website on Bluehost and I am an affiliate (not one of those 10k-100k affiliates though). I started blogging on shared hosting, I’m now at a stage where I’m abit more serious and decided to switch to a VPS with Bluehost. Its ofcourse not as cheap as shared hosting, but in conjunction with that, my theme & CDN, site speed is quite good.
I consider myself to have an honest look at those that I am affiliated with and only recommend those that I use. I will admit that the shared hosting can be slow when you start generating traffic or have a heavy site, but I personally cant fault their support. Im not sure how often you’ve personally come into contact with them, but for me, I’ve had one ocassion out of approx 30 where I thought they werent going to be able to help me (i kindly asked to speak to someone else, who was capable). They helped me move over from shared server to the VPS aswell, and this support Im mentioning Ive had on shared and the VPS, so it wasnt just a matter of paying more for better service… Although the waiting times are much shorter.
I recommend Bluehost for people starting out with a blog, especially the shared plan, as 99% of people who start dont have the perseverance to actually turn their blog into a money making business. The low cost provides an easy entry point to “test the waters” and learn a thing or two before getting serious.
Obviously if you arent new to blogging and have a plan and knowledge to implement it, then go straight for faster hosting like VPS/Cloud/Dedi, whether thats from Bluehost or wherever.
I actually came to the comment section to point out that in your one pic of everyone recommending bluehost, that Neil Patels article also recommends and is affiliated with Bluehost
Hey David,
You’re right, I think recommending one host over another comes down to your audience. For people who are just starting, Bluehost is cheap, easy to setup, and is a decent option the test the waters as you say. Most of my audience is somewhat experienced with speed/hosting in which case it wouldn’t make sense to recommend them.
Yes, Neil Patel, Patt Flynn, and many popular bloggers recommend Bluehost. Then again, their tutorials are more aimed at beginners and to be honest, I think many of them are also influenced by commission rates. I think most SEOs prefer to get their info from places like Backlinko.
I agree with almost everything you said. I have used bluehost for three sites. The service was not very good. In fact they continue to charge me for site that I had closed down and it took many tries to get a hold of someone who can get me my money. Really frustrating. I ultimately switched to siteground because the bluehost cannot handle the speeds of a WooCommerce site.
One thing that I don’t agree with this article is that a stock ticker means bad service. While this can be the case, it really is in the interest of the stockholders for the company to put out the best product. While there are some examples of publicly owned companies that do not take care of the companies underneath them and just cut cost, overall that isn’t the case. Just one example that comes mind is Google fiber. Google has a stock ticker however Google fiber is by far the best internet service I’ve ever had. I have had internet service from some private company that’s so small and their service didn’t even compare.
That’s true, maybe it’s not really relevant and I should delete it from the article.
wordpress Officially recommendedbluehost as best web hosting as it provide best sitelock for our website it prevents from cyber, malware, ddos and hacking attacks. one of the cheapest service provider in the world.
Cheap, fast, good. I would argue they’re just the first one. WordPress recommends Bluehost because they pay them. If they work for you by all means keep using them.
Agree Tom. Check out this
Yep, lots of different opinions and conversations in Facebook Groups. They “work” for some, but they’re definitely not the best or fastest.