Home  | Compare | About | Features Explained|

| Top 3 >   Hostgator | Bluehost | Hostmonster |

Bluehost Review

Overall Rating:
What's Special:	FREE Set-Up
Recommended Plan:	Bluehost

I have been using Bluehost since 2006. In fact, this web hosting review site is hosted on Bluehost.

The following is a graph showing you the total number of websites hosted on Bluehost servers, uptrend is a healthy sign and above 600,000 is not a bad number.

Company Background
A Utah-based small business web hosting company that has been in business since 1996. Web hosting is a very competitive industry and it is very reassuring to know Bluehost has been operating for close to a decade, i.e. a stable and focus company. Having been in the industry this long, it's no surprise then that it is one of the few companies that are offering customers the ability to host unlimited websites under one account. This makes much economical sense because 99% of the websites out on the internet are not and will not fully utilize their disk space and bandwidth with just 1 website.

With the ability to host unlimited websites hosted on 1 account, your dollars are totally maximized! On top of this, you are also given a free domain name for life with privacy option, worth at least $15 a year.

Bluehost's Cpanel is the place where you manage your websites. You can perform a list of activities on the control panel like creating new email address, setting up FTP accounts, setting up new website for hosting, activate softwares like Blogs or Forums to run on your website. Check out the demo control panel to see for yourself. Their control panel is the well-known Cpanel X but this slightly customized with their brand. His demo Cpanel is not just a screen-shot but actually works because you can login and try the features. It's a great review feature if you are new to Cpanel generally.

 Cpanel is the most user-friendly control panel in the webhosting industty. It has all the standard features you expect, SQL, subdomain, email etc. There's a few nice add-ons such as 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 has been udpated with the latest stable versions of all of the scripts. 

Like a lot of cPanel hosts, Bluehost supports add-on domains. You can set up any scripts without issues. From add-on domains to setting up new subdomain, all is a fly! However, to make use of Bluehost SSH/Shell access, you will have to send by fax, a copy of your driver's license or international passport to qualify for them to enable shell access to your account. 

Bluehost help and support is one area I take very seriously. No matter how cheap or how rich a web hosting company features look, I will not do business with them if their support is slow and unresponsive. Bluehost has made available a toll-free number and if you call, you will be talking to someone within 20 seconds. This is what I call excellent support. Support is the only thing that can keep your mind at rest even when you think something has gone terribly wrong.

When you do call, you will realize you are not talking to a machine which really impresses me!

My Verdict
There is no question that Bluehost's customer service is superd in many ways, CEO Matt Eaton has been sending personal emails to clients to update us on upcoming changes and challenges they are facing. I really like the level of transparency.

Setting up an account is fairly simple, no verification was required. Response to my trivia questions for testing purpose was answered within the hour, this might seem exceptional but 24 hour response time is fine by me. With more than 10 years of hosting experience you cannot go wrong with Bluehost.