Bluehost review 2024: why is it Cybernews’ #1 choice?

Bluehost is one of the most popular hosting providers in the market. The provider has made significant improvements in the past year, which is why it ranked #1 on Cybernews’ official best web hosting list.

Taking into consideration both our in-house testing and user reviews, in this article, I thoroughly review Bluehost’s features, functionality, pros and cons, and pricing. Read on to discover what the provider has to offer, so you can decide whether Bluehost is a good choice for you.

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Bluehost pros and cons

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Hours of extensive testing

Who should pick Bluehost?

I’d say that Bluehost is suitable for everyone who needs a web hosting service. Let me tell you why. Beginner users will certainly appreciate Bluehost’s straightforward interface. All elements are clearly laid out, many support articles can assist with potential issues, and the whole process of creating your page feels well guided.

I found the WordPress web builder easy to manage, especially with built-in AI tools. Given how easy it is for beginners, advanced users should find Bluehost pretty much effortless, mainly due to 0 ssh security, git integration, file management, and more.

The option for a Bluehost shared hosting plan is great for small businesses that have limited funds and more tools to succeed. Meanwhile, resource-rich dedicated hosting is perfect for large businesses that are looking for ways to optimize their processes. Overall, you’re never short of options and support with Bluehost.

Bluehost hosting plans and pricing

Bluehost prices range from cheap to enterprise-grade with shared hosting packages starting at an introductory price of $1.99/month. All Bluehost plans are WordPress-compatible.

For different needs, there are also VPS, managed WordPress, and dedicated servers.

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Regardless of where your project stands, you'll find a hosting plan that’s perfectly tailored to your needs.

Bluehost has a 30-day money-back guarantee for all plans. If you want to subscribe, it accepts payments with cards, PayPal, and checks.

Hosting management: is Bluehost easy to use?

When it comes to ease of use, Bluehost is my #1 choice. It combines its custom website management tools with the well-known cPanel, creating a user-friendly experience that stands out. Additionally, Bluehost has seamless WordPress integration, one-click installations, and clear navigation of interface settings. Essentially, it’s equally easy to manage for any type of website.

To illustrate my point, I did a deep dive into the whole process of using Bluehost, reviewing everything from installation to daily use. Here’s a quick summary:

• Bluehost setup process
• Bluehost web hosting panel and web control panel
• WordPress website creation with Bluehost
• Website migration to Bluehost

If any of these topics are more relevant to you than others, you can just skip to them.

Bluehost setup process

I went through Bluehost’s setup process, and I can confidently say that it’s one of the easiest compared to other providers like HostGator or SiteGround. For example, SiteGround’s setup process is a bit complex, as there are multiple options for every step that could confuse total beginners. With Bluehost, I required just a few simple steps to get everything up and running. The entire process is streamlined, and I appreciated the clear guidance provided at each step, from choosing a domain to installing WordPress. For anyone, Bluehost makes the whole experience smooth and stress-free, ensuring you can focus on your website without getting bogged down by technicalities.

1. Once you create your account or log in, go to the Hosting section of the Bluehost dashboard
2. There, click the New Site button to choose the type of your website: installing WordPress, transferring WordPress, or creating an empty environment
3. Once your preferred type is selected, enter the title of your site and connect a domain name or use an existing domain
4. Your WordPress site is now created. To edit it, click on the Edit site button next to your new website and follow the instructions of the AI Site Creator, step-by-step guide, or just import the WordPress site
5. I recommend using AI, as it’s the easiest way to start out and gives you a good website with minimal input

Bluehost web hosting panel and web control panel

The Bluehost control panel can be accessed by going to the Settings of your website and selecting the Advanced section. There you will be able to find the following features:

• SSH keys
• Redirects
• File Manager
• FTP Access
• Databases
• PHPMyAdmin
• Cron Jobs
• Error Logs
• Access Logs
• SSL Logs
• cPanel

These tools may sound complex, but with provided helpful instructions, they are very easy to manage. Also, they provide users with the opportunity to have full control over their website.

In the Advanced menu option on the My Sites page, you’ll find cPanel, which, in my experience, is a classic go-to for managing the more technical side of hosting. It’s known for being easy to navigate, and I personally like how it simplifies tasks like changing PHP versions, accessing databases, or setting up email accounts – even if you're not super technical. For domain management, Bluehost’s native system really impressed me. It’s intuitive and straightforward, making things like registering domains or managing DNS settings feel effortless. I found myself breezing through tasks that usually feel more complicated with other providers.

WordPress website creation with Bluehost

Bluehost is the best WordPress web hosting service because all websites on Bluehost are WordPress. So, no matter what plan you choose, all your websites will be WordPress. Upon launching any of your websites, Bluehost will automatically launch it, along with several handy plugins. Hence, there is no separate process for installing WordPress on Bluehost – it’s all the same process.

Here’s a quick summary on how to install or migrate a WordPress site on Bluehost:

Install WordPress:

1. Press the New site button and Install WordPress
2. Create your site name, connect a domain, or use a temporary domain. You can also skip this step
3. Wait for the WordPress site to be installed
4. Click on “Edit Site” to edit your WordPress site. Here you can choose to migrate a site or just start fresh

Additionally, Bluehost’s WonderSuite allows users to create a WordPress website using the AI website generator. Along with the WordPress website editor, users may utilize Bluehost’s WonderBlocks feature, which provides multiple templates for your website, as well as patterns and blocks for every section of your website. The whole setup is quick and intuitive, provided as soon as a website is launched.

If you want to migrate an existing site, follow these steps:

1. Enter the URL of your existing WordPress site that you want to migrate
2. Install the Bluehost Site Migrator
3. Copy and paste the transfer key to complete the transfer
4. After that, the Site Migrator will do most of the work to migrate your WordPress website

The Bluehost Site Migrator plugin is already included, and in case you run into any issues, the support team is quick to assist and guide you through the process.

Website migration to Bluehost

Bluehost provides a convenient migration for WordPress websites, which can be used when creating a new website with Bluehost. So, there really aren’t any additional steps. You can just enter the domain of your existing site, and the Migrator plugin will do the rest.

If an existing website was created using other content management systems, users can export its database and upload it to Bluehost or another hosting provider using the FTP client found in the control panel. Moreover, Bluehost offers a single-click staging site feature, which allows you to create a copy of your website for testing purposes.

Bluehost email

Bluehost offers an integrated email manager, which allows you to create an email using the domain of your website and manage it from the Webmail dashboard. You can create emails through cPanel, which is found in the Bluehost main control panel. The Webmail dashboard allows you to set up email/spam filters, auto-responders, forwarders, and the email inbox on any device.

Essential features: SSL, marketing tools, daily backups

Bluehost includes numerous features to make your hosting experience professional, smooth, and convenient. Security features, marketing tools, staging environments, email, and site migration are all available, and, most of the time, automatic.

An SSL certificate is essential in establishing a secure connection with your site’s visitors. Bluehost offers a free SSL certificate that installs automatically when a domain is attached.

The Marketing Tools section is functional yet simple. Here you can set up the foundation for your online business visibility – order SEO Tools, integrate Google Ads, and list yourself on Google My Business. SEO Tools and Google Ads are paid services but well worth their price.

Bluehost also offers automatic daily backups that can save and restore your site. You can adjust the frequency of these backups from daily to monthly if they’re too frequent for you. And it’s a very quick and easy process, too. As backups themselves are automatic, you just need to download the zip file of all of your data. Meanwhile, restoring your site is just a one-click process, and you can select which files to restore.

Performance – Bluehost speed, uptime, and stress testing

To test the performance of Bluehost, with the Cybernews research team, I conducted a series of tests, including uptime and response time, as well as how fast a site loads and how many visitors it can handle at once. All tests were done on a shared hosting plan and with a fully built site to simulate how a host would perform in real-life scenarios as best as possible. Therefore, some results, such as load speed and server response time may be higher than with an empty site.

Overall, Bluehost’s performance is very positive. It loads websites quickly, and there are no issues with downtime. It also handles spikes in traffic quite well and provides an overall reliable performance, perfectly suitable for small-to-medium sites.

Here’s what you can find described in detail below:

• Bluehost uptime and response time
• Bluehost speed test
• Bluehost stress testing

Bluehost uptime and response time

When it comes to uptime, it’s all about keeping your site available to users as much as possible. During 30 days of testing, Bluehost delivered a solid 99.9% uptime. While it might not offer an official guarantee like Hostinger’s 99.9% or SiteGround’s 99.99%, what really stands out for me with Bluehost is its real-world reliability. Even without a formal promise, I’ve experienced very few interruptions, and for most websites, that’s what really counts.

Server response time, also known as TTFB, is how long it takes for the host server to process a website visitor's request to reach the website. Server response time also includes latency (visible in the image), which is essentially the minimum time a server requires to produce any kind of response (not including processing time). Therefore, overall server response time (TTFB) will always be higher than latency.

In our Bluehost tests, the average server response time was 971ms, which is not a terrible but also not a great result. Considering that testing was done with a fully built site, this is a satisfactory overall result.

Bluehost speed test

The next test shows how fast a fully built WordPress website can load when tested in different locations. Largest Contentful Paint is the main indicator of this site-loading speed. Our Bluehost website is hosted in the US, so that’s where we got the fastest result – the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) is 1.2s.

Largest Contentful Paint is the most important result, as Google takes it into consideration when ranking your site. Also, it’s an indicator for the visitor that the website is loading properly. The benchmark for LCP is up to 2.5 seconds, and Bluehost passes with flying colors in all tested locations, as is fitting for one of the best and fastest hosting providers.

Bluehost stress testing

In the last test, I wanted to see how well Bluehost can handle increased traffic on the site – this is called stress testing. Our research team sent 50 virtual users (VU) to our Bluehost site and monitored the server response time and request handling.

Bluehost handled 50 virtual users without any failure. In the best-case scenario, the blue line, which indicates server response time, should remain flat as the number of visitors (gray line) increases. During our testing, the research team saw a few spikes in the response time, but overall, it remained pretty consistent, which is a good sign. The server also handled all the requests just fine.

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Bluehost security

Bluehost has plenty of security features. However, to access and activate these security measures, you’ll either have to purchase them via Bluehost or a third-party provider.

When it comes to security, Bluehost has all the essentials covered for free. This includes SSL certificates, DDoS protection, and firewalls, which are crucial for keeping your site secure right from the start. With these included in every plan, you won’t need to worry about basic protections.

• SSL certificates. All Bluehost’s shared plans come with a free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate and a few paid options. However, the free version should be sufficient for most Bluehost users.
• DDoS protection. Bluehost provides protection against DDoS via Cloudflare. A DDoS attack is a malicious attack where your site is flooded with traffic from a compromised system to overwhelm and disrupt it. By activating Cloudflare, you can hide your origin IP address from a direct attack by proxying traffic to Cloudflare.
• Firewalls. While there seems to be no default firewall for shared hosting, Bluehost does use iptables as a firewall for its dedicated and VPS plans. So if you’re using shared hosting, my suggestion is to turn to free plugins. For instance, Jetpack and Wordfence will get the job done at zero cost.
• Automatic backups. This is a useful tool that can save you in case of an emergency. Basically, it takes a snapshot of your website daily, and you can restore it at any time. They are included in Choice Plus and Pro plans but otherwise cost $2.99/month via a third-party tool.

Bluehost support

Bluehost offers support via 24/7 live chat and phone, plus an extensive knowledge base covering a variety of topics.

In my experience, Bluehost's live chat support has been solid. I was connected to an agent in seconds, and while there were a few upsell attempts, the responses were polite, quick, and genuinely helpful. This stands out, especially compared to Hostinger’s support, which has noticeably slowed down lately. I remember when Hostinger’s support team was fantastic — they’d help with everything, even web development issues. Now, they mostly stick to basic hosting problems, and if you’re facing something more technical, they just point you to support articles. That’s why I really appreciate how responsive and knowledgeable Bluehost’s support is, making it a much more reliable option in my book.

If you wish to get even higher quality service, Bluehost offers Blue Sky – a premium customer support option. For an additional cost, you can get on-demand ticket support, account access assistance, website backup assistance, design guidance, and more.

As a whole, Bluehost customer support is good. You can easily get a professional to help with issues at hand. Plus, you can always find relevant information by browsing the knowledge base on your own.

Does Bluehost have a website builder?

Bluehost has a website builder called WonderSuite. It is an intuitive and easy-to-use tool that offers countless options for creating a nice-looking website. The starting process is simple – you answer a few questions about your site and get suggestions for layout, design, and more. Overall, Bluehost makes it extremely easy to build your website, even if you’re a complete beginner. We talk about it more in our detailed article.

There are 7 preset options for a website or you can manage the whole process yourself. The builder asks you to choose a template, and then you can customize the color palette, fonts, header menus, and homepage layout, add other pages, and customize them as well.

Bluehost video review

If you prefer the video format over a detailed read, you can check out our detailed Bluehost breakdown on YouTube.

Bluehost review: the final verdict

Bluehost is perhaps the best WordPress web hosting service I’ve ever got to try out. A huge reason for that is the fact that it’s suitable for anyone to host any sort of website. A user-friendly interface and intuitive panel make any process stress-free. Bluehost is even officially recommended by WordPress, which is a benefit few web hosting services have.

With the in-house Bluehost website builder, you also get the opportunity to have everything you need for website hosting in one place. The in-house + cPanel hosting management system is one of the most convenient systems I’ve seen, and the security suite is complete with the most necessary features.

The hosting plans are affordable and inclusive, with shared hosting plans starting from $2.95/month.

Bluehost is a near-perfect hosting provider, whether you're a beginner, an advanced user, or a web professional. It’s a great, affordable, and easy-to-use option for new websites and small-to-medium size businesses.

Here’s a quick summary of the Bluehost review findings:

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