BlueHost Review
BlueHost has been providing web hosting services since 1996. They are well-known with reliable and affordable web hosting plans. Overall rating and features highlight for BlueHost can be found as below.
BlueHost Overall rating
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BlueHost Inc.
Website: http://www.bluehost.com
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What’s good about Bluehost Hosting?
Unlimited domain in one hosting account
The top reason why BlueHost stood out from other web hosting companies is because of their unlimited disk storage, bandwidth transfer, and number of addon domain. In other words, you can host ALL YOUR WEBSITES in just one single web hosting account. That’s just $6.95/mo hosting expenses for all your websites.
Extremely reliable server
There is little web host can compete with BlueHost when it comes to server uptime. I have NEVER see my site went down on BlueHost and from the tracking system I’m using it shows that BlueHost overall uptime is 99.8% (which is amazingly high!) Please check the uptime review in the lower section of this page and you’ll see what I am talking about – the shared hosting has almost zero down time and this really impress me.
Fantastico, Simple Script, cPanel
BlueHost’s offering cPanel for their customers and more over, offering Fantastico and Simple Script.
First I have to stress that how much I like cPanel as my server control interface – they are fast, reliable, and user friendly. While for Fantastico or Simple Scripts – they are our good friend that enable you to install web applications in just a few clicks. Blogs, content management tools, forums, polls, guestbooks, picture galleries, Wikis, or even shopping carts – with Fantastico or Simple Scripts, you don’t have to install these scripts manually in your website.
It’s also note worthy that the Simple Scripts features are not offered much in other hosting. The feature offers extra valuable choices in web applications like MODX and e107.
Anytime money back guarantee
You can always ask for a refund when you are unhappy with the services at Bluehost – yes, even if you do it after the trial period. Bluehost is one of the few web host that allows customers to refund on pro-rated basis. Such protective policy is a huge plus to all customers and we have nothing to lose when signup with the hosting company.
What might goes wrong with Bluehost hosting?
CPU Throttling
BlueHost started implement CPU throttling policy about 15 months ago – when your website on a shared server is pulling “too much” CPU resources at one time, the CPU will freeze (or slash down) your account CPU usage. Such policy is a double-edge sword to the hosting users; on one end this means your website hosted on BlueHost will have a much safer environment as BlueHost is monitoring its server usage clsoely; on the other end, such policy can be conveniently used by the hosting provider to slash down your CPU usage and request for extra money.
Anyway, as you can read from this post (Bluehost/Hostmonster’s CPU throttling policy), the problem mainly happens at Hostmonster and I do not have any major CPU throttle issues with Bluehost hosting.
Besides this, I don’t see any potential drawbacks with BlueHost.
Bluehost Uptime Review
I’m amazed when I first read about Bluehost uptime record for the past 4+ years. According to the report (tracked since Dec 2005), Bluehost achieved an all-time 99.8% server uptime – that’s a really great figure for a web host that offers unlimited hosting with just $6.95/mo.
For your reference, the dynamic image on your right indicates Bluehost server uptime for the past 7 days.
Bluehost Promotions
Bluehost hosting comes with tons of great addon promotions. From CPC marketing credits to discont for website templates – these promotions will definitely give a bigger bang for your bucks. In brief, here are the major promotions that come along when you signup with Bluehost.
5% Discount at Boxed Art
 | Free $40 PR Web credits |
| Free $25 Yahoo! Marketing credits | Free $50 Google Adwords credits |
Bluehost Customers Reviews
Bluehost is my only choice! "I have been hosting websites with Bluehost since year 2004 and I have no problem with them at all. The last time I contacted them was in year 2004 as I need clarification on some presell questions and that’s all. Bluehost is definitely recommended!" – Teddy from SatelliteTVIssue.com @ Oct 20, 2008.
Thank you Bluehost!"I recently transferred my site from readyhosting to bluehost. After having been with readyhosting for 5 years, I was a little hesitant. I have now been here for a week or so, and must say that I am pleased more than I ever hoped to have been. Your sales staff was great at helping me get things transferred and ready to go. And your tech support has been amazing at helping to make sure everything is just perfect. My website and email run without a hitch, the stats and features you offer are beyond value, especially for the price you charge. I just wanted to take a moment to thank you and make sure you are aware of the great work your staff is doing. I will be hosting my site with bluehost for many years to come. And will be recommending it to others." -Jason Woznick @ www.FairWheelBikes.com
Bluehost is perfect for individual web owners! "I started my Internet faxing websites a few years back and am happy that I picked Bluehost as my hosting company. Their hosting plan is cheap yet features-riched! I like how they keep their software up to date and dealing with their customer supports is always a pleasure. I do have some minor email problem with the web host earlier but it’s all fixed now. All in all, I think Bluehost is a reliable hosting and I recommend them sincerely." – Gary from MyInternetFax.biz @ Nov 17, 2008.
Bluehost – bad for ecommerce websites. "I chose bluehost for the price and reviews out there. I then decided to host one of my ecommerce site and for several months the site is constantly going down. Bluehost support said it is my site scripting but were unable to identified which script(I have a similar site on godaddy and have absolutely no issues). The final kicker is when all databases got mysteriously wipe out(all tables are empty). Of course they remind you that they only have a courtesy back-up(the back-up they had is on the day the data got wipe out which has empty tables). I do not recommend Bluehost for any businesses, just for personal websites. Check it out if you don’t believe… I have created multiple ecommerce and content-management site and steer their owner away from bluehost…good luck if you chose them.
Very happy with my Bluehost account! "I recently signed up for an account at Bluehost, after a not-so-good experience with WebHostingPad. I used a coupon/referral to get 2 years for service for $3.95/mo, which is a BARGAIN. I haven’t had any problems yet! I contacted tech support to get shell access, which they did for me at 3AM. I also had some questions about certain features. The tech support guy was very knowledgable, and available on a Saturday (with no waiting!!! 
:D:D) Cpanel is very easy to use, and I can also use SCP, SFTP, FTP, HTTP, Cpanel File manager, SSH, etc. I recommend Bluehost to anyone!" – Jared from Cubehomes.com @ Nov 14, 2009.
:D:D) Cpanel is very easy to use, and I can also use SCP, SFTP, FTP, HTTP, Cpanel File manager, SSH, etc. I recommend Bluehost to anyone!" – Jared from Cubehomes.com @ Nov 14, 2009.Is Bluehost recommended nowadays?
Hosting features for Bluehost Hosting are pretty the same with GreenGeeks, iPage, FatCow, or JustHost; where you’ll get unlimited hosting capacity as well as domain names hosting – the only different is that Bluehost is much, much more reputable than most of them. I’ve been hosting websites at Bluehost for years and I have never had a major problem with the web host. Back in a year ago, the new CPU throttling feature worries me for a while but time has prove that they are making good use of the technology.
In short, BlueHost has been in business for more than 10 years; it’s hosting more than 1 million domain names; and, there are plenty of happy customers like myself. So if you are looking for an affordable yet reliable web host, BlueHost is the web host you cannot miss.