Choosing a web hosting plan from Bluehost can be a little difficult, especially if you aren’t a seasoned techie and this is the first time you are making the choice of a web hosting company. Bluehost offers an assortment of 4 strategically priced web hosting plans in shared hosting, and choosing the right one for your business can get tricky.
So to make the entire process easier for you, we’ve decided to run a quick comparison between the 4 shared web hosting plans offered by Bluehost.
The biggest advantage of choosing Bluehost is the exceptional value for money the company provides at reasonable prices. The renewal prices are something that you need to watch out for. Usually, these turn out to be higher than expected, and to help avoid any undesired spike in your web hosting costs, we are here to give you a clear picture of what you can expect in the long run from different Bluehost Shared hosting plans.
Bluehost Shared Hosting Pricing Explained – Basic, Plus, Choice Plus, Pro
Bluehost offers four shared hosting plans — the Basic plan, Plus plan, Choice Plus plan, and the Pro Plan. Depending upon your usage, you can pick the plan which serves your business needs. Even the most basic web hosting plan by Bluehost offers laudable features, while things get tricky with the Plus and Choice Plus plans (more about it, later). So, let’s take a dig at each of the four Bluehost web hosting plans.
| Feature | Basic | Plus | Choice Plus | Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | $5 | $7 | $10 | $15 |
| Number of websites | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Storage | 50 GB | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Bandwidth | Unmetered | Unmetered | Unmetered | Unmetered |
| SSL Certificate | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Free domain | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Parked domain | 5 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Subdomains | 25 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Performance | Standard | Standard | Standard | High |
| Spam protection | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Domain privacy | Not Included | Not Included | Included | Included |
| Site backup | Not Included | Not Included | Included | Included |
| Dedicated IP | Not Included | Not Included | Not Included | Included |
| Office 365 Mailbox | Not Included | Free For 30 Days | Free For 30 Days | Free For 30 Days |
Bluehost Shared Hosting Plan Review – Basic Plan
Bluehost’s Basic Plan is perfect for those who like one-stop shopping as the plan offers nearly everything you need to get things rolling. With the Basic web hosting plan, you get a free domain and free SSL certificate — something that you don’t have to additionally spend on. You also get 50 GB of storage and honestly, that’s more than sufficient for a single website (unless you plan to host thousands of videos on your own server). The Basic plan is priced at $2.95 per month and you would end up paying a post-renewal fee between $7.99 and $8.99 per month.
We find this plan to be perfect for small businesses and blogs, but definitely, do not recommend it for larger businesses. That’s mainly because you can host just one website with this web hosting plan and are restricted to a maximum of 50 GB storage. There are also bandwidth and usage limitations which is not well suited for a website with more than 5000 daily visitors. So if you wish to start an information portal or something similar, then this isn’t the right shared hosting plan one for you.
Who should take the Bluehost Basic Shared hosting plan?
- This plan is ideal for newbies, who are just starting off.
- Flourishing websites with very less traffic — as these won’t have bandwidth issues.
- Someone who needs cost-effective web hosting and isn’t too concerned about anything else.
Who should Not take the Bluehost Basic Shared hosting plan?
- Established websites with a decent amount of traffic.
- Those focussed on SEO, speed, performance and good user experience.
- Someone who is keen on investing in high-quality services.
- Someone who has multiple websites, which require high bandwidth and more disk space.
Bluehost Shared Hosting Plan Review – Plus Plan
Bluehost’s Plus plan is ideal for those who’ve just plunged into the online business, and are looking out for economic web hosting services to host more than one website. We say this because although the Plus and the Choice Plus look similar and are both priced at $5.95 per month, the renewal costs vary.
For the Plus plan, you may pay somewhere between $10.99 to $12.99 per month, upon renewal but in the case of Choice Plus, it’s much higher. In our opinion, this plan is most ideal for growing websites, that plan to invest in SEO to build up traffic, while keeping their web hosting costs low, in the long run.
Who should take the Bluehost Plus Shared hosting plan?
- Small Businesses with two or more websites
- Portfolio websites, that contain media-rich content
- Start-up affiliate marketing websites
Who should Not take the Bluehost Plus Shared hosting plan?
- Information Portals, since the page load time is crucial
- Website owners with more than 3 websites, or with total traffic over 50,000
- Websites focused on e-commerce and online sales
Bluehost Shared Hosting Plan Review – Choice Plus Plan
If you wish to buy the Choice Plus Plan, just to get more out of what you’d pay for a Plus, then beware. There’s a fine strategy out here, which we shall now uncover for your benefit. The whole idea behind pricing two almost similar plans at the same price is that most people would want to get the most advanced plan (sometimes, without even reading the features, in detail) and that’s how you end up making the most expensive choice.
Although you initially pay $5.95 per month for both Plus and Choice Plus plans, the renewal costs differ. Upon renewal, you’d end up paying more if you buy the Choice Plus Plan (between $14.99 and $16.99 per month) so make sure to go through all the features, in detail. Also, the only real difference between the Plus and the Choice Plus plans is that the latter offers advanced back-up, while the prior doesn’t. Now that’s not something you need to specifically spend on because there are other ways to generate back-ups on your own.
Who should take the Bluehost Choice Plus Shared hosting plan?
- Businesses with adequate liquidity
- Businesses having more than one website
- Businesses keen on having an advanced back-up system
Who should Not take the Bluehost Choice Plus Shared hosting plan?
- Growing Websites, with a limited long-term budget
- Websites with sound technical professionals to manually back it up on a regular basis
- Those who wish to host just one website
- Websites with traffic less than 10,000 visitors per day.
Bluehost Shared Hosting Plan Review – Pro Plan
For high traffic websites, we strongly recommend the Pro Plan, which offers a host of services to take your website to the next level. This includes dedicated IP, domain privacy, free SSL, and also advanced back-up. The Pro plan starts at $13.95, but that almost doubles when you renew your web hosting and is then priced between $23.99 and $25.99. So, if that doesn’t seem too high, then this is the best you can get in the shared web hosting segment. The next stage is that of VPS hosting, so if you are wondering whether you should take Bluehost Shared hosting or Bluehost VPS hosting plan, read my article here for the comparison.
Who should take the Bluehost Pro Shared hosting plan?
- Established websites with a decent amount of traffic.
- Websites with 50,000 visitors or more
- E-commerce websites in their early stages
- Information Portals in their early stages
- Media-rich websites
Who should Not take the Bluehost Pro Shared hosting plan?
- Flourishing websites with very little traffic
- Well-established e-commerce websites
- Well-established information portals
- Businesses that don’t really need the advanced features
Bluehost Shared Hosting Pricing compared With Other Hosting Providers
For most businesses that have an online presence, pricing turns out to be the deciding factor. So let’s quickly compare Bluehost’s shared hosting pricing with some of its close competitors (Hostgator, Dreamhost, Siteground, Godaddy, Inmotion, and draw a quick comparison of the value that you derive from each one of them.
| Pricing | Bluehost | Hostgator | Siteground | Godaddy | Inmotion |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly | $ 3.95 – $13.95 | $2.75 – $5.95 | $3.95 – $11.95 | $2.49 – $12.99 | $6.39 – $14.71 |
| Yearly | $47.40 – $167.40 | $33 – $71.40 | $47.40 – $143.40 | $29.90 – $155.90 | $76.70 – $176.50 |
Since the technologies used by Bluehost and Hostgator are almost similar, we recommend Hostgator for start-ups seeking budget-friendly web hosting packages. Nothing can get cheaper than Hostgator’s shared hosting plans, although the services and post-sales assistance offered by Bluehost are better (especially the prompt customer service). The annual costs that you pay are comparatively lesser in Hostgator than what you pay for Bluehost or other companies offering shared hosting services to businesses..
Our Verdict and Suggestion
While Hostgator offers the cheapest shared web hosting plans, a website owner needs to have more of a value-driven approach. So if you need a hosting plan that offers both speed and excellent customer support, and provides the basic requirements within an affordable price bracket, then Bluehost should be ideal for your needs.
Godaddy also offers cost-effective web hosting services (at least until renewals), but if you focus on the value that you derive from what you pay, then reality unveils. Their customer service and support is one of the most criticized (read my comparison of Bluehost and Godaddy here). So unless you have the hands-on technical knowledge, you may want to reconsider your decision of choosing Godaddy’s shared hosting plans.
We do not recommend Dreamhost for shared hosting at all, their features are limited and there are issues with customer service, speed, performance, and our overall experience was not as good with them.
Siteground, Kinsta, and Wp Engine are not known for their affordable shared hosting plans, you can choose them if your website has decent traffic and you are obsessed with speed and performance over anything else and don’t mind paying the extra bucks every month for speed alone.
Which company do you think offers the most value for money, when it comes to shared hosting? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.