Customer Service
Pricing
Ease of Use
Value
Customer Service
Pricing
Ease of Use
Value
Bluehost
The QuickFacts
| Domains offered: | Yes. First is free, each additional costs $10. | Pros: |
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| Email offered: | Yes | ||
| Storage Size: | Unlimited, with restrictions on what may be stored. | Cons: |
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| Domains on 1 account: | Unlimited | ||
| Pricing: | Dependent on term.
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Site Uptime: | Within industry standard. |
| Overall Rating: |
Good for users who are not absolute beginners. | Customer service: | Excellent. Includes training videos for interface, knowledge database, and rapid response phone-based customer service. |
The Details
I’ve been hosting my web sites with Bluehost for a few years now. My previous host has been Yahoo, and at the time it was very limited and more expensive than the hosting average, though very beginner friendly. Though Bluehost’s administration panel proved to be less so, their customer service and broader range of options was still appealing.
Bluehost allows unlimited domains on a single account. They will also sell them to you, allow you to transfer them to the company, park them, and will as an added expense give you domain privacy. This means you show up Bluehost if someone looks up your domain ownership on something like WHOIS.
Among the most useful feature is the account integration to Simple Scripts. This is the wizard-driven installation of any number of different site types, such as blogs, forums, and wikis. As of this post, the choices include among other things:
- 6 different types of blog (WordPress, Geeklog, etc).
- 5 different types of forum site.
- 1 type of classified site.
- 2 guestbooks.
- 6 photo gallery choices.
- And 10 types of shopping cart eCommerce.
This review site is a licensed review site template loaded into a WordPress blog created by the Simple Scripts function. One thing to note about this is that while it may create a functioning site for you, you will need to spruce it up beyond the basics afterwards. However, the nuts and bolts of its functions will have been installed for you.
Their cPanel based administration has plenty of features and the hosting account will not require you to have your own FTP tool to use it. It can be confusing at times though, as occasionally there are many different links to tools that do the same thing. Some of them work better than others, like their FTP and backup choices. I’ve since grown accustomed to getting around it and don’t mind, but the panel is not initially beginner friendly.
The only other minor annoyance is the promotionals within the administration area. The account has plenty of features with the basic payment services mentioned above, but the company tries to cross-sell and upsell to the point of some minor irritation. I haven’t seen a pop-up recently, but I’m not about to definitively state they’re gone yet.
The account has basic site building aids available to you, but for the more advanced users, Bluehost accounts can understand a multitude of different scripting languages. SQL databases are also available, and an account may have up to 100 of them. There are some functions I’ve never used since hosting my sites with Bluehost, but for the expert user that wants or needs to tinker, they are available.
Bluehost’s customer service is well above par. All of the calls I’ve ever placed to them were answered quickly and courteously. Furthermore, they have a support section that includes a knowledgebase, FAQs, and even video training on common topics.
I’ve found them to be a good host over the years. Excepting the occasional irritation with the admin panel and the rare unannounced “server maintenance,” Bluehost does an excellent job of hosting sites. The Simple Scripts integration in and of itself has proven handy for me on two of my sites now. If you are not an absolute beginner at dealing with admin panels, I can in good conscience say you’ll get a solid deal with them.
