Bluehost Review—Are They the Best Web Host on the Market?

I’ve been around tech for a long time. I know a good product from a bad one. All of my smaller sites these days are running on a single web host—so it’s time I actually sat down and wrote a Bluehost review.

Let me give a bit of background on myself:

• I’ve built over 500 computers in my life.
• I was a support engineer for high-end data systems—think $1 million+ computers. When Wells Fargo’s ATMs were down, I was one of the guys they called.
• I’ve also been a Senior Engineer for those data systems, running a government think tank’s entire network of them.
• I’ve been designing websites since I was 10—I’m closing in on 26 now.

So, not to toot my own horn, but what I’m trying to say that…well, I know techy stuff pretty well.

With that being said, let’s get on with this Bluehost review.

MY INTRODUCTION TO BLUEHOST

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In the last year or so, I began looking for a second web host to handle some of my smaller niche sites. I was tired of running into problems with my current host, and wanted to diversify a bit. I took a look at Bluehost after a friend gave a solid recommendation.

It turned out to be a great choice to give them a shot.

With reasonable prices, a huge box of tools, and a genuinely helpful staff, they’ve turned out to be a great investment for my business. Now, every one of my newer, smaller sites gets installed on Bluehost (7 and counting as of now).

I recommend them to everyone and get glowing responses.

[thrive_link color=’orange’ link=’https://thisistrouble.com/recommends/bluehost/’ target=’_blank’ size=’small’ align=’aligncenter’]Click Here To Sign Up With Bluehost[/thrive_link]

(If you do, send me an email and I’ll do a free consultation with you.)

In this Bluehost review, I’m going to dive into the ins and outs of the entire process (different plans, prices, and features), talk a little bit about what I offer with Troublesome Solutions, and finally—share pros and cons of Bluehost as a whole.

Let’s get started.

THE OFFICIAL THIS IS TROUBLE BLUEHOST REVIEW

UNDERSTANDING THE BLUEHOST PLANS

Cloud, WordPress hosting, shared, VPS…it’s enough to make any new website owner’s head spin. Truthfully, the web hosting industry as a whole has done a terrible job of making it easy for people.

I wish they’d stop throwing the techy terms out there, but, they’re not now and they’re not going to. So let’s explain them.

Shared hosting

…simply means that your website is going to be hosted on the same server (which is really just a computer, in layman’s terms) as other people’s. How many others? It depends. Either way, while they can’t get into your site and vice versa, you are not isolated.

Shared hosting is always going to be the cheapest. It’s what every person who is starting out should get. No reason to go nuts before you even have a single visitor to your website.

VPS hosting

…stands for Virtual Private Server. Many of you have probably heard of a “VPN”—Virtual Private Network. Let’s not confuse the two. A VPN is a client you can install on your machine yourself. It gives you internet privacy—you should always use one on a public WiFi network.

You can apply that same logic to VPS hosting. You have your own private server, some companies call it a “cloud”. In this Bluehost review, forget that term in terms of VPS. They mean different things. Speaking of…

Cloud hosting is simple. It’s data stored across multiple devices, which…I guess…form a “cloud” above each other? It’s stupid terminology and meant to confuse you.

Let’s say that a web hosting company has a data center in Los Angeles and one in Las Vegas. If Los Angeles is hit by an earthquake, and the city falls into the ocean, your website would “fail over” to Las Vegas. No one is the wiser.

Your data is always accessible in the cloud.

A lot of companies might even have three data centers. So say that earthquake hits Vegas, too—well, now it fails over to their third data center, in New York City.

WordPress hosting

…is simply optimized for WordPress. These plans tend to be more expensive, and I wouldn’t recommend them if you’re just starting out. Again, unnecessary.

Typically with a WordPress hosting account, you’re limited to how many websites you can run. With that being said, they can be extremely fast—but as you’re about to find out in this Bluehost review, even their most basic of plans have plenty of juice.

WooCommerce hosting

…is just like the WordPress hosting, but adds the ability for you to take payment processors online.

Dedicated hosting

…is for the big, big boys.

Quad-cores, terabytes of bandwidth, and other goodies. If you’re looking into this, the scope of this article is beyond you. You know what you’re doing—so go do it.

SPEED

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As anyone knows, time is money. Websites work the same way. Every extra split-second that it takes someone to load something is potential money down the drain

Think about it.

What do you do when you’re trying to find a movie stream, and the stream doesn’t load within the first, say…5 seconds? You close the tab and try to find a new one.

You don’t waste time hoping to the Gods of technology that it starts working miraculously.

Well, all websites work the same way. When someone is searching Google for something, they’re often looking for some sort of solution to their problem. As I’ve discussed before, the world revolves around solving problems.

So what do you think someone does when they click your website, in the hopes of having their problem solved, and then—you don’t solve it (because the web page doesn’t load fast enough)?

They click away, never to come back again.

You simply can’t have that happening. The internet moves too quickly to be giving away customers because your web host can’t keep up.

Bluehost takes care of that.

[thrive_link color=’orange’ link=’https://thisistrouble.com/recommends/bluehost/’ target=’_blank’ size=’small’ align=’aligncenter’]Click Here To Sign Up With Bluehost[/thrive_link]

EASE OF USE

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My business has grown to the point where I actually have an intern on staff. Recently, I decided I’d take him through the process of installing WordPress and [eafl id=”12431″ name=”Thrive Themes” text=”Thrive Themes”] on a new domain I’d recently bought.

You know what he said to me when it was all said and done?

“Wow…it was THAT easy?”

Websites don’t need to be difficult. This is no longer 2002, when you needed a reasonable working knowledge of HTML to accomplish anything. I remember when I first started building websites in Microsoft Frontpage.

Last I heard, that program was discontinued in 2003.

There’s simply no need to make life difficult for yourself. Bluehost makes it very simple to install your site with a few simple clicks. Yes, most web hosts have similar features. It’s nothing unique to Bluehost.

BUT.

Their WordPress manager is one of the easier ones to get the hang of, out of the gate. Like I said, the majority of web hosting companies have the one-click installs available for numerous types of content manage systems (which is what WordPress is).

A lot of companies hide those one-click installs behind layers of other options—probably so they can turn around and sell you on a WordPress install (typically $100-$150).

With Bluehost, you just open up the chat window and ask for help. Yeah.

RESPONSE TIME

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Time is money.

Every time I’ve had to call up Bluehost (with the exception of once), I’ve been able to get on the line (or a chat) with someone within two minutes. The one time it took more than that was a holiday.

Having worked in technical fields so long, I’ve been exposted to every type of technical customer service out. The best thing a customer service agent can do is simply to inform you that they are going to handle the problem.

Even if they don’t know how to fix it, per-se, you as the customer need to know that they are taking on the responsibility.

THAT, is the most important thing about customer service (free job interviewing tip right there, for you).

It does not matter if the person on the phone cannot solve the problem, it matters that THEY take responsibility and are accountable for finding YOU the solution. Even if it means having to ask someone else.

I write this Bluehost review in mostly glowing terms in large part because of their excellent support team.

[thrive_link color=’orange’ link=’https://thisistrouble.com/recommends/bluehost/’ target=’_blank’ size=’small’ align=’aligncenter’]Click Here To Sign Up With Bluehost[/thrive_link]

BLUEHOST CONCLUSION

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Bluehost has been very good to me, and I hope they are good to you, too. I’m very confident in running the small, but growing, Troublesome Media empire on their servers.

I have no doubts that Bluehost and I will continue to have a strong partnership in the coming years, especially as my businesses expand into new avenues and I need more horsepower. They are accountable, fast, and overall have provided me with a great experience that I’d been lacking on the web.

In conclusion: 5 stars

‘Til next time,
– Kyle

PS: You too can build your website with Bluehost in a matter of minutes, too. [eafl id=”12457″ name=”Bluehost” text=”Click here to get started.”]

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