Do you know who WordPress recommends as their top web host? Drum roll please… It’s BlueHost!
So if you are looking for a thorough and honest BlueHost review in 2024 (from an actual user), you’re in the right place.
As I am a paying customer (this website is hosted with BlueHost), I’ll give you a complete rundown of my experience with this provider.
I’ll also share with you a behind the scenes look of speeds, uptime, customer support and heaps more. Let’s begin!
BlueHost Review UK 2024: Speed, Uptime & More
Quick Overview: My Overall BlueHost Experience
Over the past 3 years of being a paying customer with BlueHost, I can honestly say that my experience has been outstanding.
During this time, I have built and hosted several UK websites on BlueHost’s shared hosting plan that get thousands of visitors per month. Even this very website is hosted with BlueHost!
What I also like about BlueHost is:
- They are WordPress’s #1 recommendation
- Very beginner-friendly (can get a website online in 5 minutes)
- No experience needed to use their service
- 1-click WordPress & Drupal installs
- Good speeds for UK and international websites
- Free domain name and SSL certificate
- Reliable uptimes (99.99% on average)
- Great price of £2.33/mo (beginner plan)
As you can see, BlueHost does offer a lot of value for new website creators at a really reasonable price. For these reasons, BlueHost now hosts over 2.5 million websites worldwide and counting.
History Of BlueHost
Just like many other big tech companies in the industry, BlueHost had its humble beginnings out of a garage which was operated by founder Matt Heaton.
Since the inception of the company in 1996, BlueHost has now grown to 700 staff members and has over 4,500 square metres of server storage.
Fast forward to the present day and BlueHost now hosts over 2.5 million websites and counting. Which has cemented them as one of the best shared web hosting providers in the industry.
Bluehost’s Plans, Services & Pricing
As far as web hosting is concerned, BlueHost offers up a whole buffet of options from dedicated servers, VPS servers and of course shared web hosting.
So whether you are just starting out or looking to upgrade your server storage, BlueHost does offer a long laundry list of options. Here are just a few.
- Shared web hosting: From £2.33/mo
- VPS web hosting: From £15.03/mo
- Dedicated hosting: From £63.30/mo
In this review, however, I will mainly be focusing on their shared hosting plans as this is by far their most popular option. Plus this is the plan that I have personally used.
Above is a screenshot of Bluehost’s shared web hosting plans which are great for new website makers. I am currently on the “Plus Plan” as this allows me to host an unlimited amount of websites.
However, if you are looking to make just one website, then I would recommend the “Basic Plan” which is jam-packed with tons of value.
Some of the standouts for the basic plan is the 50GB of SSD storage (much faster than HDD), free .com, .net domain, free SSL certificate, unmetered bandwidth and also £200 worth of AdWords credit.
As for the price, the “Basic Plan” costs £2.33/mo (charged in GBP) when signing up for the 3-year plan, which is a great price when compared to the competitors.
If like me, you’re looking to make several websites, then the “Plus” or the “Choice” are great options. Both these plans deliver an unlimited amount of storage and bandwidth from £4.31/mo.
Both these plans also allow users to host an unlimited amount of websites on these plans. I currently have 13 on mine.
BlueHost Is WordPress’s #1 Recommendation
When I was originally shopping around for a web host, I first looked to WordPress to see if they recommended any providers.
After a bit of digging, I found that WordPress.org (the largest website builder/ CMS in the world) actually recommends BlueHost as their number 1 pick. And have been for several years.
This recommendation alone made a big difference in my decision making as I planned on making WordPress websites.
Also by having this recommendation, it took a lot of the guesswork out of the equation as BlueHost has already been tried and tested by WordPress.
To learn more about WordPress hosting, you can check out my guide on the best WordPress hosting UK picks.
1-Click WordPress & Drupal Installs
Continuing with the WordPress theme, BlueHost also offers a 1-click WordPress installation process. And no I’m not joking, it literally only takes one click!
This is an immensely powerful feature as it allows new users to have a new WordPress websites in minutes.
Also by having this feature baked in, it’s almost impossible to mess up the website setup process. Once installed, you’ll then be given login credentials to access your website at any time.
Once WordPress is installed, users then have access to thousands of free plugins and themes that will dramatically change the look and functionality of a website.
This same installation process is also available for Weebly, Drupal, and Joomla. On a side note, BlueHost also includes a basic Weebly site builder (up to 6 pages) for free!
For a full tutorial on how to make a WordPress website, you can check out my full step-by-step guide here.
Speed Results For UK Sites Using BlueHost
While a web host can offer all the storage and features in the world, they have to back this up by providing fast speeds for their users.
While speed has always been an important factor for any web host, it is becoming an absolute must-have in 2019.
Even Google has said that slow-performing websites will get downgraded in the Google search results. Purely because it’s a poor user experience.
Also according to CrazyEgg, a 1-second delay on your website will result in:
- 11% fewer page views
- 16% decrease in customer satisfaction
- 7% loss in conversions
So if your website takes 3 seconds to load, there’s only a 67% chance that visitor will still be waiting. Ouch!
Ok, so speed is important, but how does BlueHost stack up? Well, from my own testing, they do extremely well. Even for UK based websites.
This screenshot, for example, shows a speed test of a blank BlueHost hosted website from a ping in London.
Even though Bluehost’s servers are located in North America, they are still able to deliver great speeds for Brits due to their efficient server architecture, SSD storage, and Cloudflare CDN integration.
These systems allow for a super-fast response time of 558ms on average from my testing which is well within some of the best speeds I have gotten. This speed test was also consistent for both mobile and desktop versions of the website.
Average Uptime For BlueHost Websites
Another thing that I tested thoroughly in my BlueHost review was uptime. If this is the first time hearing about uptime, this is essentially the amount of time in which your website is running online.
In an ideal world, we would all want an uptime of 100% as this means our website would not even be down for 1 second of the year.
Unfortunately, this is hardly ever the case due to server maintenance, upgrades, and hardware malfunctions. These speed bumps typically drop the uptime by a few fractions of a percent.
- March 2019 uptime: 99.99%
- Feb 2019 uptime: 100%
- Jan 2019 uptime: 100%
- Dec 2018 uptime: 99.98%
- Nov 2018 uptime: 99.99%
- Oct 2018 uptime: 99.99%
- Sep 2018 uptime: 99.98%
Take the above-average uptimes for BlueHosts servers for example. While there are a few 100% uptime months, they typically hover around the 99.98% – 99.99% mark. Which is still considered one of the best uptimes in the industry.
Free Domain & SSL Certificate In All Plans
As I touched on briefly above in my BlueHost overview, all of their shared hosting plans come with a free TLD domain (for the first year) and a free SSL certificate. Not too shabby!
This free domain allows users to pick from a .com, .online, .site, .org, .co, .net, .blog, .website, .store and heaps more. Unfortunately, there are no free .co.uk domain names for these plans.
But on the upside, this freebie will save users around £10 for the first year of their hosting package. As for the renewal price, it is £8/yr which is a very reasonable price.
Also included with all domains and add-on domains are free SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificates which can cost £25 with other providers!
As for the importance of an SSL certificate (a.k.a the padlock in front of a domain). It is essential that you have one as internet searchers will start to see an “unsure site” notification when visiting a website without one.
Bluehost’s Security & Backup Systems
When it comes to storing any digital files online, regardless if it’s personal information or website files, having iron clad security is a must. There is simply no compromise about this one.
As for BlueHost, they have many anti-spam and anti-malware systems in place that can block malicious attacks on their servers. Specific systems they have in place are Spam Expert, Spam Hammer, Apache Spam, and SiteLock.
Also since their servers are programmed with Linux, they are able to add even more layers of security against DDoS attacks.
BlueHost also has CloudFlare integration which enables backups of servers if there was to ever be a security breach. Which is highly unlikely.
As for BlueHosts backup policy, they state on their website that:
“We do offer complimentary backups for our customers. They are created on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.” – BlueHost
Unfortunately, BlueHost doesn’t specify how often exactly they do these backups, only that they are done on a frequent basis. While this isn’t the best, it is still beneficial to have.
I personally use a free WordPress plugin called UpDraftPlus that does free backups for my websites whenever I make a change.
My Experience With Bluehost’s Customer Service
During the past 3 years of using BlueHost, I have only had to ever contact them once for support.
And the funny thing is that it wasn’t them at fault, but it was rather my own mistake as I installed a buggy plugin that hadn’t been updated since 2011.
As I wanted to get this issue resolved quickly, I jumped on the phone and gave them a ring. After going through a few automated menus and authenticating my account, I was then connected with a team member.
After about 5 minutes, I had the buggy plugin removed from my website and I was ready to launch. Overall, I was thoroughly impressed with the service that I received.
While there have been mixed reports about Bluehost’s customer service, it does seem like they have upped their game in the past couple of years. Next time I make a mistake (which is only a matter of time), I’ll be sure to update my experience.
BlueHost For E-Commerce & Small Business
When it comes to the scope of websites that users can make with BlueHost, there are 51 content management systems to choose from.
Also, if you are looking to start an e-commerce business or small business website in the UK, BlueHost has that covered too.
Once in their cPanel, users are then able to easily integrate e-commerce builders such as Agora, ZenCart, Cube, and OS Commerce. Not to mention the WordPress e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce, BigCommerce, MemberPress, and even Shopify!
As for creating small business websites and blogs, BlueHost and WordPress have thousands of free professional templates and one-page layouts to choose from. Simply install a theme and add some content. Boom! Professional-looking business website!
Cons Of BlueHost
While BlueHost is a fantastic web host that I love using. There is, unfortunately, no such thing as a perfect web host.
And if you look deep enough, you will always find a downside.
During my time of using BlueHost, I have come across three things that I would consider downsides to their service.
1. Pushy up-sells: During the checkout process, BlueHost automatically includes extra add-ons which I don’t really find much value in. But from my experience, almost all web hosts are guilty of this. So I can’t put all the blame on BlueHost.
2. Site migration fee: Another downside is that BlueHost charges £129 for site migration services (many do this for free). In saying that, this is a onetime fee that allows for an unlimited amount of migrations and is all handled by a team member.
3. No regular backups: As I touched on briefly above, BlueHost do offer backups, but they don’t tell you exactly how often they do it. Ideally, it would be daily, but there is no clarification about this. But there are solutions such as backup plugins.
My Final Thoughts Of BlueHost
When it comes down to it, I have been extremely impressed with Bluehost’s services for my UK websites. Overall they have given my consistent uptimes, fast speeds, great customer support, and a really easy platform to set up a website in mere minutes.
If there is something that you think I have missed from this BlueHost review, please let me know down below as I plan on updated this article as I continue my journey with BlueHost.
If you want to get the cheapest price on your hosting plan, you can see my BlueHost coupon guide where new users can save big!
Also if you do decide to use them and make a website, please share it down below as I’d love to see what you create! To learn more about BlueHost, you can see how they stack up in my best web hosting UK guide! P.S. they are #!