If you are thinking of building your first website, you’ve probably come across Bluehost. They are one of the most popular web hosting companies. But is Bluehost a good web host for beginners?
They have been around for a long time and are trusted by millions of businesses worldwide.
BUT… Is Bluehost the best web host for beginners? Is it easy building a website with Bluehost?
I will answer both of these questions in this article. By the end of this article, you will know if Bluehost is a good web host for beginners and the right choice for you.
Let’s start at the top.
Bluehost’s Offerings For Beginners
Bluehost offers a number of web hosting services. I will now explain the difference between them, and what scenario each of them is best suited for.
I am going to cut out everything that isn’t useful for a beginner.
If you want to take a deeper look at Bluehost’s pricing, check out my complete guide to Bluehost’s pricing and plans.
Shared Hosting
Shared Hosting is the bread and butter of all web hosting companies.
On a shared hosting plan, your website has to share server resources with a lot of other websites on that same server. If you’re just starting out, shared hosting is all you will need.
Shared Hosting is the best starting point for most beginners because of how affordable it is. Bluehost’s plans start at only $2.95 per month:
Shared Hosting gives you the freedom to install whatever CMS software you want to use on your website.
You could install WordPress, Magento, Joomla, Concrete5, or anything else you like.
If you’re a beginner, I recommend going with WordPress.
It’s the easiest of all CMS software and is highly customizable. It is used by almost half the websites on the internet.
The best part about Shared Hosting is all the goodies you get with it such as a free domain name, a free SSL certificate, unlimited bandwidth, Google Ads credits, and much more.
Bluehost’s plans also come with an SEO Tools add-on you can buy. These tools can help you improve your site’s rank in search engines such as Google.
Read my review of Bluehost’s SEO Tools.
WordPress Hosting
WordPress Hosting is the same as shared hosting in almost all regards except for the fact that it’s optimized for WordPress.
And it makes it really easy to create your first WordPress website.
WordPress Hosting offers all the same features as Shared Hosting at exactly the same prices:
I recommend going with WordPress Hosting because WordPress is the best CMS for beginners and is one of the easiest.
Any plan other than the Basic comes with Free Microsoft 365.
WooCommerce Hosting
WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin that lets you build an online store on top of your WordPress website.
It is one of the leading software used to create online stores.
If you are thinking of selling your products online, this is the best place to start. WooCommerce hosting is optimized for WooCommerce sites and comes with dozens of features you will need to run a successful online store.
It may cost a little more than Shared Hosting but it comes with everything you need to start your online store:
Website Builder
Bluehost Website Builder is best for building websites that don’t need a lot of customization. If you want to whip up a professional-looking website in the next 30 minutes, this is the way!
Bluehost’s website builder comes with dozens of beautiful templates that will help your website stand out from the competition.
The pricing for the starter plan is similar to WordPress and Shared Hosting:
How Easy Is It To Build a Website With Bluehost?
There are two ways to build your website with Bluehost. You can use the Bluehost Website Builder to quickly build your website using a simple drag-and-drop builder.
Or you can use WordPress to create your website. Both are easy to use, but the former is quicker and the latter is more customizable.
WordPress
WordPress is what most websites on the internet are built on.
This website is built on WordPress too and chances are your favorite news website is built on the same CMS software.
It is the most popular, and reliable Content Management System (CMS) software.
The best part about choosing WordPress to build your website is that it gives you the freedom to customize all aspects of your website.
You can easily add new features to your website by installing plugins. There are thousands of free and paid plugins available that will let you extend your website’s functionality.
For example, if you want to add an eCommerce portal to your website, you can install the free WooCommerce plugin.
You can also customize the look and feel of your website by changing the theme you are using.
There are thousands of free and paid WordPress themes you can choose from.
Here’s a small showcase of some of the free ones:
The best reason to go with WordPress is how easy it is to learn, and how reliable it is.
Once you set it up, you can turn your focus to adding new content to your website, and WordPress will take care of the rest.
If you are interested in using WordPress to build your website, read my guide on how to install WordPress on Bluehost.
Bluehost Website Builder
The Bluehost Website Builder is built on top of WordPress. It lets you customize the look and feel of your website using AI-driven templates.
What this means is you don’t need to edit anything manually. You just tell the AI tool what type of website you’re building and it will generate a design for you.
The best part is that it comes with a library of over 300+ design templates to help you get started. It also comes with thousands of free stock photos you can use on your website.
It lets you edit every aspect of the design of your website. You can edit anything you want by clicking on any element to select it:
To get started, all you have to do is answer a couple of questions about your new website such as its category:
Once you are done answering the simple questions, the AI will generate the best possible design for you. You can then tweak the customization options to customize every aspect of the design.
One great feature of the website builder is that it comes with hundreds of pre-made sections you can add to your website:
And all these sections will use your chosen color scheme and font families. This means you can add professionally-designed content blocks to your website with just a couple of clicks.
Another great feature is the ability to change the font and color scheme of your website whenever you want:
Whatever changes you make to the colors and font here will be reflected in all aspects of your website automatically.
If you have chosen to use the Website Builder, read my complete review of Bluehost’s website builder.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Amazing Support: Bluehost’s support team is one of the best in the industry. They will respond to you almost right away most of the time. Their customer support team is available around the clock, 24/7. If you aren’t a fan of written communication, you get on a call with Bluehost’s support team any time you want.
- Free Domain Name: You get a free domain name on all their plans.
- Unmetered Bandwidth: Bluehost offers unmetered bandwidth on all their plans, which may be unlimited but is restricted by a fair-use policy.
- Easily Scalable: When you start getting more traffic to your website, all you have to do is upgrade your plan.
- Easy To Learn & Use: Bluehost makes it really easy to launch and run your website. Their dashboard is really simple and easy to use. When you launch a new website with Bluehost, you don’t have to worry about any of the technical aspects. Bluehost will take care of it all for you. If you don’t have a lot of experience with computers, try their website builder. It is really easy to use and comes with a drag-and-drop interface. It also comes with over 300 templates to choose from.
- Security: Bluehost has industry-standard security measures in place. They also offer services such as SiteLock security to make your website more secure.
Cons
- Bluehost charges higher prices when you renew your plan. For example, if you pay annually, the first year of Shared Hosting is just $2.95 per month but then the second year it becomes $9.99 per month. But you can lock in the savings by going for the 36-month plan.
If you’re still on the fence about Bluehost, read my Bluehost review where I deep-dive into everything there is to this popular web hosting service.
Our Verdict
Bluehost is one of the best web hosts for beginners. Their hosting packages are affordable and come with everything you need to build your first website.
The best part about Bluehost is that its customer support team is one of the best in the industry (P.S. they also help you out if you want to cancel your hosting plan).
They will answer all your questions within minutes if you ever get stuck anywhere building your website.
If you are a beginner, I can’t recommend Bluehost enough. Signing up for Bluehost is a breeze. It only takes a couple of minutes.
Recent Improvements & Updates
Bluehost constantly improves its hosting services with faster speeds, better security, and enhanced customer support. Here are just some of the recent improvements (last checked November 2024):
- iPage is now partnered with Bluehost! This collaboration brings together two giants in the web hosting industry, combining their strengths to offer you an unparalleled service.
- Launch of Bluehost Professional Email service. This new solution and Google Workspace are designed to elevate your business communications to new heights, enhancing your brand’s image and boosting customer confidence.
- Free WordPress Migration plugin for any WordPress user can be downloaded directly to a customer’s Bluehost cPanel or WordPress admin dashboard at no cost.
- New Bluehost Control Panel that lets you manage your Bluehost servers and hosting services. Users can use both the new Account Manager and the old Bluerock control panel. Find out what the differences are here.
- Launch of Bluehost WonderSuite, which consists of:
- WonderStart: A user-friendly and personalized onboarding experience that accelerates the website creation process.
- WonderTheme: A versatile WordPress theme developed by YITH that empowers users to showcase their websites effectively.
- WonderBlocks: A comprehensive library of block patterns and page templates enriched with images and suggested text.
- WonderHelp: An AI-powered, actionable guide accompanying users throughout the WordPress site-building journey.
- WonderCart: An eCommerce feature designed to empower entrepreneurs and maximize online sales.
- Now offering the advanced PHP 8.2 for improved performance.
- Implementing LSPHP a handler to accelerate PHP script processing, enhancing website performance by optimizing PHP execution.
- Enabled OPCache a PHP extension that stores precompiled script bytecode in memory, reducing repeated compilation and resulting in faster PHP execution.
Reviewing Bluehost: Our Methodology
When we review web hosts, our evaluation is based on these criteria:
- Value for Money: What types of web hosting plans are on offer, and are they good value for money?
- User Friendliness: How user-friendly is the signup process, the onboarding, the dashboard? and so on.
- Customer Support: When we need help, how quickly can we get it, and is the support effective and helpful?
- Hosting Features: What unique features does the web host provide, and how do they stack up against competitors?
- Security: Are essential security measures like SSL certificates, DDoS protection, backup services, and malware/virus scans included?
- Speed and Uptime: Is the hosting service fast and reliable? What types of servers do they use, and how do they perform in tests?
For more details on our review process, click here.
