My Bluehost Review

Current Rating of BlueHost based on experiences as detailed below.

Pricing:	5 out of 5
Support:	N/A (haven't had to use yet)
Reliability/Uptime:	5 out of 5
Billing & Accounts	5 out of 5

BlueHost's SimpleScripts - Posted 3 April 2008

It's been a while since I updated this site but in the meantime BlueHost has been growing rapidly and has added a great new feature that I ABSOLUTELY LOVE. This feature is called simplescripts, it is basically a script auto-installation feature. Not being a very technical person I absolutely love this. It is similar to Fantastico but has much better scripts to install. The one I like the best is auto-installation of PHPBB3.

On another note, Bluehost now advertises that they are now hosting over 510,000 domains. Over half a million websites and they're only getting better. In my experience I highly recommend Bluehost.

BlueHost's CEO: Matt Heaton - Posted 30 January 2008

Running a fast growing and customer oriented business like BlueHost is no easy task. It can only be done by someone with a lot of passion, sincerity and hard work. That's exactly who Matt Heaton is. I have done a small writeup about Matt heaton and his history. As you will see Matt Heaton is a serial entrepreneur.

BlueHost STILL Growing Rapidly - Posted 15 January 2008

Well since the last update on the number of domains on 25 Nov 2007, Bluehost has added 30,000 domains. In regards to this site, I have not had any problems with BlueHost. So at the moment this review doesn't have too much interesting. I was hoping for some problems to come up so then I could come here and post the support transcripts on this review. But as I've experienced with previous websites hosted on BlueHost, they are an excellent company with excellent service. So at this moment in the review, I'd highly recommend Bluehost as a web host.

BlueHost Extras & Offers - Posted 13 December 2007

Going through BlueHost's control panel I noticed quite a large section on promotional and partner offers. I suspect that BlueHost receives some type of fee or commission for displaying these products to their customers. However some of these offers are still quite good and it would be worth looking at. I've detailed some of the better ones on the BlueHost Extra's page. The ones that I believe are the most valuable are the Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing $50 free credit offers. If you avail both of these you would have saved $100.

BlueHost DOUBLES Diskspace and Bandwidth - Posted 8 December 2007

Well Bluehost has done it again. They have DOUBLED their disk space and bandwidth. That means for $6.95/mo you now get 15,00GB Diskspace and 15,000GB Bandwidth. Although very few sites would actually consume this amount of resources, it's always good to know if you're site suddenly takes off your host will have the resources to support your growth. With the new diskspace and bandwidth offerings as well as BlueHost's server reliability BlueHost will be a force to be reckoned with in the web hosting world.

I also just noticed that BlueHost has made a few changes to their website. They have live chat now on their home page as well as a link that compares BlueHost to their competitors. This is quite a bold step in listing competitors on your website, this is certainly a sign that BlueHost is confident in their hosting features and offerings.

BlueHost Growing VERY rapidly and so far so good - Posted 25 November 2007

Just checking in, so far everything is going well. I havent had any issues with BlueHost or hosting so far. However, I havent tried much yet on the site. I intend to install some 3rd party scripts and also some from fantastico to see how the servers handle that.

Also I was just on the bluehost site, and now they say they host 410,000 domains. So in 56 days (since I've been watching) BlueHost has added 40,000 domains. Amazing Stuff!!!

BlueHost Growing Rapidly - Posted 18 November 2007

I was just looking at the bluehost website and noticed that they now "Host over 400,000 domains". On October 1st when I created my account, that number was 370,000. So BlueHost is certainly growing very fast.

BlueHost E-Commerce features - Posted 12 November 2007

It's been a while since the last update. But the good news is that I haven't had any problems as yet with BlueHost. Everything is running fine and I still haven't had any reason to contact their support team, which in my opinion is certainly a good thing. In the meantime I created a page with information about BlueHost's e-commerce features. They have a very good set of tools and inbuilt features for those building e-commerce websites.

BlueHost Servers & Coupons - Posted 29th October 2007

After conducting a bit of research about bluehost's servers I have added a page to this review. Take a look at the BlueHost server page for some details. I have had some e-mails from site visitors asking if I know of any coupon codes for BlueHost. Unfortunately no BlueHost coupons exist.

BlueHost Bandwidth & Plan - Posted 17th October 2007

The speed that someone can access your website is a very important factor when choosing a web host. This review of bluehost would be incomplete without assessing the bandwidth that BlueHost provides to customers. I have created a bluehost bandwidth page with some details about the bandwidth setup that bluehost uses. I have also done an analysis of BlueHost's plan features that I hope you will find useful. Of course the plan features are a very important part of rating BlueHost and deciding whether it is one of the top hosts out there.

10th October 2007

I've just been doing some research about BlueHost's datacenter to find out exactly where my website is hosted. Turns out is hosted in Utah, the 45th U.S. state (don't know how that relates to hosting, but it sounds good). But from reading Matt Heaton's (Bluehost's Owner and president) blog it is clear he is very particular about equipment used as he has a hardware background. Which is certainly a good thing. The bluehost datacenter has very strong physical and soft security.

8th October 2007

Here we are after 9 days of signing up. Everything is going well, I havent had any issues with anything to do with BlueHost. I have just created an article about Bluehosts's uptime as well as setup a 15 minute interval monitor of the website. This will allow me to test the reliability of bluehost's servers and is an important part of this overall bluehost review. I think when looking for a host, most people are scared of signing up with a web hosting company that will leave their websites down for days and result in the website losing sales andcustomer goodwill.

2nd October 2007

Well it's Day 2 now. So far so good. I have uploaded the site and have got my e-mail account info@mybluehostreview.com setup. Please send me an e-mail if you have had any experiences with BlueHost and I shall try and publish them on this website.

1st October 2007

Welcome to MyBluehostReview.com . From the url it should be quiet obvious that this website was made to make my review about BlueHost available to people who are looking for a host and are considering BlueHost as an option. I'm tired of websites trying to review BlueHost who have never held an account with them.

This site is going to be different. As of today we have signed up this domain with bluehost, throughout the life of this domain I will keep this website updated with any outages, customer support issues, good/bad experiences etc. I intend to keep this review updated for about a year (till October 2008) and in that time it should be possible to make a good conlusion about bluehost's hosting services and really how good they are. At this point, if it is necessary I shall extend the test period. So in essence this site is "A year in the life of a BlueHost customer".

BlueHost Background
Currently BlueHost is the fastest growing web hosting company. It was established in 1996 by Matt Heaton who is still at the helm of the company.

BlueHost Signup Process
Like all smart online shoppers I firstly searched around the net looking for any bluehost coupons. Unfortunately it does not seem bluehost gives out any discounts, so full price it is. That being said BlueHost's pricing is on par with most other hosts offering similar features.

Screenshot from bluehost website on 1st October 07

Just for the record, at the time of signing up, BlueHost's website says that they host 370,000 domains. It will be interesting to see how much this increases (hopefully) over the coming year.

Signup Step 1 - Choose Domain
After clicking on the "Sign Me Up" link on the Bluehost homepage I am taken to the domain page. Here I can choose to either register a new domain or use an existing domain. Bluehost does offer a free domain name, however I prefer to purchase my domain elsewhere and just use BlueHost exclusively as a hosting company rather than domain registration. There are lots of scary stories off hosts hijacking domains out there on the web (not saying Bluehost does it). It is also easier to manage my domains from a central location.

After I click next the prompt box asks me "Do you own the domain www.mybluehostreview.com . Yup, I certainly do. so I click ok.

Signup - Billing and Personal Details
Here comes the boring part of the bluehost signup procedure, but yes it must be done just like with any other host. Everything is pretty much standard, the forms asks for your address, phone number, name etc. Then I'm asked to select payment method. To keep things simple I pick the paypal option. If paying by paypal you must sign up for either 12 months or 24 months. I'm going to choose the 12 month option. Which makes it $95.40. Well $95.40 sacrificed to be able to provide a detailed review about BlueHost. For the greater good I say :)

At the bottom of the page there is the link to the BlueHost Terms of Service, which I strongly recommend you read. And YES I did read it. Well let's call it speed reading.

Anyway the next part of the bluehost order process takes you straight to the paypal website to make the payment. I suspect this would be different if you were paying by credit card. An interesting feature about this step is that although you put in your details in Paypal you get redirected to the BlueHost order page again and are asked to confirm the details. Only once you click "Complete Order" on the bluehost website it charges you.

And it's done. Now the page says

"Congratulations, your purchase was successful.
Please review the following information. A confirmation of this purchase, along with your username and password, will be emailed to myemailaddresshere ".

This page also has a link to access my control panel. Once I click on that I am taken to my brand spanking new website control panel.

BlueHost cPanel

I must say the BlueHost logo on the cPanel page looks very cool! Much better than the one on their homepage. Here it is (It looks better bigger) >>>

Now I move my eyes down to the resources. Wow that looks tempting. I have 307 200MB of disk space to fill up and 307 200MB of bandwidth to use. Not to mention 2500 e-mail accounts, 999 sub-domains, 50 SQL databases. And you can see the rest <<<<

I've seen the CPanel's of quite a few hosts but BlueHost's certainly seems to be the most cluttered. Hopefully it means they have new features.

Anyway that's all for today. I will start exploring the BlueHost cPanel tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

BlueHost Site Screenshot (http://www.bluehost.com)