Bluehost is one of the most popular web hosts, and comparing their prices, discounts, and offers may not help you in getting the most of every web hosting package. In reality, there are many differences in the Bluehost hosting plans on costs, hidden fees, or pre-checked add-ons that you may not need, and even more. So, if you want to purchase a web hosting plan from Bluehost and save money, then, read this guide, there are many details on hosting prices, domain costs, renewal fees, etc…
Personally, I started using this popular web host in 2012, and since then, lots of things change, not the same process, and many competitors started offering cheaper web hosting plans with faster servers.
In today’s guide, I’ll show you the Bluehost web hosting prices for shared hosting, VPS plans, dedicated servers, and of course, cloud hosting. In addition, I’ll show you the best Bluehost alternative services at cheaper prices and that work faster and offer reliable services. They are better than Bluehost and offer more options and faster SSD storage.
To get a website running in a few minutes and make it load fast, you need a web hosting service that can balance your traffic and the available resource to avoid any downtime. This is exactly what companies like Bluehost are doing. So, let’s talk about the Bluehost pricing for your blog or website.
When you want to select the right plan for your hosting account, you need to know the Bluehost plans and their costs. After that, you can decide what hosting plans you need, based on simple comparisons between each plan and the resources you get.
Bluehost pricing
If you need a quick overview, the Bluehost pricing for their shared web hosting plans around $5 per month. So, we’re talking about one-year billing, and it can go lower or higher depending on the billing cycle you choose. The longer, the cheaper.
For the other plans, VPS will cost at least $19 per month, and the renewal cost is $29. Now, for dedicated plans, the cost starts at $79 for 4GB RAM plans.
Now, it’s time to learn more about the real cost of WordPress web hosting in the first year, and also on renewal.
Bluehost shared hosting prices
Shared web hosting with Bluehost is a great choice for small and medium blogs and websites, their prices suit the need of both starters and professionals. The basic shared hosting costs $4.95 per month for a one-time payment of 12 months.
Here is how much Bluehost will cost you on the first shared web hosting plan that’s updated for 2018.
- 12-month prices: $5.45/month
- 24-month prices: $4.95/month
- 36-month prices: $3.95/month
- 60-month price: $3.95/month
Thus, if you sign up for any plan, let’s say 12 months starter, the Bluehost cost after the first year will be $5.45 and that’s for a year billing cycle.
For the “Plus” plan, the yearly hosting costs $7.95, and finally, the “Business Pro” hosting plan costs $18.95 per year.
As you can see, it depends on your plan duration. So, the more you want to stay with them, the lower the price you get. But if you compare their prices to the fast hosting and the quality support you get, then, it is a big deal to host your website with Bluehost.
For the Business Pro shared hosting, their prices also depend on your plan duration, and you can save big money with long-term plans. Compare their plans in the table below:
| Plans | Monthly Cost (for 1 year payment) |
|---|---|
| Basic shared hosting | $4.95 |
| Plus | $7.95 |
| Prime | $18.95 |
Additional services for the shared hosting
If you want to lock your domain name for security and block hackers from transferring it, you can use their Domain Lock that costs $1.67 per month and billed annually for $19.99 per year.
If you want to get the Pro backup, then, the price is $2.99/month, billed to the end of your hosting plan. This pro backup lets you save an automatic version of your website, and you can download it in a Zipped version, and best of all you can restore your website with a single click.
The Bluehost SSL Certificates cost $49.00 per year, it is necessary for e-commerce websites, but you do not need it for a blog or regular site.
Bluehost dedicated IP cost
This is not a big deal if you have an eCommerce website, you should definitely get your dedicated IP to avoid bad domain issues hosted on the same server. In addition, a dedicated IP from Bluehost like any other web host comes with an extra speed boost. That’s because your domain will be accessible from its own IP address instead of the shared one used by so many other sites.
The Bluehost dedicated IP costs $2.25 per month. You need it if you want your website to have its own IP address, the standard hosting shares the IP between all the hosted domains and that come with problems unless you have a personal site to host, that’s fine.
How much does a domain name cost per year?
Of course, the domain name is free for every new account, you don’t need to pay for that. But if you want to add extra domains, then, The Bluehost domain price will be expensive compared to other domain registrars, $15.99 is not an affordable price.
By the way, at the same time, the Bluehost domain renewal costs $15.99 and of course, it’s not cheap at all.
In that case, I recommend registering your domain with NameCheap, it’s the number one domain registrar. Furthermore, it’s a trusted company with millions of customers. Unlike the Bluehost domain privacy that costs $14.88, this one offers it for the WhoIsGuard for free for the first year. The renewal was $2.88 per year with NameCheap, but now, they offer the Whois privacy protection for free, for life.
The Bluehost domain cost is expensive compared to domain name registrars. Just register with the above-recommended service and save money.
Does Bluehost bill monthly?
Unfortunately, they don’t have monthly plans. Luckily, there are many trusted hosting services that let you pay month to month.
HostGator is a great example of those trusted company, you can pay per month, per year, or other options. Furthermore, it’s a well-known company with SSD servers and better performances than Bluehost.
Also, InterServer is better than Bluehost as it offers full SSD is hosting with well-structured plans. Every hosting plan has its own limitations on the server load and CPU. In other words, no one will risk your website when he uses excessive resources. That’s what you can’t find with Bluehost.
In conclusion, you can host your website for a full year cheaper, and with advanced technologies, including unlimited disk space and unlimited bandwidth. Of course, you do not have to pay for additional services like the pro backup, you get a free one, and your site still gets all the power of fast hosting.
Bluehost WordPress hosting pricing
The WordPress hosting prices on Bluehost state at $19 per month, so, it’s not cheap, and also, it’s not too expensive for what the site gets as resources. But wait, that WordPress hosting plan allows you to install one website only. Even, the other plans come with a single WordPress installation. But all these VPS plans come with guaranteed resources, RAM, and CPU.
Here is an overview of the Bluehost optimized WordPress hosting plans.
| WP Standard | WP Enhanced | WP Premium | WP Ultimate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Cost | $39 | $59 | $89 | $129 |
| Domain | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| RAM | 2GB | 4GB | 6GB | 8GB |
| Storage | 500GB | 1TB | 1TB | 0 |
| Visits/month | 100 Million | 300 Million | 600 Million | Unlimited |
The Bluehost WordPress pricing is expensive compared to other web hosts that offer fully managed services. WP Engine, for example, offers the fastest WordPress hosting at $35 per month, and you can get two months free with a one-year billing. That web host offers CDN, SSL, premium quality bandwidth, and faster SSD storage. In addition, they have the best WordPress customer support thanks to their 300 technicians who help using the live chat or phone contact options.
Personally, I found it better than Bluehost and recommend it for all. It’s that kind of fully managed and optimized WordPress hosting that works faster, more secure, and lets you stop worrying about malware, server crashes, and these bad things.
Bluehost VPS cost
Bluehost offers one of the rare instant VPS activation services. So, your website will be running instantly after creating and paying for your server. The VPS comes with monthly plans, so, you can try their service for a month if you want.
The VPS plans start from $29.99 and go up to $119.99 per month. It all depends on the services you will get and the resources included. Please note, all their VPS plans come with a free domain name, so you don’t have to pay any hidden fees as other hosting companies do.
| Standard VPS | Enhanced | Ultimate | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Cost | $29 | $59 | $119 |
| CPU Cores | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| RAM | 2GB | 4GB | 8GB |
| Storage | 30GB | 60GB | 120GB |
| Bandwidth | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| IP address | 1 | 2 | 2 |
As you can see, you have a large selection of plans and this is what makes Bluehost different from the others. They only offer real services without hidden fees. At the same time, their customers get what they pay for with extra free services.
Bluehost dedicated server prices
Bluehost offers one of the most advanced dedicated servers, they are not only built with the latest technologies. But also, their servers are powerful and protected with the latest security settings, at the same time.
If we compare their server prices with others, we can conclude that they are economic without affecting the service quality. Even more, that offer web hosting with fast website loading time, and of course, with a great configuration and set up, from experienced people.
Bluehost hosting prices for dedicated plans start at $149.99 and go up to $249.99 per month. But, you can get the first month with a great discount and pay only $74.99 for the first month.
| Standard | Enhanced | Premium | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Cost | $119 | $159 | $209 |
| CPU Cores | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| RAM | 4GB | 8GB | 16GB |
| Storage | 500GB | 1TB | 1TB |
| Bandwidth | 5TB | 10TB | 15TB |
| IP address | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Renewal prices for Bluehost hosting plans
Don’t miss this fact, the Bluehost renewal price will higher and even a bad surprise if you host on shared servers and even cloud hosting. That’s not their own issues, the majority of the shared web hosts have higher renewal prices, and you need to keep that in mind when buying a web hosting plan.
The promotional offers, you sign up for, are limited to the billing cycle you choose. So, if you subscribe for one-year billing, the Bluehost renewal price will go back to normal. In this case, I recommend choosing the longest billing cycle, you can see, that will save you a lot of money, and also, you’ll avoid the high renewal prices for a long time.
Bluehost compared to other web hosts
Bluehost is a strong hosting provider for all the website sizes, they started with shared hosting only. But they have added powerful dedicated servers with cheap VPS and you can get professional web hosting with advanced technologies.
Bluehost compared to iPage is better, and Bluehost compared to JustHost, and DreamHost or even GoDaddy is also better. However, there are many problems, especially with their customer support and their web-hosting cost.
The Bluehost uptime is not good as they promise and you’ll find downtime for your blog or site. Bluehost is good hosting, but not better than HostGator. So, if you really want better hosting, then, that’s the best alternative website hosting for you. They have faster cloud servers with powerful infrastructure, and best of all, they have friendly US-based customer support.
