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BlueHost Review: Web Hosting Review |
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| Great price w/ exclusive discount and free domain privacy; fast data transfer; great add-ons | |
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[Editor's note: The prices below reflect a special NextAdvisor discount of $2-off on multi-year plans and $3-off on single year plans. There's no need to enter a coupon, just click "Visit Website" or "Go to Site".]
If BlueHost looks suspiciously close to Hostmonster in terms of its cost and offerings, there's a good reason for that. BlueHost is an alternate branding of Hostmonster's services (or vice-versa), with only slight differences in their offerings. How close are the web hosts? According to the whois data for the two sites, they're next-door neighbors. So, what's the difference? Is there a BlueHost advantage? BlueHost carries the same exclusive NextAdvisor discount as Hostmonster: $3.95 per month for two- and three-year plans, and $4.95 per month for a single-year plan. Registration, setup and domain privacy (which we recommend for most users) is free. Also like Hostmonster, users can build their sites with the included Pagewizard site builder. We found it to be easy to use, with drag-and-drop simplicity. There's another site builder, Concrete5, included with their SimpleScripts, but it's one of the worst we've used (at least when testing it on our Mac). Best to stick with the Pagewizard. SimpleScripts substitutes for the popular Fantastico scripts that you find with other web hosts. These are the scripts that allow you to install extensions such as blogging platforms, wikis, forums, guestbooks, and shopping carts. The implementation is nice, and we found everything easy to install. You get plenty of shopping cart options with BlueHost's SimpleScripts, including some less common options like OpenCart and Magento. Most of the SimpleScripts are free, but a few carry additional charges. Similar to HostMonster, BlueHost didn't have the fastest server response time. The server response time for our test page was .645 seconds, slower than the average of .518 seconds, but it showed a pretty stable, above-average uptime of 99.96% (just over an hour of downtime over four months). Its 77MB download time was more impressive, taking an average of 48 seconds to load our file into the cache. So is there a difference? If there is, it's not much. Both offer non-outsourced, 24/7 support by phone, email, and chat. There's a 30-day money-back guarantee (with a $10 fee for the domain if you cancel). After 30-days, you'll receive a pro-rated refund. BlueHost hits the sweet spot for speed, price, and services. Those with graphically intensive sites will appreciate the data transfer, even if the response time was not the fastest. Beginners will like the Pagewizard site builder. It's hard for anyone to quibble with the price, especially when you factor in the free domain privacy. |
| Cheapest Plan: | $3.95/mo 2 or 3 years (after discount) |
| 1 Year Plan: | $59.40/yr; $4.95/mo (after discount) |
| $ Back Guarantee: | 30-day full refund, prorated after; $10 domain charge (none if canceled under 3 days) |
| Domain: | Free for life |
| Support: | Email, Phone, Chat |
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