Bluehost Review 2025: Is It Worth the Hype?

Bluehost has earned Wordpress.org’s recommendation, but it didn't meet all of our expectations.

Bluehost is an affordable web hosting service that offers strong security tools and WordPress migration features. However, we experienced several recurring glitches, and the web host didn’t perform as expected. Overall, Bluehost may be a good choice for WordPress users who prioritize security and affordability.

Bluehost review at a glance

Price	$3.95-$6.95/mo (36-month term)
Money-back guarantee	Yes — 30 days
Uptime guarantee	None
Monthly visits	15K - 200K
Number of websites	10 - 100
Storage	10 - 100 GB
Free SSL certificate	On all plans
Free domain for a year	On all plans
Backup frequency	Daily
Migration assistance	No
24/7 support	On all plans
Learn more	Get Bluehost

We last tested Bluehost on July 7, 2025.

Our experience

Using Bluehost left us unimpressed with the popular web hosting service. During our in-house testing, we encountered numerous issues, ranging from the dashboard not loading to miscommunications with the chatbot. While it does have the basic features you expect from a web hosting provider, it lacks the reliability necessary to host a site.

There were multiple occasions when the Bluehost dashboard wouldn't load, and we would receive an error message. Refreshing the page would fix it, but it's not reassuring to have a web hosting provider whose own site doesn't load properly.

While testing the various features, we noticed that every page seemed to have an upsell: Emails, SEO, and backups were all extra costs.

The main dashboard was simple, but the navigation wasn't intuitive. We attempted to use the chatbot to find subdomains, but it was unable to assist us. We had to use Google to learn where certain parts of the dashboard were located.

Overall, Bluehost is a basic web hosting service. It has the essential features, but nothing impressed us during our testing. Other web hosting providers have better user experiences that are frictionless. Bluehost may still be a good option if your priorities are affordability and good security.

Bluehost prices and subscriptions

Bluehost offers three shared hosting plans, ranging from $3.95-$6.95/mo (36-month term).

Features	Basic	Choice Plus	eCommerce Essentials
Price	$3.95/mo (36-month term)	$6.45/mo (36-month term)	$6.95/mo (36-month term)
Monthly visits	15K	200K	400K
Number of websites	10	50	100
Storage	10 GB	50 GB	100 GB
Free domain for a year	On all plans	On all plans	On all plans
Backup frequency	Daily	Daily	Daily
Commerce tools
Support	Chat only	Chat and phone	Chat and phone
Learn more	View plan	View plan	View plan

Bluehost is an affordable web hosting provider, although it's not the cheapest option on the market.

The best plan for you will depend on the frequency of monthly visits you expect, the number of websites you need, storage capacity, and support availability.

For online stores, the best plan is eCommerce Essentials, as it's the only option that includes commerce tools. It has features like WooCommerce auto-install and secure payment processing.

Bluehost features

Bluehost has all the essential features you need to run a website. Some of the standout tools include:

• Seamless WordPress integration
• AI web builder
• Self-service web migration

Types of web hosting available

Bluehost offers several shared hosting plans. For our testing, we used the shared hosting service. If sharing server resources with other sites isn't a good option, you could also choose:

• VPS hosting: Provides dedicated resources on a shared server.
• Cloud hosting: Enables scalability as your site grows.
• Dedicated hosting: Uses a private server accessible only to your organization.

Web building features

Bluehost has an AI web builder for WordPress. The tool enables seamless integration. We tested the AI web builder and found the results to be average.

The process begins by requesting a description of your site. It also asks for your logo.

The AI web builder created three custom templates based on our inputs. The templates were basic and lacked variety.

We selected a template and went to the web builder for further customization. The web builder gave an outdated appearance. The navigation wasn't as intuitive as other web builder tools we've tried. It still did the job, though.

Overall, the Bluehost AI web builder is best suited for basic sites. There are other AI web builders that have a modern interface and intuitive navigation.

WordPress integration

Bluehost works seamlessly with WordPress. With a few clicks, you can install WordPress, transfer an existing site, or create an empty environment to import from other applications.

Web migration

Bluehost has a fairly easy self-service web migration tool. You'll need to install WordPress if you haven’t already done so. From there, you can add a new WordPress site.

Click on Import an Existing WordPress Site. You'll need to install the Insta WP Migration plugin to complete the process. The plugin will request your login details to gain access to migrate your account.

While the migration is simple, it's self-service. If you encounter any problems or require assistance, you'll need to pay an additional fee to receive help from Bluehost.

Create a free cookie policy for your ecommerce business

As a business owner, you need a cookie policy to disclose what you do with user data. You also need privacy policies, a refund policy, as well as others. With TermsFeed, you can quickly create legal provisions for GDPR, CCPA, CPRA, and more.

Bluehost performance

Speed test

No one likes it when a page doesn't load or takes a few extra seconds to appear. The internet is a fast-paced world, and your site needs to keep up. Otherwise, your reader may lose interest and move on.

Your hosting provider plays a crucial role in your website's speed. We tested a site with Bluehost. FCP stands for First Contentful Paint and measures the time it takes for a browser to show content from the site. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) refers to how long it takes for the biggest element to appear on the page.

Here are our results:

Product	Performance score	FCP	LCP
Bluehost average	93	0.6 seconds	1.4 seconds

Bluehost has a lower performance score than other web host providers like Hostinger. The FCP is a swift 0.6 seconds, but the LCP takes a bit longer to load than expected. During manual testing of the site, we didn’t notice any significant lag. While Bluehost may not be the best-performing hosting provider, it's still a strong contender.

Uptime and response

Uptime is a measure of how long a site stays functional. Downtime means your site isn't working, which can affect your business. We tested Bluehost to determine if its uptime was up to par.

The site was live for about 10 days at the time of testing. This gave us an adequate window to determine uptime. We used UptimeRobot to monitor the uptime of our site hosted on Bluehost. Below are the results:

Product	Uptime	Average response time	Minimum response time	Maximum response time
Bluehost average	96%	203 ms	45 ms	361 ms

Bluehost was unreliable during our testing. A 96% uptime isn't a great number. Our site experienced one incident of downtime, and it lasted for almost 9 hours.

The response time also had a huge range, from 45 ms to 361 ms. It's hard to determine how long your site takes to load when the response time fluctuates so much.

Bluehost security features

Security is essential to protect your site from cyberthreats. Bluehost goes the extra mile to ensure that your site is kept secure with these features. Here are a couple of highlights:

SiteLock Security: Bluehost offers malware scanning for all its plans. Malware removal is available for Choice Plus plans and above. SiteLock manages these security features. Regular security scans ensure that your site remains safe.

CDN: All plans include a Content Delivery Network (CDN) from Cloudflare. It's an extremely valuable security feature. The global CDN caches content on a network of servers to minimize latency and provide robust protection against DDoS attacks.

Bluehost also includes other security features such as:

• SSL certificates
• Web application firewall
• Domain privacy (for Custom Plus and eCommerce Essentials plans)
• IP blocker
• WordPress scanning

Bluehost customer support and reputation

Support type	Bluehost
Email or live chat	Yes — Live chat
Phone	Yes — Starting at Choice Plus plans
Online guides or forums	Yes

Bluehost offers a live chat and a comprehensive knowledge base, complete with helpful tutorials and guides. Phone support is available starting with the Choice Plus plans. Phone representatives are available from 7 am to 12 am EST.

Our chatbot experience wasn't great. When I asked a follow-up question, it stayed focused on my original inquiry. After I confirmed my first question was answered, the chat ended abruptly. I started a new chat to ask my follow-up question, but the chatbot made me go through guided questions to find my topic. Only then did it send me to a live representative. It was a disjointed process.

Bluehost reputation

Bluehost has over 22,000 reviews on Trustpilot with a 4.5 star rating. This rating is lower than those of GoDaddy (4.6), Hostinger (4.7), and IONOS (4.7).

Most of the positive reviews focus on the great service received from customer support representatives.

However, the negative reviews mention constant upselling of products, unreliable hosting, slow pages, and sites crashing. This matches our Bluehost experience — having a 9-hour downtime incident and feeling like there was an upsell at every turn.

Top alternatives

Bluehost may be a good fit for your site. However, if you're looking for intuitive web builders, uptime guarantees, and fast websites, you may find GoDaddy or Hostinger to be better web hosting providers.

FAQs

Bottom line: Is Bluehost good?

Bluehost isn't the best web hosting provider on the market. During our testing, it proved to be unreliable in its performance. Its own dashboard had a hard time loading on multiple occasions. While it has the essential features, nothing stood out from the competition.

Bluehost is an affordable option, though. It also features robust security tools to safeguard your site against malware and DDoS attacks. Let's not forget that WordPress.org recommends Bluehost as a web host provider. Overall, Bluehost may be best for small WordPress sites that prioritize security and affordability.

Bluehost is a popular web hosting service for businesses on a budget. It offers core web hosting and security features, but the user experience is lackluster. The dashboard fails to load consistently, and our test website performed poorly compared to competitors. We found the web host to be unreliable overall, despite WordPress's recommendation of Bluehost for small online stores.