in Misc
Is Bluehost Really the Best Pick for WordPress?
Writen by Bogdan+ / Comments Off on Is Bluehost Really the Best Pick for WordPress?
Yes. If you are looking for a simple answer, then you do not need to read more. If you would like to see some of the reasons why we feel that Bluehost is one of the best options for hosting your WordPress site, then we encourage you to take a look at our brief yet comprehensive guide.
Bluehost offers a dedicated WordPress solution. This means that they are able to provide a number of features that you would not get from a general-purpose solution. Because of how well it accomplishes its task, Bluehost is used by many. The following are some of the reasons why.
Unbelievable Support
We thought we would start with their support because support service is the backbone of your hosting provider. If it does not measure up to your needs, then there’s really no reason to look at other aspects of the service. Bluehost is in a league of its own. It offers guaranteed 24 hours a day seven day a week live chat and phone support.
It’s one thing for a hosting provider to offer live chat and phone support, but it is a different thing for them to have the personnel available to answer your questions. Again, we feel that Bluehost is above and beyond in this area. Their staff is knowledgeable. Depending on the time of day you contact them, you should expect a wait time of between five minutes and 20 minutes max. We felt that the 20 minute wait time was just on the edge of what we consider reasonable since our attempt at contact was made during a busy part of the day.
Page Load Speed
When looking at load speeds, there are two different tests you want to run. The first test would be using a clean install of WordPress without any customizations. Then do a ping test from different locations. When this was done, we found that results from Melbourne, New York, and Stockholm from our current location averaged out to a little under two seconds.
The results weren’t spectacular, but they also were not overly worrisome. True, the majority of users expected their site to load in two seconds or less. And since we were using a clean install of WordPress, it’s reasonable that a more complex site is going to load slower. But before we gave up on Bluehost, we tried a different option.
The second test we did was testing with load impact. This is a more complicated and sophisticated form of testing. What this test does is simulate how the site would respond with up to 25 simultaneous connections over a set period of time. We tried this test for around five minutes. We feel that this test gives a better indication of how a site would work if it was in real world conditions. Starting in the United States and testing using a server in the same state we found that the max response time was just a touch over two seconds and the minimum response time was just a touch over 1.2 seconds. When we average these out, we get a more positive picture of how Bluehost servers respond. It’s a little bit higher than what we would like, but it is definitely in the realm of acceptable.
Bluehost also has a host of other resources to help lagging site loading times.
Uptime Downtime
Outside of speed, uptime and downtime are essential for determining whether or not a WordPress hosting solution is right for you. If your website is down, even for just a few hours, it can have a long-term impact on the way that people view your business and the way that people view your site.
Bluehost has a stellar record when it comes to uptime. There is no server on the planet that is going to have 100 percent uptime. However, Bluehost is pretty close with an average of 99.99 percent uptime. This means that it is going to be rare for your website to be down.
Hosting Canada has also done a comprehensive review on Bluehost, including a year long tracking of their uptimes and downtimes. Take a look at it as it will give you a more comprehensive view of this hosting company’s reliability.
WordPress Hosting Options
Bluehost offers a number of pricing options for WordPress hosting. Their pricing options come in a Basic, Plus, and a Choice Plus variety. The Basic plan is going to cost you $2.95 a month for a 36 month subscription. The Plus plan will cost you $5.45 a month for a 36 month subscription. The Choice Plus plan is going to cost you $5.45 a month with a 36 month subscription. When you look at these plans, you will see that they are basically comparable to what you would get from shared hosting.
In 2018, Bluehost introduced a new category specifically for WordPress entitled WordPress Pro. To say that this plan is a big deal would be an understatement. These Pro plans use a high-performance VPS that offers better site speed. Some of the features offered include:
- 100 Free Premium Themes
- Daily Backups
- JetPack Site Analytics
- Marketing Center
- Malware Detection and Removal
Within the WordPress Pro plan, there are different tiers that you can choose from. Each one adds an additional layer of functionality and security. One unique feature of this plan is the unlimited video compression. This feature allows you to upload your videos without optimizing them for the web. Bluehost does it all. Bluehost is extremely active in the WordPress community. They have a core staff of developers that focus on WordPress. This means that they are able to address a number of complicated problems that you are only going to find with WordPress.
Bluehost goes out of their way to make it easy for you set up your website and manage it. The cPanel interface is about as simple to use as it could be.
There are a number of amazing features included in every price point. The vast majority of customers are happy with Bluehost service. This is why Bluehost has developed a strong reputation that has lasted for more than two decades.
We would like to hear from you. Tell us about your experience using Bluehost for WordPress in the comments section below.
If you’re still looking for additional hosting options please refer to this guide.