Facts About BlueHost

• Full Featured Host with Domain Registrations
• Provider of SSL certificates and Dedicated IPs
• Home office is in Provo, UT.

Hosting Plans:

There is only one hosting plan available from BlueHost, but it is all inclusive so it’s a great plan and at a great price. $6.95 per month gets you unlimited storage and transfer, which are the two elements anyone looks at – and the sky’s the limit.

The features, which we cover below, are numerous with multiple solutions for similar problems you may encounter. Expanding your site from a flat HTML driven web page to a dynamically driven database supported one is an easy transition with the full Linux backend including PHP and MySQL databases. There is no Windows hosting option, so clients transitioning from an existing Windows host will not find what they need here. However that is only the case if you are using Microsoft specific technology: sites created for a Windows environment in PHP and other open source standards will still fin the power and resources they require.

BlueHost also provides PostgreSQL, Shell (SSH) access, and even hotlink protection. If you are an existing web site owner or are not new to hosting you know how these resources come in handy, and in the event of PostgreSQL, is not provided by all hosts.

Finally the hosting plan comes fully supported with Ruby on Rails and Python to complement the other aspects of the site hosting plan. Even though this plan is developed for the beginner web hosting customer, it has the power and performance to handle complicated and high-traffic sites.

Technical and Customer Support:

The Support pages at BlueHost live up to their self-titled name: Help Center. The DIY support system dwarfs many others by comparison. While we typically like to go with instant online chat or direct phone calls to handle a site situation, BlueHost also provides support ticketing, Server Status monitoring, video tutorials, a user forum, as well as full cPanel documentation.

That’s a great way to start getting questions answered when you first encounter a problem. However the online chat and phone options are also available and just as reliable as you would expect. Complicated issues are best handled via ticketing so that they are transferred to a technician or server admin ASAP, however any avenue with BlueHost gets you to your answer eventually. All Roads Lead to BlueHost.

Features:

Once again we have to claim our appreciation for some advanced features from a web host. While BlueHost is not the cheapest, or the widest ranging host, they do provide options that many of the big boys just won’t bring themselves to do. Dedicated IP addresses are one of these critical options. At less than $3.00 per month you too can isolate yourself from the other shared hosting customers whole may be experimenting with black-hat SEO practices and ruining the IP for everyone else.

Another choice aspect of BlueHost is their optional upgrades! You can upgrade your entire hosting package to a $14.95 a month plan which nabs you three domain name registrations, a PositiveSSL Certificate, a Dedicated IP address and 10 Postini Email Filtering services. Collectively (if you needed all of these features) it would cost you an additional $100 per year, more than what the BlueHost monthly price is here.

The option for adding a SSL certificate alone is a nice feature, and the price at just $45 a month individually is worth it! Compared to other SSL plans from a separate agency and ADDING it to your hosting normally costs around $95 per year as it is. With BlueHost they do the integration and setup for you. Note that SSL does require a dedicated IP address.