Why I Think Bluehost is Highly Overrated

Whenever you ask someone for recommendations on the best web hosts to use for business or personal, Bluehost will most likely be thrown in there somewhere. I can’t tell you how many people and websites have Bluehost as their #1 recommendation for web hosting in reviews and the like. They usually say something along the lines of “their hosting is fast” or “they have great customer service”.

I’m really not sure why Bluehost is received so well; perhaps it’s because a lot of people don’t know what it’s like to be with a better host and most people choose Bluehost because it was recommended to them.

Now, I indeed have used Bluehost myself and have a good amount of experience with them on their shared hosting. But is it actually all that it’s cracked up to be? Sadly, not at all.

Let me give you a few reasons why I think Bluehost is way overrated (based on my own personal experience with them) and there are web hosting services out there that are so much better. Scroll down to the bottom of this article to see one of my top recommendations for quality, affordable web hosting!

1. It’s slow pretty much all the time.

Slow, slow, slow. The cPanel is slow, the back end of your WordPress site is slow, your site is slow; everything about Bluehost is slow. It doesn’t matter if you’re on a shared hosting plan — I can name a few other web hosts off the top of my head that have comparable pricing for shared hosting and have much faster speeds. Bluehost is simply a loser in this respect. When you’re operating an online business where visitor experience on your website is premium, Bluehost drops the ball. Not only that, but the slow speeds make doing any kind of work on your hosting account or website a pain in the butt.

2. Their customer service (particularly live chat) sucks.

I have contacted Bluehost numerous times through their live chat and have come out disappointed just about every time. Compared to other web hosts, live chat waiting times are quite long; sometimes you’ll be waiting 10 minutes or more just to get in. That’s not where it ends though. Bluehost unfortunately appears to rely heavily on cheap offshoring for their customer service needs, at least with live chat. This usually translates to customer service agents who speak poor English, are slow to respond and not very helpful.

I’ve personally had one terrible experience after another when it comes to their live chat. Some of these so-called “reps” have no clue how to do their job properly. In my opinion, Bluehost customer support quality borders on embarrassing, especially when compared to the customer service of other web hosts.

3. They don’t offer a free website transfer.

Unlike other hosting companies, Bluehost doesn’t offer a free complementary website transfer to your hosting account. On top of that, they charge a hefty $150 fee regardless of whether you’re moving one website or five. Sounds like a pretty lousy deal to me.

These are pretty major reasons to avoid Bluehost. I’m not saying you shouldn’t try it; if you want you can test them out and get a refund within 30 days if you’re not satisfied. If you’re coming into Bluehost as someone who’s never used web hosting before, though, beware. You may not realize how bad their hosting is because you’ve never seen anything better. I fell into this same trap and ended up buying a year of hosting, much of which I’m not going to use. At the same time, I don’t recommend Bluehost. They obviously aren’t the worst host out there, but they’re far from the best and quite overrated.

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So, what is a great web host alternative that delivers on all three of the points above (and more)? The web host that I currently use for my website and business needs?

It’s SiteGround.

Speeds in your cPanel and on your websites? Lightning quick, especially when you enable SiteGround’s special systems designed to optimize site performance like Dynamic Cache and MemCache. Every WordPress installation on SiteGround comes automatically with their plugin SG Optimizer, which contains all the optimizations you need to get your site running at peak performance. I have multiple websites on my SiteGround shared GrowBig hosting plan and they are always snippy and responsive. Everything about SiteGround — from the site itself to the customer service to the hosting — is fast.

Customer service? Excellent, for a number of reasons. For one, the wait times to get into live chat with an agent are always tiny; it’s usually never over 30 seconds. I have contacted their customer support countless times, and while I admit that once or twice I got put with an agent that didn’t do a very good job, the vast majority of times I had my issues resolved quickly by responsive and helpful agents who spoke good English.

Did you know that you can leave a review/rating of your customer service rep after every session, and if you give a poor review you have the option of being put in touch with a supervisor immediately? The supervisors really know what they’re doing; I got redirected to one once and the guy was just amazing with his knowledge and responsiveness. Bluehost doesn’t have this, nor do they give you an opportunity to rate the rep you just spoke with.

On top of this, you will often be presented with special offers over live chat if you’re discussing purchases of hosting or other services on the site. You can save quite a bit of money by taking advantage of some of these offers.

What’s more is that if you can’t get your issue resolved over live chat, you can open a support ticket and have your issue looked at by technical experts. I’ve opened a couple of support tickets on SiteGround and I have always gotten quick responses and action taken, usually within an hour or two. I don’t know how they manage to offer such awesome support, but they do.

As for website transfers? SiteGround offers one free with every hosting account, and you can actually choose between transferring one website or transferring an entire cPanel, which means that you can effectively transfer as many websites as you want over to SiteGround free one time as long as the websites are on the same hosting account. After that it’s $30 per website transfer.

For me, it’s pretty clear cut which web host is better. SiteGround vs. Bluehost: SiteGround wins hands down. They have a 30-day money-back guarantee on their shared hosting plans. If you plan on having or already have multiple websites (which, as a marketer, you should), I highly recommend getting the GrowBig shared hosting plan unless you’re pulling massive traffic numbers.

==> GET SITEGROUND HOSTING HERE <==

If you have any questions or feedback on this article, feel free to leave a comment below!