What is the best web hosting company for WordPress?
I guess that is the $64,000 question. I can answer it quite quickly from a personal standpoint from a blogging point of view.
Bluehost is now the company i’ve used to take my blogs to the next level.
I’ve worked with Bluehost for a long time now. I really have nothing but awesome things to say about them really. While that is the case, I want to give you the total honest truth here.
I’ve been creating websites since 2004
I’ve been creating websites since 2004. There weren’t too many good choices around in those days when it came to hosting. One of my early hosting companies I used was one called Easily. It was quite simple, but very rudimentary and looking back i’m surprised I was still using them for one particular site right up until last month! I now prefer to use BlueHost to host my wordpress blogs.
Now, there are more expensive options for blogs when they really have grown to be mega-huge. The best thing to do there is to have dedicated hosting instead of shared (this is how most hosting is bought today, because it is cheaper). Dedicated servers are very expensive and there’s no reason to be spending that kind of money ($100+ per month) when you’re just starting blogging.
BlueHost is still my Number 1 recommendation for new blogs and i’m going to tell you exactly why now.
1. BlueHost really saved me when my websites kept crashing
Yes, the website kept dropping out and crashing. Not ideal once you are hosting for other people. When traffic was higher on evenings, when everyone was home from work, it would cause all kinds of problems and I was finding the website would go off-line for maybe an hour at a time. It didn’t have the bandwidth to cope with the extra traffic.
That was great fun. I was losing readers, subscribers and even sales on my rudimentary e-commerce store. Does that sound familiar?
I tried to call my hosting company to find out what was going on, but they were in the States and the website didn’t really help with troubleshooting and solving the problem.
Basically, what it boiled down to was the hosting package that I was on was too cheap and basic! It wasn’t really designed to handle more than a minimum of traffic and bandwidth that my starter package had.
They said it was possible to pay an extra couple of hundred dollars a month to upgrade, but what i’d seen with the basic package and website didn’t exactly make me feel that would be a good idea and I couldn’t afford that kind of money anyway. I was forced to look elsewhere.
I ended up calling Bluehost and explaining my problems. The Bluehost customer rep I talked to was really helpful. They say first impressions are everything, well my first impression of BlueHost really hit the sweet spot with me.
The rep walked me through what was happening, why it was happening, assured me that their hosting would fix it if I were to move, and I ended up signing up and joining Bluehost that very same day. After I went through moving my website to the new host, everything got marvellously better!
It was just as well because a few weeks afterwards the Bluehost hosted site got a huge increase in traffic that the old host would NEVER have coped with. It was fantastic. If i’d still been with the old host the website would have failed and it would have cost thousands of lost subscribers and probably a similar amount of lost income.
That is why I think the hosting provider is THE most important part of your website setup and why I regard Bluehost so highly.
I don’t want to have to move the hosting to a new plan in another 6 months. Moving websites to a new hosting company on a regular basis is a total pain and we haven’t really got time for that have we?
2. BlueHost is really affordable for bloggers on a budget
Secondly, it’s super-affordable. One of the most affordable plans out there, but crucially there is no loss of performance to go with it.
You can get started with BlueHost for as little as £2.99 per month.
Disclaimer : You do have to pay for at least a year upfront (2-3 years if you want the biggest discount). BUT here’s the thing that a lot of other people don’t realise – The other competing plans that do allow you to pay monthly cost 4x what BlueHost does.
It will end up costing you hundreds more for a pay monthly plan. Paying it up front with Bluehost will help you make a commitment to your new blogging business.
3. Bluehost hosting is incredibly easy to get started and set up.
You could do it blindfolded. OK, maybe not quite THAT simple, but it really is very easy! It even has a one click switch to get WordPress installed on your webspace.
First, go to Bluehost.com, if you haven’t already. Make sure you have the page pulled up in a separate window before beginning the tutorial (this link will open a new one).
After you click the Get Started button on the homepage, you will then see a list of pricing options.
Next, choose which Bluehost pricing plan is best for you. No worries – you don’t need anything more than the BASIC plan to start.
After selecting your plan, you will want to enter your new domain name, as seen below:
A domain name is the text on the top bar of your webpage. For example, “themakemoneyonlinething.com” is our domain name for this website.
Don’t have the domain name you want just yet? Don’t sweat it! You can click the link to create it later and continue with the guide and select your domain later on!
On the next page, you will fill out the create your account section:
Then scroll down to the section with the package information.
FIRST — Select your Bluehost account plan. This is where you select the LENGTH of your plan.
We recommend the 36-month plan because it provides the best value for your money, but the 12-month plan is great as well. Remember:
- You can cancel risk-free for 30 days. Bluehost offers a guarantee, and you can cancel your plan at any time during the first 30 days and get a full refund.
- Signing on for a longer plan represents a commitment you are making to your blog and yourself. Commit to making this a long-term deal that will reap you TONS of rewards over the next few years! Yes, you have to pay the money upfront, but this is going to be something you stick with for a while right?! Make the commitment to yourself to see this thing through.
After selecting your Bluehost package information, scroll down to the section on package extras.
Uncheck all boxed except privacy protection. It should look like this:
NOTE* If you selected the option to choose a domain name later, you won’t see the option to add privacy protection right now. You’ll just want to pay for it as an add-on when you decide to register a domain name.
Selecting domain privacy protection hides your personal details so that your information remains confidential.
Unless you want spammers and scammers blowing up your phone – you want this checked!
Finally, all you have to do is add in your credit card details, check the standard Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, and hit the green submit button!
Congratulations! You now own your very own WordPress blog and Bluehost hosting plan!
Not too painful, right???
The next few steps will direct you to create your password before beginning with anything else. Make sure to create a secure password!
After selecting your password, click the “Login” button. This will direct you to select a theme for your new WordPress blog.
4. Bluehost have a really awesome 24 hour customer support
Have you got a problem or need some help? Are you having a problem with the more techy stuff?
You can chat with the BlueHost help team either online or on the telephone. 24/7.
The online chat is the best for me because I prefer to explain my problems in writing and it’s less likely to result in them not understanding. I also really hate talking on the phone 😉 If however you do end up on the phone to Bluehost, you can get a native English speaker. This helps hugely when a problem is highly technical.
5. You can have unlimited domain names, blogs, and email addresses.
Your basic BlueHost hosting plan comes with a free domain name with Bluehost.
You can also upgrade to other Bluehost plans (for just a couple of more quids per month) that allow you to have multiple domain names and blogs.
This is what I have on my Bluehost plan because I have multiple websites hosted through it.
6. It’s easy to create your own customized email addresses for your Bluehost domain.
This is really great because it’s not that easy to do with some other hosting companies. It certainly is with Bluehost!
A domain email address is simply a custom email address that includes your domain name. i.e. The email that I use for customer service on this website is “mail@themakemoneyonlinething.com.”
You can create multiple domain addresses for various team members if you have them or areas of your business, including customer service, sales, admin help, etc.
You can do this within just a few minutes with Bluehost, and you can always contact their customer service team if you have any issues.
They also have help articles that will walk you through the process.
Getting started today with WordPress and Bluehost is incredibly simple and easy to do!
Just click the banner below to get started at BlueHost now. You’ll have your free domain name and website set up in less than 10 minutes.
- What are the most popular affiliate marketing niches in 2023? - May 17, 2023
- Here is a simple method to start making money online - May 9, 2023
- House Sitting for Profit – Is it Possible? - May 6, 2023