Your Guide to Bluehost Pricing, Costs and Fees
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Ready to launch your business site but unsure of where to have it hosted? Bluehost is a popular web hosting service with lots of options to choose from. It can be confusing to look at various platforms if you aren’t sure exactly what features are included, whether you need those features, and if the price is right.
Today, we’re going to help you delve deep into Bluehost pricing so you can see which plan is right for your business website.
Here are the different options for Bluehost pricing:
Bluehost Hosting Plans: Starter Prices
- Shared hosting – from $1.99/month
- WordPress hosting – from $1.99/month
- WooCommerce hosting – from $6.99/month
- Cloud hosting – from $29.99/month
- VPS hosting – from $31.99/month
- Dedicated hosting – from $91.98/month
Bluehost Hosting: How Much Does It Cost Per Month?
The monthly cost of Bluehost hosting varies depending on the type of plan you choose. The fact is, you could spend anywhere from $1.99 to $261.99 per month, depending on what type of hosting you need.
Shared and WordPress hosting are the least expensive, WooCommerce is a bit more expensive, cloud and VPS hosting costs more, and dedicated hosting is the most expensive. Here’s a breakdown of the various plans and their costs:
Type of hosting | Cheapest plan for 12 months | Cheapest plan for 36 months | Cheapest plan regular rate | Most expensive plan for 12 months | Most expensive plan for 36 months | Most expensive plan regular rate |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Shared | $1.99 | $2.99 | $3.99 | $6.99 | $7.99 | $15.99 |
WordPress | $1.99 | $2.99 | $3.99 | $6.99 | $7.99 | $15.99 |
WooCommerce | $6.99 | $7.99 | $15.99 | $12.95 | $19.95 | $39.95 |
Cloud | $29.99 | n/a | $79.99 | $109.99 | n/a | $249.99 |
VPS | $36.99 | $31.99 | $81.99 | $101.82 | $71.99 | $144.99 |
Dedicated | $111.97 | $91.98 | $181.99 | $161.98 | $141.99 | $261.99 |
While it looks like purchasing a 36-month plan for some of these is more expensive, keep in mind that you’ll only get to pay the 12-month cost for a year. Once the plan expires, the cost will revert to the regular cost at the time of renewal (which you’ll be able to find in your control panel at that time). When you consider this, the 36-month rate locks you in longer and you will save money over the long term.
Is Bluehost Good Value for Money?
Yes, the pricing levels range from very budget-friendly to more expensive, and each tier offers more features than the one before. Also, Bluehost is a top WordPress-recommended host, and you can get its WordPress hosting for just $1.99/month. Even after the first 12- or 36-month term has passed, the basic plan is affordable at $3.99/month.
The shared, WordPress, and WooCommerce plans include a free domain for the first year, and the WordPress hosting costs the same as the lowest-priced shared hosting.
The ecommerce and WooCommerce are also priced competitively. For example, SiteGround WooCommerce plans start at $2.99/month, and DreamHost’s starts at $16.95/month.
Which Bluehost Plan Is Right for You?
With so many plans to choose from, it can feel overwhelming to choose the right one for your specific circumstances. We’ve broken down the information on the six main types of hosting so you can decide which would be right for you. From there, you’ll just need to choose your plan within the type you’ve chosen.
Type of hosting | ✔️ Recommended for | ❌ Not recommended for | Price range (monthly on an annual plan) |
---|---|---|---|
Shared | Small businesses, personal websites, sites with low to moderate traffic, those with limited budgets | Websites with high traffic, ecommerce sites, users who want to use a lot of customization | $1.99-$6.99 |
WordPress | Small businesses or individuals who are running a WordPress-based site, budget-minded users | Businesses not using WordPress as their platform, high-traffic websites | $1.99-$6.99 |
WooCommerce | Ecommerce websites built on WordPress, small to medium online stores | Ecommerce businesses that don’t use the WooCommerce plugin, high-traffic websites | $6.99-$12.95 |
Cloud | Small or medium businesses, developers and agencies, high-traffic websites with fluctuating or seasonal traffic | Those with a small budget, small personal websites, sites with consistent traffic | $29.99-$109.99 |
VPS | Growing businesses, sites with higher traffic volume, businesses with higher software requirements or security needs | Small businesses or personal websites, those without technical expertise, websites with low traffic | $36.99-$101.82 |
Dedicated | Large businesses, high-traffic websites, sensitive data requiring high-level security | Small businesses and startups, those without technical expertise, sites that don’t need extensive resources | $111.97-$161.98 |
As you can see, the more advanced your site and the more traffic you have, the higher-priced (and more feature-rich) plan you will want to invest in. For most startups that aren’t selling a lot of different items, a basic shared or WordPress plan will be adequate.
Remember that within each type of hosting, you will have several options to choose from. This will make scaling within your hosting type simple, so you wouldn’t necessarily have to move from shared hosting to VPS or dedicated hosting as your business grows – until and unless it gets to the point where traffic, security, and storage needs all increase dramatically.
Shared and WordPress Hosting: Price Breakdown
The Bluehost pricing for the shared and WordPress plans are the same, and so are the plans themselves. Each of these includes a free CDN, a free domain for the first year, and a free trial of the Professional Email plan. Here’s a breakdown of the other features each plan offers:
Basic
For $1.99/month for your first year, you’ll get one website, 10GB SSD storage, chat-only support, and a free SSL certificate for the first year. This renews at the regular rate of $3.99/month.
The Basic plan is best for personal websites, small businesses with limited budgets, or simple, static sites that you don’t expect to grow much in the near future.
Choice Plus
For $3.49/month for your first year, and renewing at $8.99/month after 12 months, you’ll get three websites, 40GB SSD storage, both chat and phone support, daily website backups for the first year, domain privacy for the first year, free SSL, and malware scanning.
We recommend this plan if you have a small to medium business or smaller businesses that you expect to grow within the term of the plan. Also, if you want or need regular backups, you’ll benefit from the daily backups.
Online Store
For $6.99/month for your first year, renewing at the regular rate of $15.99/month after 12 months, you’ll get:
- 3 websites
- 40GB SSD storage
- Chat and phone support
- The ability to sell products online
- Free daily backups and domain privacy for one year
- Free SSL
- Malware scanning
- Features for ecommerce stores
Ecommerce businesses, service-based businesses that require appointment booking, and those looking for the enhanced security measures needed for handling customer information would benefit from this plan. Keep in mind that if you are using the WooCommerce plugin by WordPress, you’ll need to use one of the WooCommerce plans below.
WooCommerce Hosting: Price Breakdown
WooCommerce is an ecommerce plan designed to be used with the WordPress WooCommerce plugin. Bluehost offers two WooCommerce plans. Both include:
- A free domain for the first year
- A free trial to the Professional Email plan
- Free SSL
- Yoast SEO
- The ability to make appointments
- Gift cards
- Wish lists
- Product search
- Jetpack daily backups
- Automated WordPress updates
Online Store
This costs $6.99/month for the first 12 months, then renews at the regular rate of $15.99/month on renewal. This plan is perfect for businesses that sell products online. You’ll get your online store website with analytics, 40GB SSD storage, and all of the features listed above. It’s largely the same as the Online Store plan in the shared hosting section above, but it’s meant to be used only with WooCommerce sites.
This plan is for you if you sell products through your own online store. If your ecommerce site has a small- to medium-sized product catalog, the amount of storage available should be sufficient.
Online Store + Marketplace
This plan is $12.95/month for the first year, and renews at the regular rate of $39.95/month after 12 months. It includes the online store website with analytics, 100GB SSD storage, a multi-channel inventory, and all of the features listed above.
This plan is better for businesses with larger inventories and those using (or planning to use) third-party marketplaces like Amazon or eBay. Also, if you have a smaller site that you anticipate growing substantially within the term of the plan, you might want to choose this one.
Cloud Hosting: Price Breakdown
Right now, Bluehost is offering special early access pricing for cloud hosting plans. There are four plans available, all of which offer 100% network uptime and 24/7 priority support voice chat.
Cloud 1
For $29.99/month for the first year, you’ll get one website, 10GB SSD storage, and 2vCPU Compute Power. This renews at $79.99/month.
This plan would be best for someone budget-minded who needed an affordable cloud hosting plan with basic features. Sites with low to medium traffic levels would find this plan suitable.
Cloud 10
For $49.99/month for the first year, you’ll get 10 websites, 125GB SSD storage, and 20vCPU Compute Power. This plan renews at $109.99/month.
The Cloud 10 plan better accommodates small to medium-sized businesses with multiple websites. We also recommend it for smaller sites that are expected to grow within the time of the term.
Cloud 25
For $89.99/month for the first year, you’ll get 25 websites, 175GB SSD storage, and 75vCPU Compute Power. This plan renews at $169.99/month.
This plan would be good for larger businesses that have resource-intensive websites and higher traffic levels. Ecommerce websites would find this plan suitable and functional.
Cloud 50
For $109.99/month for the first year, you’ll get 50 websites, 225GB SSD storage, and 150vCPU Compute Power. This plan renews at $249.99/month.
This plan is ideal for large businesses, enterprises, or agencies. It can accommodate high levels of traffic, and it can also provide the infrastructure needed for sites with extensive resource needs.
VPS Hosting: Price Breakdown
If you’re looking for VPS hosting, meaning you want to have your own virtual server, Bluehost offers three different options to cater to different resource needs. All of these come with unmetered bandwidth and the prices include the cPanel license fee.
Standard
The Standard plan costs $31.99/month for the first three years and offers 2GB RAM, 2 core CPU, and 120GB SSD. The renewal price is $81.99/month.
It would be best for small businesses and starter ecommerce sites with a limited number of products. Web developers or agencies who work on smaller projects for clients could also use the Standard plan.
Enhanced
The Enhanced plan is $41.99 for the first three years and includes 4GB RAM, 2 core CPU, and 165GB SSD. It will renew at $116.99/month.
If your company is growing and you plan to have increasing traffic, the doubled RAM would offer better performance than the Standard plan. This is also the case if you have multimedia content or need database processing capability.
Ultimate
Finally, the Ultimate plan is $71.99/month for the first three years and features 8GM RAM, 4 core CPU, and 240GB SSD. The plan renews at $144.99/month.
This plan is best for large ecommerce stores and high-traffic websites. If your business requires high-performance computing or resource-intensive applications, this would be a great plan to consider.
Dedicated Hosting: Price Breakdown
If you are ready for dedicated hosting and want no limits on how you can customize your server, Bluehost offers three different plans. All of these are Linux servers, use Intel Xeon-D CPU, and come with unmetered bandwidth. They also include the cPanel with root access, so you will be able to make a lot of tweaks and changes to the server as desired.
Standard
The Standard plan costs $91.98/month for the first three years and renews at $181.99/month. It uses a 4 core/8 thread processor and comes with 8GB RAM and 1TB HDD storage.
This plan is perfect for small to medium-sized businesses and basic websites with low to moderate traffic levels that require dedicated resources but have relatively low to moderate requirements in terms of storage and memory.
Enhanced
The Enhanced plan is priced at $121.88/month for the first three years and renews at $181.99/month. It uses an 8 core/16 thread processor and comes with 16GB RAM and 2TB HDD storage.
Growing businesses will appreciate the Enhanced plan. Large ecommerce stores with high traffic levels, database servers, CRM systems, and analytics platforms are other good candidates for this plan.
Premium
The Premium plan, which costs $141.99/month for the first three years and renews at $261.99/month. It uses an 8 core/16 thread processor. It offers 30GB RAM and 2TB HDD storage.
Large sites or enterprise-level applications that have consistently high levels of traffic or that are running resource-intensive tasks will find the Premium plan to be the most suitable. The same is true for large-scale ecommerce stores with extensive product catalogs.
Bluehost Email Pricing
When you sign up for Bluehost web hosting, you will get a free trial of the Professional Email plan. This three-month trial allows you to try out the plan that includes 25GB storage, 25 email addresses, email forwarding, mail filters, and other features. Once the free trial has ended, the cost is $2.49/month on an annual contract.
You can also purchase standalone email plans. The Professional Email plan is $14.99/year, and the Professional Email Plus is $24.99/year. The latter plan includes everything the basic plan offers as well as one-click email and file encryption.
You can compare the two plans here:
Bluehost Domains
Bluehost domain pricing depends on the type of hosting you’re buying. If you have a shared, WordPress, or WooCommerce plan, you’ll get a free domain for the first year. After that, you’ll pay the renewal fee each year, which is listed in the image below.
If you have a cloud, VPS, or dedicated hosting plan, you can see what the current registration and renewal fees are here:
Note that if you cancel your Bluehost hosting within the first year, there’s a non-refundable domain fee based on the regular cost of the domain. This will ensure that you don’t lose the domain name; you’ll be able to transfer it to your new hosting company as long as 60 days have passed since registration.
Are There Any Hidden Costs?
You can get your basic site set up and running without any hidden costs. There are, however, costs for additional features beyond what’s offered in the plans. These aren’t required, but you may want them to enhance your site’s performance.
When checking out, you will want to watch out for auto-selected options. In the example below, I didn’t choose the add-ons; they were already checked off. Deselect any extra plans that you don’t want.
You will be able to back up your site for free as often as daily, but you also might elect to purchase CodeGuard, which performs automatic daily backups and stores your information in the cloud. This starts at $3.99/month per domain for the basic CodeGuard plan.
If you’d like a dedicated IP, which is an IP just for your site, you’ll pay $5.99/month if you have shared hosting or $2.50/month if you have VPS hosting.
Domain privacy means that your name will stay private in the WHOIS database. Rather than your site being publicly attributed to you, it will have Bluehost’s information listed. This upgrade costs $14.88/month.
Each domain comes with a free shared SSL certificate to keep user data secure. If you’d like a private SSL certificate, you’ll need a dedicated IP address to attach it to, then you’ll pay $6.67/month for the SSL certificate itself.
Remember that if you’re just starting out and you don’t have higher-than-average security needs, you don’t necessarily need these upgrades and features. You can always add them later through your control panel.
Bluehost Website Migration Cost
If you need to move your website from another hosting platform to Bluehost, you’ll first need to select a hosting plan. Once you’ve done that, you can arrange for Bluehost to transfer your website as well as up to 20 email accounts for $149.99. The average transfer takes 3 to 5 days to complete.
Bluehost vs Competitor Pricing
Bluehost prices are competitive when compared to several of its competitors. For example, while a Bluehost Basic plan starts at $1.99/month for a one-year plan, a similar HostGator plan starts at $2.57/month for a one-year plan. We found Bluehost to be the winner in our Bluehost vs HostGator showdown.
SiteGround has a similar plan starting at $2.99/month, but renewing the plan will be $17.99/month after the first year, which is more expensive than the Bluehost cost of $3.99/month. Bluehost also won the prize here when we did a comparison of SiteGround vs Bluehost.
You can read more of our comparisons and discussion of pricing in our review of the best web hosting providers.
Also, here’s a comparison of Bluehost and Hostinger, a review of GoDaddy vs. Bluehost, as well as one on DreamHost vs. Bluehost.
Our Testing Methodology
At Website Builder Expert, we put accuracy and honesty at the top of our priority list. We know you trust us to give you the information you need so you can make the right decision when it comes to choosing a web hosting company.
We understand your needs, and we have a list of 121 investigative areas that we consult with when determining which platforms to recommend to our readers. We collect data, perform rigorous product testing, and put everything through our proprietary scoring algorithm before sending the info to be presented. You can read more about our processes on our methodology page.
Summary
In conclusion, Bluehost consistently comes out at the top of the pack when we compare it to its competitors. Bluehost hosting pricing is competitive, and its offerings are diverse enough to appeal to a wide range of businesses, from small start-ups to well-established ecommerce sites or sites belonging to large organizations.
Here is more information on Bluehost that you might find helpful!
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