You might be an individual blogger, a small business, or any other person in need of reliable and fast hosting on a budget. Sure, dedicated hosting can take things to another level, but for a price to pay. So, here’s where VPS comes into play as the middle ground, providing reserved resources (CPU, RAM, Storage) at an affordable price.
Today, I’ll test a well-known name and a long-standing brand within the web hosting industry – Bluehost. Honestly, I have already reviewed a few of the company’s services, including shared and email hosting. So, I have to say, my expectations at this point are pretty high.
| VPS Hosting Plans | Unmanaged; Linux-only |
| Top Features | A Single Easy-To-Use VPS Dashboard; Full SSD Storage; Dedicated Power; Unlimited Domains, Websites, and Bandwidth; Full Root Access; Superior Speed, Performance, And Security; Server Monitoring; No Extra Maintenance; Free Microsoft 365 Mailbox; 24/7 VPS Support |
| Customer Support | 24/7 Expert VPS Support Over Live Chat, Phone, and Email |
Bluehost offers SSD-powered, unmanaged VPS hosting. The company takes the server configurations from the customers’ end, delivering superior performance and speed. However, with its root access, Bluehost users benefit from the ultimate flexibility and control to build the websites of their dreams.
See, Bluehost has a unique offer. They provide 24/7 support via phone and chat. Still, all of their VPS (and Dedicated server) plans are unmanaged. Therefore, you would be responsible for your website code, monitoring server uptime, stability, security, debugging, updates, backups, and spam reputation.
The Bluehost team can assist and advise you on server management. Most of the assistance comes in the form of “How to” guides and videos, and the execution of most server maintenance/adjustment tasks will be the customer’s, in this case, your responsibility.
Let’s check whether Bluehost can make your websites load faster, become secure, and easy to maintain? Believe me; I am as interested in the outcome as you are, if not more!
Getting Started with Bluehost VPS Plans
Bluehost offers three unmanaged VPS plans.
I like Bluehost because it offers remarkable guidance so that even not-so tech-savvy persons can get around the unmanaged solution.
Still, you might be looking for a fully managed VPS. If that’s the case, you might as well skip this guide since you will not find what you are looking for.
Bluehost’s motto regarding its virtual private servers is: “The server is virtual. Your freedom to build is very real.” See, the provider offers impressive raw compute power, full root access, and fully dedicated server resources. So, if you are a developer, designer, or system administrator, you can build your environment exactly how you imagined it.
All three VPS plans include multi-server management, access control, and root access.
First, you can add more VPS, Shared, or Dedicated hosting services to your Bluehost account and manage it all in one place. It’s a convenient feature that can save you lots of time and hassle jumping from account to account.
Next, with Access Control, you can create passwords for specific access. For instance, you might get the master password with access to everything, or the ownership information, while your tech team gets server administration, and so on.
And third, Root Access lets you create unlimited file transfer protocol (FTP) accounts to upload, download or modify files on your VPS.
Now, let’s review the plans in more detail. Bluehost offers the Standard, Enhanced, and Ultimate VPS plans. As you can spot, all three plans support the cPanel/WHM, where you’ll have full access to CentOS, giving you complete control of your hosting server. Furthermore, you can expect a free domain name, free SSL, 24/7 customer support, and a 30-day money-back guarantee, regardless of which plan you get.
At a minimum, you can get 2 CPU cores, 30 GB SSD Storage, 2 GB RAM, 1 TB Bandwidth, and 1 IP Address in the Standard VPS plan.
The Enhanced VPS plan also offers 2 Cores. However, it increases the SSD to 60 GB, 4 GB RAM, 2 TB Bandwidth, and 2 IP Addresses.
The Ultimate VPS Plan is called like this for a reason. With it, you can get 4 Cores, 120 GB SSD, 8 GB RAM, 3 TB Bandwidth, and 2 IP Addresses.
What comes next? You got it right; it’s time to shop! As usual, I will get the cheapest offer since I am here for testing purposes only. And if you ask me, it’s more than sufficient.
First, click on Select on the plan of your choosing, or in my case, the Standard VPS.
Here, you will need to create a new domain or use a domain you own. As mentioned, Bluehost will charge for the domain; you will get the domain registration for free, but you will have to pay for the first year. Due to this, I will go for the second option. I already have a domain, so why not use it?
Enter the domain and click Next. It’s time to create your account. At this point, you need to enter your first and last name, business name (optional), country, street address, city, state, ZIP code, phone number, and email address.
Next, you can choose the Package Information. You can choose from 1, 3, 6, 12, 24, or 36 months.
Bluehost, similar to many providers, offers discounts on the longer-term plan. The deal is if you are certain of its service quality, your business, and website, it’s best you go for the 3-year plan. This way, you can benefit from the discount for a longer time.
I will go for the monthly plan since I already said I am here for testing only. Once you select the term, Bluehost will calculate your total hosting price. Here, you can also spot that you are getting a free Let’s Encrypt SSL.
The third step upon registration is the Package Extras. Now, you must be extra cautious in here; Bluehost automatically checks some of the boxes. So, if you don’t believe you need these, make sure to remove them from your card.
First, with CodeGuard Basic, you can get automated daily backups for your site to secure all your hard work. The tool diligently checks your site for changes every day, and you can also revert back to a previous version of your site with a single click.
The Bluehost SEO tool helps your website get listed higher on Search Engine Results so that you can be found where it matters the most. This add-on can save you time and effort with Yahoo!, Bing, and Google website submissions. You also get a detailed action plan with a personalized marketing report.
Going on, you can protect your site with a Single Domain SSL. The positive SSL comes with a warranty of $10,000 to provide you an assurance that your website is safe to collect payments from customers.
Now, you might be wondering, why would I go for the Single Domain SSL as a paid add-on when I have the Let’s Encrypt SSL for free?
A public benefit organization runs the Let’s Encrypt certificate. It means that your encryption doesn’t depend on the Certificate Authority (Let’s Encrypt) but on your certificate & SSL/TLS configuration. It might be a secure alternative for many websites. Even so, Let’s Encrypt SSL only offers domain-validated certificates (DV), not wildcard nor multi-domain certificates.
If you are interested in the extra security of an extended validation certificate (EV) for your site, you must purchase one from a traditional CA provider. In this case, that’s the Single Domain SSL.
Back to the add-ons; next comes the Microsoft 365 Mailbox, which Bluehost offers for free.
At last, you can add SiteLock security to protect your website from malicious attacks, spammers, and hackers. SiteLock is an automatic monitoring tool that guards your site against landing on search engine blacklists, detects a malware, and protects you from costly downtime.
After you check/uncheck all add-on boxes, you can pursue to payment.
Bluehost allows you to pay by a credit card or using PayPal.
Before you click submit, make sure to carefully read the blue box!
If all is in order, you will see the following message when you click Submit.
As promised, I received an email IMMEDIATELY. Instant provisioning with Bluehost is not only a promise but a reality! I waited only a few minutes to get the email.
Setting Up a Bluehost VPS Plan
It’s time to create the account. At this point, you already have your domain name. So, all you should do really is create a password
Believe me or not, it’s as simple as that. You can log in next.
When logging in with Bluehost, you can use your email or domain and enter the password you have created in the previous step.
Welcome to the Client Area! At first sight, all is simple, well-organized, and especially easy on the eyes.
On the left, you can find the Main Menu, divided into Home, My Sites, Marketplace, Email & Office, Domains, Advanced, and Server.
The Home section consists of several shortcuts to create a WP site, connect with a pro, get personalized help, expand your brand with a professional email, or set up Google Ads.
What I like, at this point, is the extensive customer support. For instance, you can find lots of helpful links and search the Help Center for guidance.
Next, in My Sites, you can find your WordPress websites. As you can spot, at the moment, I have none.
With Bluehost, you can create a new website or migrate an existing one.
Once you click on Create New Site, you can begin your WP journey.
First, enter the site name and tagline. Then, you can enter the Advanced fields – email address, WP admin username, and WP admin password.
Next, choose the domain and directory, along with several free helpful plugins.
Bluehost will then take the work out of your hands. All you need to do is wait a couple of minutes, and you will be good to go. In my case, it was a matter of seconds.
I will not return to My Sites to show you the remaining options.
Within the Marketplace, you can find lots of offers. You can even filter the offers to display Promotions, Add Websites, Add-ons, Pro Services, WordPress Themes, and WordPress Plugins.
I will stick to Marketplace Home as a comprehensive view of all. Here, you can immediately spot Jetpack, blue sky, Google Workplace, and SiteLock.
If you scroll a bit down, you will also find available options for your next move, such as shopping for themes, add-ons, professional services, and new domains.
At last, Bluehost lists its Featured Products.
For instance, you can find Domain Privacy + Protection, WordPress Full Service, Google My Business, SSL Certificate, Microsoft 365, Highend, Creatica, Mindelo, and Google Analytics as popular products.
You can also browse for themes.
If you click on view all, Bluehost will transfer you to WordPress Themes, where you can choose from 784 available themes.
You can also benefit from free and paid plugins within the WordPress Plugins section.
Next, Services consist of Cloudflare Premium, WordPress Support, WordPress Full Service, Pay Per Click, Site Migration, Linkbuilding, PayPal Integration, WordPress Contact Form, Add Google Analytics, Add a Google Map to my WordPress Site, and SiteLock 911.
If you click on view all, you can also find Bluehost SEO Tools, Google My Business, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Constant Contact, Jetpack, Sitelock, WPLive, Jetpack Backup, Weebly, Partners, etc. as available add-ons.
Finally, in one-click installs, you can find WordPress, Weebly, Joomla, OpenCart, Concrete 5.7, Drupal, Presta Shop, and Moodle.
At the bottom of Marketplace Home, you can also find the Staff Picks for their buying recommendations.
Now, back to the Menu, or its next section – Email & Office. Here, you can create a branded email to create a professional image and build trust for your business, while productivity tools help you get more done.
Bluehost offers two alternatives, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.
In Domains, you can find and manage your domains; DNS, Transfer, Redirects, Subdomains. Furthermore, you can purchase a domain or assign a new one that’s not associated with your account at that moment.
The Advanced section grants you access to the cPanel. Here, you can find general information, such as current user, primary domain, shared IP address, home directory, and server information. You can also review Statistics, including disk usage, MySQL usage, aliases, email accounts, mailing lists, autoresponders, forwarders, email filters, and MySQL databases.
Bluehost offers the standard version of the cPanel. So, you can find Email, Files, Databases, Metrics, Security, Software, Advanced, Preferences, and the Softaculous Apps Installer.
Email consists of Email Accounts, Forwarders, Email Routing, Autoresponders, Mailing Lists, Track Delivery, Global Email Filters, Email Filters, Address Importer, Spam Filters, Encryption, BoxTrapper, Calendars and Contacts, and Email Disk Usage.
File Manager, Images, Directory Privacy, Disk Usage, Web Disk, and Git Version Control are part of Files.
phpMyAdmin, MySQL Databases, MySQL Database Wizard, and Remote MySQL are part of Databases.
Metrics consist of Visitors, Errors, Bandwidth, Raw Access, Awstats, Webalizer, and Metrics Editor.
In Security, you can find SSH Access, IP Blocker, SSL/TLS, Manage API Tokens, Hotlink Protection and Leech Protection.
Software grants access to QuickInstall, WordPress Manager by Softaculous, PHP PEAR Packages, Perl Modules, Optimize Website, MultiPHP Manager, MultiPHP INI Editor, and Softaculous Apps Installer.
Terminal, Cron Jobs, Indexes, Error Pages, Apache Handlers, and MIME Types are part of Advanced. While in Preferences, you can change the language and find User Manager.
At last, the Softaculous Apps Installer is divided into Scripts and Categories.
Scripts consist of WordPress, Joomla, AbanteCart, phpBB, SMF, WHMCS, Open Real Estate, MyBB, pH7CMS, Dolphin, Laravel, OpenCart, Concrete CMS, and ClipBucket.
In turn, Categories contain Blogs, Portal/CMS, Forums, Image Galleries, Wikis, Social Networking, Ad Management, Calendars, Gaming, Mails, Polls and Analytics, Project Management, E-Commerce, ERP, Guest Books, Customer Support, Frameworks, Educational, DB Tools, Music, Video, RSS, File Management, Others, and Libraries.
You can also find the File Manager, Databases, phpMyAdmin, FTP, and SSH within the Advanced tab.
You can create new databases, modify databases, add MySQL users, and so on.
Using phpMyAdmin, you can handle the administration of MySQL over the Web.
Within FTP, you can create new accounts or manage the existing ones.
And finally, SSH allows you secure file transfer and remote logins over the internet.
Before wrapping up this section, I would also like to mention the remaining activities you can access from the top right corner. Here, you can find and manage your Profile, Billing, Products, Security, Web Pro Access, Validation Token, Or Log Out.
On the left (next to your account), you can also find options to shop, notifications, and get help. And that’s all you need to know about Bluehost VPS’s Client Area.
Performance, Speed, and Uptime
Bluehost utilizes open-source technology, such as OpenStack and KVM, accounting for a powerful and easy-to-use VPS. The provider builds the servers using state-of-the-art components, meaning you can expect breakthrough speed.
See, Virtual Private Servers, by themselves, improve the site performance due to the guaranteed resources. As a user, you won’t be sharing the high-performing components. In other words, you can expect your website to perform at optimal levels at all times. However, Bluehost can guarantee that your resources be available round-the-clock due to its implementation of the KVM hypervisor.
Better yet, Bluehost has shown itself as a superior provider in practice. When I say it’s a dependable provider, I mean it. First, it comes with an excellent uptime guarantee of 99.98%, which is pretty rare in the web hosting industry. It translates to approximately an hour and 45 minutes of downtime annually.
The provider also provides for full SSD storage and dynamic resources, meaning you can add additional storage on the fly. There are also no limits regarding the amount of traffic your VPS websites can receive, as long as your site complies with Bluehost’s Acceptable Use Policy.
Within the cPanel, you can also find the Cloudflare Premium as an available add-on.
Yet another thing worthy of mention (which I especially like) is Bluehost’s instant provisioning. Most VPS solutions take hours or days to activate. I have so much experience with such companies, and I have got to say, it’s frustrating. On the other hand, Bluehost designed its VPS servers to provision immediately, or the very second a user might need it.
At last, Bluehost VPS uses cloud technology so that all of its services also provide automated migrations. As an existing user, you can easily upgrade to VPS or dedicated servers without any delay.
Bluehost VPS Customer Support
Fast forward, Bluehost is one of the few providers that managed to truly impress me.
All customer support agents (or at least the few ones I interacted with) are super friendly and highly experienced in their respective fields. The provider offers 24/7 technical support via live chat, phone, or email.
Furthermore, you can benefit from Bluehost’s Resource Center, Knowledge Base, and Blog.
To check Bluehost’s responsiveness, I will contact them as a new customer.
As you can see, I received instant support.
The agent was also very quick to respond to my question.
I went on with the questions to check her expertise and responsiveness.
I am safe to say now, Bluehost stands true to its promise for 24/7 expert support, even for new customers. The agent responded to my quests in seconds without hesitation. She further elaborated on the fully managed/unmanaged question, even though it was a tricky question.
The agent even offered to help me get set up. So, you can rest assured with Bluehost, you will not experience any issues.
Security and Backups
Like with the speed and performance, VPS by itself is more secure than shared hosting. As a user, you will not be sharing your resources, including the disk space, CPU, RAM, and operating system (OS). But that’s not where it ends with Bluehost. As explained before, one interesting security feature is Bluehost’s Access Control.
You can also expect a free Let’s Encrypt SSL in all three VPS plans. Bluehost offers Cogeguard Basic, Single Domain SSL, and SiteLock Security – Essential as available add-ons during purchase.
Other available security add-ons within the cPanel are SiteLock and SiteLock 911, Jetpack, and Jetpack Backup, Domain Privacy + Protection, CodeGuard, Dedicated IP, and SpamExperts.
Furthermore, you can find SSH Access, IP Blocker, SSL/TLS, Manage API Tokens, Hotlink Protection, and Leech Protection within Security in the cPanel.
Specific Features of Bluehost VPS
Let’s sum it all up. What makes Bluehost VPS a superior choice?
- A Single Easy-To-Use VPS Dashboard
- Full SSD Storage (Solid State Drives)
- Dedicated Power
- Host Unlimited Domains And Websites
- Unlimited Bandwidth
- Full Root Access
- Superior Speed, Performance, And Security
- Server Monitoring Without The Need For Extra Maintenance
- 1 Free Microsoft 365 Mailbox
- 24/7 VPS Support
Pros and Cons of Bluehost VPS
Pros:
- Easy To Use And Navigate
- Incredible Set Of Features And Add-Ons
- Lots Of Freebies (SSL Certificate, Domain Name)
- Fast Website Performance (SSD Storage)
- Solid Security And Backups
- Incredible Customer Support
Cons:
- No Fully Managed VPS
- No Windows Support (Only Linux)
- No Free Backups
Summary
Bluehost certainly has a lot to offer. If you are on the market looking for an unmanaged VPS, you might as well get this one. I like this option since it comes with 24/7 customer support. See, almost all web hosting companies offer this benefit. But it’s really rare to see such a committed team available for assistance at all times.
Bluehost VPS comes with a remarkable set of features, including full root access, access control, multi-server management, unlimited domains, websites, bandwidth, free SSL, SSDs, and so on. Furthermore, you can benefit from a broad set of paid add-ons, including WordPress themes and plugins, security and backup add-ons, speed-enhancing features, etc. So, I have no complaints regarding their offers.
The only limitations with Bluehost VPS plans are the lack of Windows support and fully managed plans. So, if you are truly set on each of these two, you might as well look elsewhere.
