BlueHost Review

Domain Services

Bluehost offers a huge range of domain services. They offer free domain set up and will give you a free domain (for 1 year) with their shared web hosting plan. Bluehost will also submit your site to search engines. If you’re in need of hosting multiple sites, they allow you an unlimited number of domains. Additionally, Bluehost provides domain transfers. They will typically only set up a transfer account, and leave the data transfer up to you, but they will transfer the entire data of your site upon request. Bluehost cannot transfer expired domains.
If you are in need of a domain hosting company that can host international domains, Bluehost is a viable option. Although they can’t register international domains (they can only register the following domain extensions: .com .net .org .us .biz and .info), they will host any international domain that you point to their servers. Bluehost also provides step-by-step instructions on how to change the DNS of your domain on their site. Additionally, Bluehost lets clients create add-on domains with their accounts. An add-on domain allows you to have an additional website on your account that shares the domain space, and appears as a separate website from your primary domain.
In the same vein, Bluehost also allows parked domains. A parked domain is similar to an add-on domain, in that you have more than one domain. However, from a visitor’s perspective, visiting a parked domain feels just as though they’re visiting your main site (e.g. cars.net automatically redirects you to cars.com). Clients can also create subdomains with Bluehost, or opt to host just a subdomain.
Bluehost also offers dedicated IP addresses, which are popular with more advanced websites because they provide a secure interaction with visitors and allow sites to run more sophisticated scripts like DadaMail and Ventrilo. And we can’t forget to mention the Domain Privacy service offered by Bluehost, which for an additional fee, provides anonymity of the site owner, since only BlueHost.com is listed as the site owner.

Domain Extras

In addition to providing everything you need to successfully get your domain registered and up and running, Bluehost provides unlimited bandwidth and disk space. They also offer tools to assist with creating and hosting your website. Bluehost occasionally offers free site templates, and for a one-time fee you can access over 3,000 site templates that you can download. These templates include both Flash and PowerPoint templates.
Bluehost also offers two different site builders, including the PageBuilder drag-and-drop site builder. Here you can access several CGI scripts; many of them are free 1-click installs, and some of the scripts include Fantastico, Joomla, Magento, Python, PHP 5, Shockwave Ssupport, Agora Shopping Cart, PHP, Ruby, Perl and 50 MYSQL databases. Bluehost doesn’t allow SSH shell access by default, but they will enable shell access for your account if you fax them a copy of your I.D. Another cool feature of Bluehost is their multimedia features, where they offer streaming video and audio support, MIDI file support and custom MIME types.
The cPanel in Bluehost gives you a myriad of features and options related to your account, all neatly organized with colorful icons and divided into sections. This area is also where you can check-in on your site’s latest traffic statistics and use the web-based file manager, which allows you to complete a variety of tasks, including backing up you sites and managing your FTP accounts. The cPanel also includes an entire “Domains” section where clients can find links to common domain tasks, including the DNS Zone Editor, as well as information on your subdomains, parked domains and redirects. Bluehost also offers image galleries.
When you sign up for an account with Bluehost, you receive $75 worth of free advertising credits, which includes credits with Yahoo, Google, Miva and Ask. We also love that you can create an unlimited number of email accounts for each domain. Clients can create new email addresses within the cPanel, and all email addresses come with Spam Assassin protection.
Bluehost provides a 99.8% uptime guarantee on all sites. Their facilities, based in Utah, include a 50,000 square foot building and two secondary data centers locations that total over 20,000 square feet of data center space. They back up their power with UPS power and diesel generators, and have multiple 10 gigabit fiber connections to locations worldwide.

Customer Service

One of the most impressive features of Bluehost is their consistently top-rated customer service, which includes some of the best 24/7 phone support around. Their Help Center includes their sophisticated support ticket system for handling questions via email, and they also offer a live chat option. On their website you'll find their knowledgebase, terms of service and a user forum. And if you have any qualms about their service before committing long-term, Bluehost offers an anytime money back guarantee, even after their stated 30-day guarantee.
For further insight into their company, Bluehost also has a blog penned by their founder, and they share customer testimonials on their site. They also have a collection of over 60 video tutorials covering a broad range of subjects to help you with any questions you may have. Some of their videos include step-by-step guides outlining common tasks for new customers, such as how-to transfer a domain, redirecting web pages, purchasing an additional domain and to how-to use their Legacy file manager.