Bluehost Review: Compare Bluehost Web Hosting Plan Features

Bluehost web hosting has been on the internet since 1996.  It was rated as the second best web hosting company by cnet in 2005 and continues to rank in the top 5 best hosting provider in recent years. Its owner and president, Matt Heaton, is one of the early adopters of internet commerce and internet service provision.  He was one of the original web geeks who helped to provide free web hosting for anyone and everyone who wanted to get on the internet.  As a matter of fact, the domain 0catch.com was his creation many years ago.  The domain still continues to be one of the largest and most respectable free domain site on the web.

When so many people were coming to 0catch.com to obtain free hosting, Matt decided that the experience that he had learned from support of 0catch.com could be applied to a real business.  He eventually created Bluehost to support the same type of people who needed web hosting at a fair price and with great support.  He realized that many of the individuals that he supported were not technically savvy.  And many of them would prefer not to deal with the nuances of the everyday maintenance of a site.  So the whole premise behind Bluehost was to provide great technical support for individuals who wanted to have a presence on the internet.  The company has grown many folds since its inception and now supports not just individual webmasters but small to medium companies, as well.

Unlike its competitors, Bluehost offers only one web hosting plan (the professional web hosting plan), so that it can streamline its process and focus on customer support.  For the cost of $6.95 per month for the professional hosting plan, Bluehost includes unlimited disk space, unlimited file transfer bandwidth, unlimited number of domain hosting, over 2500 POP email accounts, free site building software, and an unparalleled technical support staff that is available live 24/7. This plan is truly the best hosting plan available in the industry. Visit the newsmonster.org website to find a more detailed list of Bluehost features and thorough technical review of Bluehost web hosting.

Bluehost Web Hosting Plan

The following is a list of features on the professional hosting plan that set Bluehost apart from other web hosting providers:

Script Security -- The user group permissions running for an individual script will reveal how secure that particular server really is.  Ideally, you want your server to use user based permissions to keep hacking attempts to a minimum.  Bluehost's scripts run using user based permissions, which means your scripts and files are as secure as Linux itself.

Environment -- The server environment is key to having an efficient and smooth running website.  Security is also key here, as many operating systems are sluggish and/or allow for insecure operation and hacking attempts. CentOS4 - Apache/1.3.37 (Unix) mod_fastcgi/2.4.2 mod_auth_passthrough/1.8 mod_log_bytes/1.2 mod_bwlimited/1.4 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635.SR1.2 mod_ssl/2.8.28 OpenSSL/0.9.7a PHP-CGI/0.1b. PHP/5.1.6

SSH Access -- Secure Shell (SSH) is a command line level of access to the server.  It's uses stretch past the standard control panel, and allow a special level of access to databases, Python interpreters, and much much more.  This extra level of access makes many hosts skittish, and most won't take the extra precautions necessary to offer the service. Bluehost offers SSH free of charge on all accounts.

Memory -- As with processing power, a server's memory is critical to the performance of your website.  The lower the memory, the less the server can handle.

Dedicated IP -- Being able to lease a dedicated server and thus a dedicated IP address has many benefits to the small business client.  First of all, search engines monitor the number of domains that share the same IP address.  Therefore, a client who uses a shared hosting service will timeshare the IP with many other customers on the same server.  Because the rankings that the search engines assign to a website and/or webpage also depends on the IP address,  it is better to have a dedicated IP whenever possible.   Furthermore, website functions such as remote databasing, payment processing, and many other functions will perform better on a dedicated server.  Lastly, if you are to use eCommerce applications on your website and require Private SSL, you will need a Dedicated IP address.  Privat SSL can only be installed on a dedicated server. Other web hosting companies charge upwards of $179 per month for a dedicated server service. However, a Dedicated IP from Bluehost  is just $30/year.

Backup & Restore -- Your data is the one thing that's specific to you on the internet. It's value can be incalculable, and losing any portion can be catastrophic. However, most web hosts will actually charge you to restore your own data, whether or not it's your fault the data was lost in the first place. This provides an extra dime, but is absolutely ridiculous from our principled standpoint.  Bluehost does not charge any fee for restoring backups. What's more, backups are taken and kept daily, weekly, and monthly for maximum protection against data loss.

Registrar -- You pay a yearly fee to hold on to your domain name. You should also have the ability to modify and control it as you please. Every web host has a registrar, but not all registrars are created equal. Many do not give you the control or access you need to do what you want with your site. Bluehost utilizes FastDomain to register and control domain names, a company that Bluehost created to offer superior control and service. Additional domains are $10/year. Domain Privacy is offered free of charge.

To find unbiased reviews on Bluehost web hosting visit the Bluehost web hosting review site.  The website may also have information on bluehost signup discounts as well.  You will also find reviews of other top hosting providers at this site.

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