WordPress.org has recommended Bluehost since 2005. We spent 12 months and $144 to find out if that recommendation still holds up. The short version: the onboarding is great, everything else is average.
BestWebHostingUSA Editorial Team
12-month hands-on testing
Bluehost is the hosting equivalent of a chain restaurant recognizable, predictable, and fine if you don't know what else is available. The WordPress setup wizard is genuinely the best we've tested. After that, the experience is mediocre: slow servers, a dashboard cluttered with upsells, paid backups, and a renewal price that jumps from $3.99 to $9.99.
We can't recommend Bluehost when Hostinger is faster and cheaper at renewal, InterServer is half the price with no renewal increase, and SiteGround is faster with better support.
Bluehost has been on WordPress.org's recommended hosting page since 2005. This carries enormous weight with beginners if WordPress itself recommends it, it must be good, right?
The reality is more nuanced. The WordPress.org hosting page is a paid partnership. Bluehost pays for the placement. This doesn't mean Bluehost is bad they meet WordPress.org's technical requirements (PHP 7.4+, MySQL 5.7+, HTTPS). But it's not an independent editorial recommendation based on testing.
For context: WordPress.org also recommends DreamHost and SiteGround. SiteGround is genuinely excellent. DreamHost is decent. The recommendation bar is "meets minimum requirements and pays for the listing" not "best WordPress host available."
| Plan | Intro (36mo) | Renewal | Increase | Storage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $3.99 | $9.99 | 150% | 10GB SSD |
| Choice Plus | $5.45 | $19.99 | 267% | 40GB SSD |
| Online Store | $9.95 | $24.99 | 151% | 40GB SSD |
| Pro | $13.95 | $28.99 | 108% | 100GB SSD |
That $3.99/mo "deal" becomes $11.97/mo if you don't uncheck the add-ons at checkout. And at renewal, the base plan alone is $9.99/mo close to Cloudways' managed cloud hosting ($14/mo).
We need to talk about Bluehost's checkout. It's designed to maximize add-on revenue, and it works on people who don't know better.
Step 1: Plan Selection
Fine. Clear pricing, easy to pick a plan.
Step 2: Domain
Fine. Free domain included, or bring your own.
Step 3: Account Info
Fine. Standard form.
Step 4: Package Extras
Here's where it gets ugly. Four add-ons are PRE-CHECKED: SiteLock ($2.99/mo), CodeGuard ($2.99/mo), Bluehost SEO Tools ($1.99/mo), and Domain Privacy ($2.99/yr). That's $8/mo in extras you didn't ask for.
Step 5: Payment
The total shown includes the pre-checked add-ons. If you're not paying attention, you'll pay 3x what you expected.
This is a dark pattern. Pre-checking paid add-ons that most users don't need is designed to extract money from inattentive buyers. SiteGround, Hostinger, and InterServer don't do this. It's the single biggest reason we hesitate to recommend Bluehost.
Standard WordPress test site (Astra theme, 5 plugins, 15 posts with images) on Bluehost Basic plan, measured monthly.
Avg Load Time
1.35s
Grade: C+
TTFB
380ms
Grade: C
Uptime (12mo)
99.93%
Grade: B
Under Load (100)
2.1s
Grade: D+
| Month | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Jan | Feb |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Load (s) | 1.28 | 1.32 | 1.4 | 1.45 | 1.52 | 1.38 | 1.3 | 1.25 | 1.32 | 1.28 | 1.35 | 1.3 |
| Uptime % | 99.95 | 99.92 | 99.9 | 99.88 | 99.85 | 99.93 | 99.97 | 99.98 | 99.95 | 99.93 | 99.95 | 99.96 |
The summer months (Jun-Jul) showed noticeable degradation likely shared server overcrowding during peak season. 99.85% uptime in July means over an hour of downtime. Not catastrophic, but SiteGround and Hostinger stayed above 99.93% all year.
Credit where it's due: Bluehost's WordPress onboarding is the best in the industry. The guided wizard walks you through theme selection, plugin installation, and basic configuration. A complete beginner can have a functional WordPress site in 10 minutes.
Account Overview
Setup Wizard
Best in class. Step-by-step with visual previews. Installs recommended plugins automatically.
Dashboard
Custom Bluehost dashboard wraps around WordPress admin. Adds a "Bluehost" menu with hosting controls. Functional but cluttered with upgrade prompts.
cPanel Access
Available but hidden. Bluehost pushes their custom interface; cPanel is accessible through a link in account settings.
Staging
Available on Choice Plus and Pro plans only. Not on Basic a significant omission for a WordPress-focused host.
Auto-Updates
WordPress core auto-updates enabled by default. Plugin/theme updates are manual.
We filed 7 support tickets. Results were inconsistent great for simple questions, frustrating for anything technical.
| Ticket | Wait | Resolved? | Quality |
|---|---|---|---|
| How to access cPanel | 5 min | ✅ | Good |
| DNS setup question | 8 min | ✅ | Good |
| SSL not working | 12 min | ✅ | Adequate |
| WordPress white screen | 25 min | ✅ | Adequate |
| Slow site investigation | 40 min | ⚠️ Generic | Poor |
| Remove pre-installed plugins | 6 min | ✅ | Good |
| Email deliverability issue | 55 min | ⚠️ Escalated | Poor |
The "slow site investigation" ticket was particularly disappointing. After 40 minutes, the agent suggested clearing browser cache and disabling plugins the same generic advice you'd find in any Google search. No server-side investigation, no performance analysis. Compare this to SiteGround, where agents actually check server logs and identify specific bottlenecks.
Charging $2.99/mo for backups in 2026 is indefensible. SiteGround includes daily backups free. InterServer includes weekly backups free. Hostinger includes weekly backups free. Even GoDaddy's backup add-on is cheaper. Install UpdraftPlus and back up to Google Drive it's free and more reliable.
The setup wizard is genuinely excellent. Theme preview, plugin selection, and configuration in one guided flow. No other host does this as well.
The endorsement carries trust, especially with beginners. It's a paid partnership, but the technical requirements are real.
Free .com domain with annual plans. Standard in the industry but still a nice inclusion.
One of the few hosts offering phone support alongside chat. Useful for non-technical users.
$3.99 → $9.99. At renewal, you're paying shared hosting prices for below-average shared hosting performance.
Four paid add-ons pre-checked at checkout. Dark pattern that adds $8/mo if you miss them.
CodeGuard is $2.99/mo. Every major competitor includes backups free. This is a dealbreaker.
1.35s load, 380ms TTFB. Slower than Hostinger, SiteGround, and InterServer all cheaper hosts.
Uptime dropped to 99.85% in July. Shared servers get overcrowded during peak months.
The custom Bluehost dashboard adds upgrade prompts and add-on suggestions throughout the WordPress admin.
In 2010, Endurance International Group (now Newfold Digital) acquired Bluehost. At the time, Bluehost was a genuinely independent host with a reputation for solid WordPress performance and responsive support staffed by people who knew Linux. The acquisition changed everything — not overnight, but steadily over the next decade.
The first thing that changed was support. EIG consolidated call centers and standardized scripts across its portfolio of 60+ hosting brands. Bluehost agents went from being WordPress-knowledgeable technicians to generalists reading from flowcharts. Response times increased. First-call resolution rates dropped. The forums filled with complaints from longtime users who noticed the shift.
Then came the upsells. Pre-EIG Bluehost had a clean checkout. Post-EIG, the signup process became a minefield of pre-checked add-ons: SiteLock security ($2.99/mo), CodeGuard backups ($2.99/mo), SEO Tools ($1.99/mo), Domain Privacy ($2.99/yr). A $2.95/mo plan could easily become $12/mo if you didn't uncheck everything. The add-ons themselves were rebranded white-label products pushed across all EIG brands.
The infrastructure also consolidated. Bluehost, HostGator, and other EIG brands began sharing data centers and hardware. Performance differences between EIG brands narrowed to near zero — because they were essentially the same product with different logos. Independent speed tests confirmed what users suspected: Bluehost's performance advantage over HostGator was statistically insignificant.
To be fair, Newfold Digital has made improvements since 2022. The WordPress onboarding wizard is genuinely excellent. The custom dashboard is cleaner than old cPanel. But the DNA of the company shifted from "build the best hosting product" to "maximize revenue per customer." That philosophy permeates every interaction.
Bluehost still works. Millions of sites run on it without catastrophic issues. But "it works" is a low bar, and there are specific areas where the product actively disserves its users.
Bluehost has been "recommended by WordPress.org" since 2005. That recommendation is a paid partnership, not an independent editorial judgment. The technical requirements to qualify are minimal — PHP 7.4+, MySQL 5.7+, HTTPS support — which every host on the market meets. SiteGround is also recommended and delivers measurably better performance. The badge gives Bluehost an aura of official endorsement that hasn't been re-evaluated against modern competitors. New users see "recommended by WordPress" and assume it means "the best for WordPress." It doesn't. It means "meets minimum requirements and pays for the placement."
The checkout process includes multiple pre-checked add-ons that most users don't need. Domain Privacy, SiteLock, CodeGuard, and SEO Tools can add $10+/mo to what you thought was a $2.95 plan. The post-purchase experience continues this pattern — dashboard notifications push upgrades, email campaigns promote add-ons, and the "recommended" settings during WordPress setup favor paid tools over free alternatives. Each individual upsell is small. The cumulative effect is a hosting experience that feels like it's constantly trying to extract more money from you rather than helping you build a website.
We've tested Bluehost support quarterly since 2023. Average chat wait times have increased from 8 minutes to 18 minutes. Phone support averages 25+ minutes on hold. More critically, first-contact resolution has dropped — agents frequently escalate WordPress-specific questions rather than resolving them. Compare this to SiteGround's 2-3 minute response with WordPress-trained agents, or even Hostinger's improved 5-minute average. Bluehost's support was once a selling point. It's now a liability.
Bluehost gets a 3.5/5. The WordPress onboarding wizard is genuinely best-in-class, and the brand recognition provides comfort for beginners. But the 150% renewal increase, pre-checked upsells, paid backups, and below-average performance make it impossible to recommend over the competition. For beginners: Hostinger. For value: InterServer. For quality: SiteGround.
Affiliate Disclosure: Some links on this page are affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend services we have personally tested. Learn more.