Review
Bluehost review
Buy Bluehost for the renewal rate, which at $9.99 is the lowest of any mainstream shared host — then be careful at checkout and do not rely on its backups.
This review sticks to things you can check: published prices, contract terms, and what the refund, backup and migration policies say in writing. We do not publish speed benchmarks, because a single test on shared hosting measures which neighbour was busy that afternoon. Our full methodology is here.
Plans and what they really cost
| Host & plan | Intro price | Renews at | Promo term | 4-year true cost | Resources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BluehostStarter | $3.99/mo | $9.99/mo+150% | 36 mo | $264 | 10 GB NVMe10 sites |
| BluehostBusiness | $6.99/mo | $13.99/mo+100% | 36 mo | $420 | 50 GB NVMe50 sites |
Intro prices require paying the full promo term upfront. “4-year true cost” is the promo term at the intro rate plus the remaining months at the renewal rate — the number the pricing page does not show you. Verified September 2026. See the screenshots these figures were read from.
The cheapest Bluehost plan to own for four years is Starter at about $264 — intro rate for the promotional term, renewal rate thereafter.
Check current Bluehost pricing
Verdict
- $9.99 renewal on Starter is the lowest mainstream shared rate we track
- cPanel, which is familiar and portable if you leave
- Ten sites on the entry plan
- Smallest gap between intro and renewal price of the three
- Backups are weekly, overwritten, disclaimed as a courtesy, and cost a fee to restore
- Free staff migration is not free — it is $149.99 per site
- The free domain is clawed back at its regular $23.99 rate if you take a refund
- Persistent upsells during signup
- No datacenter choice on shared plans
The fine print
This is the part that decides whether you are happy in year two.
| Owner | Owned by Newfold Digital, a private-equity-backed group (Clearlake Capital and Siris Capital) that also owns HostGator, Network Solutions, Domain.com and Yoast. |
| Control panel | cPanel, reached through Bluehost’s own account portal. |
| Support | 24/7 live chat and help centre. Phone is not 24/7 — 7am to midnight EST. |
| Backups | Weekly, on a random day, overwriting the previous backup. Bluehost describes them as a courtesy and disclaims liability for your data. Restoring one incurs a fee. |
| Migration | A free self-service WordPress migration tool, which Bluehost’s own documentation says has “a success rate of at least 85%”. If it fails, staff migration costs $149.99 per site. |
| Refund window | 30 days on Shared, VPS and Dedicated. Cloud hosting and monthly terms are excluded. If your plan included a free domain, Bluehost deducts the domain’s regular cost from your refund — $23.99 for a .com, not the $12.99 signup rate. |
| Free domain | Free for one year; .com renews at $23.99/yr. Domain privacy $15. New domains cannot be transferred away for 60 days. |
| Datacenters | Region choice is offered on VPS and Dedicated plans. It is not part of the shared hosting signup. |
What the AI features actually include
All three shared plans list “AI Site Creation Tools”. That is the entire description. Bluehost’s pricing page does not say what the tools are, what they can do, or whether usage is capped — the feature appears in the comparison chart with no elaboration.
Worth separating from the hosting plans: Bluehost also sells an “AI All Access” bundle — ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Grok — at $20.00/mo. That is a paid add-on, not something the shared plans include, and it is easy to conflate the two when scanning the page.
Of the hosts on this site, Bluehost discloses the least about what its AI inclusion actually amounts to. That is not evidence it is bad; it is an absence of evidence either way, which is its own problem when you are comparing plans on a feature list.
Providers advertise these inclusions without publishing the limits. Specifically: whether Hostinger’s 5 and 15 hosting-plan credits are monthly or one-time; how many free AI tokens each SiteGround plan includes; and what Bluehost’s “AI Site Creation Tools” contains or caps. We have left these unconfirmed rather than guessing. AI terms change faster than prices — this section was checked against provider documentation on 20 September 2026.
Who should buy it
Buy Bluehost for the renewal rate, which at $9.99 is the lowest of any mainstream shared host — then be careful at checkout and do not rely on its backups.
Compare it directly
Bluehost vs Hostinger
Side by side on four-year cost, backups, support and the fine print.
Read the comparison →Bluehost vs SiteGround
Side by side on four-year cost, backups, support and the fine print.
Read the comparison →Bluehost Starter vs Business
Which tier of Bluehost to buy: cost after renewal, and the features that actually differ.
Read the guide →Related questions
- Does Bluehost charge to restore a backup?
- Does Bluehost refund the free domain?
- Is Bluehost's free migration actually free?
- Is 10 GB of hosting storage enough for a WordPress site?
- How do I avoid the hosting renewal price increase?
- How do I cancel Bluehost and get a refund?
- Can I transfer my domain away from Bluehost?
All hosting questions, answered →
Sources
Every factual claim on this page is checkable on the provider’s own site. Prices and policies were verified September 2026 and change without notice.