Bluehost was the only host to recommend WordPress.org for a long time and you might be aware why. Being the largest web hosting provider in the world, it has over a decade of experience in the web hosting industry. Though there were some controversies in the past, the company still has a good reputation among the newbies – as seen from the 2016 WordPress hosting survey by codeinwp – but now its ratings are going down.
Let’s take a look at the survey about WordPress hosting concerning Bluehost:
Image Credit: www.codeinwp.com
- In the survey, Bluehost was ranked as one of the worst hosts from among other providers in terms of WordPress optimization and only managed to beat HostGator.
- When it came to WordPress-specific knowledge, support was found to lacking behind.
- Also, in terms of customer satisfaction in relation to cost, Bluehost received the worst rating when compared with other hosts.
- Lastly, when reliability was considered, it was almost dead but somehow managed to beat out DigitalOcean on user-friendliness.
This information is enough to say, Bluehost ranked as the lowest performer in the survey, which gives rise to an interesting question: How did it remain so popular when several users of it are dissatisfied? You may find the answer to this in its popular affiliate program which paid out a bulky $5 million last year alone to its affiliates. They charged $65 per referral which comes out to roughly 77,000 new customers who found a new way to earn money via Bluehost’s paid recommendations.
Moreover, as the service is so popular among the first-time users, it indicates that a good portion of them aren’t known to what makes up a good hosting provider. Even if they do, website migration can be a tough business and it might discourage unsatisfied customers from actively looking for Bluehost alternatives.
But regardless of its downfalls, Bluehost offers solid security features and array of integrations with third-party apps. Keeping this in mind, let’s check for the alternatives:
MilesWeb
MilesWeb was founded in 2012 and is based in Nashik, Maharashtra, India. They offer array of web hosting services and also run affiliate marketing program. Though they don’t pay hefty amounts to their referrals, but many of them have earned good profit with their affiliate program.
MilesWeb ranks as one of the top Bluehost WordPress hosting alternatives for all types of businesses. They are the strategic partners of Jetpack and proud promoter of WordPress in India. Their cheap WordPress hosting India plans are managed and include all the features as compared to other providers when functionality comes into picture.
Their WordPress plans display real features without making any promise of unlimited resources or traffic. For example, their cheapest plan – Ace – is recommended for approximately 500 visits per month, and comes with 1GB SSD storage.
Pricing
They offer two types of WordPress plans – WordPress Hosting + Jetpack Free and WordPress Hosting + Jetpack Professional. Check below for more details:
They offer two types of WordPress plans – WordPress Hosting + Jetpack Free and WordPress Hosting + Jetpack Professional. Check below for more details:
Features
- Fast loading speed due to LiteSpeed server caching and SSD hardware.
- Automated upgrades related to critical WordPress platform and core plugins.
- Cloudflare Railgun for faster connection between your web hosting server and the Cloudflare CDN.
- Control panel to monitor features such as security scanning, backups, brute force attack protection, spam filtering, spam protection, downtime monitoring, etc.
- Host one website with every plan.
- Cloning allows you to create a complete copy of your WordPress site with all website database, files and settings.
- A free SSL certificate.
- Dedicated WordPress support 24*7.
- 99.95% uptime guarantee.
- 30 day money back guarantee.
When to use MilesWeb
Are you looking for a stable service that can handle the unique needs of your WordPress website? Then MilesWeb is one of the best Indian hosting services for all – right from newbies to professionals. MilesWeb offers reasonable prices, a world-class support service, fast loading speed and fantastic features for WordPress users.
DreamHost
Started in 1996, DreamHost has a good experience in web hosting industry. The company offers all types of hosting services and also is a domain name registrar. You can rely on them for the best uptime and load time. They offer 97 day money back guarantee only on their shared hosting plans and not on other plans such as WordPress, dedicated or VPS hosting.
Officially recommended by WordPress.org, DreamHost is the second best alternative to Bluehost WordPress hosting. Their in-house built customer support which helps to resolve the client issues via email, Twitter, and live chat. Thanks to their customized control panel that makes account management easy.
Features
- Fast loading speed due to Memcached, Varnish, OPcache, etc. server caching and SSD hardware.
- Automated WordPress and security updates to protect you from the newly discovered vulnerabilities.
- Control panel that gives you flexibility to build the features and functionality that make WordPress management easy.
- A free domain with every plan.
- 1-Click SSL Certificate
- Dedicated WordPress support 24*7.
- 99.9% uptime guarantee.
- 30 day money back guarantee.
Pricing
DreamHost offers two types of WordPress hosting plans – Shared Starter and DreamPress.
When to use DreamHost
It is a great option for those who are looking for green hosting. Also, you get a generous 2 weeks free trial during which you can test and get used with the platform. DreamHost offers good uptime, high-quality support, free trial period and several features to take off your WordPress website.
A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting is the third alternative to Bluehost and has been around since 2003. Popular for their high-performance and speedy hosting with Turbo servers, they are one of the best choices for novice as well as experienced users. One of the most reliable web hosting providers, A2 hosting offers top-quality developer tools, reliable uptime, and customer satisfaction.
A2 Hosting’s WordPress hosting reflects several of the top providers in the space, with unlimited storage and bandwidth, solid-state drives, and a highly optimized platform available at affordable rates.
The lowest priced plan of A2 Hosting is the Lite plan starts at Rs. 280.92, offering one website to host and five databases while the other options remove the restrictions.
Features
- SSD Drives to enhance speed and performance.
- CloudFlare CDN improves site loading time.
- Multiple back-ups.
- Unlimited storage and data transfer.
- UnlimitedWebsites except on Lite plan.
- FreeSSL & SSD.
- Dedicated WordPress support 24*7.
- 99.9% uptime guarantee.
- Anytime money back guarantee.
Pricing
They offer four types of WordPress hosting plans – Lite, Swift, Turbo and Managed.
When to use A2 Hosting?
If you are looking for high speed performance and need a reliable and helpful web host, you should opt for A2 Hosting. They also offer green web hosting, stable uptime, free site migration and compatibility with other CMSs.
Summing it up…
With consideration of all things, Bluehost offers a decent service to WordPress users. It’s stable, moderately prices and includes many additional features. However, it downslides in terms of quality of service in comparison to many of the Bluehost alternatives – so, it’s definitely appealing to revisit other options.
But it can be seen that DreamHost lacks in offering customer support via phone which is the fastest mode of customer support. Also, they don’t offer LiteSpeed server cache which helps in offering great performance as well as Jetpack license on all plans. With A2 Hosting, they don’t offer Jetpack license on all their plans and their pricing is also too high.
Whereas MilesWeb offers customer support via live chat, email and phone. Additionally, they offer LiteSpeed server cache as well as Jetpack license on all their WordPress plans. Since they are proud promoter of WordPress, they are well-known to the needs of WordPress users and so, it would be worth going with them.