In the past, I spent a lot of time investigating hosting companies. I used Lunarpages for many years and was fairly happy with their hosting. I even got some of my family and friends to use them. Then my needs changed and Lunarpages could not support the type of sites I was developing, so I opened an account with Eapps.com.
Eapps.com is a good hosting company for my java web applications, but recently I found myself building more WordPress site. Their service left some things to be desired when it comes to WordPress sites. So I decided to look for a good hosting company to host my WordPress sites.
There were five main criteria that I was looking to meet; good uptime, one click WordPress install, unlimited domains and storage, good email software, and good customer support. I initially tried to go back to Lunarpages, but I found two problems with them. First, their customer support seems to have deteriorated some. The second, they dropped support for one click installs of WordPress.
So I went out looking for another host. My hunt led me to Bluehost.com. I first notice them because there were a lot of people talking about how happy they with the service. What I found amazed me. Every time I contacted them they responded quickly and intelligently. Many of the other companies I talked to gave me the runaround or could not really answer my questions. I don’t mean this to say that there are no other good companies out there. I believe there are, but not in the price range that Bluehost offers.
Here are the top 5 reasons I switched:
1. One click WordPress install. All I have to do is fill out a simple form and click install. The rest is done for me. Before this I would have to spend well over two hours to get a WordPress site up, and I am a software developer.
2. Really good up time. One thing you don’t want to worry about is your site being down in the middle of a traffic surge.
3. Unlimited domains and storage. I own a bunch of sites and I plan on creating a bunch more. I like being able to put all of them is the same spot.
4. Good email software. I have had some problems in the past with my emails being delivered and being able to access the emails through the hosting companies website. Bluehost gives three different options and has several different spam check services that you can subscribe to.
5. Good customer service. Although I have not had any down time with Bluehost, I have made a few errors that I needed support to help me with. They were very prompt and helped me resolve my issues fast.
6. Bonus: Bluehost offers the first year of domain name registration for free.
What others are saying
“Price is good, service is stellar” – Christine
“This is without a doubt the best hosting provider out there” – Jeff
I don’t know what your needs for web hosting, but I recommend you at least check Bluehost out. If you follow a link on this page to Bluehost and purchase, I will receive an affiliate commission. If you don’t want to follow my link, I still recommend you go to their site and check them out.
You could have done further research. Been to Bluehost for more than a year then left them. They’ve gone awry with service and downtime over the course of my stay. Not a very good choice.
Many people have different experiences with web hosting companies. Sometimes they are not so good. I have been using hosting companies since the late 1990’s. Although I have not experienced many companies out there, I have been with Bluehost for over a year and really like their service. I help maintain my brothers’ websites and have moved their websites to bluehost as well.