Are you happy with BlueHost? [Archive]

frodojrr

05-29-2007, 09:06 PM

I am inches away from opening an account with BlueHost. Would just like some feedback from current clients. My current host is a disaster. :mad:

But I hear wonderful things about BlueHost. While I'm not expecting the Promised Land of web hosts, I need a company that is reliable and trustworthy.

Why are people happy with BlueHost?

Gary Kopycinski
Editor & Publisher
eNews Park Forest
http://www.enewspf.com

Falcon4

05-29-2007, 10:42 PM

Reliable, yup.

Fast, yup.

Limitless, well... not quite. They don't lie about their limitations (**** near infinite storage and bandwidth). But they do limit one precious commodity: CPU time. So you can't run ****ed-up or crappy-coded scripts on Bluehost. I run a hosting site (hostfile.org) from my plain Bluehost account. I wrote it all from scratch though and I almost NEVER get the infamous "CPU exceeded" error, unless my site is being hammered, in which case I just kill the file at .htaccess level and my site rolls on happily.

There are a lot of n00bs on these forums complaining about various limitations or problems, or policies... like torrenting illegal software then complaining about getting caught... or running a totally screwed-up MySQL database and complaining about CPU errors. Or complaining that Bluehost doesn't hold their hand every step of the way. They won't. But at the same time, Bluehost's tech support isn't outsourced to Incomprehensia (err, India) either. You can talk to a real person with your problems. But be warned, these people have dealt with morons day-in and day-out so it's always fun to tell them "hey, I'm not a newb, I need this fixed".

I have to say, overall, I'm quite happy with Bluehost. Once you see the hardware their servers run (see Hostfile:AboutServer (http://hostfile.org/help.php?page=AboutServer)), you'll agree... it's a hell of a deal.

Oh, and if you don't yet have a referral link to give someone credit for the signup... I would love you forever because I really really really need the money! (http://www.bluehost.com/track/falcon4/lb) :D

charlesgan

05-30-2007, 01:47 AM

my blog hosted here is "so far so good"
this May 2007, noticed slow loading of website on 27/may (holiday)...
no other issue noticed. and the website is just OK. happy and sleep well at night.

other than that, can say the features offered by bluehost is the best in market. Company by live chat, and a friendly forum here :D

redsox9

05-30-2007, 04:50 AM

I've been very happy in the two-plus years that I've run my site through BlueHost. It's not perfect but, for $7/month, you can't beat what you get (space, features, tools, etc.). I came here on a recommendation from a friend and I happily recommend it to anyone I know that's looking to change hosts.

ctrlpgup

05-30-2007, 05:11 AM

We have been extremely happy with Blue Host (member since 2005), especially since thier server upgrades earlier this year. The only adjustment I would like to see is more tiered service where someone could pay a higher price and get more hand holding support and higher limits. I for one would be willing to pay the extra cost, especially since they are so cost effective/feature rich to begin with.

jah

05-30-2007, 07:02 AM

There are a lot of n00bs on these forums complaining about various limitations or problems, or policies... like torrenting illegal software then complaining about getting caught... or running a totally screwed-up MySQL database and complaining about CPU errors. Or complaining that Bluehost doesn't hold their hand every step of the way. They won't. But at the same time, Bluehost's tech support isn't outsourced to Incomprehensia (err, India) either. You can talk to a real person with your problems. But be warned, these people have dealt with morons day-in and day-out so it's always fun to tell them "hey, I'm not a newb, I need this fixed".
What you're saying is it's not easy just to use BH for hosting.

Most people who use shared hosting are what you'd call "n00bs." Most of us can't code. We know basic stuff and should be able to get by with fantastico install scripts.

You're saying the problem is with me when I get CPU error pages because I'm a "n00b" for not knowing how to code my own page.

frodojrr - I find that most people on BH get their site suspended an average of once a week (for me it was more like 5 times a day, but that's a long story) for so-called cpu use problems (on basic WordPress installs). And when people have problems like this, they're almost invariably treated rudely and told to deal with it (**** n00bs don't know what they're doing).

If you have no problem with that, go for it. BH is cheap, and lots of people use it. Just remember, you get what you pay for.

hofmax

05-30-2007, 07:11 AM

I haven't had a CPU problem once since I signed up 2 years ago. I can recommend bluehost and do so on my review site.

areidmtm

05-30-2007, 08:07 AM

Most of the time, CPU issues is with the users code. They install these pre-written "catch-all" types of code, which isn't necessarily indented for a shared hosting environment. You can however use these scripts, but you need to know what you're doing first. If you optimize your mysql queries and index your tables, you'll be fine. If you are unwilling to put in the work to make your site work like it's supposed to or are unwilling to play nicely in a shared environment, then you're better off going somewhere else or getting a dedicated server (Bluehost does not offer).

A lot of people will say that it's bluehost fault with CPU issues, but you have to realize that this is just a handful of people out of 285,000 customers that run insufficient code and then come here to complain about it, less than 1%.

But don't take our word for it. Bluehost has a 30 day full money back guarantee. If you decided that bluehost isn't going to work for you, then you can get your money back (less $10 for the domain, but you own the domain and can take it with you). After the 30 days you can at anytime get a pro-rated refund.

Also, please remember all that is said here is from other users of bluehost. This is a user to user forum and we're all normal users. Tech support or the admins do not come here.

jah

05-30-2007, 08:30 AM

borderline

05-30-2007, 09:02 AM

I just recommend that you keep your domain names separate from hosting and not buy domain names through your host (whatever host it might be).

why are you recommending separating domains from hosting? :confused:
I had my domain at yahoo and brought it here when I bought my hosting plan :o I hope I didn't make a mistake

areidmtm

05-30-2007, 09:07 AM

The only reason to keep domain separate from the host is because most hosts wont allow you to take the domain with you if you cancel. Bluehost registers the domain in your name so if you cancel you can take it with you, you paid for it and you own it. The only problem is that there is a 60-90 day waiting period before you can transfer it. This isn't a bluehost restriction, this is an ICANN restriction and is in place for every domain registrar.

jah

05-30-2007, 09:12 AM

Yeah. I just meant because it's easier to change hosts if you want to. Also, having them registered separately is often cheaper.

Hey areidmtm - if you change from BH to another and you have your domain names registered with BH, what happens when you cancel? Do you have to transfer them, or can you still access them with BH?

areidmtm

05-30-2007, 09:18 AM

Hey areidmtm - if you change from BH to another and you have your domain names registered with BH, what happens when you cancel? Do you have to transfer them, or can you still access them with BH?

Yes, if you cancel you can still have the domain registered at bluehost, it's actually fast domain, which is owned by the same owner as bluehost. Until the fast domain website is done, you will still use the domain manager or contact tech support if you need changes made.

Falcon4

05-30-2007, 09:35 AM

The only problem is that there is a 90 day waiting period before you can transfer it. This isn't a bluehost restriction, this is an ICANN restriction and is in place for every domain registrar.

I should DoS ICANN for the domains that restriction has caused people to lose to scammers and spammers. Me, personally, falconsys.net (which I now need for my business), and not personally, splintax.com. Both were in the process of being transferred when some scammer swooped in and stole the domains.

I hate ICANN.

edit: In fact, I've never seen a single domain that's made it out of that 90 day period alive...

jah

05-30-2007, 09:38 AM

Wait, what? How'd you lose the domains?

It's not hard to transfer the domain name from one to another registrar; it just costs $. How'd you lose yours?

Falcon4

05-30-2007, 09:46 AM

First, I couldn't afford to renew my domain with No-IP.com for another year (like 60-something bucks), so I wanted to transfer it to my friend's 1&1 domain manager for 10 bucks. We let it expire because it was too close to some asinine limitation-period to do a transfer, then we went to register it with 1&1. They couldn't do anything because it was in some 90 day "redemption period". At the end of those days, I lost it because some scammer registered it.

Splintax.com, evidently the domain expired on him because he didn't think anyone was going to use it, and he told the company to re-register it after the 90 days. They didn't, so guess what? Scammers bought it too.

All because of that wholly unnecessary 90 day thing, which on the internet is... years.

jah

05-30-2007, 09:50 AM

Oh, that 90 days. I thought you were talking about the 60 days before you can transfer rule.

yeah, you can't let it expire; that's the key. It's unfortunate that you didn't have the exhorbitant $60.

If you do let it expire, you have to try to buy it back through a company like snapnames.com - which will also cost you at least $60. But it is doable. And if you don't do it, someone else will.

wallaceb

05-30-2007, 11:58 AM

I have been with blue host for about 7 months now, and i am very happy with them. Once and a while the box i am on will "mess up" and run really slow, but that usually does not last long. My site's running off my account get quite a bit of traffic and are all fairly complected PHP scripts and i rarely get CPU problems unless my site is getting way more traffic than normal.

frodojrr

05-30-2007, 08:01 PM

I second that about the 30 day guarantee. BH is cheap and has a ton of features. If you find it works for you then that's all that matters.

I just recommend that you keep your domain names separate from hosting and not buy domain names through your host (whatever host it might be).

Getting back to frodojrr, what makes your current host a disaster?

Okay. Current host is midPhase.com. What kind of DOWNTIME do you see here? We just had another bout yesterday. Does BlueHost have an entire blog dedicated to downtime notices?

http://status.midphase.com/

All of my sites were down most of the afternoon yesterday. And if you look through the blog, this happens quite a bit.

Very frustrating. Intolerable.

Early Out

05-30-2007, 08:08 PM

What kind of DOWNTIME do you see here?BH went through a rocky patch a number of months ago, with a series of unrelated problems, each of them very troublesome (power failure, nameserver death, DDOS attacks, etc.). But they appear to have wrestled all of those problems to the ground - new datacenter, backup generators, better DDOS protection, and so on.

In the last six months, I haven't experienced any downtime longer than a couple of minutes (usually in the wee hours of the morning, when I suspect they may do something like swapping out a piece of router-type gear, for example).

Sometimes there are threads in here when one of the boxes starts misbehaving (BH has something around 300 servers by now), but they seem to get those sorted out very quickly.

hofmax

05-31-2007, 05:11 AM

Okay. Current host is midPhase.com. What kind of DOWNTIME do you see here? We just had another bout yesterday. Does BlueHost have an entire blog dedicated to downtime notices?

http://status.midphase.com/

All of my sites were down most of the afternoon yesterday. And if you look through the blog, this happens quite a bit.

Very frustrating. Intolerable.

I don't see a lot of downtime here. The downside to not having a company blog is that you always need to figure out yourself when there are problems...
Other than that Bluehost is very good with regards to uptime.
Just make sure you run optimized scripts if you run a database driven site that gets a lot of hits. Otherwise you may run into CPU problems.

Ferdinand

05-31-2007, 03:12 PM

After one year at BH I just renewed my contract for two years.
My experience with BH.
- There had been some downtime several months ago, but the problem was solved and I appreciated that owner wrote about the problems in his blog (I hate companies which deny errors and/or problems).
- Working with cpanel and experimenting with the preinstalled software is quite easy. I found it very helpful to try and test different softwares which can be installed with one click.
- One reason I choose BH was the "privacy" function which hides my personal address and email data at WHOIS. This function is not available in my home country. No, I don't intend to do anything unethical I just don't want to make my personal data public.
- BH Live Chat was extremely helpful for me. This month my blog was 'defaced' by hackers using a security hole in a blog plugin. At Live Chat I received a diagnosis and a solution within less than a minute. That's what I call customer service!
- I found this forum extremely helpful in regard to website maintenance e.g. For example it was here that heard of Google Apps for the first time. Meanwhile I implemented it not only in my BH hosted website, but in our company website as well.

Conclusion: I don't know any other webhosting company which offers the same value and service for a comparable price.
:)

GoogleBot

05-31-2007, 03:45 PM

I don't know any other webhosting company which offers the same value and service for a comparable price.
:)

I agree and the support team is very helpful as well. BlueHost is highly recommended.

frodojrr

05-31-2007, 07:34 PM

I want to add, the support at midPhase.com was very good. They always acted with the utmost professionalism, and I stayed with them as long as I could. When I called, I spoke with a real human being who listened to me. Their email support was absolutely spectacular.

But the drawback, the downtime, was too much. Moved as soon as I could afford the bucks and the time to do so.

frodojrr

05-31-2007, 09:39 PM

Made the move today to BlueHost.

So far so good. Ready to start switching nameservers tomorrow.

Early Out

06-01-2007, 03:32 AM

Made the move today to BlueHost.This always makes me nervous. We say nice things about BH, and someone decides to make the leap. It's almost as if we're inviting disaster. Just about the time frodojrr completes his move, Orem, UT, will be completely swallowed up by a massive Great Basin sinkhole. :D

frodojrr

06-01-2007, 07:43 AM

This always makes me nervous. We say nice things about BH, and someone decides to make the leap. It's almost as if we're inviting disaster. Just about the time frodojrr completes his move, Orem, UT, will be completely swallowed up by a massive Great Basin sinkhole. :D

Look, I know there's always "Murphy's Law," yet here we are, still spinning around on this wonderful dust ball.

To my knowledge Homeland Security has not bumped up the threat level since I arrived at BH, so, for today at least, we're safe. ;)

hofmax

06-01-2007, 07:57 AM

These threat levels are great - all the different colours of the rainbow. :D

charlesgan

06-01-2007, 07:57 AM

frodojrr

06-01-2007, 08:36 AM

The only "bleep" in the system so far is registering addon domains. At my old host, I could setup addons even if the nameservers weren't pointing to midPhase yet. At BH, the cPanel stops short of actually finalizing them (don't know the techno-talk for it), so I have to open a ticket to get them online.

I don't want any downtime on my sites, so I want the new site ready to go before I switch over the DNS.

Only bleep so far -- very minor. Just different procedurally.

Is there a reason for this difference in procedure?

hofmax

06-01-2007, 08:40 AM

This is how I install addon domains via cpanel (http://www.cheap-webhosting.in/blog/installing-an-addon-domain-with-cpanel/) on Bluehost.

frodojrr

06-01-2007, 09:55 AM

This is how I install addon domains via cpanel (http://www.cheap-webhosting.in/blog/installing-an-addon-domain-with-cpanel/) on Bluehost.

I did this as well. The difference in my case is that I do not have the nameservers pointing to BH yet. Don't want to do that until I have the new site ready to go.

jah

06-01-2007, 10:07 AM

Your best bet is doing the change in the middle of the night.

The nameservers will change w/in an hour on whois, but it'll take a lot longer to propagate them.

jah

06-01-2007, 10:08 AM

Oh, duh. I do have useful advice.

Just set up your subdomain and put everything on there. Then wait to setup your addon until you change your nameservers (still I'd recommend late at night).

When you create your addon, you can tell it to "create" the subdomain you've already created. It'll just point it to the one you've already set up.

WFM.

charlesgan

06-01-2007, 08:07 PM

I did this as well. The difference in my case is that I do not have the nameservers pointing to BH yet. Don't want to do that until I have the new site ready to go.

for bluehost, yes, you can addon domain first. And setup your site.. do all you want. make it ready....

once you are ready, change the nameserver.

Falcon4

06-01-2007, 08:46 PM

Made the move today to BlueHost.

So far so good. Ready to start switching nameservers tomorrow.

...

Did you use someone's referral link? :confused:

Shonky

06-02-2007, 03:49 AM

Initial impressions are good, signed up with Bluehost around 8 hours ago, time will tell if they live up to my expectations. :)

betiryan

06-02-2007, 01:05 PM

Just remember, you get what you pay for.
Yes, Bluehost is cheap, but for $6.95 p/mo. you get a whole LOT more than you pay for! 300gb storage & 3tb bandwidth doesn't seem like cheap to me.

I've run into a couple of problems I've cause myself, called for support and have had abosutley NO problems with getting help. I've felt silly and told support so, they've answered "No problem, we're glad to help." Of course, I've been polite from the beginning, perhaps that's the motivator? Treating people like you appreciate their help will often get you further than treating them like servants that should jump to the sound of your voice. I'm not saying that's what happened, but "you catch more flies with honey than vinegar." Support people have bad days too, and yes, they shouldn't let it affect their treatment of customers, but guess what? They are human beings too, so give them some slack.

Here's to Bluehost long may Matt reign as CEO!

His greatest assets are his staff and his staff helps keep his customers, which keeps him in business.

GOD BLESS,
Beti
http://vetstribute.com

frodojrr

06-02-2007, 01:25 PM

Support was phenomenal today and yesterday. Today was the first day I used phone support.

I'd love to show everyone my Joomla site which support was nice enough to help with (e.g. passwords for DB file).

Am I opening myself up to hacking if I show the full line to the URL to the addon, since I have not yet switched over the DNS?

Essentially, it's working great, and I'm very happy I made the move.

Paulson

06-02-2007, 01:52 PM

I love bluehost because the server I'm on hardly has any usage during the course of the day (which is great... I like seeing low loads)

I don't run too much in terms of php and mysql programs on it (will be getting a dedicated server elsewhere for that) but I do host tutorial videos that I had created off of it and they seem to work well (depends on the time of the day but sometimes download speeds aren't all that great)

Overall I haven't had any downtime and they are quick to respond to any support tickets.

charlesgan

06-02-2007, 08:39 PM

Overall I haven't had any downtime and they are quick to respond to any support tickets.

you are so lucky.
for my websites... i noticed downtime once a month. sometime twice a month.
have to live chat with support to get it solved.

frodojrr

06-02-2007, 09:26 PM

Just getting started with them. Phone support is very good.

jsonnabend

06-04-2007, 03:58 PM

Maybe I'm the only one. I experience downtime monthly, and when I'm not down, I'm dog-slow.

I'm on a PHP4 box (box 203, IIRC), so support said I could moved to a new box by requesting PHP 5. Great, but when I responded with a question to an email from support about the change over, support never got back to me.

I for one am frustrated with Bluehost and am considering moving.

My $.02.

- Jeff

hofmax

06-05-2007, 03:56 AM

I'd send them another support ticket (reply to their last response) to get a higher level technician.

datnus

06-05-2007, 04:32 AM

So far so good.
No downtime.
I ask support once. Very fast response :D

I don't use much CPU anyway...
If I need more CPU, 19$/month for more CPU may be just too expensive for me.

Smoothice

06-10-2007, 02:45 PM

I am overall really happy ith Bluehost. i have been a customer with them for over two years now and three different hositng accounts with them. My main problem lately has been a program called ffmpeg which I can not get installed on thier servers. It is available on other budget hosting accounts but not thiers. That is my only problem. I guess it is almost time for me to go VPS and get complete control.

Smoothice

StrictlyWeather

06-10-2007, 05:07 PM

frodojrr

06-10-2007, 05:10 PM

I'm entering my third year with bluehost and am pleased with their service. Customer service is always polite and fast in responding to your questions or concerns. Downtime has been minimal and the cost is very affordable.

I just had a spectacular experience with customer service this past weekend. I was unable to properly install ionCube Loader by myself. Don't know much PHP. Phone support was completely awesom -- polite, knowledgeable, patient. Absolutely wonderful.

StrictlyWeather

06-10-2007, 05:30 PM

frodojrr,

Thats exactly how my experiences have always been with them, plus I have never had to wait in the "call cue" for more than a minute or two.

viphard

06-11-2007, 09:02 AM

;)
I pretty happy with Bluehost

grampamorts

06-12-2007, 05:42 AM

I was a complete noob, and with a little help from hofmax, i have my website transfered from a free blog hosted site (so many limitations) to bluehost. very glad i made the switch.

pwillis

06-12-2007, 09:23 AM

I'm a complete newbie. I don't know php from ups and the support at Bluehost is not only fast and reliable but incredibly patient and understanding. I've opened about 2 million email tickets and used live chat about 200 times (per day) and, without exception, everyone has been ultra nice, and understanding. Every time I've had a problem - related or not, to their services - they've been gracious and solved it with class.

P

pwillis

06-12-2007, 09:25 AM

I was a complete noob, and with a little help from hofmax, i have my website transfered from a free blog hosted site (so many limitations) to bluehost. very glad i made the switch.

Oh yeah . . . and hofmax rocks! :D

editorslave

06-29-2007, 11:43 PM

. . . I don't run too much in terms of php and mysql programs on it (will be getting a dedicated server elsewhere for that) but I do host tutorial videos that I had created off of it and they seem to work well (depends on the time of the day but sometimes download speeds aren't all that great) . . .

I went to your site to see how your videos work because I want to know if Bluehost might work for me. I'm looking for a host and easy user friendly web design tools. I'll be streaming a couple videos. Anyway, I checked out your site and the videos did not play at all even though I have flash player 9 I'm on a DSL. I'm wondering if something is broken or if it's just me.

I waiting for a long time and still nothing played. I'm able to play streaming flash videos on other sites with no problem.

charlesgan

06-30-2007, 12:50 AM

for flash player video, the video format is to be in flv, and the flash swf script must be coded correctly. Basically the video will be download/stream to browser then only it start to play. Any hosting will able to provide this.

for other streaming media like quicktime or windows media, convert the media file to streaming format. And within your webpages, use the embed script to play the media will do.