This is a hosting service that targets online shop owners. Apart from the standard features coming with every account, a good provider will also consider adding SSL certificates, dedicated IPs, daily backups, and round-the-clock support. The best ecommerce hosting companies will have a specified plan tailored to the clear-cut needs of shop owners.
With over 2 million hosted websites, Bluehost is one of the world’s most popular providers. It also has 750+ employees, has been endorsed by WordPress for a decade straight, and is largely built on open source.
A little-known fact is that it’s also the recommended host for WooCommerce, the official WordPress ecommerce extension.
But does it also have the best web hosting for ecommerce?
You’re about to find out.
Bluehost Ecommerce Features
Bluehost has plenty of hosting plans, but we’ll focus on its WooCommerce packages. Aside from being great for selling products, they help with marketing and other ecommerce-related functions. Plus, they are a tad more robust than your run-of-the-mill shared hosting, which is precisely what businesses need.
Here are the key features:
Managed WooCommerce
Bluehost’s plans are fully managed, which is quite handy if it’s your first online store.
WooCommerce comes preinstalled by default. The team can help you set up the basics, install any plugins, and add products. You essentially get help building a retailer website from the ground up.
The team can also help you list your business on Google. This lets more customers find your ecommerce website organically.
There are, of course, all the standard goodies, like monitoring tools, SSL installation, caching mechanisms, etc.
Preloaded Features
Bluehost doesn’t stop there, though. It preloads your WooCommerce installation with various add-on features.
The Jetpack plugin comes preinstalled, for one. This is one of the top backup, speed optimization, and security plugins, all bunched in one.
The larger WooCommerce plan upgrades the free Jetpack license to a premium one for extra power and features.
Keep in mind Bluehost flaunts some features like a theme and modules for analytics. These are actually default WooCommerce plugins, so you could take advantage of them with any ecommerce website hosting. Not the most transparent practice, but it shouldn’t cause problems
Extra Freebies
The plans include free domain registration, and the larger one adds domain privacy on top. You can also take advantage of a free IP address on the larger plan, which is great for email campaigns or setting up a custom SSL certificate. You can utilize both options to great effect in ecommerce.
Lastly, CodeGuard Basic is included for free as well (for one year on the smaller plan, and forever otherwise). It’s a decent backup plugin that would cost you some $5/month.
The add-ons can save you a few bucks on ecommerce solutions each month.
Bluehost Support
In years past, Bluehost’s support team didn’t exactly get glowing reviews from me. This year, I’m happy to see the provider revamped its customer service system. The improvement is evident.
The support is available 24/7 via all the usual channels, all of which you can reach in just a few clicks.
Moreover, each query gets a prompt reply from a courteous support agent. I asked a few questions about the tools included in ecommerce website hosting, and I got accurate and knowledgeable responses.
Pretty decent, all in all.
Bluehost User Reviews
- Bluehost Trustpilot score: 2.3 / 5 (873 reviews)
- Bluehost HostAdvice score: 4.4 / 10 (183 reviews)
- Bluehost WebHostingGeeks score: 2.38 / 5 (798 reviews)
You can probably tell Bluehost’s reputation is not doing so hot. Clients usually like the tech support, but they complain about steep renewal prices, clunky billing, and aggressive upsells.
They are all fair points. Bluehost can be a decent host, but you should be aware that it gets a bit salesy at times. You don’t have to buy extras, but Bluehost will push hard to sell them.
Bluehost Plans and Pricing
- Standard (from $15.95/month)
- Premium (from $24.95/month)
The pricing is alright for the ecommerce hosting features, especially considering the larger plan comes with a few nice freebies.
Keep in mind the prices only apply for the first term of hosting while paying for 36 months in advance. If you choose a shorter subscription, it will reduce the discount. The prices also revert to default once you have to renew your plan.
Our Verdict
Bluehost is a fantastic option for selling products through WooCommerce. The pricing is fair, and you get quite a few freebies that make a business website more effective and reliable. Overall, it's the best WooCommerce hosting.