Bluehost Hosting Review: Slow Load Times Problem (2025)

Ease of Use

I would rate Bluehost’s overall ease of use at 3.8 out of 5.

Here’s why:

• Bluehost has a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to navigate through various pages and sections.
• There are occasional glitches, such as the “connecting domain” notice despite the site loading well.
• The hosting setup and site creation process are among the easiest in the industry, especially if you use a domain bought from Bluehost.

However, while the process is straightforward, the interface might not be as modern as some users prefer.

User Interface

We’ve got a test account for Bluehost, so although I might not be able to showcase everything, I can still give you a glimpse of the current setup. 🙂

After logging in, you will arrive at the site selection in the client area:

✋ Disclaimer: Bluehost was the first web hosting company I used when blogging. My experience with them influences my review here.

If you base it solely on this page, Bluehost seems simple enough, and it’s easy to navigate through its pages and sections.

From the site selection page, you can:

• Go to a site’s settings page
• Edit the site in WordPress
• Add another site (if your plan allows)
• Go to various pages and features in the client area

If you want to configure the settings of your website inside Bluehost’s client area, this is the screen that you will see:

The overview will provide the status of your site, including the WordPress version, and if the auto-update feature is enabled.

I seem to remember that Bluehost’s user interface was okay and that I could find what I needed right away.

But I also remember that there were glitches — and it seems I’m experiencing it too with the “connecting domain” notice even if the site is loading well. 🤷‍♂️

Hosting Setup

As I explained earlier, you can easily add a site from the site selection page (there’s a big button for it in the upper-right corner).

If your plan allows it and you click that button, you will have to choose a site type:

• Install WordPress
• Transfer an existing WordPress

They basically want to know if you want to create a new website or simply migrate an existing site:

If you press continue, you will have to give some information about your site like the site title and connecting a domain.

Bluehost will then let you know that they’re already creating the site and they’re installing WordPress at the moment.

Like this:

Basically, creating a new website with Bluehost is easy, and you can even set the domain right away or use a temporary one.

As some of you might know, Bluehost web hosting is also a domain registrar, which makes it easy to use a domain if you get it from them.

👉 Related: How to Find Out Who Owns a Domain Name: Domain Lookup

Features

I would rate Bluehost’s overall features at 4.1 out of 5.

Here’s why:

• Bluehost offers a robust set of website management tools, such as staging sites, free SSL certificates (for the first year on the lowest plan), and more.
• Some essential ones like backups are add-ons, which are offered for free by other hosts in the same pricing range.
• Bluehost includes several advanced tools accessible through cPanel, such as redirects, file manager, FTP access, databases, and error logs.

Regarding the tools, relying on cPanel might not appeal to all users, particularly those who prefer a more integrated solution.

⚠️ Note: If you’re looking for what each hosting plan brings to the table, you can find them in the pricing section of this review as what I’ll be talking about here are hosting features.

Here are some notable features of Bluehost:

1. Website management

Bluehost has some website management features that I like.

The best one that I like is the staging site where you can easily create a copy of your website and test out new features or updates.

There’s a link to it from the client area and will get you inside the Bluehost plugin:

Besides that, there are also other features like:

• Adding free SSL certificates
• Checking the core WordPress files
• Cache-control and link-specific clear cache

You just need to take care of SSL certificates though if you’re on the lowest plan since their free offer for it expires after a year.

There are addon features available as well like the backup feature (though this is unfortunate as other hosts in the pricing range offer this for free).

👉 Related: How to Backup WordPress Site: Hosting + Plugins

2. Email management

Since Bluehost uses cPanel, that also means you can use it to manage your server’s email tools.

When you click the cPanel email item in the left-hand navigation, a small window will appear with shortcuts to different email tools.

Other tools you can’t see from the screenshot include:

• Global email filters
• Spam filters
• Autoresponders
• Email routing

When you click on one of them and you continue to go where they lead, you will end up at that tool’s app or page in the cPanel.

⚠️ Note: This is separate from the email hosting plans that Bluehost sells (these are separate plans from the hosting plans).

3. Advanced tools

Bluehost also has other tools available, most of them are actually cPanel tools though, so they’re technically shortcuts.

If I were still using Bluehost, the tool that I would probably use the most is the redirects tool, so no need to install other plugins for it.

But as I said, the feature is simply a shortcut to the cPanel:

Other tools are available here such as:

• File manager
• FTP access
• Databases
• Error logs
• Access logs

I’m used to the redirects feature from Yoast’s premium plan, which I know not everyone would be able to use (it’s not free).

Having the redirects tool, even if it’s actually from the cPanel, is quite helpful as I’m sure it has the same functionality as the one from Yoast.

👉 Related: Yoast SEO Review: Missing the Mark on Features?

Reliability

I would rate Bluehost’s overall reliability at 3.0 out of 5.

Here’s why:

• Bluehost offers a dependable uptime of 99.92%, with only six hours of downtime over the past year.
• It has a slower load time, averaging 6.72 seconds, which is significantly slower than competitors like Kinsta and Siteground.
• While Bluehost has a service information page in cPanel, it lacks a centralized system status page.

This makes it difficult to check the status of services and features during downtime or maintenance.

However, the service information page does provide some insight into the server status, which is somewhat helpful but not comprehensive.

Performance

As for performance, I keep an eye on about 20 different web hosts using Pingdom — these are the same hosts that Darrel features in his videos.

In terms of uptime, Bluehost was up 99.92% of the time for the past year — and it got a downtime of 6 hours.

⚠️ Note: For the hosting plans, we usually get the cheapest one from each web hosting service. Well, if their lowest plans suck, we can’t expect much from their more expensive options, right? We also use the same Elementor template kit and plugins.

Although not a perfect score, Bluehost still got a 99%+ uptime with only six hours of downtime, so it’s pretty reliable.

For the page speed, Bluehost had an average load time of 6.72 seconds and got a 75/100 performance grade from Pingdom.

Now let’s compare Bluehost’s performance with the results from other well-known web hosting providers (1 year):

Web Host	Uptime	Downtime	Performance	Load Time
Bluehost	99.92 %	6 hours	75/100	6.72 seconds
Kinsta	99.99%	24 minutes	77/100	1.26 seconds
Hostinger	99.96 %	3 hours	84/100	1.32 seconds
SiteGround	99.99 %	1 hour	76/100	1.73 seconds

Despite being in the 99% area, Bluehost has the lowest uptime of all the well-known web hosting in the list.

In addition to that, it has a slower load time, with a difference of almost 5 seconds from Siteground (that’s a lot).

My personal experience with Bluehost tells me that their hosting plans, at least the more affordable ones, really are on the slower side.

Updates and Maintenance

But how about updates and maintenance?

Sad to say, Bluehost doesn’t have a centralized system status page where you can check the status of services and features in the platform.

The most they have is this:

That’s the service information page in the cPanel which tells you the status of the server your WordPress site is in.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t say anything about the status of Bluehost services, and it’s likely you can’t access this as well if Bluehost or your website is down.

I also tried checking the email and there’s no information about system status or any maintenance taking place. 🙁

Support

I would rate Bluehost’s overall support at 3.2 out of 5.

Here’s why:

• Bluehost offers various customer service options, including live chat, phone support, and a comprehensive knowledge base.
• It takes several clicks to reach a real person, and the response times are slow, with simple questions taking almost five minutes to be answered.
• The knowledge base contains well-written and well-formatted articles with annotated images, making it a valuable resource for solving common issues.

However, while this benefits users who prefer self-help, it may not fully compensate for the shortcomings in live chat support.

Customer Service

Bluehost seems to have a surprising set of customer service options.

Unfortunately, except for the chat, you can only see those options when you go to the main website outside the client area.

The customer service options they have are:

• Live chat
• Phone numbers
• Knowledge base

I have to commend Bluehost for listing their phone numbers here — not a lot of web hosting companies (or any software company) do that nowadays.

I tested out their live chat and well, it took me almost 5 minutes of pressing options to get to the part where I could talk to a real person. 😅

Here are other information:

• It took 2 minutes on average to get a reply from their agent.
• I only asked a simple question and it took almost 5 minutes of back and forth to get an answer.

The experience wasn’t really that terrible.

But it’s quite annoying that it takes a lot of clicks to talk to a real person, and then that person takes a while to answer a simple question. 🤔

Knowledge Base

Bluehost also has a knowledge base with lots of different articles written to help the user with easier-to-solve issues.

Here’s what the front page looks like:

If you scroll down, you can see the different categories such as:

• Account
• Email
• Hosting packages
• DNS
• Billing

You can click on a category to see the articles related to it — though it’s more of filtered results in the search results page for that category.

Here’s what the actual articles look like:

Bluehost has well-written customer support articles, as you can see above, complete with annotated images and well-formated content.

I also observed that at the end of each article, there’s a reminder that if you need further assistance, you can reach them through chat support and phone support.

Pricing

I would rate Bluehost’s overall pricing at 3.5 out of 5.

Here’s why:

• Bluehost offers some of the most affordable starting plans in web hosting, beginning at $2.95 per month for up to 10 websites.
• While the promotional prices are very appealing, the renewal rates are considerably higher, often at least three times the initial price.
• Bluehost’s cheapest shared hosting plan includes numerous features, such as free AI site creation, CDN, domain, and SSL for the first year.

Although the performance might not always match up to the pricing, the extensive feature set provides substantial value.

Additionally, the refund policy within the first 30 days offers a safety net, making it a low-risk option to try their services.

1. Shared hosting plans

Bluehost has one of the cheapest starting plans in web hosting, starting at only $2.95/month for 10 websites.

Here are their plans:

The difference between the first and second plans is wide, with the second one allowing 40 more WordPress sites and 40 GB of storage.

All of the plans include:

• A free AI site creation
• Free CDN
• Free domain and SSL for one year

Higher plans like the one for an online store have other features like malware scanning, store analytics, customer account creation, and more.

⛔ Warning: Be careful with the renewal rate since promotional prices are good for the first term only. Regular rates are at least thrice the promotional price.

2. Other hosting plans

The next level to regular shared hosting is cloud hosting, which starts at $29.99/month though it’s only for one website.

Here are the cloud hosting plans:

Besides shared hosting plans, Bluehost also has other offers like:

• VPS hosting (starts at $31.99/month)
• Dedicated hosting (starts at $91.98/month)

Obviously, these are more expensive, though they also promise a far better experience.

But honestly, if I need cloud hosting or other type of hosting, I will probably go with a more reputable hosting with affordable plans like Hostinger.

👉 Related: Hostinger Review: Budget-Friendly Hosting Powerhouse?

3. Other products

As I explained earlier in this review article, Bluehost is also a domain registrar (which is how they could bundle a free domain name for one year).

The prices are also at a regular rate:

Besides domains, Bluehost also offers:

• Professional email hosting that starts at $14.99/year
• Google Workspace that starts at $3.00/month

More of an outlier, they also offer pro services like website design, digital marketing, and WordPress support.

Money Back Guarantee/Refund

Bluehost doesn’t mention it in their pricing pages, but they actually offer a refund for the first 30 days for all web hosting services.

You can find the information on their refund policy page:

Here are some of the details:

• Doesn’t apply to monthly terms
• The plan must have been canceled within 30 days of signup
• Renewals are non-refundable
• Exclusive for new signups only

Other third-party purchases including domain registration are not included especially if the domain has been registered.

Final Thoughts

When buying a plan from Bluehost, consider starting with the basic shared hosting plan to take advantage of the low introductory price and comprehensive features.

However, be mindful of the significantly higher renewal rates.

Assess your long-term hosting needs and budget before committing, and explore the option of locking in a longer-term initial contract to maximize the promotional pricing.

Make use of the 30-day refund policy to thoroughly test the service and ensure it meets your expectations.