I’ve been using Bluehost for over 6 months. They provide high quality web site hosting. It’s also inexpensive web hosting. Bluehost is not the cheapest web hosting, but aside from one hiccup where my post on 5 Things You Shouldn’t Spend Money On When Starting a Business hit the front page of Digg, the service has run quite smoothly.

No web hosting service is perfect.

Let’s tackle some of the negative points first.

• You will wait on the phone when you call for sales or technical support. They’ve been working to improve wait times, and the worst was about 10 minutes, which is still acceptable. I’m not sure any professional web hosting company can totally eliminate wait times.
• More important, I’ve questioned their technical know-how on 2 occasions. It wasn’t something definitive where I could say, “These guys don’t know what they’re talking about,” it was more an uncertain feeling I was left with after having my question answered. One of those questions was whether I could transfer a .tv domain to Bluehost. The sales person said “yes” but I’m still not 100% sure. They don’t register .tv domain names, so I’m not sure if you can transfer it and then renew it from elsewhere.

Neither of these points surprised me when I signed up with Bluehost. Sales people at web hosting companies aren’t necessarily the most technically savvy, and waiting in line on the phone is a reality for many businesses. I do wish they’d tone down the “on hold” music!

I think there are more positives than negatives with Bluehost. These aren’t necessarily unique to them, but they’re still worthwhile.

• You can host 6 domains on 1 account for the base price. That’s pretty good. If you’ve got multiple websites you don’t need multiple accounts. And, if you need more than 6 domains you can buy them in groups of 5 for less than a new hosting account. I run all of Grasshopper New Media’s websites at Bluehost (or will be soon!) and so I’ve purchased 1 hosting account + 5 additional domains (so far.)
• Automatic installation of many software applications, including blogging software, forums, etc. I use WordPress for the most part; the auto-install is easy and helpful.
• An active CEO (Matt Heaton) who blogs. He emails customers regularly, openly admitting problems and focusing on customer needs. It makes me feel like he does care (which isn’t always the case for web hosting providers.) Note: I did email Matt Heaton directly about something and never heard back, which soured my view just a touch…(people: answer your emails!)

Web hosting is one of the hardest things to pick. There’s an absurd number of web hosting providers, and plenty of positive and negative reviews on most of them. It’s a minefield of technical details, promotions and shoddy customer support.

For the price ($6.95/month), Bluehost is meeting my needs. I think it’s a great choice for people hosting a small-medium sized website or business blog.

[tags]web hosting, cheap web hosting, inexpensive web hosting, great web hosting, matt heaton, bluehost[/tags]