If you’re a beginner looking to host your first website, choosing the right hosting plan can be a bit overwhelming.
With numerous options and varying prices, finding the perfect solution can be challenging.
What is the best Bluehost plan for a beginner?
The best Bluehost plan for beginners is the Shared Hosting Basic plan, which offers affordability, essential features, and easy WordPress integration. This plan provides a free SSL, CDN, and domain for the first year, making it ideal for those starting their first website.
In this comprehensive guide, we will dive into the best Bluehost plan for beginners and help you understand why it’s the perfect choice for getting started.
Introduction to Bluehost
Bluehost, a well-known web hosting provider, delivers an extensive array of hosting services designed to accommodate the diverse requirements of its users.
It’s known for its reliability, affordability, and strong performance.
With millions of websites hosted on their platform, Bluehost is a trusted name in the industry, making it an excellent choice for beginners.
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Why Bluehost is Perfect for Beginners
Bluehost is a beginner-friendly hosting provider for several reasons:
- Affordability. Bluehost offers competitive pricing on their hosting plans, often running discounts that allow beginners to get started at an affordable rate.
- Ease of Use. The Bluehost platform is user-friendly, featuring a clean and straightforward user interface that is beginner-friendly, allowing new users to easily navigate and manage their hosting.
- Customer Support. Bluehost offers round-the-clock customer assistance, ensuring that beginners have access to assistance whenever they need it.
- WordPress Integration. As an officially recommended hosting provider by WordPress.org, Bluehost offers seamless integration with the popular content management system, making it easy for beginners to set up and manage their websites.
The Best Bluehost Plan for Beginners: Shared Hosting
The best Bluehost plan for beginners is the Shared Hosting plan.
This plan offers an affordable and feature-rich hosting solution that meets the requirements of most beginners.
Here’s what you get with the Bluehost Shared Hosting plan:
- Affordable pricing
- Free SSL
- Free CDN
- Free Domain
- WordPress Integration
Affordable Pricing
The Shared Hosting plan is the most budget-friendly option available on Bluehost, making it an excellent choice for beginners who want to minimize their initial costs.
The plan is often available at a discounted price, sometimes under $5 per month when you first sign up.
This competitive pricing allows you to enjoy a range of features without breaking the bank.
Free SSL Certificate
Security is crucial for every website, regardless of its size or purpose.
With the Bluehost Shared Hosting plan, you’ll receive a free SSL certificate for your website. SSL certificates encrypt data transmitted between your website and its users, ensuring secure connections and protecting sensitive information.
Having an SSL certificate not only enhances your website’s security but also boosts its credibility and helps improve your search engine rankings.
Free CDN Integration
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is an essential feature for websites that aim to deliver fast-loading pages to their users.
With the Bluehost Shared Hosting plan, you’ll have access to a free CDN, which helps improve your website’s speed and performance.
A CDN works by distributing your website’s content across multiple servers located around the world, allowing users to access your site from a server closest to their location.
This results in faster load times and a better user experience.
Free Domain for the First Year
As a beginner, you may not already have a domain for your website.
With the Shared Hosting plan, Bluehost provides a complimentary domain registration for the initial year, allowing you to save on domain registration costs.
With a wide range of domain extensions available, you can choose the one that best represents your website and its purpose.
Seamless WordPress Integration
For beginners, setting up and managing a website can be challenging.
WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS) worldwide, powering millions of websites.
As an officially recommended hosting provider by WordPress.org, Bluehost offers seamless integration with this CMS, making it easy for beginners to set up and manage their websites.
With one-click WordPress installation, you can have your website up and running in no time.
Additionally, Bluehost provides a range of WordPress-specific features and tools to help you optimize and maintain your website.
Comparing Bluehost Shared Hosting Plans
Bluehost offers three Shared Hosting plans to cater to different needs: Basic, Plus, Online Store, and Pro.
Let’s compare these plans to help you determine which one is best suited for your needs as a beginner:
- Basic Plan. The Basic plan permits you to host a single website and provides 10GB of SSD storage, a complimentary SSL certificate, and one free domain. This plan is perfect for beginners who only need to host a single website and are just starting out. The Basic plan is often available at a discounted price, making it a budget-friendly choice.
- Plus Plan. The Plus plan enables you to host an unlimited number of websites, provides 20GB of SSD storage, includes a complimentary SSL certificate, and offers one free domain. It also includes additional features email marketing. This plan is suitable for beginners who want to host multiple websites or those who require more storage and email functionality.
- Choice Plus. The Choice Plus plan provides every feature included in the Plus plan, along with free domain privacy and an automated website backup solution. This plan is ideal for beginners who want additional security and privacy features, especially if they plan to host multiple websites.
- Pro Plan. This is the most robust plan with unlimited websites and enough bandwidth to manage 400,000 pageviews per month. It’s comes with all the features plus a dedicated IP.
To simply the comparision further, check out this chart that shows why the Basic Shared Plan is the best Bluehost plan for beginners:
| Feature | Basic Plan | Plus Plan | Choice Plus | Pro Plan |
| Number of Websites | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Pageviews Per Month | 15,000 | 50,000 | 200,000 | 400,000 |
| Free SSL Certificate | Yes (1st year) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Free Domain | Yes (1st year) | Yes (1st year) | Yes (1st year) | Yes (1st year) |
| SSD Storage | 10 GB | 20 GB | 40 GB | 100 GB |
| Free CDN | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Yoast SEO | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Domain Privacy | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| WordPress Integration Tool | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Email Marketing | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Daily Website Backup | No | No | Yes (1st Year) | Yes |
| 24/7 Support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
For most beginners, the Basic plan will be sufficient, providing all the essential features to get started. As your website grows, you can always upgrade to a higher plan if needed.
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What’s the Best Bluehost Plan for Beginners with a Limited Budget?
If you have a limited budget and want to minimize your hosting costs, the Basic plan is the ideal choice for you.
With the Basic plan, you can host a single website and receive 10 GB of SSD storage, 15K pageviews (which is plenty), a free SSL certificate, and a free domain for the first year.
The Basic plan is often available at a discounted price, making it the most cost-effective option for beginners with limited funds.
What’s the Best Bluehost Plan for Beginners With No Technical Skills?
I am not a tech guy so I’ve found the basic shared plan to work brilliantly for me.
You don’t need any special technical know-how.
Customer support will answer most of your questions. If you need extra assistance, you can always find someone to help on Fiverr for a very reasonable cost. Thankfully, I haven’t had to use that option very often.
If you find yourself running into lots of technical issues beyond the scope of Bluehost, you may want to try another host like Hostarmada.
What’s the Best Bluehost Plan for Beginners Looking to Host Multiple Websites?
If you’re a beginner planning to host multiple websites, the Plus plan is the best option.
The Plus plan allows you to host an unlimited number of websites and offers 20 GB SSD storage, 50K pageviews per month, a free SSL certificate, and a free domain for the first year.
It also includes additional features such as email marketing to further build your sites.
What Is the Best Bluehost Plan for a Beginner Concerned about Security and Privacy?
The Choice Plus plan is ideal for beginners who prioritize security and privacy.
This plan offers all the Plus plan features, free domain privacy, and an automated website backup solution.
Domain privacy protects your personal information from being publicly accessible in the WHOIS database, while regular backups of your website help you recover quickly in case of data loss or security breaches.
What’s the Best Bluehost Plan for Beginners Planning to Run an E-commerce Store?
If you’re a beginner looking to start an e-commerce store, you may want to consider the WooCommerce Hosting plans offered by Bluehost.
WooCommerce is a strong online shopping tool for WordPress that lets you easily set up an internet store.
Bluehost offers two WooCommerce hosting plans – Online Store and Online Store + Marketplace – that come with pre-installed WooCommerce and the Storefront theme, and additional e-commerce-specific features.
These plans provide a solid foundation for your online store and cater to your e-commerce-specific requirements.
What Is the Best Bluehost Plan for a Beginner with a Blog?
If you’re a beginner looking to start a blog, the Basic Shared Hosting plan is the best choice.
Most beginner bloggers won’t require extensive resources or advanced features, making the Basic plan both affordable and suitable for their needs.
With the Basic plan, you can host a single website, enjoy ample storage, the security features of a free SSL certificate, and a free domain for the first year.
Additionally, Bluehost offers seamless WordPress integration, making it easy for you to set up and manage your blog.
This is the plan I’ve used to start several brand-new blogs.
What’s the Best Bluehost Plan for Beginners with an Online Portfolio?
For beginners who want to showcase their work through an online portfolio, the Basic Shared Hosting plan is an excellent option.
You’ll have ample space to store high-quality images and other multimedia content.
The seamless integration with WordPress makes it easy for you to create a visually appealing and responsive portfolio site using various themes and plugins.
What’s the Best Bluehost Plan for Beginners with a Small Business Website?
For small business owners who are just starting their online journey, the Plus Shared Hosting plan is the ideal choice.
The Plus plan gives you more SSD storage and pageviews for future growth, while still keeping costs to a minimum.
These features enable you to manage your online presence efficiently and professionally while keeping your costs low as your business grows.
You also get access to email marketing to expand your audience and community around your business.
What Is the Best Bluehost Plan for a Beginner Who Focuses on Affiliate Marketing?
For beginners focusing on affiliate marketing, the Basic Shared Hosting plan is the ideal choice.
This plan provides the essential features required to build and maintain a successful affiliate marketing website without incurring high costs.
As a beginner in affiliate marketing, it’s crucial to produce high-quality content that ranks well in search engines like Google.
Bluehost’s seamless integration with WordPress makes it easy to create and manage your content, and its compatibility with various SEO plugins like Yoast SEO helps optimize your content for better rankings.
For the first 6 months to a year, the Basic Shared Hosting plan should be sufficient as you build up your website’s content and search engine rankings.
As your website grows in traffic and revenue, you can consider upgrading to a higher-tier plan or switching to a specialized hosting provider to support your site’s expanding needs.
What’s the Best Bluehost Plan for Beginners with a Membership or Community Site?
If you’re a beginner planning to create a membership or community site, the Choice Plus Shared Hosting plan is the best option.
This plan includes all the features of the Plus plan, along with free domain privacy, and an automated website backup solution.
These additional features ensure better security and privacy for your members’ data.
Furthermore, with unlimited websites and 100 GB of SSD storage, you can build a feature-rich membership site without worrying about running out of resources.
Here’s a good video about the best Bluehost plan for Beginners:
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Most Common Mistakes Beginners Make When Choosing a Bluehost Plan
Selecting the right hosting plan is crucial for the success of your website. However, beginners often make mistakes when choosing a Bluehost plan.
In this section, we’ll discuss the most common mistakes beginners make and provide tips on how to avoid them.
Overestimating Their Requirements
One common mistake beginners make is overestimating their website’s requirements and choosing a more expensive plan than they actually need.
While it’s important to consider your website’s potential growth, it’s best to start with a plan tailored to your current needs and then upgrade as necessary.
The Shared Hosting plan, specifically the Basic plan, is usually sufficient for beginners with a single website and limited traffic.
How to avoid: Carefully assess your website’s requirements, considering factors such as the number of websites you’ll host, the amount of storage needed, and your expected traffic.
Choose a plan that matches your current needs and remember that you can always upgrade later as your website grows.
Not Considering Security and Backups
Another common mistake is neglecting security and backups when choosing a hosting plan.
While the Bluehost Shared Hosting plans include essential security features such as a free SSL certificate, beginners may overlook the importance of domain privacy or website backups.
These features are crucial in protecting your website and user data.
How to avoid: Prioritize security and backups when choosing a plan. If your budget allows, consider the Choice Plus plan, which includes free domain privacy and CodeGuard Basic backups, or invest in additional security and backup add-ons.
Ignoring Customer Support
Beginners often underestimate the value of quality customer support when choosing a hosting plan.
Good customer support is essential for addressing any technical issues, answering questions, and providing guidance, especially for beginners who are new to web hosting.
How to avoid: Look for a hosting provider that offers excellent customer support, preferably with 24/7 availability through multiple channels such as live chat, phone, and email.
Bluehost is known for its reliable and helpful customer support, which is beneficial for beginners.
Focusing Solely on Price
While price is an important factor to consider, beginners sometimes make the mistake of focusing solely on the cheapest option.
It’s important to consider the features, performance, and overall value of the hosting plan in addition to the price.
How to avoid: Compare the features and performance of different hosting plans, taking into account factors such as storage, bandwidth, and additional features.
While the Bluehost Shared Hosting Basic plan is an affordable option for beginners, ensure that it meets all your requirements before making a decision.
By avoiding these common mistakes and carefully considering your website’s needs, you can choose the best Bluehost plan for your website as a beginner.
Always remember that you can upgrade or switch plans as your website grows and your needs evolve.
How to Get Started with Bluehost Shared Hosting
Getting started with Bluehost Shared Hosting is easy, even for beginners.
Follow these simple steps to set up your hosting account:
- Visit the Bluehost website and choose the Shared Hosting plan that best fits your needs.
- Select a domain name for your website or use an existing domain if you already have one.
- Complete the registration process by providing your personal and billing information.
- After completing the registration, you will receive a confirmation email with your account details and instructions on how to access your Bluehost control panel.
- Log in to your control panel, and follow the guided steps to install WordPress, set up your SSL certificate, and configure your CDN.
- Once you’ve completed the setup, you can start designing and building your website using WordPress or another content management system of your choice.
When to Upgrade Your Bluehost Plan
As a beginner, the Bluehost Shared Hosting plan should suffice for your needs. However, as your website grows and attracts more traffic, you may need to upgrade your hosting plan to accommodate the increased demand.
Here are some signs that indicate it’s time to upgrade:
- Slow Website Performance. If you notice that your website is loading slowly or experiencing performance issues, it might be time to consider upgrading to a plan with more resources, such as a Virtual Private Server (VPS) or dedicated hosting.
- Increased Traffic. As your website attracts more visitors, the Shared Hosting plan may no longer provide adequate resources to handle the increased traffic. Upgrading to a higher-tier plan will ensure your website can continue to operate smoothly.
- Additional Websites. If you decide to launch additional websites, you may need to upgrade to a plan that supports multiple websites, such as the Plus or Choice Plus plans.
- Security Concerns. If you require advanced security features to protect your website and user data, you might want to consider upgrading to a plan with better security options.
- More Advanced Features. If you find yourself needing more advanced features or custom configurations, you may need to upgrade to a hosting plan that provides more control and flexibility, such as VPS or dedicated hosting.
Remember, upgrading your Bluehost plan is simple and can be done with minimal downtime to ensure a seamless transition.
Alternative Hosting Companies
While Bluehost’s Shared Hosting plan is perfect for beginners, there are alternative hosting companies that you can consider as your website grows or if you want to explore other options.
Some of these hosting companies include:
- HostArmada. HostArmada offers fast and secure web hosting solutions at an affordable price. They provide excellent customer support, free SSL certificates, and a user-friendly control panel. Their plans are suitable for small to medium-sized websites.
- WPX. WPX is a premium managed WordPress hosting provider that offers lightning-fast hosting solutions and top-notch customer support. If you’re running a WordPress website and need more advanced features, WPX could be an excellent option.
- SiteGround. SiteGround is another popular hosting provider known for its reliability, speed, and exceptional customer support. They provide various hosting options, such as shared hosting, VPS, and dedicated hosting, suitable for websites big and small.
As a beginner, the Bluehost Shared Hosting plan offers an excellent starting point for your website.
With affordable pricing, comprehensive features, and user-friendly tools, you can confidently launch your website with ease.
As your website grows and your needs change, you can explore alternative hosting companies to find the perfect fit.
Essential WordPress Plugins and Themes for Beginners with the Bluehost Basic Shared Plan
As a beginner using Bluehost hosting, you’ll want to make the most out of your WordPress website with essential plugins and themes.
These tools can significantly enhance your site’s functionality, performance, and user experience.
Here are some recommended WordPress plugins and themes for beginners.
Astra Theme
The Astra Theme is a popular, lightweight, and customizable theme that’s perfect for beginners.
With its extensive library of pre-built templates, you can easily create a professional-looking website without any coding knowledge.
Astra is optimized for performance and works seamlessly with popular page builders like Elementor and Beaver Builder, making it easy for you to design your website according to your preferences.
RankMath SEO Plugin
RankMath is an all-in-one SEO plugin that helps optimize your website for search engines.
It offers a suite of tools, including keyword analysis, schema markup, and XML sitemaps. RankMath also integrates with Google Analytics and Search Console, making it easy to track your site’s performance.
Its user-friendly interface is perfect for beginners, guiding you through the optimization process with helpful suggestions and insights.
Imagify
Imagify is an image optimization plugin that compresses your images without sacrificing their quality.
It helps reduce your website’s load times, improving its overall performance and user experience. With Imagify, you can optimize your images in bulk, and it automatically optimizes new images as you upload them to your site.
The plugin also supports WebP format for even better compression.
Pretty Links
Pretty Links is a link management plugin that allows you to create short, clean, and easy-to-remember URLs for your affiliate links or other external links.
It also tracks click data, enabling you to monitor the performance of your links and make data-driven decisions.
Pretty Links simplifies link management and helps keep your site organized, especially if you’re focusing on affiliate marketing.
Sitekit
Sitekit by Google is a comprehensive plugin that integrates Google’s various tools and services.
Services such as Analytics, Search Console, and PageSpeed Insights, directly into your WordPress dashboard.
This plugin offers valuable insights into your website’s performance, traffic, and search engine optimization, helping you make informed decisions to improve your site.
WP Rocket
WP Rocket is a premium caching and performance optimization plugin that improves your website’s loading speed.
Its features include page caching, browser caching, GZIP compression, and CSS/JS minification.
WP Rocket is beginner-friendly, with minimal configuration needed, and it works out of the box to boost your site’s performance.
Final Thoughts: What Is the Best Bluehost Plan for a Beginner?
Along with hosting, I highly recommend that you look into keyword tools, AI blog writers, and graphic design tools to make your website stand out.
Check out the hand-selected article below for some of my favorite tools.
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