Bluehost India Review: Should You Consider Buying This Hosting?

Bluehost is a well-known web hosting service provider and Bluehost India is just a part of it for the Indian customers specifically.

Bluehost.com offers an amazing hosting service for any type of hosting needs but is it the same with Bluehost India?

Let's figure that out in this detailed Bluehost India review.

About Bluehost India

Bluehost also had some setbacks after it was acquired by EIG and then in 2017 Bluehost fired 440 people to make it even worse.

While Bluehost is a name that we trust, EIG has a terrible reputation.

You can read about them below.

About EIG (Now Newfold Digital)

Endurance International Group or EIG bought Bluehost for $1 billion dollars in 2010. EIG was founded in 1997 and it has been renamed from BizLand.

The company is known for acquiring multiple smaller web hosting companies and then running them as a sub-brand without hindering the original branding.

Sadly, they are also known for overloading the server capacity by selling more bandwidth than they were supposed to.

EIG has done this before and continues to do so. A lot of others including me don't like them for this particular reason.

Under the EIG umbrella, there are well over eighty companies including HostGator, BigRock, ResellerClub, etc.

Out of them, If you're looking for web hosting services, I would choose to go with Bluehost, HostGator, or BigRock for their excellent service at reasonable prices.

In early 2020, Clearlake Capital Group bought out EIG for $3 billion and subsequently rebranded as Newfold Digital.

Nobody knows where this acquisition will lead these hosting providers but I'm very hopeful that they would learn from their mistakes and fix them.

Now let's focus back on Bluehost and its services.

Bluehost.in VS Bluehost.com - What's The Difference?

I am writing this review for Bluehost India which is available at bluehost.in which is different from bluehost.com

Ideally, they are supposed to provide the same level of service but unfortunately, they don't.

Bluehost India is just a part of Bluehost for Indian customers specifically.

As far as I know, they decided to run this business separately as most of the Indians were not able to use the payment options such as Credit Card and PayPal.

I can still assure you that 9 out of 10 people in India don't have a Credit Card or a PayPal account.

So it makes sense why they chose to do it. And not to mention that it makes it easier to manage the money. You know, tax and stuff!

To sum it up, they are the same with a few minor differences.

So why people are praising Bluehost.com and not Bluehost.in?

I think it's the management issue.

Reasons To Choose Bluehost India

Now let's talk about why you'd choose Bluehost as your web hosting service provider.

There could be a ton of reasons why you'd consider Bluehost India but here are some of the most interesting reasons to choose Bluehost India according to me:

Recommended by WordPress

Bluehost is one of the few web hosting service providers officially recommended by WordPress.org.

When it is officially recommended by them, you can be assured that you can trust that hosting service provider for any type of WordPress website.

The other two hosting mentioned are Dreamhost and SiteGround. Both of them are amazing too!

FREE Domain

All of the Bluehost.in plans come with a FREE Domain for a year. However, you'll have to pay for privacy protection which you will pay for sure to avoid spam calls and SMS.

So, technically it's not completely free but a discounted rate.

Other hosting providers such as Dreamhost and Hostinger will give you both of them completely free of charge.

But anyway, you'll get a FREE Domain with any of the Bluehost India hosting plans.

FREE SSL

Providing a FREE SSL with the hosting is pretty common now and you'll get it with Bluehost India too. The SSL will be provided by Let's Encrypt and it is easier to manage from the Bluehost dashboard.

Good Uptime

The uptime is another good thing about Bluehost India that you'll love for the price you pay. It was terrible back in the day but it's far better now and it is recommendable.

Good Security

Having good security on your hosting level is extremely important and it also helps when there are security experts to help you out in a situation like malware attack, hacked website, etc. Bluehost India has got you covered for that part.

Bluehost In-built Caching

They also offer an in-built caching control that you can enable with just a click to speed up your websites and improve your website's overall performance.

Indian Servers

If you run your business in India or you are specifically targeting an Indian audience then it makes total sense to invest in hosting that will provide you with Indian Data Centers. Well, Bluehost is one of them.

Please note that the Indian Data Centers are only available for Shared Hosting services and it is not available for VPS or Dedicated Hosting.

Affordable Pricing

Another reason that will attract you to Bluehost India is its pricing. It provides one of the cheapest rates in India for its shared hosting services.

For a popular brand like Bluehost, this is way less than expected. Bluehost.com on the other hand costs you a little bit more than this.

Indian Payment Options

Believe it or not, many users buy Bluehost India just because they provide a lot of payment options including UPI.

As I said earlier, most of the Indians don't have an International Credit or Debit Card to make online purchases and they don't own a PayPal account either.

If you're one of them, Bluehost India has got you covered. On Bluehost.in you can make payment via any of the following options:

Visa, MasterCard, RuPay, EMI option (Available for Credit card and Debit card, or ZestMoney), Credit Cards, Debit Cards, Amex, Net Banking, UPI, Digital Wallets, etc.

The payment options that I highlighted above are being used by almost all the Indian bank account owners now.

Money-back Guarantee

You'll also have a 30-day money-back guarantee up your sleeve just in case. It helps you to avoid the hesitance to try it out as if you don't like it, you'll get your money back anyway. So why not give it a go right?

However, please remember that you won't get a refund for the claimed free domain. So if you're planning to test it out for 30-days only, then I would suggest you not claim the FREE domain.

Otherwise, they'll deduct a specific amount from your refund for the domain. You can get the same domain for a cheaper rate on Namecheap with FREE WHOIS/Privacy Protection.

24x7 Support (Includes a Local Support Team)

Believe it or not, a local support team will understand your situation better than a support team sitting in another country.

While it's not the most important thing, it is definitely a thing to consider.

The support team is there for you 24x7 via Live Chat, Call, or Ticketing System.

So if you ever run into a problem, you can be sure that there are people waiting to help you throughout the clock.

GST Taxation

If you buy hosting services from India, then your tax liabilities are easier. You don’t need to pay reverse GST. And that is something you need to pay when you're buying services from outside India.

So those were some of the reasons why you'd choose to go with Bluehost India as your hosting service provider. Now it's time to dig deeper.

Bluehost India Review: Important Things That You Should Know

Before you make a decision, here are a few important things/factors that you should consider.

Server Response Time

Server response time is extremely important as it plays a big role in your overall performance and website load time along with the user experience.

In my tests for Bluehost.in shared hosting with the choice plus plan, the server response time was ranging from 35 ms to 373 ms which is good enough for the price.

However, it's not the best I have seen. There are a few other hosting services that provide better server response time.

Website Loading Speed

The website loading speed depends on a lot of factors and it is not completely dependent on your hosting provider. However, they do play a big role in it.

Bluehost has a cache-control in their dashboard to enable caching on the server level which I tried along with other on-site WordPress caching plugins and the website loading speed seems to be decent.

If you're a technical person then with a lot of optimization, you can get a good speed for the desktop version of your site.

Here's my example of tests that I did on my website:

I am using the Shapeshift theme by the Thrive Theme Builder with a lot of images on my test site here. But as you can see, if you optimize well, you can get a decent speed with Bluhost.in.

Please note that the test is based on their Choice Plus plan.

Now here's the result from Google's Page Speed Insights tool:

But the bad news is that, no matter how much you optimize your website, the load time for mobile is bad. Here's how the same page is performing on mobile devices:

However, it's not the best I've seen. HostArmada for example is way ahead of Bluehost India in terms of page load time. I'm currently using their Litespeed server that comes with the Speed Reaper plan.

Another close competitor is Hostinger which also comes with the Litespeed servers.

Website Uptime

In terms of uptime, I find it better than most of the hosting in this price range.

Again it's not the best but it definitely one of the best that you can get in this price range.

I had uptime issues in the past with Bluehost but now it seems to be very good so I don't have any complaints about it.

Load Test

When I tested it myself for load test, I noticed a hike in failure rates. It's not good enough to handle a lot of traffic at the same time but it should be fine for beginners or a new site.

Please note that I tested this on their shared hosting with the choice plus plan. I haven't tested it for their VPS or Dedicated hosting because most of us don't really need them.

Bluehost.in needs to improve its load handling capabilities. It's not good.

Data Centers

Currently, they provide data centers in two locations only. If you choose any type of shared hosting then you'll have two options to choose from, US or India.

However, for the WP Pro, VPS, and Dedicated Hosting, you only have one option and that is US Datacenter.

Low Inode Count

Bluehost has one of the lowest limits for the inode count for their shared hosting plans and it is too low in my opinion.

They only allow 50,000 inodes per cPanel account and if you reach this threshold they will send warnings to you and you'll experience some issues while still being able to upload new files.

They call it a soft limit but in my opinion, it becomes a problem right then and there. And their hard limit is at 200,000 where you'll be in violation of their terms of service and you'll get suspended.

And to be frank, that's low too if you want to create a lot of blog articles with images and stuff.

The inode count for their pro hosting accounts is 300,000 and this is the sweet spot according to me. While you can also get up to 1,000,000 inodes with their VPS or Dedicated Hosting accounts.

If you need more inode limits on cheap shared hosting accounts then I would recommend going with either HostArmada or Hostinger instead of Bluehost.

Types Of Hosting Offered By Bluehost India

As I said earlier, they have multiple types of hosting for different needs and fo

Shared Web Hosting

Their shared hosting is a good start point, to begin with for any type of web hosting needs. They have 4 different plans for this category:

1. Basic - ₹179/m
2. Plus - ₹299/m
3. Choice Plus - ₹299/m
4. Pro - ₹859/m

Please note that the price mentioned is for your first purchase only. The renewal will cost you a little bit more.

First of all, here are the common features/benefits you'll be getting on all of the above plans:

Now let's compare what you'll be getting different with each of their shared web hosting plans.

I have excluded one thing on the list that nobody really cares about, Microsoft Email Trial for 30 days.

If you need business email then I would recommend using Google Workspace instead.

Shared WordPress Hosting

Shared WordPress hosting is almost the same as the one above with a few minor differences.

This category has 3 different plans:

1. Basic - ₹179
2. Plus - ₹299
3. Choice Plus - ₹299

Again, remember that these are the price for the first purchase only. The renewal costs will be a little bit higher.

As I said, it is almost similar to the shared web hosting plans so we'll only talk about the differences in this section.

Here are some extra perks that you'll be getting here compared to the previous category:

That's it actually. Those were the only difference. The rest of the benefits are exactly as the general shared web hosting.

WooCommerce Hosting

WooCommerce hosting is built for those who are looking to create their online store using WooCommerce. For this category, they have two plans as follows:

1. Standard - ₹999/m
2. Pro - ₹899/m

I know I have said it already but just to make it clear, it's the pricing for the first purchase only. Renewal will cost a little bit higher than this.

First, let's look at the common features/benefits on both of their WooCommerce hosting plans and then we'll look at the difference between them.

Here we go, these are the common features/benefits in both the plans:

There are a few other things mentioned on their official website but I have decided to not include them here as it is just for the marketing purpose.

For example, they install the Storefront theme by default for you which is no big deal.

Similarly, you can install RazorPay or Stripe with one click which you can do anyway on any website. So it's dumb to mention them as features or benefits but they do it anyway.

Okay, now let's have a look at the differences between those two WooCommerce hosting plans:

So that was it for the WooCommerce hosting provided by Bluehost.in or Bluehost India.

Managed WordPress Hosting

They also have a fully managed WordPress hosting service that they announced recently. They call it WP Pro.

If you want to host a WordPress website and don't want to deal with the hassles of managing technical things then WP Pro would be the perfect choice for you.

I highly recommend using WP Pro instead of the normal shared hosting if you want to create a WordPress website and/or if you're a professional blogger.

WP Pro comes with 3 different plans as mentioned below:

1. Build - ₹1259/m
2. Grow - ₹1859/m
3. Scale - ₹3059/m

You know what I'm going to say right? The prices mentioned are for the first purchase only and renew at a higher amount later on.

As we've been doing so, let's have a look at the common features/benefits these WP Pro plans are offering first:

So those were the common features/benefits that you'll be getting with all the WP Pro plans.

And now finally let's compare the differences between them.

So that was all about their managed WordPress hosting so far.

VPS Hosting

Bluehost.in offers 3 different plans for VPS Hosting:

• Standard - ₹1159/m
• Enhanced - ₹1836/m
• Ultimate - ₹3659/m

Again, the prices mentioned are for the first purchase only. Renewal will cost you a little bit higher than the mentioned prices.

Now let's do the same for their VPS Hosting.

Here are the common features that you'll be getting with all of their VPS Hosting plans:

I haven't mentioned a few other additional features and addons which you check on their official website. I don't think they are important enough to mention here.

Now let's compare the VPS Hosting plans:

So that was all about their VPS Hosting.

Dedicated Hosting

Along with the shared hosting and VPS hosting services, Bluehost.in also offers their Dedicated Servers for you.

To all beginners, please note that unless you are a big business owner, you won't need a dedicated server.

Shared hosting is enough for you and at most you'd need a VPS server if you are a small business owner or for some specific needs.

Their Dedicated Hosting has 3 different plans as follows:

1. Standard - ₹6499/m
2. Enhanced - ₹8499/m
3. Premium - ₹10499/m

And here are the common features/benefits that you'll be getting on all of their Dedicated Hosting plans:

Again, I have excluded a few things that are not so important to mention here such as a 1-click app installer.

Now let's quickly have a look at the differences between those plans:

So that's all for their Dedicated Hosting servers or plans.

How To Get Started With Bluehost?

Now for those who are complete beginners, here's a quick step-by-step guide to getting you started with Bluehost India.

STEP 1: Click on this link to visit the Bluehost India website.

STEP 2: Choose the type of hosting you need from the menu. For example, you can select WordPress if you want to start a WordPress blog or website.

STEP 3: Click on the select button to choose your preferred plan.

STEP 4: Now you can either type a new domain on the left-hand side to claim a free domain or you can enter your existing domain on the right-hand side.

You can also skip this step if you want to configure the domain later.

STEP 5: Fill up your account details. You can also sign in with your Google account for a faster checkout experience.

STEP 6: Make sure to select the term of your hosting. By default, it will select 3 years.

STEP 7: Check or uncheck the extra add-ons that you'll need or don't need.

STEP 8: Read and agree to the terms of services by checking the box and then click 'submit' to proceed.

STEP 9: Now select your payment method. For example, you can even pay with UPI.

STEP 10: Complete your payment and the account will be created successfully.

That's it. Congratulations on getting started with Bluehost.

Bluehost India Review: The Pricing

Now let's talk about their pricing for each type of hosting service they provide.

\If you want to see the detailed pricing in each category then I have already mentioned them above.

Here's the minimum starting pricing available for their different type of hosting at Bluehost.in:

Interesting, isn't it?

Bluehost.in Review: The Pros & Cons

Frequently Asked Questions

Now let's have a look at some of the frequently asked questions.

Conclusion

Bluehost India is great for beginners if you're looking for shared hosting to host your PHP website or WordPress.

They also have the Softaculous installer which you can use to install any app available there in just a few clicks including WordPress.

Their dashboard is good-looking and easy-to-use and a few of the controls are right there in the dashboard to configure things easily.

You can also use the cPanel by clicking on Advanced Option from the dashboard.

Overall, it's a good hosting for beginners and small business owners.

But if your requirements are higher then consider using their VPS or Dedicated hosting.

You should definitely give it a try and I think you'll like it.