If you look at BlueHost.com’s website, you can tell that this web hosting company is going to stick around for a long time. They put-together a serious, professional web-hosting service with all the right stuff. The site’s design works well, as the features are laid-out & easy on the eyes. I even found their contact information easily, which was a plus for user-related questions or problems. The company has tons of awards from the online industry validating their hosting services. There’s a demo of their control panel for beginners to learn how cPanel works. They built their control panel to be easily used. The demos on how cPanel works are geared for beginners & advanced users. (nicely done)
BlueHost’s Featured Components and Pricing
This company has some components within that are pretty straight-forward and nothing is missing. It has all the expected features and they are easy to find and work with:
* cPanel / including DEMOS * multiple database support * FTP * Email I found something unique and it was the BlueHost’s package featuring unlimited disk-space, and unlimited band-width.
There is a limited number of databases (50 each for MySQL and Postgre) and they’re providing more FTP and email accounts than anyone could ever use (1,000 and 2500, respectively). They’re giving unlimited numbers of addon domains, parked domains, and sub-domains as well. Pricing varies & depends on how long you sign up for:
* 3 Months: $9.95/month + a $30.00 Setup fee. *The Domain isn’t included. ($10.00 if purchased from BlueHost)
* 6 Months: $8.95/month + a $30.00 Setup fee. *The Domain isn’t included. ($10.00 if purchased from BlueHost)
* 12 Months: $7.95/month **Good Deal (no setup fee, free domain included) * 24 Months: $6.95/month ***Best Deal (no setup fee, free domain included)
I’m not a fan of most minimum three month contract offers, and the option is hard to find on their website. You have to click around to find it (it’s actually in the second step in their order process) It takes a little effort to find the prices and they are very competitive for long-term usage.
BlueHost’s Terms of Service
BlueHost has a very straight-forward Terms of Service agreement, with little legal jargon. It’s a bullet point page with the major points listed in an easily-read formation. The one shady-point that I saw stated that “All activities may be monitored, recorded, and examined by any authorized person, including law enforcement.” The lesser semi-shady point I found states “Any violation found or fraudulent activity that system personnel deem inappropriate may have your account immediately terminated without notice and any recorded evidence reported to authorized persons.” To be fair to this hosting company, the points are actually quite clear, and not hidden inside of a 10 page agreement. *easy to find*
cPanel / Control Panel
It takes two clicks to get into the control panel & if you know about cPanel, it is standard. You have the SQL, your sub-domains, & your email-accounts, featured in the cPanel. There are also a few nice additions that include a domain manager, a site-builder, and the option to manage your account right within. Basically, you can log into their billing-dept. It’s a convenient feature.
It has Fantastico, & from the way it looked, it was the latest version with all of the scripts. The cPanel was very quick and it performed everything it was supposed to do.
Script Installation
You can add your domains through add-on domain feature in cPanel. I added a few domains and everything seemed to work well, and without any problems. This hosting company doesn’t allow SSH/Shell Access by default, but they said they will enable shell access for your account if you fax a copy of your driver’s license, passport, or other ID to them. I installed a few basic scripts (a blog, a CMS, a forum) & didn’t have any problems. Their Speed was about average, and it seems to be keeping-up with all of the latest software updates.
Support Services
When I called the support department’s toll-free number, I was talking to someone within 30 seconds after dialing. I asked some basic questions: Do you support mod_rewrite (Yes), do you support mod_security (didn’t know, but checked), and do you keep your Fantastico up-to-date with the latest versions (Yes) The customer-rep was nice, and seemed to know what he was talking about. He wasn’t reading from a teleprompter. (There wasn’t any delay in his answers)
I also asked about some complicated issues that an average webmaster can run-into. I had to hold for a minute or two & spoke to a different representative. (They have more than one tech on duty, & that’s a great plus to get answers quickly). When I asked if BlueHost supports PHP5 (they said they have two servers that do, and can move accounts if needed (or) desired. I also asked if They support Ruby on Rails (No), and if I should use ‘localhost’ as my host name with the script I was trying to install (Yes). I reworded my questions to test the their email-support system. It only took 22 minutes to receive their answer. It was impressive, because it was already late in the afternoon, approaching closing-time for most people.
After performing my review, I’ve found BlueHost to be a solid web host service. This company has their act together and deserves their listing as a top quality web host. Their impressive functionality and solid support-staff make this company an easy choice for beginners & advanced users alike. In all, very user-friendly & a solid experience.
The Good: Good control panel functions: (cPanel) has a few nice extras. There’s plenty of space and bandwidth, good customer-support, & fair pricing.
The Bad: a few Semi-shady points in the TOS (nothing too sinister, & clearly outlined) Their 3 month minimum contract price is kind of hard to find, but its there.
Author: Jacqueline Gharibian. She has done an extensive research and review about BlueHost web hosting. To read more reviews about other hosting companies and also other products, please visit her site at ReviewTheWeb.
Business Plan for How To Start Website Web Hosting CompanyHow would you like to start or expand your business with a professional business plan that's designed to save you time and money and get your business started right?
This business plan will provide you with incredible tools to forecast the finances of your business, secrets to generating and securing customers, powerful market and industry information, and more! Take the first critical step towards a better quality of life and financial freedom right now!
Writing a business plan is the first and most important step in starting any business, and it is not something you want to just jump into without experience and a little help to get you started.
Think about how much easier it's going to be to using a complete, preformatted business plan specific to your business and industry, with all SBA required sections written for you, and all of the financial statements automatically generated for you!
Save countless hours of work and receive an incredibly valuable business plan that you can use to secure funding and estimate your business finances, sales, costs, and so much more!
OK, So What Is All Included With My Business Plan?
You'll be receiving a professionally formatted, easy to follow business plan that is specifically written to start up this business. All you need to do to complete the plan is fill in the information that is unique to your business!
This business plan template comes in MS Word and MS Excel Format. The Word document averages 24-26 pages in length, and includes all sections required by the SBA.
The MS Excel Template includes 17 unique spreadsheet calculators that allow you to quickly and easily input your startup costs, sales forecasts, product prices, employment plan, and much more! The charts automatically update based on your inputs for fast and easy editing. Use this plan as a template for completing your business plan and you will save countless hours developing a professional business plan.