Blue Host New Zealand Reviews
Bluehost is very well known for offering dedicated hosting, shared hosting, VPS, WP hosting and cloud hosting with plans starting at $3.95 per month. Bluehost offers a smooth setup with an excellent flow.
Adding hosting, registering domain names, uploading images and content and installing WordPress is simple and easy. The Singapore server offers the ideal performance for New Zealand. BlueHost has web servers in seven different locations.
The Website Speeds
In the majority of cases, web hosting reviews are testing speeds for blank websites lacking articles, videos, images and website themes. The result is exceptionally fast, yet inaccurate speeds.
This type of testing will not accurately determine the performance of posts, pages and content on a functioning website. To obtain an accurate view of speed, I have used my website for testing. My site is hosted by Bluehost.
My website is based in New Zealand, including menus, articles and images. I believe my site is ideal for testing speed. I have found Bluehost is impressive for New Zealand websites.
I used Google Page Speed Insights for testing. This is the same technique used by Google for measuring the speed of a website. My desktop score for my website is 80/100. My mobile score is 75/100.
I used the Pingdom online tool for testing the actual load times because I wanted my figures to be accurate. My average load times were between one and 1.5 seconds. This placed my website in the top 20 percent for all performing websites.
In regards to the point I made earlier, some of the reviews I read for Bluehost showed testing at 400ms. I find this inaccurate for the performance of Bluehost websites. I am not saying I did not receive satisfactory speeds with Bluehost.
I am simply stating I did not find many of the other reviews accurate. Despite my speeds being a little slower, I have found Bluehost is a good option for New Zealand websites.
You need to keep in mind I tested the service on a fully functioning New Zealand website with daily traffic.
Uptime Numbers
I have found Bluehost offers some of the best uptime numbers in the industry. If you are not familiar with the term uptime, it is the length of time a website has been running online successfully.
If you lived in a perfect world, the best your website could achieve is 100 percent uptime. Your website would remain online every second of every year. Unfortunately, a perfect uptime is nearly impossible to achieve.
Web-hosting providers require time to upgrade servers, transfer data and provide maintenance. To determine the uptime numbers of Bluehost, I looked at HostingFacts. The service has been tracking the uptime performance of Bluehost for two years.
I was impressed when saw the results of the uptime software tracker. The average uptime for Bluehost over the last two years is 99.99 percent. The reason I believe these numbers is I use Bluehost.
I have never seen my website go offline. If you are looking for a web host with extremely reliable uptime numbers, I recommend Bluehost as an exceptional option.
Compatibility with WordPress
Bluehost and WordPress are compatible. The number one recommendation of WordPress for a web hosting provider has been Bluehost for the last four years. Since 34 percent of all online websites are run by WordPress, I find their recommendation is critical.
One of my key reasons for choosing Bluehost was this recommendation. Despite popular and good not necessarily being the same thing, I stand behind my web host. From my experience, I have found beginning with Bluehost and WordPress is the simplest option.
Once I signed up for the service, I was able to install WordPress with just one click of my mouse. I only needed five minutes once I signed up to have my WordPress website live on the web.
In addition to the compatibility with WordPress, I can use Bluehost to seamlessly work with more than 50 CMS’s including Joomla, Drupal and Weebly.
Bluehost Plans
To write my review of Bluehost New Zealand, I examined both the plans and costs. I needed to determine if the plans offered new websites a good value. I want to mention Bluehost offers payments in numerous currencies to eliminate difficult conversions.
I have not found many web hosting services providing this option. I started by taking a good look at all of the plans offered. The Beginner plan is for shared web hosting. The cost is $5.90 per month including:
Beginner plan
If you require hosting for additional websites or more storage, consider the Plus Plan. This is the plan I am using for $8.90 per month.
The plan includes:
By selecting the Plus Plan, I have been able to host almost 20 websites through one Bluehost account. When I consider the value of my plan, I find the cost extremely reasonable.
The bottom line is anyone in New Zealand interested in hosting one or more websites should seriously consider Bluehost. From my personal experience, the plans are well worth the cost.
Customer Service
Nothing will make me walk away faster than poor customer service. Although my rating for customer service is good, I believe a few small changes would result in an even better rating.
My biggest issue is Bluehost does not offer a toll-free number. Although this is not nearly enough to condemn the customer support available, I wanted to mention it. All of the customer support centers for Bluehost are in the United States.
You can contact support through Skype, international calls, live chat is available 24/7, ticketing and email support. Bluehost also provides community assistance through a customer forum and support articles numbering in the hundreds.
The customer support representatives are good. When I contacted the representatives, they were knowledgeable, friendly and extremely helpful regarding both WordPress and web hosting.
The representatives generally resolve my issues in 10 minutes or less. I find the process both effective and efficient. If you choose to call customer support directly, be aware your connection will require a little extra time.
I believe this is due to the number of staff available during the day and evening hours in the United States. In most instances, I prefer to use the live chat feature offered.
Hosting Interface
To offer an accurate Bluehost review, I looked at the platform’s user interface. I tried to use the same point of view as a beginner. I believe this is extremely important because I have found easy navigation is critical.
With easy navigation, you can update your plugins easily, add new domains, migrate websites, access the cPanel and add SSL certificates. I have looked at the dashboards provided by Bluehost, Hostgator, Hostinger and Siteground.
Based on my personal experience and opinion, Bluehost offers the easiest to use dashboard. My next step was looking at what is required to access the advanced settings. If you look on the left side of your menu, you will see a My Sites tab.
Once I clicked on the tab, I was able to easily adjust backups, plugins, users, settings, security and more. I found the advanced settings both easy to locate and use.
The Reasons I Like and Dislike Bluehost
I recommend Bluehost highly due to the reasonable pricing, exceptional uptime and ease of use. There are a few issues I would like to see Bluehost improve. Whether or not this happens, I do plan on remaining with my current provider and plan.
I would like to see a toll-free number available for New Zealand and no additional charges for website migrations. Finally, I would like to see the unnecessary add-ons removed from the checkout process.
My General Verdict Regarding Bluehost
From my personal experience, I have learned Bluehost has found the ideal balance for nearly perfect uptimes, cheap pricing, fast speeds and good customer support. Anyone interested in choosing a web host for WordPress needs to consider Bluehost.
Not only do I use Bluehost personally, but I also recommend the service personally for anyone in New Zealand interested in web hosting.
Bluehost F.A.Q.
Where are the Servers for Bluehost Located?
The servers and data centers for Bluehost are located in the United States in Ohio. Although there is currently no server located in New Zealand, the company uses a CDN for the distribution of hundreds of website copies on multiple continents.
I have found I receive fast performance times for all of my local New Zealand based websites.
Does Bluehost Provide Backups?
Although Bluehost does provide backups, the company does not state how often updates are performed. Despite the updates being performed frequently, I recommend the installation of a WordPress backup plugin for peace of mind.
Which Types of Web Hosting are Available Through Bluehost?
Bluehost has built a reputation for inexpensive shared plans for web hosting. The company also offers other reputable options including Managed, cloud and dedicated hosting for WordPress and VPS.
Which Security Features are Provided by Bluehost?
Due to the frequency of data breaches, I have made the security of my website and data files one of my top priorities. Bluehost has implemented an aggressive security approach including multiple security levels in the company’s data centers.
Bluehost also provides numerous security levels in the platform for the prevention of malware and DDoS attacks. The best security features include token validation, two-factor authentication, password protected directories and blacklisting IP addresses
The company also offers a few internal programs, Spam Experts, Spam Hammer and Spam Assassin.
Is Bluehost a Good Option for an eCommerce Store?
Bluehost is one of the best options available. If you use WordPress, you can increase eCommerce functionality by downloading plugins including WooCommerce. You can also use WordPress plugins including Shopify.
Which Domains Does Bluehost Provide?
The company provides free .net, .com, .org and .co domain names for your first 12 months. After that, you will need to pay a registration fee of $11 per year. You can purchase a New Zealand domain through a third-party provider.
You will need to change your DNS records to enable a connection to your website and domain. The process is easy and should not require more than 10 minutes.
Is There a Refund Policy?
Bluehost provides a money-back guarantee for 30 days for the web hosting service. The $11 charge for your domain name will be deducted.
Are CDNs Available?
Yes, due to a partnership between Cloudflare CDN and Bluehost, CDNs are available for exceptionally fast speeds for all web hosting customers.
If you are an advanced or intermediate webmaster no longer satisfied with your web hosting provider, I recommend looking at the premium options available through Bluehost.
Although these options are roughly ten times more than the cost of a shared hosting plan, I have found the options are well worth the cost.
The History of Bluehost
Although Bluehost is one of the most solid web hosting companies available, the situation was considerably different in the past. Danny Ashworth and Matt Heaton founded Bluehost in 1996.
Bluehost successfully rode the internet wave bringing approximately 500,000 customers in a period of just six years. The fast growth was due to the uniqueness of the shared web hosting offered by the company.
Anyone using the internet was able to find website hosting minus the need to pay exorbitant fees. Bluehost was on top of the world between 1996 and 2009. When EIG acquired Bluehost in 2010, the company took a turn for the worse.
As a web hosting conglomerate, EIG acquired growing businesses, significantly decreased expenses, then kept the profits. Bluehost experienced rough times between 2010 and 2013.
During this period of time, customer satisfaction decreased, there were substantial job cuts, speeds dropped and major outages occurred. The strategy for reducing costs was failing dismally. Fortunately, the company realized what was happening.
Everything changed in 2014. Bluehost went back to its initial core principles of providing fast and reliable hosting, great customer support and cheap pricing. By 2015, the company turned everything around.
Currently, Bluehost has more than 3,000,000 customers. I am proud to admit I am one of them.
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