Bluehost Website Builder Review | PCMag

WordPress is a well-liked, versatile content material administration system that powers tens of millions of internet sites, and Bluehost makes it the spine of its website builder. If you want further assist constructing a web site, the Bluehost Website Builder provides you the instruments to make reliable, engaging pages, with e-commerce choices. Editors’ Choice picks Gator and Wix maintain up higher as standalone paid and free web site builders, respectively, however Bluehost Website Builder is an accessible, different possibility in the event you’re prepared to embrace Bluehost’s welcoming WordPress focus.

Prices, Plans, and Options

Although it lacks a free plan, not like Wix, Bluehost Website Builder in all fairness priced. You simply must suss out precisely what you pay beneath every WordPress hosting plan. You can both subscribe for a month or a 12 months, which determines the introductory worth and the renewal worth. 

The Basic plan begins at $9.95 on your first month of service, however the worth renews at $19.99 per thirty days as soon as the introductory interval ends. Similarly, Basic’s annual plan begins at $72, however the worth jumps to $132 per 12 months. The Pro plan begins at $14.95 for the primary month, however its price rises to $24.99 per thirty days. Its annual plan prices $168 on your first 12 months of service, however the worth will increase to $180 per 12 months after that.

The Basic shared internet hosting bundle consists of limitless month-to-month information transfers, 50GB of storage, and 5 e-mail addresses. The Pro plan builds on Basic by together with limitless GB storage per file (with a 300,000 file mushy restrict) and limitless e-mail. With the Pro plan, you achieve entry to WooCommerce on-line fee and storefront instruments, further premium templates, and area privateness. The e-commerce performance is the primary draw, and WooCommerce is likely one of the best WordPress plug-ins on the market.

The Basic and Pro tiers present limitless web sites, greater than 300 templates, entry to a picture library, weblog put up administration, e-mail advertising and marketing, and a free Secure Socket Layer (SSL). A free SSL is a pleasant added safety profit, which you’ll additionally discover with Gator (HostGator’s web site builder). With the included internet hosting you obtain one month of free Microsoft 365 Email Essentials on your area. If you need extra high-powered internet hosting, contemplate Bluehost’s VPS or dedicated internet hosting plans.

Bluehost provides you two choices for making a WordPress-powered web site: the normal WordPress interface or the Bluehost Website Builder. When utilizing the web site builder, you get pleasure from a extra streamlined method to create professional-looking websites. Like Web.com, Bluehost Website Builder permits you to merely kind key phrases right into a generator to let the builder create a place to begin. For our check, we created a podcast web site that includes a large pair of headphones on the house web page. 

Bluehost Website Builder options only one WordPress theme, however the sheer number of drag-and-drop templates and layouts allow you to endlessly customise that theme. Although you may’t change your theme when you’ve picked it (a typical web site builder limitation), you may alter quite a few visible elements inside a specific template, akin to fonts and background colours. In addition, you may swap between desktop and cell previews to see how your web site appears on totally different shows.

Unfortunately, this stylistic freedom doesn’t apply to picture modifying. You can import your personal photographs, together with a emblem, and browse Bluehost’s inventory picture library. However, you may’t actually edit these photographs, moreover resizing them or including a hyperlink and alt textual content metadata data. Gator additionally has nearly nonexistent photo editing instruments, however Wix provides you extra strong choices.

When it involves designing your web site, although, Bluehost doesn’t skimp on instruments. Under Sections, you may browse many various components so as to add to your web site. Each factor presents you with a couple of examples to select from earlier than dragging it onto your web page. Standard choices embrace textual content varieties, video embeds, and picture galleries. More bespoke components embrace a countdown timer, map, and carveout for customized HTML/CSS. 

Here you additionally entry e-commerce options, akin to product listings, opinions, promotions, and pricelists. With WooCommerce, you may promote tens of 1000’s of various merchandise, bodily or digital, in addition to subscription memberships.  

Bluehost’s web site builder isn’t complicated to make use of, however dumping all of those components beneath the identical Sections banner makes it take longer to search out what you’re searching for. Once a component was on the web page, I spent a couple of extra seconds than I wished adjusting values to get what I desired. Finding your workflow gained’t take lengthy, although, as that is nonetheless very a lot an accessible web site builder. 

Besides Sections, you may entry different vital modifying menus, too. View all your web site’s pages. Alter international look settings and allow transition animations. Enter enterprise and transport data, in addition to social media account credentials if you’d like your web site to sync with Facebook or Twitter. Track your web site’s visitors progress by means of Google Analytics.

Since you could use WordPress with Bluehost, the web site builder consists of WordPress-specific options that make your web site shine. Start writing a WordPress.com weblog that lives in your web site. Swap forwards and backwards between the simplified web site builder and absolutely featured WordPress admin interface at any time. In that means, Bluehost web site builder serves as helpful coaching wheels as you educate your self to experience the WordPress bike. To be taught much more, try How to Get Started With WordPress.  

Excellent Uptime and Customer Support

A fairly web site gained’t do you a lot good if nobody can attain it. That’s why we additionally check how nicely conventional web hosting services and web site builders keep on-line. Every quarter-hour, our web site monitoring software pings our web site and sends an alert whether it is unable to contact a web site for a minimum of one minute. Bluehost has traditionally been very steady, and that is nonetheless the case. During a 14-day interval, we did not see a single outage. Otherwise, anticipate glorious and reliable uptime.

With Bluehost Website Builder, you may leverage Bluehost’s confirmed buyer help workforce. Through its Blue Sky service, Bluehost supplies 24/7 phone help, on-line net chat, a ticket-based system, and a knowledgebase for Bluehost and WordPress usually. As with uptime, Bluehost’s fast and dependable buyer help continues to impress us in testing. If you aren’t glad, obtain a full refund in the event you cancel inside 30 days. For extra particulars, try our full Bluehost webhosting evaluate.

Feeling Blue

Bluehost Website Builder’s WordPress focus is not a limitation. In truth, WordPress powers so many web sites that selecting a web site builder constructed for the CMS provides you extra flexibility than you’d initially anticipate. For present Bluehost homeowners, it solely is smart to remain throughout the ecosystem, and Bluehost’s web site builder gained’t allow you to down. That mentioned, in the event you’re beginning recent with web site builders, and wish one which doesn’t really feel fairly as supplemental, we nonetheless suggest Wix and Gator, our free and paid Editors’ Choice picks, respectively.   

For extra on web site constructing, try 10 Easy But Powerful SEO Tips to Boost Traffic to Your Website and How to Create a Website.