Choosing the right hosting plan for your website can be the most crucial decision for your business online presence. There is a bunch of hosting service providers who are providing awesome services. In this post ‘Bluehost Review’, I will review Bluehost so that you can make an informed decision before you finalize your hosting plan.

BlueHost Review. Can companies rely on Bluehost service?

Bluehost is one of the top picks for many when it comes to selecting a hosting plan for their websites. Even WordPress officially recommends Bluehost!

If you want to skip reading the details, for a limited time, you can buy the hosting plan for a discount if you Sign Up from this link- Signup at Bluehost

If you are an online business, chances are you must have received emails from many companies offering their hosting services at “Cheap rate”. But anyone who has used them knows that their tall claims and promises are nothing but lies. Their support is pathetic, the frequency of downtime is high, extra services are minimal etc.

There are very few hosting services in the market that I prefer. Bluehost is one of them. Currently, I am using Bluehost on 3 of my websites and I am pretty happy with the experience.

Over the last few years, Bluehost had carved a name for itself with outstanding server performance and top notch customer support. My tickets were resolved within 13 hours on an average.

In this post, I will be sharing a detailed analysis & review of Bluehost hosting, and you can decide if this hosting is right for you or not.

Some of the things one must consider before purchasing any hosting plan are:

• High Uptime
• Price so that it doesn’t create a hole in your pocket
• Customer Support when you face technical issues.
• Hardware offering to ensure we are using the best server quality

Review of Bluehost Shared Hosting:

Broadly speaking, Bluehost offers following four hosting packages:

1. Shared hosting,

2. VPS hosting,

3. WordPress managed web-hosting

4. Dedicated hosting.

So if you are planning to start a small business or a new blog, you can opt for a shared hosting plan of Bluehost and it comes in 3 different packages. As your business scales, you can opt for dedicated hosting.

Let’s first address the question of reliability.

Before 2015, I had just heard about Bluehost. Though I was happy with my existing hosting providers, I was expecting a little bit more on the Customer Support front. Specifically, the turnaround time. That’s when I decided to give Bluehost a shot.

The installation part was pretty simple. The intuitive interface and the Interactive Guide(a unique feature of Bluehost) made things pretty easy.

If you are using WordPress host, apart from running the latest version of PHP and MYSQL your servers should be configured to handle the extra load that typically can happen with WordPress.  In this case, Bluehost handles the load pretty well.

In my case, Bluehost has handled load even upto 25,000 visitors per day.  Caching system is inbuilt and that makes your task easy.

Free SSL Certificate:

It is almost a common knowledge that Google has made SSL certificate as one of the search engine ranking factor and therefore a secure site(https) is likely to be ranked above nonsecure sites(http) in Google rankings. Bluehost offers free SSL certificate to every new & existing user!

Bluehost will automatically install & configure SSL certificate.

You just have to slide a secure button and woohoo, you are secure!

Pricing:

When it comes to pricing, you can choose from 3 plans.

So which plan to choose?

• For one website, you should buy the basic package.
• For multiple sites, go with the “plus” package.
• If you need who.is and code guard & site backup pro, you should go for the prime package. This package will make your identity safe as no one will be able to access your address via who.is

My recommendation for most users would be the “plus” package as it offers everything you need.

What’s great is that even though you are opting for basic plan, you will get a free domain.

Bluehost offers unlimited hosting resources. This simply means that you can host unlimited files, (Disk space) and use unlimited bandwidth. Currently, they allow the MySQL size of 3Gb. They also have a CPU limit, but that is pretty high compared to other hosting services.

What about the interface?

Bluehost uses cPanel, which is very easy to use with its icons. Moreover, they have also changed their dashboard to make it more intuitive.

cPanel makes managing your hosting account simple and it is almost used by most of the top hosting providers.

The connection between Bluehost and WordPress is long and Bluehost is in the process of upgrading its infrastructure so that Worpress powered websites have a seamless experience.

They have already started doing this by providing inbuilt caching feature. It simply means you can say goodbye to caching plugins.

Last but not the least Customer support!

I only used their customer support thrice but I have to say that they have one of the best support mechanisms. On two occasions, I used their normal ticket system to raise my issue. On both the occasions, the turn around time was less that 12 hours. Given the complexity of the problem at hand, I was literally surprised by their response time. Moreover, they provided all the possible screenshots along with clear cut explanations. The other time I used their Telephonic support and I was happy with their resolution. And yes, I didn’t have to wait for 5 minutes listening to a piece of boring music before they received my call 😉

There may be other aspects of their service which have been left out in this review. Nevertheless, I am sure, you will be able to make a better decision after this Bluehost review.

Disclosure: Times of Startups is a professional site that reviews products and services of other companies whose products or services we have tried or tested. We test each product thoroughly and give high marks to only the very best. We are independently owned and the opinions expressed here are our own and not that of the product or service owner. However, we receive a commission for any sale made through the affiliate link we provide in the review.

Hulu with Live TV Review

This review of Hulu with Live TV is meant to acquaint the reader with all the important information about the service including price, features etc. Hulu with Live TV lets you watch some of your favorite cable channels live, as well as a lot of your favorite cable shows on demand.

Hulu offers  50+ channels for $40 per month. Hulu’s live TV  includes A&E, Bravo, CNN, Disney Channel, ESPN, FX, Food Network, Fox News, Fox Sports, History, National Geographic, Syfy, TBS, TNT, USA including  sports and kids’ content.

But some famous channels are missing too. The Viacom channels are missing. Eg. Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon. Some premium channels, such as Cinemax, HBO or Starz. and  PBS as a local station, which are missing too.

However, you have access to Hulu’s full list of streaming shows, movies and original programs. Hulu with Live TV offers a range of add-on services that users can purchase on top of the base $40-per-month cost. Showtime costs an extra $9 per month, which can bring the total to $74 per month. After including all those extras, one could get  pretty decent package.

You’ll even get a generous collection of local channels, such as ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC.

Hulu with Live TV viewing experience

When it comes to video quality, Hulu has made great strides over the past year. The streaming service now offers 4K video for its original series and selected movies. Though, 4K resolution is available only on Xbox One S and PS4 Pro systems. HuluMost TV stations broadcast at 720p; most on-demand movies reach 1080p. Live feeds and DVR take a little bit longer than Hulu and network on-demand content however, it isn’t worse than any other streaming service out there.

Unlike YouTube TV, Hulu’s live TV service doesn’t come in a separate app. When it comes to colors, instead of the old green-and-white menus, Hulu now has a whole color spectrum.

Home screen contains “recommended” content, you can also access favorite programs and channels.

Each main menu has a lot of submenus. The Browse menu also allows you to you choose content by genre, as well as explore by network, live, on-demand, Hulu Originals.

However, once you get deep into the menus, there’s no easy way to return to the main screen. The menus also lagged a bit on the Xbox One.

Hulu’s live TV service lacks a full channel guide. You can’t simply call up a guide and scroll through everything. You can look at a daily schedule on a channel-by-channel basis, or scroll through a list of what’s playing live at the moment. Also searching channels can be a bit daunting task on Hulu unless you know what exactly you are looking for.

Hulu with Live TV DVR

You get 50 hours of storage, and newer programs automatically push older ones out. Expanding your DVR to 200 hours from the default 50 will cost $15, and allowing unlimited simultaneous streams rather than the default two will also cost $15, although you can save $10 if you buy both the expanded DVR and unlimited streams together.

Setting up your DVR options is extremely simple. Movies will record once; shows will record all episodes that Hulu can find. . The system works just fine, but it’s not as generous as YouTube TV’s unlimited DVR capabilities.

Compatible Devices

Currently, Hulu with Live TV is compatible with on Apple TV, Chromecast, iOS, Android and Xbox One. The company plans to roll out apps for Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Samsung smart TVs and computers over the next few months.

Conclusion

Hulu with Live TV is easy to navigate. However, advertisement, overpriced extras can discourage you from buying extras.  The streaming service’s redesigned interface is pretty decent . Moreover, you get plenty of interesting channels for a reasonable price. One can try Hulu for sure given the options that are available and the viewing experience is pretty decent too.

PlayStation Vue Streaming Service Review

This review of PlayStation Vue Streaming Service is meant to acquaint the reader with all the important information about the service including price, features etc. PlayStation Vue can be recommended for just about anybody looking to ditch their cable provider, but especially for those already signed up for the PlayStation Network or PlayStation Plus.