BlueHost is a web hosting and domain registration company that provides the basic services for people who are looking to create their identity on the internet. Currently the company has over 1 million sites being hosted under their banner.

Hosting Plans
There is only a single web hosting plan that customers can pick and the cost for the plan is $6.95 per month. What the company lacks in variety of plans it makes up for with plan features. The hosting plan offers customers unlimited storage space and data transfers making the plan suitable for individuals and businesses alike. Other benefits of the plan include:

Single free domain name registration
Unlimited domains under a single plan
Email support - POP3 & IMAP support
FTP access and MySQL databases (100 included in plan)
cPanel administration tools
Subdomains
Wordpress support

Support for various web based programming languages such as PHP and ASP is not listed on the website. Other features of the hosting plan are e-commerce solutions such as various shopping carts and multimedia support such as Flash, streaming video and audio capabilities.

BlueHost uses quad processor servers with UPS systems and backup generators to ensure seamless access. When signing up with BlueHost customers also get up to $50 worth of advertising credit with companies such as Google and Yahoo.

Customer Service & Reviews
In order for their customers to contact them, BlueHost provides a toll free number and email address along with an online help desk system where complaint tickets can be launched. The added option of a live chat allows customers to get immediate answers online.

The Help Center is a useful resource available on the company's website and has numerous articles and tutorials to help you get started. A library of over 60 tutorials help customers with everything from adding a domain to their account to publishing websites using programs such as Dreamweaver and Frontpage 2003 and setting up email accounts and spam protection.

A Getting Started guide is provided to assist new customers in getting their websites up and running in the least possible time with the least possible hassle. Each section in the guide links to a related video tutorial which allows the user to quickly get the information required. Both the video tutorials and the guides provide detailed information and are quite useful while setting up the site.

For users that require additional help a forum and Knowledgebase provide a means of holding discussions with other users and the ability to browse through a number of informational articles. A link is also provided to the cPanel user documentation.

Company Information
BlueHost was founded in 1996 and has won a number of awards during this time. Awards such as "Best Support 2010" from www.webhostingsearch.com, "Highest Recommended Web Hosting Company" from upperhost.com and "Best Hosting 2009" from Raivinet.com bode well for the company. The company's website is neatly laid out and relatively simple to navigate.

BlueHost also provides an affiliate program for customers allowing them to earn extra cash from their website. It allows customers to earn up to $65 for each referral through their website. There is no cost associated with the program and customers simply have to put up a banner on their website. An online administration panel is provided to track click-through ratios and payments.

One thing that is gravely lacking on the website is customer testimonials. BlueHost does not feature any reviews or testimonials from current customers which would be a useful resource to provide. Also the company does not clearly specify their uptime however 3rd party monitors such as webhostinggeeks.com states it to be 99.789% since 2005. User reviews posted on external websites contain a wide range of comments both praising the company and questioning its service quality.

Before making the decision on which web hosting company to employ it is of the utmost importance that each company is personally reviewed. Reviews such as this one are for educational purposes only. All decisions should be based on personal interaction with the company.

The lack of scope in the services offered means that people who are looking for someone who can not only host their website but also help them build their online business and identity will not be satisfied. However customers that simply require their site to be hosted at an affordable cost will be content.

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