BlueHost

[chipbennett]

Anyone have any experience with BlueHost?

Free domain registration and $3.95/month virtually unlimited hosting for 36 months (without the stupid 32MB PHP memory_limit restriction I have now) is sounding awfully enticing, since my current host has once again disabled my website due to PHP/SQL burden issues - especially since I currently pay $90 every six months for hosting/email.

And I can still see no reason that my particular WordPress installation should be bogging down the server - though they keep claiming that it is.

[Rebecca Diamond]

AFAIK they are reliable, affordable hosting. The only caveat I'm aware of is that they are a LDS-owned company, and as such the TOS gives them the right to monitor and shut down your site w/o notice for anything deemed offensive.

If you google around, you'll find a variety of complaints about this - so it just depends on what your website is Most people are pretty satisfied with the service, from what I hear.

*and one of my best friends is LDS, so don't see the above post as a slur on that faith I think it's cool that a company has principles and sticks with them, even though I may not always agree w/how it plays out in the webhosting world!

[chipbennett]

Ah, so that explains some of the reviews I read of people's sites being shut down without notice.

I'm not worried about that, though. I'm pretty sure my site wouldn't cross the line. :)

[chipbennett]

And FYI, my site has been down now for 14 hours, with no response from Doteasy support.

[Devin]

Hey Chip. I host myself with BlueHost, and have moved or pushed about 20 clients to them. I haven't had many problems at all. I really like their chat support and I've used it a lot. You also get real people on the phone and 24/7 support.

My sites have gone down a few times. Apparently, 99.8% uptime still means you're down a few hours every year. Also, right now they don't support wildcard DNS (in case you wanted subdomain hosted blogs). But overall I highly recommend them.

[chipbennett]

Hey Chip. I host myself with BlueHost, and have moved or pushed about 20 clients to them. I haven't had many problems at all. I really like their chat support and I've used it a lot. You also get real people on the phone and 24/7 support.

My sites have gone down a few times. Apparently, 99.8% uptime still means you're down a few hours every year. Also, right now they don't support wildcard DNS (in case you wanted subdomain hosted blogs). But overall I highly recommend them.

Thanks, Devin!

I decided to go with WPWebHost for my personal site - but will keep BlueHost in mind for future work!

[Rarst]

I decided to go with WPWebHost for my personal site

Don't. Their reputation is good from WP-themed marketing and affiliate program, but actual hosting is terrible in my experience.

I got two years of free hosting with them in one of the contests and walked out after half a year recently.

I had posted writeup in WP and hosting topic and at my blog after I moved.

[chipbennett]

Don't. Their reputation is good from WP-themed marketing and affiliate program, but actual hosting is terrible in my experience.

I got two years of free hosting with them in one of the contests and walked out after half a year recently.

I had posted writeup in WP and hosting topic and at my blog after I moved.

I had to make a spur-of-the-moment decision, as my site was down for three days, with no resolution. I figure, with the amount of traffic I generate, I couldn't pass up the $72 for two years' worth of hosting.

If, after two years, I don't think they're worth it, I'll move on. As it was, it paid for itself, since the $72 I paid for two years of hosting with WPWebHost was only slightly more than my refunded six months' worth of hosting with my old host.

[Martin]

Imo never a good idea to register a domain at the same place you get hosting from. Go to a domain register and keep your domain separate from your hosting account...

[chipbennett]

Imo never a good idea to register a domain at the same place you get hosting from. Go to a domain register and keep your domain separate from your hosting account...

My domain name is still registered with my old host, through 2012. When it's time to renew (or sometime between now and then), I'll look into a new registrar.