Maybe you’re new to blogging and you’re not sure which blog hosting company you should choose. Or maybe you’ve been blogging for a while but you’re tired of being let down by your current blog host. Here are my bluntly honest thoughts about two top hosting companies.
Let me start by saying that when I first started blogging, I used Bluehost. It was expensive for us at the time because even though they wave that cheap $3.95 price around, that’s actually the monthly cost that is billed annually. If you want to save yourself some reading…I’m now with Siteground and I go into the reasons why below.
My Experience with Bluehost (and Why You Should NEVER Use Them!)
I started my blog in November 2015, but didn’t actually start actively working on it until February 2016 when I started Elite Blog Academy.
Because I was diligent about following the steps outlined in EBA, my blog grew quickly.
Then came the comments and e-mails.
I’d get comments on Pinterest that readers tried to click through one of my pins to read my content, but the site was too slow and they finally gave up.
I got e-mails to the same effect.
Initially, when I’d e-mail Bluehost, they’d get back to me within a few days.
Then came the downtime.
It seemed like every single week, my blogging friends and I were messaging each other asking to hop onto each others blogs and see if they were up.
It didn’t take long before we all started to abandon ship. I was actually the last one to leave because I’m apparently dense and stuck it out hoping they’d get the message from all of the complaints and negative reviews out there in Internet-land.
I chose Siteground for many reasons, but let me tell you:
The Number One Reason I Switched
If you’re in Facebook groups dedicated to blogging, I’m sure you’ve seen other bloggers complaining about the service Bluehost provides and howthere is increased downtime and long waits between answers to emails.
Do you know how long it took me to receive answers to my emails?
3 MONTHS.
On two separate occasions, I received e-mails from Bluehost apologizing for the wait, but finally answering my question with 1) another question and 2) giving me a link to a post about how to fix the problem myself.
I’ve seen other bloggers (including the blogger who is the reason I started blogging in the first place) say that they love Bluehost. Without Bluehost and their support they wouldn’t be blogging today.
I’m not sure what is going on over at Bluehost (a quick Google search can point you in the direction of their sinking ship if you’re curious)
Please understand that I’m not writing this to put Bluehost down. I wish they could be successful and could offer great support that is unmatched. I’d love it if we could all be successful. However, I’m here to help you be successful and save money.
If you want to be a successful blogger, follow these steps:
I’m telling you this to help save you from the mistakes I’ve made and to point you in a better direction.
My honest advice – Run, don’t walk, from Bluehost. I chose Siteground and their customer service has been absolutely incredible. If I ever find that changes, I’ll update this post that minute. I would absolutely never steer you in the wrong direction.
Since switching to Siteground, I haven’t received a single complaint about my site’s speed and it gets more daily visitors.
Siteground helped me to switch my site from Bluehost and they made the process completely painless. There was one part that I needed t do myself (point my domain to their server) and they sent me step by step instructions how to do it and sat with me while I figured it out.
In short, they’re amazing.
I completely regret everything I went through with Bluehost because I didn’t do my research in the beginning. Trust me when I tell you that there is nothing more stressful than seeing a post getting tons of views… Then your site going down. Or seeing a post getting tons of traction on Pinterest… Then getting comments from people complaining that they couldn’t see your post because they waited for 3 minutes and it still wouldn’t load.
Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love saving money and I’m the type to pick the cheapest option just to finally make a decision. BUT for just $2.95/mo (billed annually!) right now through July 4th, you can switch to Siteground. (Or start out with Siteground and then write to me about how you saved yourself the headache I cost myself).
For the next 4 days, Siteground is the absolute cheapest hosting option. After that, they’re still a cheap option and about 1 million times better than Bluehost.
Thinking about Switching to Siteground?
Here are the plan details and which you should pick, plus which one I use.
Their Start-Up plan is the one that is just $2.95 a month and is suitable for up to 10,000 visits monthly (according to Siteground’s website)
GrowBig is $4.50 per month and is suitable for up to 25,000 visits monthly
GoGeek (the one I’m on!) is $8.95 per month and is suitable for up to 100,000 visits monthly. I have to interject here that one of my best blogging friends was still on GoGeek and had over 200,000 visits monthly. It’s not like they shut you off at 100,000 visits or we’d all be in trouble.
I’m SO not technologically advanced, but SiteGround has been an awesome option for me. It’s probably the 2nd best choice I’ve made in my blogging life – the first being hiring Grayson Bell to support my site. He would tell you to run from Bluehost too, in case you were wondering.
If you have Bluehost and have had an awesome experience with them, I’m happy for you! I swear I’m to trying to run down Bluehost because I have some personal vendetta. I was actually an affiliate for them in the beginning and then immediately deleted all of my links as soon as I started having issues. Now, I happily recommend Siteground to everyone I know.
As a blogger, my friends ad family are constantly asking me questions about blogging and how to get started. The very first thing I tell them is to sign up with Siteground from the beginning and to build their blog on WordPress.org, not WordPress.com.
If you do those two things, you’re on your way to building a blog that could soon replace your full time income.
Do you use Bluehost and love them? Did you switch to Siteground and you’re so glad you did? Let me know in the comments!