Unfortunately, Bluehost doesn’t offer monthly payment options for its cheap shared hosting or managed WordPress hosting. However, you can choose month-to-month billing with Bluehost’s VPS or dedicated hosting plans.
However, before you make any decisions, you should consider the differences between paying monthly and yearly.
In this article, we’ll look at the plans on offer and whether Bluehost is the right hosting provider for your needs. We’ll also break down the cost of each plan and compare monthly and yearly pricing.
Let’s get started!
What kinds of plans does Bluehost offer?
Bluehost offers a range of hosting plans to meet the needs of a wide variety of users. You can choose between shared, VPS, and dedicated hosting. For anyone running WordPress, there are also managed hosting plans:
Each type of hosting is ideal for a different type of customer. To make an informed decision, you might want to know more about each of them:
- Shared hosting. For better scalability, Bluehost offers four shared hosting plans. With each of them, you will share server space with other Bluehost customers. Their sites can affect your website’s performance and security.
- Managed WordPress hosting. There are three managed hosting plans, with the option of a shared or dedicated server. All plans come with automated WordPress solutions for installations, updates, and more.
- VPS hosting. There are three Bluehost VPS hosting plans ranging from 30 GB to 120 GB of SSD storage. Although these plans use shared servers, they offer enhanced security and performance through website partitioning.
- Dedicated hosting: Bluehost’s three dedicated hosting plans are the most expensive. They provide your website with its own server, which is ideal for high-traffic websites.
To an extent, the features available with each hosting plan may dictate which option you choose. However, pricing is also an important factor to consider.
Bluehost’s default pricing structure is a 36-month contract. That is, the prices that Bluehost advertises on its landing pages are only available for 36-month plans (shorter terms will pay a higher monthly price).
This requires you to pay for three years of hosting up front, which can be a hefty chunk of cash. Additionally, a long-term contract locks you in and makes it more difficult to switch plans or hosts should the need arise.
For these reasons, you might be interested in a month-to-month payment plan. In short, Bluehost does offer this option on some plans, but there are some caveats to keep in mind.
How much does Bluehost cost (monthly versus yearly)?
Like most hosts, Bluehost reduces the monthly cost of its services depending on the length of your contract. In other words, even though you will pay more money up front with a one-year contract versus monthly payments, you’ll spend less over the long run.
Additionally, a Bluehost monthly payment plan is not available for shared or managed WordPress hosting services (although the latter does have a quarterly payment option). If you feel one of these solutions is best for your site, you’ll have to commit to a long-term contract.
Here are the minimum payment terms for all of Bluehost’s hosting types:
- Shared hosting – 12 months
- Managed WordPress hosting – 3 months
- VPS – 1 month (month-to-month)
- Dedicated – 1 month (month-to-month)
To give you a clearer idea of Bluehost’s monthly versus yearly payment plans, we’ve compared all their pricing options below.
Shared hosting payment options
| Payment Term | Basic | Plus | Choice Plus | Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 months | $4.95 / month | $7.45 / month | $7.45 / month | $18.95 / month |
| 24 months | $3.95 / month | $6.95 / month | $6.95 / month | $15.95 / month |
| 36 months | $2.75 / month | $5.45 / month | $5.45 / month | $13.95 / month |
👉 Learn more about shared hosting at Bluehost
Managed WordPress hosting payment options
| Payment Term | Build | Grow | Scale |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 months | $27.95 / month | $37.95 / month | $57.95 / month |
| 6 months | $26.95 / month | $66.95 / month | $56.95 / month |
| 12 months | $24.95 / month | $34.95 / month | $51.95 / month |
| 24 months | $22.95 / month | $32.95 / month | $50.95 / month |
| 36 months | $19.95 / month | $29.95 / month | $49.95 / month |
👉 Learn more about managed WordPress hosting at Bluehost
VPS hosting payment options
| Payment Term | Standard | Enhanced | Ultimate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 month | $29.99 / month | $59.99 / month | $119.99 / month |
| 3 months | $29.99 / month | $59.99 / month | $119.99 / month |
| 6 months | $29.99 / month | $59.99 / month | $119.99 / month |
| 12 months | $23.99 / month | $34.99 / month | $83.99 / month |
| 24 months | $24.99 / month | $29.99 / month | $71.99 / month |
| 36 months | $31.99 / month | $29.99 / month | $59.99 / month |
👉 Learn more about VPS hosting at Bluehost
Dedicated hosting payment options
| Payment Term | Standard | Enhanced | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 month | $149.99 / month | $199.99 / month | $249.99 / month |
| 3 months | $139.99 / month | $189.99 / month | $239.99 / month |
| 6-months | $129.99 / month | $179.99 / month | $229.99 / month |
| 12 months | $99.99 / month | $119.99 / month | $139.99 / month |
| 24 months | $89.99 / month | $109.99 / month | $129.99 / month |
| 36 months | $79.99 / month | $99.99 / month | $119.99 / month |
👉 Learn more about dedicated hosting at Bluehost
Note: All of the prices above are promotional prices for your first billing cycle (anywhere from one month to 36 months, depending on your chosen payment term). When you go to renew, you’ll need to pay full price. If possible, this means you can save a lot of money by paying for three years upfront, instead of searching for Bluehost month-to-month payment plans.
Is Bluehost hosting right for you?
Bluehost is one of the most popular hosting providers out there. However, you might want to consider if it is the right host for your website. In addition to the plans, features, and pricing options we’ve already mentioned in this post, you might want to look into Bluehost’s performance and reputation.
We’ve reviewed Bluehost in the past and analyzed the performance of its shared hosting plan. According to our Pingdom Tools tests, it provides an average loading speed of 2.92 seconds. Using Load Impact, the same plan stays under two seconds until around 30 visitors access the site.
Additionally, in our CodeinWP Hosting Survey, Bluehost received a rating of 8.07 from 592 voters. This places it third in our overall rankings of the best hosting company for 2019. All in all, it’s certainly a solid pick if its pricing options fit with your budget.
Conclusion
While Bluehost is often seen as a go-to hosting provider, you might be uncomfortable with long-term contracts. A Bluehost monthly payment option is possible with certain plans. However, it can greatly increase your overall costs.
Before you commit to monthly payments, you might want to consider the savings available with an annual plan:
- Yearly managed WordPress hosting is up to $6 per month cheaper than the quarterly payment option.
- VPS annual payments can save you up to $36 per month.
- Dedicated hosting costs as much as $110 less per month when paid annually.
If you’re still looking for cheap month-to-month website hosting, we also collected some of the best month-to-month web hosting from other providers, with plans starting for under $3 per month.
Do you have any questions about Bluehost monthly payment plans? Let us know in the comments section below!
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