Last updated: 2026-04-24
Bluehost Pricing (2026)
Bluehost pricing for 2026: every published tier, visit caps, contract length, and how to buy direct for agency or freelance WordPress hosting.
Bluehost prices as the budget-beginner managed WordPress host on shared infrastructure — Starter $3.99/mo (renews $9.99), Business $6.99/mo (renews $13.99), eCommerce Essentials $14.99/mo (renews $21.99), Pro $14.99/mo (renews $28.99), and a separate Managed WordPress product line starting at $19.95/mo. The headline rates look attractive but the renewal-rate trap is real — Business doubles to $13.99/mo at renewal, and most competitors' "regular" pricing is closer to Bluehost's renewal rate than its promo rate. Bluehost is officially recommended by WordPress.org (a trust signal) but that recommendation reflects WordPress's partnership with Newfold Digital (Bluehost's parent) rather than a pure performance judgment. Performance lags Kinsta, WP Engine, and Flywheel at equivalent traffic levels — this is a budget beginner host, not a serious managed WordPress platform.
Published pricing tiers
Every pricing tier Bluehost (owned by Newfold) publishes for Bluehost, verified against the vendor's public pricing page on 2026-04-24. WordPress hosts typically gate by monthly visits + storage + PHP workers — budget TTFB targets, uptime SLA, and peak concurrent load, not just average traffic, to avoid mid-campaign tier overages or 503 errors during viral moments.
Officially recommended by WordPress.org. Plan lineup reorganized in 2026 — Plus and Choice Plus discontinued. Starter/Business/eCommerce Essentials/Pro tiers now, with steep renewal pricing typical across the range.
| Tier | Monthly price |
|---|---|
| Starter (renews $9.99) | $3.99/mo |
| Business (renews $13.99) | $6.99/mo |
| eCommerce Essentials (renews $21.99) | $14.99/mo |
| Pro (renews $28.99) | $14.99/mo |
| Managed WordPress (separate product line) | $19.95/mo |
How to buy Bluehost direct
Buy Bluehost direct at bluehost.com — self-serve signup. The $3.99-$6.99/mo promo rates require 12-36 month upfront commit to lock in; monthly billing isn't available at those rates. Renewal pricing doubles or more — Starter renews at $9.99/mo (2.5× the promo), Business at $13.99/mo (2×), eCommerce at $21.99/mo (~1.5×), Pro at $28.99/mo (~2×). Budget the full 3-year TCO including renewal rate, not just year-1 promo. Bluehost has a huge affiliate program (70%+ commission on first-year signups, industry-high) which is why Bluehost appears as the recommended host on countless WordPress tutorial sites — the recommendation is affiliate-driven, not always performance-driven. No sales negotiation beyond the published promo; rates are fixed. Free domain for 1 year is included, which saves $10-15 but only matters if you don't already own a domain.
Pricing gotchas most buyers miss
The real costs with Bluehost: (1) Aggressive renewal pricing is the single biggest gotcha — plan for rates to double or more after year 1, and calculate total cost over 3-5 years rather than being seduced by the $3.99/mo headline. (2) Performance behind Kinsta/WP Engine/Flywheel on equivalent traffic — shared hosting heritage means you share resources with other sites on the same server, and "noisy neighbor" issues can cause inconsistent TTFB and 500-error spikes. (3) Support quality is uneven — Bluehost's support quality varies significantly based on which rep you reach, and complex issues (caching misconfigurations, PHP worker tuning) often get escalated or unresolved. (4) The "Managed WordPress" product line ($19.95+/mo, separate from Bluehost's shared hosting) is materially better than shared but still not category-leading vs. Kinsta or WP Engine. (5) Not a pure managed WP host — Bluehost includes cPanel, FTP, and shared-hosting heritage features, which means more surface area for things to go wrong. For personal blogs, small business first sites, or cost-conscious WordPress deployments under 50K monthly visits, Bluehost works; for agency or serious-traffic sites, the budget savings don't justify the performance and support tradeoffs.
What's included at every pricing tier
Baseline hosting capabilities shipped with Bluehost regardless of which tier you pick — these are what Bluehost (owned by Newfold) considers core to managed WordPress hosting:
- 50 GB NVMe storage
- Up to 200k visits/mo
- Free domain for 1 year
- AI-powered site creation
- Free SSL + automatic backups
- Up to 50 websites on Business/Pro
See Bluehost in context
Pricing is only one axis — the right WordPress host for your agency or freelance practice depends on TTFB targets, uptime SLA, support response time, and whether you need white-label client billing. See how Bluehost stacks up against the rest of the category:
About this pricing page
WordPress Hosting for Agencies maintains this Bluehost pricing page as a neutral reference — not a sales page. We verify pricing directly against Bluehost (owned by Newfold)'s public pricing page every time we push changes, and we flag price changes in our changelog. If you spot an outdated number, tell us via the contact form and we'll correct within 24 hours. Some outbound links are affiliate links — we may earn commission at no cost to you, and commission rates do not influence which products we cover.