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HOSTINGPublished 2026-10-26

What Is Bluehost? WordPress Hosting Priced by Term Length

By Joris van Huët · Bluehost's own site

The short answer: on Bluehost the term you choose sets two prices at once: Starter is $3.99 a month on a 36-month term and renews at $9.99, or $4.24 a month on a 12-month term and renews at $11.99 (pricing page, checked on 26 October 2026). Bluehost sells WordPress hosting, an AI site builder, VPS and servers for AI agents from one account, and its WordPress plans suit a small business site or a second brand site that needs Yoast SEO and a staging copy without a developer.

Disclosure: I may earn a commission through some links on this site. It does not change what this page says.

What to settle before checkout:

  1. The total for the term. For example, 36 months of Starter is 36 x $3.99 = $143.64 and 12 months is 12 x $4.24 = $50.88, at the monthly rates on the pricing page.
  2. The traffic you already have. Starter is sized for about 40k visits a month across 10 websites, Business for about 200k across 50, on the plan cards. Your largest month in last year's analytics picks the tier.
  3. The first 30 days. Hosting cancelled within 30 days is refunded, minus the regular price of a free domain, and nothing is refunded after day 30, per the money-back terms. Do your testing inside that window.

What Bluehost covers

Every WordPress plan includes a 99.99% uptime SLA, weekly backups, AI site creation, Yoast SEO, malware scanning and removal, free WordPress migration and free SSL, per the pricing page. Starter and Business include a staging site, phone support starts on Business, and eCommerce Essentials adds WooCommerce.

Beyond WordPress, the homepage lists an AI builder that turns a business description into a site, store or app, VPS and dedicated servers, and agent hosting for n8n, OpenClaw, Hermes Agent and Claude Code. Existing WordPress sites move in through a self-service migration tool built with InstaWP.

Who it fits

A founder or marketing lead who needs one to a handful of WordPress sites live, with SEO guidance inside the editor, round-the-clock chat support and a fixed price for a fixed term. Less so a site that outgrows Business's sizing, or a team that wants extra resources for a launch week only; Bluehost sells VPS for that as a separate product.

Prices by term

Monthly rates in USD, VAT not included, from the Bluehost pricing page, checked on 26 October 2026:

Plan12-month termRenews at36-month termRenews atWebsites
Starter$4.24$11.99$3.99$9.9910
Business$6.79$15.99$6.99$13.9950
eCommerce Essentials$15.99$23.99$14.99$21.99100

Business is the odd one: cheaper per month on 12 months than on 36, though its renewal is lower after 36. Until 30 November 2026, a Buy More, Save More offer takes 15% to 25% off eligible products bought together, on the first 12-month term only, per the offer terms.

Hostinger and SiteGround

  • Hostinger stretches its entry price over 48 prepaid months: Premium is $2.49 a month, $119.52 for the term, renewing at $10.99, per its pricing page. After the discounts, a dollar a month separates it from Bluehost's 36-month Starter renewal, so limits, support and the builder decide.
  • SiteGround discounts a single prepaid year and renews higher, with StartUp at $17.99 a month for one website on its WordPress hosting page. In exchange, email is included and an AI agent edits WordPress by chat.

Before you buy

The free step is your own data: export last year's monthly visits, count the sites you will host, and pick the tier from the largest month rather than the cheapest card. How to use Bluehost then moves an existing WordPress site across with the self-service tool. Look twice at the free domain, because it is part of the refund arithmetic: cancel inside the 30 days and Bluehost keeps the domain's regular price from your refund, per the money-back terms, so the gift is also what makes changing your mind cost something.

FAQ

Is the free domain free?

For one year, with a 12 or 36-month hosting term, redeemed within 90 days; after that it renews at the then-current rate, and a new domain cannot move to another registrar for 60 days, per the domain policy.

What does the uptime SLA pay out?

If shared-hosting uptime drops below 99.99%, customers can claim a single 5% monthly credit within 30 days, per the pricing page.

Does every plan include staging?

Starter and Business list a staging site on the pricing page; WooCommerce tools come with eCommerce Essentials.