BlueHost Hosting Renewal Price

Bluehost renewal prices are much higher than the prices you see on the sign-up page. The entry-level Starter plan costs $3.99 a month on a 36-month term, but it renews at $9.99 a month on a new 36-month term and at $15.99 a month if you switch to monthly billing.

Started in 2003, Bluehost is one of the best-known web hosts and one of the few officially recommended by WordPress.org. It sells shared hosting, managed WordPress hosting, VPS, dedicated servers, and domains.

This article focuses on Bluehost shared hosting and domain pricing, because that's where most people start and where the gap between the first bill and the renewal bill surprises the most customers.

Bluehost Shared Hosting Prices

Bluehost currently sells 3 standard shared hosting plans: Starter, Business, and eCommerce Essentials. They replaced the older Basic, Plus, Choice Plus, and Pro plans. All three plans include:

• Free domain for the first year (on 12-month or 36-month terms)
• Free SSL certificate (Let's Encrypt)
• Free CDN
• Weekly website backups
• Free site migration tool
• Managed WordPress updates
• 24/7 chat support
• 99.99% uptime SLA
• 30-day money-back guarantee

The advertised prices are for a 36-month term paid upfront. Renewals depend on the term you choose when the plan renews: monthly is the most expensive, and 36 months is the cheapest.

Let's look at the pricing and features of each plan:

Bluehost Starter plan

This is the cheapest Bluehost shared hosting plan. It suits a first website, a blog, or a few small sites.

Top Features:

• 10 websites
• 10 GB NVMe SSD storage
• Suited to about 40,000 visits a month (Bluehost's estimate)
• Email mailboxes capped at 100 MB each
• Free malware scanning
• No phone support (chat only)

Initial price:

The Starter plan costs $3.99 per month on a 36-month term, which means you pay $143.64 upfront for 3 years. Shorter terms cost more, and Bluehost shows the exact price for each term at checkout.

Renewal price:

The renewal prices of the Bluehost Starter plan are:

If you renew Starter for another 36 months, you'll pay $359.64, which is about 2.5 times your first bill.

Bluehost Business plan

This plan suits multiple websites that need more storage and better security. Bluehost labels it its most popular plan.

Top Features:

• 50 websites
• 50 GB NVMe SSD storage
• Suited to about 200,000 visits a month (Bluehost's estimate)
• No per-mailbox storage cap
• Web application firewall and DDoS protection
• Malware detection and removal
• Free domain privacy for the first year
• Phone support included

Initial price:

The Business plan costs $6.99 per month on a 36-month term ($251.64 upfront).

Renewal price:

The renewal prices of the Bluehost Business plan are:

Business renews at about double its intro price on a 36-month term, so it's a smaller jump than Starter.

Bluehost eCommerce Essentials plan

This plan is built for online stores and websites that sell memberships, subscriptions, or courses.

Top Features:

• 100 websites
• 100 GB NVMe SSD storage
• Suited to about 400,000 visits a month (Bluehost's estimate)
• WooCommerce installed automatically
• Payment processing, product subscriptions, and memberships
• Paid courses and an affiliate program tool
• Web application firewall and DDoS protection
• Phone support included

Initial price:

The eCommerce Essentials plan costs $14.99 per month on a 36-month term ($539.64 upfront).

Renewal price:

The renewal prices of the Bluehost eCommerce Essentials plan are:

Bluehost high-performance plans

For busier websites, Bluehost also sells high-performance plans with more storage. They all host up to 100 websites and include weekly backups. Their renewal prices are:

All prices are per month. Bluehost says its pricing can change, so check the Renewal Center in your Bluehost account for the exact rate before your plan renews.

Bluehost Domain Prices

Bluehost sells popular top-level domains and many country-code domains. One domain is free for the first year with a 12-month or 36-month hosting plan, but you have to claim it within 90 days, and premium domain names are excluded.

Initial price

The first-year prices of popular Bluehost domains are:

Renewal price

The renewal prices of the same domains are:

Domain privacy costs $15 a year per domain (it's free for the first year on the Business and eCommerce Essentials plans). If a domain expires, Bluehost holds it for up to 30 days. After that, getting it back costs a $99 redemption fee.

Notice that a .com domain renews at $23.99 a year at Bluehost. You can usually renew a .com for less at a dedicated registrar, so many people use the free first-year domain and then transfer it.

How to Keep Your Bluehost Renewal Cost Down

• Renew for the longest term you're comfortable with. On the Starter plan, a 36-month renewal costs $9.99 a month, compared with $15.99 on monthly billing.
• Turn off add-ons you don't use before the renewal date. Add-ons renew with your plan.
• Check the Renewal Center in your Bluehost account a few weeks before renewal, so you know the exact amount.
• Compare with other hosts. If the renewal price is too high for your budget, moving to a cheaper host before the renewal date can save money.

Rounding Up

Bluehost is one of the few hosts recommended by WordPress.org, and its plans are easy to start with. But the intro prices only apply to your first term. Starter goes from $3.99 to $9.99 a month even on the best renewal term, and domain renewals are expensive too.

Before you buy, look at the renewal price for the term you plan to keep, not only the sign-up price. That's the number you'll pay for most of the time you host with Bluehost.