When you sign up for Bluehost, the process is simple and easy. However, when you come to the billing section, you will see a couple of add-ons. Bluehost will offer you a couple of addons that you can add to your hosting package.

In this post, we are going to discuss one of the addons that are Sitelock. Is Bluehost Sitelock security worth it or it is just a waste of money? We will see all the factors and will give you the final verdict.

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First: Sign up for bluehost.com

If you already bought your Bluehost account, then you can skip this step to the following section.

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After using the promo link, just click on “Get Started” to get your hosting account.

Bluehost offers four different hosting plans. You can read more on Which Bluehost Plan to choose.

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What is BlueHost Sitelock Security?

Most of you already know about Bluehost as you are here. However, we will discuss briefly about Bluehost before we get into the discussion on “Is Sitelock security worth it or not”.

Bluehost is a hosting service used by millions of people in the world.
It provides one of the best hosting services. It’s Officially recommended by WordPress.org.

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It doesn’t matter which package you select, they have annual and monthly billing (after the first renewal). When you reach the billing section, you can get a Massive Discount up to 67% OFF for their hosting services, in addition to that, they will ask you to add a couple of addons. Of course, you are allowed to choose whether you want it or not.

Generally, the addons are about security, performance, and backup. One of the addons is Sitelock security essential. It is a security add-on used to prevent your website from malicious attacks.

Sitelock will automatically scan your websites and will eliminate all the vulnerabilities. Not to mention, it will also remove malware.

Not just the website, it also includes database and network security. In simpler words, it will scan your website and remove the malware automatically.

It’s not just Bluehost, hosting services like HostGator or HostPapa also provide Sitelock security as a premium addon. This is because the hosting providers have partnered up with Sitelock. As a result, the hosting companies will boost and will encourage you to purchase the tool.

Before we make the final verdict on whether Sitelock security is worth purchasing, let’s see how it works first.

How Does Sitelock Security work?

Before we go on to ‘whether Sitelock security is worth the price’, we will first see how it works.

You have probably got an idea of what Sitelock does. Now, the point is how does this tool work?

Sitelock will automatically scan your website for vulnerabilities. The scan is done every single day and only one time a day.

In this process, they will scan all the web pages on your website and will remove the malware (if any).

The process takes the least amount of time and it won’t affect your website. In simpler words, your website won’t go down during the scanning process.

You might have a small question. Does Sitelock prevent your website from attacks?

The answer is YES. It works decently well. The scans are done regularly and it will also remove the malware.

Sitelock Pricing and Plans

If you are just planning to buy the hosting from Bluehost or from another Sitelock partnered hosting, you might first hear about it in the billing page.

When you are about to checkout, you will see that Sitelock Security Essential addon is automatically checked.

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Not to mention, they also charge you monthly for that. Is Sitelock worth it and you should get the premium tool? Before answering this question, let’s see the pricing and plans offered.

By default, you will only see one option in the billing section. That’s because Bluehost pushes you to buy the premium addon.

However, there is free Sitelock security available. Of course, free plans have fewer features and have several limitations. It has limited malware detection and only scans a couple of web pages.

The next plan offered by Bluehost Sitelock Security addon is the premium one. It will cost you $35.88 a year. That’s the monthly fee of $2.99.

Of course, the premium plan (essentials) will give you unlimited scans and detection. Also, the detection is not limited here. You will get better protection.

NOTE: If you buy Sitelock at a later date after you have signed up for your Bluehost plan, then it will cost you a lot more simply because they offer a discount on their initial checkout page for new users.

Additionally, you will get SiteLock Trust Seal which is helpful for your visitor’s reassurance, you get a CDN to guarantee faster load time with reduced bandwidth, and 24/7 customer support.

You can either buy it when you are in the billing section/checkout of the hosting or you can buy it from the website.

Sounds interesting, right? But is it worth it?

Do I need Sitelock Security on Bluehost?

No, Sitelock security is not worth the money you are paying.

It costs you $2.99 a month. In return, they only give one automatic scan a day. You can scan the website manually as many times as you want.

That’s not the main reason why we don’t recommend it. The primary reason you shouldn’t get Sitelock is that all the things that the tool does are very basic.

If you are using WordPress, even a free plugin could do all the work, there are plenty on the WordPress repository. On the other hand, if you are a developer, you can easily fix all the issues by yourself without the need for a plugin.

Also, some of these things can easily be prevented by installing an SSL certificate. Not to mention, Bluehost also provides a free SSL certificate with all of their hosting plans. So, that will cost you 0 dollars. So, it will not be a wise decision to spend money on it.

Sitelock does have certain pros but the cons are more as compared to pros. Let’s see all of them in brief.

Pros of Bluehost Sitelock

It provides DDoS protection.
It has a Web Application Firewall (WAF).
It scans your website automatically on regular basis.
It provides database security as well as it provides website security.
It automatically detects the malware and removes it from the website.
You can show the Sitelock trust seal to increase the trust of your visitors. It is a badge that confirms that your website is secured by Sitelock.

Cons of Bluehost Sitelock

The billing is kind of misleading.
Most of the users have negative feedback on it.
There are some free plugins that can do the same work. You can also manually do it.
The features are good but the pricing is too expensive. Even spending $2.99 per month on Sitelock won’t be worth it.

As a newbie, you might easily get into the trap and might pay for it. This is because the word “Security” means a lot when you are creating your first website or getting the website live for the first time.

So, don’t fall into the trap. The money spent on Sitelock is definitely not worth it. You can easily get many alternatives at a lower price (and some are even free) which works better.

How to Cancel Sitelock?

Of course, we can’t expect that everyone would be reading this article before purchasing it. Some of them are reading this after they have purchased it. So, the point is how you can cancel it?

It is an add-on. Therefore, you can’t directly cancel it. You will need to contact the support and ask them to cancel the subscription.

They might not refund you your money but you can cancel future subscriptions. In simpler words, you can save yourself by not paying money for future renewals.

3 Free Sitelock Alternatives

You will need to secure your website if you are not buying Sitelock security. There are many ways you can secure your website. We will be seeing a couple of them here. You can choose any one from the given options that suit your need well.

As you might have heard in many places, the best way to secure your website is by getting an SSL certificate. So, we will first discuss the SSL certificate.

Alternative #1 – Security Plugin

Now, we will talk about the Sitelock alternatives. We already answered no to the question “Is Sitelock worth it”.

One of the points that we covered was – many free plugins will do the same job. So, here are some of the free security plugins for WordPress that you can use:

WordFence: WordFence is one of the best security plugins available on WordPress. It does all the tasks that are mentioned in Sitelock. You can also get the free version. However, if you want more features, you can get the premium one.
Pro Tip: If you are considering getting the premium version, we recommend you check our full review on the premium version.
Sucuri: The next tool we will be discussing is Sucuri. It is a cloud tool that allows you to scan the website for malware and vulnerabilities. Also, you can get an email notification about all the failed logins.
iThemes Security: iThemes Security is another security plugin. It prevents your website from all types of attacks and will make sure that you get the best level of security. It has a free version but doesn’t include a lot of features.

Do not use all of them together. You will only need one particular plugin. You can surely try out all the plugins but make sure you deactivate the older one before you activate the new one. If you use both of them together, you will face several issues on your website.

Alternative #2 – Get a CDN

People who are not using WordPress can get a CDN. Even WordPress users should get a CDN.

CDN stands for Content Delivery Network. It increases the performance of the website as well as provides better security for your website.

There are many CDN you can get. Here are some of them.

Cloudflare (free plan available)
KeyCDN
StackPath
Google Cloud CDN
Amazon CloudFront

You can use any of them as per your choice. However, if you are looking for free CDN, Cloudflare will be the best option to go with.

Alternative #3 – Bluehost Sitelock Security Lite

Well, if you still think you are missing out on something by not buying Sitelock, you can surely Try out for FREE Bluehost Sitelock Security Lite. It is a free add-on provided by Bluehost.

It will only scan a couple of web pages. It roughly scans 5 to 10 web pages in the free version.

There are some limitations to malware detection. However, it’s good to try out if you think you are missing out on something. As you are just trying out something, you can check out how Sitelock works and you will automatically get the answer to your question – is Sitelock worth it?

Sitelock vs SSL

Most people get confused between these two. However, SSL and Sitelock are two different things and you shouldn’t be confused about the same.

Sitelock is a tool that will help you to detect malware and will also fix the issues.

SSL certificate will ensure that the information shared to your website doesn’t go anywhere else. In simpler words, if the user enters their email address and password, it should directly come to your server without going anywhere else.

So, you will need SSL even if you use Sitelock. If you don’t use Sitelock, SSL is one of the important things that you get.

Don’t worry, we will not ask you to spend money here. Luckily, Bluehost provides a free SSL certificate. You can directly add the Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate on your website.

After adding an SSL certificate, it will add HTTPS to your website. Also, it will protect your website from DDoS attacks.

Final Verdict: Is it Worth it?

You surely have the answer to this question by now. The final verdict is NO. You don’t require Sitelock Security Essentials. You can try out the free plan to test out but it will be recommended to buy the premium version. It’s not because Sitelock doesn’t work, it is because the pricing is too high.

This doesn’t mean you don’t require a security plugin or addon. You can get one of the addons from the Sitelock alternatives that we discussed. Lastly, it is up to you. If you feel like getting Sitelock Security Essential, you can get the extension, but we don’t recommended though.

Along with this, Bluehost also has various other addons such as CodeGuard tool, etc. It will take regular backups of your website. Again, you can get all types of plugins in the WordPress directory at a much more affordable rate. Therefore, you can just purchase the hosting from Bluehost and claim your domain name. You can simply skip the rest of the things as they are not essential.

Make sure you install the third-party security and backup plugin as soon as you get your website up and running.