Bluehost Basic vs. Plus
Bluehost Basic vs. Plus is a match-up that mostly interests people who are looking for the best shared hosting solution in order to build small to a medium website. Both of these plans from Bluehost are significantly more affordable when compared to most of Bluehost’s Alternatives for the same services, which is already a big plus. But if you can afford either Bluehost Basic or Plus, which one should you go for?
I always say that this choice depends on your specific needs. We’ll take a look at both Bluehost Basic and Plus, as well as their features in just a moment, but, before we do, this is my general rule of thumb: If you’re a beginner who wants to test the waters and create a single website or blog, then Bluehost Basic is perfect for you. It’s super cheap and you don’t have to worry about the space limitations, because 50GB of SSD storage is more than enough for a single static HTML or WordPress site. If, on the other hand, you’re likely to try out multiple websites in the near future, Bluehost Plus is a much better plan. Here’s what I mean.
Bluehost Basic vs. Plus: Overview
Let’s take an overview at both Bluehost Basic and Plus and see what you get and how much you pay, then we’ll decide together what’s the best option for your needs but also for your pocket.
The Bluehost Basic plan costs $3.95 and renews at $7.99, which is, admittedly, a steep price hike. The plan comes with one website, 50 GB of SSD storage, a free SSL certificate, one free domain registration, 5 parked domains, 25 subdomains, and unmetered bandwidth.
The Bluehost Plus plan, on the other hand, comes with unlimited websites, unlimited SSD storage, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited domains, unlimited parked domains, and unlimited subdomains, Spam Experts (a security feature for your email) and 1 office 365 mailbox – free for the first thirty days. The plan costs $5.40 per month and renews at $10.99. Again, Bluehost’s plan is a bastion of affordability. If you need to see the difference between Plus and Choice Plus, feel free to read about it in our Bluehost Review.
| Bluehost Basic | Bluehost Plus | |
|---|---|---|
| Websites Allowed | One | Unlimited |
| SSD Storage | 50 GB | Unlimited |
| Bandwidth | Unmetered | Unmetered |
| Free SSL | Yes | Yes |
| Free Domain | Yes | Yes |
| Backup | No | No |
| Domain Privacy | No | No |
| Spam Prevention | No | Spam Experts |
| Pricing | $2.95/mo | $5.45/mo |
The important thing to take note of when comparing two shared hosting plans is the number of websites allowed. The Plus plan allows unlimited websites which is great while the Basic plan only allows only one website.
This is where the needs of the user come in. If, for example, you’re just starting out and only plan to create one website, going with the Plus plan might seem a little bit like using a grenade launcher to roast a Turkey. Another important thing to note when we are comparing Bluehost Basic versus Plus plan is storage. Here again, your needs come in. If your website is a simple one that doesn’t have too many videos and pictures, then 50GB of storage ought to be enough.
However, if your site is going to be data-heavy with lots of videos, pictures, and files, then the Plus plan is probably the best for you – even if you only plan on creating one website. You can always change your mind, and if you do, you’ll have zero troubles scaling up. The fact that both plans come with free domain registration and a free SSL certificate from Let’s Encrypt is great too.
Bluehost Basic vs. Plus: Conclusion
However, since the gap between the Bluehost Basic vs. Plus plan in terms of price isn’t that much (only about 2-3 dollars), we would recommend that you purchase the Plus plan regardless. You can never have too much space, too many websites, or too many domains. If the Plus plan is too expensive for you, though, you can go with the Basic plan.
