Getting a WordPress website on Bluehost: FAQ

Bluehost is a top web hosting provider, powering millions of websites worldwide. We have been recommended directly by WordPress.org since 2005 because of our reliability and expertise in WordPress.   

So, how do you get your website on Bluehost? This article will answer the most frequently asked questions that users ask about getting a WordPress website on Bluehost. 

Is WordPress free on Bluehost?

Yes! Setting up a WordPress website on Bluehost requires no additional costs. You only have to pay the hosting fee when creating your Bluehost account.   

How do I install WordPress?  

You can install WordPress once you add a website to complete the process. Do this in a few simple clicks by following our step-by-step guide to installing WordPress. To begin, you will need to log in to your Bluehost account manager.

How can I build a WordPress website on Bluehost?  

You can easily start building a website on Bluehost within 5 minutes.   

1. Buy a domain and hosting plan: Choose and purchase a domain name and Cloud or WordPress hosting plan. All our plans include a domain name free for 1 year. 

2. Install WordPress: Install WordPress and set up your account.  

3. Create your website: You can create your website using themes, or AI site creator, or get assistance from our experts.  

4. Publish your website: Customize your website with themes and plugins as needed and launch it.  

You can also check out our detailed guide on how to start an online store for more information.

How do I move my WordPress website to Bluehost?

At Bluehost, many of our customers use cloud and WordPress hosting for their sites. So here is a step-by-step guide to moving your WordPress site from another host to Bluehost with almost no downtime.   

There are many steps in this process, but if you follow them one after the other, you should be able to transfer your website quickly.  

1. To start, log into your current host and use the provided program (such as phpMyAdmin) to export your site’s database.  

2. Use your preferred FTP program (such as Filezilla or Cyberduck) to download and save your wp-content folder (a.k.a. the files that make up your WordPress site.)  

3. Log in to your Bluehost control panel.  

4. Install WordPress using SimpleScripts, a one-click install tool.  

5. Create an FTP account in your Bluehost control panel to upload your files to your new WordPress site folder. When creating your FTP account, remember that you might want to change its designated directory to something easily identifiable.  

6. Launch your preferred FTP program and open a new connection. Log in with your new FTP account info.  

7. Overwrite the existing wp-content folder with the one you downloaded from your previous host.  

8. Open phpMyAdmin in the Database section of your Bluehost cPanel.  

9. Select the database to which you want to import your data. You may need to look up this information. (To do so, go to the File Manager in your control panel and open your public_html folder. Then scroll down to find the wp-config file, right-click the icon, select “Code Edit,” and then “Edit.” In the code edit window, scroll down to identify the database you should use.  

10. Once you’ve selected the correct database in your phpMyAdmin window, you will see a list of tables. Before you import your new data, you can drop these tables by selecting the “Check All” option at the bottom of the list and then selecting “Drop.”  

11. Now it’s time to import! Go to the “Import” tab in phpMyAdmin. Choose “Browse your computer” and find the SQL database file you exported from your previous site. (It should be named something similar to “bluepm1_wor2.sql”.) Make sure the SQL format is selected and click “Go.”  

12. Here is an important step after you import your database. After your database is imported, check to learn the new table names. If your table names begin with ‘wp_,’ you don’t need to make any changes. However, sometimes your tables will import with a name like ‘wrp-‘ Go to your file manager and open the wp-config file in your public_html folder.  

13. Right-click on wp-config, select “Code Edit,” and then select “Edit.”  

14. Scroll down until you find the line “Stable Prefix” line. Edit it to read ‘wp_.’  

15. Now that you have your database and site files, it’s time to put everything on your temporary URL. This is how you move your site without any downtime.* First, in your phpMyAdmin site, select wp-options from the menu on the left of the screen. Then, select “Edit” on the “site URL” line. (This will typically be line 1.) Next, paste in the temporary URL provided to you when you create your Bluehost account and click “Go.” (Tip: if you’re unsure what it is, it can be found in your Bluehost welcome e-mail.) *Note: all of these previous steps can help anyone move their WordPress site. The following steps are for those who want to move their WordPress site without downtime.   

16.  Repeat step 11 for your “Home” line in wp-options. (This is typically line 36.)  

17. Now it’s time to see if your work has paid off. Enter the temporary URL into your internet browser and check if your site is there. If so, you’re nearly done!  

18. Log into your WordPress admin site to save your Permalinks. Go to “Permalinks” under the “Settings” tab of the dashboard and click “Save Changes.”  

19. Before you can move from the temporary URL to your permanent one, you must change the nameservers associated with your domain to point to Bluehost. This can be done in the domain manager of your domain registrar, whether it be with Bluehost or another registrar. For example, use the following: NS1.BLUEHOST.COM and NS2.BLUEHOST.COM. (This indicates that your site is hosted at Bluehost.com. The DNS change can propagate anywhere from a few hours to several days. Once it is finished, you can use your domain on your new site.)  

20. Once the DNS change is complete, log into your WordPress admin site and go to “General” under the “Settings” tab. Then, enter your domain into the “WordPress Address” and “Site Address” fields, and click “Save Changes.”  

21. The last step is to enter your domain URL into your internet browser to check if your site is live. If so, then congratulations! You have successfully moved your WordPress site to Bluehost.

Can I install WooCommerce on Bluehost?

Of course, WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin. That means it can be installed on any WordPress website. If you’re looking to install WooCommerce on your WordPress site, we have this step-by-step guide on how to set up an online store.

Can I run an online store on Bluehost?  

Totally! We even have a WooCommerce hosting plan that was created specifically for online store owners. In addition, we help make things easier for you by including many top features in your WordPress installation.   

These features include WooCommerce installation, store analytics, customer discount codes, wish lists, appointments and bookings, gift cards, shipping, payment processing, and more.

Can I disable the plugins that come with your WordPress installation?  

Absolutely! You can deactivate any plugin in your WordPress dashboard. To do this: 

• Log in to your WordPress dashboard.

• Go to the Plugin tab on your left navigation bar and then, click on Installed plugins. 

On the new page, you can see all the plugins that have been installed on your website. Here, you can deactivate and delete any installed plugin.

Can I host multiple websites on Bluehost?

Yes, you can host multiple websites on Bluehost. Starting from 10 websites on our Basic shared hosting plan, the number of websites increases as you switch to Plus, Choice Plus, or Pro plan.

What is the AI Site Creator?

The AI Site Creator is a powerful tool that helps you build a professional website quickly using artificial intelligence. It provides personalized templates and design suggestions based on your industry and preferences. Plus, the AI tool simplifies WordPress management, making the entire process easier and more efficient.

How do I use the AI Site Creator?

Using the AI Site Creator tool is simple.  

• Select AI website creator from Bluehost. 

• Connect a Facebook account. 

• Upload website Logo.  

• Select the AI Generated website version.  

• Customize your website. 

• Edit with Wonder Blocks. 

Can I use Bluehost’s AI tools to enhance my existing website?  

Yes, Bluehost’s AI tools can be used to enhance any existing website. You can use the AI Site Creator to redesign your site or incorporate AI-driven features to improve the user experience. 

Does Bluehost offer any eCommerce solutions with these new features?  

Yes, Bluehost offers comprehensive eCommerce solutions, including WooCommerce hosting and integrations with AI tools to optimize your online store. These solutions include features like product recommendations, personalized shopping experiences, and advanced analytics.

What are the benefits of using Bluehost’s AI Site Creator for my business website?  

The AI Site Creator offers several benefits:  

• Quick and easy setup  

• Personalized design suggestions  

• Optimized for mobile and desktop  

• No technical skills required

• Continuous improvements through AI learning

Can I customize the templates provided by the AI Site Creator?  

Yes, the templates provided by the AI Site Creator are fully customizable. You can adjust layouts, colors, fonts, and content to fit your brand’s needs. 

Is Bluehost secure?  

In addition to traffic encryption via our free SSL Certificate, our web hosting platform includes brute force protection on WordPress Logins, Bad Bot Detection/Deflection, and advanced Mod Security rules, all dynamic and designed to keep your website or blog safe!

Does Bluehost automatically back up my website for me?  

Yes, we do offer complimentary backups for our customers on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. These backups are not guaranteed in any way.  

We highly recommend that all Bluehost customers create and manage their backups. You can refer to this article to learn how to back up a WordPress website. For more information, please refer to our manual backup policy.

Can Bluehost handle large traffic?

Yes, Bluehost servers can handle large traffic. However, we recommend using VPS, dedicated hosting, or cloud hosting for high-traffic websites.

Is Bluehost fast enough?

Yes, Bluehost is fast and reliable, which is why many customers choose us. Our VPS hosting offers higher storage and bandwidth for significant traffic. Dedicated hosting provides maximum speed and security for high-traffic sites. Our VPS and Dedicated hosting plans also come with NVMe SSD storage that offers higher data transfer speeds and lower latency.

As a result, your website loads faster while handling more simultaneous requests, and improves the overall user experience. Cloud hosting spreads resources across multiple servers, ensuring high availability and handling traffic spikes without downtime. You can trust Bluehost for a speedy and dependable hosting experience.   

How do I log in to my Bluehost account?

1. Go to Bluehost.com.  

2. Click on Login in the top right corner.  

3. Enter your domain name or email address as the username. It can be any domain assigned to your account.  

4. Enter your main account password.  

5. Click the login button.  

This is the simplest method for logging into your Bluehost hosting account. For a detailed guide, check out our help article.  

How do I navigate the Bluehost control panel?  

For a detailed guide, check out our article on how to navigate the Bluehost dashboard.  

What is a staging site, and how do I create one?

A staging site is a copy of your website where you can make changes that don’t alter your live website until you deploy them. Staging sites help you catch errors, so you don’t end up breaking your live website. We have this step-by-step guide to creating a staging site. 

What are the differences between shared, VPS, dedicated, cloud, and WordPress hosting?

Shared hosting

Shared hosting means sharing a server with other website owners who also host their sites on the same server. You will use the same database, bandwidth, and storage. It’s the cheapest, most accessible type of hosting. 

Features of our shared hosting:

• Performance and hardware: Though resources are shared, our servers are equipped with reliable hardware, ensuring a stable and consistent performance for all websites hosted. This setup is ideal for personal blogs, small businesses, or websites that don’t require the extensive power of dedicated resources. 

• Resource allocation: Resources such as CPU, RAM, and storage are distributed among all users on the server. While not exclusively yours, our optimized allocation strategies ensure that your website performs well within its capacity. 

• Network and bandwidth: Our shared hosting plans come with ample bandwidth to support standard web traffic. Though bandwidth is shared, we manage it to minimize the risk of congestion, ensuring smooth operation for all hosted sites. 

For individuals and small businesses looking for a cost-effective hosting solution that meets basic needs without sacrificing reliability, our shared hosting plans provide a balanced approach to performance, affordability, and ease of use. 

Dedicated hosting

Dedicated hosting provides you access to server resources (CPU, RAM and storage) that are exclusively yours. It means unparalleled flexibility, speed, and security because no other users are sharing your resources. While this is the most premium hosting option, it justifies its cost with the range of advanced features it offers. 

Features of our dedicated servers:

• Performance and hardware: Our servers are equipped with the latest generation hardware, including AMD EPYC 9534 CPU Chips and ultra-fast NVMe SSD storage drives, supported by PCIe 5.0 for rapid data transfers. This setup is perfect for handling high-traffic websites and demanding applications with ease. 

• Dedicated resources: We ensure that CPU, RAM, and storage are exclusively allocated to your server, providing a 1:1 mapping that enhances performance and reliability. 

• Network and bandwidth: With a 10 Gbps network and unmetered bandwidth, our servers can handle immense data transfer without any bottlenecks, making them ideal for bandwidth-intensive operations. 

For businesses that require the highest levels of performance, security, and control, our dedicated servers offer a comprehensive solution that meets these needs and more, ensuring that your hosting environment is as robust and capable as your business demands. 

VPS hosting

VPS hosting, or Virtual Private Server hosting, strikes a perfect balance between shared hosting and dedicated server hosting. While you technically share a server with other users, VPS hosting allocates a dedicated portion of the server’s resources exclusively to you. This setup offers significantly enhanced storage space, bandwidth, and access to advanced features, making it ideal for medium to large websites that require more power and control. 

Features of our VPS servers:

• Performance and hardware: Our VPS servers are powered by the latest generation hardware, including AMD EPYC 9534 CPU chips and ultra-fast NVMe SSD storage drives, supported by PCIe 5.0 for high-speed data transfer. This ensures optimal performance for high-traffic websites and resource-intensive applications. 

• Network and bandwidth: Each VPS comes with a 10 Gbps network and unmetered bandwidth, allowing for high-speed connectivity and the ability to handle significant data transfer without bandwidth throttling. 

• Reliability and availability: We guarantee 99.9% uptime, supported by our Tier 3 data center that provides high availability and robust infrastructure, minimizing downtime and keeping your site running smoothly. 

VPS hosting is an excellent choice for businesses that need more than what shared hosting offers but aren’t ready for a dedicated server. It provides the necessary resources and flexibility for growing businesses, ensuring that your website can handle increased traffic and more demanding applications efficiently. 

Cloud hosting

Cloud hosting utilizes multiple servers to host your site, offering scalability, flexibility, and reliability. It distributes resources across several servers, ensuring high availability and performance. It’s ideal for sites with variable or high traffic, as it can easily handle traffic spikes without downtime.  

Features of our cloud hosting:

• Performance and hardware: Our cloud hosting infrastructure is built on the latest generation hardware, including powerful processors and ultra-fast SSD storage. This ensures that your website can handle variable traffic loads with ease, delivering consistent and reliable performance even during peak times. 

• Resource distribution: Unlike traditional hosting, cloud hosting distributes CPU, RAM, and storage resources across several servers. This not only enhances performance but also provides automatic scaling, allowing your site to grow and adapt to traffic demands without interruption. 

• Network and bandwidth: With a network optimized for speed and redundancy, our cloud hosting platform ensures that your website remains online and responsive, even in the face of sudden traffic spikes. The flexible bandwidth allocation adapts to your needs, minimizing the risk of bottlenecks and downtime. 

For businesses that require a dynamic, scalable hosting solution, our cloud hosting offers the perfect balance of performance, adaptability, and cost-effectiveness, ensuring that your online presence remains strong and responsive as your business evolves. 

WordPress hosting

WordPress hosting is specifically optimized for WordPress sites, providing enhanced performance, security, and ease of use. It includes features like automatic updates, pre-installed themes, and plugins, as well as specialized support, ensuring a smooth and efficient WordPress experience.

Features of our WordPress hosting:

• Performance and hardware: Our WordPress hosting is powered by the latest generation hardware, including high-performance CPUs and SSD storage, ensuring that your WordPress site runs smoothly and loads quickly, even under heavy traffic. The infrastructure is finely tuned to maximize the efficiency and speed of WordPress, making it perfect for websites of all sizes. 

• WordPress optimization: We provide an environment specifically configured for WordPress, including features like automatic updates, pre-installed themes, and plugins. These optimizations ensure that your site is always running the latest and most secure version of WordPress, with everything you need to get started right out of the box. 

• Security and support: With advanced security measures tailored to WordPress, including daily backups, malware scanning, and a Web Application Firewall (WAF), your site is well-protected against threats. Also, our specialized WordPress support team is available 24/7 via chat to assist with issues, ensuring your site remains secure and operational. 

For WordPress users who require a hosting environment that delivers superior performance, security, and user-friendly features, our WordPress hosting provides a comprehensive solution that enhances your WordPress experience, making site management effortless and efficient. 

Should I choose the basic plan or the pro plan for shared hosting?  

There are different benefits of using different Shared hosting plans. With Basic plan, you get basic features such as 10 websites and 10 GB SSD storage, which is ideal for about 40k visits per month.

But you get more advanced features with the Pro plan such as 100 websites and 100GB SSD, ideal for 400k visits per month.  For more information, check out all Bluehost shared hosting plans.  

What is Bluehost cloud hosting?  

Bluehost Cloud Hosting offers enhanced performance, reliability, and security for your website. By hosting your site on multiple servers, we ensure that it remains online and fast, even during traffic spikes. Plus, as a part of the Bluehost Partner Program, eligible partners can enjoy one year of free cloud hosting, along with other perks like priority support and exclusive discounts. 

How does Cloud hosting improve my website’s performance?  

Cloud hosting improves performance by distributing your website’s data across multiple servers. This ensures faster load times, increased reliability, and better handling of traffic surges.

How do I set up Cloud hosting on Bluehost?

Setting up Cloud hosting is straightforward:  

• Go to Bluehost Cloud hosting page and select a Cloud hosting plan you prefer. 

• Click on Continue to Checkout. 

• On the new page, provide your contact information and complete the payment process. 
• Log in to your Bluehost account and navigate to “Cloud Sites” in the hosting section. 
• Click “Create Site,” choose a domain, and customize your site using the website builder.  
• Enable CDN, caching, activate SSL certificate, and set up daily backups.  
• Review settings, publish your site, and use the control panel for ongoing management and support.

How secure is Bluehost’s cloud hosting? 

Bluehost’s Cloud Hosting includes advanced security features such as: 

• Automatic failover 

• Data mirroring 

• Daily backups 

• Enhanced DDoS protection 

• SSL certificates 

Does Bluehost offer a free trial?  

We have a 30-day money-back guarantee policy. If you cancel within 30 days, you will receive a full refund on your hosting service. Please note that our money-back guarantee only applies to hosting plans. It does not apply to add-on products, like domains, given the unique nature of their costs. 

Does Bluehost offer free domains when I purchase a hosting plan?  

Yes, every new Bluehost account includes a free new domain registration for one year.

Can I change my domain name after registration?

Yes, you can. You will need to contact us by phone or chat, and we’ll help you with that. But before you decide to change your domain name, there are certain things you need to consider. Please refer to this help article for more information on changing domains.

Can I change my domain but keep the same content with Bluehost?  

Yes, you can. Here’s a guide on manually changing your domain. 

How is Bluehost’s customer support?

Excellent customer support is what we’re known for! Our team of experts is available 24/7 to help answer questions and solve your problems. Just chat or reach us at 888-401-4678.

Does Bluehost provide any support service for my WordPress website?  

Yes, you can add WP Live support to your hosting account for a monthly fee. WP Live is our team of experts who help you build and grow your website and improve your skills in WordPress. We can even build a website from scratch if you need us. 

Can I change my hosting plan afterward? 

You can always upgrade or even downgrade your plan from your Bluehost dashboard. Or you can contact our customer support team, and we will help you. For more information, please visit our help article about renewing your hosting. Please note that if you change your hosting plan, you will not get the discounted pricing for the plan you want to change to.  

Chat or call us if you want to know more about Managed WordPress hosting, buying a domain, or any other website services. We’re here 24/7 to answer all your questions and offer advice to help you get started!