Sometimes when you visit their page, there’s a Bluehost special offer at $2.95/month. Here’s a screenshot:
Here’s the Bluehost discount 2024 page where you can see all their latest deals. However, it isn’t always available. Most of the time, you see the $3.95/month pricing instead:
Maximizing your Chances of Getting the Discount
To increase your chances of seeing this discount, try these:
First, open the Bluehost pricing page, and refresh it for a while. Then open it in incognito mode and try again.
Second, start the checkout process. Fill in the details etc., then abandon it. Come back 5-10 minutes later and start over.
There’s yet another plan at just $2.65/month. You get this plan only if you hang around the order page for a while after selecting the basic plan. Then you get a popup with the special offer as shown here:
I haven’t been able to determine when precisely the popup appears. It seems to be random. Sometimes you get it, and sometimes you don’t. Maybe there’s a deeper algorithm in the background that determines when it shows.
Note, however, that the yearly price of hosting remains the same. It’s only the 36-month plan that receives the discount:
Bluehost $2.95 For Special Promotions Only
Puzzled at this apparent discrepancy between their $3.95/month and $2.95/month deals, I sent an e-mail to Bluehost asking them how to get the lower price on their pages. Here’s the response I got:
Based on this, it seems clear that we get $2.95/month only during special events, sales, and promotions. The rest of the time, it’s $3.95/month. So if you visit the Bluehost page and see the lower price, it might be a good idea to act fast before it changes!
BUT…It’s Only for 3-Year Billing Cycles!
There’s a massive caveat, though. You get these special prices only if you choose to host for at least three years. If you want to take hosting for just a year, the price remains unchanged at $2.95 for the first billing cycle.
These are the annual price comparisons between various web hosts. And here’s the total price you pay for one year and with the $2.95/month plan for three years:
- 1-year hosting: $2.95*12 = $35.4
- 3-year hosting: $2.95*36 = $106.2
As you can see, while you do save on a “per month” basis, the actual up-front amount you pay for the $2.95/month plan is a lot more, which makes sense since you’re buying for three years at a time.
Different Bluehost Renewal Rates as Well
The discounts on the order pages are for the first billing cycle only. After that, they charge you the full amount. What is less known is that this amount differs based on the billing cycle! For example, here are the renewal rates for 1-year, 2-year, and 3-year cycles for the Bluehost basic plans:
- 1-year renewal rate: $8.99
- 2-year renewal rate: $8.49
- 3-year renewal rate: $7.99
The differences are pretty low, and I don’t think you should make up your mind solely on the renewal rate. Honestly, it’s such a slight difference that I don’t know why they even have it. But it exists nonetheless.
With Free SSL, Bluehost is a Lot More Attractive
For a long time, Bluehost charged for SSL, which web hosts like SiteGround provided free Let’s Encrypt certificates to all their users. But now that Google’s insisting on HTTPS for all sites, Bluehost decided to stop charging for SSL.
With this, Bluehost is as price competitive as its counterparts like DreamHost, InMotion, and SiteGround. Previously, I wouldn’t recommend Bluehost to anyone because their SSL was so expensive, and that problem has been removed.
Don’t Forget the Free Domain
Annual Bluehost plans are still more expensive than SiteGround, whose yearly shared hosting starts at $2.99 per month. But this ignores the free domain that Bluehost offers for the first billing cycle.
Since purchasing/transferring a domain is around $12-13 a year, you end up paying the same amount with Bluehost.
Summary: Get Bluehost $2.95/month ONLY For 3 years
The takeaway from all this is that the $2.95/month Bluehost plan is fleeting, and we can’t predict when it will show up. If you see it and want to lock in the discount, make sure you choose a billing cycle of at least 3-years, and that’s the only way in which you come out ahead. Otherwise, you end up paying the same amount regardless of what it shows on the homepage.
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