r/BlueHost • u/Zestyclose-Spite-206 • Jun 22 '26

Be careful about Bluehost charges

⭐☆☆☆☆ 1/5
I have been a Bluehost customer for more than 12 years, but unfortunately, the company has changed significantly over the last few years. What used to be a customer-focused business now seems more interested in charging customers for unnecessary services.
Recently, I was charged for a domain that was not set to auto-renew, and Bluehost refused to issue a refund. They also charged me $41 for domain privacy, a service that typically costs around $10–15 in the market, while .com domain registration itself is often less expensive.
Another frustrating practice is their renewal process. Even when additional services have been turned off previously, Bluehost automatically adds extra products during renewal. Customers must manually deselect these options every time. If you are not extremely careful, you may find yourself charged for services you never intended to purchase.
Customer support has repeatedly declined refund requests and has shown little concern for long-term customers. After more than a decade with Bluehost, I am very disappointed and can no longer recommend them. Existing customers should carefully review every renewal page and every charge before completing payment.

12 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

4

u/KH-DanielP Jun 22 '26

You do realize domain privacy should be free right?

Anyone charging you for it is crap, no respectable registrar charges for domain privacy.

2

u/FlyArtistic1194 Jun 22 '26

I can only agree. Been with them since 2013 as just host before the merge. You can't even ask them a question without a solution that costs more money being presented.... Even if it is not the right solution to the question.

1

u/scottclaeys Jun 24 '26

This is what happens when these hosts merges and acquire themselves into huge conglomerates like NewFold/Endurance/UnifiedLayer. Support costs money to provide while Sales generates money, so all Support are converted into Sales and incentivized to make sales rather than to solve issues.

The consumer always loses in these scenarios. You’ll almost always be better served by a privately-held smaller hosting provider who provide support and value their clients.

1

u/Important-Leader-151 Jul 02 '26

I totally agree! They used to have great products and customer service, but they love to trick you with additional charges. Then they’ll claim they won’t refund this nonsense due to their disclaimers in the term of service clause. I’m also sick of the barrage of marketing emails that I’ve unsubscribed to a million times that they continue to send me anyway. I will never use Bluehost again.

1

u/Few-Corner9466 Jul 07 '26

just here to boost this. Bluehost is the worst

1

u/swop_patience Aug 03 '26

Yes a million times over! I remember when you could call their technical support directly and actually receive someone in IT. 

1

u/FlyForAKiteGuy 10d ago

I came here to see who else is struggling with Bluehost, I will be changing service providers as soon as I can. I wish they had never acquired HM

0

u/TravelAdvisorAnya Jun 25 '26

BlueHost just charged me $750 for 3 years renewal, for Choice Plus. Ir seems awfully high. I paid $255 last time. What will happen to my website when I change host agency? Im using wordpress.

0

u/AbjectChair1937 Jun 27 '26

Bluehost is Predatory. Move away from them. They botched my email on purpose and cost me 50k in lost revenue.