This is Matt Heaton President and CEO of Bluehost Inc. I have wanted for a long time to write a genesis of bluehost.com as well as put down on paper (as it were) my thoughts on the hosting industry in general. This blog is my attempt to do this!
Bluehost.com officially launched on December 5th of 2003, but I am getting ahead of myself. I would like to give a brief history of myself and how I became involved in the hosting industry. When I was twenty two years old I started a small chain of computer hardware stores called Computer Warehouse. We had three stores located in Salt Lake City, Provo, and St. George Utah. I was doing this while going to school at BYU (Brigham Young University) in Provo, Utah. This grew to the point where we had about 30 employees. In 1996 I started writing a piece of software to track website statistics. I launched this software under the domain FREESTATS.COM. About a year later I launched an improved version of this software at the domain SITETRACKER.COM. My claim to fame was that altavista.com (Which was HUGE at that time) used our software for their site statistics. I sold ads on the freestats/sitetracker service to subsidize the software development and to help pay for my time spent these sites. At the time I was colocating with a company that launched a free hosting service called FREESERVERS.COM. We helped cross promote each others service. I quickly noticed that the free hosting market was ripe for growth. I wanted in!! I searched the net for information on how to do hosting and discovered I was a bit over my head. I was a moderately skilled perl programmer at the time and took a perl script that did free hosting and heavily modified it. At the time everyone was giving away between 5-10 megs of space for free hosting. I wanted something that soundly trumped anything that was out there at the time and decided to give away 50 megs of space. Consequently, this helped me decide on the name of my new company which ended up being 50megs.com. Free hosting was growing rapidly and it didn’t take long before I was signing up more than 50,000 accounts monthly to this new service. My brother Shawn Heaton and I ran everything and tried to keep up with the growth. Approximately 6 months after I started 50megs.com FREESERVERS.COM was aquired by About.com, which was the 3rd largest internet property at the time. I was still colocating with FREESERVERS.COM and had a pretty good relationship with management there. A few months later is became apparent that 50megs.com and FREESERVERS.COM were targeting the same market. Rather than compete against each other About.com extended an offer to purchase 50megs.com and merge our outfit with FREESERVERS.COM. When we sold there were only three of us. Myself, my brother Shawn, and Mark Holt, a developer that helped with later projects that I pursued (0catch.com).
The sale of 50megs.com left me working at About.com. That was not something I felt comfortable with. I don’t do well working for others as I tend to think a little too much outside the box and don’t fit in well in corporate America. I took about two years off from work doing “this and that”. It was the unhappiest time of my life! I need to work to be happy, that much is apparent.
I decided to get back to what I felt I knew best (web stats or hosting). I felt hosting had a better future and decided to launch a free/paid hosting service called 0catch.com (Thats ZERO Catch). That service has had more than 3 Million signups and currently has 1.1 million active users. It is very much geared torward the beginning user and has limited capabilities compared to bluehost.com. That service has been going for approximately 6 years. The service still has more than 40,000 monthly signups and should have a bright future for years to come.
My partners and I from 0catch.com felt that we needed to have a more feature rich web hosting offering to compete effectively in the future. We debated on whether or not to enhance 0catch.com or develop a new brand entirely. Finally we came to the conclusion that 0catch.com couldn’t be all things to all people. After hunting for literally weeks for a name, we finally decided to buy bluehost.com. It costs us $1500 for the domain. We wanted something short and that friends could tell their friends about without having to explain it everytime (Read 0catch.com here!).
In July 2003 we started working on what would eventually be bluehost.com. We decided on Cpanel for our control panel and pretty much wrote the rest from scratch. Our billing system, signup system, and affiliate system are all written from scratch. We believe this gives us a huge advantage over many of our competitors that have to fit a system that may not meet their needs exactly. This also allows us to automate many procedures that others have to do by hand.
Our first month we had 55 signups. We were very excited! 25 months later we check our system to see if there is a problem if we don’t get at least 250 signups a day. We have grown by leaps and bounds, and have plans to accelerate our growth even quicker. It would be appropriate at this time to thank all of you who have made this possible! 35% of all our signups come from word of mouth advertising! We can’t thank you enough for encouragement and help along the way! Bluehost is now home to almost 90,000 domains! We fully expect that to be over 200,000 domains by the end of 2006. Thanks again!
Matt Heaton / President Bluehost.com
Freakin awesome. Bluehost is the stuff. I wont go anywhere else even if it was free! The support is priceless!!!!!!!
Felippe of bluehost.com saves the day.
A credit to Bluehost, Felippe was knowledgeable, courteous, and performance driven in rectifying the problem, which (file deletion) could have been avoided with some generated notice.
Your further attention to this matter is no longer necessary and bluehost is redeemed.
Al Peia
remove us from this list
I with you agree
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I´ll like to add my voice here. I moved over to Bluehost from another fellow who offered me similar (good) service. Along the way we simply couldn´t agree anymore (but his service remained attractive: all the addon domains and all that). Then I began searching for a replacement. The testimony that Bluehost fit that bill is that I have now over 5 domains hosted with Bluehost spread over three different accounts. Keep being good!
Fab service, thanks matt!
http://www.insectstore.com, http://www.mantis-inc.co.uk
I am about to renew the service, Thanks
Limousine for Sale Limousine Directory
Hi Matt,
Thanks for the background on blue host. I dont use blue host myself but have had a number of hosting services that just dont measure up. After reading all the praise, i have decidede to take a look into bluehost. Sounds like a good service.
Hi Matt !
Its been a month since I’ve decided to purchase a hosting space and domain..all this time doing comparison of prices and services…
and of course your effort… Best wishes
I just read the “genesis” and the personal comments by people…Its really so convincing and more so I ‘d love to be with bluehost . The testimonials make me so comfortable…
hello Matt,
a few words to say that BlueHost is the most efficient Hosting Co I know :
- real & genuine customer centric organisation,
- support Team : EXCELLENT (tech & commercial)
- huge QUALITY of server
- Real 24/7 availability of all (staff & stuff !)
- Good prices
So, only one word to qualify : W O N D E R F U L LLLLLLL
hi everyone
I want to change my hosting and after I read this article
I think BlueHost is the best choice.Thank you.
After singing Bluehost’s praises for over a year, I regret that I have to retract any positive remarks I may have made. Many people I know, including myself, have been forced to move to hosts that actually provide a hosting service. Bluehost were fantastic when I first signed up to them almost 2 years ago but gradually, the service has gone completely down hill. People have made the company aware of this in the forums but it seems as though it’s all falling on deaf ears. Soo long Bluehost, it wouldn’t suprise me if in the near future, they disappear al together.
Very dis-satisfied former customer.
Its really nice story about your business. Today i get email from hostmonster “HOSTMONSTER.COM: Announcement”. in that email i found your blog. i really like it to read. i love your design company too. Keep it up.
I appreciated reading the background story. I am a very happy BlueHost customer by the way. After having used several well known services, I think BlueHost is the best – hands down! Keep up the great work!
Hi Matt,
Thanks for providing such a great service at such a very reasonable price. I’ll be a customer for years and years to come.
Thanks,
Frank
p.s. Growing pains are to be expected and thanks for keeping us up to date.
Hi Matt,
Great service, I just love it when I “live chat” and I get the message to say the guy/gal is answering mulitple customers at same time! Followed by a accurate response to my question. Well done support!
I am 62 and served in the ‘computer industry’ for 42 years mostly in development and technical support. When I started the tree had only the trunk and 2 branches and a few leaves, I could keep up! Well now its like a forest and I still try to keep up. Your pricing as a retiree has allowed me to continue take an active part in this industry.
I have a theory that if you want a product/gadget to do some thing and you come up with an idea then it will be in the shops in 6 months, because someone else has thought of your idea at the same time! This has come about because of the web. Key words and technology advancments are triggered by small pieces of information being put together by someone like you Matt, to come up with the next advancment. Have fun and keep it going.
Thanks,
Tony
Simple signup. Loads of extras (what other hosts call “extras” anyways). Affordable once-off price. No downtime. Self-service with cPanel.
I have tried other hosting companies in the past and always had the impression that web hosting HAD to be difficult. Still on my first year with Bluehost but so far I’ve never had any problems. No reason for me to take my website anywhere else!
Great to see initiatives such as the community forums and this weblog. Looking forward to more positive developments in the future.
Hello Matt, yea man. We´been with you for years now (after a very bad experience) …. and “word of mouth” recomendation is your price for all your efforts. Congratulations.
I think I should write “prize” and not “price”
feel free to edit my post when moderating 
cheers. Emiliano
Great service and greate story! Greetings from Argentina!
That is an awesome story.
What I found funny is that when I first started getting into web designing I started with Freeservers. I didn’t like that I was only allowed 20mb of space, then I switched to 50megs. Later I found 100megs. Then a little over a year ago I started a clothing company called Paper Bullet Clothing and signed up with Stargate Inc hosting. They were really good but they sold everything to US2.net and it’s been a nightmare ever since. To everyone out there, DO NOT go with US2.net. They have horrible customer service, they have one problem after another and they take weeks to respond to you. Today I’ve been doing searching for a new hosting company to switch PaperBulletClothing.com to and I came across Blue Host…. So thank you very much for all that you’ve done. If it weren’t for your skills I would have been stuck with something as horrible as Homestead…. and now US2.net….
I look forward to switching to BlueHost!
I really like Bluehost. I am on a pretty steep learning curve with my website. Your service department has been great and very helpful to a novice. I decided to “do it myself” after a horrible experience with another provider who kept me in the dark, overcharged big time and delivered a bad product. Thank you for Bluehost!
George
I used bluehost with another company and managed 4 different sites, support was fantastic and made the decision very simple when it came time to do my own site.
However, just about once a month my site would go down, so I called and talked with support. It was always maintenance or heavy load. We had the same problem with the business account, but they moved all of our files to another “box” when we asked. Not the same with my personal account. The tech said they DO NOT DO THAT EVER! I was a bit surprised but dealt with it.
Then one of my personal sites had been compromised thanks to one of my “helpers” putting up a poorly written php upload script. A phishing site had been uploaded to my hosting space. Bluehost sent me an email saying nothing more then “Account suspended”.
I called again and talked to support, they told me what files I needed to remove, gave me ftp access, and I removed the files. The tech then said he’d get me started on being back up but it could take some time. two days later my site is still down. I call again. Now i’m told that some of the fantastico/simple scripts I had installed where outdated and my account could not be reactivated until they where updated. However I had removed them all from my account when I removed the files in question just to be safe. Bluehost was not actually looking at my account, they where looking at the cpanel info that said I still had them installed. I finally wiped my entire account out databses, files, emails, everything short of canceling. I am still waiting for my site to go back up.
If I continue to have these types of problem I may go elsewhere.
Also you may consider allowing this comment to go on you blog, all “excellent” comments looks fake to users.
Bluehost was an excellent client when using a business account, but they don’t seam to care about the personal accounts.
My mind will be changed if the problem is fixed and my site is up with no more issues.
Jei
Well, all this has me practically drooling with desire to switch to Bluehost. Matt seems to just reek of integrity, and all evidence indicates his operation and service is head and shoulders above the rest. The question is not IF I’m switching, just when! PS: Stay away from PowWeb, and any other company owned by Endurance. My site is growing in prominence and it won’t reach its full potential on PowWeb’s servers! Bluehost is run by (an apparently great) guy you can actually reach, everyone you speak to is here in the US, very articulate and easy to deal with… I can’t wait!
It’s time to do a shake up on the company. Re work how your team treats it customers and how you implement changes on your servers causing down time for the hosted!
In my eyes and if you do a search on BlueHost where BlueHost does not pay for the rating, you will see that they have issues.
Clean up or you will notice in this new market that customers will not put up with your company.
Good luck “blue” host
I really like your hosting, but the traffic is growing leap and bounds… When will you provide VPS or dedicated hosting so that a customer like me will have an upgrade path vs forced to move out?
Hi Matt,
After 12 months of planning, I have finally launched my blog service which is hosted by yours truly. I tested bluehost for 12 months before I could see if it was reliable enough to start my business and I can say it has been very solid with good support.
I have minor 5 minute outages, but today I woke up to a whole new database performance and I would like to thank you and the team for that. So far in the last 10 days I have brought on 10 blog executives all with their own blogs and happy to be just focused on writing.
I provide a full blown marketing system and all my execs need to worry about is the subject and get it up there. I have started to document my execs and the blogs etc on my site.
Once again thanks for a great service at an unbeatable price, without this level of service and value I really would not be in business today.
James T
I just want to let you know that I am very unhappy with bluehost.
After 2 years I’m changing hosting company.
As a CEO it’s importnat to hire the right people.
I have been with BlueHost for about 2 years now. You guys have the best tech support! The background story is very insirpiring, and I recommend BlueHost to anyone seeking hosting, even link to you from my web development site! I like what you did with the dedicated IPs, that is a definite must have. Thank you for treating me right, and keep up the good work!
-Joseph Marinaccio
Marinaccio Family Design
I just wanted to post real quick and say that I have been with BlueHost for a little while now and I am extremely happy about making the switch! If any of you out there are considering making the switch to BlueHost, STOP and just DO IT! You will not regret it. I’ve gotten a few other people to switch to BlueHost and they are extremely happy they listened to me.
Matt,
I must say you have a great story to tell. I always like hearing stories about people who have an idea and then act on them. I have used Blue Host for little over a year now. I have been happy with the service until recently. After it was time to renew, I thought the package would stay at the same price or slightly lower. After I saw how new customers where getting deals at $3.95 and renewing customers are still paying $8.95 / mo and $9.95 / mo. In a way I feel like I am getting a poor deal. Then I look and places like Ipower are giving better deals to renewing customer then they are new ones.
So I guess I am saying that it would be nice to have you as a long time provider. However, those 3 and 4 extra dollars a month do add up over time. I hope you guys rethink your prices on existing customers. Because other hosting providers are starting to sound tempting.
Regards
Hi Matt,
For starts, I like the blog and I like BlueHost, so please take this as constructive criticism. I realize this is an old post and you may not read this.. but I could not see any other place to voice a concern.
The verification process you have in place does not work. I teach and evening web class and no one is around to verify accounts.
(I need to have people create accounts and get a dedicated IP, can’t get the dedicated IP until you verify the account.)
I also help people in the evenings set up accounts. twice this week I tried to convince people to switch from refering people to hostgator and refer people to bluehost.
One person was giving a seminar on blogging, to a few hundred people the next day (today) and I tried desperately to get someone to verify the account. One of your support people said that if I emailed in DL & Credit Card they would do it in 1-2 hours. Well, the account is still not verified after 12 hours, and certainly not verified by 8 am as another support rep indicated.
Please rethink your verification process, or have option to order the dedicated IP address at signup. (Not the pro package, just and add on for IP only.)
Thanks,
Brian
PS> I still think your customer support staff is “good”, compared to ViaVerio, HostMySite and other decent providers who are “great”. (Your support staff is ill tempered and a bit rude…) -To be good or to be great…
Thanks, I am going to give bluehost a try, I am currently using apollo hosting, once a week you can count on your site being down. Eric
In my opinion and if you do a search on BlueHost where BlueHost does not pay for the rating, you will see that they have issues, i would recccomend it for the service though.
[...] President and CEO of BlueHost Inc. began a blog a few days ago for the purpose discussing the Genesis of BlueHost and to write about some of the issues affecting the hosting industry in general. Matt’s first [...]