Is Bluehost Package Extras Worth It? Do You Need It?
Last Updated on September 2, 2023
Two common questions asked when signing up with Bluehost are, is Bluehost package extras worth it? Do I need Bluehost package extras?
In this post, we go in-depth on each Bluehost package extra so that you have a complete understanding of what each of the Bluehost package extra add-ons is along with the Bluehost pricing of each.
We also go in-depth on which Bluehost package extra add-ons are good to have, and which ones are unnecessary to choose.
Knowing what each of the Bluehost add-on services is under the Bluehost package extras section can save you money as you don’t want to buy something you don’t need.
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Bluehost Package Extras
The Bluehost package extras consist of Domain Privacy + Protection, Codeguard Basic, Yoast SEO Premium, Single Domain SSL, Google Workspace Business Starter, and Sitelock Security Essentials.
Bluehost SEO Tools Start and Microsoft 365 Mailbox was once offered at checkout under the Bluehost package extras section. They are now offered once you sign up with a Bluehost hosting package in the Bluehost dashboard under Marketplace and Bluehost add-ons.
Related: how to buy hosting from Bluehost
Now the big question is, which of these Bluehost package extra add-ons do you really need?
Let’s now go in-depth on each Bluehost package extras, so you know what each is and if you need it.
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Related: Bluehost marketing offers?
Video Tutorial: Is Bluehost Package Extras Worth It? Do I Need It?
Domain Privacy + Protection
Bluehost Domain Privacy Protection is an add-on that keeps your personal information private and safe from the public.
When you register a domain name with Bluehost or any company that offers domain names, your personal information such as your contact name, phone number, address, and email address is added to a public database that anyone can access.
The public database is known as the WHOIS Database. All domain names that are registered are added to the WHOIS Database as it is regulated. Your personal information will be safe and private by selecting the Bluehost package extra Domain Privacy + Protection.
Instead of your personal information going out to the WHOIS Database, Bluehost will include their default contact information they use for this. This will protect you from people getting your personal information and protecting you from spammers and telemarketers.
It is very common to get lots of spam and telemarketing emails and calls after registering a new domain name. Companies will pull the public information listed in the WHOIS Database to sell you their product or service.
I’ve experienced this firsthand, and it is overwhelming and doesn’t stop.
Pricing
The pricing of Domain Privacy + Protection is $0.99 per month which is billed annually at $11.88 a year.
Related: does Bluehost charge monthly or all at once?
My Recommendation: I highly recommend choosing the Domain Privacy + Protection package extra add-on. I use this with every domain name that I purchase. It will keep your personal information safe and protected. Bluehost’s default contact information will be shown instead.
Codeguard Basic
Codeguard basic is a Bluehost package extra add-on that automatically offers website backups, and a one-click website restore option that will restore your site to a previous backup of your choosing with just a click of a button.
The backup part of Bluehost Codeguard basic will do a daily backup of your website and save each backup separately so that if needed, you can use the one-click restore option to go back to any previous backup version that you might need to.
I recommend you have something backing up your site as you never know when something might happen, and you need it.
With backups of your site, you can choose the most previous backup before the change took effect and restore it with no worry.
An example of why you would want to have a website backup is, for some reason, when you are editing the site, you mess something up and can’t get it back to how it was, or your site gets hacked into.
If you will be using WordPress to create your site, you can install a few free backup plugins that do this same thing. The only thing they don’t do is the one-click restore, so you would have to manually restore your site from the backup instead of clicking the restore site option.
Related: how to build a website with Bluehost
Here are two top-rated free WordPress backup plugins to look into:
Pricing
The pricing of Codeguard Basic is $2.99 per month which is billed annually at $35.88 a year.
My Recommendation: This Bluehost package extra isn’t necessary, but it can be convenient if you don’t want to manually upload your site’s backup file. For some, the fact that you can restore the site to a previous backup with a click of a button without doing anything else can mean this Bluehost package extra is worth it.
Related: how to install WordPress on Bluehost.
Bluehost SEO Tools Start
Bluehost SEO Tools Start is a Bluehost tool that will submit your site to search engines, for example, Google, Yahoo, and Bing. The tool will provide you with a detailed report that will help you take action on things to do to help your site rank better.
Bluehost SEO Tools start also provides you with a keyword discovery tool that will help make sure you have relevant keywords, so your site ranks for them.
Pricing
The pricing of SEO Tools Start is $1.99 per month which is billed annually at $23.88 a year. The renewal pricing of SEO Tools is $5.95 a month which is billed annually at $71.40.
So do you really need this Bluehost package extra add-on?
My Recommendation: No, you do not need Bluehost SEO Tools Start. I would save your money on this one.
Here’s why: It is free to submit your site to search engines. I recommend you sign up with Google Search Console, which is free. You can submit pages, posts, etc., to be crawled on your site. It’ll tell you of any errors that occurred on your site when they were crawling it.
Related: Bluehost data centers and server locations
Google Search Console will also tell you what keywords people are typing in Google to get to a page, and you can see what keywords are leading to searches so you can improve your site or write content targeting those keywords.
If you will be using WordPress for your website, WordPress is built for SEO, which already gives you a head start regarding SEO.
With WordPress, there are free SEO plugins such as Yoast SEO and RankMath that do a lot of SEO work for you by guiding you on what to do. These plugins also create XML sitemaps like roadmaps of your website, telling search crawlers what pages are on your site and what pages to crawl.
Single Domain SSL
Bluehost Single Domain SSL is a Positive SSL Certificate that protects your site and your site visitors. An SSL Certificate protects your customer’s information on your website, like their credit card information, username, and password.
You will see a padlock icon in your web browser when you visit a site. This lets you know it is secured and encrypted with an SSL Certificate.
Here’s an example from our blog site.
Having an SSL Certificate on your site is highly recommended as it is a ranking factor when ranking with Google and search engines. The Google Chrome browser will even make it hard for people to get to your site as it will have a popup in red saying not secure when someone tries to access your site.
The Single Domain SSL also comes with a dedicated IP, and an internet address dedicated to a single hosting account. With a Dedicated IP, your IP address won’t be shared with lots of other people.
Pricing
The pricing of Single Domain SSL is $3.33 per month which is billed annually at $39.96 a year. The renewal pricing of SEO Tools is billed annually at $49.99.
So do you really need this Bluehost package extra add-on?
My Recommendation: No, you don’t need the Single Domain SSL package extra. I recommend you save your money on this one.
Here’s why: Bluehost already offers you a free Shared SSL Certificate that you can implement in your Bluehost dashboard once you have signed up with Bluehost. The Shared SSL Certificate is an SSL Certificate shared with multiple sites on the same IP address.
Your site won’t get your own SSL certificate. For most, the paid Positive SSL Certificate isn’t necessary. If you are making a lot of money from the get-go, getting the Single Domain SSL add-on might be worth it to you. I recommend starting with the free one and upgrading in the future when you see fit.
Microsoft 365 Mailbox
Microsoft 365 Mailbox Email Essentials is an add-on that Bluehost offers that is powered by Microsoft.
It gives you a branded email ending with your own domain name, a safe and reliable email platform you can trust, access to your email and calendars 24/7 on any device, 24/7 technical support, and world-class security and disaster recovery.
Pricing
The pricing of Microsoft 365 Mailbox on a monthly term comes to $4.99 per license a month which comes out to $59.98 a year. If paying on a 12-month term it will cost $2.99 per license a month which costs $35.88 a year.
Something to note: The renewal pricing comes out to the monthly cost of $4.99 per month which is $59.98 per year.
My Recommendation: No, you don’t need the Microsoft 365 Mailbox add-on. I recommend you save your money.
Here’s why:
You get free email accounts ending in your domain name with Bluehost. You can easily set them up with Gmail, Apple Mail, or any email provider you currently use. Those email platforms have excellent security as well.
After the 30-day free trial, you will be charged as low as $2.99 a month.
Sitelock Security-Essential
Bluehost Sitelock Security-Essentials is a third-party service offered by Bluehost to protect your site from malware and malicious attacks.
Bluehost SiteLock Security-Essentials provides:
- The service of search engine blacklist monitoring
- Scanning 5 to 10 pages on your site
- Limited malware detection
- automated malware removal
- Google blacklist monitoring
- automated malware detection
Pricing
The Bluehost Sitelock Security pricing is $2.99 per month which is billed annually at $35.88 a year. The renewal pricing of Bluehost Sitelock Security Essential is $5.99 a month which is billed annually at $71.88.
My Recommendation: No, I don’t recommend this Bluehost package extra add-on. I would save your money on this add-on. If you will be using WordPress for your site, there are free WordPress plugins that will secure and scan your site. A popular free security WordPress plugin is Wordfence.
Yoast SEO Premium
Bluehost Yoast SEO Premium is a paid SEO plugin that comes with a bunch of features that will help you optimize your site for search engines resulting in a boost in your rankings.
Bluehost Yoast SEO Premium comes with more features than the free Yoast SEO plugin which is one of the most popular WordPress plugins for SEO.
Bluehost Yoast SEO Premium comes with features such as:
- You Can Use Multiple Focus Keywords
- Orphaned Content
- Redirecting Old URLS To New URLS
- Internal Linking Suggestions
- Generating Related Keyphrases
- Social Preview To Boost Your Social Media Activity
- Automatically Adds Structured Data To Search Engines
- Yoast SEO Workouts
- Yoast SEO Academy
- Integrations With The Most Powerful Platforms
- 24/7 Premium Support
Pricing
The pricing of Yoast SEO Premium is $2.99 per month which is billed annually at $35.88 a year.
My Recommendation: No, I don’t recommend this Bluehost package extras add-on. The free version of Yoast SEO or Rank Math SEO plugin is fine for most.
Google Workspace Business Starter
Bluehost Google Workspace Business Starter is one of the Bluehost extra packages that provides you with a suite of tools that are cloud-based to help empower your business and help you communicate better with your team.
Google Workspace provides you with a bunch of apps and features such as:
- Gmail
- Google Drive Cloud Storage (30GB)
- Google Meet
- Google Calendar
- Google Chat
- Google Jamboard
- Google Docs
- Google Sheets
- Google Slides
- Google Keep
- Google Forms
Pricing
The pricing of Google Workspace Business Starter is $3 per month which is billed annually at $36 a year for the first term. The renewal pricing costs $6 per month.
My recommendation: This Bluehost add-on isn’t necessary however this package extra could be beneficial for some if you have a team or want to utilize the security features that are backed by Google for email or any of the available apps.
eCommerce
eCommerce is a Bluehost package extras that makes creating an online store site a quick and easy process.
This Bluehost package extras provides you with eCommerce features such as:
- automatically installs WordPress & Woocommerce
-
provides customers ways to pay via PayPal, Stripe, Venmo
-
book appointments and service requests
-
create wishlists
-
create custom gift cards
-
create customized “My Account” dashboards for your customers so that they can track their orders, review their past purchases, edit their profile information, and even more!
Pricing
The pricing of eCommerce is $4.99 per month which is billed annually at $59.88 a year.
We’ve now covered all the Bluehost package extras add-on services. You should now have a good understanding of what each Bluehost package extra is and if you do need any of them.
Is Bluehost Package Extras Worth It?
Bluehost’s Domain Privacy + Protection package extra is worth having. Codeguard Basic can be worth having. The other package extras such as Bluehost SEO Tools Start, Single Domain SSL, Microsoft 365 Mailbox, Yoast SEO Premium, and Sitelock Security Essential are not necessary and are up to you to get.
Final Thoughts
We hope you found this Bluehost Package Extras review article helpful and that it helped you decide if you do need any of the Package Extras that Bluehost offers.
Let us know in the comments below if you liked this post! We would love to hear from you.
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A big thank you to you, for this important information.
Hi Franklin, you’re welcome!