How Much Do Bluehost Prices Go Up at Renewal?

How Much Do Bluehost Prices Go Up at Renewal?

Every Bluehost plan you can buy shows an intro price front and center, and a renewal price in smaller text underneath. I wanted to know exactly how big that gap is across every product line Bluehost sells, not just VPS.

So I pulled the pricing page for Shared hosting, WordPress hosting, VPS, Cloud, and Dedicated servers, logged into a live account to see how the renewal actually shows up in the portal, and then asked Bluehost support directly whether there is any way to avoid paying the full increase.

For a deeper look at how each of these products performs beyond pricing, check our full Bluehost reviews. Here is everything I found, starting with the product most people sign up for first.

Bluehost

Bluehost offre una gamma di pacchetti e funzionalità che danno priorità all'adattabilità e alle prestazioni – con server di hosting condiviso, VPS e dedicati che si concentrano tutti sull'ottimizzazione specifica per WordPress.

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Shared Web Hosting

Bluehost sells two tiers of shared hosting: Standard and High Performance. Both run on a 36-month term for the advertised intro rate.

Standard tier

High Performance tier

Starter is the most dramatic jump on the entire Bluehost lineup. It more than doubles in price at renewal, going from $3.99/mo to $9.99/mo, a 150% increase. It is also the plan most beginners pick first because it carries the lowest sticker price on the page.

WordPress Hosting

WordPress Hosting on Bluehost runs on the same Starter, Business, and eCommerce Essentials plans as Shared Web Hosting, just sold through a WordPress-branded landing page.

The pricing, specs, and renewal rates are identical to the Standard tier table above. If you are comparing “Web Hosting” against “WordPress Hosting” on Bluehost’s site expecting different pricing, know that you are looking at the same product twice.

WooCommerce Hosting

WooCommerce hosting shares the eCommerce Essentials plan with Shared and WordPress hosting, and adds one higher tier on top of it.\

Bluehost

Bluehost combines shared, VPS, and dedicated hosting with WordPress-focused features, dependable performance, and resources that can grow with your website.

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VPS Hosting

VPS splits into Self-Managed and Managed lines, each with a different term length and a different scale of increase. I covered VPS pricing in more depth in a separate piece, but here is the renewal comparison for both lines.

Self-Managed VPS (24-month term)

Managed VPS (36-month term)

NVMe 8 Self-Managed is the second most dramatic increase across every product I checked, more than doubling from $12.99/mo to $28.99/mo. If you are eyeing that plan for the storage bump, budget for the renewal rate from day one rather than the intro number.

Bluehost

From shared hosting to VPS and dedicated servers, Bluehost provides scalable hosting options with strong performance and WordPress-specific optimization.

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Cloud Hosting

Cloud Hosting is where the pricing page stops being consistent with everything else.

Each Cloud plan lists a single flat monthly rate on a 36-month term, with no separate renewal figure shown anywhere on the page.

This does not mean Cloud renews at the same rate you sign up at. It means Bluehost does not show that number until you are further into the sign-up or billing process.

If Cloud Hosting is the plan you are looking at, confirm the renewal rate directly with sales or support before you commit, since the page alone will not tell you.

Dedicated Server Hosting

Managed Dedicated runs on a 36-month term, same structure as the other managed products.

Dedicated carries the mildest percentage increases of any product line I checked, likely because the intro price already starts high enough that a flat dollar increase moves the percentage less.

How Bluehost’s Auto-Renewal Actually Works

Every plan across every product line renews automatically unless you turn that off.

Based on Bluehost’s own billing documentation, here is what actually happens behind the scenes:

• Your card is charged automatically on the exact renewal date, not before
• An invoice generates only after the payment succeeds, not when it is attempted
• If you have automatic billing enabled, you get a reminder before the renewal date hits
• A failed payment triggers an immediate notification, with follow-up reminders after that
• Monthly plans do not get a renewal reminder at all unless the price changes or a payment fails
• If your default card fails, Bluehost cycles through up to 4 saved payment methods before giving up and circling back to the first one
• Removing all your stored cards does not stop billing attempts. It switches you to invoice notifications for each new charge instead

How to Check Your Own Renewal Date and Price

I logged into a live Bluehost account to see this firsthand rather than describe it from memory. Here is where the numbers actually live:

1. Go to Billing in the left sidebar of your portal
2. Open the Renewal Center tab. This lists every active product and service on the account, with columns for Auto-Renewal Date, Expiration Date, Payment Method, and an Auto-Renew toggle you can switch off per item

3. Open the Orders tab to see your full billing history. Every past charge shows up here with the exact date, order number, payment method, and total, plus a link to the full receipt
4. Open the Payment Methods tab to see which card is marked as default. This is the card Bluehost charges first on any renewal

Check the Orders tab even if you think you know what you are paying. On the account I reviewed, three charges landed across three separate months at three different amounts, $0, $59.88, and $2.99, tied to a domain, a hosting plan, and an email add-on respectively.

None of those amounts were obvious from looking at any single pricing page. The Orders tab is the only place that shows you what actually got charged.

Bluehost

Bluehost delivers adaptable hosting packages across shared, VPS, and dedicated servers, with performance-focused features and seamless WordPress support.

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Can You Get Bluehost to Lower Your Renewal Price?

This is the part people online tend to repeat as advice without evidence behind it, so I tested it directly.

I opened a live chat and asked whether there was any way to renew a Standard VPS – NVMe 2 plan at the original rate, or whether a loyalty discount existed for an existing customer instead of the standard renewal.

The agent, Neeraja, first pulled up the account and misidentified the product, at one point calling it a different hosting company’s plan entirely and briefly mistaking it for a free plan, before correcting course once I clarified the actual plan name.

After locating the account correctly, she quoted a one-year renewal price of $68.28. That figure lines up exactly with the plan page’s listed renewal rate of $5.69/mo across 12 months, so the number she gave was accurate, not inflated.

I then asked if a better offer was available. After checking, she came back with a reduced one-year price of $61.45, a $6.83 reduction, or roughly 10% off the standard renewal rate.

So the answer is yes, asking can lower your renewal price, at least by a measurable amount. It took two direct questions in a live chat to get there, and the discount was not offered automatically.

Nothing was promised in writing beyond the chat itself, so if you go this route, get the agent to confirm the discount will actually apply to the invoice before you end the conversation.

Tips for Avoiding a Renewal Surprise

• Check the Renewal Center in your portal at least once a quarter. It shows every upcoming charge in one place, not just the product you signed up for most recently
• Ask support directly before your term ends. A short chat produced a real 10% reduction on one VPS renewal in my test, though results will vary by agent and by account
• Turn off auto-renew on anything you are not sure you will keep, then renew manually if you decide to stay. This avoids a surprise charge while still giving you the option
• Compare your renewal quote against the current listed price for the same plan on the current Bluehost pricing page on HostAdvice before agreeing to anything, so you know whether what is being offered is actually competitive
• If you are on Cloud Hosting, get the renewal number in writing before you sign up, since the plan page itself will not show it to you

Bluehost

Bluehost provides shared, VPS, and dedicated hosting plans built around flexibility, reliable performance, and tools optimized specifically for WordPress websites.

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