After years of running a travel blog, we finally made the decision to switch hosts. Moving from Bluehost to BigScoots took quite a bit of research and was something we had been putting off for a while. However, at the end of the day, it was one of the best things we did for our business! It doesn’t matter what kind of website you have. If you’re frustrated by your current hosting platform it may be time to change things up. Here’s a thorough comparison of BigScoots vs Bluehost, our BigScoots review, and all about our experience.
Starting Our Travel Blog With Bluehost
Story time! We started our travel blog in 2015 as a fun hobby after a year-long backpacking trip. Looking back now, we could have never imagined that it would become our full time jobs.
We launched our website on WordPress as so many bloggers do, with Bluehost as the hosting service. If you can believe it, we wrote our first blogs on an iPad (embarrassing) but got more serious about it after moving to San Diego.
Honestly, we had no idea how many options there were. Bluehost seemed like one of the best beginner services so that’s what we picked. All the articles we read at that time recommended Bluehost as it was one of the top web hosts for a new site.
It was especially popular in the tiny travel blogging bubble we were now a part of. We had no major issues early on for the first 3 years as our traffic was small in comparison to now. Yet, as you’ll see, that would start to change soon!
Growing Our Website While it Kept Crashing
Fast forwarding to 2019, we had quit our jobs in San Diego to go full-time with the website. This is when we experienced major growth and broke through in the travel blogging world.
As soon as we started to get a good amount of traffic, we noticed issues with our website. What was going on??
The first thing that really started to get to us upset was the slow loading issue. We started to realize that the response time for our website was just so bad. This was in comparison to both major websites as well as smaller travel blogs that were similar to ours.
Obviously, there are many things that factor into slow websites. From file sizes to images and themes, there is a lot that keeps things from operating the way they should.
We kept calling Bluehost and they would say they were doing something about it or told us to upgrade our plan. We thought it was just the normal growing pains with a website performing better.
What we couldn’t understand was when our website started to completely crash! This is when we would get on the phone with someone at Bluehost and go back and forth again. Maybe they were updating their servers, there was something wrong with our website installation, or other unpredictable things.
Typically, it would be down for just a short amount of time. After awhile though we knew it was time to do something. We had been looking to changing hosting plans for a long period of time but we felt like it was such a massive undertaking to deal with. After all, we are bloggers not website programers!
Why We First Contacted BigScoots
One night we were sitting in our small apartment in Da Nang Vietnam and noticed that our website was completely down. Not just slow loading, but we actually couldn’t edit anything or even work on articles.
First we freaked out then got on the phone with Bluehost. The person grumpily told us that we had outgrown our plan and there was nothing they could do to help…
We really didn’t get this. We had been with them for over three years, our website wasn’t working, and they said they couldn’t do anything to help? The women we were talking to actually recommended that we hire a website developer to get it working again.
The thing that was most maddening was that they would always try to get us to upgrade our plans. However, this time it was almost double the cost of our current one and the website would have to be down for 2-3 days while it transferred.
The Bluehost employee also sent us an article and explained we could do it ourselves. The other option was we would have to pay extra for someone from Bluehost to do it.
At this point we were completely fed up and just wanted out website up and running again. Luckily we had backups of our site, but knew there was a larger problem that needed to be dealt with.
How We Found Out About BigScoots
Bigscoots was already on our radar from different travel blogger networks that we were a part of, particularly in the Mediavine facebook group. While BigScoots didn’t seem like one of the more well-known companies, people were praising them across the board with positive reviews.
Most of the stuff we were reading were about their great technical support, customer service, and faster site speed load time. The main thing for us is that they specialized in larger sites that had outgrown their old host.
BigScoots Review
With that, we reached out to BigScoots for more information. We started out by sending them a message explaining the issues with our current host and what we were looking for. In what felt like just seconds, someone immediately called us before they even responded to our message!
The first point they explained is that they would handle site migration and we wouldn’t have to touch anything. Our biggest concern was our site being down for days at a time, and they assured us that wouldn’t happen.
Another important thing we wanted to know was about the storage space. As travel bloggers, we have uploaded thousands of pictures and would need additional storage for that.
If you need more space with BigScoots you can add it on to your monthly plan. To put it simply, we found out it was almost impossible to outgrow your plan with a Bigscoots site.
→ Check Out the Different Bigscoots Plan Options Here
After a quick discussion, we decided to take the leap of faith with BigScoots. Their customer support was extremely impressive and we could already tell it was going to make a big difference with our site speed.
BigScoots was slightly more expensive than Bluehost. Still, for what they offered (and their server space) it seemed like a reasonable price. If you are new or small website you can try out one of their inexpensive shared plans. There are monthly payment options, or you can get an annual deal for a 10% discount.
If you have a larger site we recommend looking into their Managed WordPress plans. We recommend having a chat with them directly so they can tell you what will work best for your own website.
BigScoots Managed WordPress Plans
BigScoots Shared Web Hosting Plans
How the Transfer Went from Bluehost to BigScoots
So how did the actual site migration go when we made with switch from Bluehost to BigScoots? Really, it couldn’t have gone better! This is coming from a “we’re completely lost, overwhelmed, and need help” mindset.
Once we made the payment to BigScoots they told us how to send a transfer request to their dedicated server. While the technical team walked us through the entire process, we really didn’t have to do anything!
Our website never went down once despite our concerns. This was a huge relief and the perfect start to our relationship with the new host.
The entire process took less than one day, but we just kept working as normal and didn’t even notice. This first experience with BigScoots gave us the peace of mind that things were about to get much better.
Once we had been with BigScoots for a few months, we reached out about a number of things to check the progress. We asked about our Core Web Vitals Assessment, some photo issues we had been having, and so on. we weren’t sure if they would even be able to help us, but we figured it was a good place to start.
We ended up adding on their WordPress Speed Optimization Service which made a MASSIVE difference overall to out site. There are many small problems it helped fix that we otherwise would have hired someone to take care of. Also, our Core Web Vitals Assessment completely jumped up!
Why We’re Staying with BigScoots
Switching to BigScoots was one of the best things we’ve ever done for our website. For us, the most important thing was increasing our site speed from past performance. BigScoots has not only done that, but our site has actually grown due to faster load times.
There are also some technical things that come with our plan we love. These include daily backups, 5 GB of storage add-on, Cloudflare integration, and the ability to move up into higher tiers. Our favorite part is the customer service and having our questions or concerns answered quickly.
After so much hard work, it’s both frustrating and terrifying to have your website go down constantly. So far we haven’t had any issues like we did with Bluehost. When any small problems arise, we are always surprised by how quickly we hear back from BigScoots.
Bluehost vs BigScoots: Should You Make the Switch?
It’s been about a year since we made the change to BigScoots and we are still very happy with our decision. We haven’t had a single major issue thus far and it’s easy to see the better performance. No more sleepless nights wondering if our website would crash, and great customer service that’s always there if we need it.
While this was a good option for us, it may not be necessary for you to pay for BigScoots fully managed WordPress site for beginner bloggers. In this case, we recommend starting at the lowest tier and moving into different plans as your website grows.
→ Check Out all the Different Plans Offered and More BigScoots Reviews!
Have any questions about our BigScoots review or want to share your own personal experience? Leave us a comment below.
Safe Travels,
Brigitte & Jake
Where in the world are we? Follow our daily adventures on Instagram @nothingfamiliar!
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More Blogging & Travel Tips!
Travel Blogging: Want to know what it’s like being a Digital Nomad while traveling the world? Make sure read all about the pros & cons as well as all our travel tips!
Flights: We always find our cheap flight deals using Skyscanner. That’s how we flew from Norway to Poland for under $20 USD, and Thailand to Vietnam for less than $50!
Rental Car: We use Discover Cars to explore when traveling. A quick travel tip is to ask for a weekly rate than just booking 2-3 days.
Tours: Check out Get Your Guide to find thousands of activities around the world. From street food tours to skip the line entry passes!
Travel Insurance: Never travel abroad without protection. We’ve been using SafetyWing for the last few years on the road and they are there when we need them.
Packing Lists: Find all the inspiration you need with our Amazon packing lists. Including our electronics and camera gear, must-have medical items, and long flight essentials!
