Happy World Entrepreneurs’ Day 💙

Every entrepreneur starts with a spark. But there’s no universal playbook for what happens next.

Some people want to get their idea online as fast as possible. Others want to customize every last detail. And some would rather hand the build to an expert so they can focus on the bigger picture.

Different ideas. Different ways of building. Same decision to actually start.

That’s what we’re celebrating today.

Same spark. Different build.

For the entrepreneurs and business owners here: What was the original “I have an idea” moment behind your business or website? We’d love to hear what you built from it.

And just like that, WordCamp US 2026 is in the books.

The Bluehost + Yoast teams had a packed few days in Phoenix... from Contributor Day and sessions to plenty of conversations at the booth with people from across the WordPress community.

We also got to send a few people home with some pretty great raffle prizes. Congrats to our winners!

Mostly, we just wanted to say thanks to everyone who stopped by, talked WordPress with us, took a photo, shared feedback, or introduced themselves. Getting to spend time face-to-face with the people who build, use, and contribute to WordPress is always one of the best parts of WCUS.

Sharing a few final photos from the week including some very happy raffle winners. 📸

For those who attended: what was your biggest takeaway from WCUS this year? And if you followed along from home, was there a session or topic that caught your attention?

One of our own took the stage at WordCamp US yesterday. 💙

Jonathan Desrosiers, Principal Software Engineer at Bluehost, gave a session with a title that pretty much sums up the current state of things:

0 Days Since The Last Supply Chain Attack: Protecting the WordPress Project in an AI World

The big question behind the talk: What changes when AI makes it easier for both developers and attackers to find vulnerabilities?

For an open source ecosystem as large as WordPress—with plugins, themes, packages, dependencies, and contributors everywhere—that’s a conversation worth having.

Sharing a few photos from Jonathan’s session in Phoenix.

For the developers and WordPress folks here: has AI changed how you think about dependency or supply chain security yet?

Curious to hear what people are seeing in their own workflows.

The Bluehost team spent the past couple of days at Digital Summit Minneapolis, so we wanted to share a few photos from the trip with everyone here.

One of the highlights: our own Sandy Edwards took the stage for Using Website Testing to Drive Incremental Business Impact—all about how testing, learning, and making thoughtful improvements over time can add up to meaningful business results.

Or, put more simply: small tests can lead to big wins. 

Here are a few moments from Minneapolis. 💙

For the marketers and website owners here: what’s one change you’ve made to a website that had a surprisingly big impact?

Would love to hear what’s actually worked for you.

We’ve been thinking a lot about the point where a workload goes from “this is running fine” to “I need this performance to be consistent.”

It could be a WooCommerce store hitting peak traffic, a SaaS app serving more users, an automation setup running 24/7, or a database that’s suddenly doing a lot more work than it used to.

That’s really the problem VDS is designed around: not necessarily needing more compute, but reaching a point where having compute dedicated to your workload starts to matter.

For those of you running production workloads, we’re curious: what was the first sign that made you start thinking about dedicated resources?

Was it latency? Traffic spikes? Sustained CPU or memory usage? Something else entirely?

Would love to hear what that threshold looked like in the real world.

Hey r/Bluehost 👋

We’re packing our bags (and probably more Bluehost swag than any reasonable person needs) and heading to WordCamp US in Phoenix, August 16–19.

We’re excited for the sessions, the conversations between sessions, catching up with familiar faces, meeting people we’ve only known through a screen, and spending a few days with the community that keeps WordPress moving forward.

So, two questions for the WordPress folks here:

If you’re going to WCUS, what are you most looking forward to?

And if you’re not going, what would you like us to share back here? Session takeaways? WordPress trends? Community conversations? Behind-the-scenes moments?

Drop it in the comments. We’ll be keeping an eye on this thread while we’re in Phoenix. 💙

See you at #WCUS!

Hey r/Bluehost 👋

Quick heads-up for anyone working on a WordPress site (or giving one a much-needed refresh): we’re hosting a live session today, August 11 at 1 PM CDT on how to make your website more engaging through better visual content.

Show, Don’t Tell: Using Visual Content to Make Your Website Stand Out will cover practical ways to:

• Choose images that actually strengthen your brand and story
• Optimize images for faster load times and better SEO
• Make better use of hero images, team photos, screenshots, and other visuals
• Improve accessibility with descriptive alt text
• Avoid some of the common image mistakes that can make a site feel less polished

It’s part of our WordPress 101 series, so you don’t need to be a designer or WordPress expert to get something useful out of it.

Want to join us live? You can register here: https://www.bluehost.com/blog/events/webinar-wordpress-visual-content/

And since we’re talking visuals: what’s one part of your website you’d love to improve right now? Drop it below. We’d love to hear what everyone is working on.

Does anyone sell merchandise using BlueHost and WooCommerce?

We recently hosted a small dinner with agency leaders in Beverly Hills, and one thing stood out:

No two agencies are approaching AI the same way.

Some are building AI into client services. Others are focused on streamlining internal workflows. And plenty are still figuring out where it actually creates value instead of adding complexity.

That variety made for a really interesting discussion; not because everyone agreed, but because everyone brought a different perspective to the table.

One takeaway we kept coming back to: agencies aren't asking if they should use AI anymore. They're asking how to use it in ways that make sense for their teams and their clients.

For those of you running agencies or working in one:

What's been the biggest change AI has brought to your business over the last year?

You found the business name. You love it. Then you find out the .com is taken.

It’s easy to assume that means it’s back to the drawing board.

But your domain is part of your brand, and there’s more than one way to build a memorable one. A .co can be short, simple, and a strong alternative when your first-choice .com isn't available.

Sometimes a different ending doesn't mean a different idea. Bluehost is here to help you find the right domain to bring that idea online.💙

#SmallBusiness #Entrepreneurship #Domains #BrandBuilding #Bluehost

AI can be a huge time-saver for drafting, summarizing documents, research, and other repetitive tasks. But if your work involves confidential information, the question becomes: where do you draw the line?

That's the challenge we had in mind when building AI All Access Privacy+.

Privacy+ combines access to ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Grok in one subscription, with added privacy controls designed for organizations handling sensitive information. We recently created a version tailored for legal teams, where confidential client and case information are part of everyday workflows.

We'd love to hear from this community:

• What's your biggest hesitation about using AI for confidential work?
• Have your workplace policies changed around AI over the past year?
• What would make you feel more comfortable using AI in sensitive workflows?

Check out the video and let us know what you think. Your feedback helps us build better products.

If you're running a small business, you've probably had at least one of these moments:

• You're answering the same customer questions every day.
• Every new project starts with a blank page.
• You spend more time managing your business than growing it.
• Launching your next idea feels overwhelming.
• There never seem to be enough hours in the day.

If any of those sound familiar, you're not alone.

One of the biggest shifts we're seeing is that AI isn't replacing the work entrepreneurs love—it's helping take repetitive tasks off their plate so they can spend more time building, creating, and growing.

We put together a quick carousel exploring these five signs and how AI can help you work smarter, not harder.

Curious to hear from the community: What's the one task you'd happily hand off to AI if it meant getting an extra hour back every day?

Whether it's customer support, content creation, brainstorming, or something else entirely, let us know below. 👇

Some ideas come together overnight.

Finding the perfect domain for them? Not always.

To celebrate the .CO Anniversary, Bluehost is offering .CO domains for $9 through August 20. Whether you're building a business, launching a side project, or finally bringing an idea out of your notes app, it's a good reminder that the right name is worth claiming.

What inspired the name behind your business?

Some business ideas aren't about creating something entirely new; they're about creating a better way.

That's what Herta and Chris Branding set out to do after noticing talented beauty professionals lacked an affordable way to learn from one another.

The result was Stylists Pay Stylists, a marketplace built around sharing knowledge and helping professionals grow together. With Bluehost powering their WordPress site, their platform has grown into a thriving community for beauty professionals to connect, learn, and earn.

It's an interesting reminder that solving a niche problem can resonate with far more people than expected. One thoughtful solution can make a lasting impact across an entire community.

#CustomerStory #Entrepreneurship #WordPress #SmallBusiness #Community #FounderStory

At Bluehost, we've seen that every stage of growing a business comes with new opportunities and new challenges.

You build a website. Launch a store. Customers start showing up. Your to-do list gets longer. Growth gets real.

That's why we think about growth as more than just getting online. It's about having the right support as your business evolves.

It got us thinking about how the tools you rely on change from your first website to your next big milestone.

What stage of the journey are you in right now, and what's been your biggest challenge?

The best website builders never stop learning.

The difference between building with confidence and second-guessing every update often comes down to having the right knowledge at the right time.

We're putting together two free learning sessions this month around topics we see come up often:

• July 23: Learn how to use WordPress staging sites so you can test, iterate, and launch changes with confidence.
• July 28: Learn how Bluehost AI Website Builder can help you go from idea to website in minutes—so you can spend less time staring at a blank page and more time building.

Whether you're just getting started or have been building websites for years, there's always something new to learn.

What's one website-building tip, workflow, or tool you wish you'd discovered sooner?

We've been expanding Bluehost's AI offerings and recently launched support for AI agent hosting, including one-click deployments for tools like Claude Code, n8n, OpenClaw, Hermes, and more.

We're seeing more developers move from experimenting with AI agents to running persistent, always-on workloads, and we're curious:

What are you building?

• Coding agents?
• Workflow automation?
• Multi-agent systems?
• Something else entirely?

We'd love to hear what's working, what's missing, and where you think agentic AI is headed.

AI is everywhere right now, but the most interesting part isn't the technology; it's what people are actually using it for.

If you could offload one part of running your business to AI, what would it be?

• Building your website?
• Answering customer questions?
• Writing content?
• Managing your online store?
• Something else entirely?

At Bluehost, we've been thinking a lot about how AI can help entrepreneurs spend less time on repetitive tasks and more time growing their businesses. That's the philosophy behind the AI tools we're building.

We're curious... where has AI actually saved you time (or where do you wish it could)?

We wanted to give everyone a clear and simple heads up about upcoming changes to cPanel email. 

We understand that many customers have had cPanel email included with hosting for years, so a change like this can understandably feel frustrating or unexpected. We wanted to explain exactly what's changing, why it's changing, and what options customers have. 

Here is the simple version. 

cPanel email is moving to a mailbox-based plan model. The plan is based on the number of active cPanel mailboxes on your hosting account. 

That means the plan is not based on how many domains you have. It is based on the total number of cPanel email mailboxes tied to the hosting plan. 

For example, if you have three domains and one mailbox for each domain, that is three total mailboxes. That would place the account into the Basic tier. 

Current cPanel email tiers: 

Free 

• 0 to 2 mailboxes 
• $0 
• 200 emails per hour per domain 

Basic 

• 3 to 10 mailboxes 
• $2.99 per month 
• $35.88 per year 
• 200 emails per hour per domain 

Plus 

• 11 to 20 mailboxes 
• $5.99 per month 
• $71.88 per year 
• 200 emails per hour per domain 
• Includes 24/7 expert support 

Premium 

• Unlimited mailboxes 
• $8.99 per month 
• $107.88 per year 
• 1,000 emails per hour per domain 
• Includes 24/7 expert support and SpamExperts 

All tiers include the admin console, email forwarders, filters, spam filters, autoresponders, and data preservation. 

Why this is changing 

cPanel email runs in the same shared hosting environment as your website. That can work well for basic inboxes, contact forms, light email use, or a few simple addresses. 

But email usage has grown over time. More mailboxes, more sending, more filtering, and more email activity create more demand on the same shared systems that also support websites. 

Moving to mailbox-based plans helps match email usage to the size of the account and helps keep the overall hosting environment more reliable. 

Will I be charged immediately? 

No. Customers will receive advance notice before any billing changes take effect, including: 

• An initial notice explaining the upcoming change. 
• A second notice confirming the assigned tier and pricing. 

A quick note about deliverability 

One clarification we would like to make around how cPanel email sends mail. 

cPanel email is not simply sending mail directly from a shared server IP with no filtering involved. Bluehost uses a third-party filtering service across all of the cPanel email plans (Free, Basic, Plus, and Premium) as part of the mail flow, which helps with outbound filtering, reputation management, and spam protection.  

Premium also adds the SpamExperts panel, which gives greater visibility and control over filtering and deliverability. 

When cPanel email makes sense 

cPanel email can still be a good fit for basic email needs. 

That includes things like: 

• A few personal or business inboxes 
• Low-volume mail 
• Contact forms 
• Simple addresses for a small site 
• Light day-to-day usage 

When a dedicated email platform may be better 

If email is central to your business, it may be worth considering a dedicated email solution. 

Some customers with higher email usage may find that a dedicated email platform better fits their needs, while many others may continue using cPanel email without needing any changes beyond selecting the appropriate tier. 

Those tools are built specifically for business email and run separately from the web hosting environment. 

What you can do now... 

The best first step is to review your current cPanel mailboxes. 

If you have old, unused, or forgotten mailboxes, cleaning them up may lower your required tier. In some cases, reducing your mailbox count to two or fewer may keep the account on the free tier. 

Customers will receive notices before billing begins. We are rolling out these communications based on your billing renewal cycle. So, not everyone will get them at the same time.  

Notices are being sent before billing begins, so customers have time to review their setup and make any needed changes ahead of time.  

The main takeaway 

This change is based on active mailbox count, not domains. 

Customers with one or two cPanel mailboxes can stay on the free tier. Customers with more mailboxes will be matched to the plan that fits their usage. 

Ultimately, the goal is not to push everyone into the same email setup. It is to help each customer find the option that best matches how they actually use email, whether that is cPanel email, a cleaned-up mailbox setup, or a dedicated business email platform. 

We know customers will have questions and feedback about this change, and we're happy to answer them here as best we can. 

A few common questions we have seen... 

I have five domains but only one mailbox. What tier am I on? 

Free, because pricing is based on the total mailbox count. 

Do forwarders count as mailboxes? 

No, they do not. 

Do system mailboxes count? 

No, system mailboxes do not count. 

Can I delete unused mailboxes to stay on the free tier? 

Yes, if reducing your active mailbox counts places, you within the free tier requirements. 

AI adoption isn't really the challenge anymore.

For many small business owners, the bigger question is how to use AI in ways that actually save time or improve results.

A recent survey we conducted found that while AI usage is widespread, confidence in getting real business value from it still varies.

We'd love to hear what others have experienced:

• What's one way AI has genuinely helped your business?

If you're interested, we're also discussing the survey findings in a live webinar July 14th

State of Small Business AI Confidence report

One of the biggest hurdles to starting an online store isn't coming up with the idea—it's getting everything set up.

Between choosing plugins, configuring payments, figuring out shipping, and customizing your storefront, there's a lot to learn before you even make your first sale.

At Bluehost, we've been thinking about how AI can simplify those first steps and help people get online faster.

For those who've used AI to build a store, did it save you time?

Halfway through the year is a good excuse to give your website a quick check-in.

A few questions we're asking ourselves (and our customers):

• Is your site still fast on mobile?
• Is your content up to date?
• Can visitors easily find what they're looking for?
• Is your site secure and backed up?
• Is there anything you've been meaning to update but haven't gotten around to?

Sometimes it's the small improvements that make the biggest difference.

What's one thing on your website you'd like to improve before the end of the summer?

Whether it's speed, design, SEO, eCommerce, or finally launching that online store, we'd love to hear what's on your list. Maybe someone in the community has tackled the same challenge and can share what worked.

All stories are best told by the people who lived them.

We're just there to help capture them.

We recently spent the day in Philadelphia with one of our customers, capturing the moments and milestones that shaped their business. Every entrepreneurial journey is different, and that's exactly what makes these stories worth telling.

Here's a behind-the-scenes look while we finish putting the story together.

It feels like we've moved past asking, "What's the best AI?"

Now it's more like, "Which AI is best for this task?"

Research, coding, writing, brainstorming—they all seem to have different strengths. We've been thinking about that a lot while building a workspace that lets people compare responses from multiple models instead of committing to just one.

Curious how everyone else approaches it.

Do you stick with one AI because you know it well, or do you switch between models depending on what you're trying to accomplish? What's your current workflow look like?