This webpage is a result of 13 months of research, testing Bluehost.com capabilities with various web based open source applications. This document is intended to help you to know which web based open source applications already work perfectly with Bluehost! The following is a list of those applications that we have installed and configured on a typical Bluehost.com web hosting account and had no problems at all thanks to the preconfiguration of each Bluehost.com account.
1. Wordpress
The Wordpress open source content management system makes it easy for you to get a top of the line blog cms up and running in minutes. The one major issue many customers of web hosting companies have when installing Wordpress is the inability for the server to create a .htaccess file. This file is important in order for Wordpress to dynamically create clean URL's for your blog. This is something that Bluehost has configured beforehand so you don't have to worry about it.
A few things to note about Wordpress on Bluehost. Because you have 100 MySQL databases with a Bluehost account you have the ability to manage multiple Wordpress blogs which is a request many webmasters have. And finally, with Bluehost's Fantastico and Simple Scripts tools in your Cpanel you install Wordpress with the simple click of a button. That should make life easy for you!
For simple to follow instructions for installing Wordpress on a Bluehost account click here.
2. Drupal CMS
Drupal in it's early development days was a little more difficult to get configured properly on a Bluehost server. Now with the development of Drupal v.5 and v.6, the open source Drupal CMS is nearly as easy to manage and configure as it's rival Wordpress. This site actually runs the Drupal content management system on a Bluehost server and as you can see everything runs smoothly.
The one thing you don't want when running a Drupal powered website is a webserver with poor security on the user side, specifically regarding who or what can read, write, and execute to files on the server. Bluehost server admins have done a fantastic job preconfiguring their servers so that they run great with Drupal installations. I have put together some instructions for installing Drupal on a Bluehost account here.
3. Joomla CMS
Joomla is still one of the most popular open source CMS projects on the web. I have found Joomla a little tricky to install at times and therefore refer to the Simple Scripts one click install in the Bluehost cpanel when installling Joomla. But overall Joomla runs great on Bluehost. Even though you have up to 100 MySQL database allotment with Bluehost, I would not recommend running 100 instances of Joomla because of the amount of CPU this can take up on your account.
As far as the technical details? There are some PHP.ini configurations that you would normally have to make but Bluehost already has your account preconfigured for these. Things like Mod_Rewrite, file upload size etc. Just install, configure, and you are ready to dominate the world with your new Joomla powered website.
4. WordpressMU
You can get WordpressMU to work perfectly for you on your Bluehost account if you are planning to use appended URL's for your multiple blogs as opposed to Sub-Domains. What this means basically is that if you plan to have each blog setup in WordpressMU at yourdomain.com/newbloghere rather than newbloghere.yourdomain.com. Make sense?
The reason for this is because Bluehost does not currently support the dynamic creation of sub domains from a PHP web application. Either does any other shared linux hosting provider for that matter. So if yourdomain.com/newbloghere format works for you than you are going to have no problems whatsoever running WordpressMU on your Bluehost server account.
I put together some step by step instructions here for installing WordpressMU on a Bluehost server.
5. MediaWiki
The open source CMS MediaWiki comes in very handy for many web projects. Unfortunatly people have had trouble finding web hosts they can host it on without running into issues. Bluehost over the past 2 years has been the most popular shared linux hosting service for hosting MediaWiki powered sites. Want to build your own MediaWiki? No problem. A quick install of MediaWiki on your Bluehost server and you are ready to go.
MediaWiki has been known to be a little tricky for beginner users to install. So I created some step by step instructions for installing MediaWiki as well so you don't have to get stuck and confused anywhere. Keep in mind that now you can also do a one-click install from your Bluehost Cpanel using either Fantastico or SimpleScripts!
Ecommerce Platforms
Getting an ecommerce website up and running 5+ years ago used to cost you an arm and a leg. Now thanks to the open source ecommerce code that has been developed on the web through various projects, coupled with the shared hosting services of companies like Bluehost, these costs have dropped dramatically for entrepreneurs around the world. With Bluehost the 3 major open source ecommerce platforms run perfectly, allowing you to use your Bluehost web hosting account for selling products and/or services at a very cheap price.
These are the 3 ecommerce open source platforms that work perfectly with Bluehost. All 3 are also able to be installed via “one-click” through Fantastico and SimpleScripts inside your Bluehost Cpanel.
* Magento - Install Instructions
* Zencart - Install Instructions
* OSCommerce - Install Instructions
All of the above open source applications worked well with a Bluehost.com account and provided no problems whatsoever to our Bluehost.com account.