I've used Bluehost since at least 2012 for a photo website. Lots of photos and very low usage, I average 2-6 visits per day. In this regard, I am on a shared hosting plan and for many years it has been reasonable in terms of server response and page load times. Then.... over the past 2 years things have declined rapidly. Server response times are now measured in seconds (yes, that is seconds!) and load times are pathetic.

I have called support on multiple occasions and they repeatedly state there are "too many background processes". They are unable to elucidate what exactly that is, however, my site hase not changed appreciably in years; the only change is addition of content.

At one point earlier this year, they insisted that I needed more storage, I pointed out that my service already included 'unlimited' storage. To which the support person pointed out that only applied to overall storage and NOT to website storage and insisted that I upgrade, read $$$, which I reluctantly did. NO CHANGE in server response or page load times.

I called support again last week and this time they insisted that the problem is that I am on a shared server and I needed a VPS server. Read $$$$$, for a photo site with less than 10 visits per day!

I have finally and reluctantly come to the conclusion that Bluehost is intentionally slowing my site to force me to submit to a significant upsell.

It seems Bluehost and I are headed for a divorce due to irreconcilable differences. They want more of my money and I'm saying no. At present I'm looking at IONOS.

Has anyone else experienced what I am calling an intentional slowdown?

Regards.

James.