How to Access SSH on BlueHost? (Step by Step)

Many web hosting users do not know much information about how useful SSh access could be. In this article, I’m showing you the real power of SSh and how to access SSh on BlueHost shared hosting account.

I’m pretty positive that a huge percentage of BlueHost users used to use FTP for transfers. You still can use the powerful File Manager tool in cPanel. Yet, both tools are not very handy on transferring a huge website.

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You might be migrating your website from an old host to your new account with BlueHost. The traditional FTP connection method will be very lengthy. Here, SSh access will do the transfer for you in a few minutes!

NB: This article may contain affiliate links.

First: Sign Up For BlueHost Web Hosting

If you’ve already bought web hosting from BlueHost, then you can skip this step and proceed directly to the technical steps to enable and set up SSH access.

If you’ve not yet purchased web hosting, then let’s do it with a 57% exclusive discount (for a limited time). To grab your discount, You will need to use our promo link. This is an exclusive discount for our blog readers. I’m sure you don’t want to miss it.

After visiting our promo link, Clik on “Get Started Now” to get your hosting account. BlueHost offers three different plans. Basic plan is what I recommend in the beginning. You still can upgrade later anytime.

Why BlueHost SSH?

There are many conditions you may need direct SSh access into your web hosting account. The most important reason is transferring relatively huge files or backups from a host to another.

Another possible reason is transferring a site from your old host to your new BlueHost account. Please be noted that BlueHost is not offering a free website migration for free. Instead, you will need to pay a handy fee for the transfer. And here, SSh will do the job for you easily and securely.

In this article today, we’re sharing with you how you can enable SSh on your BlueHost account. The established connection will be very fast, secure and will definitely save you much time transferring files.

How To Enable SSH on BlueHost?

BlueHost is one of the very few hosting providers that offer Free SSH access to their customers. While it’s free of charge, Bluehost shell access is not enabled by default on your web hosting account. You will need to enable it with a few easy steps.

You will need to follow certain steps in order to enable and activate SSh access on your account. Then, you will need to create a key with a password for easy access.

Here are the steps, follow along:

• First, you will need to login to BlueHost account.
• On the top tabs, click “cPanel“.
• Browse to the “Security” tab & find “SSH/Shell access“.

• In SSh Management Page, click “Manage SSH Access“

• In SSH Access Settings, choose “Real Shell (bash)” & click “Submit“.
  Success: SSH Shell settings set to /usr/local/cpanel/bin/jailshell successfully.

• Back to SSH Management page, click “Manage SSH Keys“.

• There, click “Generate a New Key” and fill information.

• Now, You will need to authorize this key via “Manage Authorization“.

At this point, you should have completed enabling SSH on your account, creating SSH access key, and authorized this key to access the web hosting account.

How to SSH into BlueHost Account?

Now, you’re ready to start accessing your account using an SSH terminal. I would recommend downloading Putty. You can use the terminal in Mac OS.

• Open “Putty” & Put your website URL as “Host Name“.

It will then open the SSH terminal and asks you for “Username” and “Password”. The username will be your BlueHost account username  (look at the left column under cPanel, and you will see username). And the password will be that password we’ve set while creating the SSH key.

If you’ve received an error “BlueHost SSH timeout” or “BlueHost ssh permission denied“, you may need to disconnect and reconnect in a few minutes. Also, make sure that you’re using the correct username and password.

Once logged in, you will be able to start using this SSH access directly.

Conclusion:

That was it all to set up and enable SSh access to your BlueHost hosting account. If you’re a tech-savvy or worked on Linux before, this will be very easy to follow and understand.

If this is your first time to use SSH access, this tutorial is very easy and straight-forward for absolute beginners. Furthermore, here are a few other resources to help you understand dealing with SSH:

• Basic SSH commands for new users
• Using SSH on Windows via Putty

If you’ve got any questions or inquiries, feel free to leave your comment below. I will make sure to get back to you shortly with a prompt answer. And don’t forget to share this article with everyone on social media.