By: Matt
When shopping for a web host, you might have come across two of the most popular hosting companies namely HostGator and DreamHost. And if you’re hesitating between these two hosting giants, choosing the right one isn’t an easy task.
Just like every web host out there, they each have their pros and cons. So which one is the best? HostGator and DreamHost are two well-known web hosting companies vying for your business. Our DreamHost vs HostGator comparison looks at a set of must-have web hosting features and we score each company.
HostGator is one of the top ten largest hosting providers, with over 8 million hosted domains. Dreamhost is known for having one of the longest money-back guarantees.
Whichever web host you decide to go with. It’s always important to spend time researching both companies. Since both DreamHost and HostGator have generous money-back guarantees, you can even give them both a try and see which one you prefer.
Summary of HostGator and DreamHost comparison against the following features: 1. reliability, 2. security, 3. scalability, 4. cancellation, 5. support, and 6. extras.
| Company | Main features | Price | Rating | More |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 HostGator |
More features at hostgator.com | From $2.75/month | 67% score | Visit website Read reviews |
So let’s see how the actual hosting plans and packages fare against one another, with our two contenders.
HostGator has flexible shared hosting plans, all offering unmetered bandwidth and one-click installs. The basic plan is $2.75/month and comes with one domain, with the mid-range and high tier plans offering support for unlimited domains. HostGator’s cloud hosting package has a similar offering.
HostGator supports dozens of quick-install applications.
Plans provide up to 6 GB of memory and 6 core CPU, and a dedicated IP address. The web host’s VPS hosting package offers up to 8GB and bandwidth scales from 1.5TB, 2 TB to 3TB. Disk space ranges from 120 GB, 165 GB to 240 GB.
Ideally, you want solid knowledge of the exact performance statistics of HostGator’s plans, so we picked out their web hosting plans for comparison.
| Hatchling Plan | Baby Plan | Business Plan | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Domains | One | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| One-click Installs | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Bandwidth | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Freebies | SSL Certificate | SSL Certificate | SSL Certificate Upgrade to positive SSL SEO toolset Dedicated IP |
| Pricing | from $2.75/month | from $3.95/month | from $5.95/month |
Overall, it’s fair to say that HostGator offers some very fairly-priced web hosting.
DreamHost has one shared hosting package, billed differently depending on the plan duration you select (month-to-month, annual, three-year plan.) You can get it for $2.59/month.
You’ll get the following with most plans:
For VPS hosting, Dreamhost recommends their basic package for new and small websites. It comes with unmetered bandwidth, 1GB ram and you can host unlimited domains. Cloud hosting packages start at $4.95/month for 2 GB RAM and 80 GB SSD (solid-state drive) storage.
WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS platforms, and most hosting providers offered specialized packages to host WordPress sites.
On HostGator’s WordPress clouding hosting package, the web host will transfer your WordPress site from another web hosting service at no cost. The hosting service provides unmetered disk and bandwidth with its WordPress plans.
Dreamhost’s WordPress offering starts with a $2.59/month shared hosting option with WordPress pre-installed. Dreamhost also has cloud-hosted WordPress options and VPS Managed WordPress plans. It promises fast site speeds even when your website traffic grows.
Their managed high-performance plan offers the following feature set:
While these are great perks, it comes in pricey at $16.95/month.
Both web hosts let you manage your site via control panels. You can control all the technical aspects of your hosting service from one interface. Most web hosting providers use an industry-standard control panel.
HostGator’s control panel is easy to navigate and it’s the same version used by most hosting services. From HostGator’s control management, you can add CMS, monitor your site traffic, and create and manage customized email accounts.
If you are new to web hosting, you won’t struggle to master HostGator’s control panel.
Dreamhost has its own proprietary control panel, but you manage most of the same aspects from your account. Although it has the same features as the industry-standard control panel, it might take you longer to navigate, but still easy to pick up.
The best web hosts will use technology to increase the speed of your site. This is important because there’s a link between fast sites and increased conversions.
Even if you don’t have an e-commerce site, a slow site will frustrate your customers. HostGator uses a Cloud Delivery Network (CDN) to keep response times high for your website when delivering web content to your customers. Dreamhost also uses a CDN to improve response time.
This is a straightforward comparison ground. The host with less chance of experiencing downtime has the upper hand. While overall uptime guarantees are important, we must bear precautions and compensation in mind too.
A 99.9% guaranteed uptime is provided for your website and you may receive a credit for the month’s hosting if this performance percentage isn’t at that level.
The guarantee isn’t relevant in the cases of scheduled maintenance periods designed to keep you running at peak efficiency.
HostGator has discretion when it comes to refunding money so you must have a valid reason and contact them prior to the end of the following month.
DreamHost offers an 100% uptime guarantee. You receive one day of credit for each hour (or part thereof) that your service is interrupted.
This is limited to a maximum amount of 10% of your hosting fee. This doesn’t apply to any scheduled maintenance time.
DreamHost have created an uptime monitor for a majority of their services.
The downtime starts when the customer creates a support ticket to report that they can’t access their site. It also doesn’t apply if the customer has somehow caused their own site to crash due to configuration or coding mistakes made by the customer.
DreamHost isn’t obliged to provide a refund for any downtime incurred for any reason. So be wary of what you do and say so they have no reason to refuse your request for the refund.
What do these companies offer which you wouldn’t usually expect with a hosting plan? What would you like that is nice to have but not a necessity?
You receive $200 worth of advertising credits for use with Google Adwords and Yahoo/Bing.
You can have your site migrated from a different host to HostGator at no cost to you. Upgrades are also free, whereas downgrades aren’t done for free. This should be done within the 30 day period of you first signing up. Each site you create also gets the domain at no cost for the initial term.
The free website builder and other tools will help you to create your amazing site.
DreamHost provides free migration of WordPress sites hosted on their Managed WordPress plans. Those who opt for shared hosting can get WordPress migration for a $99 fee.
Visit hostgator.com Visit dreamhost.com
