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 | Unlimited disk space Unlimited bandwidth 24/7/365 support 45-day money back guarantee More features at hostgator.com | From 2.75 /mo | 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.
You want your site to be guaranteed top-notch security without having to deal with sleepless nights, or an empty wallet even.
HostGator only does weekly backups so you should do your own daily backups as well. You’ll be charged a fee to restore your site from a backup. Malware scans are also only conducted weekly.
Their datacenters with strong infrastructure have multiple redundancies to provide smart foreseeable risk management. Keeping your site online has been made paramount.
They even have hurricane shelters and their locations are outside the FEMA 500 year floodplain. Administrators and technicians are onsite 24/7/365 to fix problems before they become worse.
They’re protected by biometric locks, mantraps, CCTV monitoring at all times and secured entrances.
Other protection includes uninterrupted power supplies, high-tech cooling systems, and redundant chillers to ensure servers won’t overheat, diesel generators, fire suppressors, smoke detectors and much more.
DreamHost has partnered with StopTheHacker to offer all members superior security in a huge multitude of ways including malware and virus scans, protection against being on blacklists, daily scans of the site to ensure the highest reputation level and much more. They offer four plans according to your needs.
They also provide automated daily backups on all plans. They also handle updating WordPress core software and provide security updates for clients.
Centers are manned 24/7 by technicians and support staff. CCTV is monitored 24/7. All doors are security doors to keep out intruders.
Multiple redundant lines of physical security ensure they have an uninterrupted power supply and other equipment designed to protect the servers from getting too hot (among other things).
It is common to experience significant growth in terms of visitors and site-popularity. This will inevitably require more resources, so the flexibility to upgrade is vital to bear in mind.
If you’re unsure how fast your needs will grow, you can choose a monthly contract instead of a longer commitment. Then you can upgrade when the need arises and you’ll only pay the difference in cost between the two contracts.
If you do an upgrade from a shared plan to a reseller option, your site will be transferred “as is.”
You can upgrade or downgrade your site. The only fees involved are the difference in amounts between the first plan and the second. Obviously, either you or a support person does the upgrade and then it goes live.
You may choose a monthly or yearly contract and DreamHost can help you choose the best one.
Should you be trying either of these hosts, this section is very relevant. Even if you’re directly committing to a plan, you want to know your chances of getting your money back, if services aren’t up to scratch.
HostGator offers a 45-day money-back guarantee for the contract itself. All the extras such as domain name, admin fees, custom installations and other add-ons.
If you don’t use a credit card to pay for your hosting, your refund can only be applied to the account you have.
Only newcomers to HostGator qualify for this rebate.
DreamHost offers a 97-day money-back guarantee, one of the best available. However, you only qualify if you initially paid by credit card and only for shared hosting. Other payments methods aren’t eligible for refunds.
If you wish to cancel your account after the 97 days has passed, they’ll most likely give you a refund on most things including some you wouldn’t get if it was under the 97 days.
While it’s nice to have a hosting team based in your country, you cannot always guarantee the support team will be. For this reason, 24/7 support should be standard on your list of must-haves.
Some of you may ask – why would you need it all day, all week? Well, believe me, there are reasons. In the meantime, take a look at why instant availability across multiple platforms is key:
Now it’s time to compare the two providers.
HostGator offers 24/7/365 for just about all the types of support you could imagine.
This includes phone calls, live chat, emails, more than 500 different tutorials, in excess of 700 articles, a massive database of knowledge and a collection of public and member-only active forums where members help each other.
Support is offered 24/7/365. However, you can’t ring the company at all. They provide phone “call-back” support, on several plans including the two top Managed WordPress plans. If you choose shared hosting you can use email tickets or live chat for support. Or you can opt to pay a fee to also get phone call-back support. The fee is $9.95 per call-back or $14.95 for 3 call-backs a month.
A Wiki support group of pages offers a comprehensive set of links to site pages with answers to your questions. Live chat is available on all plans.
Twitter is one method they use to help provide support. Many of the support staff are WordPress experts which is handy because WordPress is the most commonly used platform.
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.