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Choosing a web hosting service is an exercise that’s often shrouded in confusion and panic attacks for the clueless. Simply put, it may seem like you’re charging into a minefield without an aim in mind because there are just too many companies offering more or less similar services – and it gets even crazier when everyone’s claiming to be the best around town.
Well, if you’re trying to whittle down your options to the absolute best web hosts, you might soon find yourself comparing between Bluehost and DreamHost. Both companies have been around for years, and they’re not going anywhere so you don’t have to worry about them packing up and disappearing overnight. The two companies are also well-known for offering affordable and feature-rich hosting solutions, so no matter what system you’re looking to set-up, we’re pretty sure these hosts would be able to accommodate you.
There are small differences in pricing and features when comparing the hosting plans that Bluehost and DreamHost have to offer. DreamHost is more apt for advanced webmasters who have experience with hosting websites. And Bluehost, on the other hand, would be a better choice if you need a little bit of hand-holding. That said, however, the final choice on these two web hosts should be based on your hosting needs and budget. With that in mind, the following will compare and contrast Bluehost vs DreamHost so that you can make an educated choice on which of the two web-hosting companies is more deserving of your business.
Here below is a tl;dr summary version of our of Bluehost and DreamHost head-to-head comparison.
The following web hosting features have been compared and scored (click on the link to scroll to each feature section): 1. reliability, 2. security, 3. scalability, 4. cancellation, 5. support and 6. extras.
| Company | Main features | Price | Rating | More |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Bluehost | Free domain name for 1 year Free backups 24/7/365 support 30-day money back guarantee Endorsed by WordPress More features at bluehost.com | From 2.95 /mo | 61% score | Visit website Read reviews |
DreamHost | Free domain for life Automated daily backups 24/7/365 support 97-day money-back guarantee Endorsed by WordPress.org More features at DreamHost | From 2.59 /mo | 76% score | Visit website Read reviews |
What Types of Hosting Plans are Offered?
Both hosts offer a variety of plans. Here’s a rundown.
Shared Hosting
Both web hosts plans start with shared hosting plans, where your site is hosted alongside other websites on one server.
Bluehost has a range of shared hosting plans, and all come with one free domain and unmetered bandwidth. Bandwidth is the amount of data the server the server can transfer over a time period and can impact the speed of your site. Unmetered means you’re not billed according to the amount of bandwidth or space you use.
DreamHost has one shared hosting plan that comes with unmetered bandwidth and a free SSL certificate. The annual plan comes with a free domain and unlimited email addresses. Dreamhost also provides a drag-and-drop WordPress builder, that makes it easier to create, customize and launch WordPress websites.
VPS Hosting: For Higher Traffic Sites
Bluehost’s VPS hosting plans offer up to 8 GB RAM. All VPS plans come with unlimited and unmetered bandwidth.
While most hosting providers offer unlimited space and bandwidth, it’s subject to each host’s Terms of Service. Bluehost said 99.95% of customers will have enough space and bandwidth to run their site.
DreamHost’s VPS hosting plans also come with unlimited bandwidth, and up to 8 GB RAM and 240 GB storage. Email is included and unlimited domains are supported.
Dedicated Hosting: For Enterprise Applications
- Bluehost has a range of dedicated hosting plans with 4 cores, and up to and 1 TB storage.
- DreamHost offers 9 dedicated hosting plan with 4-core or 12-core processors, up to 64 GB of RAM, and up to 2TB HDD storage or 240 GB SSD storage.
Cloud Hosting
- Bluehost has a few cloud hosting plans, with the highest plan offering unmetered storage space. Their cloud plans start at $9.99/month for 2GB of RAM and 100 GB of storage.
- Dreamhost’s cloud hosting packages start at $4.50/month ($0.0075/hour) for 100 GB Block Storage and 80 GB SSD (solid-state drive) disk space.
Is Reseller Hosting Available?
- DreamHost does not offer specific reseller plans, but you can add your client’s domains to your account and bill your clients.
- Bluehost offers different reseller plans, through Reseller Club. All come with support for unlimited websites and cPanel accounts.
WordPress Hosting
Both Dreamhost and Bluehost are officially endorsed by WordPress.org, making them both great options if you have a WordPress site. Criteria for this endorsement includes using updated software and the ease of installation.
(SiteGround is the only other host endorsed by WordPress. They are known for great customer service and comes with one-click install for WordPress.)
The shared hosting plans from Bluehost and Dreamhost come with WordPress pre-installed. DreamHost is a bit cheaper than Bluehost. DreamHost’s Managed WordPress plans start at $16.95/month and Bluehost’s start at $19.95/month.
If you’re using another popular CMS to build your website, both hosting providers also offer easy integration for most CMS.
This Bluehost video is a webinar on how to launch a WordPress site via your Bluehost account. The video will give you an idea of the type of tutorials that Bluehost offers.
Control Panel
Bluehost uses the industry-standard control panel called “cPanel.” It’s easy to figure out, even if you’re new to the control panel. Dreamhost uses its own control panel, and it might take a bit longer to navigate at the start.
Reliability: Is There an Uptime Guarantee?
» Bluehost. 4/5
The uptime guarantee offered by Bluehost is 99.9%. Their site doesn’t provide information about possible credits if they don’t comply. However, if you choose to cancel your account because they haven’t held up their end of the deal, you don’t incur any fees.
You may cancel your account any time without penalties. You’ll also receive a refund for the unused portion of your plan.
» DreamHost. 4/5
DreamHost offers a 100% uptime guarantee. For each hour (or part of), that your site is down, you’ll receive a one day credit, to a maximum of 10% of your total hosting fee. This doesn’t apply to scheduled maintenance days.
Downtime commences once the customer contacts support to alert them to the problem.
If you have caused your site problems, you won’t get credits. Regardless of the cause, DreamHost has no obligation to provide the credits so be careful what you’re doing on your site to avoid user-errors.
Security: How is My Site Protected Against Hacking and Downtime?
» Bluehost. 3/5
Backups are done at the company’s discretion so you must do your own backups for full security. They store backups for a maximum of 30 days and refuse to accept responsibility for failed or lost backups. Malware scans are run daily.
You may host your site in the Cloud. If so, it will be automatically copied across three devices so if hardware fails in one site, their “failover” technology chooses the best backup to become your new master copy and then repairs the failed version.
Through the use of SiteLock security, Bluehost carries out daily malware and virus scans. They also provide a lot of other security services for your protection.
Their uninterrupted power supply means servers never have power issues. The company uses dual quad processors to ensure the best performance of your site. They have diesel backup generators and the network is monitored 24/7/365.
» DreamHost. 5/5
Dreamhost believes security is critical when it comes to hosting. They’re partners with StopTheHacker to provide the ultimate security features. Daily virus and malware scans are run for peak efficiency.
Dreamhost data centers have 24/7 CCTV monitoring and are staffed by technicians around the clock. All entrances are securely locked so intruders can’t get in and cause damage.
They have an uninterrupted power supply, high-tech cooling systems to stop the servers from overheating and multiple other redundancies to keep your uptime as high as possible.
Scalability: Is it Easy to Upgrade?
» Bluehost. 5/5
Bluehost won’t charge extra fees on top of the pro-rata cost to upgrade your plan.
There are no lock-in contracts so upgrading is easy and fast to achieve.
» DreamHost. 5/5
The only fee incurred is the gap between the current plan and the upgraded plan. Plans can be paid for monthly or annually.
If you don’t know if a lower plan or a higher plan is best, choose a one month option: that’s enough time to give you a working snapshot of what’s involved and what’s available in the upgrade.
Cancellation: Is There a Money-Back Guarantee?
» Bluehost. 4/5
Bluehost offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. However, this only applies to hosting plans. You don’t get credits or refunds for domain names, admin fees and other add-ons you may use.
You don’t have a fixed account term so if you choose to cancel, you’ll get a pro-rata refund calculated on the unused part of the term.
» DreamHost. 5/5
If you have dreamed about a better money-back guarantee, here it is. Dreamhost’s offer is a 97-day money-back guarantee, one that you’ll find hard to beat. If you find yourself in a situation where you need a refund, at least you know you’ll get some of it back. The guarantee only applies to the hosting plan. It isn’t applicable to domains, DreamHost partners and third-party services. Your refund may only be obtained if you initially paid by credit card.
A monthly or yearly plan is available. Hosting is the only thing you’ll get credits or a refund for. If you cancel after the 97 days have elapsed, it’s likely they’ll still offer you a pro-rated refund based on how much of your current plan has been used.
Support: What Customer and Technical Support Options are Provided?
» Bluehost. 3/5
24/7/365 is when you can access Bluehost’s support department: live chat, phone, email, text messaging and through a members-only forum. There’s a bank of articles on most relevant topics, tutorials and access to a massive knowledgebase.
According to Bluehost’s website, they don’t offer tech support via ticket. You’ll have to call or contact live chat, and this reduces your wait time for a response.
Response time for the live chat can have long queues and when someone does make contact, they’re dealing with multiple clients at the same time. They actually admit that to potential customers, even though they’re supposed to be professional.
» DreamHost. 3/5
Dreamhost provides support every single day of the year and it’s 24/7/365 support. Live chat is only available if there aren’t many people managing support tickets. However, if you have paid their “call back” fee, you’ll have direct access to live chat at all times.
Dreamhost reports a response time of 24 hours for email, but most tickets are answered much faster, according to its website.
With phone support, you can’t ring Dreamhost. If you pay the extra fee, they’ll ring you if requested. People on shared plans can only use the email system.
Dreamhost offers a set of Wiki support group pages so you can read solutions for yourself. Twitter is another method of providing support because numerous support staff are also WordPress experts.
Extras: Do the Hosts Offer any Freebies or Add-Ons?
» Bluehost. 3/5
$150 worth of credits that can be used for Google Adwords or Bing/Yahoo advertising.
Bluehost comes with the Weebly site builder, one of the easiest site builders.
If you want to migrate your site from a different hosting company to Bluehost, the cost is $149.99. Most hosting companies offer this service at no cost to you.
You’ll have your domain name registered or transferred for free and the company supports international domain names.
» DreamHost. 3/5
If you have a WordPress website Dreamhost will migrate it over for free if you choose one of their Managed WordPress hosting plans. If you choose shared hosting there’s a $99.00 migration fee.
You’ll get $100 Google Adwords credits.
They allow one free domain and it’s for the life of your account. Most other companies offer free domains only for the first term. Also your SSL certificate will be free and comes pre-installed.
Dreamhost users can select to use the Remixer site builder, at an extra cost. Remixer plans start at $4.95/month for unlimited websites.
Visit bluehost.com Visit dreamhost.com
DreamHost vs. Bluehost Summary: And the winner is: DreamHost
| FEATURE | WINNER | TIE: DREAMHOST & BLUEHOST |
| Reliability | — | ✔ |
| Security | DreamHost | |
| Ease of Upgrading | — | ✔ |
| Money-Back Guarantee | DreamHost | |
| Support | — | ✔ |
| Extras and Add-Ons | — | ✔ |
FAQ on Bluehost and Dreamhost
Below we’ve answered a few questions about Bluehost and Dreamhost that are common.
Feel free to reach out with any other questions you may have. We’d be happy to research them for you.
What is DreamHost’s managed WordPress hosting?
Managed WordPress hosting means the web host will manage many of the technical details that would otherwise be your responsibility. This includes keeping WordPress plugins and the core software updated for you and performing regular backups of your site. Keeping your plugins and core WordPress software updated is critical: if they’re not kept updated they present an open door to hackers.
Here’s what you get with DreamHost’s managed WordPress hosting plan:
- Performance, security, and plugin/core updates all managed for you
- SSD (solid-state drive) storage
- WordPress is pre-installed and a selection of curated themes ready to go.
- 24/7 support from WordPress experts
- Jetpack pre-installed
- 1-click staging
- Domain privacy
- Monitoring of your website to maintain security
- Fast speeds via cloud hosting
- Ability to scale up quickly if you get an influx of traffic
- Free SSL security via Let’s Encrypt
- Unlimited email
- Support for email autoresponders, webmail, filtering rules.
- Advanced spam protection
- Complete domain management
- WP-CLI for coders who to interact via the command line interface
This video explains the difference between shared WordPress hosting and managed WordPress hosting:
What does Bluehost’s Optimized WordPress hosting offer?
- Instant provisioning: your server is up and running in seconds
- SSD storage
- Minimum 2GB RAM (RAM depends on the plan you select)
- Minimum 1 included domain (Included domains depend on the plan you select)
- Minimum 1 IP address (Included IP addresses depend on the plan you select)
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- 24/7 support
- cPanel control panel
- Free SSL
- Advanced NGINX architecture
- Advanced CDN (content delivery network)
- Guaranteed resources through KVM hypervisor
- Sitelock Professional
- Sitelock WAF
What is DreamHost Remixer?
Remixer is the name of DreamHost’s DIY website builder. It comes with hundreds of themes and click-to-edit functionality. The host states that creating a website takes only minutes. On the DreamHost site you’ll see some examples of professionals who use Remixer for their businesses. Note: DreamHost states you’ll get “Free stock photos” with your Remixer plan, but these are from Pixabay and you can get these yourself whether or not you choose DreamHost. There is a small monthly fee for Remixer and two plans are available.
What does the DreamHost Remixer “All Access” plan include?
The Remixer “All Access” plan starts at $7.95/month and includes:
- The Remixer builder itself
- Unlimited websites
- Unlimited pages
- Mobile-friendly themes
- Free domain name*
- Connect your domain
- Hosting
- 24/7 support
- Email accounts
- Mail forwarding