For whatever hosting plan you wish to choose, you should focus your considerations on web traffic and budget. However, there is no ideal web host for everybody; it all depends on what your website needs to run effectively.
Therefore, in this article, we will consider the beneficial features of two unique web hosting platforms named Bluehost and Dreamhost. They are well known and reliable web hosting services that can provide support for any enterprise, business-oriented, or blogging site.
This comparative article will help you make the best selection of either one of the web hosts based on your website requirements.
The Bluehost is a web hosting company founded by the Endurance International Group (EIG), which started in the year 1996. It was initially named otach.com and provided free hosting service until 2003 when it renamed Bluehost and started offering shared plans. On the other hand, the Dreamhost web hosting platform was also founded in 1996 and owned by the New Dream Network. It offers a range of services, such as cloud storage and cloud computing. This makes it a good alternative to the EIG brand as Bluehost only focuses on providing web hosting services.
Bluehost vs Dreamhost Hosting Comparison
Features
Speed and Uptime
After a series of testing, it was deduced that Bluehost provides an approximate uptime of 99.9%, which shows that the server is constantly running. Therefore any website hosted on the platform has a high availability rating. The same goes for Dreamhost which claims to offer 100% uptime but delivers 99.9% which is similar to Bluehost.
In terms of Load speed, both hosting platforms provide quick server response for quick navigation of webpages. Therefore the Dreamhost and Bluehost have a draw as regards speed and uptime.
Performance
The two unique hosting services are tagged reliable as they deliver a powerful performance for any website hosted. However, the Bluehost puts a step above Dreamhost with the presence of CPU segregation technology. The CPU segregation technology intelligently controls CPU and provides security measures to protect hosted sites from spam, malicious programs, and viruses.
Customer Support
One of the things that make Bluehost and Dreamhost more reliable is its swift response to customer support service. Both hosting services provide 24/7 support to customers through emails, live chats, and phone calls. Both features online forums for customer discussions, and a Knowledgeable based library with a glossary of FAQs to assist. Overall, they both provide excellent customer support.
Control Panel
When it comes to user interactivity, Bluehost takes the lead with an extremely easy to use C-panel. It is quite flexible and well suited for newbie webmasters to host their websites. Its flexibility also runs in range to help seamlessly manage and transfer files, backups, install programs, and create a database. Dreamhost has a proprietary control panel with a lot of technicalities that may take newbie webmaster a little while to master and understand its intricacies. However, both offer smooth FTP access, one-click WordPress installation, MySQL databases (unlimited), and can schedule repetitive tasks.
Money-Back Guarantee
A money-back guarantee feature allows you to retract a hosting plan after several days. The Bluehost hosting services provide a 30-days money-back guarantee from the day of purchase. On the other hand, the Dreamhost provides a money-back guarantee 97 days from the day of purchase. Since Dreamhost has the highest Money Back Guarantee period, it’s obviously the clear winner in this feature category.
Domain Name
Both Dreamhost and Bluehost give a free domain name once you subscribe to any of their plans. Also, if you enroll for the shared hosting plan for Dreamhost, you get free domain privacy protection.
Backups
There are two major types of backups, which are manual and automatic. One of the features that make Bluehost flexible is the fact that it offers automatic backup weekly. The weekly automatic backup comes at no extra cost. However, Dreamhost only offers automatic backup for WordPress hosting plans. Other Dreamhost hosting plans entail you make use of manual back up from C-panel.
Migration
The Migration feature gives you the leverage to move your website from one hosting service to the other. The Bluehost allows migration services at a rate of $99.99. Meanwhile, Dreamhost does not come with a migration feature.
Price and Subscription Type
The web hosts provide the needed satisfaction any of their users can ever get in terms of service and customer satisfaction. However, there are differences when it comes to their price tags. Currently, both web hosting platforms offer the same hosting price of $2.95/month. When it comes to their plans, Bluehost offers four versions of shared hosting plans which are the Bluehost Basic ($2.95), Plus ($5.45), Business Pro ($13.95). The Dreamhost, however, features two versions of its shared hosting plan which is Shared Starter ($2.95/ month) and Shared Unlimited ($5.95/month).
Therefore if you are on the quest to get a cheap web host as a new webmaster, Bluehost will be the best fit till your hosted sites just before it starts getting more traffic before moving to an advanced option. This is possible due to flexible shared hosting choices that allow you to access some exclusive features at a lower price while the more premium versions come at a higher price.
Types of Hosting Plans
With both the Bluehost and Dreamhost web hosting services, you get three types of Hosting plans which are:
- Shared Hosting
- VPS hosting
- Dedicated Hosting
Shared Hosting
The Bluehost shared hosting allows you to add as many websites as you want with its server. The shared hosting platform comes in three Basic versions, Plus, and Business Pro. Dreamhost comes in two categories which are starter and unlimited versions. The basic plan for Bluehost is limited to only one website, 100 E-mail accounts and limited to 50GB of storage. Dreamhost has a basic plan which is also limited to 1 website for hosting. Getting an e-mail account requires you making an extra payment on the Dreamhost. However, both Bluehost and Dreamhost do not charge for setup fees.
| Bluehost Basic | Bluehost Plus | Bluehost Business Pro | Dreamhost Shared Starter | Dreamhost Shared Unlimited | |
| Number of Websites | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited | 1 | Unlimited |
| Disk Space | 50GB | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | |
| Free SSL certificate | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Bandwidth | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Money Back gurantee | 30 days | 30 days | 30 days | 97 days | 97 days |
| Number of E-mail Accounts | 100 | Unlimited | Unlimited | None | Unlimited |
| Pricing | $2.95 per month for a 3-year subscription plan $4.95 monthly | $5.95 per month for a 3-year subscription plan $7.95 monthly | $13.95 per month for a 3-year subscription plan $18.95 monthly | $2.59 per month for a 3-year subscription plan $4.95 monthly | $4.95 per month for a 3-year subscription plan $10.95 monthly |
VPS hosting
VPS is a short term for Virtual Private Server that makes use of Virtualization technology to provide private resources for a server with multiple users. It is more stable and secure than Shared hosting. Hence any VPS hosting plan comes with more costs. On the Bluehost website, you get to see three versions of VPS hosting which are standard ($18.99/month), enhanced ($29.99/month) and Ultimate ($59.99/month). The Dreamhost comes with an exclusive offer of four different versions of VPS hosting which are Basic (for new or small sites), Business (for small business), professional (for resource websites) and Enterprise (resource websites)
| Bluehost Standard | Bluehost Enhanced | Bluehost Ultimate | Dreamhost Basic VPS | Dreamhost Business VPS | Dreamhost Professional VPS | Dreamhost Enterprise VPS | |
| Storage | 30GB | 60GB | 120GB | 30GB | 60GB | 120GB | 240GB |
| RAM | 2GB | 4GB | 8GB | 1GB | 2GB | 4GB | 8GB |
| Bandwidth | 1TB | 2TB | 4TB | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| No of IP Addresses | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Pricing | $18.99 per month | $29.99 per month | $59.99 per month | $10 per month for 3-year plan $15 monthly | $20 per month for a 3-year plan $30 monthly | $40 per month for a 3-year plan $60 monthly | $80 per month for a 3-year plan $120 monthly |
Dedicated Hosting
The Bluehost and Dreamhost provide dedicated server hosting, which provides resources exclusively to just one website. This hosting plan provides more performance and control for any website that generates a high volume of traffic. For Bluehost, there are three categories of the dedicated hosting plan which are standard, Enhanced and Premium. Whereas the Dreamhost allows you to choose the entire server configuration with a single plan. There is more flexibility with Dreamhost dedicated server configurations than Dreamhost.
| Bluehost Standard | Bluehost Enhanced | Bluehost Premium | Dreamhost Dedicated Hosting | |
| CPU core speed | 4 x 2.5GHz | 4 x 2.5GHz | 4 x 3.3GHz | |
| Storage | 1TB | 1TB | 1TB | 2TB |
| RAM | 4GB | 8GB | 16GB | 64GB |
| Bandwidth | 5TB | 10TB | 15TB | Unlimited |
| No. of IP Addresses | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| Pricing | $79.99 per month | $149 per month |
Final Verdict
Your choice of either one of Bluehost or Dreamhost hosting service depends on your hosting needs that majorly imply your budget and the type of website. Both Web hosts are relatively reliable and can help run your sites at higher speed along with good accessibility. Bluehost comes with the advantage of a flexible, easy to use Control panel, automatic back-up ability, presence of migration services and 30-day money-back guarantee.
With Dreamhost, you get a domain name privacy protection, higher SSD storage, flexible server configuration, a 97-day money-back guarantee (longer than Bluehost), and many other features. A look at this comparative article today will help you decide which one is your best fit.