We understand that choosing between two sought-after hosting companies can be a traumatic experience. Both HostGator and Bluehost are top-notch hosting providers, and as such, we are going to help you make the right choice for your website.
Making the right of a hosting company will always guarantee you better value for money. These two providers take pride in providing excellent features as well as performance.
That said, we’ll make an in-depth comparison based on performance and features, after which you can decide which is the right one for you. To save you the hassle and time, choose one that suits your needs perfectly.
So, without any delay, let’s get started.
Hostgator Vs Dreamhost Comparison
HostGator vs. DreamHost Credibility
When we said HostGator and Bluehost are popular hosting companies, we meant it. HostGator came to life in the year 2002 and was launched by Brent Oxley, who was a student at the University of Florida Atlantic.
DreamHost, on the other hand, is a hosting provider based in Los Angeles. It was founded by four people, Josh Jones, Sage Weil, Michael Rodriguez, and Dallas Bethune. It has been in the market since 1996 with 23 years of experience. Ever since DreamHost has become famous in the hosting industry due to its well-earned reputation.
So, you see, these two hosting providers aren’t famous for nothing. They have been in the marketing industry for decades now, meaning you can always count on each of them.
Verdict: It’s a win-win for both. HostGator and DreamHost have stayed in the market for years, thus credibility.
User Interface
Let’s face it. Working on a complicated platform can be downright frustrating, especially when you’re still green, and as such, you need directions to set up your website.
HostGator offers an easy-to-use cPanel on all its plans. It’s so easy that even a beginner wouldn’t have a problem setting up a website. Besides, they have YouTube video tutorials along with a step by step guide taking you through the features of the cPanel.
DreamHost, on the contrary, works on a custom web-based control panel. This is a great disappointment to its users, especially the experts who love customizing their sites using the cPanel. Besides, DreamHost provides no demo for its web-based control panel.
Verdict: HostGator wins. It offers a cPanel on all its plans while DreamHost doesn’t.
Customer Support
Regardless of the type of your website, customer support is a must-have in any provider. You might not use it occasionally, but it has to be there should you face technical issues with your provider.
HostGator offers live chat, phone calls, and email tickets that’s available 24/7. However, to get support quickly, consider reaching them via phone calls. Their live chat support team is also reliable, although they might take time to respond. You might even get more disappointed if you opt for email tickets because it takes hours before you can get a response.
DreamHost, in contrast, lacks dependable customer support. To contact them through a phone call, you’ll have to pay an extra fee on top of your monthly subscriptions to have a support team member call you. These additional costs cater for live chat as well.
Apart from that, the only support services DreamHost offers for free is via email. This is a disappointment because HostGators provide reliable customer support at no cost except for the email tickets.
Verdict: HostGator wins. While you pay an additional fee to access DreamHost’s customer services, HostGator offers phone calls as well as live chats for free.
HostGator vs. DreamHost Features and Pricing
Pricing should be your top priority when looking for a hosting provider. Choosing a hosting company that’s within your budget will save you a lot of money.
HostGator provides its users with three shared plans, including Hatchling Plan, Baby Plan, and Business Plan. The Hatchling Plan is the cheapest of all and only allows hosting of a single domain at $3.95 a month.
The Baby Plan comes in handy with essential features at $4.95 a month. If you desire to host many sites under a single plan, then you should opt for Baby Plan. And because HostGator plans are scalable, you can decide to pay monthly, half-yearly, or even yearly depending on your budget.
DreamHost, on the contrary, only offers a single plan at $8.95 per month. The problem? The package is not scalable, meaning you have to pay for a year upfront before you can use their hosting services.
If you’re setting up a site for the first time, HostGator is an excellent choice. It allows you to try its hosting services for as low as $0.01, unlike DreamHost, which offers yearly plans.
Verdict: HostGator wins. It offers cheaper monthly plans, thus better value for money.
Performance and Reliability
Going for a hosting provider with unreliable performance is less of driving on a muddy road. HostGator has its data centers strategically placed in Dallas on Dual Xeon servers. These data centers are well established and can connect up to 10 providers.
DreamHost works on power-efficient AMD processors to provide hosting services to their customers’ websites. They have dedicated servers with dual-core and quad-core options.
Of course, being known as the best hosting companies worldwide, they have to show excellent performance. Those hosting their websites with these two providers can attest that they guarantee superior performance.
However, to compare their performance, we had to run a couple of performance tests. We, therefore, conducted a GtMetrix analysis, and according to the observations made, HostGator exhibits faster load speeds as well as response time compared to DreamHost. HostGator took 1.70 seconds to load while HostGator took 2.39 seconds.
Verdict: HostGator wins. It guarantees faster load speeds compared to DreamHost.
Speed Test
Again, speed is an essential factor you should consider in the choice of a hosting provider for reliability. To compare the speed tests for both the providers, we carried out a Pingdom test.
HostGator took a second before it could start running, thus a good show. DreamHost loaded in 1.25 seconds, which is also good.
Verdict: HostGator wins. While HostGator takes a second to load, DreamHost performance is also excellent because it loads within seconds too.
Final Verdict: HostGator Wins
These two providers fought tooth and nail in each category; however, HostGator wins by beating DreamHost in all categories except for the credibility compartment where there is a tie.
DreamHost’s uptime and loading speeds are relatively good, but the paid customer services, as well as yearly subscriptions, makes DreamHost the wrong choice. And this makes HostGator the overall winner in the HostGator vs DreamHost comparison.