Before you buy either of these hosting providers, you might be wondering, whether DreamHost or Bluehost is worth your time and money?
Well, one is definitely better than the other.
But it really depends on your budget and personal needs for your next website. Here I will highlight and share all the key features I took into consideration after testing both Bluehost and Dreamhost.
Bluehost vs Dreamhost: Which is Better for Beginners?
Performance
Both platforms are actually quite straightforward to use for any beginner or advanced user. In order to launch your domain, it quite literally takes between 10 to 20 minutes if you already know the Domain name you want to use.
Each offer similar types of plans: Shared and Managed WordPress hosting, as well as VPS and dedicated hosting selections.
In this comparison, I will cover everything one needs to know about their Shared Hosting plans.
Uptime
If a hosting provider has strong uptime rates, then it’s a good indicator of well-performing servers. Uptime is the amount of time that the server hosting your website is up and running.
Uptime rates are typically listed as a percentage, such as 99.95%, which means that only 0.05% of the time, the server may be down for various reasons. DreamHost claims to offer a 100% uptime guarantee. Bluehost does not make any claim of an uptime guarantee but provides an actual uptime percentage of approximately 99.9%. In conclusion, if you are an absolute beginner, Bluehost should be your choice. If you plan on establishing a more complex website for a business with full maintenance, Dreamhost is the winner here.
Design and Functions
Bluehost
New users will find their dashboard and overall customer experience to be quite easy and welcoming. If you’re looking for WordPress hosting specifically, Bluehost is one of the few providers endorsed by the WordPress Core team.
You can immediately upon purchase, install WordPress in a single click, or have the company’s managed services team take care of it for you. It’s really easy to use Bluehost and you can start designing your website within a few minutes.
Dreamhost
Prices
What makes Bluehost packages most appealing is the company’s reputation for affordability and usability. But despite low prices and fine promises, Bluehost only accepts yearly payment plans.
With Bluehost, you don’t have the comfort of choosing a monthly plan. Each price and plan you see are 12, 24, or 36-month plans. These are good in the long term.
Be aware that Dreamhost also charges for your domain name and with their starter plan, an additional $1.67/month for your email hosting. On the good side, your prices go down significantly if you pay yearly. However, in case your site is big or growing fast with more traffic, few hosts will take care of you as well as DreamHost.
There is also a money-back guarantee coming from both hosting companies, so you shouldn’t worry about wasting your time or money if you are unhappy. In general, Bluehost offers better value in terms of spending. Of course, neither provider is going to empty your wallet. But Bluehost’s value, support, and competitive renewal prices make it a better provider here.
Customer Support
There is no doubt that hosting services provide impressive levels of support. However, according to some research done by Themeisle, DreamHost offers better quality support in both areas.
Each runs well-organized knowledge bases, packed with getting started information, how-to guides and step-by-step tutorials, webinars, forums, and more. If you need help with something, DreamHost and Bluehost both provide live chat and telephone support.
Website Speed
I used Gmetrix and Pingdom test tools to estimate all websites’ pages peed I could get my hands on. Long story short, Dreamhost outperformed Bluehost by a small margin. However, on several occasions and regions, Bluehost did better, especially in smaller sites.
From my experience, both hosting services provide fast and reliable services and page speed is nearly the same.
The Cons of Bluehost and Dreamhost
When it comes to Bluehost, the only things I don’t like are the yearly pricing structures and their functionality. There is no chance to pay a monthly fee. Despite that, Bluehost is still the best choice for beginner designers, small blogs, or businesses.
Bluehost also charges extra for security.
Dreamhost is a little bit more expensive than Bluehost, but their pricing plans are more structured when it comes to choosing shared or managed-to-host plans. Bluehost does not provide as well-managed services as Dreamhost’s infrastructure management, malware scans, and DDoS protection.
Final Remarks – What’s best for you?
Both DreamHost and Bluehost are great hosting companies that provide an extensive range of tools, features, and services. But here is the deal.
If you are a beginner or advanced user with small traffic, Bluehost is your best choice. They are more affordable and reliable.
If your website has been growing or has a big enough traffic, try out Dreamhost to speed up and scale up your website to reach peak performance and a better experience for your page visitors.
If you’re interested, there is also a complete tutorial and guide on starting your WordPress website with Bluehost to help you out.
