Bluehost vs DreamHost (2018) - Detailed Comparison
Is it the first time that you are going to host a website/blog or do you already have huge knowledge, skills and expertise in web hosting related services?
In any of the situation, the decision of choosing a web hosting service for your website/blog totally relies on the motive of your business and your individual needs. Before making any decision you have to clear about your exact necessities as well as your budget, because if you are clear about these things then only you can decide a best and reliable hosting plan.
One thing you should always keep in mind that there is no perfect web hosting service in the industry for everyone. You may observe one web host to be perfect and ideal for your website motive and your requirements, whereas another person probably won't think that it's ideal for theirs requirements.
Considerably, in case you are trying to narrow down your choices to the most perfect and finest hosting service providers, you might in a little while find yourself end up looking at two well-known web hosts, Bluehost and Dreamhost. These 2 web hosts have been in the hosting industry for years and they are not going to disappear blink of an eye. Also these two hosting providers are widely accepted for providing reasonable-priced and full-featured hosting services for all type of websites/blogs, therefore it doesn't matter what framework you are hoping to set-up, we are fully certain these hosts service providers would have the capacity and skills to cater your needs.
So now we are going to compare these two well-known and most-trusted web hosting companies and service providers in the industry, such as Bluehost and Dreamhost based on their pricing, plans, features, customer service etc.
At a Glance
- Free Domain & SSDs
- Free Regular Backups
- 30-Day Money Back Guarantee
- 24*7*365 Support
- Free SSL Certificate & cPanel
- Recommended By WordPress
Price/Month
$3.95
At a Glance
- 24/7 Customer Support
- SSL Certificate 7 Custom Control Panel
- 99.9% Uptime Guarantee
- Solid State Drives
- Buy a .COM for $11.95
Price/Month
$2.95
Overall Web Hosting Comparison
Bluehost’s hosting service has been most favorite host of mine for the shared hosting and WordPress hosting areas. They comply with modern norms, as they use only latest available hardware, servers and world-class customer support for all type of hosting services.
For most of the website owners, Bluehost’s shared hosting is the ideal choice to fulfill their requirements. Once you feel that you have outgrown your shared hosting and your hosting package is not able to accommodate your traffic needs, you can without any downtime jump to the VPS, Cloud or dedicated server hosting environment.
Bluehost is one of the couple of hosting service providers officially recommended by WordPress. By opting for their hosting you can easily install this popular CMS platform in just few click of mouse using the cPanel as well as you can also opt their fully managed hosting services and leave everything on their expert team.
The other factor which makes Bluehost hosting services more admirable is their name and acceptability towards the reasonable cost and useableness. Internet newbies as well as professional webmasters can really enjoy that. Additional features, as for example free SSL certificate, unlimited bandwidth, free .com, access to unlimited email account, enough amount of web space etc. make this web host a value for-the-money and most-favored in the entire industry.
Here are top features of BlueHost hosting:
A superior web host for the website owners who are aware that what they are searching for, Dreamhost offer great and performance-tuned hosting ideal for scaling web pages as well as web applications via the arrays of lost cost shared server, secured and powerful VPS/Cloud hosting and dedicated server hosting.
We genuinely like the features of their hosting however catch on that many novices or expert web developers/webmaster might do not wish to give out the additional money to take advantage of the increased performance, advance optimization and managed solutions offered by Dreamhost.
Supposing, you have a website which is growing at faster speed and getting huge amount of traffic, there are few web hosts like Dreamhost will take care of everything. The managed services offered by this web host comprise complete infrastructure management, automated updates, server backups, malware/virus scan, Server monitoring, DDoS protection and more.
Here are top features of DreamHost hosting:
Types of Web Hosting Plans
Shared Hosting Plans
Both of the hosts offer Shared hosting at reasonable rates. Bluehost has three shared hosting plans starting from $3.95/month, whereas Dreamhost has two shared server plans starting from $2.95/month. Both do not charge anything for account setup.
Bluehost Shared Hosting
| Basic | Plus | Go PRO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Websites | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited. |
| Bandwidth | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Web Space | 50 GB SSD | Unmetered | Unmetered |
| Email Storage | 100 MB | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Free SSL | Included | Included | Included |
| Control Panel | cPanel | cPanel | cPanel |
| Pricing | $3.95/mo. | $5.45/mo. | $13.95 |
DreamHost Shared Hosting
| Shared Starter | Shared Unlimited | |
|---|---|---|
| Websites | 1 | Unlimited |
| Bandwidth | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Web Space | 50GB | Unlimited |
| Email Accounts | NA | Unlimited |
| Free SSL | Included | Included |
| Control Panel | DreamHost Control Panel | DreamHost Control Panel |
| Pricing | $2.59/mo. | $7.95/mo. |
VPS Hosting Plans
Bluehost has three different plans for VPS hosting starting from $19.99/month whereas Dreamhost has four different plans for VPS starting from $13.75/month. Let us have a look at the features of both hosts:
Bluehost VPS Hosting
| Standard | Enhanced | Ultimate | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bandwidth | 1 TB | 2 TB | 3 TB |
| Storage Space | 30 GB SSD | 60 GB SSD | 120 GB SSD |
| RAM | 2 GB | 4 GB | 8 GB |
| IP | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Pricing | $19.99/mo. | $29.99/mo. | $59.99/mo. |
DreamHost VPS Hosting
| Basic VPS | Business VPS | Professional VPS | Enterprise VPS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bandwidth | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Storage Space | 30 GB | 60 GB | 120 GB | 240 GB |
| RAM | 1 GB | 2 GB | 4 GB | 8 GB |
| IP | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Pricing | $13.75/mo. | $27.50/mo. | $55/mo. | $110/mo. |
Cloud Hosting Plans
Both of the hosts are having three different cloud hosting packages with many amazing features.
Bluehost Cloud Hosting
| Starter | Performance | Business Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bandwidth | Unmetered | Unmetered | Unmetered |
| Storage Space | 100 GB | UnmeteredSD | Unmetered |
| CPU | 2 | 4 | 8 |
| RAM | 2 GB. | 4 GB | 6 GB |
| Pricing | $6.95/mo. | $9.95/mo. | $15.95/mo. |
DreamHost Cloud Hosting
| 512MB RAM Server | 2GB RAM Server | 8GB RAM Server | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bandwidth | Free bandwidth* | Free bandwidth* | Free bandwidth* |
| Storage Space | 80 GB | 80 GB | 80 GB |
| CPU | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Pricing | $4.50/mo./$0.0075/hr | $12/mo./$0.02/hr) | $48/mo./$0.08/hr |
Dedicated Server Hosting Plans
Let us now compare Bluehost Dedicated Server Hosting with DreamHost Dedicated Server Plans. Bluehost has three Dedicated server options to choose from whereas Dreamhost has 5 Dedicated servers to choose from.
Bluehost Dedicated Server
| Standard | Enhanced | Premium | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bandwidth | 5TB | 10TB | 15TB |
| Storage | 500GB (Mirrored) | 1TB (Mirrored) | 1TB (Mirrored) |
| CPU | 2.3 GHz | 2.5 GHz | 3.3 GHz |
| IP Addresses | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| RAM | 4GB | 8GB | 16GB |
| Pricing | $79.99/mon. | $99.99/mo. | 119.99/mo. |
At Dreamhost you choose the required configuration as they offer custom plans and you are allowed to choose resources based on your requirements. The basic Dedicated server plan starting from $ 169/month. Below is the detailed comparison of the maximum available configuration with these two well-known web hosting providers:
| DreamHost | Bluehost | |
|---|---|---|
| Maximum Storage Space | 2TB | 1TB |
| Maximum RAM | 30GB | 16GB |
| Maximum Bandwidth | Unlimited | 15TB |
| RAID 1 | Yes | Yes |
When it comes to powerful Dedicated server hosting, Dreamhost is clear winner, as you get more flexibility and freedom to choose server configuration as per requirements with Dreamhost, which makes Dreamhost better than Bluehost for Dedicated server hosting.
Web Hosting Features Comparison for services offered by Bluehost & DreamHost
How about now we analyze Bluehost's & DreamHost's different website hosting features, for example, customer service/support, uptime guarantee, control panel, money back policy, performance etc.
Customer Service/Support
Every top web hosting provider will dependably deliver high-priority and first preference to customer satisfaction as well as entirely concentrate on improving their customer support options.Both Dreamhost and Bluehost follow the same thing. These two web host give 24/7 customer support services to all clients through live chat, email, phone as well as ticket system. Apart from this they also own discussion forums so that customer can discuss about their hosting related issues, tips, tricks as well as share their knowledge.
Bluehost allow its customers to raise their issue using ticket system and get solution from their technical team. Anyway it is always good to get instant help from web host using live chat or telephone for instant resolution of your issue.
When it comes to DreamHost web hosting, it offers its customers with the option to use its Knowledge Base that contains numerous of hosting articles, how to’s, tutorial, troubleshooting manuals for self-help.
Both web hosts are excellent in this field and for customer support both are clear winner with 24/7 top class customer service.Uptime and Availability
When it comes to Uptime Bluehost does not make any declare of uptime assurance, but as per our analysis and monitoring they are able to give around 99.99% uptime, therefore it ensures the maximum availability of your site. Whereas DreamHost claims to deliver 100% uptime, but in reality they are also delivering around 99.99% uptime. So both of them are able to deliver equal uptime.
Performance & Reliability
When it comes to performance and reliability both web hosts deliver consistent performance for any kind of websites/blogs and due to this reason both hosting companies being considered as most trusted and reliable name in the industry for several years.
But for increased performance, Bluehost has combined few most recent innovation and transformation by making use of segregation technology that enables Bluehost to smartly manage the CPU (central processing unit) as well as safeguard the sites hosted with them from unwanted threats, viruses, malware and spammers.
So in this segment, the clear winner is Bluehost as they use advanced technologies and techniques.
Money-Back & Cancelation Policy
Bluehost offer 30 days money back guarantee. At the same time this guarantee is only applicable on hosting services. You will not get any refund for added features like free domain name,, account setup fee or any other addons you have taken during sign up. In case you ask for a refund after 30 days, you will get partial refund for the unused service.
Dreamhost offer 97 days money back guarantee which is really difficult to beat. By opting this web host you will get more time to test the hosting offered by them because you will have huge time to ask for the refund. Although the 97 days money back only applicable on hosting services and it is not applies on any other services such as domain registration, SSL and other third-party offering. You will be only refunded if you have made the payment using credit card.
Control Panel
Control panel is one of the most essential thing of hosting service. Bluehost uses industry leading control panel tool known as cPanel. It is one of the most easiest control panel for hosting services. Whereas Dreamhost uses its custom made control panel tool and it may take much longer for you to understand and navigate it.
In this segment, Bluehost is the clear winner as they offer an easy to use cPanel tool.
Extras & Freebies
Bluehost offer free Marketing credits for Google/Bing Ads worth $150 in hosting packages. Apart from this it offer free site builder tool for easier website creation. In case you are planning to migrate your website from any other host to Bluehost, then you need to pay for it and the cost for site migration is $149.99 for up to 5 websites and 20 email account. There are many other companies like A2 Hosting and InMotion hosting does not charge anything for site migration services.
In you are planning to transfer your domain to Bluehost then they will not charge anything. Also if you are planning to register new domain, Bluehost will register it for your for free of cost.
DreamHost also do not offer free website migration service. Anyway they didn’t mention the site migration charges on their website. They also offer free domain name for 1 year. In case you are looking for site builder tool included in your hosting, you need to pay extra to obtain this as they do not offer free site builder tool. In this segment Bluehost is better than Dreamhost.
Conclusion – Bluehost or Dreamhost: Who is the Winner?
On the basis of the comparison done above of the diverse web hosting features provided by these two hosts, it is clear that Bluehost offer little better services than DreamHost.
You can without any second thought choose Bluehost due to its easy to use control panel tool, scalability and the availability of free domain & SSL in basic shared hosting package, free website migration services, regular automated backups and more. In the same way, you may decide on DreamHost hosting, in case you are in hunt of more powerful and flexible dedicated server hosting option, long term money back guarantee, Faster SSD storage etc.
As said in the beginning, there is not perfect and perfect solution for all your hosting related needs. The most essential thing you need to do is recognize and identify your specific requirements as well as do some comprehensive exploration of the features you need in your hosting service and features provided by the web hosts we discussed here.
I hope that this detailed comparison of Bluehost and DreamHost will be helpful and beneficial for you to decide perfect and best suitable web hosting service company for your online project.
Thank you so much for taking your time to read this article!