DreamHost vs Bluehost: Which Host is Best for You in 2024?

DreamHost and Bluehost are popular budget-friendly hosting services, officially recommended by WordPress.org.

DreamHost was founded in 1996 and Bluehost in 2003. Both are famous for affordable pricing, modern infrastructure, value added features, and outstanding customer support.

They offer various plans in shared, managed WordPress, VPS, Cloud, and dedicated server hosting types. It is not a matter what kind of website you are going to start, they have suitable plans to match all your needs.

Let us compare these two hosts with key features, pricing, pros & cons and more to discover the best.

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What is DreamHost?

DreamHost is a popular web hosting service for businesses and blogs. Founded in 1996, they have longest hosting experience of more than 28 years.

This American web host is owned by New Dream Network and more than 1.5 million websites are hosted with them at this time. Starting at just $2.59 per month, you can host websites on DreamHost servers with a free domain and other key hosting features.

DreamHost has shared, managed WordPress, VPS, Cloud, and dedicated hosting plans. Their servers are located in Virginia, and Oregon in US. If you have questions and complaints, reach out to their 24/7 customer support by phone, live chat, and tickets.

Key Features of DreamHost

Have a look at the main features of DreamHost hosting plans,

What is Bluehost?

Bluehost is a cheap web hosting provider since 2003. They serve customers for more than 21 years with shared, managed WordPress, WooCommerce, Cloud, VPS, and dedicated hosting plans.

Owned by Newfold Digital, their headquarters is located in Florida- US. Bluehost and their subsidiary brands collectively hosts 2M+ websites as of 2024. You can launch websites for just $1.99 per month on Bluehost. It is a great deal for beginners to establish their online presence at cheap rates.

Bluehost has 24/7 fast chat and phone support.

Key Features of Bluehost

These are the key features of Bluehost hosting,

DreamHost vs Bluehost: Comparison of Features

1. SSD Storage

There are two types of hosting: Traditional HDD (Hard Disk Drives) hosting and SSD (Solid State Drives) hosting. SSD hosting is faster, secure, and more advanced than HDD hosting. So you can experience a smooth and fast browsing experience on sites hosted on SSD servers. Most hosting companies have already switched from HDD technology to SSD to better serve their customers. It is difficult to find a shared host that supports HDD these days as it is almost outdated.

DreamHost offers fast SSD storage and unlimited bandwidth in all hosting plans. Their basic plan is limited to 50 GB storage, but you will get unlimited storage in the Shared Unlimited plan which costs $3.95/mo.

Bluehost too provides SSD hosting and unmetered bandwidth with almost similar specifications. But you will get only 10 GB SSD storage in the basic plan. Unfortunately, they’ve discontinued unlimited storage plans recently. But you can host up to 100 websites in Pro plan for $9.99 per month.

2. Server locations

Before choosing a host, you should know where their servers are located. It should be near to your target audience, so they will get an improved speed on your pages.

DreamHost has hosting servers in the United States (Virginia and Oregon) only. On the other hand, there is no exact information available about Bluehost data center locations. Even though, many hosting experts say that the company has servers in the United States (Utah and Orem), UK (London), China (Shanghai and Hong Kong), and India (Mumbai).

I contacted Bluehost customer support for clarification, and they told me that their hosting server is located in the United States (Provo) only.

3. Daily backups

There are several things that may send your website offline. It could be a hacking attempt, accidental deletion, or something else. So it is very essential to take a regular backup to protect your data and restore it easily.

DreamHost automatically backups your site every day and save it to your hosting account. This service is available on their both shared hosting plans, Shared Starter and Shared Unlimited. Sign in to your account, access the backup copy, and restore it anytime whenever you need.

On the other hand, Bluehost shared hosting customers will get automated backups on Choice Plus, Online Store, and Pro plans only. The basic plan customers should install third-party plugins to back up files and content. We can’t consider it as a major drawback, as you can find out various WordPress backup plugins to handle the job.

4. Free domain

A few hosting companies provide a free domain to their shared hosting customers. It helps them to save a good amount in domain registration for the first year.

Both DreamHost and Bluehost offer a free domain in shared, basic WordPress hosting plans. They support all domain extensions including .com, .org, .net, .blog, and more. Sign up for a shared or WordPress hosting plan with these hosts, and you will get a free domain for the first year of hosting period.

5. Additional features

DreamHost comes with many features like free CDN integration, free website migration, free SSL, and so on. On the Shared Starter plan, you will also get 5 subdomains. But they are unlimited in the Shared Unlimited plan.

Bluehost is also integrated with Cloudflare CDN to deliver content faster from more than 200 global server locations. It provides free website migration, free SSL, free malware scanning, DDoS protection, and custom WordPress themes to all customers.

6. Pricing

Let us check the basic plans of these two hosts,

Bluehost is cheaper than DreamHost. Their basic plan starts at $1.99 per month for 10 websites. On the other hand, DreamHost charges you $2.59 a month for 1 website. To add more websites, you should pay $3.99/mo to Bluehost for up to 50 websites and $9.99/mo for 100 websites. But DreamHost can host unlimited websites for just $3.95 per month.

DreamHost’s unlimited hosting plan comes with unlimited traffic, unlimited SSD storage, unlimited email accounts, and unlimited sub-domains. At the same time, Bluehost’s Pro plan allows you to connect up to 50 websites with 50 GB SSD storage, 200k monthly visits, and 500 concurrent visitors.

7. Money-back guarantee

DreamHost provides a long 97-days money-back guarantee in shared hosting and a 30-days money-back guarantee in managed WordPress hosting plans. Host your websites on DreamHost servers during this period and if you are facing any difficulties, contact their customer support. They will either rectify your complaint or will return the full amount back.

Bluehost has a 30-days money-back guarantee in shared and managed WordPress hosting plans. If you are not satisfied with Bluehost hosting experience, contact their support team and ask for a refund. They will either fix your complaint and will return the full amount back except domain registration charges.

8. Online reputation

Today, there are many ways for consumers to record their opinions about the products they use. Trustpilot is such a popular review website where you need to upload account screenshots to verify that you are an active customer. Facebook and Reddit forums are other places to find honest reviews and product feedbacks.

DreamHost has scored 4.7 out of 5 on Trustpilot with 6,094 reviews till this writing. 87% of them marked as DreamHost services are excellent and only 5% of them have left negative feedback about the company.

At the same time, Bluehost has scored 4.1 out of 5 on the same site with 13,999 reviews. About 67% of customers rated their services are excellent and the 24% marked it as bad.

Many of my friends use Bluehost for a long time and they told me that they have only good experience with the company.

DreamHost vs Bluehost: Which is the Best Host?

DreamHost is better than Bluehost in many ways. It is performance-oriented, reliable, and user-friendly. Their shared hosting plans start at $2.59 per month with all essential features like free domain, free migration, daily backups, free SSL, free CDN, and other benefits we already discussed in this post.

From shared hosting to dedicated server type, DreamHost delivers unique hosting solutions with latest technology standards to all business types. They host websites on fast, optimized SSD servers with solid security features including Let’s Encrypt SSL, two factor authentication, and hacking protection.

Although Bluehost offers similar features, their shared hosting servers tend to accommodate as many customer accounts as possible. As a result, resources are shared among more people, which affects the overall performance of your websites. You can find many Bluehost customers complaining about their website speed and downtime on online platforms and social media. On the other hand, DreamHost places fewer customers per server so as to ensure a better performance and high uptime on all shared, WordPress hosting plan types.

As for pricing, you can enjoy DreamHost’s cheap rates for the whole 3 years. But Bluehost’s low rates are valid for 1-year term only. If you go for the 3-year plan, the price will more than double. For instance, they charge $1.99 per month for the basic shared hosting plan with 1-year subscription. The same plan charge will increase to $4.95 per month with 3-year term. In short, you should pay more when signing up or renewing a Bluehost plan that’s longer than one year.

Whether you are going to build a business website, online store, or blog, DreamHost is the better choice. It is fast, secure, and worth your pocket. They also provide 97-days of money-back guarantee in all shared and managed WordPress hosting plans.

Click here to visit DreamHost and pick a web hosting plan for your online business (24/7 support)