First of all, let’s consider what web hosting is. In simple terms, this is a service to determine the place of your site on the Internet. For example, you use particular files such as documents, images, or software programs every day. They can be hosted on your PC, laptop, or tablet. Typically, only you have access to these files. But if you need to show any document to another person, you have to send it. Moreover, if you want to send a file to a large number of users at the same time, you need web hosting.
It is much more convenient than sending files to every single person. Web hosting allows you to put all of your site content for anyone to access. This content can be versatile, be it a corporate website, a blog, an online business card, or just a set of images. If you are engaged in blogging, type the text directly into your browser and publish it instead of writing a post offline and then sending it to each of your readers.
Choosing a hosting company is a daunting and critical task. These days many companies offer hosting resources, and each of them claims to propose the very best option. Too many choices and not enough information can be confusing for both beginners and experienced users alike. Bluehost and DreamHost are two of the most popular companies in the industry. How do you choose the best one for your needs? Let’s find out what Dreamhost is and user opinions about Bluehost a little bit closer.
What Does Bluehost Offer?
If you are looking for a budget but a reputable hosting provider for your website or blog, and you use WordPress, pay attention to Bluehost. The company was founded by an individual developer Matt Heaton in 2003. Its head office with over 750 employees is located in Provo, Utah, USA. In 2010, Endurance International Group (EIG) purchased Bluehost, and now the company continues to grow rapidly.
Providing over two million websites worldwide, Bluehost is one of the most popular hosting companies at the moment. This company has everything you might need — high uptime, free backups, one-click WordPress installation, and more. However, Bluehost offers less storage space than its competitors. The company offers some pretty powerful but inexpensive web hosting packages across multiple categories such as Shared Hosting, Dedicated Hosting, VPS Bluehost Hosting, etc.
The company offers a wide range of hosting products supported by reliable infrastructure and cloud technology. The company’s offering includes shared and dedicated hosting, as well as unique features for both WordPress and WooCommerce. Shared hosting is inexpensive — it ranges from $ 5.95 to $ 7.95 per month. Almost all tariff plans are not limited to the disk quota, traffic, and the number of domains.
The advantages of Bluehost include the following:
- Excellent design and easy navigation of the sites;
- Good discounts are offered for plans for more than one year;
- A one-year free domain name is included in most plans;
- Free SSDs come with every shared hosting plan;
- Servers run on PHP7, HTTP / 2, and NGINX caching;
- Free SSL certificates and Cloudflare CDN;
- 30-day money-back guarantee.
Among the disadvantages, it is possible to distinguish such points:
- No guarantee of continuous operation;
- Compensation for extended or unexpected downtime is not offered;
- Additional fee for website migration;
- Little space is allocated for content, especially in the Basic plan.
What Is Dreamhost?
DreamHost is a private hosting provider and the domain registrar. It is safe to say that it is a popular choice for many website owners. The company was founded in 1997 by four computer science students from Harvey Mudd College of Claremont, CA, USA. Dreamhost is currently headquartered in Los Angeles, and it has over 100 full-time employees. The company owns 1,500 servers and two data centers. This company provides hosting for over one million domains today.
The company policy is aimed at attracting new customers. To this end, the company declares the creation of the most favorable terms for its users, as well as continually offers discounts and promotions. Dreamhost positions itself as the best unlimited hosting resource. It promotes a variety of hosting products, including shared hosting, managed WordPress hosting, dedicated server, cloud hosting, and VPS. Notably, many options are offered for WordPress users.
Dreamhost offers a website builder, site design services, professional email hosting, and domain names. This service bundles many premium features with different plans, and in many cases, they come at no additional cost. Users obtain unlimited traffic, good bandwidth, fast SSD storage, free SSL certificate, one-year domain, 24/7 support, as well as on-demand backup and recovery. As for Dreamhost pricing, two payment options include a one-year subscription for $ 9.95 per month ($ 119.40 per year) and a two-year plan for $ 8.95 per month ($ 214.80 for two years).
The benefits of Dreamhost are:
- Suitable for site owners with high requirements;
- This is an inexpensive and straightforward host provider for WordPress;
- Free domain and privacy;
- Unlimited disk space and data transferring;
- Free SSD storage;
- Fast PHP7 and SSD servers with built-in caching;
- Free SSL and Cloudflare CDN;
- 97-day money-back guarantee.
Dreamhost has some flaws, namely:
- A slightly confusing toolbar;
- Additional fees are often charged;
- Many required sections to fill out during registration;
- User complain about the team’s disregard of the problems encountered;
- Lack of language selection, as the hosting supports only English.
Dreamhost Vs. Bluehost: Which One to Choose?
Bluehost and Dreamhost are both recommended by wordpress.org. WordPress is a primary focus for both companies. They each have hosting plans suited for beginners and experienced users. Bluehost provides a customized WordPress dashboard and guided help in creating your first website. With Dreamhost, you get the WordPress site builder. In this category, Bluehost is a better choice for WordPress newbies. According to many Dreamhost reviews, this service is better suited for experienced WordPress site owners.
Bluehost is part of the Endurance International Group, while Dreamhost is an independent hosting company. Both Bluehost and Dreamhost provide perfect website operation and performance, while Bluehost gets a small edge based on slightly better speed test results. When it comes to security, both Bluehost and Dreamhost offer similar features. They provide free SSL certificates along with improved security means.
These two companies are both quality options for your web hosting. Based on the stated above comparison Dreamhost vs. Bluehost, it might seem like Bluehost has a slim lead over Dreamhost. This conclusion can be made if you take into account the Bluehost VPS hosting, flexible control panel, scalability with shared hosting plans, automatic backups, and site migration services.
Bluehost have worked on its customer support service in recent years. Several years ago, the company announced that it no longer accepts new shared Bluehost reseller hosting signups and recommended ResellerClub as its hosting partner for reseller hosting. Also, Bluehost is the winner based on the value of features and a more user-friendly interface.
However, if you are looking for more flexible dedicated server configurations, increased privacy protection of the domain name, and extended money-back guarantee period, Dreamhost may well be your choice. DreamHost has more than 20 years of experience in providing hosting services with a focus on highly functional websites for bloggers, developers, web designers and online stores. So, you may decide to transfer domain to Dreamhost.
Therefore, you should familiarize yourself with the ratings of two companies and read reviews before choosing a hosting provider. You need to understand your particular requirements to the hosting service, conduct thorough research of the service capabilities, and then make an informed decision to select Bluehost or Dreamhost.