These platforms allow customers to create and curate websites, which is great for businesses and individuals alike.
Bluehost and DreamHost are two of the best web hosting services. Though they may not be as well known as some other web hosting services, such as GoDaddy and HostGator, they are nonetheless excellent examples.
These two services are often overlooked in favor of these more commonly known sites. But are Bluehost and DreamHost any good? Let’s find out!
What Is Bluehost?
Bluehost was founded in 2003 by Matt Heaton. This platform is dedicated to web hosting. It hosts millions of domains.
What Is DreamHost?
DreamHost is a web hosting service. It also specializes in domain registration.
Formed in 1996, DreamHost is now based in Los Angeles. It provides a range of web hosting and website building services.
Bluehost vs DreamHost: Host Features, Reviews, and Test Results
If you are unsure as to whether you should use Bluehost or DreamHost for your web hosting needs, this guide will help you to make a firm decision.
To determine which of these services is the best, we have tested the results and broken our findings into different categories.
Price
DreamHost membership plans cover different lengths of time. Namely, they come in monthly, 1-year, and 3-year forms.
This gives the customer more flexibility. As you may have guessed, the monthly membership is the cheapest plan while the 3-year plan is the most costly.
So if you only want to use this service for a few months, the monthly plan may be better suited to you. This allowed you to test DreamHost services without making a commitment.
However, if you are certain that the service is perfect for your website, then it may be better to commit to the 1 or 3-year plan.
Moreover, DreamHost allows customers to choose whether they want to go for the shared starter or shared unlimited plan. The former plan is cheaper, though customers can only create one website.
Meanwhile, the shared unlimited plan is more costly, though it grants access to a whole host of websites, allowing clients to make an unlimited number.
We appreciate these different DreamHost membership plans, as they make it a more flexible service.
Meanwhile, Bluehost has 4 different membership levels. Namely, these plans are Basic, Plus, Choice Plus, and Pro. Like the DreamHost membership levels, the Basic Bluehost plan is affordable but can only be used to host 1 website.
The Pro membership plan allows for unlimited website hosting and increased processing power.
Though both DreamHost and Bluehost provide a ton of different membership options, we prefer the pricing model of DreamHost. This is because the monthly plan is incredibly competitive.
Few other web hosting companies offer a monthly membership, instead preferring for customers to be locked into year-long memberships. Even so, the monthly rate is incredibly affordable, making DreamHost the best choice.
Host Features
As competing web hosting companies. DreamHost and Bluehost provide similar features.
For example, both sites are compatible with WordPress, which is arguably the most popular website and content management software.
Furthermore, they both have domain registering services. So if you are looking for a name for your website, you can use either DreamHost or Bluehost.
Among the features that DreamHost offers are a 100% uptime guarantee, SSDs (solid-state drives), and cloud hosting. Meanwhile, Bluehost gives access to fantastic features like 99.99% uptime, SSL certificates, and free domains.
Ultimately, this makes it difficult to conclude whether Bluehost or DreamHost is the better option when it comes to the features of these services.
This is especially true since the features that the customer can access will be reliant upon the membership plan that they have selected.
User Friendliness
Whether you are an experienced website builder or more of a novice, it is a good idea to invest in a website hosting service that is easy to use.
Otherwise, it will take a lot of time and experience for you to become familiar with a website building platform.
Luckily, Bluehost is an easy-to-use service. Thanks to its intuitive layout, even novice website builders can use these features.
Likewise, DreamHost is also quite simple to use. However, it is a little trickier to use than Bluehost. Therefore, if you are a beginner in the world of website building, you may wish to opt for Buehost instead of DreamHost.
Customer Support
Web hosting platforms need strong customer service. This is because it allows customers to resolve any questions or problems that they may be experiencing.
Bluehost has a 24/7 customer support team. This team can be reached either by calling 888-401-4678 or through live chat. This makes it quite easy to get in touch, meaning that you can easily get answers or have your concerns addressed.
Moreover, if you have questions about specific parts of the business, such as the affiliate program, Bluehost provides email addresses. This will allow you to ask questions about these specific topics.
Though we like that the Bluehost customer support team is easy to contact, the response time tends to be quite slow. Therefore, you can end up having to wait for hours for your questions to be answered.
In comparison, DreamHost also has a 24/7 customer support team. Moreover, there is also a live chat option.
To ensure that you get the right help, the DreamHost website encourages you to provide information about your query. This includes picking which department you would like to contact via a drop-down menu.
While this ensures that you are sent to the right department, this form can be a little irritating if you have a more complex question. If you have paid for a more expensive DreamHost plan, you can also access phone support.
Overall, we prefer the Bluehost customer support service as it is more accessible and reliable.
Security
It’s recommended that you invest in a web hosting service that has high levels of security. Otherwise, important data can be stolen by hackers.
In my opinion, DreamHost’s approach to security is far superior to that of Bluehost. DreamHost emphasizes the importance of security.
This can be observed through DreamHost’s daily backups and scans, which will detect harmful malware and other security threats. Meanwhile, this company’s data centers are heavily monitored.
DreamHost has also partnered with StopTheHacker to improve its security. This company is dedicated to detecting malware.
In contrast, Bluehost’s security is nowhere near as extensive. Though backups are performed, they are only kept for 30 days. Moreover, this platform does not take any responsibility for missing backups.
Therefore, if you intend on using Bluehost, you may want to use a separate service to ensure that your website has backups.
Reviews
To gauge if other people also liked these services, we decided to look at the customer reviews. While these might not be the best measure of a website platform, they nonetheless provide valuable insight into the user experience.
From our experience, reviews seem to favor DreamHost over Bluehost. Though both platforms have received lots of positive reviews, DreamHost is the clear favorite.
For instance, on Trustpilot, DreamHost has a score of 4.7 while the Bluehost score is 4.2.
Though Bluehost’s reviews are mostly positive, it has amassed a plethora of negative reviews. Many of these reviews seem to focus on the website being down.
Though we did not experience this issue, it’s understandable that this would upset customers!
Test Results
To determine which service provided the better user experience, we performed some tests. The main purpose of this test was to determine the loading speed.
After all, it can be frustrating to create and develop a website with slow loading times.
When we uploaded a simple website design, DreamHost was able to load it much faster than Bluehost. It took mere milliseconds for DreamHost to upload this content.
Meanwhile, we also tested a heavier site to see whether this would have an impact on the loading time. Once again, DreamHost emerged victorious. It uploaded the content at twice the speed of Bluehost.
Therefore, if you want a web hosting service with quick loading times, DreamHost is the superior choice.
Which Is Better?
Though we appreciate both services, DreamHost is our favorite. Its sensational approach to security, fast loading times, and multiple pricing options make this a wonderful web hosting solution.
It is convenient and flexible. Plus, you won’t have to worry about your site being vulnerable to hackers.
The only thing to remember is that it may be a little more challenging for beginners to use. If you are new to world hosting, Bluehost might be the superior option.
Final Thoughts
Both Bluehost and DreamHost will provide wonderful web hosting services. But when it comes to the question of which is the better service, DreamHost is the clear winner.
Yet, it’s still worth considering the strengths and weaknesses of both platforms so that you can find the one that’s right for you!
Hello, my name is Matthew Jacobs and I have made a living on various blogs and websites. But, trust me, I haven’t always been able to say that with such confidence.
Hopefully this website can teach others and help you in getting your blog out there, capitalizing on it as much as you can, and can serve as the kind of resource I wish I had had. So, what are you waiting for? Get out there and make a name for yourself!
