DreamHost Vs BlueHost 2024 (Honest Comparison Guide)

DreamHost and Bluehost are like siblings in the web hosting world. Both come from a similar space and are highly recommended by WordPress.org.

They host millions of domains and are widely recognized brands, which can make choosing between them a bit confusing. In this article, we’ll compare DreamHost and Bluehost to help you make an informed decision. We’ll examine their features, pricing, customer support, uptime, and more to determine which provider stands out.

For a detailed comparison, use the handy table of contents below to dive into our DreamHost vs. Bluehost reviews.

If the case, you’re in a hurry, here’s our comparison table of the two biggest hosting name brands in the industry to help you choose the perfect host in no time:

#features	Bluehost	DreamHost
Ease of use	Good	Good
Storage	Good	Excellent
Bandwidth	Great	Great
Backups	BAD	Great
Domains, subdomains and parked domains	Good	Excellent
Email accounts	Ok	Ok
FTP, SFTP, SSH Access	Good	Good
WordPress Integration	Ok	Great
Server locations	1	2
Page Speed	Not great	Great
Uptime	Not great (99.9%)	Excellent (100%)
Security	Good	Good
Support	Ok	Good
Scalability	Good	Ok
Pricing(for shared 1-year shared hosting plans)	From $3.95 to $16.95	From $2.95 to$2.95
More information	www.bluehost.com	www.dreamhost.com

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pros

• Recommended by WordPress
• 97 days money-back promise
• Pricing plans are really cheap and affordable at an introductory rate
• 100% uptime promise
• Unlimited traffic and SSD storage
• Monthly/yearly/ three years contract
• 24/7 dedicated support with all plans
• Easy to use
• Free domain name/ website builder/ SSL
• Free WordPress migrations with plugins

Cons

• Entity plan does not offer free email account hosting
• Don’t offer cPanel instead, they have built their own custom dashboard
• Costing for migration

pros

• Recommended by WordPress
• Cheap hosting pricing plans
• 99.9% Uptime
• 30 days money-back promise
• Seo Tools included with extra costing as add-ons
• SSD Storage

Cons

• Only US-based servers on all plans
• Paid website migrations
• Poor support outside business hours

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WordPress.org officially recommends both DreamHost and Bluehost, which can make choosing between them challenging.

However, one of DreamHost’s great features is that it offers monthly plans, allowing you to test its services, features, and performance for 30 days. If you find DreamHost doesn’t meet your needs, you can always switch to Bluehost.

For a thorough comparison and to make an informed decision, I recommend reading my detailed article on DreamHost vs. Bluehost. This will help you assess which provider offers the best features and is the easiest to use.

I have previously reviewed Dreamhost hosting provider and also made a full comparison article on Dreamhost vs. Siteground. Read and find out which is best.

Let’s get started with our review!

1. DreamHost VS BlueHost: Popularity and company

We all know Bluehost is the most popular web hosting provider worldwide. And if you’ve read our Scala hosting review, then you might know that BlueHost pays $75 per referral for one single plan. WHY? The simple answer may be in its popular affiliate host program. 

Of course, the pizza and burger of this review is that Bluehost is insanely more popular than Dreamhost, not just by me. That’s according to our Google Trends Chart below.

Bluehost spends a lot on marketing, and back in the earlier days of WordPress, it was the only hosting provider they recommended when (Dreamhost and others had recently joined the list).

Meanwhile, Dreamhost is in a league of its own. It is not just a tiny hosting provider. It hosts more than 1.8 million websites around the world. Founded in 1996 by three students from Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California, DreamHost was officially registered in 1997 by Michael Rodriguez.

Now you have an idea how Bluehost is more popular than DreamHost.

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2. DreamHost or BlueHost: Which is easier to use?

The Bluehost signup process can be a bit of a hassle since it often includes several upsell offers and add-ons.

You might be asked to buy extra features and services you didn’t initially plan on. Additionally, the dashboard can be cluttered with ads promoting these extra options, which might feel a bit overwhelming.

Here’s a snapshot showing how these ads appear—just to give you an idea of what to expect.

Dreamhost’s control is custom-built. It has a very beginner-friendly control panel that is easy to use and does not mess with any elements.

DreamHost’s panel is built for ease of use, unlike many other hosting providers that use cPanel or similar interfaces.

You can easily control all aspects of your site and install over 600 different scripts, including WordPress, Joomla, Magento, and Drupal. It’s all set up to make your hosting experience as smooth and straightforward as possible.

I also noted that they have more features than Cpanel, which most hosting providers offer, such as managing email accounts, billing, traffic, support, upgrading or downgrading the plans, etc.

Winner: DreamHost wins simply by virtue of not trying to sell me third-party services that are of no use to me, and I don’t want them all the time.

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In this section of Dreamhost vs. Bluehost, I often refer to this title as the “meat without taste” of hosting.

Let’s see what you get for your money in terms of uptime, storage, performance, and more.

Storage: Does Bluehost provide better storage than DreamHost?

Bluehost’s basic plans come with limited 50 GB SSD storage space and unlimited other features. If you have a plan to build a photography website or video content site, then you cannot use Bluehost with a tight budget. Their storage is limited.

Dreamhost is one of the very few web hosting providers offering unlimited storage, so you can host any website and upload terabytes of files without worrying about space.

Winner: DreamHost

BlueHost Or Dreamhost BandWidth is best?

Both hosting providers offer unlimited bandwidth, so there’s no clear winner.

BlueHost VS DreamHost: Backups:

Bluehost is here again to try to sell you backup add-ons. Anyway, Bluehost offers three backups: monthly, year, and weekly.

Bluehost offers 20 backups to choose from, but as mentioned above, to get 20 backups, you must buy their add-ons, which are much more expensive.

While their base plans are affordable, the add-ons—which come with limited features—might push you to either upgrade or switch hosts.

Now, Dreamhost gives you 8 backups. But the greatest feature is you can create your backups on demand—anytime, anywhere.

Although these backups aren’t stored on DreamHost’s servers permanently (so you’ll need to download and keep them manually), the flexibility and control it offers make it a standout option.

In the end, DreamHost’s on-demand backup feature makes it a strong choice compared to Bluehost.

Domains Subdomains & Parked Domains

Bluehost offers free domains with hosting plans. You also get an option to buy a domain name directly from its registrar, which could be a bit more costly.

If NameCheap costs $12 per domain, then Bluehost costs $15 per domain, which is expensive. With their basic plans, you can host one domain name and one website.

Whereas Dreamhost costs around $12.95. Their starter plans allow hosting one website with unlimited subdomains with all plans.

Note: Both hosting providers offer free domain names for the first year.

BlueHost Or DreamHost: Which email account is better?

Bluehost offers free email hosting accounts, but again, the limitations are the same. You can send a maximum of 500 emails per hour, which is bad and could slow down your newsletter. You will get 5 email accounts to create from basic and unlimited accounts.

With Dreamhost, email hosting isn’t included in the deal. You’ll need to purchase it separately for about $1.67 per month, available only with their basic plans. However, all other plans include unlimited email accounts.

Both hosting companies are recommended by WordPress.org, leading to some confusion as most providers offer both shared hosting and WordPress-specific plans.

The key difference is that you can install WordPress on either type of plan. However, WordPress dedicated plans provide optimized servers, direct support from WP experts, and one-click installation features.

In contrast, shared hosting allows for a variety of applications but doesn’t offer dedicated servers for specific applications like WordPress.

	BlueHost	DreamPress (DreamHost for WordPress)
Websites	1 per plan	1 per plan
Limits	Recommends 50K to 500K web visitors20GB to 80GB storage	Recommends 100K to 1M web visitors30GB to 120GB storage
Staging area	Yes	Yes
Jetpack plugin	Yes	Yes
Automated Free WP migration(via Plugin)	Yes	Yes
Daily backups	Yes	Yes
Support	No	Yes
Malware protection	Yes	Paid Add-on
Price	From $22.99 a month	From $16.95 a month
More information	www.bluehost.com	www.dreamhost.com

If you are really serious about using WordPress as your main website, then you must consider Kinsta and WPX hosting. They are the only hosting providers dedicated to WordPress websites, and they offer great speed and features.

Your hosting provider’s performance is crucial for your website’s search engine ranking, as Google’s speed ranking factor takes performance into account. Poor hosting performance can negatively impact your search engine ranking and visitors’ experience.

For this test, I installed two separate WordPress websites in two providers and installed WordPress, one hosted on Bluehost and one on Dreamhost.

I installed themes, plugins, and scripts and checked their website loading speed with both light and heavy tests.

Here’s the DreamHost VS Bluehost performance:

For this speed testing, I used the Pingdom and load impact tools, which are my favourites for testing web hosting provider plans.

USA (Seattle)	0.65s	1.66 s
Toronto, Canada	1.8s	1.79 s
Germany	0.83s	2.25 s
Sydney, Australia	1.80 s	2.06s

Dreamhost’s load time was faster than Bluehost’s, and surprisingly, DreamHost’s hosting platform was also faster.

Winner: Dreamhost

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Remember any hosting provider that offers 99.99% uptime on average?

Dreamhost offers a 100% uptime promise with its hosting plans, which start at $2.59 per month. That’s affordable pricing with solid rock uptime that no one offers.

Here’s the screen-shot of DreamHost uptime:

While Bluehost offers 99.9% uptime, which is standard among hosting providers, DreamHost stands out with a unique feature:

If DreamHost fails to achieve 100% uptime, your account will be credited for each hour of downtime. This credit amounts to 10% of your next hosting renewal, helping you save on future costs due to any uptime failures.

This policy is incredible. In our extensive testing, DreamHost maintained 100% uptime as guaranteed, delivering exceptional performance with no downtime.

Dreamhost 5/5 ( 100% uptime)

BlueHost4/5 ( 99.9%uptime)

Both hosting plans include any-time hosting upgrade or downgrade plans, and you also receive a refund for the unused portion of your plan.

Here’s the table comparison of Dreamhost and Bluehost uptime for a year.

	DreamHost	BlueHost
April 2021	100%	100%
March2020	100%	100%
February 2020	100%	100%
January 2021	100%	99.9%
December 2020	100%	100%
November 2020	100%	99.95%

Result: Dreamhost clearly wins the game with 100%uptime. Even if Dreamhost fails to offer 100%uptime, they will add credit per uptime, which can be used for hosting renewal.

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Bluehost offers a 30-day money-back guarantee with each hosting plan. However, if you downgrade your plan, you won’t receive credits for domain names, plans, or resources used.

DreamHost, on the other hand, offers an unparalleled 97-day money-back guarantee. In the hosting world, few providers can match DreamHost’s terms.

There are no hidden terms, and no questions are asked when you request a refund. DreamHost is transparent and reliable.

When a web hosting provider offers features like DreamHost, it’s clear they stand firmly behind their services.

Winner: Dreamhost

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BlueHost 5/5

Bluehost offers a free website migration plugin that will automatically migrate your WordPress website to your hosting account with them.

For a small fee, they also provide a service to securely and correctly migrate all your files.

Dreamhost 5/5

While excellent in many aspects, DreamHost isn’t as strong in migration features as other hosts. However, it does offer free website migrations using its custom automated WordPress migration plugin.

I own a WordPress website, and Dreamhost offers a custom automated WordPress migration plugin which allows me to migrate a WordPress site from an old host to DreamHost without needing additional assistance.

Note: Both Bluehost and DreamHost offer free website migrations using their automated tools. However, if you’re not confident about performing the migration yourself, you must pay for the service.

DreamHost goes the extra mile by providing a custom video guide on how to use their migration plugin, allowing you to perform the migration yourself at no additional cost.

WINNER: Neither Bluehost nor Dreamhost offers concierge-type migrations, so it’s a tie.

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BlueHost 3.5/5

Bluehost offers a 24/7/365 support department via live chat, phone, and email. Its knowledge base includes countless pre-made documents and articles to help you get started.

Remember, when you get connected with the Bluehost support team, you may have to wait for a few minutes to get a reply because they’re dealing with multiple clients at the same time.

DreamHost 3.5/5

Dreamhost provides 24/7/365 support year-round and offers a large repository of knowledge base articles and video tutorials to help you get started.

	Dreamhost	BlueHost
Live Chat support	4.5/5	5/5
WordPress specific support	5/5	5/5

Winner: BlueHost

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If you’re new to website ownership, understanding pricing plans and bandwidth limitations can be confusing. Initially, a basic hosting plan will suffice for a few hundred visitors per month without issues.

However, as your website grows and traffic increases, you’ll need to monitor bandwidth limits.

For example, if your plan includes a bandwidth limit of 20,000 visitors and your site exceeds that, you may need to upgrade your plan. Your site might often go down until the plan is upgraded or the next month starts.

In terms of bandwidth volume, DreamHost is the clear winner. Their plans offer unlimited bandwidth, allowing you to handle high traffic without restrictions or the need to upgrade frequently.

In contrast, Bluehost limits traffic to about 500 visitors per hour. While this may be sufficient for many sites, it can be restrictive for high-traffic websites expecting millions of visitors per month.

Winner: DreamHost

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In this section of our DreamHost vs BlueHost, I am going to compare a wide range of hosting server plans offered by both web hosting companies.

Here’s a rundown:

Shared Hosting

Both web hosting companies start with a shared hosting plan. Dreamhost offers two different shared tiers, while Bluehost offers a range of shared hosting plans. Both hosts’ plans include a free domain.

• Bluehost shared basic plans cost $3.95. They allow you to host one website with a free domain and 50 GB SSD Storage.
• DreamHost shared basic: The plan costs $2.59 per month and allows you to host one website with a free domain and unlimited storage.

VPS Server: Better for higher Traffic Sites

BlueHost VPS hosting plans offer up to 8GB, with prices starting from $19.99/month to $59.99 for higher plans. All plans come with unlimited and unmetered bandwidth.

On the other hand, Dreamhost’s VPS hosting plans come with unlimited bandwidth, up to 8GB RAM and 240 GB SSD Storage. The best deal is access to unlimited domains and email hosting.

Cloud Hosting

Bluehost is no more offering cloud hosting plans. Dreamhost’s basic cloud hosting plan comes with the price of $4.50/per month ( $0.00075/per hour) for 100GB block storage and 80 GB SSD disk space with developer-friendly tools options features.

WordPress

Both DreamHost and BlueHost are officially recommended by WordPress, making them great options for WordPress sites.

Both host providers come with pre-installed WordPress for both shared WordPress and managed WordPress websites.

DreamHost (5/5)

• Shared WordPress ($2.59- $3.59/m)
• Managed WordPress ($16.95-$71.95/Yr)

BlueHost (5/5)

• Shared WordPress ($3.95- $6.59/m)
• Managed WordPress ($9.95- $27.95/m)

Winner: DreamHost is the most affordable option for WordPress hosting, offering lower prices compared to Bluehost.

Is Reseller Hosting Available?

• BlueHost offers different reseller hosting plans through the Reseller Club.
• Bluehost offers reseller plans through the Reseller Club.

Dreamhost does not offer reseller plans, but you can add your clients’ websites to your panel and bill them.

Visit Bluehost

Visit DreamHost

The clear winner in our comparison is DreamHost.

It stands out as the best web hosting provider based on several key factors: pricing, speed, domains, uptime, and user-friendly features. Unlike Bluehost, DreamHost offers transparent pricing with no hidden fees or surprises on renewal rates.

While Bluehost is also a strong hosting provider, DreamHost excels in delivering value with its comprehensive feature set at a lower cost.

Additionally, DreamHost’s plans come with a 97-day money-back guarantee, making it an excellent choice for online business owners seeking both affordability and quality.

I recommend choosing DreamHost for its outstanding value and extensive features tailored to meet all your hosting needs.

If you have any questions about Dreamhost Or Bluehost? Let me know in the comment sections below.

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• Scala hosting review
• Dreamhost vs siteground