Dreamhost or Bluehost: which one is better?

Choosing a web host is an exercise that often triggers confusion and panic attacks for the ignorant. Simply put, it can feel like entering a minefield without a goal in mind, because there are so many companies offering more or less similar services, and it gets even crazier when everyone claims to be the best in town.

Well, if you are trying to limit your options to the best web servers, to help you in creating your responsive web designs, you may soon be comparing Bluehost to DreamHost. Both of these companies have been around for long and are also known for feature-rich and affordable hosting solutions; so no matter what system you want to configure, we are confident that these hosts will be able to host you.

There are small differences in prices and features when comparing the hosting programs that Bluehost and DreamHost have to offer. DreamHost is best suited for advanced webmasters who have experience with web hosting. And Bluehost, on the other hand, would be a better choice if you need a little grip.

However, the final choice of these two web servers should be based on your hosting needs and budget. With that in mind, the following will compare and contrast Bluehost with DreamHost, so you can make an informed decision about which of the two web hosting companies is best for your business.

Let us make our comparison of Bluehost and DreamHost based on the following criteria: 1. reliability, 2. security, 3. scalability, 4. cancellation, 5. support and 6. extra.

Responsive Web Design: Available Hosting Plans at Bluehost and Dreamhost

The following are summaries of available hosting plans, for great Responsive Web Design, offered by these two hosting organisations:

Shared hosting

Both web hosting programs start with shared hosting programs, where your site is hosted alongside other sites on a single server.

Bluehost has a variety of shared hosting programs and all have free domain and bandwidth without metering. Bandwidth is the amount of data that a server can carry over a period of time and can affect the speed of your site. No metering means you are not charged based on the bandwidth or space you use.

DreamHost has a shared hosting plan with unlimited bandwidth and a free SSL certificate. The annual plan is accompanied by a free domain and unlimited email addresses. Dreamhost also provides a WordPress drag-and-drop builder that makes it easy to create, customize, and launch WordPress sites.

Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting:

This is usually indicated for sites with higher traffic

Bluehost VPS hosting plans offer up to 8 GB of RAM. All VPS plans come with unlimited and unmeterd bandwidth.

While most hosting providers offer unlimited space and bandwidth, it is subject to the Terms of Service of each host. Bluehost said 99.95% of customers will have enough space and bandwidth to run their website.

DreamHost VPS hosting plans also come with unlimited bandwidth and up to 8 GB of RAM and 240 GB of storage; with support for Email and unlimited domains.

Dedicated hosting

This is usually indicated for business applications

Bluehost has a number of special hosting programs with 4 cores and up to 1 TB of storage space.

DreamHost offers 9 special hosting programs with 4 or 12 core processors, up to 64 GB of RAM and up to 2 TB of hard disk storage or 240 GB of SSD storage.

Cloud hosting

Bluehost has several cloud hosting packages, with the highest package offering unmeterd storage. Their cloud plans start at $ 9.99 / month for 2 GB of RAM and 100 GB of storage.

Dreamhost cloud hosting packages start at $ 4.50 / month ($ 0.0075 / hour) for 100 GB of block storage and 80 GB SSD (solid state drive).

WordPress Support

Both Dreamhost and Bluehost are supported by WordPress.org, making them great for your WordPress site; providing you with use of up-to-date software and ease of installation.

For both companies, their shared hosting programs come pre-installed with WordPress. DreamHost is a little cheaper than Bluehost. DreamHost's Managed WordPress designs start at $ 16.95 / month and Bluehost starts at $ 19.95 / month.

If you use another popular Content Management System (CMS) other than Wordpress to build your website, both hosting providers also offer easy integration for most CMSs.

Reseller Hosting Program

DreamHost does not offer specific reseller programs, but you can add your customer domains to your account and charge your customers. Bluehost offers different reseller designs through the Reseller Club. They come with support for unlimited websites and cPanel accounts.

Bluehost employs the use of industry standard or regular control panel, popularly known as CPanel, which is easier to navigate, even for most newbies.

Dreamhost does not employ the use of CPanel, and that makes its control panel slightly more difficult to use than that of Bluehost.

Uptime of a host company really determines how reliable they are. Of course, you wouldn’t want your site to be down every now and then. This is particularly unacceptable when it comes to Responsive Web Designs. Dreamhost as well as Bluehost give some guarantee on their uptime, with some little variations, which might mean a lot to you.

Bluehost offers 99.9% uptime. Their site doesn’t provide information about possible credits if they don’t comply, which means you might not really pin it down on them. However, if you choose to cancel your account because they haven’t held up their end of the deal, you don’t incur any fees. And you will also receive a refund for the unused portion of your plan, in that scenerio.

DreamHost offers a 100% uptime guarantee. For each hour (or part of), that your site is down, you’ll receive a one day credit, to a maximum of 10% of your total hosting fee. Scheduled maintenance days are not inclusive; and you will usually get a notice for this beforehand.

Downtime commences once the customer contacts support to alert them to the problem. But you will not be getting any credit for downtimes occasioned by your own errors.

How About Security? File Loss, Malware, Hacking

Bluehost

Though malware scans are run daily by Bluehost, they do backups at their own discretion. And when they backup, they only keep backups a maximum of 30 days. That means if something goes wrong with your site, you may not be able to retrieve all of your files. Therefore you have to depend on your won backups, as they fail to accept any responsibility for lost backups.

Another way to get around backup issues with Bluehost is to host your site in the Cloud. If so, it will be automatically copied across three devices so if hardware fails in one site, their “failover” technology chooses the best backup to become your new master copy and then repairs the failed version.

Through the use of SiteLock security, Bluehost carries out daily malware and virus scans. They also provide a lot of other security services for your protection.

Their uninterrupted power supply means servers never have power issues. The company uses dual quad processors to ensure the best performance of your site. They have diesel backup generators and the network is monitored 24/7/365.

Dreamhost

Dreamhost is rated 5/5 in terms of security. The company believes security is critical when it comes to hosting. Dreamhost provide free backup services for your site, but this may not be guaranteed at all times, though, particularly if your site is inactive (suspended, etc). It is recommended that you also keep your own backups.

They’re partners with StopTheHacker to provide the ultimate security features. Daily virus and malware scans are run for peak efficiency.

Dreamhost data centers have 24/7 CCTV monitoring and all entrances to secure against intruders who may cause some damage.

They have an uninterrupted power supply, high-tech cooling systems to stop the servers from overheating and multiple other redundancies to keep your uptime as high as possible.

Visit Bluehost.Com Visit Dreamhost.Com

Scalability: How Easy Is It To Upgrade?

Bluehost will not charge additional fees in addition to the pro rata cost of upgrading your program. And this makes upgrading quite easy.

DreamHost. The only cost that arises is the gap between the current program and the ugraded program. Programs can be paid monthly or annually. However, Dreamhost has 1 month payment plans for their plans, making it easy for you to test out an upgrade for one month before you finally make up your mind.

Cancellation Of Service

Bluehost is rated 4/5 with respect to cancellation policies. The company offers a 30 day money back guarantee on their hosting plan; and this excludes credits or refunds for domain names, administrator fees, and other add-ons that you may use.

You do not have a fixed account term, so if you choose to cancel, you will receive a pro rata refund calculated on the unused portion of the term.

DreamHost is rated 5/5 with respect to their cancellation policies. If you've dreamed of a better money-back guarantee, this is it. Dreamhost's offer is a 97-day money-back guarantee, something that will cost you a lot to win. If you are in a situation where you need a refund, at least you know that you will receive a refund. The guarantee is valid only for the hosting program. It does not apply to domains, DreamHost partners and third party services. Your refund can only be received if you initially paid by credit card.

A monthly or yearly program is available. The accommodation is the only thing for which you will receive credits or a refund. If you cancel after 97 days, you will probably be offered a refund based on the price of the current plan you used.

Freebies or Add-Ons

Bluehost gives $150 worth of credits that can be used for Google Adwords or Bing advertising.

Bluehost also has a site builder, which is one of the easiest site builders around.

In case If you want to migrate your site from a different hosting company to Bluehost, the cost is $149.99. Most hosting companies offer this service at no cost to you.

You’ll have your domain name registered or transferred for free and the company supports international domain names.

DreamHost will allow you to migrate your WordPress website to its platform for free, if you choose one of their Managed WordPress hosting plans. If you choose shared hosting there’s a $99.00 migration fee.

You’ll get $100 Google Adwords credits.

They allow one free domain and it’s for the life of your account. Most other companies offer free domains only for the first term. Also your SSL certificate will be free and comes pre-installed.

Dreamhost users can select to use the Remixer site builder, at an extra cost. Remixer plans start at $4.95/month for unlimited websites.

The technical support provided by the hosting company you use is of immense importance, for you to enjoy hitch free operations.

Bluehost.

Bluehost have a massive knowledgebase of aricles and tutorials to help you out.

In addition, according to Bluehost’s website, they don’t offer tech support via ticket. You’ll have to call or contact live chat, and this is supposed reduces your wait time for a response.

But response time for the live chat can have long queues and when someone makes contact, they’re dealing with multiple clients at the same time. This eventually slows down the response time

DreamHost

Dreamhost provides support every single day of the year and it’s 24/7/365 support. Live chat is only available if there aren’t many people managing support tickets. However, if you have paid their “call back” fee, you’ll have direct access to live chat at all times.

Dreamhost reports a response time of 24 hours for email, but most tickets are answered much faster, according to its website.

With phone support, you can’t ring Dreamhost. If you pay the extra fee, they’ll ring you if requested. People on shared plans can only use the email system.

Using teams of Wordpress experts Dreamhost also offers support via Wiki support group pages as well as twitter.

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