Bluehost vs. DreamHost

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Bluehost
Score 5.4 out of 10
N/A
Bluehost, headquartered in Orem, Utah, offers website hosting. Bluehost also offers managed WordPress hosting, with optional SEO and marketing tools for WordPress plans.
$19.95
per month for 36 month term
DreamHost
Score 9.3 out of 10
N/A
DreamHost is a website hosting service with features such as managed VPS hosting, public cloud computing, and dedicated servers. Managed options include WordPress with the DreamPress upgraded service with staging and coaching, WooCommerce hosting, as well as dedicated server hosting.
$3.95
per month
Pricing
BluehostDreamHost
Editions & Modules
Shared WordPress Hosting
$3.95-$16.99
per month
Shared Web Hosting
$3.95-$26.99
per month for 36 month term
eCommerce - WooCommerce Hosting
$15.95-$49.95
per month, 1 month to 36 month terms available
Managed WordPress (beta)
$19.95
per month for 36 month term
VPS Hosting
$19.99 - $119.99
per month
Blue Sky Live WordPress Support
$29.00-$149.00
per month
Dedicated Hosting
$79.99-$209.99
per month
Shared
$3.95
per month
DreamPress
$16.95
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BluehostDreamHost
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BluehostDreamHost
Best Alternatives
BluehostDreamHost
Small Businesses
Flywheel
Flywheel
Score 9.9 out of 10
Flywheel
Flywheel
Score 9.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
WP Engine
WP Engine
Score 8.9 out of 10
WP Engine
WP Engine
Score 8.9 out of 10
Enterprises
AccuWebHosting.Com
AccuWebHosting.Com
Score 9.8 out of 10
AccuWebHosting.Com
AccuWebHosting.Com
Score 9.8 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
BluehostDreamHost
Likelihood to Recommend
4.9
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
4.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.1
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
3.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
BluehostDreamHost
Likelihood to Recommend
Bluehost is a decent all-around choice for web hosting with professional web development and domain management features that are particularly ideal for WordPress websites and blogs. They have a good reputation within the industry as a company that invests heavily in new technology and platform innovation. Bluehost has made a lot of improvements to customize their back-end administration (AMP & control panel) by working to improve the usability and design of the browser interface. Bluehost is primarily focused on customers who use WordPress and we would recommend either their hybrid cloud or managed WordPress platform, which provides everything that you need to build and maintain a popular website. All in all, Bluehost is a well-established brand that continually improves its hosting products, regularly upgrades their data center hardware, and is generally considered a leader in the development of new cloud hosting platform services.
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If you're not too technical, don't want to spend time managing a server and want something quality while sticking to a budget, DreamHost is the best it can get. We may be able to save money by switching to something like AWS, but for our usage it doesn't totally make sense even with potential cost-savings and improved speeds. The support and ease of use cannot be overstated here.
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Pros
  • Bluehost provides a cost-effective website hosting bundle for WordPress.
  • Transferring a domain name was super easy and saved me money on the domain name and domain privacy renewal.
  • Provides a basic free SSL certificate for all websites and offers unlimited websites on the pro plan.
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  • Dreamhost has very good hosting plans that can be matched for different levels of hosting needs and expected web traffic bandwidth.
  • The hosting service is very friendly for coders and those needing to tinker "under the hood" with their sites.
  • Great uptime service with limited technical issues.
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Cons
  • Sometimes the login page does not function properly.
  • You have to purchase hosting for the whole year instead of being able to pay monthly.
  • It doesn't have the option to transfer hosting to another account. My customers have to sign up on their own.
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  • There was one instance where DreamHost support caused unnecessary downtime because they misread my request. Unfortunately I don't have access to that account anymore (it was an old employer) so I don't remember the details. To avoid this, make it very clear whether you're just asking a question or want support to handle it (they can be quite eager to fix the problem even when you've just asked a question), and be VERY clear what you need when doing the wrong thing may cause serious problems.
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Likelihood to Renew
No answers on this topic
We have every intention of staying with Dreamhost, but we are a tad concerned with the company's recent involvement in high profile litigation and controversial topics. While we don't take a position one way or another on what type of content they should host, one concern we have is that repeated attacks on their infrastructure have caused significant downtime during business hours for us, and that's something we'll have to take into consideration going forward.
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Usability
I use Wordpress for my website on Bluehost, so I already know how it works and happy with it. I gave it this rating as I love the fact that If you do plan on creating multiple websites on Bluehost you'll be able to create specific login access for each website sites making it less likely to enter into the wrong website accounts. Which makes it even easier to manage client websites if you plan to create and host websites on behalf of your clients.
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
When we decided to migrate away from Bluehost, a quick call to their tech-support solved most of our problems, and we immediately got our money back. They did — to their credit — try to accommodate us, but they realize that we needed something else that they couldn’t accommodate. And once that realization set in, customer service immediately refunded us our money.
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Whether we're calling in on the phone, live chatting or emailing, we get immediate high-quality, native English-speaking support. This cannot be overstated when it comes to hosting, because support tickets are usually time sensitive and high stress. I've always had great experiences with the limited times we've needed to use DreamHost support. We've dealt with support for many other providers and no one comes close to DreamHost.
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Alternatives Considered
Bluehost is somewhat similar in terms of their tech stack and somewhat similar in terms of pricing. I think for websites that want to remain small and operate on the lowest budget possible, Bluehost is sufficient. For websites that are interested in scaling, or need top-tier, USA-based tech support 24/7 at their fingertips, then other hosting providers may be better.
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We've tried a few other WordPress-specific hosts, as well as other shared hosting providers (Rackspace, WPEngine, and others). We have found that DreamHost gives the best balance of cost, performance, and features, for our needs. All vendors have their own pitfalls and shortcomings, and DreamHost isn't without its own, but it works for us.
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Scalability
The website is slow. The speed is not reliable. Sometimes, sites would go down without warning. You would have to get a VPS to get consistent speed. If you have small website as a hobby, then Bluehost will be sufficient. Otherwise, I recommend looking for something more fast. Storage is good, but speed is lacking
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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • Because of their level of service and support, we were able to create our web presence in-house without the need to hire an external firm or consultant. Consequently, Bluehost has more than paid for itself.
  • The efficiency of the all-in-one solution means our web person doesn't have to spend time logging into different sites and managing different accounts, and the business office only has to pay one vendor.
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  • It's a great product for a relatively cheap price
  • We can offer a simple hosting solution for our clients
  • Even the VPS (virtual private servers) are very affordable and you can manage it as you wish (SSH access)
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