Hostgator vs. DreamHost: Which Is The Best Web Host In 2021?

It could be that you are searching for the best hosting provider to host your website. It should provide advanced security features, blazing-fast loading speeds, and high uptime. Also, it should be affordably priced. If this is what you seek, then you should compare HostGator vs. DreamHost.

They both are popular web hosts and offer affordable packages to choose from. Besides being reliable, they have all the sources to support the growing needs of your website. Remember, the web host you finally choose as your host will determine your site’s fate, visitor experience, its performance, etc. 

Hostgator vs. DreamHost – Products/Services offered

Given below are the different types of web hosting services offered by both providers. 

HostGator

• VPS hosting
• Shared hosting
• Cloud hosting
• Dedicated server hosting
• Reseller hosting
• WordPress (WP) hosting
• Windows hosting

DreamHost

• VPS hosting
• Shared hosting
• Cloud hosting
• Dedicated server hosting
• WordPress hosting

So, HostGator is found to offer more packages than DreamHost and is a winner in this category. 

HostGator vs. DreamHost – Migration Services

HostGator

They offer both paid and free migration services allowing easy site transfer to HostGator account from the old host. The company provides several free site transfers, the number of which is determined by the account you have registered with.

For example, if you had registered with Cloud or Shared hosting account, then they will help move one site on your behalf. In addition, dedicated and VPS hosting packages provide you with free site transfers for unlimited time. However, within thirty days of registering, you need to use the free transfers, after which there is some charge for this service.  

DreamHost

This provider offers several migration options to choose from. For websites developed on WP, it is possible to migrate for free to any of the offered DreamPress plans. However, for non-WP site transfer, you should avail yourself of the USD99 migration service. 

HostGator vs. DreamHost – Domain Registration

During hosting signup, both providers offer their clients a free domain name for the initial year. Only a few annual plans come with this benefit. It includes:

• HostGator: It is offered with annual Cloud, WordPress and shared hosting plans. 
• DreamHost: It is offered with annual DreamPress (managed WP) and Shared plans. Free domain registration is to be used within 3 months of registration. Otherwise, it will get lapsed and cannot be enjoyed. 

HostGator vs. Dreamhost – Website Builder

HostGator

To develop a site, they offer different types of useful tools. It also includes HostGator Website Builder offered for free, along with ‘Gator,’ a paid website builder. Once the site designing process is automated, the Gator builder provides industry-specific design. Thus, you can launch your site within minutes. There are three plans offered with Gator website builder:

• Express Store at $9.22 a month
• Express Site at $5.99 a month
• Express Start at $3.84 a month

One domain name registration and SSL Certificate is offered for free, along with an intelligent site builder with every Gator builder plan. The free domain name comes for a year. Also is offered search engine market credits worth $200, CDN, contact management, LogoMaker, automated email scheduling, Unsplash image library (free), etc. 

DreamHost

It has introduced ‘Remixer,’ a click-to-edit site builder that is hosted on their cloud network. Being template-based, it does not require coding for developing quickly a fully functional site. Instead, you need to point, drag & drop and click site elements.

Two stand-alone plans come included with Remixer, namely, Remixer All Access and Remixer Standard. Shared hosting plans have an All-Access plan included within the package. You will need to invest in the All-Access or Standard plan if you desire to use Remixer with Dedicated, DreamPress, or VPS plans. 

HostGator vs. DreamHost – Security

Both offer a free SSL Certificate along with the basic hosting package. DreamHost offers MFA (Multifactor Authentication) through Yubikey and Google Authenticator app. You can derive advanced security features based on the hosting account registered, like Cloud, dedicated, VPS, or shared plans. So it should be superior or standard ones. 

Dedicated hosting plans offered by HostGator include an IP-based firewall, advanced DDoS protection, and several options to develop scheduled or manual backups. The dedicated hosting plans offered by DreamHost include full SSH (root & Shell Access) and 24/7 DDoS Protection.

You need to invest in add-on services and products to derive additional security. It includes:

HostGator

• Site Lock – From $1.99 to $24.99 a month
• CodeGuard-powered website backup – From $32.95 to $239.95 a year
• Upgraded SSL Certificates – From $19.99 to $269.99 a year

DreamHost

• DreamShield Malware Remover for $29.99 a year
• Sectigo Verified SSL for $15 a year

HostGator vs. DreamHost – Money-Back Guarantee

HostGator

They offered 45-day risk-free service on their reseller, VPS, and shared hosting plans. After sign-up, if you do not find their services up to the mark, then you can always opt out from the chosen plan. But this should be done within the initial 45 days of registration. You will get back your basic hosting fees as assured at the time of registration. However, dedicated server services do not come with such a guarantee. 

DreamHost

They offer a 97-day risk-free service on their shared hosting plans. But it is valid only if you have purchased this plan using your debit or credit card. In addition, a 30-day guarantee is offered on their DreamPress and VPS hosting services. 

HostGator vs. DreamHost – Control Panel

HostGator

The cPanel control panel is offered on all Linux-based hosting plans. In addition, the Plesk control panel is offered on Windows-based hosting plans. 

DreamHost

Hosting accounts are managed with the help of a custom control panel. Their panel is known to function on separate servers. Its main menu is aligned to the left vertically. The top right corner has a support drop-down menu, and the top center with a search box. 

HostGator vs. DreamHost – Customer Support

Both offer different types of customer care options. It includes:

HostGator

• Comprehensive library resources, including support articles and video tutorials
• Email
• Live chat
• phone

DreamHost:

• knowledgebase
• community forums
• Live chat
• email

However, phone support is not offered like that of HostGator. But customers can request their technical support to give a call back for resolutions. Some superior plans come with a free callback feature. Otherwise, to enjoy this feature in other plans, you are to pay an amount.

It is $9.95/month for a 1-time callback feature, $14.95/month for 3 callbacks offered every month. The technical team provides callbacks only between 6 and 10 pm (PST).

HostGator vs. DreamHost – Site response time / Speed

When site speed is concerned, even a single second tend to matter a lot. Your website speed will determine the time amount spent by your visitors checking out your web page. It will also impact your site ranking in the leading search engines like Google.

The ideal web host will provide a sufficient amount of resources like bandwidth, storage, etc., including additional tools for site speed enhancement. 

HostGator

Its shared hosting plan is undoubtedly the cheapest and includes unmetered bandwidth and storage. You also have the top to choose SiteLock plans to derive TrueSpeed CDN. The latter uses global servers to ensure faster content delivery to your visitors. Sites using TrueSpeed experience 50% faster load time. It also uses 40% to 70% of less bandwidth. 

DreamHost

In all its plans, it offers unmetered bandwidth and fast SSD storage. Moreover, the basic Cloudflare plan comes for free through the DreamHost panel. With Cloudflare CDN, it is possible to enhance search engine ranking, site responsiveness. It also safeguards your site from cyber attacks and malicious attacks. 

Hence, HostGator is found to be a better platform than DreamHost concerning site response time.

HostGator vs. DreamHost – Uptime

Uptime is considered the time your site is functioning smoothly and can be accessed by your targeted audiences. 

HostGator

With reseller and shared hosting accounts, it offers an uptime guarantee of 99.9%. Its Network Guarantee covers all accounts hosted on Dedicated and VPS servers. Credit is prorated only for the period the server is down. 

DreamHost offers an uptime guarantee of 100%, provided no configuration or customers face coding-related issues. Besides this, maintenance tasks that are already scheduled are not likely to be considered downtime. 

DreamHost is found to enjoy an average uptime of 99.95%, thereby being better than HostGator. 

HostGator vs. DreamHost – Hosting Price structure

Both offer their clients different types of hosting packages to match specific website needs and budgets. Web hosting companies generally launch promotions and discount schemes to attract first-time customers. However, renewal is done at regular prices that are quite higher when compared to introductory prices. 

The Cloud hosting and Standard VPS plans of Dreamhost are much cheaper when compared to HostGator. But, again, the Dedicated, WordPress and Shared plans of HostGator are found to be less expensive than DreamHost. 

HostGator vs. DreamHost – WordPress (WP) Hosting

In today’s hosting world, WP is considered to be among the top CMS platform available. Thus, anyone can use it to develop and operate a professional and fully functional website with some knowledge. It is also stated to be a wonderful platform for first-timers and those lacking coding skills.

HostGator

It offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee on its managed WP hosting plan combined with a 45-day money-back guarantee. With the managed hosting package, you can expect professionals to offer a wide range of services. It includes performance tweaks, server maintenance, updates, backups, etc. They offer three levels of managed WP hosting plans. It includes:

• The business plan at $9.95 a month
• Standard plan at $7.95 a month
• Starter plan at $5.95 a month

Each plan offered by this provider comes with interesting benefits like an easy-to-use control panel, pre-installed WP, unmetered bandwidth, etc. Also included are top-notch security, free domain for the first 1 year, 24/7 support, etc.

The other features include CodeGuard, Free SSL Certificate, SiteLock Fix, auto malware removal, and Backups. Customers can also enjoy 24/7 Live chat, Phone, and Knowledgebase for support. 

DreamHost

They provide three WP hosting plans, namely, 

• VPS WP hosting is meant for high-performing, multiple sites at $27.50 a month.
• DreamPress (Managed WP Hosting) for optimized, fast-performing WP Hosting at $12 a month. 
• Basic WP hosting is meant exclusively for beginners at $2.59 a month.

All their WP plans include WP website builder, 1-click installer, WP updates, unmetered bandwidth, free domain for 1 year, auto backups. Also is offered free SSL Certificate and free privacy protection.

DreamPress Managed WP hosting enhances cloud environment performance. Isolated resources mean there is no need to share resources with others like storage, CPU, and RAM. Advanced features are also offered like on-demand backups, a 1-click staging tool to preview/test modifications, and inbuilt caching to enhance site performance. Three plans are offered in this category, namely:

• DreamPress Pro at $71.95 a month. It includes all features present in the Basic plan combined with fast SSD storage of 120 GB. Also is offered Priority Support like advanced troubleshooting, proactive monitoring and expedited experts support.
• DreamPress Plus at $24.95 a month. It includes all features present in the Standard plan along with SSD storage of 60 GB. It also has phone support callbacks, a Professional Jetpack plan, unlimited CDN.
• DreamPress at $16.95 a month. This standard plan includes SSD storage of 30 GB, one site hosting, on-demand backups and auto daily backups. Also is offered WP specialized support, 1-click restore, etc. 

Both offer free site migration, unmetered bandwidth, essential features, free domain. Managed DreamPress hosting plan of DreamHost includes additional perks such as Jetpack, free domain privacy, SSD storage, staging tool, and unlimited CDN. However, it is a bit expensive. So, you need to determine what to choose – Extra Benefits or Lower Price Tag!

Conclusion

When considering advanced WP hosting features, server uptime, DreamHost is easily found to outperform HostGator. But in other aspects like customer support, site response time, free migration services, beginner-friendly control panel, affordable plans, etc. Again, HostGator is ahead of DreamHost. Hence, your selection should be based on your specific requirements and budget.