HostGator vs DreamHost – Hosting Comparison

In this article, we’re going to be comparing HostGator vs DreamHost side by side to see which of these popular hosting providers is better overall.

Finding the right hosting provider for your website isn’t always easy. There are a lot of different companies to choose from, but the problem is; they’re not all equal.

The good news is, we’ve done the research for you to help you find the best web hosting for your business.

Choosing the right hosting provider will make running your website easy and stress-free, giving you more time to focus on other areas of your business. Although both HostGator and DreamHost are great hosts, there are a few differences between these two companies that mean one may suit you better than the other.

This article will give you all the information you need to make the right decision for your business. We are going to compare HostGator and DreamHost side by side to see which one better overall. We’re going to be looking at their features, customer support, reviews, security, usability, and of course, their plans and pricing.

Historic Comparison of HostGator Vs DreamHost

While HostGator was founded in 2002, DreamHost was already founded in 1996 and DreamHost thus has relatively more years of experience.

HostGator is owned by the Endurance International Group (EIG) and focuses mainly on web hosting services, while DreamHost provides plenty of other services, such as cloud storage and cloud computing.

HostGator is a Better Business Bureau (BBB) accredited web hosting company. So they are fully committed to resolve consumer issues and complaints in a systematic manner. It has even received the highest possible BBB rating of A+. In comparison, DreamHost is not a BBB accredited business.

HostGator has also proven itself as a responsible company by contributing towards green hosting by purchasing certified Renewable Energy Credits (RECs). DreamHost also plays its part as a responsible green host in a similar way.

HostGator is one of the rare web hosts that offer Windows hosting in addition to Linux hosting.

What to Look For When Choosing Web Hosting

Choosing the right host is one of the most important steps when it comes to building your website. Your website is a key part of marketing your business online, so you will want to know it’s in safe hands.

Here are a few things you should look out for when choosing a web hosting provider for your business.

1. Speed – Page loading speeds can affect your conversion rate and, in turn, your bottom line.
2. Ease of Use – Is the user interface easy to navigate?
3. Scalability – Can you move to a plan with more bandwidth as your business grows?
4. Uptime – Look at their uptime statistics for the past 12 months. See if they have had any downtime, and whether they offer an uptime guarantee?
5. Security & Backups – Are backups free and automated?
6. Customer support – How can you get in touch with customer support if you have an issue? What are their response times?
7. Pricing – Do they offer good value for money?

All of these things are important, so if a hosting provider falls short in any of these areas, you may want to reconsider.

About Hostgator

HostGator was founded in 2002, and since its humble beginnings in a Florida dorm room, it has grown to become a global provider of web hosting and domain registration services, with data centers in Utah and texas. HostGator has offices based around the world, and they are known for providing affordable and reliable WordPress hosting.

HostGator offers domain registration services as well as a wide range of hosting plans. They also have a website builder, which is ideal for anyone who needs to build a professional-looking website quickly without using WordPress.

The Main Services Offered by HostGator

These are the main services offered by HostGator:

• WordPress Hosting
• Shared Hosting
• Website Builder
• VPS Hosting
• Domain Registration
• Dedicated Hosting

HostGator is owned by the Endurance International Group (EIG) and focuses primarily on web hosting services. They have a range of different options to suit businesses of all shapes and sizes.

Now, it’s time to find out a little more about DreamHost…

About Dreamhost

DreamHost is dedicated to helping people build their online presence by providing affordable, reliable hosting. They embrace open source and actively support WordPress with code, community contributions, and by providing expert support to WordPress users.

The company was founded in a dorm room in 1997, and since then, they have grown to serve over 400,000 customers in over 100 countries.

The Main Services Offered by DreamHost

These are the main services offered by DreamHost:

• WordPress hosting
• Standard web hosting
• VPS hosting
• WordPress website builder
• Dedicated hosting
• Cloud hosting
• Domain registration
• Email hosting
• Pro Services (Marketing, design, web development, SEO, and more)
• Academy

As you can see, the range of services offered by DreamHost and HostGator are fairly similar. The main difference between the two when it comes to services is that DreamHost offers a range of professional services alongside its domain registration and hosting services.

HostGator vs DreamHost – Which is Better Overall?

Depending on your the type of business you are running, one of these hosting providers may be better for you than the other. For example; An e-commerce business will have different needs to a blogger, which is why choosing the right hosting provider is so important.

We are going to be comparing each of the features offered by HostGator and DreamHost to help you decide for yourself which one of these services is better suited to you.

Let’s take a look at how they perform when it comes to uptime and page loading speeds.

HostGator vs DreamHost Uptime –  ( HostGator WINS )

Both HostGator and DreamHost offer excellent uptime statistics of over 99.9% overall.

Pingdom’s web hosting uptime data shows that for the past month, HostGator has had an impressive uptime of 100%. In the past year, HostGator’s uptime has only fallen below 99.9% once, when it fell to 99.5%.

In the past week, DreamHost’s uptime has been recorded at 99.98%, which is slightly lower than HostGator’s score but pretty good all the same. However, in the past year, Dreamhost has fallen below 99.9% a total of five times, which is a concern.

HostGator has a 99.9% uptime guarantee. If your website uptime falls below 99.9%, your account will be credited for one month of hosting services.

DreamHost offers a 100% uptime guarantee to its customers. The guarantee states that for every hour your site is down, you will receive one full day of hosting credited to your account.

HostGator is the winner of this round. Not only do they offer higher uptime statistics, but they also offer a better guarantee, promising a month of free hosting if your uptime falls below 99.9%.

Performance and Speed – ( DRAW – Both Hostgator & DreamHost are level in this feature )

Slow page loading speeds can have a huge effect on your bottom line. Every second counts when it comes to page loading speeds, and even a delay of just one or two seconds can increase your bounce rate.

That’s money down the drain.

A high bounce rate can affect your SEO, too, with search engines assuming visitors are leaving because your site is poor quality and not useful to users.

This is why considering page loading speeds is critical when it comes to finding the right hosting service for your website.

Thankfully, both HostGator and DreamHost do pretty well when it comes to performance and page loading speeds.

HostGator’s servers are run on Dual Xeon, while DreamHosts’s servers run on AMD processors. Both deliver great performance, so you are in good hands either way when it comes to speed and performance.

Overall, there is no clear winner when it comes to performance; both HostGator and DreamHost perform well here.

Security and Backups – ( DRAW – Both Hostgator & DreamHost are level in this feature )

With the rise of cybercrime, choosing a web host that offers high-security measures is more important than ever.

HostGator takes security very seriously and monitors its servers 24/7, 365 days a year. This means that if there are any problems or malicious attacks, they can be stopped before they do any damage.

HostGator also provides regular automatic backups for all customers using its hosting plans. This means that you will always have access to a backup of your site if something goes wrong, so you can get things back up and running as soon as possible.

DreamHost takes security very seriously, too, with a team of security engineers working around the clock to ensure your site is safe at all times. They have an in-built malware remover that will automatically find and fix any problems on customers’ websites, as well as mod_security, which is the industry-standard firewall for apache.

They also offer free automated daily backups, so if anything goes wrong, you will always have access to a backup from the day before.

Both HostGator and DreamHost offer free SSL certificates with all of their hosting plans, so you can be sure any of your customers’ personal data stored on your website is 100% secure.

For this round, it’s a draw. Both HostGator and DreamHost have all of the latest security features and offer automatic daily backups.

Customer Support – ( HostGator Wins )

Choosing a web hosting provider that offers fast, efficient customer support will make your life so much less stressful should a problem arise.

HostGator offers customer support 24/7, 365 days a year. You can get in touch by phone, live chat, and Twitter. Whether your site is down, you are having problems with your IP address, or you are having a problem installing Plugins on your WordPress site, their friendly support team will be happy to help. If lines are busy and you don’t want to wait around, you can request a callback.

HostGator users can also access the knowledgebase and the HostGator blog, which includes solutions to common problems, as well as step-by-step tutorials to help you fix any small issues you might be having. They also have a huge library of video tutorials which are very handy when you’re just starting out.

DreamHost also offers 24/7 support to its customers and uses its own in-house team based in the U.S. Support is offered by chat, and email, 365 days a year. While sales chat is available 24/7, if you have a technical issue, you can only chat with someone between 3:00 am and 9:30 pm PT through the control panel.

DreamHost also has an extensive knowledge base and discussion forums where you can chat with the community and request help from your peers.

Overall, when it comes to customer support, HostGator hits the ball out of the park. The main reason for this is because they offer phone support which is becoming rarer and rarer these days. Both companies offer support on Twitter, which is a nice touch.

HostGator vs DreamHost – Customer Reviews – ( DreamHost Wins )

Although we have our own opinions on both HostGator and DreamHost, it’s important to look at what other people are saying. This will help to give a well-rounded view of both companies and the services they are offering.

We’re going to be looking at reviews on both Trustpilot and Trustradius to see what other customers are saying about HostGator and DreamHost.

At the time of writing, Hostgator has achieved a score of 3.4 out of 5 stars on Trustpilot. On TrustRadius they have a score of 7.3 out of 10, which is pretty good overall.

DreamHost is actually doing amazingly well when it comes to customer reviews. They have a score of 4.8 out of 5 stars on TrustPilot, and an incredible 9 out of 10 stars on TrustRadius. This goes to show that customers are really loving the service that DreamHost provides.

Control Panel – ( It’s a Draw )

HostGator offers you access to the industry-standard cPanel as your control panel. This is extremely easy to navigate and use, even if you are completely new to web hosting.

DreamHost has its own bespoke control panel, which is quite different from the standard cPanel. If you’re used to using cPanel, it might take you a little while to get used to this, but overall the experience is good.

It’s a draw in this round. Although DreamHost uses its own control panel rather than the industry-standard cPanel, both are easy to navigate and use once you get used to them.

Money-Back Guarantee – ( Dreamhost Wins )

A money-back guarantee means that you can try a new hosting provider risk-free. Most web hosting companies these days offer some kind of money-back guarantee, but some are longer than others, and with different terms.

HostGator offers a 45-day money-back guarantee to all new customers. If you need to utilize this, you will need to cancel within the first 45 days of purchasing your plan. After your plan is canceled, you will receive a refund within 15 working days.

DreamHost also offers a money-back guarantee to its customers. It’s more than twice as long as HostGator’s guarantee, at an impressive 97 days! This means you can try out DreamHost for around three months before making a decision, so you will be able to get a really good understanding of how everything works and the service provided before making your decision.

DreamHost is the clear winner of this round due to its impressive 97-day money-back guarantee.

HostGator vs DreamHost: Ease of Use – (HostGator Wins)

Both HostGator and DreamHost are very easy to use, even if you’re building your first website. Overall though, HostGator is a little more intuitive to use, and the user interface is slightly easier to navigate.

Both HostGator and DreamHost have their own website builders. Website builders are a great option for anyone who wants to get a website up and running quickly without using WordPress. HostGator’s website builder is slightly simpler to use, and if you want to, you could get a website up and running in an hour or less.

If you’re a WordPress user, you can set up WordPress on both HostGator and DreamHost. Both companies offer WordPress hosting, and even on their most basic hosting plans, you can still install WordPress with just one click.

HostGator wins this round. Its website builder is insanely good and the perfect solution for anyone wanting to build a professional-looking website quickly. That being said, DreamHost’s website builder is a pleasure to use too, so it’s a very close call here.

HostGator vs DreamHost: The Pros and Cons

Although there are lots of great web hosts out there, some will be better suited to your business than others, depending on your needs. Take a look at the pros and cons of HostGator and DreamHost to see if any of these are dealbreakers for you.

HostGator Pros and Cons

Pros – HostGator

• Affordable hosting plans
• Phone support
• User friendly
• 45-day money-back guarantee
• 99.9% Uptime guarantee
• Website builder
• Fast and reliable
• Automatic daily backups
• Helpful customer support
• Great website builder
• Uses industry-standard cPanel
• Free SSL

Cons – HostGator

• Customer support can be slow to respond during busy times. This is where they seem to lose points in their customer reviews.

DreamHost and Cons

Pros – DreamHost

• Excellent customer reviews on both TrustPilot and TrustRadius
• Affordable hosting plans
• 100% uptime guarantee
• 97-day money-back guarantee
• Easy to use and navigate
• Website builder included
• Automatic daily backups
• Free SSL via Let’s Encrypt

Cons – DreamHost

• Live Chat is not available 24 hours a day
• No phone support
• Limited 1-click installs – Might not be the easiest choice for beginners

As you can see, both companies have their own pros and cons. It’s important to see if anything from the ‘Cons’ would affect you. For example, DreamHost doesn’t offer phone support and is a little more tricky for beginners to use, but if you’re an experienced webmaster, these things may not be a problem for you.

HostGator vs DreamHost: Plans and Pricing – ( It’s a Draw )

In this section, we’re going to be comparing the pricing and plans of HostGator and Dreamhost to see which one offers better value overall.

Types of Hosting Plans

Both HostGator and DreamHost offer a range of plans, including Shared Hosting Plans, VPS Hosting Plans, Dedicated Hosting Plans, Cloud Hosting, reseller hosting, and Managed WordPress Hosting Plans.

To keep things fair, we’re going to be looking at the pricing and plans for shared hosting for both companies. Shared hosting is a great option for bloggers and small businesses. These affordable plans include all the features, reliability, and speed you need to run a successful website at an affordable price point.

Hostgator Pricing

HostGator has three main shared hosting plans available.

First up is the Hatchling plan. This plan is perfect for anyone who just needs a single website. The plan starts at $2.75/month if pay for a 36-month plan, and it renews at $6.95/month. This plan includes one-click WordPress installs, Free transfers from another hosting provider, unmetered bandwidth, free SSL certificate, and a free domain name.

The next plan up is the Baby plan. This plan includes everything from the Hatchling plan but also allows you to have an unlimited number of websites. This plan starts at $3.50/month for a 36-month plan and auto-renews at $9.95/month.

And finally, we have the Business plan. This plan gives you all of the features from the previous two plans, as well as a free upgrade to Positive SSL, a free dedicated IP, and free SEO tools. The Business plan starts at $5.25/month on a 36-month plan, and auto renews at $14.95/month.

Want to give HostGator a try? Head over to their website to check out their hosting plans in more detail.

Dreamhost Pricing

DreamHost has two main plans for shared hosting: Shared Starter and Shared Unlimited.

The Shared Starter Plan starts at $2.59/month when you sign up for a 3-year plan. After the promotional period, this plan will renew at $5.99/month. This plan includes 1 website, a free domain name, Fast SSD storage, unlimited traffic, unlimited email, pre-installed WordPress, free automated WordPress migrations, WP website builder, and 50GB storage.

The Shared Unlimited plan costs $3.95/month and renews at $10.99/month. This plan include everything from the Shared Starter plan, as well as unlimited websites, unlimited email accounts, and unlimited storage.

If you want to give DreamHost a try, head over to their website to check out their hosting plans in more detail. 

Overall, when it comes to providing value for money, both HostGator and DreamHost are pretty much equal in this area. Both companies offer excellent shared hosting plans at an affordable price point.

	HostGator Hatchling	HostGator Baby	HostGator Business	DreamHost Shared Hosting
Number of Websites	1	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Disk Space	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Bandwidth	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Email Accounts	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Control Panel	cPanel	cPanel	cPanel	Proprietary web-based control panel
Pricing	$3.95 per month (three-year subscription)   $6.36 per month (two-year subscription) $7.16 per month (one-year subscription) $8.76 per month (half-year subscription) $8.76 per month (three-month subscription) $8.76 per month (monthly subscription)	$5.95 per month (three-year subscription)   $8.76 per month (two-year subscription) $9.56 per month (one-year subscription) $9.56 per month (half-year subscription) $9.56 per month (three-month subscription) $9.56 per month (monthly subscription)	$5.95 per month (three-year subscription)   $12.76 per month (two-year subscription) $13.56 per month (one-year subscription) $13.56 per month (half-year subscription) $13.56 per month (three-month subscription) $13.56 per month (monthly subscription)	$8.95 per month (two-year subscription)   $9.95 per month (one-year subscription) $10.95 per month (monthly subscription)

VPS Hosting Plans

The table below compares HostGator VPS hosting plans with DreamHost VPS hosting options.

	DreamHost 1GB RAM	DreamHost 2GB RAM	DreamHost 4GB RAM	DreamHost 8GB RAM
Storage	30GB SSD	60GB SSD	120GB SSD	240GB SSD
RAM	1GB	2GB	4GB	8GB
Bandwidth	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
IP Addresses	1	1	1	1
Pricing	$15 per month (you pay extra only for the excess features you use)	$30 per month (you pay extra only for the excess features you use)	$60 per month (you pay extra only for the excess features you use)	$120 per month (you pay extra only for the excess features you use)

	HostGator Snappy 500	HostGator Snappy 1000	HostGator Snappy 2000	HostGator Snappy 4000	HostGator Snappy 8000
Storage	25GB	60GB	120GB	165GB	240GB
RAM	512MB	1000MB	2000MB	4000MB	8000MB
Bandwidth	0.5TB	1TB	1.5TB	2TB	3TB
IP Addresses	2	2	2	2	2
Pricing	$11.97 per month (annual subscription, half-year subscription, three-month subscription or one-month subscription)	$33.97 per month (annual subscription, half-year subscription, three-month subscription or one-month subscription)	$57.97 per month (annual subscription, half-year subscription, three-month subscription or one-month subscription)	$81.97 per month (annual subscription, half-year subscription, three-month subscription or one-month subscription)	$99.97 per month (annual subscription, half-year subscription, three-month subscription or one-month subscription)

Dedicated Hosting Plans

Here we will do a tabular comparison of the maximum possible configurations for HostGator dedicated server hosting plans with that for DreamHost dedicated hosting plans.

	DreamHost	HostGator
Maximum RAM	64GB	16GB
Maximum CPU Cores	12	4 (8 threads)
Maximum Storage	2TB	1000GB RAID-1 Drives
Maximum Bandwidth	Unlimited	25TB

With DreamHost, you can choose any combination of configurations for dedicated server hosting of your site. The basic dedicated server hosting plan for DreamHost starts at $149 per month (annual subscription) or $169 per month (monthly subscription). For HostGator, you have fixed dedicated server plans as listed below:

	HostGator Basic	HostGator Standard	HostGator Elite	HostGator Pro
Storage	500GB RAID-1 Drives	1000GB RAID-1 Drives	1000GB RAID-1 Drives	1000GB RAID-1 Drives
RAM	4GB	4GB	8GB	16GB
Bandwidth	10TB	15TB	20TB	25TB
Pricing	$104.40 per month (three-year subscription, two-year subscription, annual subscription, half-year subscription, three-month subscription or one-month subscription)	$131.40 per month (three-year subscription, two-year subscription, annual subscription, half-year subscription, three-month subscription or one-month subscription)	$167.40 per month (three-year subscription, two-year subscription, annual subscription, half-year subscription, three-month subscription or one-month subscription)	$224.40 per month (three-year subscription, two-year subscription, annual subscription, half-year subscription, three-month subscription or one-month subscription)

HostGator vs DreamHost: The Verdict ( HostGator Wins! )

As you have seen, HostGator and DreamHost are pretty similar when it comes to offering solid hosting at low prices. Both companies offer a range of different hosting options from shared hosting to fully managed dedicated server hosting. That being said, there are a few differences between the two.

HostGator offers better support to its customers. Although you might have to wait a short while to speak to someone, you can be confident that your issue will be resolved quickly by a member of their expert support team. The fact that they offer phone support is the cherry on the cake, as many hosting companies don’t have this option.

HostGator is also much easier to use if you’re a beginner. It uses the industry-standard cPanel, so it’s a user-friendly option for beginners and experienced webmasters alike.

If you are a newbie webmaster, you can opt for HostGator, as it offers cheap basic shared hosting plans and you will be able to instantly start using its control panel for executing some quick hosting tasks.

So although it’s a very close call, the winner here is HostGator!

That’s not to say that DreamHost isn’t a great choice. DreamChoice could suit you if you are a more experienced webmaster and don’t mind the lack of phone support. They offer great value at an affordable price point, and as you can see from their TrustPilot and TrustRadius reviews, their customers love them.

Hopefully this hosting comparison has given you everything you need to make an informed decision on which of these two hosts is right for you.

Want to give HostGator a try? Head over to Hostgator to check out their hosting plans in more detail.

If you think that DreamHost might be a better option for you, head over to Dreamhost.com to check out their hosting plans in more detail.

If you’re still undecided, you might want to check out Siteground.

Siteground offer secure hosting at a great price, with industry leading support.

Latest Hostgator Deal

You can get HOSTGATOR shared hosting for just $3 p/m ( 36 months sign up ) which works out as 60% OFF normal prices for shared hosting. Here’s the DISCOUNT LINK to get this deal.

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