DreamHost vs Bluehost: Which Host is Best for You in 2024?

DreamHost and Bluehost are popular budget-friendly hosting services, officially recommended by WordPress.org.

DreamHost was founded in 1996 and Bluehost in 2003. Both are famous for affordable pricing, modern infrastructure, value added features, and outstanding customer support.

They offer various plans in shared, managed WordPress, VPS, Cloud, and dedicated server hosting types. It is not a matter what kind of website you are going to start, they have suitable plans to match all your needs.

Let us compare these two hosts with key features, pricing, pros & cons and more to discover the best.

* Available in Choice Plus and Pro plans

DreamHost vs Bluehost: Comparison of Features

1. SSD Storage

There are two types of hosting: Traditional HDD (Hard Disk Drives) hosting and SSD (Solid State Drives) hosting. SSD hosting is faster, secure, and more advanced than HDD hosting. So you can experience a smooth and fast browsing experience on sites hosted on SSD servers. Most hosting companies have already switched from HDD technology to SSD to better serve their customers. It is difficult to find a shared host that supports HDD these days as it is almost outdated.

DreamHost offers fast SSD storage and unlimited bandwidth in all hosting plans. Their basic plan is limited to 50 GB storage, but you will get unlimited storage in the Shared Unlimited plan which costs $3.95/mo.

Bluehost too provides SSD hosting and unmetered bandwidth with almost similar specifications. But you will get only 10 GB SSD storage in the basic plan. Unfortunately, they’ve discontinued unlimited storage plans recently.

2. Server locations

Before choosing a host, you should know where their servers are located. It should be near to your target audience, so they will get an improved speed on your pages.

DreamHost has hosting servers in the United States (Virginia and Oregon) only. On the other hand, there is no exact information available about Bluehost data center locations. Even though, many hosting experts say that the company has servers in the United States (Utah and Orem), UK (London), China (Shanghai and Hong Kong), and India (Mumbai).

I contacted Bluehost customer support for clarification, and they told me that their hosting server is located in the United States (Provo)only.

3. Daily Backups

There are several things that may send your website offline. It could be a hacking attempt, accidental deletion, or something else. So it is very essential to take a regular backup to protect your data and restore it easily.

DreamHost automatically backups your site every day and save it to your hosting account. This service is available on their both shared hosting plans, Shared Starter and Shared Unlimited. Sign in to your account, access the backup copy, and restore it anytime whenever you need.

On the other hand, Bluehost shared hosting customers will get automated backups on Choice Plus and Pro plans only. The basic plan customers should install third-party plugins to back up files and content. We can’t consider it as a major drawback, as you can find out various WordPress backup plugins to handle the job.

4. Free domain

A few hosting companies provide a free domain to their shared hosting customers. It helps them to save a good amount in domain registration for the first year.

Both DreamHost and Bluehost offer a free domain in shared, basic WordPress hosting plans. They support all domain extensions including .com, .org, .net, .blog, and more.

5. Additional features

DreamHost comes with many features like free CDN integration, free website migration, free SSL, and so on. On the Shared Starter plan, you will also get 5 subdomains. But they are unlimited in the Shared Unlimited plan.

Bluehost is also integrated with Cloudflare CDN to deliver content faster from more than 200 global server locations. It provides a free website migration, free SSL, and custom WordPress themes to all customers. Additionally, their Pro plan customers will get a dedicated IP at free of cost. It will be very beneficial for business customers to boost their site performance and security.

6. Pricing

Let us check the basic plans of these two hosts,

It is clear that DreamHost is much cheaper than Bluehost. It costs just $2.49/mo when compared to $3.95/mo on Bluehost. But both shares almost similar features like free domain, free CDN, free SSL, etc. Not only that, DreamHost’s basic plan customers will also get automated daily backups to safeguard their business against unexpected loss.

DreamHost allows you to host unlimited websites for $3.95/mo. It contains unlimited email accounts and unlimited subdomains also. The unlimited hosting plans on Bluehost start at $5.95/mo, and it also offers two more higher plans with added features such as free domain privacy and free dedicated IP address.

7. Money-back guarantee

DreamHost provides a long 97-days money-back guarantee in shared hosting and a 30-days money-back guarantee in managed WordPress hosting plans. Host your websites on DreamHost servers during this period and if you are facing any difficulties, contact their customer support. They will either rectify your complaint or will return the full amount back.

Bluehost has a 30-days money-back guarantee in shared and managed WordPress hosting plans. If you are not satisfied with Bluehost hosting experience, contact their support team and ask for a refund. They will either fix your complaint and will return the full amount back except domain registration charges.

8. Online reputation

Today, there are many ways for consumers to record their opinions about the products they use. TrustPilot is such a popular review website where you need to upload account screenshots to verify that you are an active customer. Facebook and Reddit forums are other places to find honest reviews and product feedbacks.

DreamHost has scored 4.7 out of 5 on TrustPilot with 1421 reviews till this writing. 78% of them marked as DreamHost services are excellent and only 6% of them have left negative feedback about the company.

At the same time, Bluehost has scored 2.2 out of 5 on the same site with 795 reviews. Only 7% of customers rated their services are excellent and the remaining 76% marked it as bad. Many of my friends use Bluehost for a long time and they told me that they have only good experience with the company.

DreamHost vs Bluehost: Which is the Best Host?

DreamHost is better than Bluehost in many ways. It is more affordable, fast and user-friendly. Their shared hosting plans start at $2.49 per month with all essential features like daily backups, free SSL, free CDN, and other benefits we discussed earlier in this post.

Whether you are going to start a blog or planning to launch a business, DreamHost is a good choice. Their low tariff is applicable for both 1 and 3 year hosting plans. But unfortunately, Bluehost offers the rates we already discussed on 3 year terms only. Their basic plan costs $5.95/mo and $4.95/mo for 1, 2 year terms respectively. It means if you are going for a short term plan, Bluehost will charge more than double when compared to the similar plan on DreamHost.

So I highly recommend you to go with DreamHost.