DreamHost Vs. HostGator Battle It Out In 2021

DreamHost is well probably the greatest webhosting providers we’ve reviewed. It presents a protracted record of plans, every feeling well-rounded with its value, in addition to glorious velocity, superior safety and cheap pricing. HostGator, then again, has just a few issues, specifically in the privateness and velocity departments. 

On this DreamHost vs. HostGator comparability, we’re going to see how they stack up step-by-step, isolating the variables that make them shine and those that make them sink. On the finish, you’ll know which is the best choice for internet hosting your website. That stated, we suggest studying our DreamHost overview and HostGator overview in addition to this information.

As a result of we’ll focus totally on these webhosting providers, their total rating may change. As you possibly can see in our DreamHost vs. SiteGround comparability, typically a service that’s higher than the remainder of the market isn’t higher when put next one-on-one.

Setting Up a Combat: DreamHost vs. HostGator

For our comparisons, we loosely observe the standards used in particular person opinions. “Loosely” is the operative phrase, right here, as following our opinions precisely would outcome in an eight-round massacre that’s not solely prolonged, but in addition unfair. As an alternative of inserting equal weight on, say, internet hosting varieties and velocity, we’ve condensed the overview standards. 

We’ve discovered that 5 areas are essential: options, pricing, ease of use, velocity and safety. Assist is essential, too, however seeing as most net hosts have no less than first rate assist, it often isn’t a priority. Every spherical is price a degree, and whichever webhosting service claims three or extra factors on the finish will likely be our winner. 

Every spherical will begin with some notes on our expectations for that standards. For instance, we’re on the lookout for each day backups in spherical one and a beneficiant refund coverage in spherical two. Subsequent, we’ll speak about how nicely the providers glad our expectations for that spherical, then give some ideas on how they examine. Lastly, we’ll declare a winner and award a degree. 

That stated, we suggest studying by means of every spherical relatively than simply scanning the winners. Some rounds are very shut, forcing us to make a judgement name on what points we consider are crucial — an analysis that doesn’t essentially apply to you.

1. Options

Internet hosts have advanced in the previous few years in relation to options. The free advert credit of iPage look stale now in comparison with the superior server software program of Hostinger (learn our iPage overview and Hostinger overview). Whereas we recognize additional goodies, they’re not an acceptable substitute for what we take into account important options. 

These options ought to allow you to do three issues: construct, optimize and safe your website. There needs to be no less than one characteristic in every space. For instance, a stable service in this spherical will present an internet site builder, built-in caching and each day backups. We’re going to match what DreamHost and HostGator supply in relation to options, and in addition after they introduce these options in the lineup.

DreamHost

DreamHost presents a superb vary of options that match instantly into the three areas talked about above. We’ll speak about constructing in a minute, however for optimizing, you will have full SSD storage and a cache on sure kinds of internet hosting, and for securing, you will have each day backups and a free SSL/TLS certificates. 

Whereas the shared plans nonetheless showcase loads of options, the WordPress plans stand out most. DreamHost made it onto our greatest webhosting for WordPress information with its DreamPress plans — managed WordPress options constructed in a cloud surroundings (learn our MDDHosting overview for an additional cloud-focused host). 

DreamPress plans include all the aforementioned options, in addition to an infinite CDN, one-click WordPress staging, managed WordPress updates and a paid model of Jetpack, which is a vital WordPress plugin (as you possibly can learn in our newbie’s information to utilizing WordPress). 

For many who are unfamiliar with WordPress, you should utilize Remixer, which is DreamHost’s in-house web site builder. Whereas not fairly as much as par with our greatest web site builders, Remixer is a stable providing, match with a block-style interface that resembles Webnode (learn our Webnode overview). The theme choice is stable, too.

Nonetheless, Remixer has a novel benefit over different web site builders. You should use the wonderful theme choice and straightforward drag-and-drop interface to design your web site, however it’s also possible to export that completed web site to WordPress. If you need the pliability of WordPress however don’t care to rent a developer or buy a theme, Remixer is likely one of the few methods you possibly can dip your toe in each worlds. 

HostGator

HostGator has equally as many options as DreamHost, however they don’t span the vary of plans. As an alternative of breaking apart internet hosting tiers based mostly on efficiency, HostGator, for essentially the most half, breaks them up based mostly on the options you get, which is a dated follow we’ve seen from providers like Bluehost (learn our Bluehost overview).

Like iPage and JustHost (learn our JustHost overview), HostGator distracts from the shortage of options with free advert credit and a number of one-click installers. We’re not complaining, however these actually aren’t options at this level — they’re expectations. What’s missing is SSD storage throughout plans, in addition to each day backups and caching, that are featured in the WordPress plans.

Options not included together with your plan can be found in {the marketplace}, and whereas we recognize the one-stop store for, nicely, buying, we’d wish to have many of the options included out of the gate. 

The place HostGator shines is in the constructing division. You’ve got two web site builders at your disposal, though one in every of them is clearly superior. The primary is HostGator’s in-house web site builder, which (as you possibly can learn in our Gator overview) isn’t all that spectacular. 

You may as well use Weebly to construct your website. As you possibly can see in our Weebly overview, it’s a stable inclusion for any internet hosting package deal, match with a no-nonsense interface, a beautiful choice of themes and stable third-party integrations. HostGator offers the “join” package deal, which lets you use the free model of Weebly with your personal area. 

Spherical One Ideas

This spherical doesn’t come all the way down to the included options, however relatively the place these options come in. DreamHost offers the necessities throughout plans, constructing upon them as the worth will increase. HostGator, then again, barely offers you something on the low-end, forcing you to improve to a pricey package deal to get a well-rounded record of options.

2. Value

Pricing is a fancy matter for net hosts. Whereas there are exceptions (learn our 1&1 IONOS overview for one in every of them), most providers wait till checkout to make clear the speed you’ll pay. What’s marketed as a package deal that prices just a few {dollars} per thirty days is usually greater than a $100 whenever you enter your cost info. That’s since you’ll have to buy a number of years of internet hosting to get a good charge. 

On this spherical, we’re trying on the charge of DreamHost and HostGator, but in addition how clear that charge is all through the checkout course of. Moreover, we’re going to match the out there durations of plans and the money-back ensures.

DreamHost

DreamHost is reasonable throughout the board, though it might not seem that method at first. In comparison with a service like Hosting24, DreamHost’s charge is increased (learn our Hosting24 overview). Upon renewal, nonetheless, DreamHost is cheaper than many of the competitors and provides you flexibility in length, in addition. When you’re on the lookout for low-cost webhosting, DreamHost is a positive guess. 

Shared plans are very spectacular, with DreamHost providing an introductory charge of lower than $3 per thirty days for a yr or three years, and a charge of $6 per thirty days upon renewal. That renewal charge applies to the month-to-month plan, too, which DreamHost presents, fortunately, with out penalty (learn our Arvixe overview for an instance of a number that punishes month-to-month customers). 

DreamPress plans are costlier, however nonetheless barely cheaper than Kinsta with an analogous characteristic set (learn our Kinsta overview). That stated, when you can’t swing the $20 to $30 value level, SiteGround is a superb funds different (learn our SiteGround overview).

What units DreamHost aside most, although, is its money-back assure. You’ve got a full 97 days to vary your thoughts, which is outmatched solely by A2 Internet hosting’s anytime money-back assure (learn our A2 Internet hosting overview). DreamHost’s assure additionally applies no matter length. Meaning when you resolve to buy a month-to-month plan, you continue to have north of three months to get all your a reimbursement. 

HostGator

Evaluating HostGator’s pricing desk to DreamHost’s exhibits that the providers are related in relation to charges. Shared plans begin at almost the identical value level, and WordPress plans are even cheaper with HostGator. Nonetheless, seems to be may be deceiving, and that’s undoubtedly true right here. 

The costs listed on HostGator’s web site are solely legitimate if you buy three years of internet hosting upfront. Nonetheless, HostGator additionally presents one- and two-year plans, in addition to one-, three- and six-month durations. The shorter you go in length, the costlier the month-to-month charge will get.

The one-, three- and six-month plans cost the renewal charge, which is $11 for essentially the most cheap shared plan. HostGator might provide you with a great chunk off in your preliminary time period, however you’re making up for it in the long term. Moreover, you’ll need to buy a number of internet hosting to get the low cost, that means important upfront prices. 

Fortunately, the money-back assure isn’t unhealthy. HostGator presents 45 days to get a refund, which is greater than most hosts. Even so, it’s lower than DreamHost and InMotion Internet hosting, the latter of which supplies you a full 90 days (learn our InMotion Internet hosting overview).

Spherical Two Ideas

Like spherical one, this one is fairly clear. HostGator is costlier upon renewal and forces you to buy a number of years of internet hosting to get a good charge. DreamHost has a easy pricing scheme that prices round half as a lot upon renewal and provides you flexibility in relation to length with out punishment.

3. Ease of Use

With all of our webhosting opinions, we buy a plan incognito so we are able to expertise it the identical as you’ll. That begins with touchdown on the positioning, looking by means of the record of accessible plans, selecting one and finishing checkout. On this spherical, we’re going to have a look at how simple it’s to buy a plan and arrange an internet site with DreamHost and HostGator.

DreamHost

DreamHost makes discovering and selecting a plan easy. The web site is fashionable and intuitive, and every product web page offers a toggle for seeing month-to-month and yearly charges. When you’ve chosen a plan, the positioning brings you to a third-party checkout course of that places Namecheap’s multi-step checkout to disgrace (learn our Namecheap overview). 

The checkout course of doesn’t bombard you with add-ons or extra providers, both. It asks the length you need to buy and little else, making the entire course of really feel easy. After finishing the cost, you’ll go on to a password creation web page, which is best than sending an electronic mail together with your login credentials (learn our LunarPages overview to be taught why). 

Lastly, you possibly can login. DreamHost makes use of a proprietary management panel that mixes account and web site administration right into a single place. That stated, it lacks the finesse of the management panels seen with Pagely and Kinsta. DreamHost’s management panel is extra much like Midphase, showcasing all the out there providers by means of a left-side menu (learn our Midphase overview).

As an alternative of focusing solely on the service you’ve bought, DreamHost has tabs for each service it presents. Behind the providers you don’t personal are ads to buy them, which ends up in a bloated interface. That stated, we like having every little thing underneath one roof, so it’s laborious to fault DreamHost.

HostGator

HostGator presents some points throughout checkout, not as a result of checkout is troublesome, however since you’ll need to be vigilant to not overpay in your subscription. As talked about in spherical two, HostGator offers you a charge for 3 years. Moreover, it pre-selects a number of add-ons throughout checkout, which is annoying. 

When you’ve completed paying, HostGator will ship you a number of emails, one in every of which holds your login credentials. This supply technique poses some points. If the consumer fails to have an encrypted connection, the e-mail will arrive on an unsecured connection, that means a man-in-the-middle assault may expose the soiled particulars of your account. Moreover, the password despatched to us didn’t work. 

Nonetheless, you’ll rapidly overlook these faults when you land in the dashboard. HostGator makes use of a modified cPanel worthy of our greatest webhosting with cPanel information, combining account and internet hosting administration underneath a single roof in a method much more distinguished than DreamHost.

You’ll be able to soar to {the marketplace} to buy extra providers, entry assist utilizing the left-side bar and handle your domains all from the identical display screen. If you wish to dig into the small print, HostGator offers a full model of cPanel. HostGator’s dashboard feels just like the second model of DreamHost’s. It’s extra concise, extra highly effective and higher optimized.

Spherical Three Ideas

DreamHost has a simple checkout course of, whereas HostGator retains you in your toes by preselecting a length and a few add-ons. That stated, the management panel is extra important right here. They’re very related, total, however HostGator’s feels extra refined, which is sufficient to put it on the board for the primary time.

4. Pace and Uptime

We measure velocity and uptime utilizing two instruments: Pingdom Speed Test and Load Impact. To make sure a degree taking part in subject in the course of the assessments, we launch a website utilizing essentially the most cheap shared plan and set up a clean copy of WordPress. That method we are able to get rid of variables and isolate the efficiency of the online host alone.

DreamHost

DreamHost carried out nicely in our velocity testing, though we’ve seen quicker hosts. It scored 90 out of 100 from Pingdom, suggesting a great quantity of interference from the online host on loading velocity. As compared, Bluehost scored 94 out of 100, and A2 Internet hosting and SiteGround scored 96. 

Digging by means of the graph above, we are able to see that almost all of the load time — which was simply longer than one second — resulted from the “wait” metric. Meaning the browser was ready to obtain information from the server. Contemplating essentially the most cheap shared plan doesn’t embrace the caching that’s included on DreamPress plans, that’s the probably wrongdoer.

Load Influence had higher outcomes. We use this software to emphasize the server, sending 50 digital customers inside 5 minutes. Throughout that point, we notice the response time of every consumer, in addition to any unfulfilled requests. DreamHost had a good degree of inconsistency, though it was removed from the horrible efficiency we famous in our GreenGeeks overview. 

Throughout our testing, we had 100% uptime. DreamHost has you lined when you’ve got any downtime, although. In contrast to most net hosts that promise 99.9 % uptime, DreamHost has a 100% uptime assure. For every hour your website is down, you’ll obtain a credit score for at some point of internet hosting. Nonetheless, that’s solely as much as a most of 10 % of your subsequent internet hosting interval, that means it covers solely the primary three hours.

HostGator

HostGator is the worst-performing website we’ve run by means of Pingdom. It scored 83 out of 100, which is extra of a distinction from DreamHost than it will appear at first. Our website had no content material on it, so 17 factors off an ideal rating means that there are optimizations that HostGator isn’t taking. 

We are able to see in the graphic that the wait time was comparatively low, although. The bigger challenge is that HostGator had extra requests, presumably for “coming quickly” pages and the like. HostGator blocked quite a lot of these requests, too, that means they ate up pointless community overhead with out truly contributing something. 

Whereas DreamHost has a good quantity of inconsistency throughout our Load Influence take a look at, HostGator had much more. Fortunately, all of our requests made it by means of, however there have been quite a lot of spikes that confirmed up because the consumer load elevated.

As for uptime, HostGator is best than most providers. There’s a 99.9 % uptime assure that — in contrast to its sibling, HostMonster — truly means one thing (learn our HostMonster overview). In case your website ever falls under 99.9 % uptime, you’ll obtain a free month of internet hosting. That stated, the assure solely applies to shared and reseller plans.

Spherical 4 Ideas

By the numbers, DreamHost wiped the ground with HostGator this spherical. It not solely carried out higher when sending a single consumer to the positioning, it additionally dealt with a load of fifty guests higher. That stated, HostGator has the superior uptime assure. Whereas that’s not sufficient to provide it the win this spherical, it’s one thing to contemplate.

5. Safety and Privateness

Whereas we’ve had some backwards and forwards different rounds, this one is as simple as they arrive. Endurance Worldwide Group (EIG) owns HostGator, which (as you possibly can learn in our Site5 overview) bodes very poorly for safety and privateness. DreamHost, then again, maintains a transparent dedication to your information that’s seen nearly nowhere else.

DreamHost

DreamHost offers you all the instruments you should safe your website. You’re protected mechanically with a free SSL/TLS certificates, each day backups, Cloudflare integration and an online software firewall. Moreover, DreamHost consists of these safety features throughout all plans, which implies you’re protected it doesn’t matter what value you pay. 

The one factor not included is a malware elimination software, though DreamHost presents DreamShield for $3 per thirty days. DreamShield will scan your website weekly for malware and mechanically clear something it finds. Contemplating most malware instruments at this value merely scan your website, DreamShield is spectacular. 

As spectacular as it’s, although, it’s nothing in comparison with DreamHost’s dedication to consumer privateness. Each area offers area privateness totally free, which replaces the data you’d need to enter in the WHOIS document with DreamHost’s info. There are solely a handful of different providers that embrace this degree of privateness safety, WestHost being one in every of them (learn our WestHost overview).

The privateness coverage is stable, too, however DreamHost’s battle with the U.S. Division of Justice (DOJ) speaks volumes greater than that. In 2017, DreamHost defended a site it hosted and the 1.3 million IP addresses that visited it. The conflict with the DOJ moved all the way in which to the Washington D.C. Superior Courtroom. In the long run, the court docket discovered that the federal government “doesn’t have the best to rummage by means of the data contained on DreamHost’s web site.”

HostGator

As talked about in the start of the spherical, EIG owns HostGator. As an alternative of getting its personal privateness coverage, all of EIG’s 80 or so manufacturers use a collective privateness coverage, which supplies the monolith express permission to mine your information and promote it to advertisers. 

The record of promoting companions consists of Amazon Internet Companies, WPBeginner, Yahoo, Bing, Google Advertisements, Fb, Twitter and plenty of, many extra. EIG unapologetically gathers every little thing about you and sells it for revenue. HostGator’s area privateness, unsurprisingly, runs $15 per yr. 

Fortunately, the safety features are higher. HostGator consists of each day backups through cPanel on shared plans and through CodeGuard on costlier ones. Nonetheless, it doesn’t even embrace SiteLock — the “lite” model — which is a disgrace. Fortunately, you continue to get a free SSL/TLS certificates. 

One key characteristic that’s lacking, although, is an online software firewall. It is a characteristic included in the $40-per-month SiteLock package deal. A few of these options present up on the pricier plans, such because the WordPress vary, however they need to span the lot.

Spherical 5 Ideas

This spherical was determined earlier than we wrote a phrase, not as a result of we would like HostGator to lose, however as a result of we all know how sketchy EIG manufacturers are. DreamHost is unimaginable in relation to safety and privateness, sufficient in order that it will beat nearly any host. On this case, it received by a mile. 

Spherical: Safety and Privateness
Level for DreamHost

6. Ultimate Ideas

DreamHost swept the board, falling barely behind in its ease of use. That stated, it solely got here up quick as a result of HostGator’s management panel is so good, not as a result of DreamHost’s management panel is unhealthy. Total, DreamHost is likely one of the finest webhosting providers round, and we’re comfortable to declare it our champion. 

Winner: DreamHost

Whereas HostGator is likely one of the higher EIG manufacturers round, it falls flat on almost all accounts. Every part has a caveat to it, which is made even worse contemplating the worth is increased than most hosts. When you’re not glad with DreamHost, we suggest checking our webhosting archive earlier than buying a plan with HostGator. 

Do you assume DreamHost is the higher possibility, as nicely? If not, why? Tell us your ideas in the feedback under. As all the time, thanks for studying. 

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