Web hosting and related services are a very integral part of any website business or online blog. These hosting companies help you in keeping your site live and running. They allow you to make it accessible over the world of the internet. Here we talk about two very popular choices: Bluehost vs. HostGator vs. Dreamhost
Bluehost vs HostGator vs Dreamhost (Depth Comparison @$3.95/mo 2021)
You see there are loads of options and services you can find online when it comes to web hosting. Therefore, it may sometimes become very difficult to choose a service as most of them offer the same services and all claim to be the best! I myself have tried numerous of them while my stint as a digital marketer.
Therefore in this series I provide you with some interesting comparisons and showdowns between the most popular hosting companies.
We will see which one is better on the basis of:
- The number and quality of services they offer
- The quality of support they offer
- How good these services really are
- How costly are these services
In this post we will talk about Bluehost vs. HostGator vs. Dreamhost 2021
All the three firms offer the same kind of services more or less. You can get web hosting, WordPress hosting, VPS, dedicated servers, dedicated IPs, reseller hosting and some others. Dreamhost also offers cloud services at a price of $5 per month.
Performance
Well, I can certainly say that all the three services are top-notch and better than most services out there. When it comes to comparing the three, things can get tricky. Their data centers are robust and their servers are powerful.
While HostGator runs on Dual Xeon power centers, Bluehost runs on AMD. Dreamhost uses AMD and Intel for power.
All these services guarantee a 99.9% uptime. Bluehost uses CPY segregation which intelligently controls the CPU and can protect the site from spammers.
With that being said, HostGator wins the battle here as it is more capable of handling huge traffic than the two others
The response time is also a lot better for HostGator. Bluehost can take an average of 5 seconds to load your pages while the latter takes less than 2 seconds. Dreamhost is also very stable. It will give you the minimum outages possible.
User Interface
HostGator and Bluehost use cPanel while Dreamhost uses web panel as their control panels. Well, most of us are acquainted with cPanels, therefore, the user-friendliness automatically increases in the favour of Bluehost and HostGator.
With cPanel you can install popular scripts like WordPress, Joomla and Weebly at the click of a button. HostGator takes it up a notch by providing video tutorials which are very easy to understand.
Now, Dreamhost has a completely different control panel. For us, it then gets difficult to adjust to Dreamhost's panel. This can be due to the host of features it has. You can take time to learn these and the learning curve can get big.
The customization services offered by HostGator also imply that the latter is more focussed towards customer satisfaction. All in all, user-experience is fine with Bluehost and HostGator.
Website Speed Test and Up-Time Reports:
We all know that speed of site matters a lot as most likely no will wait for your slow loading site and they will prefer any other alternative. So, in this comparison Bluehost Vs HostGator Vs DreamHost we have compared that which is super fast and provides the best and reliable web experience to your users.
As we can see that nowadays everyone is claiming to give the 99.9% uptime and but when you get started you get to know the actual truth right behind that. Bluehost has not been there as we have found some problem that generally places their uptime right below 99% it really caused some problem.
When it comes to DreamHost it was very stable and the best part was that it was readily upright during the majority of the month and here we really don't find any issues with that. So, it will be great if you are looking for a reliable and fast web hosting experience then you should go with DreamHost.
Here when we talk about the HostGator then i would like to say here that we have seen such a blazing fast speed of loading website right within a half second that is really amazing. So, if you want to have the fastest web hosting provider then you can go with HostGator. Here if you want to check site loading speed of your website then you should and choose any of the speed tests that are available right out there in the market.
Comment: If we talk about the fastest web hosting provider then we must it would be really great if you start hosting your domain name with HostGator here the page load time was really amazing and it was at the average of 1.38 seconds overall.
Control cPanel
Here if we talk about the cPanel both the web hosting provider Bluehost and HostGator provides the same cPanel and if we talk about the features if them almost both features the same. And really, there is no big difference in the cPanel of Bluehost and HostGator.
Basically, the cPanel comes with 1-click installer right for many of the popular scripts like the WordPress, Joomla and also Weebly. The best part is that these freebies will definitely help newbies right in setting up the new website or blog for themselves. The user doesn't have to deal with the advanced control panel and the functions as here newbies will really find it easy to use.
In particular, HostGator provides its users right with the easy to understand video tutorials just to help its users and to get them familiar with the cPanel along with the speeding up time and really right after the video class you will get familiar with cPanel.
And here if we talk about DreamHost, it really has a different control panel and they generally called it as the "Web Panel". Really, you may find it a bit hard in comparison to the cPanel because here "web panel" is having much more features than the cPanel. If you really want to understand it then you will have to put an effort and understand it.
Comment: Now you have got the two winners here the BlueHost and HostGator both of them provides the same features and it will be really good for newbies to get started with the cPanel here. The best part is that HostGator also provides the video tutorials of the cPanel that will really help you in getting started with the cPanel.
Affordability
Bluehost is manageable when choosing a web hosting provider, you must make sure that the hosting provider is manageable. Hosting Bluehost is easy to use.
The other unique factor of Bluehost is that it uses the most popular cPanel (control panel) on the market. The design of c-panel is clean and makes creating your website a fast and fresh process. A screenshot of Cpanel can be seen below.
Hosting Panel
Bluehost cPanel provides you the platform to edit your documents, databases, domains, and accounts. An amazing thing with Bluehost cPanel is that it contains simple scripts. Simplescripts is a one-click script installer that makes it easy to configure and manage applications, including popular applications such as WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla.
Another important feature of Bluehost is the integrated caching. You do not need to use third-party cache plug-ins like WP Super Cache or even W3 Total Cache. With Bluehost hosting, you can organize the hoarding level depending on the type of website.
Bluehost Technical Support
Bluehost offers permanent technical support via phone, live chat, and even email. If your client has a problem, you can contact the support team by email, chat, or even by phone. Usually, call your customers by calling (888) 401-4678.
On the other hand, they also provide an excellent basis for caring when their customers notice the obstacles they encounter. The answers to these questions are presented on the same platform so that customers do not directly reach the exceptional support team.
Hostgator Customer Service
If you're a new user and need help with everything, you might get stuck with Hostgator because your customer service is slow. It happened to me in the first few days that I ruined my website and needed a quick fix (panic attack). I had to wait more than 30 minutes for the cat to load. However, they solved my problem, but due to the many customers, the waiting time is too long. If you're an advanced user, you may not need customer support to help you.
I would like to rate the customer service based on the response time. If the answer takes longer, it means they do not value their customers. The waiting time of up to 5 minutes is considered normal, but slightly more than 5 minutes is below average. Reminder: When calling the customer service number, the waiting time must not exceed 1 minute.
Hostgator Uptime
As reported in Wikipedia, Hostgator web hosting issues have been reported resulting in extended downtime for customers. There are many critics of people who claim that their website has downtime. However, we did not encounter this problem during our time at Hostgator.
Website Speed
The speed of the website is very important, not just for the user experience, but also to turn your site's visitors into customers. Hostgator displays a load time of 4.6 seconds in GT metric, which is average given the reputation of the web host. The download speed of the website averages 2.5 seconds, which is higher than many other web hosts.
DreamHost Launched Remixer
Remixer is Dreamhost's website creation service. For starters, it has the best rating because Dreamhost can test you for 14 days for free. All you have to do is submit the name and e-mail address of yours. Create a password and everything is ready.
Before you log in, Dreamhost prompts you to choose between three themes, the default color scheme of your website, the picture style, and the font combination. This is a great way for potential new customers to see what's available in this service, but it's a bit strange because after registering, you have more creative options to choose from.
Remixer Editor
This limited format exists throughout the interface. You can not add shadows, wallpapers or animations. The same applies to the components of the photo: you can not resize or rearrange because this service is for the beginner. This is enhanced by the simple image-editing options: you can apply basic filters to your photos, but you can not color-correct them.
Its flexibility is very limited: you can, for example, change the background color of your text and, of course, choose different fonts and sizes. You can also create multiple text boxes in the same component so you can create titles or quotation marks with different fonts, colors, and justification.
Your page design is so flexible that you can rearrange the components it contains. You only need to drag one from the list in the sidebar, top or bottom in another.
There is no preview button so you can see the current status of your page while the visitor sees it. However, the WYSIWYG interface makes it a bit redundant and is therefore not a big problem.
This is more or less the scope of service functions. You can not add buttons or embed your own HTML code. You can not even cut and paste the code from other sites, as you would add a PayPal donation button, for example. There are also no third-party extensions.
Dedicated IP Support
In addition to the SSL certificate, you will receive a dedicated IP address when purchasing. This feature provides more stability for your website and may also help search engines as it simplifies cataloging and ranking your site in search engine results. In addition, BlueHost provides a domain privacy service to hide certain private information associated with the address of your site. This is a great benefit for those who value their online privacy. These features alone are unprecedented, leaving behind some of BlueHost's competitors.
Like all web hosting providers, BlueHost also has minor flaws. For example, the company does not offer a monthly payment option. This means that you need to sign up for an annual hosting program. If you really want to save web hosting costs, we recommend signing up for your two or three-year plan to get higher discounts. If you are satisfied with your service and can stay for three years or more, BlueHost will win you a monthly fee of $ 2.95.
Pricing and Features
In all services, you can choose from different packages which include varied scales of:
- Domains
- Unlimited Disk Space
- Data Transfer
- Email Accounts and more.
I have to say that HostGator and Dreamhost are pricier options for Indian online enthusiasts as the same service on can be availed for less. For instance, web hosting can cost you INR 239-389 on Bluehost while HostGator charges INR 400-675 for the same. On Dreamhost, you will need to pay even more.
The maximum price of reseller hosting on Bluehost is INR 2039 while it can reach INR9500 on HostGator and Dreamhost. So HostGator and Dreamhost are definitely costlier. But if you are looking for sure shot performance and do not want any glitches then HostGator does provide a better guarantee.
The average speed of websites running with Bluehost and DreamHost is 1.9 seconds and 2.3 seconds, respectively.
HostGator vs Bluehost vs Dreamhost Speed Test
Customer Support and Feedback
Support is of premium importance when it comes to hosting services. This is because every online enthusiast out there is not a techie. This is why we so many times run into confusion and then a good support team is all we want and need.
Issues can arise like:
- Site is down
- Site has crashed
- Plugins are not updating
- Hosting is flawed
- Anything else!
With you get a 24/7 live chat option, ticketing option and an exhaustive log of tutorial videos to help you with almost anything. The ticketing system it has is very fast. You can expect responses within the next 2-3 hours. On the other hand, the Bluehost support is not that bad. You have options for live chat team and a toll-free call center.
When it comes to Dreamhost, it gets a bit tricky. They do not have services like live chat or a toll-free customer support number. You only have access to an online ticketing system. The team is robust but they take time to respond.
I believe HostGator is the clear winner here with its plethora of support options and fast response time.
So who wins when it comes to Bluehost vs. HostGator vs. Dreamhost
Well, I believe it depends on who is using it.
- Newbies and small-scale businesses which are just getting started and want to make a substantial online presence. Once the income flow gets regular and savings are in the bank you can move up to HostGator and enjoy some premium services.
- Already established online firms who want to take it up a notch. If you are thinking about increasing your operations and availing the service of strong servers then HostGator is a good option for you!
Coupon codes for HostGator, Bluehost, and DreamHost
For Hostgator: Use coupon code BLOGGERSIDEAS25 to get a 30% discount on any of their hosting packages. ( Coupon will expire soon.)
Use coupon code BLOGGERSIDEAS25 to get HostGator hosting plan for as low as $0.01 or $9.94 discount on any of packages.
For Dreamhost: Use coupon code BLI97 to get flat $60.00 discounts on any of their hosting packages. This means that you will get Dreamhost shared hosting worth $119.40/year for just $49.00/year.
I recommend Bluehost to: I recommend HostGator and Dreamhost to: