Many people have the same question - Which is the best hosting? And no matter the number of web hosting reviews you can read, there will always be someone who will argue that their preferred host is the best. So, we decided to compare SiteGround vs. DreamHost.
Picking a web host for your personal or business website is tough! They all have different plans, offers, and features. In this SiteGround vs. DreamHost comparison, we will explain the pros and cons of both hosts to help you decide the right one for you.
Overview of SiteGround Web Hosting
SiteGround is a web hosting company founded in 2004 by a few university friends. The company is located in Sofia and Bulgaria. It has offices in the USA and Spain.
SiteGround is a web hosting companies that manage its data centers. This allows SiteGround to provide high performance, responsive customer service, and reliable infrastructure for their websites.
The company’s primary focus is on shared hosting services and offers other web hosting types such as cloud, dedicated, reseller, and enterprise solutions.
SiteGround currently has more than 200 employees who manage more than 500,000 domains worldwide.
The company’s founder and CEO, Tenko Nikolov, started the business with his brother and a few friends when they were college students. They set out to build a hosting company that would offer affordable web hosting with excellent service and performance.
In recent years, SiteGround has made significant investments in its infrastructure, including multiple data centers around the globe and several hundred dedicated employees to provide 24/7 live support.
Overview of DreamHost Web Hosting
DreamHost is a popular web host founded in 1996 by four friends from college. Since then, they have grown from a small web host into a large provider with over one million customers and more than 400 employees. Their headquarters are located in Los Angeles, CA, but they also have offices in Europe and Asia-Pacific.
Since 1996, the company has offered various web hosting services. The company is also very flexible with their web hosting options.
Some of their notable clients include Github and Docker. Their CEO Simon Anderson, currently manages them.
If you’re wondering what type of web hosting services they offer, they have shared hosting (DreamPress), VPS hosting, dedicated server hosting, and even WordPress-managed cloud hosting.
Something that makes DreamHost popular is its commitment to going green. They are also recognized for their excellent uptime and customer service. While they do not offer any money-back guarantees, they have a 97-day risk-free trial.
Tiiny Host as an alternative
Web hosting can be a complicated topic to understand. You often just want to upload your website and not need to worry about the technical details. Tiiny Host is the simplest way to host & share your web project. It provides an easy-to-use, drag & drop interface to upload your website in seconds. Here’s how:
- Navigate to tiiny.host
- Drag & drop a HTML or Zip file containing your site
- Enter a link-name (optional) and click Upload
That’s it!
SiteGround vs. DreamHost: A definitive comparison
To help you decide, we’ve put together this review of SiteGround vs. DreamHost web Hosting.
There are several web hosting sites to choose from, but with the competition getting stiffer and stiffer, two names have come out as the best in the business.
Today’s two most popular companies that offer web hosting services are SiteGround and DreamHost. But, who takes the cake? Let’s find out!
Ease of Use
What makes SiteGround Web Hosting easy to use?
Every SiteGround hosting plan comes with a user-friendly cPanel for easy account management. The cPanel has all the applications you need for your website in one convenient location.
A lot more than just a list of folders and files, SiteGround’s cPanel interface allows users to manage their domains, websites, email accounts, databases, and more from within an intuitive and familiar interface.
Whether you are a professional or starting on your first site, SiteGround’s cPanel makes it easier than ever to manage your web presence.
SiteGround understands that you have many options available on the market for web hosting. That’s why they focus on providing you with the best possible experience by offering incredible features.
Below are the reasons why billions of sites choose SiteGround:
- SiteGround offers customers 99.99% uptime as well as 24/7 support.
- The platform is fully compatible with WordPress and Joomla.
- All plans include free SSL and CDN (content delivery network).
What makes DreamHost Web Hosting easy to use?
This is where we get into the nitty-gritty of what makes DreamHost a good choice for the average user. Specifically, DreamHost wants to help you quickly accomplish all of the following:
- Create and edit your website quickly and easily
- Manage multiple websites with a single login
- Get your website speed boost up as fast as possible.
You can do all of this by using their One-Click Installer to install WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, or PrestaShop on your domain with just a few clicks. If you prefer something simpler, you can create an essential website using their built-in HTML editor. This includes editing tools that allow you to add text, images, and video right from within our control panel.
In short, there are many things that you can do easily without any hassle.
Customer Support
How is the customer support of SiteGround Web Hosting?
SiteGround customer support is nothing short of excellent. While they have an extensive list of tutorials and FAQs that will help you solve fundamental problems on your own, the faster way to get a solution is by getting in touch with their customer support team.
Customer support is one of the things that set SiteGround apart from other web hosting services. The support team is available 24/7. They also have different departments to handle specific issues.
For example, the sales department will answer your questions about the plans and pricing while the technical support will fix any technical issues.
You can contact SiteGround’s support team through live chat, phone, or ticket system.
How is the customer support of DreamHost Web Hosting?
DreamHost’s customer support may not be as fast as SiteGround’s, but it is relatively responsive and helpful.
DreamHost offers 24/7 customer support in the form of live chat, email support, and a ticketing system. The live chat option is not available, but the email response time is usually pretty quick (within 24 hours).
You can even contact DreamHost’s customer support team via Twitter and Facebook. However, this is not recommended if you need help with technical issues. It’s best to use these channels for simple questions or requesting a refund. You should also get in touch with DreamHost via social media if you’re having any problems with your account.
Affordability
Is SiteGround Web Hosting Affordable?
SiteGround’s web hosting solutions are affordable and have various pricing options and plans. SiteGround offers three shared hosting packages: StartUp, GrowBig, and GoGeek. At the time of writing, the StartUp plan costs $3.95/month, GrowBig is priced at $5.95/month, and GoGeek is the most expensive plan at $11.95/month.
If you sign up for 36 months, the StartUp plan will cost you $3.95 per month, the GrowBig plan will cost $5.95 per month, and the GoGeek will cost $11.95 per month, which are discounted from their monthly prices.
The pricing for each package depends on what you need your website to do and how many resources you want available to you on your web hosting server. For example, suppose you’re running an eCommerce site that gets heavy traffic daily. In that case, you’ll want to opt for the GoGeek package because it comes with more resources like more RAM and CPU cores than its counterparts and additional features like priority support and more super cache.
Before choosing a package, though, make sure you know exactly how much bandwidth, storage space, and other resources your website needs in order.
Is DreamHost Web Hosting Affordable?
DreamHost offers many different web hosting plans depending on what type of website you want to host and how much traffic you have expected. Shared web hosting is often the cheapest option because it allows DreamHost to spread the cost among millions of websites hosted on the same server. The downside of this is that the resources available for each website are limited, so if you are expecting more traffic or have a highly dynamic site, this might not be the right option for you.
DreamHost offers VPS, dedicated, or managed WordPress hosting options for those who expect more traffic or want more features. These options are more expensive, but they do not share a server with other websites, so they have more resources available per website and can handle more traffic without slowing down.
Performance and Reliability
How is the Performance and Reliability of SiteGround Web Hosting?
SiteGround web hosting is an excellent choice for those that need a robust hosting platform. It’s fast, reliable, and secure. Their uptime is 99.99%, and we have a 0.3 second page load time on average.
How is the Performance and Reliability of DreamHost Web Hosting?
DreamHost is pretty good in terms of performance and reliability. The uptime is 99.99% or better (which is excellent compared to others), and the speed is also good.
The only bad side is that they do not provide support 24/7 as other web hosting companies do. Their support hours are Monday - Friday, 5 AM - 7 PM (Pacific Time). If you encounter a problem outside their support hours, you have to wait until the next day to get help.
Security
Is SiteGround Web Hosting Secure?
When it comes to your website, security is a top priority. Site security should be a primary concern when you’re looking for a new web host.
SiteGround is one of the safest places for your website. Some of it’s security features are:
- They protect against DDoS attacks. SiteGround monitors incoming traffic 24/7 and automatically blocks suspicious activity.
- They use their proprietary software to block brute force attacks before they happen. While other hosts may claim to do the same thing, SiteGround definitely does it.
- It protects against malware. Hackers can attempt to access your website to spread malware on visitor devices. Fortunately, SiteGround has several layers of protection against malware, including automatic scanning and real-time monitoring of your website files.
Is DreamHost Web Hosting Secure?
DreamHost’s servers are protected with state-of-the-art software and hardware. This includes a custom firewall and advanced security monitoring systems that are constantly updated to detect new threats.
DreamHost provides DDoS protection, SSL certificates, and server monitoring as standard features on all plans. We also offer private network options, enhanced spam filtering, dedicated IP addresses, elective backups, and other tools to help you protect your data.
Features & Services
| Features and Services | Siteground | DreamHost |
| Free Domain | No | Yes |
| Control Panel | cPanel | No |
| Free Backups | Yes | Yes |
| Free SSL | Yes | Yes |
| Disk Space | 10 GB | 25 GB |
| Uptime | 99.98% | 100% |
| Support | Live Chat, Phone, Knowledge center, and Tickets | Email and Live Chat |
SiteGround vs. DreamHost: Which One Should you Choose?
It’s hard to make a definitive recommendation because SiteGround and DreamHost are renowned web hosting providers trusted by millions of users.
That said, it seems like whatever issues DreamHost had in the past have been addressed. They are now a trusted and reliable provider and one of the few companies that provide managed WordPress hosting.
Concluding thoughts!
We tried to do our best to put SiteGround vs. DreamHost and rationalize the two. So, if you ever feel you’ve had enough with your previous host and want to move on and change it for the better, we hope our SiteGround vs. DreamHost comparison will have made your choice easier for you.
