SiteGround vs DreamHost: Which Offers the Better WordPress Hosting? [2023]

SiteGround and DreamHost are without a doubt two of the best web hosting companies on the market today. Additionally, both hosting companies are recommended by WordPress.org. As a new user, it can be very difficult to choose between the two best hosting providers.

Each has features specific to WordPress, as well as a variety of other plans. Although there are some minor differences when it comes to factors like performance, price, and support, there are also some similarities.

When it comes to the absolute best hosting product, SiteGround is the winner. Additionally, they have a better reputation when it comes to support as well as making WordPress sites load faster. There are, however, several snags with SiteGround: they are significantly more expensive than DreamHost – they are up to three times more expensive, in fact.

Considering the price difference, choosing between them becomes more difficult since DreamHost is still pretty good and a lot less expensive.

Also read:
– Best WordPress Hosting
– Bluehost vs GoDaddy
– Kinsta vs WPEngine

So, which one to choose between SiteGround Vs. DreamHost for WordPress? We have compared these two hosting providers based on their performance, customer support, hosting plan price, WordPress features and much more. This will help you decide which is better for your WordPress site.

Explore Dreamhost | Explore Siteground

SiteGround vs DreamHost: Which Offers the Better WordPress Hosting?

Let’s start with a brief introduction of both the hosting providers.

Overview of the two web hosts

SiteGround

SiteGround has been around since 2004, but thanks to their fast servers, professional support and useful features, they’ve built up a great reputation – especially among WordPress users. With all of these features, SiteGround is a reliable choice for anyone looking for a high-quality shared hosting provider. Founded in 2004, SiteGround is a Bulgarian web host located in Sofia. It operates across 3 continents and has offices in several different cities. Also, there are more than 400 employees, as well as more than two million domains hosted by the company.

3 shared managed WordPress hosting plans are available from SiteGround. In addition to hosting any tool on these plans, WordPress users have access to useful managed WordPress hosting features.

Basically, there are 3 plans: Basic StartUp Plan, GrowBig Plan, and GoGeek Plan. With the higher plans, you get advanced caching, backups on demand, a number of sites, and Git integration.

With SiteGround’s plan, you will get:

• Access to a setup wizard and pre-installed WordPress
• Let’s Encrypt Free SSL certificate
• 10-40 GB of website storage depends on the plan selected
• StartUp plan includes one website, other plans include unlimited sites
• Unlimited email accounts available with your website’s domain
• Free Cloudflare (CDN) integration
• Free built-in static cache makes your site load faster. Higher plan features cache dynamic content as well
• In addition to their free DIY WordPress migrator tool, they offer professional website migration services starting at $30.00 per site
• Automated WordPress updates
• You can back up and restore your data for up to 30 days for free (on-demand backups are available in the higher plans).
• Getting free PCI compliance is helpful for online eCommerce businesses
• All managed WordPress hosting accounts come with WP-CLI pre-installed, which allows you to update WordPress and add plugins from the command line.
• Staging is only available on GrowBig and GoGeek plans.

DreamHost

The DreamHost company has been in the web hosting business since 1996, which makes them one of the oldest companies in this business. In addition to their managed WordPress hosting service, they also offer dedicated server hosting and a low-cost shared hosting plan.

DreamHost is a Los Angeles-based domain registrar and web hosting company. It was founded on April 10, 1996. Currently, with around 200 employees DreamHost hosts more than 1.5 million websites.

From 2014 to 2016, DreamHost won PCMag’s Business Choice Awards for Web Hosting Service. Being carbon-neutral certified, the company is also a member of the US Green Chamber of Commerce.

Both hosting companies offer modern technology at an affordable price. With the latest HTTP and PHP versions, they also use SSD storage to make your websites load faster.

Shared WordPress plans are also available at DreamHost. Additionally, they have a dedicated WooCommerce solution, along with an expensive DreamPress plan.

We will compare the basic DreamPress plan with the features offered in their DreamPress Plus and DreamPress Pro plans.

• Ready to use Pre-installed WordPress
• Let’s Encrypt Free SSL certificate
• Getting free PCI compliance is helpful for online eCommerce businesses
• Annual plans include a free domain
• Unlimited email accounts available with your website’s domain
• Automated WordPress updates
• Automated and on-demand backups provide security and disaster recovery for your website.
• Free DIY WordPress migration plugin
• 30-120 GB of website storage depends on the plan selected
• With SFTP, Shell Access also offers free WP-CLI, which allows you to update WordPress and add plugins from the command line.
• Built-in server-level caching can increase the speed of your WordPress site without installing any additional caching plugins
• With their Staging tool, you can set up a staging site with a single click and then you can safely test new plugins, themes, and code before pushing them live.
• WordPress website builder with 200+ starter templates
• Free unlimited (CDN) integration from Jetpack Professional with DreamPress Plus and Pro plans

SiteGround vs DreamHost: Feature Comparison

In addition to their affordable shared hosting plans, both hosts offer free SSL certificates, website backups, and automatic software updates. However, performance is also as important as features and cost. Because in the end, even the most powerful features and the lowest prices won’t matter if your site runs slowly, can’t handle more than a few visitors simultaneously, and experiences frequent downtime.

Performance

SiteGround

Powered by the Google Cloud Platform, SiteGround provides the performance and reliability that hosting providers need. SiteGround’s sites are fully cached, which increases the performance and reduces resource usage. Additionally, Siteground promises 99.9% Uptime.

SiteGround currently operates servers in six locations: London (UK), Iowa (USA), Frankfurt (DE), Sydney (AU), Eemshaven (Netherlands), and Singapore. Thus, you can choose a server location that’s closest to the audience you are targeting.

Dreamhost

The DreamHost hosting company also uses super-fast servers optimized for WordPress, although it only offers a single server location, the United States. However, DreamHost offers a 100% uptime guarantee.

Verdict:

Users’ experiences of a website are greatly impacted by the speed and uptime of the site. In their servers, both SiteGround and DreamHost use SSD (Solid State Drive). But DreamHost uses Apache, while SiteGround uses Nginx. In addition, SiteGround offers custom caching (even on the cheapest plans). In general, both hosting services are fast and perform well under heavy loads.

In terms of uptime, Siteground promises 99.9%, while DreamHost promises a 100% uptime guarantee. Therefore, with respect to uptime, you will get >99.99% in both hosting companies, which is again very good.

However, SiteGround here has an edge since it uses the Google Cloud Platform, which is known for its remarkably fast and reliable performance. Also, they have multiple server locations, unlike DreamHost, which only has one server located in the USA.

User Experience

SiteGround

There are three methods you can use to install WordPress on your Siteground-hosted website – Softaculous (automatic installation), a WordPress wizard, or manually. A site can either be created from scratch or migrated from another.

• Website Builder and Control Panel

Free Drag & Drop Weebly Sitebuilder’s tools let you choose from a range of professional designs. Also, you will be able to add key features like an online store or contact form as well. This way, your website will be fully ready within a few minutes.

In general, you can do most things in the custom control panel, including managing hosting subscriptions, accessing support, and adding users and websites. A number of settings are already pre-set on the dashboard, but you can always modify them.

You can use the SiteGround Migrator plugin to move an existing site. You will need to purchase their professional site migration service if you do not already have a WordPress site. This service costs USD30/site.

DreamHost

DreamHost does not lag behind when it comes to user experience. A powerful one-click installer and WordPress pre-installed are included in all plans.

• Website Builder and Control Panel

Each DreamPress plan comes with a quickstart wizard, 200+ WordPress Site Builder design themes with a DIY drag-and-drop editor to give your website a stunning look. DreamPress also offers other useful features to help you manage your website easily. On top of that, you will also receive on-page SEO tips that can help you create search engine optimized content.

With the help of the website creation wizard, you can choose a theme and add features to your website during installation. Using design blocks and a drag-and-drop editor, website building can be accomplished faster.

You’ll also find guides to help you add pages, enter important information, and much more.

You can access your account, domain, and hosting information from the custom control panel.

DreamHost uses a custom-built control panel to handle website management. As it runs on a separate server, the panel does not consume any resources from your web server.

DreamHost recently unveiled a revamped control panel that makes managing a domain or dozens and hosting extremely easy.

It is very easy to navigate and use the new control panel, which is aesthetically pleasing. From website management and site migration tools to email accounts and PHP settings, everything is integrated neatly within one dashboard.

DreamHost also offers its Automated Migrator plugin for free for the migration of existing sites. Using this free automated migration plugin, you can easily migrate your WordPress sites from your old web host to any DreamHost account. If you want to transfer non-WordPress sites to DreamHost or to DreamHost accounts from another host, the company also offers a paid migration service -USD99 per site.

Verdict:

Making a call between these two hosts is difficult from the perspective of User Experience. However, DreamHost makes it easier for beginners by including a free domain with every hosting plan. Additionally, they provide the complete tools and sets required to build and maintain a site from start to finish and that too in a single platform. However, this freebie is only available to annual subscribers.

DreamHost has a customizable control panel dashboard. Through the dashboard, you can access and manage all the features of your domain and hosting account. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have the traditional cPanel interface.

The lack of a traditional cPanel may not be a major concern for beginners. But if you are used to cPanel, you may find this drawback frustrating. So, It will take some time for you to get used to DreamHost.

WordPress Features

Both Siteground and DreamHost offer WordPress hosting solutions at the top of the heap, but their solutions differ quite a bit. As plans are optimized for different levels of WordPress uses, it’s important to learn what each company offers.

• Automated WordPress Installation
  

Both hosts offer the option of having WordPress installed automatically during sign up. The software installer tools make it very simple for you to install WordPress yourself at any time.

You can use these WordPress startup wizards if you are new to the platform and need help setting up your site.

• Automated WordPress Updates

Both hosts update WordPress and any plugins automatically, so you never have to worry about it. DreamHost automatically updates the themes through their free Total Upkeep WordPress plugin.

However, WordPress 5.5 provides automatic updates for the core software, plugins, and themes. There are a few extra auto-update features that you may find useful with SiteGround and DreamHost.

A backup of your site will be taken automatically by SiteGround before an update is installed. Although both hosts allow you to delay installing updates, you can’t prevent SiteGround from doing so.

There are no differences between the two hosts when it comes to keeping your website up to date, but DreamHost gives you more control over this by using its Total Upkeep plugin. You can use the Total Upkeep plugin at no cost, which is included with most of the shared hosting plans in DreamHost. Using this plugin will allow you to manage your automatic updates, and create a backup of your website before you perform any updates.

Total Upkeep will automatically restore backup files if it detects an error during this update process.

• WordPress Optimization and Caching Tools

With SiteGround’s SuperCacher WordPress caching plugin, you can handle more hits and your website will load faster. Activating this plugin is easy from SiteGround’s cPanel, and it is offered free of charge to all GrowBig and GoGeek customers.

You can also manage your website and optimize its content using the SiteGround caching and optimization plugin, which we discussed earlier.

DreamHost also offers the free third-party WP Super Cache plugin with its WordPress installations, but you can install another plugin from this category as well. In addition to their websites, both hosts provide a lot of documentation about how to use WordPress.

A staging tool allows you to develop and test your website quickly by creating a copy of it at any time. Additionally, staging environments allow you to maintain multiple development copies of your website, which can be modified without causing a website to go offline.

Users of WordPress and Joomla can access SiteGround’s staging features directly through cPanel, and it is also very easy to use. When you install WordPress or Joomla using the auto-installer tool on SiteGround, they will be listed in their staging tool. Therefore, you can use it to restore whenever you like.

DreamHost does not include a staging tool with their WordPress Basic plans and recommends you create the site’s backup manually. However, it is available for free with all DreamPress managed WordPress Hosting plans and includes a range of additional features.

In order to use staging on DreamPress, users must first set up a staging website, then publish changes from the staging site to the live site.

The SiteGround shared plans include a powerful staging tool and optimization features for users of WordPress, while DreamHost shared plans have some premium tools for free via BoldGrid. Additionally, DreamHost also offers Staging tools that are now available with all their DreamPress plans. However, their DreamPress plans are a little more expensive than their WordPress Basic plans. So, based on your needs, you will be able to determine which features are most useful.

Hosting Security

SiteGround

Each SiteGround hosting plan comes with a free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate to protect your website from online threats. A wide range of advanced security solutions has also been implemented to counter online threats. Some of these includes:

• Checking the health of your servers in real-time
• Protects your website from hacking and breaches with their smart Web Application Firewall (WAF)
• Smart AI-based system to block malicious traffic
• A team of system administrators monitors security and downtime issues 24×7

DreamHost

DreamHost also offers a free SSL certificate as well as a Multifactor Authentication (MFA) option so that your hosting account is even more secure. You can also get advanced security features depending on the account/plan you choose, including:

• WP sites are automatically backed up every day with shared – free privacy protection
• The VPS includes Secure Shell (SSH) Access, automatic updates, and password protection (.htaccess)
• 24/7 Dedicated DDoS protection, full root access and shell access (SSH)
• WordPress – automatic updates, automatic backups and free privacy protection

Refund and Money Back Guarantee

You need to ensure that your web hosting plan delivers value before you put your hard-earned money into it. In order to get first-hand experience with web hosting, you need to use the service. Thus, a favorable money-back guarantee is very essential for the web hosting company.

SiteGround

A money-back guarantee is included with eligible hosting plans if you’re not satisfied with SiteGround’s services.

With SiteGround Shared Hosting, you can only get a refund if you cancel or terminate your individual account within 30 days after activation. The refund period for Cloud hosting is 14 days.

DreamHost

The company offers 30-day money-back guarantees for DreamPress managed WordPress hosting and VPS plans. DreamHost offers 97 days money-back guarantees on shared hosting plans only when you purchase with a debit or credit card.

Customer Support and Documentation

Even if the hosting is excellent, users may have questions or problems related to the functionality of the site. To solve these problems and answer the questions, the hosting provider must have quick support and comprehensive documentation. Thus, it is important to pay attention to this parameter when choosing a hosting provider.

Siteground

SiteGround offers 24/7 online chat, telephone support, and email support. Also, there is a comprehensive knowledge base with guides and tutorials covering most of the frequently asked questions about hosting and WordPress.

You can also get help for all your web hosting-related problems via SiteGround’s smart AI chatbot and knowledge base. Contacting SiteGround support is also possible via the following channels:

• Support via phone
• Live chat
• Support tickets
• SiteGround also provides paid support for issues outside the scope of free technical support.

DreamHost

DreamHost also offers live chat support, but it is only available from 3 AM until 9:30 PM PT.

Unfortunately, DreamHost does not provide phone support, but it does provide a callback request option. However, the callback feature is included only in a few of DreamHost’s superior hosting plans for free. But if it is not included with your plan, you will need to pay extra. This feature costs USD9.95 for one callback and USD14.95 for three callbacks per month.

DreamHost offers customer support via:

• Online chat
• Email
• Callback Requests
• knowledge base
• The support forum

Verdict:

It is extremely important that the web hosting support is quick and reliable. With more methods for contacting customer service and their helpful staff, SiteGround comes out on top.

Pros and Cons

SiteGround

Pros

• Google cloud platform
• Multiple Data Centers
• Scalable Hosting
• Traditional cPanel interface
• 24/7 live chat support with phone support

Cons

• A little expensive
• No free domain name

DreamHost

Pros

• Feature-rich and affordable plans
• 100% Uptime Guarantee
• Free domain name
• 200+ WordPress templates
• Easy website setup

Cons

• Data centers in the USA only
• No phone support

SiteGround vs DreamHost: Price Comparison

SiteGround

There are three different shared hosting plans provided by SiteGround:

• StartUp Plan: It costs $3.99/month for a single website with up to 10 GB storage, and approx. 10,000 monthly visits.
• GrowBig Plan: It costs $6.99/month for an unlimited number of websites with up to 20 GB storage, and approx. 25,000 monthly visits.
• GoGeek Plan: It costs $10.69/ month for an unlimited number of websites with up to 40 GB of storage, and approx. 100,000 monthly visits.

All SiteGround plans include unlimited traffic, just like the DreamHost plans. The number of monthly visitors is meant to help you understand the range of audiences that each plan can handle. The higher-priced plans of SiteGround offer enhanced performance features to help your website become faster.

SiteGround does not provide a free domain with any of its web hosting plans. With each of its web hosting packages, you’ll have to pay USD15.95 to USD17.95 extra per year for a new domain.

DreamHost

DreamHost has kept it single by providing just two plans to choose from when it comes to shared hosting:

• WordPress Starter Plan: It costs $2.59/month for a single website with up to 50 GB storage.
• WordPress Unlimited Plan: It costs $3.95/month for an unlimited number of websites with unlimited storage.

As seen above, the major difference between DreamHost’s two plans are how many websites you can host and how much storage space you get. Also, there are some other differences like the number of MySQL databases and subdomains you can create. There is unlimited bandwidth in both the plans so your website can handle as many visitors as you can bring provided you adhere to their usage guidelines.

Performance does not differ between the DreamHost plans, unlike SiteGround’s shared plans. Therefore, your website’s loading speed should be the same no matter what plan you select.

With its DreamPress managed WordPress hosting plans they offer free domain name registration for the first 12 months. Free domain registration credits are only available for annual hosting plans or for 3-year. However, it must be used within the initial 3 months, otherwise, it won’t be available.

Verdict:

It is best to choose DreamHost if you are looking for a budget-friendly hosting provider. As compared to SiteGround, it offers a variety of pricing plans. Furthermore, there is no additional renewal fee with DreamHost.

DreamHost vs SiteGround: Final Verdict

Hope above you got a fair idea about both the hosts. When it comes to WordPress hosting, both SiteGround and DreamHost offer the best features in terms of performance, speed, reliability, usability, and advanced WordPress options. To conclude the battle of DreamHost vs SiteGround, let’s get straight to the main points.

• If you are looking for a reliable yet affordable WordPress hosting that offers solid performance, free domain, easy site set up and that too without being heavy on your pocket, you should go with DreamHost.
• But if you want the best support and the best overall setup process along with excellent performance, then you should go with SiteGround. Although it’s a little more expensive than DreamHost, it could be worth spending the extra money.

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