Choosing the right web host is one of the most important decisions when creating a website. The host you select can have a major influence on your site’s performance, security, ease of use and ultimately, your success online.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll compare two of the top contending web hosts – Dreamhost and Siteground. We’ll evaluate their features, strengths and weaknesses across key criteria to determine which host better meets the needs of different website owners.
An Overview of Dreamhost and Siteground
Dreamhost
Founded in 1996, Dreamhost is one of the web’s oldest hosting providers. They host over 1.5 million websites, offer intuitive website builders and cater predominantly to smaller websites and blogs.
Key Features
- Intuitive control panel and 1-click installs
- Unmetered bandwidth and storage
- Free SSL certificate
- 97-day money back guarantee
- Prices starting from $2.59 per month
Ideal For
Dreamhost suits smaller websites and blogs not expecting huge amounts of traffic. Their affordability and ease of use appeal to beginners.
Siteground
Established in 2004, Siteground has quickly become one of the largest and fastest-growing hosts with over 2 million websites hosted. They focus on performance, security and responsive support.
Key Features
- NGINX web server for speed
- Free CDN, backups and site transfer
- 30-day money back guarantee
- Prices from $6.99 per month
- Multiple data center locations
Ideal For
Siteground is ideal for larger, high traffic websites that require speed and reliability. Their robust features suit developers and ecommerce stores.
Dreamhost Vs Siteground: Feature Comparison
Now that we’ve introduced both web hosts, let’s compare their features across key evaluation criteria:
Performance and Speed
Site speed is vital for delivering good user experience and SEO. Slow sites suffer higher bounce rates and worse conversions.
Siteground uses a modern NGINX web server and caching from SuperCacher to enable much faster performance versus Dreamhost. Below are average loading times from Bitcatcha’s tests across multiple regions:
| Location | Siteground | Dreamhost |
|---|---|---|
| San Jose, CA | 431 ms | 829 ms |
| London, UK | 492 ms | > 1 sec |
| Sydney, AU | 705 ms | > 1 sec |
With 2-3 times faster speeds globally, Siteground is clearly faster and more consistent than Dreamhost.
Siteground’s greater investment in high-end infrastructure and optimizing for speed makes them superior for sites where performance is paramount – like ecommerce stores.
However, Dreamhost still offers adequate speeds for less demanding personal blogs and small business sites not reliant on conversions. Their unlimited bandwidth also suits sites anticipating traffic growth.
Winner: Siteground
Ease of Use
To manage a site effectively, the admin dashboard and controls should be simple and effortless to operate.
As a host catering to non-technical users, Dreamhost prioritizes usability. Their control panel uses clean, intuitive menus while one-click installs make launching apps like WordPress seamless.
Siteground has also refreshed their user interface for better ease of use. However, toggling between different menus and configuration areas can involve slightly more clicks. Their comprehensive feature set may also overwhelm beginners initially.
Therefore, first-time website owners with limited technical skill will find Dreamhost simpler for getting started. Siteground closes the gap with detailed tutorials and responsive support channels.
Winner: Dreamhost
Security
Your web host plays an integral role in safeguarding your site against modern cyberthreats through firewalls, backups, patches and scanning tools.
Both Siteground and Dreamhost offer secure sockets layer (SSL) encryption for free to enable HTTPS access across sites. However, Siteground adds more advanced protections:
- Web application firewall detects and blocks over 25,000 malicious bot requests daily
- AI anti-bot identifies and blocks scrapers stealing site content
- Real-time DDoS shield
- Automated malware detection
Siteground also runs frequent scans to identify the latest vulnerabilities, issuing security advisories and patches. Their proactive approach results in far fewer compromised customer sites.
Hence for guarding against threats in a dynamic landscape, Siteground has superior systems in place. Their security plugin and expert team offer valuable peace of mind for online businesses.
Winner: Siteground
Support and Reliability
When website issues arise, you need adequate support channels for rapid fixes. Both hosts provide 24/7 customer service through multiple mediums.
Dreamhost offers assistance via live chat, their knowledge base documentation and ticketed email support. However phone support is only offered in limited hours for an additional fee. Their chat responses can also vary in speed and quality.
In contrast, Siteground provides real-time answers over live chat, ticketing systems and on free unlimited phone support. Their chat support in particular has outstanding reviews for fast, thoughtful responses even during peak hours.
Furthermore, Siteground delivers excellent uptime of 99.99% versus Dreamhost’s 99.94% uptime over the past year. Siteground’s multi-data center redundancy helps minimize downtime risks if one location faces technical failure.
Therefore Siteground is decisively the winner if minimizing website disruptions and accessing reliable support is important for your business. Their uptime SLA also guarantees much higher compensation for any extended outages.
Winner: Siteground
Pricing and Value
Budget constraints play a key role in choosing your ideal web host. Siteground’s plans are pricier upfront but deliver superior quality for the investment.
| Starter Shared Hosting | Unlimited Hosting | |
|---|---|---|
| Siteground | $6.99/month | $14.99/month |
| Dreamhost | $4.95/month | $16.95/month |
At Siteground’s cheapest tier, you gain top performance from advanced infrastructure and robust security protections better suited to growing sites. Their renewal pricing also remains consistent rather than hiking drastically after discounts expire.
Dreamhost offers compelling value especially for their first term – their effective yearly rate including free domains works out to just $35.88 initially. However, their plan limits like 50GB storage may get restricting over time for larger sites. Renewal rates also increase by 67% from second year onwards.
Ultimately Siteground justifies slightly steeper pricing through superior technology, speeds and service quality that can amplify your income and savings long-term. But Dreamhost remains a cost-effective pick if you prefer cheaper lock-in for simpler needs.
Winner: Tie
Migrations and Money-Back Guarantee
A quality web host should make it easy to transfer your site over from another provider with minimal disruption.
Dreamhost provides a free migration plugin to import WordPress sites along with up to 1-hour manual assistance. For more complex migrations, their fees start from $99.
SiteGround exceeds with free expert migrations for WordPress, Joomla and more. Their technical team seamlessly handles domain changes, site copying and configuring hosting settings. This hassle-free transition risks no downtime or broken links.
If issues do appear post-migration – both companies back their services with a money-back guarantee. Dreamhost grants an industry-leading 97 days to request a pro-rated refund while Siteground offers 30 days.
Siteground once again impresses by wholly owning and supporting migrations plus offering sufficient time to evaluate services afterwards.
Winner: Siteground
Dreamhost vs Siteground: Which Should You Choose?
Based on our comprehensive comparison, Siteground is the superior host for most website owners – justifying higher prices through better performance, security protections and market-leading support.
Their robust feature set optimized for WordPress suits mid-sized businesses, online stores and sites anticipating substantial growth. Novices can also exploit Siteground’s speed advantages.
Dreamhost remains a compelling budget pick for smaller personal and hobby sites with simpler needs and lower visitor traffic. Their affordable plans appeal if you require basic reliable hosting without advanced configuration.
Ultimately as your website scales upwards in size, complexity and revenue dependence, Siteground becomes increasingly recommended to harness superior technologies for protecting uptime, speed and security.
We suggest Website Planet’s award-winning Siteground hosting plans here with our 30-day happiness guarantee for risk-free trials. Their fully managed WordPress solution also perfectly optimizes hosting settings for peak WP site performance.
Next Step: Starting Your New Site
We hope this complete Dreamhost vs Siteground comparison has helped guide your hosting purchase decision. Whichever provider you select, we wish you the best with launching and growing your online presence!
Our experts also offer amazing deals on powerful website builder packages for beginners making their first website. Feel free to explore your options.
