| Dreamhost | Bluehost |
Summary:
Dreamhost has been a factor for a long time. The company was established in 1997. Dreamhost has 1500+ servers, state-of-the-art data centers, and a full time staff of more than 100 employees. They host more than 1 million domains. Dreamhost is right in the sweet spot for being a powerful and stable web host but not too large to forget about customer service. | Summary:
Bluehost has been a force in the web hosting world since 1996 and they gain nearly 20,000 new customers a month. That is quite a solid reputation. Bluehost is the bigger brother of Hostmonster. They are sister companies owned and controlled by CEO Matt Heaton. |
Email:
Dreamhost provides unlimited custom email addresses on all hosting packages. | Email:
Email accounts are unlimited on all Bluehost web hosting packages. |
Site Builder:
Dreamhost does not have a site builder but they have a feature called one-click installer which is similar to fantastico or installatron found at other web hosting sites which installs wordpress, drupal, moodle, zen cart etc quickly and painlessly. | Site Builder:
Bluehost supports the weebly site builder to speed up creating fantastic websites. Weebly can be found in the cpanel when logged into blue host. |
Server Info:
All dream host servers are running debian linux. Their control panel is custom and written by dreamhost. They support programming languages such as Ruby on Rails, PERL, and PHP5. | Server Info:
All bluehost accounts run on the linux operating system. Their control panel is cpanel. They support programming languages such as PHP5, PERL, Ruby on Rails and Python. |
Bandwidth:
Dreamhost provides unlimited bandwidth on all web hosting packages. | Bandwidth:
Bandwidth (which bluehost calls "gigs of site transfer") is unlimited. |
Disk Space:
Dreamhost provides unlimited disk space on all web hosting packages (with a 50GB personal backup limit). | Disk Space:
Diskspace is unlimited on all bluehost web hosting packages. |
Stats:
Dreamhost has their own custom analog stats package but you can install AWstats on your own shared server if you want to. | Stats:
AWstats and webalizer are both available to you on Bluehost but you have to activate them in the logs section of cpanel before you can see the statistics. |
Database Info:
MySQL is supported by dream host and all web hosting packages come with unlimited MySQL databases. | Database Info:
Bluehost supports both MySQL and PostgreSQL databases and they do not limit how many databases you can create. |
FTP Info:
Dreamhost does support SFTP. You have to set it up though. Under users -> manage users in the dream host control panel you must choose SFTP account. You will not be able to FTP in from then on. The port will be 22. Use SFTP for good after doing this! | FTP Info:
Bluehost supports SFTP but you need to activate it in your CPanel on your own. In CPanel click on the following. Go to SSH / Shell Access -> Manage SSH Access -> SSH Access Enabled. Then use port 22 to connect. |
Customer Support:
Dreamhost uses a forum and technical support via email. They do have live chat but it requires an upgrade fee. | Customer Support:
Technical support for blue host is available by phone, by support ticket, by live chat and by email all found on the Help Center page on the left menu. |
Extras:
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Deals:
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Opinion:
The biggest advantage of Dreamhost has to be the customer service. Though the actual hosting is not the cheapest, their customer service is not outsourced and that can be very important when you are trying to debug an issue keeping your website from running optimally. | Opinion:
Bluehost is a stable and reliable webhost. They support popular open source technology like CPanel and AWstats. There is some do-it-yourself work to set up your Bluehost account to its maximum potential (for example, if you want SFTP or AWstats you need to set that up on your own). This is a good web host for someone who has experience working with web hosting before (especially on CPanel). The price is very attractive. |
