DreamHost vs HostGator
DreamHost and HostGator compared on measured uptime, response time, pricing and features from our own tests. DreamHost scores higher overall.
By Jennifer T. · Updated
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Verdict
DreamHostWins overall
Independent since 1997: three shared plans with renewals printed on the card, daily backups and a 100% uptime credit
Newfold's Texas-born cPanel host: four shared tiers on a 36-month term with a free domain, Cloudflare CDN and staging
DreamHost wins 2 of the six sub-scores and comes out ahead overall (7.6 vs 7.4).
How do the scores compare?
DreamHost leads on 2 sub-scores, HostGator on 1. Higher is better.
Which one is faster and more reliable?
Which one costs less?
On renewal, DreamHost is cheaper ($10.99/mo vs $10.99/mo). Intro prices need the listed term.
What does each include?
| DreamHost | HostGator | |
|---|---|---|
| Free domain | First year, on annual and multi-year terms only | First year on every plan; $22.99 is deducted from a refund if you cancel within the year |
| Free SSL | Unlimited certificates on every plan | Let's Encrypt, auto-renewed |
| Backups | Daily automated backups on every plan, restored from the panel | Weekly courtesy backups, restorable with one click; the terms call them a courtesy, so keep your own |
| Free migration | The product page links a migration path for existing sites; terms not read | A free site migration tool is listed on the plan cards; the comparison table on the same page says paid migration is available |
| Free CDN | No | Cloudflare with Argo routing on every plan |
| Caching | No | Static content caching and object caching on every plan; the feature list names an NGINX caching layer |
| Staging | No | WordPress staging site on every plan |
| 20, 40 or 60 mailboxes free for the first three months, then billed separately | Unlimited POP3 and IMAP mailboxes with SpamAssassin; Pro Email is a paid product after a free trial | |
| Resource limits | No | No |
| Data center choice | Oregon, Virginia, Amsterdam and Singapore per the product page and help center; the panel shows where each service lives | No |
| Uptime guarantee | 100% in the terms, with a credit of one day of hosting per hour of qualifying downtime, up to 10% of the next renewal, counted from the support ticket | The plan page says 99 percent; the terms we read contain no uptime clause or credit schedule |
| Performance scans | Automated and on-demand performance scans on every plan | Not stated |
| Phone support | No | Baby, Business and Pro; Hatchling is chat only |
| Windows hosting | No | No |
| SSH and languages | Not stated | SSH, WP-CLI, cron, PHP 8.2, Ruby on Rails, Perl, Python, unlimited MySQL and SFTP users |
| Security | Not stated | Malware scanning, AI-powered detection and removal from Baby up, web application firewall, DDoS protection, DDoS scrub center |