GoDaddy vs. Bluehost vs. HostGator vs. DreamHost: Which One to Choose for Web Hosting?

 What is Web Hosting?

A web hosting service maintains the servers that house the websites and provides a hosting platform for each of them. When you buy an annual or monthly hosting plan, you're essentially renting space on a server that stores all the data needed for people to view your website.

When internet users want to view your website, all they need to do is type your website address or domain into their browser. That’s because web hosts ensure your site is “displayed” on the internet for all to see with minimal interruption. Good web hosting ensures your site is discoverable, reliable, and stable. 

Overview of GoDaddy, Bluehost, HostGator, and DreamHost

GoDaddy

GoDaddy is one of the world’s largest web services companies. Since its founding in 1997, GoDaddy has become the world’s largest domain registrar. Although famous for domain registration, GoDaddy also offers feature-packed personal and business web hosting, both managed and unmanaged. These include shared, VPS, dedicated, WordPress, and even standalone email hosting across both Windows and Linux. Their plans range from $5.99 to $89.99/month.

The biggest complaints from GoDaddy users used to be about after-sales support, but that has improved greatly in the last few years to 24/7 coverage and a comprehensive online support center. However, security features included as standard with other providers are charged for, like SSL certificates, while backups have to be manually undertaken, alongside the installation of CDNs.

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Bluehost

Bluehost was launched in 1996 by Danny Ashworth and Matt Heaton. It is one of the best-recommended service providers for Webhosting. The company’s services are particularly favored among WordPress bloggers. In fact, Bluehost has been an official WordPress recommendation and partner since 2005. Bluehost offers shared, dedicated, managed, and unmanaged WordPress hosting, with shared hosting offering unmetered bandwidth at reasonable prices. Its cheapest plan comes in at $2.75 a month for 36 months and includes 50GB of storage, five email accounts, and a free domain to get you started.

Bluehost provides 24/7 support through phone and live chat, and while not the most customizable, feature-packed plans are well configured and well supported. Its strongest selling points are speed and uptime, key for any growing site, and an advanced yet simple dashboard for all levels of competence.

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HostGator

HostGator is one of the most well-known brands in the hosting world. It is one of the two flagship brands of Newfold Digital (formally known as Endurance International), the world’s largest web services corporation. HostGator offers a large array of services: Shared hosting,    WordPress hosting, VPS hosting, Dedicated hosting, Website builder, and Reseller hosting. Shared hosting offers three main plans for web hosting, including Hatchling, Baby, and Business. The higher-tier plans include dedicated IP addresses and SEO tools to grow your online presence.

In addition to hosting service, it has a product line of complementary website products such as domain names, website builder web design, and email services. HostGator is one of the cheapest options out there, with plans starting at $2.78/month on 36-month plans and savings from 30-60%. It offers an extensive list of how-to guides for technical support. If you don’t find the answers you need, you can turn to phone, live chat, and email support. In addition, if you’re not satisfied with your purchase, HostGator also has a 45-day money-back guarantee.

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DreamHost

DreamHost is a veteran in the market, and its customer base enjoys great performance, zero downtime, and good speeds across a range of services, including shared, dedicated, cloud, VPS, and managed and unmanaged WordPress hosting. Its month-to-month plans start at $1.99/month. This plan includes 1 website with unlimited traffic, along with a free SSL Certificate—a great deal. It is the company's WordPress hosting that stands out, with its plan variety and exceptional features. DreamHost is another one of WordPress’s three recommended hosts, and includes some managed WordPress hosting in its basic shared plans. It also offers a managed plan with more bells and whistles called DreamPress.

All sites come pre-installed with a free SSL certificate and WordPress firewall for added security. In addition, DreamHost provides a 97-day money-back guarantee, which is much longer than the standard 30-day money-back guarantee that many competitors provide.  But customer service is a little less traditional: email support is available 24/7, but live chat is only on during business hours. If you want technical support over the phone, you have to pay an additional $9.95.

GoDaddy vs. Bluehost vs. HostGator vs. DreamHost: Full Comparison

Price

GoDaddy, Bluehost, HostGator, and  DreamHost all offer a wide menu of web hosting products such as  Shared hosting, VPS hosting, WordPress hosting, and more. But for pricing – I’ll focus on the most common product that small businesses usually need – Shared hosting.

GoDaddy Shared Hosting Plans

Bluehost Shared Hosting Plans

HostGator Shared Hosting Plans

DreamHost Shared Hosting Plans

Speed and Performance

Almost every web hosting provider promises you lightning-fast web hosting, but few manage to deliver it.  In fact, both Hostgator and Bluehost offer similar speed ranges, probably because they belong to the same parent company, EIG. Therefore, they are likely to use the same data center, allowing them to maintain the same speed. After all, the physical location of your target audience and data center has some impact on your website's load time.

On the other hand, GoDaddy has a huge network of strategically located data centers, so it provides the best speeds to optimize the overall performance of your website. Dreamhost isn't the fastest web hosting provider, but considering its most basic plans start at $2.59 per month, you can't complain at all.

Customer support And Service

GoDaddy’s customer support is slow and not easy to get your head around with, but you can be sure that your query will be resolved within a period of time. On the other hand, Dreamhost offers mediocre customer support, which is ok since their business model seems to be focused only on web hosting. Bluehost does a great job with customer support and service, especially for customers on shared hosting plans. Hostgator's customer support is not much different from Bluehost.

Verdict: GoDaddy vs. Bluehost vs. HostGator vs. DreamHost: Which One to Choose for Web Hosting?

From an all-around perspective, Bluehost is your best bet, but if pricing is the only thing that matters to you, then consider renting services from HostGator or GoDaddy. However, if you want to keep it simple, and you want a no-frills web hosting with normal services, then Dreamhost is your best bet.

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