DreamHost vs. SiteGround (2023)

Written by: Alexandra Anderson

Edited by: Lillian Castro

Updated: May 14, 2023

Alexandra Anderson Hosting Expert

“We tested SiteGround & DreamHost — The winner is SiteGround!”

DreamHost, one of the OG web service providers, has earned a solid reputation in the 20-plus years since its inception. This provider is best known for its maximum scalability, that’s attractive to business owners and fast-growing sites. Another long-time favorite in the industry, SiteGround, brings an impressive range of hosting packages to the table. Despite such a range of services, the provider maintains high uptime, ample storage, and bonus features across its plans. We appreciate these two independently owned hosting companies for their niches, including Joomla and cloud-powered managed WordPress services. These hosts certainly pack a punch — let’s take a closer look.

Overall Rating

5.0/5.0 ★★★★★

StartUp Plan: $1.99/month »
GrowBig Plan: $3.99/month »
GoGeek Plan: $5.99/month »

Visit SiteGround »

Overall Rating

4.8/5.0 ★★★★★

Shared Starter Plan: $2.59/month »
WordPress Starter Plan: $2.59/month »
WordPress Unlimited: $3.95/month »

Visit DreamHost »

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Overall Hosting Comparison

Best Overall Rating

★★★★★ 5.0/5.0

With an impressive breadth of overall hosting services offered, SiteGround is a leading innovator in the hosting space — from custom software solutions to premier customer support.

The company offers the full range of web hosting features, including a free Cloudflare CDN, cPanel with SSH access, and unlimited MySQL databases and bandwidth — not to mention prize-worthy customer support.

CEO Tenko Nikolov and CTO Ivo Tzenov, SiteGround Co-Founders, gave us the inside scoop on SiteGround's features and took us through the solutions they've engineered to enhance the user experience.

Customer service has long been the company's claim to fame, behind custom solutions built to make the hosting experience as stress-free as possible. SiteGround engineered an in-house chat software that allows users to select and rate thoroughly vetted customer service agents with whom they've worked previously.

The company wrote its own ticketing system, as well, which comprises an algorithm designed to select appropriate technical support representatives for specific tasks.

The end result is instant replies to phone calls and chats, and 10-minute responses to email tickets, all of which contributes to a 99.7% customer satisfaction rate.

For shared hosting, SiteGround conceived a one-of-a-kind server isolation system that prevents vulnerable servers from taking down entire networks.

In place of VPS hosting, the company built its own cloud container platform, featuring thousands of containers and top-notch scalability and security.

All SiteGround hosting service users benefit from a unique downtime prevention mechanism, which has helped SiteGround develop a reputation for stellar uptime rates: 99.996% annually and 99.999% monthly.

FREE site transfer or new site setup
FREE daily backups, CDN, email, and SSL
24/7 expert support with no wait on phone or chat
Recommended by WordPress as a top host
Ideal for business email hosting
Get started on SiteGround now.

Money Back Guarantee

30 days

Disk Space

10 GB SSD - 40 GB SSD

Domain Name

New or Transfer

Best Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0

A top-notch host for those who know what they're looking for, DreamHost offers nuanced and performant hosting perfect for scaling websites and applications through the ranks of shared, VPS, cloud, and dedicated hosting. We love the company's features but realize that beginners or hobbyist developers might not want to fork over the extra cash to capitalize on the performance, optimization, and managed services that DreamHost offers. If, however, your site is growing and gathering more and more traffic, few hosts will take care of you as well as DreamHost. Managed services include infrastructure management, automatic backups and updates, malware scans, and DDoS protection. We appreciate how the independently owned company was built on a passion for open-source technologies. DreamHost developers routinely contribute code back to communities, such as WordPress and OpenStack, and the company has used their brainpower and experience to create the open-source storage system Ceph and OpenStack cloud network virtualization tool Akanda. As such, DreamHost support agents know what they're talking about. Available all day, every day, the in-house support team provides help worthy of DreamHost's speedy SSD-based architecture, hand-crafted control panel, WordPress-tailored solutions, and reliable managed services.

Unlimited traffic, storage, websites, and email
US-based customer support available 24/7
200% faster performance with SSDs
Industry-leading 97-day money-back guarantee
Enjoy preinstalled WordPress and FREE transfer
Get started on DreamHost now.

Money Back Guarantee

97 days

Disk Space

Unlimited

Domain Name

FREE (1 year)

Cheap Hosting Comparison

Cheap Rating

★★★★★ 4.6/5.0

#7 out of 10 in Cheap Hosting reviews

Providing hosting with the perfect balance of technological innovation and superior customer support, SiteGround offers a range of affordable hosting services to meet your needs.

In addition to the expected cheap web hosting perks — a free website builder and unlimited bandwidth — the company specializes in custom-built tools to deliver strong and positive user experiences.

Although SiteGround prices itself on the high-end of the shared hosting spectrum, the upgraded SSD-powered infrastructure and additional perks make its service well worth the investment. In addition to included SSL certificate, daily backups, and a content delivery network, SiteGround delivers a top-notch blend of speed and security.

SiteGround developed its own ticketing system and custom chat software, allowing you to chat with trusted and capable representatives with whom you've had success in the past.

The software takes in about 1,500 chats on any given day. The website itself receives about 1 million visitors per month, with users coming for both tutorials and knowledgebase articles written and updated by the tech support team.

Once a month, SiteGround tests competitors' and its own support levels with dummy accounts, measuring response times, attitude, and effectiveness. If a competitor is doing something well, SiteGround's team takes note and tries to improve its own services.

FREE website transfer service to get started
99.9% uptime guarantee and unlimited traffic
User-friendly WordPress installation
24/7 support featuring custom systems
4 caching options plus staging and Git
Get started on SiteGround now.

Money Back Guarantee

30 days

Disk Space

10 GB SSD - 40 GB SSD

Domain Name

New or Transfer

Cheap Rating

★★★★★ 4.3/5.0

While DreamHost's price might be a little steep compared to other high-value hosting providers, the company gives customers ample time and reasons to get hooked and stick around. The company, which started in the founders' dorm room in 1997, offers an industry-leading 97-day money-back guarantee. Additionally, DreamHost guarantees 100% uptime and will reimburse customers the cost of a whole day of hosting for each hour of downtime outside of scheduled maintenance. We love that DreamHost seems to be genuinely built with their customers' experience and success in mind. Beyond unlimited storage and bandwidth, the company's luxurious shared hosting package boasts high-performance SSDs that make your websites perform at least 20 times faster. Customers can also enjoy unlimited domain hosting, free domain privacy on sites registered through DreamHost, and unlimited email accounts. We found that DreamHost's hand-crafted control panel gives easy access to all the tools beginners need to start and grow their sites: 1-click installers of top content management systems and eCommerce tools, SSL/TLS certificates from Let's Encrypt, and automated malware scans. The company's award-winning support and service teams are staffed by self-described tech veterans, geeks, and nerds who are trained to Tier II to provide the most knowledgeable and experienced assistance. If the extensive knowledgebase and user forums don't solve your problems, you can reach the in-house support team around the clock through phone callbacks, email tickets, Twitter, and live chat.

Automated malware scans
Unlimited domain hosting
Unlimited email accounts with POP/IMAP/SMTP
FREE eCommerce store tools and PCI compliance
Streamlined proprietary control panel
Get started on DreamHost now.

Money Back Guarantee

97 days

Disk Space

Unlimited

Domain Name

FREE (1 year)

Dedicated Hosting Comparison

Dedicated Rating

★★★★★ N/A

SiteGround does not currently offer this type of hosting. We would not recommend choosing this host for this hosting category.

Dedicated Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0

When your high-traffic site outgrows VPS, turn to DreamHost for premium dedicated hosting at a reasonable rate. The 20-year-old hosting provider offers servers with three times more cores and four times more RAM compared to well-known competitors. What's more, DreamHost includes up to 2TB of SSD storage, unlimited bandwidth, and a 100% uptime guarantee. All dedicated servers come with full root and shell access, along with DDoS protection, RAID-1 storage, and unlimited MySQL databases. With DreamHost's custom control panel, customers can quickly add, remove, or reboot servers with just a few clicks. We appreciate that DreamHost prides itself on providing open-source solutions, contributing to and supporting developer communities, and maintaining expert-level support teams. In addition to running Ubuntu Long Term support, DreamHost supports PHP, Perl, Python, and Ruby. DreamHost has datacenters on both coasts and offers integration with the Cloudflare content delivery network, making sure your content loads quickly, no matter where your traffic comes from. DreamHost's newest facility, dubbed "Data Center Alley," includes 2N+2 power redundancy and dual water lines for redundant cooling. Around-the-clock staffing, a 1Gbps internet connection, and emergency generators can give dedicated hosting customers peace of mind that their sites will stay online for the long haul.

Up to 12 cores available
Full root and shell access
DDoS protection and 24/7 server monitoring
Fully managed and customizable hardware options
RAID-1 HDD or SSD storage
Get started on DreamHost now.

Money Back Guarantee

N/A

Disk Space

240 GB SSD - 2 TB HDD

Domain Name

New or Transfer

VPS Hosting Comparison

VPS Rating

★★★★★ 4.2/5.0

When it comes to VPS hosting, SiteGround does things a little differently. Instead of managing a typical virtual private server network, the company created its very own cloud platform built from the ground up.

Although the services are similar to a VPS, with shell access included, it's much more scalable. The hefty price tag certainly jumps out at potential customers, however, making SiteGround's cloud product a major investment.

The company's top-tier infrastructure and customer support certainly back up the cost, but the platform may not be the right step for first-time VPS customers looking to take a small step beyond shared hosting.

That said, SiteGround's managed cloud hosting includes thousands of containers and is much faster than most products you'll find on the market.

A single cloud instance can be provisioned, up, and running in seconds. The container platform behind the cloud hosting isn't the only in-house technology the company has up its hosting sleeve.

Instead of using third-party programs, SiteGround developers write almost all of the platform's software themselves. Among SiteGround's many custom solutions is a unique server isolation system that shields servers from falling victim to the vulnerability of single, corrupted accounts.

SiteGround was the first to develop such a mechanism. The company also created its own backup system, which runs daily backups in about an hour; a downtime prevention mechanism that has yielded stellar uptime rates; and its proprietary SuperCacher, which offers four caching options for optimum load times.

With each custom innovation that SiteGround has engineered, customers have reported being pleasantly surprised by how much the technology simplifies their hosting experience.

SiteGround's cloud hosting service is no different.

The company offers all the hit features they're known for, plus the added scalability and security that surpasses most VPS hosting providers. If you're ready to move beyond shared hosting, and want to do so with a king of customer service and tech solutions, look no further than SiteGround's cloud hosting.

Fully managed cloud hosting with ultra-fast performance and scalability
FREE Cloudflare CDN and daily backups
SuperCacher, Git, and 1-click CMS installs
cPanel, SSH access, and private DNS setup
Dedicated IP address and iptables firewall
Get started on SiteGround now.

Money Back Guarantee

14 days

Disk Space

40 GB SSD - 160 GB SSD

Domain Name

New or Transfer

VPS Rating

★★★★★ 4.7/5.0

With scalable RAM and SSD storage, DreamHost's VPS plans give customers a powerful, speedy, and stable environment ripe for growth. RAM ranges from 1GB to 8GB, while storage varies between 30GB and 240GB. While DreamHost's VPS storage space and RAM options are in line with the industry average, DreamHost layers on a bevy of additional perks that turns their already competitive prices into big bargains. Starting with all-SSD infrastructure, which boosts your website or application's speed by 20 times compared to standard SATA disk drives, DreamHost also includes a dedicated IP address and free SSL/TLS certificates, as well as unlimited bandwidth, domain hosting, and email accounts. You can manage your virtual servers through DreamHost's custom control panel, which has been developed for more than 15 years. Although we originally missed the familiarity of cPanel or Plesk, we quickly adapted to DreamHost's sleek, modern panel. Easily scale your virtual servers up or down based on your expected needs. For an added performance boost, DreamHost offers an add-on MySQL VPS service that puts your website's database on its own isolated server. Linux-VServers dedicate an initial 2300MB of RAM to your site, giving customers a sneak peek at what DreamHost's dedicated hosting looks like.

Custom web-based control panel
Unlimited MySQL databases
Easily scalable RAM
High-performance SSD drives
5 years of security updates with Ubuntu Long Term Support
Get started on DreamHost now.

Money Back Guarantee

N/A

Disk Space

30 GB - 240 GB SSD

Domain Name

New or Transfer

WordPress Hosting Comparison

WordPress Rating

★★★★★ 4.9/5.0

#3 out of 8 in WordPress Hosting reviews

Want a hassle-free, WordPress-optimized hosting service? SiteGround has thought of everything you need to get your site up and running.

Starting with the essentials, users get free email accounts, site transfer, Cloudflare CDN, and cPanel license. Then the company makes it simple for you to start rolling out content by offering an easy, automated WordPress installation and a unique and powerful WordPress Starter program that walks site owners through site setup.

The custom tool helps customers choose from professionally designed themes and add key functionalities likee a contact form, online store, portfolio, or other content. Selections are automatically installed on the site, delivering a fully-functional website in minutes — without any tech expertise required.

SiteGround's WordPress hosting also features automatic updates to the core and plugins, with built-in, multi-layer WordPress caching built-in, as well. Users can easily test and deploy changes to their site with single-click staging, and Git is available for version control.

SiteGround's unique downtime prevention software monitors servers' statuses in real-time and resolves more than 90% of server issues instantly and automatically.

Many competitors can take an average of five to 20 minutes to detect an issue, plus up to 20 minutes to react and resolve the exploit.

From in-house solutions on the technical side to warm and unwavering support from a customer service angle, SiteGround has crafted a complete package for any hosting need.

For WordPress-specific hosting, the company offers popular perks you wouldn't get with other shared hosting providers. Get started with all of the awesome freebies and prepare to be blown away by SiteGround's commitment to building hosting solutions intended to make your WordPress experience easier than ever.

Officially endorsed by WordPress.org
FREE migration plugin or automated installation
Pre-installed Git, 3 caching levels, and FREE CDN
FREE WP setup wizard, staging, and auto-updates
Fast, 24/7 support via custom chat system
Get started on SiteGround now.

Money Back Guarantee

30 days

Disk Space

10 GB SSD - 40 GB SSD

Domain Name

New or Transfer

WordPress Rating

★★★★★ 4.9/5.0

#4 out of 8 in WordPress Hosting reviews

One of only three hosting providers recommended by the WordPress Core team, DreamHost has actively contributed to the WordPress community for more than a decade. The company's platform is optimized for the incredibly popular content management system, and plans include easy setup, automated updates and backups, unlimited bandwidth, and 24/7 specialized support. DreamHost does an admirable job tailoring its shared hosting service around WordPress, but we're most impressed with the company's fully managed WordPress solution, DreamPress. Launched in 2013, DreamPress offers enhanced speed, scaling, and security by configuring various settings and plugins that streamline WordPress installation, databases, and server operations. DreamPress adds multiple caching layers and isolates server resources to perform more than five times faster than shared hosting. We love that DreamHost allocates two VPS servers for each DreamPress customer: one optimized for the frontend and the other for MySQL. You'll get the same SSD storage found elsewhere in DreamHost plans, but DreamPress dynamically auto-scales memory to grow with your traffic. Support and security are further tailored to WordPress with automatic updates and a firewall that blocks known WordPress vulnerabilities and offers protection from brute-force attacks. DreamPress uses NGINX, HTTP2, and Let's Encrypt SSL/TLS certificates to balance performance and privacy.

WordPress hosting for up to unlimited sites
FREE WordPress website migration
Fully managed hosting with DreamPress plan
NEW WordPress website builder tool
1 of 3 providers endorsed by WordPress.org
Get started on DreamHost now.

Money Back Guarantee

97 days

Disk Space

unlimited

Domain Name

FREE (1 year)

Site Builder Hosting Comparison

Website Builder Rating

★★★★★ 4.4/5.0

#6 out of 9 in Website Builder Hosting reviews

Do you know you need to build a website but don't know where to begin? Well, SiteGround will give you not one, but two extremely popular and user-friendly options to create the online presence of your dream.

Plus, customers start off with unlimited email accounts, site traffic, and database storage options — all for free.

Whether you're transferring a domain or want a relatively hands-off experience starting your very first site, you'll find helpful support at every turn.

SiteGround hosting includes easy installations for your choice of content management system, including WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and Magento. The company's WordPress experts will even migrate your site for you — a seamless transition with zero downtime — or first-timers can benefit from their in-house setup wizard.

Alternatively, SiteGround gives each customer access to the ultra-popular Weebly drag-and-drop site builder and hundreds of professional templates.

Once you're up and running, custom ticketing and chat systems have been engineered and implemented to provide you with pleasant and tech-savvy customer support 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

SiteGround also conducts daily site backups, using an in-house system that can run backups in about an hour, compared to rival technologies that can take up to half a day to operate.

Whether you're a hosting newbie or a site-building savant, you can trust SiteGround to provide you with a hosting and website-building combo that is simple to manage and pleasant to troubleshoot.

FREE Weebly site builder or WordPress setup
Worry-free, automated webiste migrations
User-friendly cPanel interface and staging area
Custom ticket and chat systems for 24/7 support
SuperCacher with static and dynamic caching
Get started on SiteGround now.

Money Back Guarantee

30 days

Disk Space

10 GB SSD - 40 GB SSD

Domain Name

New or Transfer

Website Builder Rating

★★★★★ 4.6/5.0

For a while, the only knock on DreamHost was the lack of a website builder for beginners unfamiliar with web design. With the relatively recent debut of Remixer, however, DreamHost has come up with yet another way to appeal to site owners. Hosting providers creating their own site builders can be a risky venture — why devote resources to trying something new when there's a tried-and-true outside option such as Weebly? DreamHost, however, seems to have hit a home run with Remixer. We love how the clean and modern interface directs users straight to whatever tools they need. Remixer offers several professional-grade templates that appeal to a surprisingly wide range of uses: small businesses, professionals, travelers, creatives, music, events, and even documentation. Remixer lets you preview each theme in desktop, tablet, and mobile (portrait AND landscape) views before getting to work. The builder interface itself is equally impressive, giving users the options to customize, move, and add content based on row-based layouts. More experienced site owners will appreciate access to HTML code and the ability to use Markdown to format text. Being a leader in WordPress web hosting, DreamHost enables users to export their Remixer website to WordPress to take advantage of powerful features such as SSL certificates, blogging, ecommerce, WordPress plugins, and other tools associated with the popular CMS. If you're looking for a sleek, refreshing site builder, sign up for a shared hosting plan with DreamHost to access Remixer. Upgraded plans also include email accounts to give users a well-rounded and complete experience.

Remixer enables users to create and manage sites without code
Preview themes for desktop, tablet, and mobile (portrait and landscape)
Responsive, professional themes
Royalty-free images from Pixabay
Easily export to WordPress
Get started on DreamHost now.

Money Back Guarantee

97 days

Disk Space

Unlimited

Domain Name

FREE (1 year)

SiteGround vs. DreamHost - Our Conclusion

Alexandra Anderson Hosting Expert

“We tested SiteGround & DreamHost — The winner is SiteGround!”

DreamHost and SiteGround are always two of our favorite web hosts to talk about. With premium features, scalability, security, and support, we’re confident you’ll be happy with either provider. While one genre of web host isn’t necessarily better than the next, we still had to name a winner for this comparison. But just because one of these hosts came out a note above the other doesn’t mean you can’t choose the runner-up for your next online project.

Overall Rating

5.0/5.0 ★★★★★

Visit SiteGround »

Overall Rating

4.8/5.0 ★★★★★

Visit DreamHost »

About The Author

Alexandra Anderson’s interest in website administration was sparked in her teens, priming her for a fast-paced career in managing, building, and contributing to online brands, including HostingAdvice, Forbes, and the blogs of prominent hosting providers. She brings firsthand experience reviewing web hosts, perfecting website design, optimizing content, and walking site owners through the steps that add up to a successful online presence. Today, she combines her extensive writing experience with technical understanding to unpack some of the most complex topics that daunt novice website owners, as well as the subjects that excite veteran technologists within the HostingAdvice readership.