HostMonster and DreamHost are among the most well-known hosting brands in the US. The former has been focusing on shared hosting, offering good uptime and all features you may need at reasonable prices. And the latter is managing over one million sites while keeping adopting new technologies.
This comparison between these two web hosts, however, is going to figure out their differences in pricing, features, hosting performance and more with evident details. At the same time, the similarities are presented to guarantee a good understanding of the two companies’ service quality.
Now you can start the comparison with the following ratings made by our editors.
Rating
Pricing
Feature
Speed
Uptime
Technical Support
Learn More
HostMonster Review
DreamHost Review
The Same Aspects to Expect from Both Web Hosts
Great uptime
Both of HostMonster and DreamHost are reliable web hosts offering outstanding uptime and a high level of security. They are able to keep the service interruptions to the minimum by investing in world-class facilities and top-notch technologies.
HostMonster hosts all customers’ websites in a data center in Utah. This data center features custom-built servers, multiple fiber-optic network connections, a redundant power system, 24×7 physical security, and on-site monitoring. With this facility, you are secured from almost all the possible service interruptions caused by power outage, network failure or other unexpected issues.
HostMonster guarantees 99.9% uptime for each shared hosting plan just like many other web hosts do. Thankfully, it is among the few providers which have carried the promise into practice. The company’s service uptime has not fallen below 99.9% for at least 6 months.
DreamHost does not offer details about the data centers it uses. However, it is true that all those data centers are equipped with ample backup power and network connectivity. Besides, they are designed to withstand natural disasters, too.
As the company promises 100% uptime excluding maintenance and any problem that is out of its direct control, it actually has not reached such a high uptime percentage. But honestly speaking, the uptime of DreamHost shared hosting is still great, averaging over 99.9% during our monitoring since 2014.
Free domain and several other extras
HostMonster and DreamHost offer a free domain in all of their shared hosting plans. Pay attention that the free domain of both web hosts is valid for one year only, which saves you approximately $10.
Besides, the two companies provide some other freebies to make their services even more attractive.
HostMonster: Up to $300 marketing credits, SpamExperts, SSL certificate, dedicated IP, and domain privacy. Since HostMonster has 3 hosting plans, how many of these freebies you can get depends on which plan you buy.
DreamHost: Free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate and free domain privacy.
A risk-free using experience
HostMonster and DreamHost offer some of the most favorable refund guarantees. The former promises 30-day full refund while providing pro-rated refunds for accounts cancelled at any time after the first 30 days. And the former guarantees 97-day refund, which ensures enough time for service trying, too. No scam indeed.
Responsive ticket and live chat support
Ticket support and live chat are both offered for free by the two web hosts. Also, these two support methods are accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so that you can get someone to help at any time when you are stuck managing your server.
In addition, the support teams of HostMonster and DreamHost are quite responsive, both responding on live chat within 90 seconds, and replying tickets within two hours. You should not wait long before hearing back.
Good Reasons to Choose HostMonster
HostMonster is a more scalable and affordable choice than DreamHost when it comes to shared hosting, according to our reviews. Below are the edges of HostMonster in the comparison.
Upgradable plans with affordable prices & rich features
In fact, the largest differences between HostMonster and DreamHost are the pricing and features of their shared hosting plans.
To ensure scalability, HostMonster provides 3 shared hosting plans, namely, Starter, Plus, and Pro. These plans have their regular prices of $7.99/mo, $10.99/mo and $23.99/mo, but as a promotion is going on, you can now enjoy much lower rates starting at $3.95/mo only. Up to 51% discounts are available.
HostMonster Promotional Link Activation
Being quite different from HostMonster, DreamHost has always been offering a single unlimited hosting plan. Currently, the plan is priced at $10.95/mo, $9.95/mo and $7.95/mo when billed monthly, annually and triennially. The prices seem reasonable, but not affordable enough.
To further illustrate the value of the shared hosting plans offered by HostMonster and DreamHost, we have made the following table to present some of the important features included in the plans. From the information you can see that HostMonster is the better choice for small and medium sized businesses.
Feature
Plan
Basic
Plus
Happy Hosting
Hosted Site(s)
1
10
Unlimited
Bandwidth
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Disk Storage
50 GB
150 GB
Unlimited
Email Accounts
5
100
Unlimited
PHP, Perl, Ruby
MySQL & PostgreSQL
SSH
Site Builder
Script Installer
Daily Backups
Regular Price
$7.99/mo
$10.99/mo
$7.95/mo
Discount
51%
46%
N/A
Current Price
$3.95/mo
$5.95/mo
$7.95/mo
Claim Discount
Link Activation
Link Activation
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Better-to-use control panel – cPanel
The difference in control panel is one of the most important reasons why we recommend HostMonster more than DreamHost for shared hosting users.
HostMonster offers cPanel which is built with numerous helpful yet simple features that simplify technical tasks like database management and email account creation. cPanel is the recognized best control panel for Linux hosting services.
Comparatively, DreamHost customers only get access to a custom control panel. We are not saying all custom control panels are not good, but the one available with DreamHost lacks usability and a good design. Some features come with wired names which make it hard to locate the features you want, and the navigation needs further improvement. It seems DreamHost does not optimize the control panel very often. In addition, there is no demo for the control panel.
Faster hosting speed
Although both web hosts have been serious about the hosting speed and made continuous efforts to optimize their servers and networks, HostMonster is faster than its competitor. This conclusion is based on expert monitoring which you can see below.
DreamHost is able to deliver fast speed by utilizing high-performance servers with SSD drives, fast networks and CDN. It is much better than most shared hosting providers in the industry. However, it still lags much behind HostMonster in this business-critical aspect.
Free and quick phone support
Besides the live chat and ticket system introduced before, HostMonster and DreamHost also provide phone as a support channel. However, the difference is that the former offers this service for free, while the latter charges $14.95/mo which is even higher than the hosting fee.
Fortunately, the phone support from both web hosts is responsive and professional, managed by people who know how to get those troubled users out.
DreamHost Edges in the Comparison
Having lost its edges in affordability, speed and technical support, DreamHost still owns the following two strong points in the comparison with HostMonster.
The support for IPv6, the most recent version with massive address abundance and built-in security.
Free support via Twitter. If you have a Twitter account, you can contact the DreamHost team directly on Twitter for solutions to simple problems.
Which Is the Better Hosting Choice?
From the perspective of performance and value, we do think HostMonster is the more worthwhile choice for shared hosting. The reasons have been obviously presented in the comparison above.
Besides, HostMonster receives few complaints though it has been offering hosting solutions for over 10 years. So it should be a worry-free experience to use the shared hosting plans of this web host.