This comparison between A2 Hosting and DreamHost focuses in large part on the WordPress hosting features and performance of their hosting plans. A2 Hosting emphasizes their optimized WordPress hosting environment in their hosting packages, while DreamHost has long been associated with WordPress. Please note that in this particular hosting comparison we’re referring to DreamHost’s shared hosting plan—not their DreamPress managed hosting plan.
| A2 Hosting | DreamHost | |
|---|---|---|
| Preinstallation | ||
| Auto Updates | ||
| Auto Data Backups | ||
| On Demand Backup and Restore | ||
| Website Staging | ||
| Optimized Caching | ||
| WordPress Security | ||
| Managed WordPress Available? |
A2 Hosting and DreamHost both provide excellent website speed. In our testing, A2 Hosting produced faster speed results. In my personal use with A2 Hosting and DreamHost, I’ve had faster websites with A2 Hosting’s optimized WordPress environment and their Swift and Turbo Servers.
While it’s a close call, A2 Hosting is the winner in this category. See some of our speed test results from GTmetrix below:
Advantages of A2 Hosting over DreamHost:
Advantages of DreamHost over A2 Hosting:
For starters, A2 Hosting gets the edge. A2 provides cPanel as your control panel interface, while DreamHost uses their own text based control panel. We definitely prefer cPanel for its intuitiveness and ease of use. With DreamHost, we found it difficult to wade through and find the features we wanted at times. Also, it’s hard to distinguish the features you have and other links that are upsells to services. With A2 Hosting, you can also choose between three levels of hosting, while at DreamHost there is one shared hosting plan available. For those website owners that don’t need a premium level of hosting features, it’s often beneficial to be able to pay a lesser price for just what you really need for your site.
Both A2 Hosting and DreamHost provide quality hardware features such as solid state drives for faster page loading. And, they’re both viable choices for hosting WordPress sites. However, we prefer A2 Hosting’s optimized WordPress environment that includes enhanced speed and security. A2 Hosting can also preinstall WordPress for you. DreamHost is now promoting its more expensive DreamPress managed WordPress hosting package. Between these two hosts, when it comes to non-managed WordPress hosting, we prefer A2 Hosting.
Both A2 Hosting and DreamHost include some nice extra features. For example, A2 Hosting includes CloudFlare CDN and Attracta SEO tools. DreamHost includes SSL/TLS certificates. Additionally, A2 Hosting and DreamHost have two of the best money back guarantee offers. DreamHost provides a 97 day money back guarantee, while A2 Hosting gives you a prorated anytime money back guarantee after a 30 day full refund period.
My personal experience with website performance has been better at A2 Hosting than with DreamHost. Also, the customer support response time has been faster at A2. While we consider DreamHost to be a quality web hosting provider, in this comparison we would favor A2 Hosting.
Started Business: 2003
BBB Rating: A+
Data Center Location: Michigan, USA; Arizona, USA; Amsterdam, EUR; Singapore, Asia
Price: $2.99 mo. – $12.99 mo.
Unlimited Bandwidth: Yes
Unlimited Storage: Yes
Unlimited Email: Yes
Host Multiple Domains: Yes
Hosting Interface: cPanel
Server Uptime: 99.9%
Refund Period: 30 Days
Dedicated Hosting Available: Yes
Free Extras:
Attracta SEO and Marketing Tools
Free HackScan and Security Tools
Free Solid State Drives (SSDs)
Free Let’s Encrypt SSL Certificates
Patchman Enhanced Security Tool
Integrated ManageWP Account
Advantages of Choosing A2 Hosting:
Started Business: 1997
BBB Rating: A+
Data Center Location: Irvine, CA; Ashburn, VA; and Hillsboro, OR
Price: $2.59 mo. – $3.95 mo.
Unlimited Bandwidth: Yes
Unlimited Storage: Yes
Unlimited Email: Yes
Host Multiple Domains: Yes
Hosting Interface: DreamHost Control Panel
Server Uptime: 100%
Refund Period: 97 Days
Dedicated Hosting Available: Yes
Free Extras:
CloudFlare CDN
Free Let’s Encrypt SSL
Free Domain with WhoIs Privacy
Advantages of Choosing DreamHost:
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For most websites, in this comparison we would recommend A2 Hosting. See our A2 Hosting review ratings below:
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