Hosting.com vs DreamHost (2026) – “The Real Story?”

This comparison between Hosting.com and DreamHost focuses in large part on the WordPress hosting features and performance of their hosting plans. Hosting.com 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.


Hosting.com DreamHost
Preinstallation
Auto Updates
Auto Data Backups
On Demand Backup and Restore
Website Staging
Optimized Caching
WordPress Security
Managed WordPress Available?

Hosting.com vs DreamHost: Website Speed

Hosting.com and DreamHost both provide excellent website speed. In our testing, Hosting.com produced faster speed results. In my personal use with Hosting.com and DreamHost, I’ve had faster websites with Hosting.com’s optimized WordPress environment and their Swift and Turbo Servers.

While it’s a close call, Hosting.com is the winner in this category. See some of our speed test results from GTmetrix below:

Hosting.com vs DreamHost: Differences

Advantages of Hosting.com over DreamHost:

  • Optimized Environment for Faster Website Speeds
  • Proactive Perpetual Security
  • Choice of 4 Data Centers
  • Turbo Velocity for up to 20x Faster Speeds
  • Optimized Environment for WordPress
  • Automatic Data Backups
  • Preinstallation of WordPress
  • Includes Website Staging

Advantages of DreamHost over Hosting.com:

  • WordPress.org Recommended
  • Free Domain plus Privacy
  • Remixer Website Builder
  • 97 Day Money Back Guarantee

Hosting.com vs DreamHost Details

Category Hosting.com DreamHost Comments
Data Centers Hosting.com has data centers on 3 different continents.
Server Hardware Turbo Servers can provide up to 20x faster loading. Both Turbo and Swift Servers include solid state drives (SSDs).
Network AHosting.com provides a quadruple redundant network.
Account Sign Up/Provision WordPress Pre-Installed
Control Panel Hosting.com’s client area provides direct access to cPanel.
Speed and Performance
Security Proactive perpetual security includes firewall, brute force defense, virus scanning, and security monitoring. Free SSL.
Data Backup Hosting.com Server Rewind Backups are performed daily and you can restore data from the past 30 days.
Developer Tools Hosting.com is currently supporting PHP 8.3
WordPress WordPress environment optimized for speed and security. WordPress can be pre-installed when you sign up.
Website Applications Hosting.com provides 400+ applications via cPanel
Customer Support
Money Back Guarantee DreamHost offers a 97 Day Money Back Guarantee.
Price/Value $2.99 – $14.99 mo.

For starters, Hosting.com gets the edge. Hosting.com 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 Hosting.com, you can also choose between three levels of Shared hosting, while at DreamHost there are two choices 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 Hosting.com 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 Hosting.com’s optimized WordPress environment that includes enhanced speed and security. Hosting.com 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 Hosting.com.

Both Hosting.com and DreamHost include some nice extra features. DreamHost includes SSL/TLS certificates. Additionally, Hosting.com and DreamHost have two of the best money back guarantee offers. DreamHost provides a 97 day money back guarantee, while Hosting.com 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 Hosting.com than with DreamHost. Also, the customer support response time has been faster at Hosting.com. While we consider DreamHost to be a quality web hosting provider, in this comparison we would favor Hosting.com.


Hosting.com

Started Business: 2003
BBB Rating: A+
Data Center Location: Dallas, TX; London, UK; Frankfurt, DE; Singapore, SG; Toronto, CN; Mexico City, MX; Mumbai, IN

Price: $2.99 mo. – $14.99 mo.
Unlimited Bandwidth: Yes
Unlimited Storage: No
Unlimited Email: No
Host Multiple Domains: Yes

Hosting Interface: TurboHub or cPanel
Server Uptime: 99.9%
Refund Period: 30 Days
Dedicated Hosting Available: Yes

Free Extras:
Free HackScan and Security Tools
Free Solid State Drives (SSDs)
Free Let’s Encrypt SSL Certificates
Patchman Enhanced Security Tool

Advantages of Choosing Hosting.com:

  • Optimized Environment for WordPress
  • Turbo Velocity available for Faster Page Loading
  • Choose Linux or Windows Hosting
  • Perpetual Security
  • Choice of Data Center Location
  • Website Staging for WordPress

Click here to see more details on Hosting.com


DreamHost

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:

  • Optimized WordPress Hosting
  • WordPress Partner since 2005
  • 100% Uptime Guarantee
  • Remixer Website Builder
  • Cloud Storage Services Available

Click here for more details on DreamHost

Recommendation

For most websites, in this comparison we would recommend Hosting.com. See our Hosting.com review ratings below:

Winner
9.7
  • Features: 97%
  • Speed and Performance: 98%
  • Customer Support: 96%
  • Value: 98%
  • Started Business: 2003
  • Server Uptime: 99.9%
  • Money Back Guarantee: 30 Days
7.3
  • Features: 71%
  • Speed and Performance: 79%
  • Customer Support: 62%
  • Value: 81%
  • Started Business: 1997
  • Server Uptime: 100%
  • Money Back Guarantee: 97 Days
Michael James

Michael James is the Founder and Editor of WebHostingCat.com. After spending 15 years in the IT industry, he now publishes multiple websites to help business owners and digital marketers.

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