Namecheap Vs Dreamhost Hosting – Which is best for your website?

Namecheap Vs. DreamHost Hosting: 7 Must-Know Facts

• DreamHost is a dedicated hosting company founded in 1997, which means they have plenty more years of experience in the hosting industry. The company has grown significantly since its founding, establishing its online presence by offering affordable and reliable hosting.
• While Namecheap offers an easy signup process, DreamHost signup is Long and complicated.
• Both Namecheap and Dreamhost offer a free domain for the first year.
• Namecheap comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee compared to DreamHost, which offers a 97-day money-back guarantee.
• While Namecheap’s payment methods include Credit cards, PayPal, Dwolla, and Bitcoin, DreamHost allows payments via Credit Card, PayPal, checks, Money orders, and Checking accounts.
• Namecheap has a 1-click installation tool to easily install popular apps and CMSs compared to DreamHost with a One-click installer for WordPress and other apps/CMSs.
• Although Dreamhost does not provide call-in phone help, clients can pay an additional fee to get callbacks from support personnel. Additionally, all accounts get access to live chat when the volume of support emails is low.

If you’re looking for a reliable web hosting provider, you’ve probably come across Namecheap and Dreamhost. Both providers offer a variety of hosting plans at different price points. But which one is the best for your website? In this article, we’ll compare Namecheap vs DreamHost side-by-side.

We’ll look at their features, pricing, and performance to help you decide which provider is the best for your needs:

Namecheap Vs Dreamhost: Side by Side Comparison

Namecheap Vs. DreamHost Hosting: Overview

Established in 2000, Namecheap is a reputable web hosting service providing domain name registration and web hosting services. The company also sells SSL certificates, privacy protection services, and more. It also provides affordable access to everything you need and reliable service with a 100% uptime guarantee.

Unlike other platforms, Namecheap doesn’t use the upsell tactic to make money. Instead, it provides affordable pricing plans that give you what you need. Today, the company has over 1 million registered users and hosts more than 10 million domains. Its main features include a free website builder, unmetered bandwidth, Free automatic SSL installation, and a 30-day money-back guarantee. With its WhoisGuard, you can keep your personal information private. If you need to create a website, you can easily use one of Namecheap’s many site-building apps. Plus, it allows you to migrate your website for free and has  24/7 support and ticket options.

Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Los Angeles, DreamHost provides web hosting services, file and application hosting, cloud hosting, and resources repository to assist web developers. DreamHost is a web hosting company guaranteeing that your website will be fast, secure, and always online.

It has a rich feature set that satisfies many businesses and individuals by offering shared WordPress, virtual private server (VPS), cloud, and dedicated plans. In addition, its website-building software comes with tools to create attractive, flexible sites.

Currently, it powers over 1.5 million websites. Examples of its features include free domain name, one-click WordPress installation, CDN & SSL, 97-day money-back guarantee, and a lot more.

Namecheap Vs. DreamHost Hosting: Key Differences

Domain Names

While DreamHost and Namecheap offer a free domain for the first year, Namecheap limits you when it comes to TLD options. On the other hand, DreamHost allows you to choose any TLD you like. Also, its domain privacy protocols and measures are already included in the price of your subscription.

Business Email

All Dreamhost plans except the shared starter package come with free email. Namecheap offers email across all subscription packages. You can create your business email addresses and enjoy a reliable POP3 email service minus pop-ups or annoying ads. Plus, you can set up multiple mailboxes for each service center or department in your company.

Backups and Security

Website security and backups are essential for business continuity. Dreamhost is one of the most secure web hosting providers available today. Their hosting plans feature SSL encryption, 2048-bit keys, and VaultPress backups. In addition to these measures, Dreamhost offers 24/7 customer support via email, live chat, and telephone. You can also reach out to support via Twitter or Facebook. The company performs backups at its discretion. It’s a good idea to do your backups for complete security.

Namecheap’s primary security features include periodic notifications, domain lock, and two-factor TOTP authentication to ensure your transactions are safe. It also provides extra SSL certificates and VPNs. Their server data is backed up once every 3-7 days, depending on the account type and server specification. These backups are only for server restoration purposes. You are responsible for maintaining local copies of the web content and information on your site.

Site Migration and Databases

While Both hosts offer free site migration, DreamHost only gives you an auto-migration plugin, then leaves you to do it alone. On the other hand, Namecheap offers free migration from your previous hosting provider with all its hosting plan options. Moreover, Namecheap will do the entire process for you.

Like DreamHost, Namecheap offers unlimited databases for its sites depending on the number of apps on your site and how many sites you’ve created with a single account.

Applications

Besides its hosting products, NameCheap offers a VPN to boost your online Security, loading speed, and overall site performance. On the other hand, Dreamhost provides a cloud-hosting service called Dream Objects and  Dream Compute, where you can access an extensive library of resources for software application development.

WordPress

NameCheap has a secondary hosting platform called EasyWP for sites created with WordPress.This app-within-an-app takes over the server-side configurations for the site, making manual PHP configuration, file uploading, third-party app setup, and other configurations easy. 

DreamHost hosting plans include a free installation of WordPress’s open-source edition, which gives you access to its full range of plugins, including online store builder WooCommerce.

Site Staging

Unlike DreamHost’s staging feature, Namecheap has a plugin called Duplicator, which allows you to create a functional mirror image of their site to test user experience, widgets, aesthetic impact, readability, and scripts. You can use this regardless of what building platform created the site.

Website Builder

Namecheap has a proprietary web design tool with several starter templates and a drag-and-drop interface. But it’s not that easy to use. Navigating its menu and moving blocks or elements are quite challenging. On the other hand, DreamHost has a hybrid and easy-to-use website builder with more than 200 design templates to kickstart your web design project.

eCommerce and SSL certificate

Namecheap offers a comprehensive eCommerce guide, including the best possible platforms you can consider for your online stores. Like DreamHost, it includes SSL certificates in all packages. When it comes to functionality, DreamHost tends to rely heavily on WordPress. It also has a WooCommerce plugin to help you develop functional eCommerce websites.

Server Locations

Namecheap has data centers in the UK, US, and Europe, while its hosting servers for VPS, shared, VPS, and dedicated hosting are in Phoenix, AZ, and Nottingham, England. On the other hand, DreamHost data centers are in Ashburn, VA and Irvine, CA

Average Uptime

Namecheap has a 99.96% overall rating when it comes to uptime compared to Dreamhost’s current uptime guarantee at 100%. Namecheap’s bandwidth is also unmetered, depending on your subscription.

Customer Support

Unless you’re an absolute expert and a computer wizard, you will likely run into some issues. When it comes to customer support, both companies offer a variety of support channels.

Namecheap offers  24/7 technical assistance through live chat and an efficient ticket system that allows you to get a response as soon as possible.

DreamHost has three direct customer support channels, with live chat working from 5:30 AM to 9:30 PM, phone call support service, and a 24/7 ticket system. Admittedly, the lack of 24/7 live chat options feels a bit underwhelming, but the ticket system operates really well, and most issues reported via a ticket system get resolved in less than an hour.

Free Trial and Money Back Guarantee

NameCheap offers a full 60-day free trial. The company also has a 30-day money-back guarantee policy if you choose to cancel your subscriptions. However, they may deduct service fees from the refund total. While Dreamhost doesn’t have free trials, it offers a 97-day money-back guarantee. But since it only applies to the primary and VPS hosting, the managed WordPress hosting plans give you the standard 30-day period.

Pricing

Namecheap’s shared hosting plans costs between $1.48 to 4.80 monthly are among the cheapest worldwide. While its EasyWP-managed WordPress hosting service is free for the first month, users are billed monthly afterward. Standard rates are $3.88 for the EasyWP Starter, $7.88 for EasyWP Turbo, and $11.88 for EasyWP Supersonic. All EasyWP sites are hosted via a cloud server for optimal uptime and faster loading time.

DreamHost offers two shared plans, the Shared Starter and Shared Unlimited, priced at $2.59/mo and $3.95/ mo, respectively. Additionally, this affordable deal is only available if you pay three years upfront. The Shared Starter is a good deal if you’re running a single website, as it comes with 50GB of SSD storage, but it’s limited to a single website. However, if you’re a business, Shared Unlimited allows you to expand by lifting website number limitations.

Pros and Cons of Namecheap

Pros and Cons of DreamHost

Namecheap Vs. DreamHost Hosting: Which One Should You Choose?

So, which is better, Namecheap or Dreamhost? As we have seen above, both are solid web hosting options. If you are on a tight budget, we suggest going with Namecheap, as their hosting plans are very affordable. Even with their cheaper plans, you still get many features and good performance. However, DreamHost should be your best option if you don’t mind spending more on a little extra performance.

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