DreamHost vs InMotion (2024) – Unbiased Review
Are you struggling to find out which is the best hosting provider among DreamHost vs InMotion for your webhosting needs?
No more worries guys. You can read this blog post to know who is the winner among both.
Note : This post may contain affiliate links. You may read our disclosure for more details.
DreamHost vs InMotion – Unbiased Review
From this section onwards let us do comparison analysis about DreamHost vs InMotion.
Since WordPress hit the mainstream in 2003, the open-source content management system (CMS) has seen a steady rise in its use and customer base.
Today, WordPress is currently one of the most used CMS and are working behind the scenes on millions of websites and is employed by businesses and bloggers worldwide as the CMS of choice.
But, if you’re looking to get your WordPress site up and running, you’re going to need a host that will deliver solutions built specifically to power the software.
So among InMotion vs DreamHost we can say both can deliver.
Today let us review each one of them and we will give a final verdict at the end.
DreamHost
DreamHost as per their latest report is expected to host over 1.5 million sites and is nearly a 25 years old hosting provider.
However, their performance hasn’t slipped during that time period rather it’s keeping up with above average uptime (99.96%) and page speeds (719 ms). Impressive!
DreamHost’s main shared hosting plan also comes with popular apps like WordPress along with website builder options including their own and others like Weebly or Wix.
These plans also have disk space and unlimited bandwidth. The best part is that they have a full 97-day money-back guarantee. So, you can test it out with fully risk-free.
Customer support, however, was a bit limited and Migrations are also a little bit of pain, not allowing any imports from other cPanel sites and charging you $99/each.
In this Dreamhost section of DreamHost VS InMotion review article, we can discuss about Dremhost plans, pros, cons etc. further.
General Info & Hosting Overview
- OVERALL RANK : Rated #9 out of 32 web hosts
- SPEED : 719ms (December 2017 to March 2019 average)
- UPTIME : 99.96% (December 2017 to March 2019 average)
- SUPPORT : Ticket & Callback
- APPS : WordPress, Blogger, Drupal, Shopify, Wix, and more
- FEATURES : Unlimited bandwidth and storage, free SSL, free domain 1st year
- HOSTING PLANS : Shared, Cloud, WordPress, VPS, and Dedicated Servers
- SITE TRANSFER : Not Free
- PRICING : Starting at $2.59/mo (same renewal price)
DreamHost Main Features
- 100% uptime guarantee for all plans
- SSDs (Solid State Drives) on shared and VPS plans for increased speed and reliability
- Choose unlimited domain names from over 275 extensions
- 24/7/365 support
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Unlimited storage of data
- Unlimited number of email addresses
- Cloud storage for easier access and security
- 1-click install for popular web apps like WordPress, Joomla! and others
- Over 750,000 WordPress installations
- Easy to use proprietary control panel
Pros of using DreamHost Hosting
Slightly Above Average Speed (719ms)
DreamHost’s has been performing pretty decent in the past 16 months with an average of 719 ms loading time.
It also puts them in the upper half of the decent category as the average in half (between ~350-400 ms).
The main takeaway is that they’ve been able to consistently hold this average throughout the years and have been smooth sailing aside that one time two years ago in September 2017, when they posted a 1,316 ms loading time.
But ever since then, It’s doing quite pretty decent. So you should be able to expect the same.
97-Day Money-Back Guarantee
DreamHost has incredible 97-day money back guarantee which none of the other hosts has.
Most of the hosts offer just for 30 or 45 days.
That’s over a full three months to really make sure you’re happy.
That means that if you cancel your account within the 97 days of signing up, you’ll receive a full refund of all hosting fees.
They also don’t have any hidden terms or hoops that might screw up with your refund.
However, there are a few cases where your refund might be denied or deducted but most of the case are pretty standard.
- The first exception is that only if you pay with your credit cards will be refunded. So if you pay with other payment methods, like a money order or check won’t be refunded.
- The second exception is that any additional services and anything purchased through another party won’t be refunded such as domain names, SSL certificates, AdWords credits, etc
Type Of Plans Dreamhost Offers
In this DreamHost vs InMotion review, let us go through about Dreamhost plans which they are offering currently.
Shared Hosting Plans
Their Shared hosting plan is the most affordable hosting option.
It is best for most small businesses or startup bloggers that don’t receive high levels of traffic.
Basically, if you don’t know what a Shared hosting means, it means that your website is stored on a server along with other websites.
These plans are suitable for personal blogs, database driven sites, small business sites, and portfolios.
One free domain name and you can also host unlimited domain names.
Unlimited bandwidth and storage.
VPS Hosting Plan
If you are a larger business or creating e-commerce, a designer or a developer, then VPS might be perfect for your needs.
Virtual Private Servers basically give the advantages of a dedicated server without the higher price tag.
- Up to 8 GB RAM.
- Unlimited Bandwidth.
- Customized control panel.
- 30 GB- 240 GB SSD storage.
Dedicated Server Plan
If you have a mega big site or high-level traffic then maybe a dedicated server is ideal for you.
It can be fully managed for you and is ideal for sites and apps with a ton of traffic as well as agencies or resellers.
This is the most expensive type of hosting compared to the others.
Dedicated plans come with..
- Unlimited bandwidth.
- 4 GB- 64 GB RAM.
- Up to 2 TB storage.
- Full shell and root access.
- New SSDs (solid-state drives).
- A web-based control panel.
Managed WordPress Hosting
WordPress is another one of the most popular website builders.
It is perfect if your small business is using WordPress, then this DreamHost specific plans just for WordPress might be just for you.
You can have your site fully optimized for WordPress and blogs.
WordPress specific plan features include:
- VPS hosted.
- 30 GB SSD storage.
- Automatic installation of WordPress and updates to the core.
- Able to use any WordPress plugin or theme.
- PHP 5.5 with OPcache & Optional HHVM.
Cloud Hosting
Dreamhost’s Cloud hosting is called DreamCloud and DreamCloud is comprised of DreamCompute (public cloud computing service) and DreamObjects (scalable storage solution).
The thing is that DreamCompute is much better than VPS because you can deploy and customize your cloud servers.
With DreamObjects, you’ll have a completely scalable storage service for all your data and you can access it any time.
Cons of using DreamHost Hosting
1. Good, but Limited Live Chat Support
DreamHost provides the obligatory knowledge base and discussion forums to help customers solve their own issues.
They also claim to offer “24/7 in-house support.” Although, their Support Isn’t Immediate
It means that DreamHost only offers support via a ticket system and not via live chat or phone support.
However, they do aim to respond to all support requests within 24 hours, but it’s frustrating to have to wait for an answer when you just want it right now.
2. No cPanel (Custom Panel)
DreamHost doesn’t offer cPanel access to customers. They’ve created their own panel to help you find all plan features.
You may or may not care about this fact But some users might for another reason.
And Cpanel is the easiest to use and smooth UI panel. This is a big let down.
That’s it for Dreamhost.
Hope you would have understood what dreamhost has to offer so far in this DreamHost vs InMotion comparison article.
From next section let us review about Inmotion.
InMotion Hosting
InMotion Hosting is an employee-owned and operated domain name and web hosting company with offices in Virginia and California.
Since 2001, InMotion has grown a customer base of over 300,000 domains.
InMotion is a strong brand with a solid reputation in the Hosting industry and they have gone out of their way to make customer onboarding easy.
In this InMotion Hosting section of this DreamHost vs InMotion article, let us see about InMotion Hosting Plans, Pricing, Highlights, Features etc. further in the below sections.
So, without further ado, Let’s take a look at some quick facts, and then we’ll delve into the details!
InMotion Hosting Highlights
- Start out for as little as $3.49 a month
- Get unlimited email and storage space with all plans
- All plans include unmetered monthly data transfers
- Three plans to choose from
- Flexible coding options
- Managed WordPress hosting available
- Free backups included
Average Uptime of 99.95%
One of the most important metrics, when you are looking for a web host, is the uptime.
Right out of the gate, InMotion’s uptime clocked in at 99.947%.
But these days that’s not good enough to even put them in our top 20.
What I personally like about their uptime is that they don’t fluctuate like crazy but they more so they stay consistent and getting more reliable.
InMotion Features
InMotion in the past used to have a plan that is more with a basic set up but looks like they changed and even the lowest tier plan is a Business plan.
So, that means all of their plans have access to an incredible array of features, bonuses, technologies, and support.
Business Class Hardware
They don’t go for the cheapest on their servers and tools.
But In exchange, you will get better performance and even better yet with less downtime which is crucial if your site starts getting big. Because a 1-minute downtime can cause you thousands of dollars of your business.
Regular Backups
Too many hosting companies leave you without a backup solution but Inmotion is one of the few that is showing care for their customers in this regard.
Max Speed Zone
Your site will also be served by multiple Data centers, ensuring high speed by choosing the closest server to your geographic target.
Green Data Center
Sometimes It’s not all about business and They also try to care about their environment.
Flexible Plans and Pricing
There offer four main types of web hosting:
- Shared Business hosting
- VPS hosting
- Dedicated hosting
- Reseller hosting
- Managed hosting
- WordPress hosting
Shared Web Hosting for Businesses
- Launch: $7.99 per month to $7.99 per month.
- Power: $9.99 per month.
- Pro: $10.49 per month.
VPS Hosting
- VPS-1000HA-S: $24.99 per month.
- VPS-2000HA-S: $39.99 per month.
- VPS-3000HA-S: $59.99 per month
Dedicated Hosting
- Essential: $189.99 per month
- Advanced: $219.99 per month
- Elite: $299.99 per month
Reseller Hosting
- R-1000S: $27.99 per month
- R-2000S: $39.99 per month
- R-3000S: $54.99 per month
WordPress Hosting
- WP-1000S from $5.89/mo – Great for small blogs (now $4.99 for a 3-year term)
- WP-2000S from $10.99/mo – Perfect for small businesses and blogging
- WP-3000S from $14.99/mo – Ideal for developers and growing businesses
- WP-4000S from $29.99/mo –If you want ore extra resources and a free dedicated IP
- WP-5000S from $59.99/mo – with even more resources and you can host more websites
90-Days Money Back Guarantee
Most of the Web host practice for money back guarantees typically falls around the 30-day mark aside DreamHost which offer 97 days.
They’re so confident in their service and products, that they provide up to 90 days business, VPS and reseller hosting plans.
(Note- They only offer a 30-day money back guarantee for shared hosting options)
Other InMotion Plan Features
- Free SSD drives. Utmost in speed, performance, and reliability.
- Free domain name. Either be a brand new domain or transfer of an existing domain name.
- Free data backups. Most companies charge for this service, however, with InMotion, you are getting a fantastic free bonus.
- Single-click installation is included for more than 310 applications.
- Code in a variety of languages including MySQL, Ruby, PHP, and PostgreSQL.
- Easily integrate Google Apps using a simple three-step wizard.
- Secure IMAP email which you can access using any device
Customer Support
The Customer service received mixed reviews for InMotion, but since the highest level of service is only available at the Pro level, which may explain the mixed reviews for customer service.
But overall it is a decent experience.
With this, we would like to conclude about Inmotion in this DreamHost vs InMotion article. Now the most expected section named final verdict is below to know who the winner is.
Final Verdict – DreamHost vs InMotion Comparison
DreamHost and InMotion are two excellent hosting services with nearly identical rankings.
In this DreamHost vs InMotion comparison article conclusion section, I am going to declare that WINNER is InMotion Hosting when comparing with Dreamhost.
InMotion has an average score of 9.2/10 and Dreamhost has a score of 9.1/10
The main problems with Dreamhost are that rather than a Cpanel they use a custom control panel that is overly confusing.
And InMotion provides better technical support, which is one of the key areas customers are concerned with.
As far as performance goes, their servers tend to be much slower and provide a poor experience for your website visitors.
InMotion Hosting also provides free SSL certificates, uses the industry standard control panel, and provides much better customer support experience.
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