DreamHost vs Cloudways – Which Cloud Hosting is Better?

Everything else is moving to the cloud, and so is web hosting!

Cloud hosting is the newest type of hosting where you no longer have to rely on physical servers to store your website’s files. 

While this type of web hosting is yet to catch up with the popularity of shared hosting, both DreamHost and Cloudways are already offering affordable plans that will encourage you to get started. 

But of course, you’ll only need one web host, so who’s it going to be?

It’s difficult to compare with just a glance, so we’ll give you a complete DreamHost vs Cloudways comparison. To do that, we will use these factors to help determine which between the two is better for YOU:

• Uptime and performance
• Website building
• Migration services
• Products and features
• Security
• Pricing
• Customer Support

Let’s start!

DreamHost vs Cloudways - Uptime and Performance

Cloud hosting is generally more reliable than physical servers. Since it doesn’t store all your site’s data in one place, downtimes are easily handled and solved.

But that doesn’t mean that it’s always going to be a 100% uptime rate. 

Still, Cloudways has a 99% uptime guarantee and it always strives to reach a 100% uptime. Your site will hardly ever go offline, which is ideal, of course. 

DreamHost, on the other hand, has a 100% uptime guarantee, but only averages at around 99.98% (August 2023). Sure, this isn’t the best uptime rate, but it is good enough. 

However, when compared to Cloudways, DreamHost falls short of its uptime performance. 

What about speed performance?

DreamHost gets a lot of mixed reviews here with some saying that it has a very fast loading speed, while others say that it’s just so-so. 

In my experience, DreamHost does have high speeds, but this fluctuates frequently. So if it’s the consistency you’re looking for, this isn’t the provider that best gives that. 

As for Cloudways, their Managed Cloud hosting plans have a lot of performance boosters such as advanced caching, SSD storage, auto-healing server features, and CDN (for an additional fee). 

These features can give a more consistent site speed that performs well even if you access your site in other countries.  

DreamHost vs Cloudways - Website Building

Even if WordPress isn’t the main selling point of Cloudways’ Managed Cloud hosting plans, its platform is still optimized for WordPress. 

It has a free one-click WordPress installation, together with a Breeze plug-in (a feature for optimizing performance). 

To add to that, Cloudways has its staging environment that lets you test new features without affecting the live site you have now. 

As for DreamHost, it is a recommended partner of WordPress and it also has a dedicated plan for WordPress users (DreamPress). However, if your priority is sticking to a cloud-based hosting service, the same features won’t apply.

Nonetheless, DreamHost has a lot of WordPress-optimized features such as themes, site migrations, and tools that will help you make your site easier to build.  

DreamHost vs Cloudways - Migration Services

What about site migrations? Do both providers have them? 

Yep, these two web hosts have migration services they offer for free. Both providers have dedicated teams that will help you in the whole migration process. 

However, DreamHost only has this feature available for WordPress sites, while Cloudways offers it to any type of site.  

DreamHost vs Cloudways - Products and Features

How do the Cloud hosting plans of DreamHost and Cloudways compare to one another? 

Let’s take a look at this comparison chart:

As you can see, Cloudways’ basic Cloud hosting plan has a cap for its bandwidth at 1TB. 

On the other hand, DreamHost doesn’t have a cap on the bandwidth. The catch is that their free bandwidth is only available for a limited time. After that, you’re going to be billed based on the bandwidth you use.

If you think about it, this isn’t a bad deal especially when you only use minimal bandwidth. So if the plan doesn’t have a cap for bandwidth, then you won’t be billed for overconsumption.  

Another thing you might notice is storage space. 

DreamHost offers a lot more storage, 80GB, compared to Cloudways 25GB.

Now, while Cloudways only has one type of hosting available for all of its clients, DreamHost has a lot and it would be a waste not to mention it here. 

You already know DreamHost to have Cloud hosting plans, but did you know that it has shared VPS, and dedicated packages, too?

Yep, DreamHost has a wide range of products. It even has a Managed WordPress plan. 

If you’re not sold with Cloud hosting just yet, you might want to try other simpler plans at DreamHost. 

DreamHost vs Cloudways: Security

A lot of people ask, is Cloud hosting secure?

It is. It’s even more secure than physical servers. 

But for your peace of mind, know that both Cloudways and DreamHost have security monitoring and free SSL certificates included in all of their plans. They offer automatic backups of your site as well. 

Cloudways has an additional dedicated firewall and two-factor authentication that serve as extra security measures. 

For extra security with DreamHost, they offer malware protection. 

DreamHost vs Cloudways: Pricing

These two web hosts have very different price ranges, so I thought of putting it on a table for easier reading. 

Here’s a price comparison of the available plans:

Just looking at the chart, you’ll see that DreamHost has affordable cloud hosting packages. This is despite having more features (storage, bandwidth) that give you more flexibility to use.  

DreamHost vs Cloudways: Customer Support

Both Cloudways and DreamHost have great customer support teams that are accessible 24/7 through live chat. 

However, Cloudways has a more knowledgeable support team and a knowledge base that will help new customers get the hang of their platform. 

This allows you to find answers without reaching out to customer service. 

But in terms of a number of customer support channels, DreamHost has an additional callback feature for a more convenient troubleshooting process for server issues.  

DreamHost vs Cloudways: The Verdict

Overall, it’s difficult to choose between Cloudways and DreamHost. I mean, both are reliable, trustworthy, and popular web hosts. 

So it all comes down to your preferences, budget, and type of hosting plan you want to get. 

At the end of the day, your priorities for your website will determine what plan or web host to get.