If you’re planning on creating a website, you’ll need a hosting provider to get started. You can either choose to go with a hosting company, or you can try site builders that also offer hosting. Both of these platforms come with their pros and cons, and today, we’ll be taking a look at two very popular options for each—DreamHost and Wix. We’ll take a look at their hosting plans, site builders and other areas of importance, so that you can choose which one is right for you. To start, here’s a quick features comparison between the two.
Contents
DreamHost vs Wix Comparison Chart
| DreamHost | Wix | |
 |  | |
| Price | Check Price at DreamHost.com | Check Price at Wix.com |
| Hosting Types | Shared, WordPress, WooCommerce, VPS and Dedicated Servers | Web Hosting and Business & eCommerce Hosting |
| Storage | 50GB – Unlimited | 500MB – 50GB |
| Bandwidth | Unmetered | 1GB – Unlimited |
| Free Domain | 1 Year | 1 year (except for Connect plan) |
| Free SSL Certificate | Yes | Yes |
| Site Builder | WP Site Builder | Wix Editor |
| Staging Environment | Yes | Yes |
| CDN | Yes | Yes |
| Customer Support | 24/7 tickets Live chat Phone callback (included in higher tier plans) | 24/7 live support Tickets Phone callback |
| Money Back | 97 days for shared hosting 30 days | 14 days |
Web Hosting Plans
DreamHost gives you more hosting options.
Both DreamHost and Wix offer web hosting plans for regular sites like blogs, professional sites and the likes. With DreamHost shared hosting, you get to choose from two plans—Starter and Unlimited. The Starter plan starts at $2.59/month and the Unlimited plan is priced at $3.95/month. These prices are for a 3-year term. If you choose to pay monthly or yearly, it will cost more. In addition to their shared hosting service, DreamHost also offers managed WordPress, VPS and dedicated server hosting.
Wix, on the other hand, offers four website plans—Connect, Combo, Unlimited and VIP. In addition to these four plans, Wix also allows you to create a website for free. However, the free website is extremely limited when it comes to features, and you won’t be able to use your own domain. On that note, Wix’s Connect plan is the most basic plan that they offer, and the only advantage it has over their free site offering, is that you can use a custom domain. The features are still limited, and you won’t be able to get rid of Wix ads.
As for their pricing, the Connect plan starts at $4.50/month, Combo at $8.50/month, Unlimited at $12.50/month and VIP at $24.50/month. As usual with hosting packages, the higher tier plans get more features, such as unlimited bandwidth, priority support and so on.
DreamHost offers a 97-day money back guarantee with their shared hosting plans, while Wix gives you 14 days. With Wix though, you can create and host a site for free, albeit with limited features, Wix branding and Wix ads.
eCommerce Hosting
Wix and DreamHost eCommerce plans are priced similarly, except for the highest tier plan.
When it comes to online stores, Wix has three hosting options—Basic, Unlimited and VIP. The Business Basic plan starts at $17.00/month, and as its name implies, it is the most basic plan. The Unlimited plan and VIP plans are priced at $25.00/month and $35.00/month, respectively.
As for DreamHost, they offer WooCommerce hosting, which is basically managed WordPress, but with WooCommerce pre-installed, along with a store-front theme. The pricing starts at $16.95/month for the cheapest plan—DreamPress. The other two plans—DreamPress Plus and DreamPress Pro—starts at $24.95/month and $71.95/month, respectively.
DreamHost offers better flexibility and scalability here because they offer other types of hosting, such as VPS and dedicated server hosting. You can start out with their shared hosting or WooCommerce hosting, then upgrade to a bigger hosting plan as your store grows.
Features
DreamHost offers better features across the board.
Features-wise, DreamHost has the edge over Wix. With DreamHost, you are not limited to a single platform. You can use different Content Management Systems such as WordPress, Drupal, Joomla and more. If you go with Wix, you are limited to their platform.
When it comes to web hosting, both DreamHost and Wix give you the basic features such as a free domain and SSL certificate. However, DreamHost provides users with more storage, unmetered bandwidth, automated daily backups and more. Also, you can transfer any existing WordPress site that you currently have to DreamHost, using their automated WP migration plugin. Furthermore, you also get a 97-day money back guarantee, as opposed to the 14 days that you get with Wix.
If you are planning on creating an online store, both Wix and DreamHost offer feature-packed ecommerce platforms. With Wix, you’ll have access to features and tools such as abandoned cart recovery, unlimited products, subscriptions and recurring payments and more. Furthermore, you’ll get access to the Wix App Market, and there, you’ll find offers on various 3rd party applications that can further improve your online store’s functionality.
With DreamHost WooCommerce hosting, you’ll get features such as pre-installed Jetpack plugin, 1-click staging, pre-configured and pre-installed WooCommerce and expert WordPress support. WooCommerce is a powerful ecommerce platform that comes with a large number of themes, add-ons and 3rd party plugins. You can add more plugins and tools to improve your online store, just like with Wix.
Website Builder
The Wix site builder is feature-packed and intuitive.
The standout feature with Wix is their Wix Editor. It is a drag and drop site builder that’s powerful and it comes with a lot of features. While it is easy to use, there is a learning curve initially, and It might take you a while to get used to it. Overall though, users without coding or technical experience will find it easy to use, after the initial learning curve.
As for themes and templates, you will have access to hundreds of them. You’ll have the freedom to edit these themes so that you can control the branding and the look of your site or online store—all without having to look at even a single line of code. That said, Wix also caters to more technical users that want to customize their sites even further. There are powerful sets of APIs available and making changes through the backend is possible.
With DreamHost, you also have access to a drag and drop site builder. Using the DreamHost WP builder is as easy as choosing a block, placing it where you want it to be, then editing that block. Beginners will find this site builder to be very easy to use. Of course, more advanced users can also access advanced options to customize and improve the functionality of their site even further. You’ll also have access to hundreds of themes with the DreamHost site builder, just like with Wix.
Verdict
Both are excellent hosting options for beginners, but if you want better scalability for the future, go with DreamHost.
DreamHost is a hosting company, so naturally, they have more hosting options for different types of users. More hosting options mean better scalability. You can start with their more affordable plans and upgrade as your traffic increases. Additionally, you are not limited to one platform if you choose to go with DreamHost. You can create any type of site using any CMS that you see fit. DreamHost will give you more flexibility and freedom over your hosting environment.
Wix, on the other hand, is quite limited when it comes to web hosting. However, for individuals planning on creating an online store, Wix is a great option. They are an excellent ecommerce platform for small and medium sized stores. The Wix Editor is very easy to use, and their eCommerce hosting offers all the essential features that every store will need, with room for additional third party app integration.
FAQs
No, Wix is not available on DreamHost.
Yes, they are a reliable website host with good performance. Their plans are reasonably priced and they offer useful features with their hosting plans.
WordPress is always free to download and install with any hosting provider, including DreamHost.
You’ll need to upgrade your free plan to a premium plan if you want to use a custom domain on your Wix site. The cheapest plan that gives you this feature is the Connect Domain plan, and it is priced at $4.50/month.
