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SiteGround vs DreamHost

SEPT 2026 audit

A comparison of SiteGround and DreamHost built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.

Reviewed by Palash BagchiUpdated 27 criteria comparedSources last checked

Adoption share

HTTP Archive counts — how much more of the web runs SiteGround than DreamHost, among the origins HTTP Archive actually detects. Measured . Source: HTTP Archive.

SiteGround85.3% · 114,875 origins
DreamHost14.7% · 19,875 origins

The short answer

Choose SiteGround if…

Shared hosting with Git available over SSH and a visual interface on top, across eleven data centre locations. Cron jobs are configured in Site Tools.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Choose DreamHost if…

Running many small sites on one cheap plan — 25 websites and 40,000 visits at the entry tier, where most shared hosts give you one or three. Employee-owned, with no private-equity parent behind the renewal pricing.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Consider something else if…

  • SiteGround: Dynamic page caching on the CDN requires the paid Premium tier, and the advertised price is introductory on a prepaid annual term.
  • DreamHost: The advertised price is a first-year rate that renews at roughly 3.8x. Only four data centres exist, all US, Amsterdam or Singapore, so there is no option closer to other regions.

Neither quite fits? Every other option, ranked by iScore: SiteGround alternatives · DreamHost alternatives

14 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.

Visit SiteGround documentationVisit DreamHost documentation

No affiliate links, sponsored placements or paid rankings appear on this site. Ordering follows the sourced data and the stated criteria.

01.

At a glance.

CriterionSiteGroundDreamHost
Pricing
Free tierNo — Every listed plan is prepaid; the risk-free offer is a 30-day money-back guarantee, not an ongoing free plan.No — Only free option is a Remixer trial; publishing to a custom domain requires a paid plan.
Kind of free offerNo free offerNo free offer
Entry paid plan
$17.99/month on renewal ($3.99/mo intro, prepaid 12 months)
$10.99/month on renewal for Web Hosting Launch, the cheapest shared plan. The advertised $2.89 is a first-year rate on an annual prepay.
Pricing modelPrepaid fixed-term subscription; advertised rate is introductory and renews higherAnnual prepay at a discounted first-year rate, renewing at roughly 3.8x. A one-year term is the shortest advertised.
Limits
Storage (entry plan)
10 GB Premium Google storage on the StartUp plan (cheapest paid shared hosting plan)
25 GB NVMe SSD on Web Hosting Launch, the cheapest shared plan
Sites or apps included
1 website on the StartUp plan (cheapest paid shared hosting plan)
25 websites on Web Hosting Launch, the cheapest shared plan; 50 on Growth
Monthly visits cap
Shared plans, SiteGround's stated capacity per plan: StartUp around 10,000 monthly visits, GrowBig approximately 100,000, GoGeek 400,000+ monthly.
40,000 monthly visits on Web Hosting Launch; 200,000 on Growth
Included bandwidthUnlimited traffic on all shared web hosting plans: StartUp hosts 1 website with unlimited traffic; GrowBig and GoGeek offer unlimited websites, unlimited traffic.Listed as Unmetered on every shared plan. DreamHost states $0 overage charges on its VPS plans; no equivalent statement is published for shared.
Infrastructure
Regions
11 locations: Ashburn (Virginia, US), Council Bluffs (Iowa, US), Dallas (Texas, US), Los Angeles (California, US), London (UK), Madrid (Spain), Eemshaven (Netherlands), Frankfurt (Germany), Paris (France), Sydney (Australia), Singapore
4 data centers: Ashburn (Virginia), Hillsboro (Oregon), Amsterdam and Singapore
Support
Support on entry paid plan24/7 expert human support on every plan, including the cheapest.In-house support staff available 24/7, 365, with no tier to buy.
Compliance
HIPAANot HIPAA compliant: staff state its hosting services, including the Email Marketing tool, are not HIPAA compliant (blog reply, Jul 2023). SiteGround Team reply in blog comments, Jul 17, 2023; no HIPAA or BAA wording in Terms, AUP, DPA or KB.Explicitly not HIPAA compliant; the Security FAQ states DreamHost is not HIPAA compliant.
GDPR / data residencyDPA: customer may specify, subject to availability, the data center location for its hosting account content; SiteGround may move it at its sole discretion.Customer DPA relies on EU Model Clauses for GDPR transfers; DreamHost may transfer and process customer data anywhere it or its sub-processors operate. No contractual residency guarantee; an EU data center (Amsterdam) exists but is not committed in the DPA.
PCI DSSCredit card data transmitted to SiteGround's payment processors is tokenized and secured by those processors in accordance with the PCI DSS requirements. Privacy Policy security section; the compliance is attributed to the payment processors, not to SiteGround.PCI compliant for Managed VPS, DreamPress and Dedicated servers; shared hosting servers and customer websites are not covered.
Encryption at restPrivacy Policy: when storing information SiteGround protects its security by encrypting critical data, with access restricted, logged and reviewed periodically. Scope is personal data SiteGround collects via its site and client area, not hosted site storage.DreamObjects object storage: data uploaded is unencrypted by default and server-side encryption is not supported; client-side or SSE-C only. Scope is DreamObjects; no page states at-rest encryption for shared/VPS/dedicated hosting.
Role-based access control
Roles functionality is available only to users of type "client" associated with websites on Cloud hosting plans; roles cannot be assigned to collaborators.
Account Privileges grant a second panel user scoped access per privilege (billing, domains, users, databases, hosting plans) and down to a single domain.
Dedicated infrastructureCloud Hosting includes dedicated resources and a dedicated IP on every plan: dedicated resources like VPS hosting with the fully managed convenience of shared hosting.Dedicated Servers are single-tenant: no other DreamHost customers have access to or share resources on the server, and admin users get full root via sudo.

Only criteria both providers publish appear here; a tinted cell marks a real difference. Criteria only one of them documents are listed below, and an absence there means we found no source — not that the feature is missing. How we source this.

The small bar above a value is inetGeek's own lean toward that side — computed from the same facts shown, never a number the provider published. See the picker below "The short answer" to weigh only the criteria you care about.

02.

Where they differ.

Entry paid plan

SiteGround
$17.99/month on renewal ($3.99/mo intro, prepaid 12 months)
DreamHost
$10.99/month on renewal for Web Hosting Launch, the cheapest shared plan. The advertised $2.89 is a first-year rate on an annual prepay.
Sources (2) →

Pricing model

SiteGround
Prepaid fixed-term subscription; advertised rate is introductory and renews higher
DreamHost
Annual prepay at a discounted first-year rate, renewing at roughly 3.8x. A one-year term is the shortest advertised.
Sources (2) →

Storage (entry plan)

SiteGround

10 GB Premium Google storage on the StartUp plan (cheapest paid shared hosting plan)

DreamHost

25 GB NVMe SSD on Web Hosting Launch, the cheapest shared plan

Sources (2) →

Sites or apps included

SiteGround

1 website on the StartUp plan (cheapest paid shared hosting plan)

DreamHost

25 websites on Web Hosting Launch, the cheapest shared plan; 50 on Growth

Sources (2) →

Monthly visits cap

SiteGround

Shared plans, SiteGround's stated capacity per plan: StartUp around 10,000 monthly visits, GrowBig approximately 100,000, GoGeek 400,000+ monthly.

DreamHost

40,000 monthly visits on Web Hosting Launch; 200,000 on Growth

Sources (2) →

Included bandwidth

SiteGround
Unlimited traffic on all shared web hosting plans: StartUp hosts 1 website with unlimited traffic; GrowBig and GoGeek offer unlimited websites, unlimited traffic.
DreamHost
Listed as Unmetered on every shared plan. DreamHost states $0 overage charges on its VPS plans; no equivalent statement is published for shared.
Sources (2) →

Regions

SiteGround

11 locations: Ashburn (Virginia, US), Council Bluffs (Iowa, US), Dallas (Texas, US), Los Angeles (California, US), London (UK), Madrid (Spain), Eemshaven (Netherlands), Frankfurt (Germany), Paris (France), Sydney (Australia), Singapore

DreamHost

4 data centers: Ashburn (Virginia), Hillsboro (Oregon), Amsterdam and Singapore

Sources (2) →
  • Where are SiteGround's servers? ↗

    “Currently, SiteGround uses the following data center locations: Ashburn (Virginia, US) Council Bluffs (Iowa, US) Dallas (Texas, US) Los Angeles (California, US) London (UK) Madrid (Spain) Eemshaven (Netherlands) Frankfurt (Germany) Paris (France) Sydney (Australia) Singapore (Singapore)”

    Read 2026-09-14 · official docs · Report a correction

  • DreamHost — llms.txt ↗

    “**Data Centers**: Ashburn, Virginia; Hillsboro, Oregon; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Singapore”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official site · Report a correction

Support on entry paid plan

SiteGround
24/7 expert human support on every plan, including the cheapest.
DreamHost
In-house support staff available 24/7, 365, with no tier to buy.
Sources (2) →

HIPAA

SiteGround
Not HIPAA compliant: staff state its hosting services, including the Email Marketing tool, are not HIPAA compliant (blog reply, Jul 2023). SiteGround Team reply in blog comments, Jul 17, 2023; no HIPAA or BAA wording in Terms, AUP, DPA or KB.
DreamHost
Explicitly not HIPAA compliant; the Security FAQ states DreamHost is not HIPAA compliant.
Sources (2) →

GDPR / data residency

SiteGround
DPA: customer may specify, subject to availability, the data center location for its hosting account content; SiteGround may move it at its sole discretion.
DreamHost
Customer DPA relies on EU Model Clauses for GDPR transfers; DreamHost may transfer and process customer data anywhere it or its sub-processors operate. No contractual residency guarantee; an EU data center (Amsterdam) exists but is not committed in the DPA.
Sources (2) →
  • SiteGround Data Processing Agreement - Terms of Service ↗

    “The customer may specify, subject to availability, the data center location where its hosting account content will be stored [...] SiteGround may change these locations and move customer”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction

  • Customer Data Processing Addendum — DreamHost ↗

    “Company may transfer and Process Customer Data anywhere in the world where Company, its Affiliates or its Sub-processors maintain Processing operations. [...] the parties acknowledge that Company shall be deemed to provide adequate protection (within the meaning of Applicable Data Protection Law) for any such Customer Data by complying with the Model Clauses.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction

PCI DSS

SiteGround
Credit card data transmitted to SiteGround's payment processors is tokenized and secured by those processors in accordance with the PCI DSS requirements. Privacy Policy security section; the compliance is attributed to the payment processors, not to SiteGround.
DreamHost
PCI compliant for Managed VPS, DreamPress and Dedicated servers; shared hosting servers and customer websites are not covered.
Sources (2) →

Encryption at rest

SiteGround
Privacy Policy: when storing information SiteGround protects its security by encrypting critical data, with access restricted, logged and reviewed periodically. Scope is personal data SiteGround collects via its site and client area, not hosted site storage.
DreamHost
DreamObjects object storage: data uploaded is unencrypted by default and server-side encryption is not supported; client-side or SSE-C only. Scope is DreamObjects; no page states at-rest encryption for shared/VPS/dedicated hosting.
Sources (2) →

Role-based access control

SiteGround
Roles functionality is available only to users of type "client" associated with websites on Cloud hosting plans; roles cannot be assigned to collaborators.
DreamHost
Account Privileges grant a second panel user scoped access per privilege (billing, domains, users, databases, hosting plans) and down to a single domain.
Sources (2) →

Dedicated infrastructure

SiteGround
Cloud Hosting includes dedicated resources and a dedicated IP on every plan: dedicated resources like VPS hosting with the fully managed convenience of shared hosting.
DreamHost
Dedicated Servers are single-tenant: no other DreamHost customers have access to or share resources on the server, and admin users get full root via sudo.
Sources (2) →

When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.

Confirm by email; unsubscribe from any issue. Your address goes to Kit and nowhere else — what we do with it.

03.

Documented by only one.

These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing — except where we say we read the other provider's own page on a given date and it does not state it. Those rows lean, and the provider can correct them with a link.

When you exceed a capSiteGround: Access to the website may be limited after early warnings, rather than billed as an overage
Memory (entry plan)SiteGround: Up to 768MB RAM per process on SiteGround shared web hosting, which includes the StartUp plan
File, inode or volume limitSiteGround: 200000 inodes per account on the StartUp plan
Git deploymentSiteGround: Limited
Scheduled jobsSiteGround: Supported
Edge networkSiteGround: Limited
Uptime SLADreamHost: 100% uptime guarantee, stated on the shared hosting page with no tier attached.
Backup retentionDreamHost: Daily automated backups on every shared plan. DreamHost does not state how many are kept.
ISO 27001SiteGround: Not ISO 27001 certified itself; staff say only the Google Cloud services it builds on are certified (blog reply, Jun 2021). SiteGround Team reply in blog comments, Jun 22, 2021; the only 27001 statement anywhere on the site.
Customer-managed keysDreamHost: DreamObjects supports SSE-C, which requires you to create your own encryption keys to upload, download and encrypt content; billed as advanced-user only.
Private networking / VPCDreamHost: DreamCompute US-East 2 only: private networking enabled on request by support; beta, free during the trial period, estimated $5/month per private network.
04.

Questions this comparison answers.

Entry paid plan: SiteGround or DreamHost?

SiteGround: $17.99/month on renewal ($3.99/mo intro, prepaid 12 months)

DreamHost: $10.99/month on renewal for Web Hosting Launch, the cheapest shared plan. The advertised $2.89 is a first-year rate on an annual prepay.

Included bandwidth: SiteGround or DreamHost?

SiteGround: Unlimited traffic on all shared web hosting plans: StartUp hosts 1 website with unlimited traffic; GrowBig and GoGeek offer unlimited websites, unlimited traffic.

DreamHost: Listed as Unmetered on every shared plan. DreamHost states $0 overage charges on its VPS plans; no equivalent statement is published for shared.

Storage (entry plan): SiteGround or DreamHost?

SiteGround: 10 GB Premium Google storage on the StartUp plan (cheapest paid shared hosting plan)

DreamHost: 25 GB NVMe SSD on Web Hosting Launch, the cheapest shared plan

Should I choose SiteGround or DreamHost?

Pick SiteGround if Shared hosting with Git available over SSH and a visual interface on top, across eleven data centre locations. Cron jobs are configured in Site Tools.

Pick DreamHost if Running many small sites on one cheap plan — 25 websites and 40,000 visits at the entry tier, where most shared hosts give you one or three. Employee-owned, with no private-equity parent behind the renewal pricing.

Provider pages

SiteGroundShared web hosting managed through the Site Tools control panel, sold on prepaid annual terms, with eleven data center locations across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.DreamHostEmployee-owned shared web hosting sold on annual prepay, with per-plan visit caps, unmetered bandwidth and daily automated backups.

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Comments

Every page here is sourced and dated.