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FatCow vs. DreamHost

FatCow vs. DreamHost

If you have been struggling with making a choice between FatCow and DreamHost, our in-depth comparison should be very useful to you. We have based these details on some of the most critical elements of a hosting service to better determine which company can meet your needs. Both offer affordable packages but which is the most dependable? Let’s find out.

Disclosure: We are a professional review site that receives compensation from the companies whose products we review. We test each product thoroughly and give high marks to only the very best. We are independently owned and the opinions expressed here are our own.

Pricing

A well established web presence is within easy reach because hosting with DreamHost starts from only $5.95 a month. While this is certainly a good deal, it is slightly a bit higher than FatCow’s package for $4.83 per month. When looking at this section, there appears not to be a tremendous difference in terms of price of service but you will learn that everything isn’t always what it seems.

Products and Services

DreamHost gives you a nice selection to choose from with services that include traditional hosting, virtual private servers and dedicated servers. Its VPS solutions are quite unique and tailored to cover a wide range of needs. FatCow keeps it simple with shared hosting but does compliment its popular hosting package with domain name registration, e-commerce solutions, email services and web design. The company also has a free hosting plan that is ideal for creeping yourself online and slowly building your presence.

Web Hosting Features

Over the years, FatCow and DreamHost have been able to drum up a lot of business by providing their customers with a rich set of features. Both set you up with the basics like unlimited disk storage and bandwidth, web-based mail access, spam filtering and the ability to host unlimited domains on a single account. Also included are advanced features such as PHP, Perl and Ruby on Rails server-side programming.. If you want to know what the other is lacking, FatCow offers the powerful set of Google WebMaster tools while DreamHost provides free WhoIs domain privacy.

Customer Service

The importance of customer service and tech support is something that can never be stressed enough. An incredibly low price and all the features in the world won’t mean a thing if your hosting provider isn’t there to back you up. This is one critical area in which we feel FatCow and DreamHost really set themselves apart. FatCow is well known throughout the industry for its friendly, super-responsive customer support. You can get in touch with the support staff by toll-free phone, email and various other methods such as live chat, support ticket and video tutorials. DreamHost provides decent support, but it is somewhat limited. For example, the only surefire way to get help is via email and even then, you may have to up to 24 hours for a response. In order to get phone support, you have to pay an additional monthly fee and still only get a certain number of callbacks.

Recommendations

If you are someone who doesn’t feel comfortable relying on email support or paying to get staff on the phone, DreamHost may not be the right fit. On the other hand, if your website traffic is growing fast or you have more demanding needs, you may require a dedicated server that FatCow can’t provide. While these companies have their disadvantages, both have several more strengths and demonstrated a high level of reliability over the years.

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