Dreamhost vs Yola: Comprehensive comparison guide for 2024

Final verdict

Dreamhost and Yola present closely matched offerings, with Dreamhost slightly leading in overall score and feature set.

• 
  Dreamhost (Overall Grade: 6.7/10)
  
  excels with its comprehensive website builder, Remixer, and seamless WordPress integration, making it a strong choice for users looking for a blend of simplicity and advanced features. Its strengths lie in design functionalities, ease of use, and a robust set of plugins and integrations, particularly for WordPress users. Dreamhost’s approach to ecommerce, website editors, and customer support also stands out, offering a solid foundation for both beginners and experienced users.
• 
  Yola (Overall Grade: 6.5/10)
  
  , while slightly trailing behind Dreamhost, offers a user-friendly platform that excels in website speed optimization and security. It provides a straightforward website building experience with a focus on responsive design and ease of use. Yola’s product testing options, including a free version, and its competitive pricing structure make it an attractive option for individuals and small businesses looking for a cost-effective solution.

Best for ecommerce

Verdict

: Dreamhost offers a more comprehensive ecommerce solution with a higher score and a wider range of features, making it better suited for users with robust online store requirements.

• 
  Dreamhost
  
  : With a score of 7.4, Dreamhost stands out for its extensive ecommerce capabilities, including WooCommerce integration, a variety of payment gateways, and a broad selection of themes. It’s designed for users seeking a powerful and flexible online store platform.
• 
  Yola
  
  : Scoring 5.7, Yola provides a simpler ecommerce solution, ideal for small businesses or individuals starting their online sales journey. While it offers basic ecommerce features, it may not scale as well for larger, more complex operations.

Best for informational & business websites

Verdict

: With Dreamhost scoring slightly higher at 7.5 compared to Yola’s 7.4, the competition is tight. However, Dreamhost’s slight edge in design functionalities and ease of use may make it a more suitable choice for users looking to create professional-looking informational websites without extensive coding knowledge.

• 
  Dreamhost
  
  : Dreamhost shines with its comprehensive website builder, Remixer, and seamless WordPress integration, making it an excellent choice for users seeking a blend of simplicity and advanced features. Its focus on reliability and customer support further enhances its appeal for both beginners and experienced users.
• 
  Yola
  
  : Yola is a strong contender, offering a user-friendly platform with a drag-and-drop interface and a variety of responsive templates. Its focus on SEO tools, e-commerce capabilities, and the option for a custom domain make it a comprehensive solution for small businesses and individuals looking to establish an online presence.

Detailed comparison

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Winner: Dreamhost.

Dreamhost offers a comprehensive website builder tailored for users aiming to create professional-looking websites without the need for extensive coding knowledge. Their platform, Remixer, allows users to choose from a variety of themes and customize them using a simple drag-and-drop interface.

Dreamhost Themes

On the other hand, Yola is a user-friendly website builder designed to help individuals and small businesses create professional-looking websites without the need for advanced technical skills. It offers a drag-and-drop interface, making it easy for users to add and customize elements on their web pages.

Yola Themes

🏆 Winner: Dreamhost

. Scoring a slightly higher 8.2, Dreamhost edges out Yola in terms of ease of use. Both platforms are designed with simplicity in mind and offer a drag-and-drop interface for easy customization. However, Dreamhost’s seamless integration with its hosting services provides a smoother transition from website creation to going live, giving it a slight advantage.

Learning Resources

🏆 Winner: Draw

. Both Dreamhost and Yola offer extensive learning resources, including detailed guides, tutorials, and video tutorials. These resources cater to users of all skill levels, from beginners to experienced users, and cover a broad range of topics.

Dreamhost and Yola both offer ecommerce capabilities, but they cater to different needs and levels of ecommerce activity.

Dreamhost’s ecommerce offering is more comprehensive, with over 200 themes, drag-and-drop customization, and WooCommerce-ready features. It includes essential ecommerce capabilities like fast storage, pre-configured WooCommerce, free SSL, and 24/7 WordPress support. However, its customer support is limited, lacking round-the-clock live chat.

On the other hand, Yola provides a simpler ecommerce solution through an integration with Ecwid, allowing for the sale of up to 1000 products without transaction fees. However, its ecommerce features may be limited by the lack of tiered options for scalability and a conventional CMS dashboard, as well as the absence of a marketplace for extensions and plugins.

Dreamhost ecommerce features:

• WooCommerce-Ready Themes
• Magento integration
• Shopify integration

Yola ecommerce features:

• Shipping and Tax configurations
• Product Catalog Management
• Ability to checkout as guest
• Analytics and reporting
• Promotions features

Ecommerce themes & templates

DreamHost facilitates eCommerce site creation mainly through WooCommerce, offering a powerful, open-source platform with plans designed to cater to varying levels of eCommerce activity. Additionally, DreamHost’s WP Website Builder, equipped with BoldGrid, provides a range of mobile-friendly themes for easy site customization without coding knowledge.

Yola offers a range of templates for building websites, including those suitable for ecommerce, but the variety and design quality may not match those provided by other leading website builders like 10web or Wix. The templates are customizable, especially for users on higher-tier plans (Silver or Gold), which allow for deeper customization, including CSS editing.

Product page customization

Through the integration of WooCommerce, DreamHost’s website builder offers a range of customization possibilities for e-commerce product pages to enhance the shopping experience. These possibilities include layout adjustments like modifying the single product page layout and adding custom tabs, introducing custom fields and sections for additional product information and FAQs, implementing dynamic content like personalized recommendations, and enabling product variations with swatches and custom product builders.

Yola’s eCommerce platform offers a variety of customization options for your product pages, including the ability to manage product options and combinations. This feature is especially useful for selling items that come in different sizes, colors, or models, allowing customers to select their preferences directly from the product page.

Payment processing

When it comes to payment processing, DreamHost supports a variety of popular payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.Net, Amazon Pay, and Square, each with its own fee structure but no additional charges from DreamHost.

Yola supports various payment gateways for online store transactions, such as PayPal, Sage Payments, and American Express, allowing users to choose based on their specific needs, including geographical availability and fee structure. While Yola doesn’t directly charge commission fees for transactions, the chosen payment gateway might impose its own fees, including transaction and possibly monthly fees.

Considering the features, availability, cost, and flexibility, Dreamhost appears to be a more robust and flexible ecommerce solution compared to Yola. However, if you are looking for a more budget-friendly option with some free extras, Yola might still be worth considering.

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Winner: Dreamhost

. Dreamhost, with a score of 7.3, offers a comprehensive website builder tailored for users aiming to create professional-looking websites without the need for extensive coding knowledge. Their platform, Remixer, allows users to choose from a variety of themes and customize them using a simple drag-and-drop interface. Dreamhost also integrates seamlessly with WordPress, providing an easy transition for users looking to leverage more advanced features or migrate their existing sites.

Yola, scoring 6.7, is a user-friendly website builder designed to help individuals and small businesses create professional-looking websites without the need for advanced technical skills. It offers a drag-and-drop interface, making it easy for users to add and customize elements on their web pages. Yola provides a variety of templates that are responsive and customizable to ensure that websites look great on any device.

Mobile editor/app

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Winner: Dreamhost

. Both Dreamhost and Yola do not offer a dedicated mobile editor app. However, they allow users to make some modifications to their websites using a mobile browser. This might not provide the same level of convenience and functionality as a dedicated mobile app, but it can be useful for making quick changes on the go.

Dreamhost scores slightly higher than Yola in the mobile editor category, indicating that it might offer a slightly better mobile editing experience. However, the difference is not significant, and the choice between the two might depend on the specific needs and preferences of the user.

Overall Result

:

Yola wins

. Yola scores 7.5 in product testing options, significantly higher than Dreamhost’s 2.7. Both platforms offer a 30-day money-back guarantee and the possibility to test premium features during this period. However, Yola stands out by offering a free version, which Dreamhost lacks.

Dreamhost and Yola both offer a range of price plans, but Yola scores slightly higher in terms of value for money.

Neither Dreamhost nor Yola offer enterprise plans.

Winner: Tie

. Both Dreamhost and Yola offer reliable hosting services included in all their plans. Dreamhost provides shared or cloud hosting, while Yola offers managed cloud hosting. Both have an uptime guarantee, with Dreamhost slightly leading in uptime. However, Yola has more data centers spread across the US and EU, potentially offering better site speed and reliability for a global audience.

🏆 Winner: Yola

Both Dreamhost and Yola prioritize website performance and speed, but Yola has a more comprehensive approach to speed optimization and a clear focus on Core Web Vital improvements.

Yola’s approach to website speed optimization includes the use of a Content Delivery Network (CDN), caching, code minification, server response time improvements, and image optimization. These strategies help to ensure that websites built with Yola load quickly and perform well. Yola also places a strong emphasis on improving Core Web Vitals, focusing on Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).

Dreamhost, on the other hand, offers built-in caching on higher plans, code minification, and image optimization as part of its speed optimization strategies. However, no specific information is disclosed about their Core Web Vitals improvements. The load times for Dreamhost websites average between 1.75 and 3 seconds, but no data is available for PageSpeed scores.

🏆 Winner: Dreamhost.

With a score of 8.8, Dreamhost offers a wide range of WordPress plugins that can significantly enhance a website’s functionality, including advanced SEO tools, e-commerce capabilities, custom content types, robust security, performance optimization, and detailed analytics. On the other hand, Yola, with a score of 6.3, supports a variety of functionalities through plugins and apps, but falls short in comparison to Dreamhost’s offerings.

Dreamhost Applications

Yola Applications

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Overall Winner: Dreamhost

. Dreamhost stands out for its comprehensive SEO Toolkit and seamless integration with email marketing platforms. Yola, on the other hand, offers a range of SEO features and supports integration with Google Analytics, but falls short in email marketing features on lower plans.

🏆 Winner: Dreamhost

. Dreamhost takes the lead in this category with a customer support score of 7.5, compared to Yola’s score of 6.3. Dreamhost offers 24/7 live chat and email support, aiming for minimal wait times and quick email responses. They also provide phone support callbacks, although availability may depend on the user’s specific plan.

On the other hand, Yola offers 24/7 email support to all users, with priority support for Bronze, Silver, and Gold customers promising responses in under 24 hours. Paid plan subscribers receive premium support with prioritized requests. Additionally, Yola provides a call-you-back service for personalized assistance and supports inquiries via social media channels. However, neither Dreamhost nor Yola offer support for enterprises.

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Winner: Yola

. Both Dreamhost and Yola take security seriously, but Yola edges out slightly with a higher security score. Yola’s commitment to data protection is evident in their compliance with data protection regulations, regular security audits, and use of secure data centers. They also provide robust website security measures, including SSL encryption, DDoS mitigation, firewalls, and regular software updates.

Dreamhost also provides comprehensive security measures, including free SSL certificates, domain privacy, multi-factor authentication, and daily backups. However, it’s worth noting that despite these robust security protocols, Dreamhost has experienced breaches in the past, highlighting the importance of continuous vigilance and personal security practices.

🏆 Winner: Dreamhost

. Dreamhost, with a score of 1.2, has minimal AI capabilities, limited to a business name generator. This feature uses AI to suggest potential business names based on user-provided industry and keywords.

Yola, with a score of 0, does not have any AI capabilities. It lacks features for AI content generation, AI ecommerce, and additional AI features.

🏆 Winner: Dreamhost

. Both Dreamhost and Yola offer multi-user editing capabilities, but Dreamhost’s integration with WordPress provides a more flexible and controlled access for different users.

• Dreamhost, primarily using WordPress, allows for multiple users to edit a website with various roles such as Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor, and Subscriber. Each role has its own set of permissions and capabilities.
• Yola supports multi-user editing capabilities, allowing different levels of access and control based on the plan chosen. The primary account holder, often referred to as the Owner or Administrator, possesses comprehensive control over the website, including the ability to edit content, manage settings, and extend invitations to collaborators for website modification.

Dreamhost User Roles and Access Levels:

Additional Features

User Feedback

DreamHost WP Website Builder is appreciated by users for its ease of use, broad template selection, and integrated hosting solutions, highlighting its utility in building and managing websites efficiently. However, some users suggest improvements in areas such as image editing capabilities, customer support, and software optimization to enhance speed and functionality. While many find it a cost-effective and user-friendly option for website development without coding, others express concerns over occasional software bugs, slow website performance, and the desire for more advanced features.

Yola, on the other hand, has received mostly positive reviews. Users appreciate its professional templates, ease of use, affordability, and customer service. They find it ideal for website creation, especially for those without specialized knowledge. However, some users express dissatisfaction with aspects such as data security, customization limitations, and lack of certain features like chat support. Overall, Yola appears to solve the problem of easy website creation and maintenance for businesses and individuals, offering a range of templates and tools at a reasonable price point.

FAQ