Webflow vs Dreamhost: Comprehensive comparison guide for 2024

Final verdict

Webflow and Dreamhost offer distinct advantages, catering to different user needs and preferences.

• 
  Webflow (Overall Grade: 7.9/10)
  
  excels in providing a powerful platform for professional designers and users who prioritize design flexibility and customization. With its advanced design tools, comprehensive CMS, and high-quality hosting, Webflow is ideal for creating custom, responsive websites. Its higher learning curve is balanced by extensive learning resources, making it a solid choice for users willing to invest time in mastering its capabilities.
• 
  Dreamhost (Overall Grade: 6.7/10)
  
  , while scoring lower overall, shines in ease of use and WordPress integration, making it a great option for users looking for a straightforward website building experience or those planning to leverage WordPress’s extensive plugin ecosystem. Dreamhost’s focus on reliability and customer support further enhances its appeal to both beginners and experienced users seeking a robust web hosting solution.

Best for ecommerce

Verdict

: Webflow shines for users seeking deep customization and comprehensive ecommerce features, while Dreamhost is a strong contender for those prioritizing versatility and ease of integration with popular ecommerce tools.

• 
  Webflow
  
  : Offers a robust platform for building sophisticated online stores, with a focus on design flexibility and advanced ecommerce functionalities. It’s particularly suited for designers and users who want detailed control over their site’s appearance and ecommerce features.
• 
  Dreamhost
  
  : Provides a solid foundation for ecommerce through its integration with WooCommerce, making it ideal for WordPress users. It’s a great choice for those looking for a blend of simplicity, reliability, and the ability to scale their ecommerce operations.

Best for informational & business websites

Verdict

: Webflow is the superior choice for informational and business websites, offering unmatched design flexibility, powerful hosting, and optimal website speed. Dreamhost, while user-friendly and rich in plugins, doesn’t quite match up in terms of design capabilities and performance.

• 
  Webflow
  
  : Webflow excels in creating custom, responsive websites with its powerful design tools and flexible CMS. It’s ideal for businesses that require a high degree of customization and control over their site’s design and functionality. The platform’s robust hosting infrastructure and focus on speed optimization further enhance its suitability for professional websites.
• 
  Dreamhost
  
  : Dreamhost is a solid option for those who prioritize ease of use and access to a wide range of WordPress plugins. Its website builder, Remixer, and seamless WordPress integration make it a good choice for users looking for a straightforward way to create and manage their sites. However, it may not offer the same level of design sophistication and performance as Webflow.

Detailed comparison

🏆

Winner: Webflow.

If you’re looking for a platform that offers more creative control and a wide array of design features, Webflow is the preferred choice.

Webflow delivers a robust design experience with a diverse range of template and customization options. Boasting over 1000 pre-built templates covering various industries and website types, including free and premium options, Webflow ensures a constantly evolving library for users. Templates are categorized for easy browsing, considering industry, website type, style, and features. The design customization features include a visual drag-and-drop editor for real-time adjustments, fine-grained control over every aspect of the design, and the ability to inject custom code for advanced users seeking additional personalization and unique functionalities.

Webflow Themes

Compared to Webflow, Dreamhost’s website builder, offers a user-friendly interface that allows for a high degree of customization flexibility. Users can edit various elements including text, images, backgrounds, and layout structures to match their preferences. The platform also provides a wide range of themes and templates that can be further customized to ensure the final website aligns with the user’s brand identity. Additionally, Dreamhost supports integration with other tools and services, enhancing the functionality and adaptability of websites created with its builder.

Dreamhost Themes

🏆 Winner: Dreamhost

. With a score of 8.2, Dreamhost’s website builder is designed with simplicity in mind, making it highly accessible for users without prior web development experience. Webflow, scoring 7.5, offers a visually intuitive interface but has a steeper learning curve, especially for beginners. If ease of use is a priority, Dreamhost is the clear winner in this category.

Learning Resources

🏆 Winner: Webflow

. Both platforms offer solid learning resources, but Webflow goes a step further with its comprehensive set of learning resources, including Webflow University and a thriving community of users across multiple platforms.

Webflow and Dreamhost both offer robust ecommerce capabilities, but they cater to different needs and preferences. Webflow stands out with its comprehensive ecommerce features, including easy store creation without coding, extensive customization options, product management with variations, inventory tracking, and integration with major payment gateways. On the other hand, Dreamhost offers a versatile platform for building ecommerce sites, with over 200 themes, drag-and-drop customization, and WooCommerce-ready features.

Webflow ecommerce features:

• Checkout and Payment Processing with Stripe, PayPal, etc.
• Marketing and Promotions
• Tax and Shipping calculations

Dreamhost ecommerce features:

• WooCommerce-Ready Themes
• Magento integration
• Shopify integration

Ecommerce themes & templates

Webflow offers a diverse range of ecommerce themes and templates designed to cater to various types of online stores, from fashion and technology to artisan crafts and children’s products. Each template comes equipped with built-in ecommerce functionality, allowing you to easily add products and manage your store without the need for coding. 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.

Product page customization

Webflow offers extensive customization options for eCommerce product pages, allowing users to design and personalize their pages without coding. It provides tutorials for creating product pages from scratch, offers responsive templates for various devices, and allows users to add custom code and dynamic content using Webflow’s CMS for maximum customization flexibility. 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.

Payment processing

When it comes to payment processing, Webflow provides a flexible and secure platform for payment processing and ecommerce through integrations with leading payment gateways like Stripe and PayPal. This allows users to accept a wide range of payments, including credit card transactions directly from their websites. 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. These gateways offer features like POS capabilities, fraud detection, and international currency support, making DreamHost a versatile choice for website builders focusing on WordPress integration.

🏆

Winner: Webflow

. With a score of 9.0, Webflow’s editor is praised for its intuitive visual interface that simplifies the process of designing and editing responsive websites without requiring deep technical knowledge. It offers a perfect blend of ease of use for beginners and the flexibility for more advanced users, enabling significant cost savings by allowing users to customize and manage their sites without hiring professionals.

Dreamhost’s editor, scoring 7.3, offers a user-friendly interface for creating and customizing WordPress websites, employing a drag-and-drop editor that eliminates the need for coding skills. However, beginners without any prior experience might face a learning curve initially, as with most website builders.

Mobile editor/app

🏆

Winner: Webflow

. Both Webflow and Dreamhost do not have official mobile editor apps. However, Webflow has a third-party app called EditFlow, created by a community member for Webflow users, which is currently only available for iOS. On the other hand, Dreamhost does not have a dedicated mobile editor app, but you can modify your website using a mobile browser, though this comes with certain restrictions.

In summary, Webflow receives a higher rating due to the availability of a third-party app, while Dreamhost’s mobile editing capabilities are limited to browser-based modifications.

Overall Result

:

Webflow wins

. Webflow scores 6.3 in product testing options, significantly higher than Dreamhost’s 2.7. Webflow offers a free version where users can test some basic features. On the other hand, Dreamhost does not provide a free or trial version, but it allows testing of premium features during the 30-day refundable period.

Webflow and Dreamhost have similar pricing scores, but Webflow offers a wider range of plans, including a free option and custom pricing for enterprise needs. Dreamhost, on the other hand, offers significant discounts on annual billing.

Winner: Webflow

. Webflow offers managed hosting with a 99.99% uptime, and it leverages a globally distributed network of data centers from Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Fastly. Dreamhost, on the other hand, offers shared and cloud hosting with a 99.93% uptime and has two data centers in the US. While Dreamhost offers a 100% uptime guarantee, Webflow’s superior uptime and globally distributed network of data centers give it the edge in this comparison.

🏆 Winner: Webflow

Both Webflow and Dreamhost have strategies for speed optimization, but Webflow’s comprehensive approach and transparency about their Core Web Vital improvements give them the edge.

Webflow’s approach to speed optimization includes custom cache settings, custom element lazy loading, automatic minification, responsive templates, and a content delivery network (CDN). This comprehensive approach results in an average load time of below 2 seconds and a PageSpeed score of 77.2/100. Webflow also focuses on improving components’ usability and places emphasis on Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) for Core Web Vital improvements.

On the other hand, Dreamhost’s strategies for speed optimization include built-in caching on higher plans, code minification, and image optimization. However, they do not disclose any information on their Core Web Vitals improvements. Their average load time ranges from 1.75 to 3 seconds, but no data is available for their PageSpeed score range.

🏆 Winner: Dreamhost.

Dreamhost, with a score of 8.8, offers a wide range of WordPress plugins that can significantly enhance a website’s functionality. These plugins cover advanced SEO tools, e-commerce capabilities, custom content types, robust security, performance optimization, and detailed analytics. On the other hand, Webflow, scoring 5.5, doesn’t have plugins or extensions in the traditional sense. Instead, it offers a built-in library of website elements and functionalities and integrates with a number of third-party services and tools. However, Dreamhost’s extensive range of WordPress plugins gives it the upper hand.

Webflow Applications

Dreamhost Applications

🏆

Overall Winner: Dreamhost

. Dreamhost edges out Webflow with a slightly higher score in marketing features. Both platforms offer a range of marketing tools, but Dreamhost’s comprehensive SEO Toolkit and seamless integration with third-party plugins for email marketing and ads give it a slight advantage.

🏆 Winner: Webflow

. With a customer support score of 8.3, Webflow outperforms Dreamhost, which has a score of 7.5. Webflow offers 24/7 customer support through live chat, email, and a community forum. They also provide extensive documentation and video tutorials to help users navigate their platform and troubleshoot common problems. For enterprise customers, Webflow offers a dedicated Customer Success Manager for personalized onboarding, training, and optimization, as well as priority email and chat support from specialists.

Dreamhost also offers 24/7 live chat and email support, with a focus on quick and efficient assistance. They also offer phone support callbacks, although their availability may depend on the user’s specific plan. However, Dreamhost does not provide specialized support for enterprise customers.

🏆

Winner: Dreamhost

. Dreamhost takes the lead in security with a score of 8.2, compared to Webflow’s 7.8. Dreamhost’s commitment to data privacy and security is evident in their comprehensive security measures, including free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates, domain privacy, multi-factor authentication, anti-spam filters, daily backups, and DDoS protection. They also offer advanced security features such as DreamShield for malware removal and mod_security and lua-resty-waf as web application firewalls.

Webflow, on the other hand, also ensures the privacy and security of user data by implementing robust encryption techniques and strict access controls. They also regularly update their systems and conduct audits to identify and address any potential vulnerabilities. However, Dreamhost’s more comprehensive security measures give it the edge in this comparison.

🏆 Winner: Webflow

. Although Webflow’s AI capabilities are not yet available, they have announced plans to introduce AI features that will enhance the user experience. These include AI-customized templates, AI-powered content management capabilities, and smart suggestions for design elements and layouts.

Dreamhost, with a score of 1.2, only offers an AI business name generator. It does not have any other AI capabilities, making it less competitive in this category.

🏆 Winner: Dreamhost

. Both Webflow and Dreamhost offer different approaches to user management, with Dreamhost offering more flexibility and control over user roles and permissions.

• Webflow’s user management varies by plan, with Core, Growth, and Enterprise plans offering unlimited editors, while others limit content editors to 3 or 10 per site. Access levels include Designer for full access and Editor for content editing. Workspace roles like Admin, Designer, and Editor ensure collaboration and security through features like the Site Activity Log and role-based permissions.
• DreamHost’s website builder primarily uses WordPress, which allows for multiple users to edit a website. While DreamHost doesn’t specify a limit on the number of users, WordPress enables the addition of numerous users with various roles such as Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor, and Subscriber. Each role has its own set of permissions and capabilities, allowing for flexible and controlled access for different users.

Webflow User Roles and Access Levels:

Dreamhost User Roles and Access Levels:

Additional Features

User Feedback

Webflow receives high praise for its user-friendly interface, eliminating the need for coding while offering extensive design flexibility. Users appreciate its scalability, cost-effectiveness, and seamless integration of essential features like forms and CMS. However, some users note a slight learning curve and occasional limitations, particularly in ecommerce functionalities and content management. Overall, Webflow proves to be a powerful tool for building and managing websites, offering robust features for both beginners and experienced developers, albeit with some room for improvement in certain areas like collaborative editing and content management.

Users appreciate DreamHost WP Website Builder 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.

FAQ