Analysis
Pros
- Excellent customer support (Chat)
- Easy dashboard
- Very cheap
Cons
- Slow servers sometime
- No Phone Support
When it comes to web hosting, there are numerous providers to choose from, each offering varying levels of service, performance, and support. One such provider that stands out in the crowded space is DreamHost. DreamHost has been in the web hosting industry since 1997 and is known for its reliability, transparency, and commitment to customer satisfaction. With over two decades of experience, DreamHost is now home to over 1.5 million websites, applications, and blogs across the globe. But is it the right web hosting solution for you?
This review will examine DreamHost’s features, performance, pricing, and support options in depth to help you determine if it’s the right choice for your hosting needs.
Overview
DreamHost offers a range of hosting solutions, including shared hosting, virtual private servers (VPS), managed WordPress hosting, and dedicated hosting. It is a popular choice among beginners and advanced users alike, particularly for those running WordPress websites. DreamHost is also one of the few hosting providers recommended by WordPress.org, which gives it a strong foothold in the WordPress hosting space.
Unlike many other hosting providers, DreamHost has a reputation for its no-nonsense pricing structure, with no hidden fees and transparent terms. It also provides robust security features, fast speeds, and a 100% uptime guarantee, which sets it apart from many competitors.
Key Features of DreamHost
DreamHost is designed to be a comprehensive solution for website owners of all experience levels. Let’s dive into the core features that make DreamHost stand out.
1. DreamHost’s Uptime Guarantee
One of DreamHost’s most impressive promises is its 100% uptime guarantee. While many hosting providers offer a 99.9% uptime guarantee, DreamHost goes a step further by committing to ensuring that your website will be accessible at all times. If they fail to meet this promise, DreamHost will compensate users with a free day of service for every hour of downtime their website experiences.
According to PCMag, DreamHost generally holds up to this promise with consistently high uptime in independent testing. Websites hosted on DreamHost are available to users without significant disruptions, which is a critical factor for businesses that cannot afford frequent outages.
2. Performance and Speed
Website speed plays a crucial role in both user experience and search engine rankings. DreamHost offers SSD (Solid State Drive) storage on all of its hosting plans, which provides faster read/write speeds compared to traditional HDD storage. SSD storage is known to improve overall website performance and significantly reduce page load times.
DreamHost also offers built-in caching for its WordPress hosting plans. Caching improves site performance by storing frequently accessed data, ensuring that it can be delivered to users more quickly. Furthermore, DreamHost allows users to take advantage of PHP 8, the latest version of the PHP scripting language, which offers faster processing speeds and enhanced security features.
According to CyberNews, DreamHost’s use of SSDs and modern server technology enables fast load times, making it a reliable option for both small and large websites.
3. Easy-to-Use Control Panel
Unlike many web hosting providers that use cPanel, DreamHost has developed its own custom control panel. This control panel is user-friendly, with a clean interface that allows users to manage domains, email accounts, databases, and websites with ease. The dashboard is intuitive and doesn’t overwhelm beginners with too many technical options.
DreamHost also makes it easy to install applications like WordPress with a one-click installer. Whether you’re a beginner launching your first website or an experienced developer managing multiple domains, DreamHost’s control panel is designed to simplify website management.
4. Website Builder
For those who prefer not to work with code, DreamHost offers a drag-and-drop website builder called Remixer. This tool allows users to create professional-looking websites without needing to know HTML or CSS. Remixer is a great option for small businesses or individuals looking to quickly build a functional website without hiring a developer.
While Remixer offers ease of use, DreamHost also supports more robust website-building platforms like WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal, giving users the flexibility to choose the best tool for their project.
5. Unlimited Bandwidth and Storage
DreamHost’s shared hosting plans come with unlimited bandwidth and storage, which is a significant advantage for users who don’t want to worry about exceeding limits on website traffic or storage space. This makes DreamHost a great option for websites that expect to grow over time or experience traffic spikes during promotions or events.
For WordPress websites, DreamHost also offers unlimited email accounts as part of its shared hosting plans, which provides additional value for businesses needing professional email addresses for employees or customer support.
6. Free Domain and SSL Certificate
DreamHost offers a free domain for the first year with its annual hosting plans, making it easier for new users to get started without having to purchase a domain separately. Additionally, all hosting plans come with a free SSL certificate, which is essential for website security. SSL certificates encrypt data between a website and its visitors, ensuring that sensitive information (such as credit card details) remains secure.
7. Free WordPress Migrations
For WordPress users, DreamHost provides free site migration to its platform. Users can migrate their WordPress site to DreamHost with minimal downtime, thanks to the platform’s automated migration plugin. This is a great feature for those who are looking to switch hosting providers but are worried about the complexity of moving their website.
Hosting Plans and Pricing
DreamHost offers several different hosting options to suit the needs of a wide variety of users. From shared hosting to managed WordPress hosting, here’s a breakdown of the primary plans available:
1. Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is the most affordable option offered by DreamHost. This type of hosting is ideal for individuals, bloggers, and small businesses with low to moderate traffic levels.
DreamHost offers two shared hosting plans:
- Shared Starter: Priced at $2.59 per month, this plan includes hosting for one website, unlimited traffic, and free SSL certificates. It’s perfect for users who are just getting started with their first website.
- Shared Unlimited: Starting at $3.95 per month, this plan includes unlimited websites, unlimited storage, and email hosting, making it suitable for users who need to manage multiple websites or expect higher traffic.
According to PCMag, DreamHost’s shared hosting plans offer exceptional value for money, particularly for new website owners or small businesses.
2. VPS Hosting
For websites that have outgrown shared hosting, DreamHost offers VPS hosting. VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting provides more power and flexibility, as users get their own virtual server with dedicated resources. DreamHost’s VPS plans come with SSD storage, unlimited bandwidth, and scalable resources.
VPS hosting is ideal for eCommerce websites, resource-heavy applications, or websites with high traffic volumes. DreamHost’s VPS plans start at $10 per month and include full root access, allowing developers to fully customize their hosting environment.
3. Managed WordPress Hosting (DreamPress)
DreamPress is DreamHost’s managed WordPress hosting solution. Designed specifically for WordPress websites, DreamPress offers enhanced speed, security, and automatic updates. The platform is optimized for WordPress, ensuring that websites load quickly and run smoothly.
DreamPress plans start at $16.95 per month and include features like automatic WordPress updates, daily backups, a staging environment, and built-in caching for improved performance. For WordPress users who want a hands-off hosting experience, DreamPress is an excellent option.
4. Dedicated Hosting
For large websites or businesses that require maximum performance, DreamHost offers dedicated server hosting. With dedicated hosting, users get an entire server to themselves, which means they have full control over server resources and configurations.
DreamHost’s dedicated hosting plans start at $149 per month and come with features like 1 TB of SSD storage, unlimited bandwidth, and 24/7 server monitoring. This type of hosting is ideal for enterprises, large-scale applications, or websites with significant traffic.
5. Cloud Hosting
DreamHost also offers cloud hosting through its DreamCompute service. Cloud hosting provides scalable resources on demand, making it ideal for developers and businesses that need flexibility and control. DreamCompute is built on OpenStack and provides users with full root access, SSD storage, and high-performance networking.
DreamCompute pricing starts at just $4.50 per month, making it an affordable solution for developers who want to build, test, and deploy applications in a flexible cloud environment.
Building a Website
DreamHost provides an intuitive user interface that makes web hosting simple and straightforward. Rather than cluttering the dashboard with icons like some competitors, DreamHost presents options in a clear menu in left. This makes it easy to access information on billing, domains, VPS/dedicated servers, security, apps and more. There were no issues finding any feature or setting.
DreamHost recently added the WP Site Builder, allowing to design a site immediately without long approval wait times. This is an excellent improvement and useful addition.
The WP Site Builder comes with dozens of editable themes and simple drag-and-drop functionality for adding photos , text, video and more. It is refreshingly easy to use. You also have the option for third-party applications installation like concrete5, in addition to using the builder.
Security Features
Security is a critical concern for any website owner, and DreamHost offers a range of security features to keep websites safe from threats.
1. Free SSL Certificates
As mentioned earlier, all DreamHost plans come with free SSL certificates powered by Let’s Encrypt. SSL certificates are essential for securing the data transmitted between your website and visitors, and they also improve search engine rankings since Google prioritizes HTTPS-enabled websites.
2. Domain Privacy
DreamHost offers free domain privacy for all users who register a domain through the platform. Domain privacy protects your personal information (such as your name, address, and email) from being publicly accessible in the WHOIS database. This is especially important for users who want to prevent spam and maintain their privacy online.
3. Daily Backups
DreamHost performs automatic daily backups of all websites hosted on its platform. This ensures that users can restore their website to a previous version in case of an error or security breach. Having regular backups is essential for business continuity, especially for eCommerce websites and businesses that handle sensitive data.
4. Malware Protection
DreamHost includes Malware Remover as part of its hosting plans. This tool scans your website regularly for potential threats, including viruses, malware, and suspicious activity. If malware is detected, DreamHost’s team will assist in removing it, ensuring that your website remains secure and operational.
5. DDoS Protection
DreamHost provides DDoS protection to defend against distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. DDoS attacks flood a server with traffic, potentially causing it to crash and rendering the website unavailable to users. DreamHost’s protection helps mitigate the effects of such attacks, ensuring that your website remains accessible even during heavy traffic surges.
Pros and Cons of DreamHost
Pros
- 100% Uptime Guarantee: DreamHost’s commitment to uptime is unmatched in the industry, with a guarantee that compensates users for any downtime.
- Affordable Pricing: DreamHost’s shared hosting plans are competitively priced, making them accessible to beginners and small businesses.
- Fre22e Domain and SSL Certificates: DreamHost includes a free domain for the first year and free SSL certificates, providing excellent value for new users.
- Unlimited Bandwidth and Storage: Shared hosting plans come with unlimited bandwidth and storage, ensuring that users don’t have to worry about traffic spikes or storage limitations.
- Excellent Security Features: DreamHost includes free SSL certificates, daily backups, domain privacy, and malware protection, making it a secure hosting provider.
- Flexible Hosting Options: DreamHost offers a range of hosting solutions, including shared hosting, VPS, managed WordPress hosting, and dedicated servers, ensuring that it can meet the needs of various users.
- Transparent Pricing: DreamHost is known for its transparent pricing structure with no hidden fees or upsells, making it easy for users to understand their costs upfront.
Cons
- No Free Phone Support: While DreamHost offers 24/7 live chat and email support, phone support is only available as a paid add-on, which may be a drawback for users who prefer speaking with a support agent.
- Custom Control Panel: DreamHost’s custom control panel may take some getting used to for users who are accustomed to cPanel, which is more widely used in the hosting industry.
- Limited Free Site Migrations: While DreamHost offers free WordPress migrations, users with non-WordPress sites will need to handle the migration themselves or pay for assistance.
WordPress Hosting
DreamHost offers dedicated WordPress hosting plans at affordable prices, from basic shared hosting to managed VPS and dedicated server options.
The WordPress Basic plan starts at $4.95/month with 50GB of storage, email, unlimited bandwidth and free WordPress themes. The DreamPress plan lines provide managed WordPress hosting, with automatic updates, backups and security.
The DreamPress plan starts at $12/month with 30GB of storage, unlimited email/bandwidth and up to 100,000 monthly visitors. DreamPress Plus is $24/month, doubling storage and bandwidth with a CDN for faster loading, up to 300,000 visitors. DreamPress Pro is $71.95/month with 120GB storage, 1 million visitors and a CDN.
DreamPress allows installing any plugin, whereas competitors may restrict a few for performance. DreamHost recently added staging sites, allowing testing new features on another site instance.
While DreamPress is impressive, A2 Hosting is an Editor’s Choice for WordPress hosting. It has an optimized environment claimed to be 6x faster, and WordPress plans offer unlimited storage and bandwidth.
E-Commerce Options
DreamHost offers useful ecommerce tools and resources to support online stores. This includes the free ZenCart shopping cart software and integration with the popular WooCommerce plugin.
ZenCart allows quickly setting up a product catalog and checkout process for an ecommerce store. It is open-source ecommerce software that can be accessed through DreamHost’s One Click Install menu. Users can then browse and purchase the products you offer. ZenCart also seamlessly integrates with WooCommerce.
Additionally, DreamHost provides a $100 Google AdWords credit and includes Chartbeat for analytics and traffic reports. This differs from most hosts that only include Google Analytics.
Chartbeat provides detailed statistics on your site’s visitors, pages viewed, geographic reach, referrers and more. The AdWords credit can help boost traffic and conversions through search advertising. These features, along with ZenCart/WooCommerce support, give you resources for optimizing an ecommerce store hosted on DreamHost.
Security and Other Features
DreamHost provides some useful security features and options, though antimalware protection is noticeably lacking.
The control panel has an easy to find link for editing the .htaccess file to control site access or set up passwords. You can block spiders from indexing parts of the site. Cron jobs automate tasks and monitor processes. And free SSL certificates enable secure ecommerce storefronts.
DreamHost also includes Subversion for source code management, useful for developers. Many hosts limit available tools to their marketplace listings, but Subversion is included for setting up your own repository. Of course, many now prefer Git, but Subversion provides an option.
Finally, DreamHost offers DreamObjects cloud storage separate from website hosting plans. Plans start at $0.95/month for 40GB and go up to $299.95/month for 20TB of storage.
So while comprehensive security may be missing full antimalware, DreamHost does provide some key features and options, especially useful .htaccess functionality, SSL and source control tools. And affordable cloud storage is available if you simply want file storage space.
For basic needs, DreamHost security and tools could work great, but more robust protection from threats may be lacking. Many users will likely find the limitations around antimalware an issue, despite other inclusion. But for personal, lightly trafficked sites, the provided features may suit your requirements well enough at an attractive price point. And of course, you can also implement additional security through plugins, access to .htaccess and other means.
Terrific Uptime
Website uptime refers to how consistently a site remains available and accessible. Outages or downtime can prevent customers from accessing a site, harming business.
To assess DreamHost uptime, we monitored a site hosted on their platform for 14 days. Every 15 minutes, a tool pinged the site and alerted us if unable to contact it for over a minute.
The results showed DreamHost provides incredibly stable uptime. The site did not go down during testing and DreamHost has only experienced a single, brief failure in many months.
You can trust DreamHost to deliver a solid, reliable foundation with minimal downtime for your website. Their reputation for uptempo is well deserved based on this experience. Of course, outages are still possible with any host, but the likelihood seems very small on DreamHost’s infrastructure.
Customer Support
From experience and the reviews left by the users of Payment Depot, this merchant service provider supports its customers via:
24/7 Help & Support
24/7
customer Support is Available
Phone Support
Phone support
between 8 am and 5 pm on
weekdays.
Email support is available
and also 24/4 using contact
form on website
FAQ
Basic
FAQ section on website
How DreamHost Compares to Other Hosting Providers
DreamHost vs. Bluehost
Both DreamHost and Bluehost are popular choices for web hosting, but they cater to slightly different audiences. Bluehost is known for its beginner-friendly setup, affordable pricing, and close integration with WordPress, while DreamHost is known for its transparent pricing and 100% uptime guarantee.
DreamHost is a better option for users who prioritize performance and security, thanks to its SSD storage, free SSL certificates, and built-in malware protection. On the other hand, Bluehost may be a better option for beginners due to its intuitive interface and lower starting price for shared hosting plans.
DreamHost vs. SiteGround
SiteGround is another popular hosting provider known for its excellent customer support and fast performance. Both DreamHost and SiteGround offer strong WordPress hosting solutions, but SiteGround is often praised for its customer service and advanced features like Git integration and staging environments.
DreamHost’s pricing is generally lower than SiteGround, making it a more affordable option for users who need basic hosting. However, SiteGround’s performance may be better suited for users with more demanding websites or eCommerce businesses that require faster load times and more robust customer support.
DreamHost vs. A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting is known for its speed and performance, especially when it comes to WordPress hosting. Like DreamHost, A2 Hosting offers SSD storage, free SSL certificates, and a range of hosting solutions. A2 Hosting also boasts Turbo Servers, which claim to deliver up to 20x faster performance.
While A2 Hosting excels in speed, DreamHost stands out for its 100% uptime guarantee and transparent pricing. DreamHost is a better option for users who value reliability and cost-effective hosting, while A2 Hosting may be the right choice for users who prioritize speed above all else.
Conclusion
DreamHost is a reliable and well-established web hosting provider that offers a range of hosting solutions designed to meet the needs of various users. With its 100% uptime guarantee, transparent pricing, and robust security features DreamHost stands out as an excellent choice for individuals, bloggers, small businesses, and even large enterprises.
DreamHost is especially well-suited for WordPress users, as it offers managed WordPress hosting with features like automatic updates, built-in caching, and daily backups. Additionally, its free site migrations for WordPress users make it an attractive option for those looking to switch from another hosting provider.
While DreamHost does have some limitations, such as the lack of free phone support and a custom control panel that may take some time to get used to, these drawbacks are outweighed by its strong uptime performance, affordable pricing, and comprehensive hosting solutions.
In conclusion, if you’re looking for a web hosting provider that offers reliable performance, strong security, and excellent value for money, DreamHost is definitely worth considering. Whether you’re a beginner launching your first website or a seasoned developer managing multiple projects, DreamHost has the features and flexibility to meet your hosting needs.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Yes, DreamHost provides a 97-day money-back guarantee for its shared hosting plans. This generous refund policy gives users ample time to test the service and cancel for a full refund if they are not satisfied.
Absolutely. DreamHost is one of the hosting providers recommended by WordPress.org and offers specialized WordPress hosting with features like automatic updates, built-in caching, and free migrations for WordPress sites.
DreamHost includes several security features, such as free SSL certificates, daily backups, malware scanning, and DDoS protection to keep websites secure from various threats.
