Is Dreamhost right for your website? This Dreamhost hosting review dives deep into the pros and cons of Dreamhost, so you can make the decision whether or not to purchase this hosting.
Our Verdict: Affordable And High-Performance WordPress Host
Dreamhost is known for its outstanding WordPress hosting, along with its feature-rich shared hosting plans. Every plan is backed with a 100% uptime guarantee, and a 97-day money-back guarantee. You’ll find rock-solid performance at an affordable price.
Read on our honest and unbiased Dreamhost review to learn more.
Pros
- Free domain name
- 97-day money-back guarantee
- Free SSL certificate
- FREE Privacy Protection
- Top-notch WordPress hosting
- US based 24/7 Expert Support
- 100% uptime guaranteed (No other companies offer this)
Cons
- Live chat support can be limited
- Some people don’t like the custom control panel
- No free migration on the shared hosting plan
TL;DR: Best option for feature-rich shared hosting and affordable managed WordPress
Are There Any Coupons Or Discounts?
Yes – you can currently save $50 on Dreamhost shared hosting plans with this exclusive coupon.
Dreamhost Overview
Dreamhost was founded in 1996, making it one of the longest-running independent hosts on the market today. Currently, they host over 1.5 million websites, with over 400,000 different hosting accounts open.
Plus, they’re endorsed by WordPress.org, the creators of WordPress, so you already know they’re going to be an outstanding host for WordPress.
Beyond WordPress, you’ll find a ton of other hosting options as well, like shared, dedicated, Managed WordPress hosting, VPS, and WooCommerce hosting. They continuously innovate in terms of server technology, which means a high-performance server stack to power your website.
If you’re just getting started online, then you’ll be happy to know that they have everything required to get your site up and running. For example, no matter which plan you choose you’ll get a free domain name, SSL certificate, a bundled website builder, and a one-click WordPress installer.
Finally, you get a 97-day money-back guarantee. This is also one of the longest guarantees in the industry and gives you plenty of time to test out the service to see if it’s right for you.
DreamHost Review – Is Dreamhost Perfect For Your Site?
Dreamhost might just be the perfect host for your new website. Why doesn’t every new WordPress site owner use Dreamhost?
It all comes down to your needs as a website owner, your budget, and the type of hosting you’re looking for.
If you’re in the market for an affordable shared hosting plan, that’s packed with advanced level features, then this could be the perfect host. The WordPress plans are also top-notch and have the seal of approval of WordPress.org.
Hopefully, by the end of this Dreamhost review you’ll be able to know if this is the host you’ve been looking for.
I’ve been using Cloudways since January 2016 for this blog. I happily recommend Cloudways to my readers because I am a proud customer.
Dreamhost Website Hosting Plans
Dreamhost offers a variety of different hosting plans. No matter what kind of site you’re running you’ll be able to find the perfect plan for your website.
Whether you’re looking for shared, WordPress, cloud, VPS, or dedicated, you’ll find what you’re looking for here. The plans are fairly priced and packed with features, plus you’ll never be wanting for loading speeds, uptime, or overall site performance.
Below we break down the ins and outs of all the Dreamhost web hosting plans:
Shared Hosting
With shared hosting, you’ll be sharing server space with hundreds of other websites, which helps to keep costs low. But, the server is partitioned, so each site owner will get dedicated space and resources.
Shared hosting is a great choice for those who are just getting started online.
Dreamhost is a big player in the shared hosting market. It’s one of the main offers and the biggest group of users they serve. These shared hosting plans are best suited for blogs, small businesses, and personal sites, as well as portfolio sites.
Even the cheapest shared hosting plan is equipped with more than enough features to get your site off the ground. For example, you’ll get a 100% uptime guarantee, along with unlimited websites, bandwidth, email addresses, and storage.
WordPress users can also take advantage of the shared plan with both one-click WordPress install, or choose to have WordPress pre-installed from the start.
Here are some of the additional features that come with every shared hosting plan:
- One free domain name upon registration
- Free Dreamhost email address for your website
- The ability to host unlimited domain names (on the Unlimited plan)
- Unlimited bandwidth and storage
- Free SSL certificate
- Access to the WP Website Builder
- Automated WordPress migrations (if you’re moving from another host)
- Automated website backups
Shared Hosting Pricing
There are two different shared hosting plans for you to choose from. The biggest difference between the two plans is that the Starter plan allows you to host a single domain, while the Unlimited plan allows you to host an unlimited number of domains.
Here’s how to pricing breaks down:
- Shared Starter costs $2.59 per month.
- Shared Unlimited costs $4.59 per month.
WordPress Hosting
Dreamhost truly shines in its WordPress hosting. Like mentioned in the introduction they’re officially recommended by WordPress. This says a lot about the company and its commitment to creating some of the best WordPress hosting possible.
If you’re running a WordPress site and want to get the highest levels of performance, security, and ease of managing your site, then it makes sense to go with Dreamhost for WordPress hosting.
Dreamhost offers both shared WordPress hosting, Dreamhost managed WordPress hosting, and WooCommerce hosting for eCommerce store owners.
Shared vs Managed: What’s the Difference?
With Dreamhost, you can choose between shared and managed WordPress hosting plans. These cater to two different types of site owners.
Shared WordPress hosting is similar to standard shared hosting. You’ll be sharing server space with other website owners, which helps to keep costs low on your end.
With WordPress shared hosting the server is optimized to run WordPress, so it will be faster and have higher security standards than a typical shared host. With shared WordPress hosting, you’re also responsible for managing your server, however, the dashboard makes accomplishing these tasks very simple and straightforward.
Managed WordPress hosting is an elevated version of WordPress hosting. Instead of managing your own server, you’ll have a team of experts that takes care of optimizing your server, as well as manages aspects of your WordPress site, like updates, security, and more.
This style of hosting will be more expensive than shared, however, for some website owners, the cost is worth it, as you won’t have to spend time doing any server management tasks.
As you’ll see below there are three different tiers of WordPress hosting to choose from, along with a few different pricing tiers at each level.
Here’s how it breaks down:
Shared WordPress Pricing
This plan is best for WordPress site owners who are starting their first sites, or creating a blog.
- WordPress Starter costs $2.59 per month
- WordPress Unlimited costs $4.95 per month
DreamPress Pricing Review
These plans are fully managed WordPress hosting, the big difference between each plan is the traffic levels it can support. DreamPress can support up to 100K monthly visitors, DreamPress Plus can support up to 300K monthly visitors, and DreamPress Pro can support up to 1 million monthly visitors.
- DreamPress costs $16.95 per month
- DreamPress Plus costs $24.95 per month
- DreamPress Pro costs $71.95 per month
VPS WordPress Pricing
This style of hosting is perfect for sites that need to scale. VPS hosting is also a more customizable solution and gives you more control over your server resources. It’s also a great choice for those who run multiple WordPress sites.
There are different plans to choose from, based on the level of RAM and storage you require:
- VPS Basic costs $10.00 per month
- VPS Business costs $20.00 per month
- VPS Professional costs $40.00 per month
- VPS Enterprise costs $80.00 per month
WooCommerce Hosting
The final type of WordPress hosting is WooCommerce hosting. The WooCommerce plans have the same pricing as the managed WordPress hosting plans mentioned above.
However, they’ve been optimized to get the most out of WooCommerce. This means super-fast loading speeds, guaranteed uptime, server caching, on-demand backups, plus 24/7 expert WordPress, and WooCommerce support.
So, if you ever run into an issue with your store you can reach out to one of their helpful technical experts.
Cloud Hosting Plans
Cloud hosting is a unique form of hosting that relies upon cloud infrastructure to create one server spread across multiple physical servers. This network of virtual servers is referred to as a cloud cluster.
This unique server setup allows for a very scalable, secure, high uptime, and high performing type of hosting.
Dreamhost’s cloud hosting is called DreamCloud. It’s comprised of two components, DreamComputer (a public cloud computing service), and DreamObjects (a scalable storage solution).
With this cloud setup, you can deploy your customized cloud servers in less than 30 seconds. Plus, you can scale up this cloud server at a moment’s notice. This server setup is also blazing fast.
Overall, this form of hosting is more suited for developers and the technologically minded as it requires more setup and knowledge of how servers work to deploy your server effectively.
If you require a custom server setup, then this will probably suit your website much better than VPS.
The pricing of the DreamCloud plans depends on your resource usage and is completely customized depending on your needs. (Cloudways cloud hosting plans start at $10 per month)
VPS Hosting Plans
If you’ve outgrown standard shared hosting, or even some of the WordPress managed plans and want more control over your server, then VPS hosting might be right for you.
This kind of hosting is well-suited for larger websites, ecommerce stores, or developers who require more control over their server environment.
A VPS server gives you a virtualized private server that operates similar to a dedicated server environment. But, with a much lower price tag.
With Dreamhost VPS you’ll get features like:
- Managed security and updates
- Custom-built control panel for easy server management
- Unlimited bandwidth and traffic support
- RAM and storage that can grow with your site
- Free SSL certificate
- Support for an unlimited number of domain names
VPS Hosting Pricing
There are four different VPS hosting plans for you to choose from. The difference between each plan is the level of RAM and storage you require.
- VPS Basic costs $10.00 per month
- VPS Business costs $20.00 per month
- VPS Professional costs $40.00 per month
- VPS Enterprise costs $80.00 per month
Dedicated Server Plans
If you have a business with very large traffic needs or requires very strict levels of security, then a dedicated server might be right for you.
A dedicated server gives you access to the entire server resources of a physical server deployed towards your site and your site alone, making them the perfect servers for high traffic sites. Compare these to shared hosting where you’re sharing this same server with hundreds or thousands of other sites.
The dedicated server plans at Dreamhost are fully managed as well, which means a lot of the technical aspects of managing a dedicated server will be taken care of by a team of experts.
Dedicated servers can provide you with incredible server performance, security, and power. Plus, you have a 100% uptime guarantee as well.
Dedicated Server Pricing
There are two different dedicated server plans to choose from based upon how much power, RAM, and storage you require.
- Standard starts at $149.00 per month
- Enhanced starts at $279.00 per month
Dreamhost Best Features
If you couldn’t tell by now Dreamhost is equipped with all kinds of advanced features to help launch, grow, and manage your site.
Here are some of the best features that Dreamhost offers:
Super Fast Loading Speeds
Dreamhost isn’t the fastest host on the market, but their loading speeds do put them in the upper half of hosting providers.
One great thing is you don’t have to worry about any fluctuation in loading speeds, they’re completely consistent across the board.
The Starter shared hosting plan is pretty fast right out of the gate, but if you choose a higher-level plan your loading speeds will be even faster.
Very High Uptime + 100% Uptime Guarantee
One of the most important hosting factors is uptime. Uptime refers to the percentage of time that your site stays online. When your uptime falls below a certain point this means that your visitors won’t be able to access your site.
This could lead to a loss in money, reader trust, and even search engine rankings.
Luckily, Dreamhost packs a pretty impressive uptime that regularly clocks in at 99.94% and usually measures at 100% uptime.
Dreamhost also has a 100% uptime guarantee. So, if your uptime falls below this, then you’ll be reimbursed for the time that your site spends offline. However, even though the guarantee does spell out 100%, things like routine maintenance, or user error won’t be covered in the guarantee.
But, if it’s an issue on behalf of Dreamhost, then you’ll be reimbursed one free day of hosting for every hour your site is offline.
Industry-Leading Money-Back Guarantee
One area where Dreamhost truly shines is in its commitment to providing the best money-back guarantee possible. Most hosts opt for a 30-day money-back guarantee, while some will go a little longer than that.
However, Dreamhost offers a whopping 97-day money-back guarantee. That’s nearly 3 months to try out the hosting service to decide if it’s right for you and your website.
Plus, it’s very easy to get your refund on your hosting as well. There’s no hidden terms or conditions you have to meet, just contact Dreamhost customer support with your refund request and it’ll be issued, it’s a pretty straightforward process. However, if you purchased hosting via a check or money order, they won’t be able to issue you a refund, only if you paid for hosting via credit card.
Finally, only the purchase of hosting will be refunded under the guarantee. If you’ve purchased any add-on services, like additional SSL certificates, security add-ons, or additional domain names, then these won’t be refunded.
The Starter Plan is Very Feature Rich
Some hosts will offer incredibly cheap shared hosting plans, but then make them low performing, or won’t offer a ton of additional features. To have a quality hosting environment, you’ll need to purchase all kinds of add-ons.
Luckily, Dreamhost moves in the complete opposite direction. Even on the most basic shared hosting plan, you’ll get everything you need to create, launch, manage, and grow your website.
For example, here’s all that you get on the Shared Starter plan:
You get a free domain name and SSL certificate. Plus, this plan can support both unlimited traffic and storage.
Not only that, but you get access to Dreamhost’s own website builder. This website builder will help you build your own WordPress site with ease, all through an intuitive drag-and-drop interface. But, if you prefer to use other builders, then you can utilize the Wix, Weebly, and SquareSpace website builders as well.
Finally, WordPress comes pre-installed on the server if you’d like. You can also opt to install WordPress with the one-click install too.
Bundled WordPress Website Builder
If you’re looking to build your own WordPress site from scratch, then you can take advantage of the bundled WordPress website builder.
This builder makes it incredibly easy to build a brand-new WordPress site. Just choose from one of the 200+ starter templates and customize to your liking with the drag and drop website builder.
The builder also offers real-time feedback on how you can improve your SEO.
Even if you’re a complete beginner you can build a professional site in no time at all. It’s also very flexible and has enough features and customization options to suit more intermediate and advanced website builders as well.
This builder makes it easy to deploy your first site in record time, and it’s free for everyone who purchases a WordPress hosting plan.
They’re a Green Host
There are a handful of green hosts that are environmentally conscious. That means they purchase green energy credits to offset the energy that’s consumed through the facility and data centers.
But, they do a lot more than just buy green energy credits.
Here’s how they become one of the more green hosts on the market today:
- The office is LEED Platinum and EnergyStar-certified
- Lightning control sensors to prevent an electrical outage
- LED and CFL lighting throughout the office
- Highly optimized and balanced HVAC plans
- The data centers have high-efficiency cooling infrastructure
- Powered by an electrical grid powered by renewable energy sources
- Partnered with state-level “clean wind” programs
As you can see, Dreamhost goes above and beyond in their commitment to green energy. so if you’re environmentally-conscious, or operate in a related industry, then this host should be on your list.
Unlimited Space and Bandwidth Available
A lot of hosts say they offer “unlimited” bandwidth and space, but it turns out there are all kinds of limits. However, Dreamhost’s unlimited is about as close to you can get on the shared hosting plans.
Essentially, unlimited means that you don’t have to fret about bumping into storage or bandwidth limits as your site and traffic continue to grow. Now, there are some limits to this, you won’t be able to continually hog server resources, without upgrading to a larger plan, but for the early growth phases of your site, you’ll be supported.
Once your site hits a certain threshold you’ll need to upgrade to a larger plan, but by then you should have the budget to afford higher Dreamhost pricing.
The only real restrictions are with email, where there’s a 2GB limit, and MySQL databases, which will be limited to a few GB as well.
Overall, your site will be supported in the early to middle stages of its growth.
Dreamhost User Reviews
In this Dreamhost review, we’ve already covered a ton of the features that Dreamhost offers, but when the time comes to decide on your new host, you’ll want as much information as possible.
One of the best ways to gather information is to read real-life Dreamhost reviews from real people. The opinions of real people who have used the service over time can be very valuable in helping to illuminate any blind spots.
From what we’ve been able to find about Dreamhost, most users are very satisfied with the service. Some of the big advantages include the cheap and feature-rich shared hosting plan, and the zero renewal rate increase.
The only real drawbacks that users have mentioned is they wish the control panel had a bit better and more intuitive design. At times, it can be hard to find what you’re looking for.
Also, you can find more Dreamhost user reviews on TrustPilot. Dreamhost has excellent 4.6 overall star ratings on TrustPilot.
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
In this Dreamhost review, we would like to answer some of the frequently asked questions. Here are some most common frequently asked questions (FAQ) on Dreamhost.
Is Dreamhost a good web host?
Dreamhost is a pretty great host, you can’t go wrong with any of their hosting plans. It has rock-solid performance, incredible uptime, and impressive WordPress hosting plans.
The default starter plan is one of the best due to the sheer amount of features it provides. Plus, the renewal rates are incredible, as there’s no increase in pricing after your first term, you get to renew at the regular rate.
Is DreamHost better than Bluehost or HostGator?
Overall, it depends upon your needs, budget, and what type of website you’re running. Both Bluehost and Dreamhost are recommended by WordPress and provide similar services.
However, Dreamhost seems to be more feature-rich, while Bluehost has faster loading speeds. If you’re hosting WordPress, then BlueHost and Dreamhost are better choices than HostGator. However, HostGator has competitive pricing and better performance across the board.
Does Dreamhost use cPanel?
Dreamhost does not use cPanel or any other pre-built control panels, like Plesk or vDeck. Instead, they developed their proprietary control panel called the Dreamhost Panel.
The goal of this control panel was to create something intuitive and easy to use that made it even easier to accomplish hosting and website-related tasks.
If you’re coming from cPanel there might be a slight adjustment period. But, in time you’ll be able to accomplish tasks quickly and effectively.
What is the best hosting plan for WordPress?
You can host a WordPress site on the shared and WordPress hosting plans, but the WordPress-specific plans will help you get the most out of your WordPress site. Dreamhost offers both unmanaged and managed WordPress hosting plans.
If you want their technical team to fully manage your WordPress site for you, including updates and optimization, then choose the managed plan. But, if you want to handle updates and manage your site yourself (while saving money), then opt for the unmanaged WordPress hosting plan.
What is DreamPress?
DreamPress is DreamHost’s managed WordPress hosting plan. Essentially, it’s a scalable service that gives users more control over their server environment.
You can easily manage your server environment with advanced caching and memory, and scale up your server at a moment’s notice.
Other features of this service include site staging areas, daily automatic backups, email accounts, and custom site caching.
You can also migrate your existing site to DreamPress for free with a single plugin, no coding, or advanced technical knowledge is required.
Should I Buy Managed WordPress Hosting or Shared Hosting?
Managed WordPress hosting and shared hosting are two very different plans. Shared hosting is best for people who are building their very first sites, or have sites that are going to stay small on purpose.
Managed WordPress hosting is better for users who already have WordPress sites that are getting a decent volume of traffic. Or, WordPress site owners who want an optimized server environment and have a decent budget from the start.
Is Dreamhost owned by EIG?
Dreamhost is one of the big hosting companies that aren’t actually owned by EIG. Most other big hosting companies fall under the EIG umbrella, including competitors like Bluehost and HostGator.
If you prefer to work with a company that doesn’t fall under the large corporate umbrella, then this could be the high-performing host you’ve been looking for.
Can DreamHost help me to migrate my website?
Yes, but it depends on what plan you’re using. If you’re on one of the more advanced plans, then a free migration can be part of your plan. But, if you’re on a plan that doesn’t have the free migration, then you can pay $99 and have them fully migrate your site for you.
If you prefer to migrate your site yourself and avoid the migration fee, then you can use the extensive knowledge base to migrate your site, and Dreamhost customer service may be able to help with migration questions.
Could I host an image-heavy site with DreamHost?
Yes, but it depends on your plan and the overall size of the image files. For example, if you’re trying to host hundreds of images that aren’t compressed or optimized for the web, then your site is going to load very slowly.
On the shared hosting plan, you’ll probably reach the storage limits much faster if you’re hosting a ton of images. But, if they’re compressed and the image file size is smaller, you’ll have more leeway.
Overall, it’s about the size of the image files, instead of the actual images themselves.
Most Popular Dreamhost Alternatives
If you’re not sold on Dreamhost there are a few reasonable alternatives that you can explore:
Dreamhost vs Bluehost
Both Bluehost and Dreamhost are officially recommended by WordPress, so both boast high-quality WordPress hosting plans. Bluehost tends to be a little faster and offers cheaper prices, but you really can’t go wrong with either hosting company.
Dreamhost vs A2 Hosting
Dreamhost and A2 Hosting are pretty different hosts. Dreamhost offers high-performing servers but truly shines with its WordPress hosting options. A2, on the other hand, is all about performance and speed, but caters to more mid-range sites, or those who have a higher budget for hosting.
Dreamhost vs Siteground
Dreamhost and Siteground are also two hosts recommended by WordPress, and both provide a very high-quality service. However, SiteGround might edge out Dreamhost for the fact that they offer industry-leading customer support.
Dreamhost Review: Closing Thoughts
In this Dreamhost review, we have already reviewed almost every feature of DreamHost website hosting plans. Finally, here is the summary of Dreamhost review.
DreamHost is an incredible hosting company that you can’t go wrong with.
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They have very high performance across the board, including fast loading speeds and very impressive uptime. The shared starter plan has a lot of impressive features that are usually reserved for higher-level plans. Plus, the no renewal pricing increase sets the host apart from the rest.
Factor in the 97-day money-back guarantee and there’s really no reason not to give Dreamhost a try.
If you want to get Dreamhost for the cheapest price possible, then take advantage of our $50 Dreamhost coupon on unlimited shared hosting via this promo link.
If you like our unbiased, honest Dreamhost review, please share it with your friends. Also, if you have any questions regarding Dreamhost or our Dreamhost review, feel free to ask via comments. If you like to add a Dreamhost user review, please comment.