DreamHost is the 9th biggest hosting company with some of the most affordable prices out there. It’s now time to review DreamHost and see if they deserve the 400k customers they have.
About DreamHost
DreamHost is a Los Angeles-based web hosting provider founded in a dorm room in 1996 by Dallas Bethune, Josh Jones, Michael Rodriguez, and Sage Weil. Over the last 18 years, they became one of the biggest hosting companies and they now host over 1.5 million websites.
Pros & Cons of DreamHost
Even though DreamHost is currently one of the biggest web hosting companies in the world, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s one of the best. Here are all the pros and cons of DreamHost and why they matter.
Pros
- Affordable prices: With prices starting at $2.59 a month, it’s one of the cheapest options.
- Performance: Overall, DreamHost performs really well and is one of the fastest hosting providers.
- Unlimited: All hosting plans come with unlimited bandwidth, MySQL databases, and SFTP users.
- Great backend: DreamHost’s backend is modern and easy to use.
- No upsells or upgrades: Most hosting providers will push you to buy upsells or upgrades for your hosting. DreamHost offers most of them for free.
- 97-day money-back guarantee: DreamHost offers a 97 days guarantee on their hosting plans.
- 100% uptime guarantee: DreamHost guarantees an uptime of 100% or they’ll give you a refund.
Cons
- Not many 1-click installs: They only have 1-click installs for a few CMS like WordPress.
- Only US-location: They don’t have servers outside the US.
- No email account in the starter plan: Email plans are a paid extra in the starter plan.
- Some features missing: Some advanced features like staging, built-in caching, or advanced backup solutions.
- Support: DreamHost doesn’t offer live chat support 24 hours a day.
DreamHost Performance & UpTime
So, how does DreamHost stack up against the competition in terms of performance and uptime?
DreamHost Performance
No one wants to wait ages for a website to load. Having a slow website can harm your user engagement and make your website rank lower on search engines.
That’s why you need a fast hosting provider that offers the fastest websites possible.
According to WebsiteToolTester, DreamHost ranked 6th out of 13 hosting providers in their speed tests. Their average loading time was 2.35s, close to the fastest hosting provider (SiteGround) with a loading time of 2.1s.
DreamHost Uptime
Over the last 24 months, DreamHost averages 99.77% as of December 2020. That’s really good and some of the months even reached 100% uptime!
In addition to that, DreamHost offers a 100% uptime guarantee or they will give you some money back.
Overall, DreamHost’s performance and uptime are above average and not too far behind SiteGround.
DreamHost Security & Sites Backups
The security of a website is a really important criterion to take into consideration while choosing a hosting provider. If your hosting provider doesn’t offer good security, there’s nothing you can do about it.
Free SSL
DreamHost offers Free SSL on all their plans through Let’s Encrypt. This is a really good selling point since most hosting providers will try to sell SSL as an extra. For example, GoDaddy sells SSL for $63.99.
Also, SSL is now an important ranking factor for Google and if your website doesn’t have it, you won’t be able to rank as high on search engines.
Multi-Factor Authentification
DreamHost also offers multi-factor authentification on their backend panel. I would strongly recommend using this feature since a hacker wouldn’t be able to get into your account with a simple password. They would also need the unique login code that will be sent to you via email, text message, or Google Authenticator.
DreamShield
DreamShield is a paid security app developed by DreamHost to keep your website secure. DreamShield will automatically scan your website every week to make sure it’s free of malicious code and secure.
In my opinion, it’s a little bit expensive and should be offered for free with all websites, but, if you have a website with a lot of traffic, it might be a good idea to sign up for it.
Backups
DreamHost keeps daily backups of your website and you can access to last 8 backups for free. It’s really easy to use and you can also create backups on demand.
DreamHost Customer Support & Help
DreamHost’s customer support is one of their biggest downsides. Their live chat is only available from 5:30 AM to 9:30 PM Pacific time. Outside of those hours, you would need to create a support ticket which is way slower than the live chat.
DreamHost Hosting Plans & Prices
So, DreamHost offers one of the fastest web hosting services with great security features and uptimes, what about the prices? Here are all the plans they offer and their prices.
WordPress
If you’re looking to create a simple WordPress website without advanced features, this is the best option for you. Here what plans they offer for WordPress hosting:
WordPress Starter
The WordPress Starter plan starts at $2.59/mo for 3 years or $4.95/mo without commitment and offers the following:
- 1 Website
- .com domain for $5.99
- WordPress pre-installed
- Free WordPress Migrations
- WP Website Builder
- Fast SSD Storage
- Free SSL Certificate
- Add Email for $1.67/mo
WordPress Unlimited
The WordPress Unlimited plan starts at $4.95/mo for 3 years or $10.95/mo without commitment and offers the following:
- Unlimited Website
- .com domain for $5.99
- Unlimited Traffic
- WordPress pre-installed
- Free WordPress Migrations
- WP Website Builder
- Fast SSD Storage
- Free SSL Certificate
- Unlimited Email with your domain
DreamPress
If you already have a lot of traffic to your website and need more features than the basic WordPress plans, this is the best option for you.
DreamPress
The DreamPress plan starts at $16.95/mo for 1 year or $12.00/mo without commitment and offers the following:
- Built for 100k monthly visitors
- Unlimited Emails
- 30GB SSD Storage
- Unmetered Bandwidth
- 1-Click Staging
- SSL Certificate Pre-Installed
- On-Demand + Daily Backups
- 24/7 WordPress Support
- Jetpack Free Pre-Installed
- Free Automated WordPress Migrations
- WP Website Builder
DreamPress Plus
The DreamPress Plus plan starts at $24.95/mo for 1 year or $24.00/mo without commitment and offers the following:
- Built for 300k monthly visitors
- Unlimited Emails
- 60GB SSD Storage
- Unmetered Bandwidth
- 1-Click Staging
- SSL Certificate Pre-Installed
- On-Demand + Daily Backups
- 24/7 WordPress Support
- Jetpack Free Pre-Installed
- Free Automated WordPress Migrations
- WP Website Builder
- Unlimited CDN
DreamPress Pro
The DreamPress Pro plan starts at $71.95/mo for 1 year or $79.95/mo without commitment and offers the following:
- Built for 1M+ monthly visitors
- Unlimited Emails
- 120GB SSD Storage
- Unmetered Bandwidth
- 1-Click Staging
- SSL Certificate Pre-Installed
- On-Demand + Daily Backups
- 24/7 Priority WordPress Support
- Jetpack Free Pre-Installed
- Free Automated WordPress Migrations
- WP Website Builder
- Unlimited CDN
VPS WordPress
If you want total control over your hosting, a VPS is the best option.
VPS Basic
The VPS Basic plan starts at $10.00/mo for 3 years or $15.00/mo without commitment and offers the following:
- 1GB of ram
- 30GB SSD Storage
- Unlimited Websites
- Unlimited Traffic
- Free SSL Certificate
- Unlimited Emails
VPS Business
The VPS Basic plan starts at $20.00/mo for 3 years or $30.00/mo without commitment and offers the following:
- 2GB of ram
- 60GB SSD Storage
- Unlimited Websites
- Unlimited Traffic
- Free SSL Certificate
- Unlimited Emails
VPS Professional
The VPS Basic plan starts at $40.00/mo for 3 years or $60.00/mo without commitment and offers the following:
- 4GB of ram
- 120GB SSD Storage
- Unlimited Websites
- Unlimited Traffic
- Free SSL Certificate
- Unlimited Emails
VPS Enterprise
The VPS Basic plan starts at $80.00/mo for 3 years or $120.00/mo without commitment and offers the following:
- 8GB of ram
- 240GB SSD Storage
- Unlimited Websites
- Unlimited Traffic
- Free SSL Certificate
- Unlimited Emails
Is DreamHost the right choice for you?
If you’re looking for a hosting provider that’s affordable, don’t need advanced features, and don’t mind having average loading speeds, DreamHost is the best choice for you.
On the other hand, if you’re looking to build the fastest website possible, I would recommend SiteGround instead.
3 Responses
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