DreamHost

Powerful hosting products at an affordable price.

DreamHost is a reliable hosting provider with a proven record of sustainability (99,9% uptime) and high-speed SSD storage (445 ms). It provides affordable shared hosting options, starting at $2.59 a month. The basic package will allow you to host your website and not worry about disk storage or any inconveniences related to the network transferring when the site gets popular. And yes, they do offer unlimited storage even for the basic package! 

Having said that, DreamHost may offer to migrate you to a private server if you are going to overuse their kindness (either your site is pounding the CPU, hogging RAM, or doing tons of disk I/O), which would cost you extra $10-$80 monthly. They will also charge you if your business requires an additional website or if you want to add an email. The good news is that you can get your money back in case you don’t like anything (The hosting provider offers 97-day money-back guarantee).

You can reach out to support via live chat and email only. Though the support services might be limited, lots of information can be found on their comprehensive knowledge base.

Why are you going to love DreamHost?

There are several key benefits of which 1.5 million businesses have chosen DreamHost as their hosting provider:

1. It has been initially designed for WordPress hosting. It’s optimized and pre-configured for a quick start and easy maintenance (which is especially crucial for small businesses and startups who have neither resources nor the time to hassle with complicated IT-infrastructure);
2. They do not outsource their support. What does this mean to you? As soon as you reach out to a support specialist, there is an excellent chance that you will talk to somebody who knows what you’re talking about and can quickly help you with your potential issue;
3. The money-back-guarantee itself is kind of soothing. Especially when you have 97 days to experience all the pros and cons of working with the platform on your own;
4. Last but not least, if you are not an advanced hosting-provider expert, you may consider looking fo a professional opinion. WordPress.org has been recommending DreamHost for two decades now. Moreover, DH has won many top marks and positive reviews over the years.

DreamHost Features

DreamHost offers both shared and private hosting options:

• Free domain and website included with all shared options
• Unmetered bandwidth and unlimited traffic with most packages
• Free SSL Certificate
• DreamHost provides its customers with one free domain registration credit for the first year. If you already have a WordPress site, there is a free automated plugin to migrate your website easily
• WP Website Builder: a user-friendly tool to quickly build your WordPress website, offers creation wizard, free professional templates, and a drag-and-drop editor
• 24/7 in-house customer support
• Pre-installed WordPress

DreamHost Pros and Cons

DreamHost is one of the largest host-providers globally. It’s proven to be a high-performing player with guaranteed performance and uptime, and a control panel to make managing your websites and projects easy. On the other hand, it lacks backups, email inclusion, and provides limited support. 

Let’s take a closer look at the main advantages and disadvantages:

DreamHost Pros:

• Extended Money Back Guarantee: DreamHost offers an extended 97 days for new users to try their hosting service risk-free
•  Free domain name 
• Free SSL certificate: Secure your website with a free SSL encryption with Let’s Encrypt
• A free domain name makes starting a website is super easy with DreamHost
• Uptime guarantee: Several tests from various locations have proven that the average uptime is very high (99,9%). The provider also states that you could get your money back in case your website goes down
• Website builder: Quickly build attractive, functional websites in minutes, not months with Remixer, the intuitive and easy to grasp website builder using simple drag and drop principle.

DreamHost Cons:

• No professional email setup: The starter plan doesn’t come with professional email setup. For that, you’ll have to upgrade to an unlimited plan.
• No 24/7 support: Even though the provider states 24/7 support, in reality, they would only proceed with your ticket through the live chat during the operational hours: 5 am – 10 pm PST, seven days a week.
• No phone support: DreamHost doesn’t offer free phone support for their shared hosting plans. However, the combination of live-chat and knowledge base pretty much covers most of the customer’s needs.

When to use DreamHost?

DreamHost is an excellent option for businesses or blogs who are looking for an affordable hosting with high uptime and is easy to set up. 

Similarly, it’s your go-to variant if you plan to build your website on WordPress or migrate to a cost-efficient provider if you already have one. DreamHost supports PCI compliance – which is great news for e-commerce projects.

When not to use DreamHost?

It might not be ideal if your users are coming mainly from Asia and Europe since they don’t have servers outside the US. 

Furthermore, DreamHost lacks some advanced features, such as staging, no built-in caching, and advanced backup solutions. So, for more sophisticated users, SiteGround might be a better solution.

Is DreamHost easy to use? 

DreamHost’s control panel is up-to-date and has a sharp design. With this being said, some users don’t find it as intuitive as other competitors’ – those who are used to cPanel-based hosting providers. 

DreamHost allows setting a website quickly; the instructions at the knowledge base and those provided by the support are easy to follow. 

What About Pricing Plans

In this review, I’m taking a look at their affordable shared hosting options. Be aware though, they do offer higher-performing products too. Its shared hosting options are simple since they only have two tiers: 

• A Shared starter package which is suitable for those who are going to host only one website and don’t need more than 5 GB of storage. It starts at $2.59/month. Bear in mind that email storage is not included in this plan, so you will need to pay for it separately if you need it.
• The Shared unlimited plan is exceptionally generous; it offers unmetered storage, websites, and email for as low as $4.95/month.

Both plans come with free SSL certificates, 24/7 support, allow unlimited traffic, and a free domain year for the first year. DreamHost offers a month-to-month payment option. Then again, you can get a significant discount if you commit to one or even three years. 

Does Hostozilla Recommend DreamHost?

All things considered, we do.

We love the ease of use of the backend thanks to a handy side panel and intuitive design. Even though it seems very simple from the first sight, it still contains some powerful features. For instance, I like that you can give access and define roles, meaning that you don’t have to share your password and login with team members. 

Like most hosting providers these days, DreamHost offers one-click installs, but only for a limited number of CMS providers like WordPress or Zen Cart. So, if you plan to use a different CMS platform like Drupal, you’ll have to install it manually.

DreamHost has steady uptime and fast page loading speeds. Their pricing models are transparent and affordable. We also like the level of service provided and money-back guarantee. Depending on your goals and the CMS platform that you are planning to utilize, you might consider other options from our Top-10 list.

Frequently Asked Questions About DreamHost

How good is DreamHost for an eCommerce website?

DreamHost is a great option to start an e-commerce website. It’s WooCommerce hosting plan comes pre-configured with all the things you need to start an online store.  

Can I get access to a site builder or wizard on any plan?

Yes, a site builder is included with every available shared hosting option.

How do I use WordPress with DreamHost?

Since DreamHost is originally pre-configured to bundle with WordPress, it works closely with WordPress to bring you the most up to date features. The one-click WordPress installer is available at the DreamHost backend side panel as well as the WP website builder.