DreamHost Review 2022 – Is it Worth Your Money?
$1.99 / mo.
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- 1-click WordPress install
- Free SSL certificate
- Money-Back Guarantee
- Support: 24/7 phone and chat
- 100% Uptime Guarantee
- Decent Server Speed
DreamHost has been around for over two decades and proudly hosts more than 1.5 million websites worldwide. With its advanced features, reasonable pricing, and knowledgeable customer support, this hosting platform is preferred by many users.
Despite offering a number of perks and valuable features, this host also has its downsides. This article rounds up the top advantages and disadvantages of DreamHost. It’ll help you make an informed decision regarding whether or not DreamHost is a good option for you. here is my DreamHost review to decide if it’s the right choice for you.
DreamHost Overview
DreamHost is a popular web hosting provider founded in 1997 in the US. Since then, its customer count has rapidly grown, spanning more than 100 countries. As of 2022, DreamHost is home to over 400k happy customers and more than 1.5 million websites.
Even with DreamHost’s basic (shared) web hosting plan, users can get access to multiple advanced features along with freebies, like a free domain. The basic plan offers unlimited traffic, a free SSL certificate, fast SS storage, and automated daily backups.
Besides shared web hosting, you can also get other types of hosting services – managed WordPress hosting, dedicated server hosting, cloud hosting, and WooCommerce hosting are a few to mention. In terms of pricing, DreamHost is an affordable hosting service that offers nearly every feature your site may need.
DreamHost Review : Pros
Here we’ll look at the top benefits of DreamHost.
Impressive Hosting Features
One of the best things about top hosting services is that they don’t compromise on features, even in their starter plans. Access to advanced features in basic plans is beneficial for beginners and first-time users as they experience state-of-the-art services at affordable prices.
DreamHost’s basic plan (starting from $1.99/month) is feature-rich as it includes everything you need to create and manage a single website – including a free domain name, unmetered bandwidth, and SSD storage. Though other hosting plans are also available, shared hosting is a great start for anyone.
Dependable Uptime
Having your site down for a few hours can be a frustrating experience that significantly reduces your site’s conversion rate. Nobody wants their site to go down and lose potential customers. Therefore, a stable uptime is a crucial thing to consider when choosing a web hosting service.
DreamHost offers a 100% uptime guarantee to its users with confidence. This guarantee is not a sham because DreamHost stands by it. Although it is highly unlikely for your site to go down with this host’s high-tech systems, the company still offers to refund your money for the time your site goes down (if ever).
Reliable Site Speed
These days, the users’ attention span is shorter than ever. Most users leave a site between 10 to 20 seconds, and their chances of leaving a slow-loading website are even higher. This leads to a higher bounce rate and ultimately, significant loss of potential customers.
With DreamHost’s superfast servers, you can avoid the risk of losing potential traffic on your site. It has an average server response time of 118.4 ms that may get even better near the locations of DreamHost data centers.
The secret behind DreamHost’s fast servers is the fact that it stores data in SSDs instead of HDDs. Moreover, its servers are also WordPress optimized, making it run WordPress smoothly.
Unlimited SSD Storage
SSD storage is essential for having a fast-loading site. It helps find and open the desired pages on your site much faster than traditional hard drives. So, no matter how well you optimize the images on your site and use as few plugins as possible, your site will always load slower with traditional hard drives compared to SSD-based drives.
DreamHost offers SSD storage on all plans to deliver faster site loading speeds. With SSD hosting, you can expect your site to open 200% faster than traditional HDDs. Although DreamHost doesn’t offer unlimited SSD storage on its basic shared plan, it provides enough storage capacity for a single site.
Strong Security Features
Having a secure site is crucial in this digital age. Opting for a hosting service with high-end security features can protect your site against cyberattacks and data theft threats. A proactive security system can prevent cybercriminals from gaining access to confidential information.
With DreamHost’s built-in security features, you can have peace of mind in terms of site security. Although it doesn’t offer anti-malware services on its email, DreamHost has its own firewall. It also provides free SSL certificates on all plans, adding a much-needed layer of protection around your site. Besides SSL, you get SSH and SFTP access.
1-Click WordPress Install
Complicated setup processes can be a major turn-off when it comes to web hosting services. Nobody wants to rummage through tens of tabs to find what they’re looking for. Having an easy-to-set-up installation process is a blessing for WordPress users with only basic knowledge of the platform.
DreamHost offers several WordPress-friendly features along with the 1-click WordPress install feature. This feature allows you to create your own website in no time and with no technical knowledge.
Officially Recommended by WordPress
When building a new website, WordPress is the first choice of most users – new and experienced. This open-source content management system is the most popular platform, with over 455 million websites hosted on its servers. Having such autonomy in the digital world gives WordPress a certain level of authority. So, when WordPress recommends a web hosting service, it really means something.
DreamHost is one of the three hosting solutions recommended by WordPress. This recommendation endorses the reliability and authenticity of this web hosting service. This endorsement has caused DreamHost to offer more WordPress-friendly features, like 1-click installation, free migration, supporting WordPress plugins & themes, etc.
Automatic Daily Backups
One of the biggest nightmares for a website owner is losing their site data due to a malfunction. To avoid such situations, backups are necessary. Having a backup ensures you can restore your site to its previous state even after a data loss incident. With the help of automated backups, you don’t have to manually backup your data and can keep your site up-to-date.
DreamHost offers automated daily backups on all its plans. With this feature, it keeps a backup of all your data, and you can access the last 14 backups and over 5 databases. Though these features are sufficient for starter and mid-level sites, DreamHost also offers paid on-demand backup solutions.
Lots of Freebies
In addition to essential features, DreamHost offers a number of additional features for free on all its hosting plans, such as:
Free Domain
DreamHost offers a free domain name to its users if they purchase the 1-year or 3-year annual plan. However, note that the free domain name must be used within the first 3 months of hosting. Other than that, it’s only available with yearly plans and not with a month-to-month subscription.
SSL Certificate
Every website needs an SSL certificate to ensure optimal data security and prevent cyberattacks. Besides keeping your site secure, SSL helps rank your site better on Google. Thankfully, DreamHost offers a free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate on all plans.
Privacy Features
Unlike its competitors, DreamHost doesn’t charge for safeguarding your personal information. You can enjoy free privacy features by masking your personal information online with this web host.
Monthly Billing With No Setup Fee
With DreamHost, you can enjoy month-to-month hosting and cancel anytime – a rare feature in web hosting services. What’s more, you can get away with a monthly hosting service without even paying a setup fee. Plus, you get the freedom to cancel your hosting plan at any time, without long commitments.
Money-Back Guarantee
Like most other hosting services, DreamHost also offers a money-back guarantee. But unlike other services, this guarantee is not limited to 30 days. With DreamHost, you get a 97-day money-back guarantee. This is ample time to get in line with the service and find out if it’s working out for you. You’ll get a prompt refund if you cancel within 97 days
Eco-Friendly Hosting
With the world becoming more eco-conscious, people want to switch to green resources in every field of life. Since the practice of sustainability is still new in the world of web hosting, there are not many green web hosting solutions. But DreamHost isn’t one of them.
Being a certified carbon-neutral host, DreamHost makes conscious efforts to conserve precious resources. All its offices are EnergyStar and LEED-certified. Using energy-efficient HVAC systems and lighting solutions, this hosting provider is going above and beyond in its green initiatives.
DreamHost Review : Cons
Below are the main disadvantages of DreamHost.
Limitations with Support
Although DreamHost has knowledgeable and responsive support, there’s one catch. It claims to have 24/7 support, but DreamHost has set particular times for when you can get a hold of the support staff. You can submit tickets or start a live chat with the support from 3:00 am to 9:30 pm PT.
While you get a quick and helpful response during these hours, getting in touch with them may take a while if you encounter a problem in the off-hours.
No Free Email
As essential as professional email addresses are for a website, you cannot get them for free with DreamHost’s basic shared plan. It is available for purchase at $1.67/month per mailbox. While it is not too expensive, it is still a downside for DreamHost because most other providers include this feature for free. However, DreamHost’s higher plans do offer free unlimited email accounts.
Few Server Locations
Another downside of DreamHost is its lack of widespread data center locations. Currently, DreamHost only has two data centers located in Virginia and Oregon. Since its data centers aren’t located outside the US, the users from other parts of the world may not find DreamHost suitable for hosting their sites.
DreamHost Pricing
DreamHost offers different hosting plans, including shared web hosting, managed WordPress hosting, cloud hosting, dedicated server hosting, and WooCommerce hosting. Below, we’ll look at details of these packages.
Shared Web Hosting
If you want to start an online store, a blog, or a portfolio site, shared web hosting is the right option for you. The best thing about DreamHost’s shared plans is that they can handle unlimited traffic.
Key Features
- Unlimited Traffic
- Unmetered Bandwidth
- Free SSL Certificate
- Pre-installed WordPress
- Free Automated WordPress Migrations
- WP Website Builder
- Fast SSD Storage
- Automated Daily Backups
Pricing
- Shared Starter – $1.99/month. Offers mentioned features + 1 website + 50 GB site storage + 5 subdomains + 6 MySQL databases
- Shared Unlimited – $2.99/month. Offers mentioned features + unlimited websites + unlimited site storage + email accounts + unlimited subdomains + unlimited MySQL databases
Managed WordPress Hosting
DreamHost’s managed WordPress hosting is perfect for WordPress enthusiasts. It offers high-speed performance, free WordPress migrations, expert WordPress support, and powerful WordPress-friendly tools.
Key Features
- Unlimited Emails
- Unmetered Bandwidth
- 1-Click Staging
- Pre-Installed SSL Certificate
- Daily and On-Demand Backups
- Free Automated WordPress Migrations
- WP Website Builder
- 24/7 WordPress Support
Pricing
- DreamPress – $12.00/month. Offers mentioned features + 30 GB SSD storage + up to 100k monthly visitors + pre-installed Jetpack free + phone support callbacks available
- DreamPress Plus – $24.00/month. Offers mentioned features + 60 GB SSD storage + up to 300k monthly visitors + Jetpack Professional + unlimited CDN + 3 phone support callbacks
- DreamPress Pro – $79.95/month. Offers mentioned features + 120 GB SSD storage + up to 1M+ monthly visits + Jetpack Professional + unlimited CDN + 5 phone support callbacks
WooCommerce Hosting
For eCommerce websites and online shops, WooCommerce hosting is the right choice. It offers automated and secure WooCommerce optimization with guaranteed uptime and fast site loading speeds.
Key Features
- Unlimited Emails
- Unmetered Bandwidth
- Pre-installed WooCommerce
- Pre-installed Storefront Theme
- 1-Click Staging
- Pre-Installed SSL Certificate
- Daily and On-Demand Backups
- Free Automated WordPress Migrations
- WP Website Builder
- 24/7 WordPress Support
Pricing
- DreamPress – $12.00/month. Offers mentioned features + 30 GB SSD storage + up to 100k monthly visitors + pre-installed Jetpack free + phone support callbacks available
- DreamPress Plus – $24.00/month. Offers mentioned features + 60 GB SSD storage + up to 300k monthly visitors + Jetpack Professional + unlimited CDN + 3 phone support callbacks + WooCommerce support
- DreamPress Pro – $79.95/month. Offers mentioned features + 120 GB SSD storage + up to 1M+ monthly visits + Jetpack Professional + unlimited CDN + priority WordPress support + WooCommerce support + 5 phone support callbacks
VPS Hosting
VPS hosting is suitable for sites with medium-level traffic. If your site requires more flexibility than shared plans, but you don’t want to go for a dedicated server, DreamHost’s VPS hosting is the right choice for you.
Key Features
- Unlimited Websites
- Unlimited Traffic
- Free SSL Certificate
- Unlimited Email @ Your Domain
Pricing
- VPS Basic – $15.00/month. Offers mentioned features + 1 GB RAM + 30 GB SSD storage
- VPS Business – $30.00/month. Offers mentioned features + 2 GB RAM + 60 GB SSD storage
- VPS Professional – $60.00/month. Offers mentioned features + 4 GB RAM + 120 GB SSD storage
- VPS Enterprise – $120.00/month. Offers mentioned features + 8 GB RAM + 240 GB SSD storage
FAQs
Is DreamHost a good host?
Yes, DreamHost is an excellent choice for a web host. It offers an unbeatable uptime guarantee, fast SSD servers, and affordable pricing plans. Currently, the only hosting service offering lower prices than DreamHost is Hostinger. Besides pricing, this web host doesn’t compromise on features and offers top-notch quality of service.
Is DreamHost good for beginners?
DreamHost is well-known for its easy-to-manage shared hosting. It has a beginner-friendly control panel that makes all essential features accessible, and you can perform most actions within two or three clicks. Its built-in WordPress site builder makes it easy to build a website without having any technical knowledge.
Does DreamHost use cPanel?
No, the traditional cPanel is not available on DreamHost. This web hosting provider uses a custom-built panel with all the essential management features found in cPanel. Its custom panel is easy-to-use, where you can manage your sites, databases, billing, and everything else.
Is DreamHost safe to use?
DreamHost is a reliable web hosting service. This host is recommended by WordPress itself, endorsing its safety and reliability. Besides, they pay special attention to safety features, like including the Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate in all plans.
Can I Install WooCommerce on DreamHost?
Yes, WooCommerce can be easily installed on DreamHost shared hosting plans. However, you should sign up for its WooCommerce hosting plan if you’re going to use it for that. This way, you’ll get the Storefront pre-installed.
Where are DreamHost servers located?
DreamHost has only two servers, both located in the United States. Its headquarters are in Brea, California, while the data centers are located in Ashburn, Virginia, and Hillsboro, Oregon.
Final Words – Should You Opt for DreamHost?
DreamHost is a decent hosting service overall. Despite offering cheap plans, DreamHost doesn’t compromise on performance and security – keeping your site safe and protected against cybercriminals.
The only place where DreamHost doesn’t perform well is customer support as it’s not available round-the-clock. If you’d rather pick a hosting service that offers 24/7 customer service, consider HostGator instead. Read our HostGator review here.