Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.
For over 16 months, we have been a paying customer of DreamHost and during that time we have closely monitored their performance and services to get the most objective statistics on relevant metrics such as uptime, page load time, customer support, etc.
What is DreamHost
View Details
DreamHost is one of the best service providers in the web hosting space with over 400,000 active customers and hosting over 1.5 million websites. The company has a long history, having been founded in 1996 by a group of students in California and offering crazy promises like a 97-day money-back guarantee and 100% uptime.
To confirm whether DreamHost can live up to those hype taglines, we purchased their shared hosting plan and set up a basic WordPress test site, and here are some detailed data from our tests.
Benefits of DreamHost
DreamHost has a lot to live up to, and we are committed to providing the most unbiased and transparent information possible, relying heavily on relevant statistics and quantifiable performance metrics to determine the quality of its services.
- Excellent uptime (>99.99%)
The 100% uptime is not a matter of faith, they are so confident about it that if your site is down for an hour, it will get extra service, but don't worry, that basically won't happen.
With only three brief outages in the last 12 months, this excellent stability is well above the industry standard of 99.94% and slightly better than the most popular BlueHost.
- Fast page loading (709 ms)
DreamHost's page load time did not disappoint us, with this average figure of 709 milliseconds over the same test period, 23% faster than the industry average of 890 milliseconds in our analysis.
- Knowledgeable and friendly customer support
You will get the best uptime and the fastest loading speed, which means that DreamHost doesn't have to provide good technical support, but that's not the case, they are very good in this field as well.
When we contact customer service via live chat, we usually get a response within 5 minutes and receive a detailed description every few seconds.
Their customer service is obviously not outsourced and is available 24/7, the only problem is that there is no phone support.
- 97-day money-back guarantee
DreamHost offers the longest money-back guarantee in the industry -- 97 days on shared hosting plans!
For anyone, that long is long enough to test whether a hosting provider is really right for them.
- New hosting plan options
A few years ago, DreamHost's shared hosting had only one plan option. While this helped you focus on the most important work of building a website, the starting price was relatively too high for many people.
Thankfully, they have now made many improvements to their hosting plans and have opened up a variety of affordable options. If you need more power, then choose from their dedicated WordPress hosting (DreamPress), VPS or dedicated servers.
- truly unlimited traffic
Almost all companies say they offer unlimited traffic, but unfortunately, most don't come close to that promise. They will even force you to upgrade to a higher plan if you consume too much traffic.
Under the terms of its policy, DreamHost offers truly unlimited traffic and data transfer, a service that is very rare, with only a few exceptions.
- Copyrighted content
- File upload/share/archive/backup/mirror/distribution site
- Sites created primarily to drive traffic to other sites
- Make your account resources available to the public
- Green Energy
Web hosting consumes a lot of resources, and DreamHost has been working to reduce their impact on the natural environment, and one of the ways they have achieved this is by being carbon neutral.
In fact, DreamHost has been a carbon neutral company since 2007 and has now neutralized tens of thousands of tons of greenhouse gases.
- WordPress.org official recommendation
While you should make your own decision, you usually can't go wrong choosing this authoritative advice when the world's largest CMS recommends a hosting provider. WordPress officially lists several of their favorite hosting providers: SiteGround, BlueHost, and, as we now present, DreamHost.
Disadvantages of DreamHost
- no cPanel
DreamHost has designed its own control panel that is very easy to use and simplifies all operations for non-technical people. However, professionals who are used to cPanel or Plesk may not like this approach.
- Possible delayed account activation
Your account will need to be verified and activated before you can start hosting. This means that while registration is instant, it can take several hours to actually put it into use, and if you encounter some high-risk situations, your account may also need to be manually verified, which usually takes several days.
DreamHost prices
DreamHost offers two shared hosting plans, and it should be noted that the prices below are for yearly purchases. For the Shared Unlimited plan, DreamHost offers a $50 off code, check out this tutorial for details.
Shared Starter
$2.59/month
- 1 site
- Unlimited traffic
- Free SSL
- View Details
- Shared Unlimited
- $7.95/month
- Unlimited Sites
- Unlimited traffic
- Free SSL
- Free Domain Name
- Unlimited SSD storage
- Free Email Server
- View Details
- Additional information.
- Free domain name: Shared Unlimited plan offers
- Account registration: a long and complicated registration process
- Payment method.
- Hidden fees and terms: none
- Account activation: Account activation may take some time and may be delayed if the information is inaccurate or suspected of fraud
- Control panel and dashboard: easy to use, but people who are used to cPanel or Plesk may not like it
Summary
Ultimately it will depend on your unique needs, DreamHost is a stable and reliable hosting provider and the only company that promises a 100% stable online guarantee and 97 days unconditional money back.
Advantages
- Excellent uptime
- Fast page loading speed
- Knowledgeable and friendly customer support
- Affordable hosting plan options
- WordPress.org official recommendation
- Truly unlimited traffic
- 97-day money-back guarantee
- Disadvantages
- The control panel is designed in-house, which is simple and easy to use, but professionals who are used to cPanel or Plesk may not like it.
- Accounts may take a few hours to activate, or in the worst case, a few days
- Established: 1996
- Lowest price: $2.59/month
- Uptime: 99.99%
- Page load time: 709 milliseconds
- Hosting plans: web hosting, cloud hosting, WordPress hosting, WooCommerce hosting, VPS, dedicated servers
- Customer Support: Tickets, Knowledge Base
- Control backend: proprietary control backend
- Payment method.
- Money back guarantee: 97 days