Dreamhost hosts more than 1.5 million sites and is known to be 25 years old. Their performance has known to be constantly good and is maintaining above-average uptime which is 99.94% and the page speed is 648ms.

 

Dreamhost’s main shared hosting plan is known to be coming with amazing apps such as WordPress, website builder options that include their own, or others such as Wix or Weebly. Also, these plans are known to have unlimited bandwidth as well as disk space. You will also get a complete 97 -day money-back guarantee to test the services.

 

However, their customer support is slightly limited and migrations are not good which doesn’t allow imports from other cPanel sites plus it costs around $99.

 

General Info of  DreamHost

General Info & Hosting Overview

PROS

Dreamhost is known to have above-average speed as well as uptime with amazing features. They have a stunning 97-day refund policy which helps you to be happy with their services. Plus, when you renew your plan there is no need to pay a 2-3x price increase.

 

Here are the pros of Dreamhost:

 

  1. Speed (648ms)

Dreamhost has had a 648ms average loading time in the last few years which is great. This allows them to be in the upper half of the hosts and below the top five who have half an average of this. Also, Dreamhost has been easily able to hold this average. In the year 2017, they mentioned 1316ms loading time but after that things have been smooth.

 

DreamHost average load time:

DreamHost average load time

2.

  1. Uptime (99.94%)

The average uptime of the last 24 months of Dreamhost is 99 .94% which is above average. This is great and it offers an uptime guarantee. However, most uptime guaranteed has been around the 99.98% mark. Dreamhost guaranteed 100% uptime of its terms of service but scheduled maintenance, as well as user errors, are not included in this.

Any other Dreamhost issues that hamper your site, database, or webmail can affect the guarantee. You also get free days’ worth of service for every hour of service interruption.

 

Average uptime of last few years:

 

January 2020 average uptime: 99.99%

December 2019 average uptime: 100%

November 2019 average uptime: 99.80%

October 2019 average uptime: 100%

September 2019 average uptime: 99.99%

August 2019 average uptime: 100%

July 2019 average uptime: 99.64%

June 2019 average uptime: 99.97%

May 2019 average uptime: 99.80%

April 2019 average uptime: 99.92%

March 2019 average uptime: 99.99%

February 2019 average uptime: 99.94%

 

dreamhost-performance-24months

3. 97 days money-back guarantee

Most of the web hosts that we have reviewed only offer 30 days refund policy but Dreamhost offers a money-back guarantee of 97days which is complete for three months just to make their customers happy.

It doesn’t have hoops that can affect your refund but there are some cases where customers did not get the refund or it got deducted. However, there are some exceptions like only credit cards will be refunded and additional services or anything bought from the other party cannot be refunded like SSL certificates, domain names, etc.

4.Plan limits of Dreamhost

 

 

The starter plane of Dreamhost starts from $2.59 per month and comes with amazing features. You can get a site with a free domain name along with an SSL certificate included. Plus, it can handle unlimited traffic as well as storage.

Dreamhost has its website builder named Remixer and it offers access to other builders like Squarespace, Weebly, etc. You can even find Zen Cart, Shopify, and many more.

WordPress is also pre-installed which is easy and there is no delayed verification system. But one might have to go through some verification steps only if there is an issue with payment

5. Unlimited Disk Space along with Network Transfer Limits

It offers unlimited features on its pricing as well as a plan that includes disk space as well as bandwidth. Therefore, you don’t need to fret about disk storage or network transfer. Also, there are some caveats but are legit.

Initially, you need to build your site but if it’s hogging server resources or creating any issue then it is better to move to private servers.

DreamPress, VPN servers, or email are not included in this unlimited policy. Email is only limited to 2GB limits and MySQL databases stay below ‘a minimum GB size.’ Overall, Dreamhost’s shared servers are best for small sites.

6.  DreamHost is Carbon Neutral

It is a great web host that is environmentally conscious. Dreamhost’s data centers have ‘high-efficiency’ cooling as well as processors. They are also into state-level ‘clean wind’ programs. Moreover, Dreamhost’s offices are known to be LEED as well as EnergyStar-certified.

DreamHost hosting

 

7. No Costly Renewal Plans

It provides a low monthly price if the user is paying for three years in comparison to one or two years. Many web hosts do that but Dreamhost doesn’t increase the price of their plan when renewal time is there. Therefore, there are fewer chances to save in the initial years but later you can save a lot.

DreamHost offers

 

CONS

Almost everything from DreamHost is above average. That includes their uptime and page speed, as well as the default features on all of their shared plans.

Unfortunately, there were still a few drawbacks we ran into while testing out their services.

Here’s a complete list of the biggest cons to consider:

1. Limited Live Chat Support

It offers a knowledge base as well as discussion forums to solve the issues of the customers. They also claim to provide 24/7 support but tests reveal something different. Dreamhost is trying to automate the live chat process with something else. Also, when we tried to get a sales rep, nothing happened. Therefore, the support is not 24/7, and its overlaps with the business hours of the US.

 

2. No cPanel (Custom Panel)

It doesn’t provide cPanel access to the customers as they have their unique panel which helps to find its features. This can be problematic for advanced users Also, it doesn’t offer an automated way to import .tar.gz files which is why you have to manually migrate the files via FTP as well as MySQL.

 

3. Only Paid Migrations Option

There is no option of free site migration on its shared hosting plans. Dreamhost charges a $99 one-time fee to migrate the site. There are also some other limitations like multisite WordPress sites can’t be moved. WordPress.com transfers only include content that is inside posts and pages. Thus, you need to reinstall as well as set up themes and plugins.

Other website builder sites can also not be moved.

 

Pricing, hosting plans, and quick facts about Dreamhost

DreamHost Pricing

Here is a review of its shared hosting plans:

 

  • Shared starter – It costs $2.59 per month for three years and it involves one website, a free domain name, an SSL certificate for free as well as unlimited traffic.
  • Shared unlimited – It costs $5.95 per month for three years and involves unlimited websites, domain name for free, unlimited traffic, SSL certificate, as well as unlimited email addresses.

 

There are also three managed WordPress hosting plans:

  • DreamPress – It costs $16.95 per month which helps to get 100, 000 monthly visits. It also involves 30 GB SSD storage, SSL certificate, daily backups, etc.
  • DreamPress plus – It costs $24.95 per month and offers 300, 000 monthly visitors plus 60 GB SSD storage, unmetered bandwidth, unlimited CDN, daily backups, etc.
  • DreamPress pro – It costs $71.95 per month and million monthly visits plus 120 GB SSD storage, SSL certificate, unlimited CDN, etc.

 

It also offers VPS, dedicated as well as cloud hosting

  • Easy signup
  • Free domain for the free year of every annual hosting plan
  • Payment methods like a credit card, money order, checking account
  • There are no hidden fees or clauses
  • There are few upsells
  • The process of account activation is simple and fast unless there is an issue of the payment
  • The Control panel and dashboard of Dreamhost can be slightly difficult
  • It offers a one-click installer for various apps as well as CMSs.

 

 

Endnote 

 

We do recommend Dreamhost as it offers reliable uptime, quick loading time, and amazing performance. Its default plan limits are known to be high and provide various ‘unlimited’ options for bandwidth, disk space, etc. Also, there is no increase in its price when someone renews the hosting plan. However, its customer support was not that good, and paid migrations can be difficult to handle.