DreamHost is favourable by many digital marketers, bloggers, web developers, etc. It isn’t as popular as BlueHost and HostGator that is owned by EIG which hype their products by hiring bloggers and youtubers to do a commercial review.
DreamHost established in 1996, the data center located in Los Angeles, the company has been growing ever since with a total of over 1.5 million websites under the roof and have been hiring over hundreds employees.
DreamHost has been recommended by many reviewers everywhere if you search on the internet. Even WordPress advocated HostDream, we do not know if their endorsement is authentic, SiteGroud is also recommended as an option, We did a review on SiteGround and are very happy with it. What is questionable is WordPress also recommends ‘BlueHost’ which is a web hosting company that is not so flavorful to us.
DreamHost may have all the features that a website owner will need. They provide unlimited storage space, bandwidth, good backup system, 24/7 support and even SSL encryption for a small price tag. It does sound too good to be true.
So how about the importance of the feature and performance? We will focus these questions under this review, including pros and cons, price structure and server quality.
DreamHost Products Features
Domain Name: As usual for any web hosting company, a domain registration service is always included so a user can sign up for a hosting plan and get a domain name there. But we always suggest our readers not to sign up domain and web hosting with the same company otherwise they will have monopoly power over us by not providing good support to keep their clients. If you need to get a new domain name, we highly suggest NameCheap.com which is fairly less expensive to get one.
When you sign up for a web hosting service at DreamHost, you will get a new domain name for free for the first year but the renewal fee is $15.99.
Shared Hosting: DreamHost has a straightforward pricing, if you need to only host 1 website there is an option plan that costs $3.95 per month, as for unlimited websites the price goes up to $9.95 per month. This option plan is great for a beginner, small size business or blogger who has less than 200,000 visitors a month, otherwise you will need to upgrade your plan.
VPS (Virtual Private Server) Imaging a shared hosting space being broken into small fractures and has its own space separated by wall without having to share resources with other users. Furthermore, it is made for users to have their own private space so they can make their own configuration for their own purpose. VPS plans begin at $13.75 all the way up to $110 a month.
Dedicated Server: If your network of websites grow big and you may want to consider moving to a dedicated server. The price isn’t cheap, it starts at $169 a month.
Cloud Hosting: For users who need to have sufficient resources such as RAM and CPU to take care of tons of traffic flowing to the website. It is a little tricky that the price is dependent on the specification of the server.
WordPress Hosting: Ideal for users to host only wordpress platforms. It has the full optimization feature to run your wordpress website efficiently with tools like automatic update, staging area and wordpress support team set up to specially look after your website. The special wordpress package includes shared hosting at $3.95 and VPS hosting at $10 to $19.95.
Website Builder Tool is also available for users to easily build their website without technical skill. The price $4.95 is inexpensive for the tool.
Starter
- 1 Website
- Unlimited Storage
- Unlimited Files Inodes
- Unlimited Bandwidth
- 6 Database
- 8 Backups
- Monthly $4.95
- Annually $3.95
- 3-Year $2.59
Unlimited
- Unlimited Websites
- Unlimited Storage
- Unlimited Files Inodes
- Unlimited Bandwidth
- Unlimited Database
- 8 Backups
- Monthly $10.95
- Annually $9.95
- 3-Year $7.95
Note: DreamHost doesn’t allow media file distribution websites to host on their server.
DreamHost price plan is quite straight forward and transparent. There is no hidden fee or any extra cost. Furthermore, there is no aggressive upsell.
Let’s see what web hosting plan has to offer for your need
Shared Starter is for users who need to host only 1 website.
No email account is available for this option. But you can get it as extra at $1.67 a month but you won’t be able to create more than 6 email accounts.
Shared Unlimited is for users who have more than 1 website to host. There is no limitation for domain and database. You can create as many email accounts as you want. FTP, bandwidth and storage are also unlimited.
For more information about DreamHost, Click here to visit their website.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- DreamHost is one of the most affordable web hosting you can get.
- Up-time is always 100%. This is beneficial for people implementing SEO
- Unlimited storage space, bandwidth and no inodes limitation.
- Contemporary Cpanel: May take some time to learn how things work
- No upsell and extra add-on
- 97 Day money back guarantee (Yes! 97 days)
Cons
- Cpanel is hard to operate not for beginner
- Server is only located in the United States, not recommended for driving traffic from outside the U.S.
- Starter plan does not include email account, you can get them separated by paying a cheap monthly fee which is affordable.
- Missing advanced functions: No staging, no built-in caching and advanced backup solution. Not good for running big projects.
DreamHost is recommended if:
You are running a small website like a local clinic or fitness studio website.
Big companies can have the benefit of high speed, unlimited bandwidth and 100% up-time
Best for bloggers or internet marketers who work on SEO with the always stable up-time rate can be an advantage for a good ranking on search engine.
Ecommerce business, DreamHost supports PCI even though it isn’t included in the feature.
DreamHost is not recommended for:
If your traffic source doesn’t come from North America. If your traffic is a worldwide source, you may want to check out SiteGround, GoDaddy or A2 Hosting.
Advance users who want to have tools like Git-Propostory, built-in caching system and staging area.
Summary
We do highly recommend DreamHost. Their cheap price plan doesn’t always reflect the quality hosting experience. Their up-time rate is a world class that no other companies can match up with.
Best deal option for any users who would like to migrate their web hosting. DreamHost has an exceptional support team, unlimited bandwidth and storage, reasonable price that makes this company an appealing perk.
It is amazing that we tested our sister website with DreamHost from the last 3 months and discovered that the uptime is always 100%.While others reach approximately 99%. Since DreamHost doesn’t include a built-in caching system but its speed is remarkably fast and out of question.
As long as DreamHost is not acquired by EIG, we are happy to keep on using their outstanding web hosting service.
There are other alternatives you can choose which has a similarity in features and price, check out Interserver for more info.