DreamHost is one of the oldest and most reliable hosting services. Offering top-class hosting packages at bargain prices, it’s a hosting company you can count on.
Who should choose DreamHost? DreamHost is an excellent choice for everyone: from small businesses and entrepreneurs to large e-commerce websites. It also has hosting plans that fit personal websites, too.
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For new WordPress sites
Starts at $2.95 per month
- Guided onboarding
- Recommended by WordPress
- 24/7 support
Best security and scalability
Starts at $3.75 per month
- All types of hosting
- Enhanced security tools
- Affordable as you grow
The easiest option
Starts at $2.75 per month
- Great for absolute beginners
- Drag-and-drop website builder
- 150+ free templates
What we like about DreamHost
- Hugely popular: DreamHost supports over 1.5 million sites and 750,000 WordPress installations. Its reliability makes it a great choice if you’re a novice in web hosting.
- Multiple hosting options: DreamHost offers many hosting options, including shared hosting, VPS hosting, cloud hosting, and dedicated servers. You can choose an option as per your business requirements. The VPS WordPress option has been particularly helpful for me.
- Ease of use: I love how easy it is to use DreamHost’s features and services. Its custom control panel makes signing up and using my plan of choice effortless. Moreover, DreamHost’s one-click installation simplifies the process of signing up for WordPress. DreamHost also has a website builder, which makes it easy to develop a website with just a few clicks.
- Excellent privacy: DreamHost takes privacy very seriously. Features include an anti-spam policy and free WHOIS privacy.
- Digital security features: DreamHost provides robust digital security tools, including SSL. Along with daily data backups, it also allows the implementation of web application firewalls.
- A 97-day money-back guarantee: If you aren’t satisfied with DreamHost’s services, you can get a “no questions asked” refund. While shared hosting customers can cancel within the first 97 days, DreamPress customers must cancel within the first 30 days.
- 100% uptime guarantee: DreamHost offers reliable performance and its systems are up and running efficiently all the time. This guarantee is backed up by compensation of one day’s fees for every hour of downtime.
- Month-to-month pricing: I love that DreamHost’s monthly plans allow me to choose per my requirements and pay a monthly fee. In case I don’t think a certain plan meets my needs, I can change it without worrying about the cost. DreamHost’s monthly packages provide flexibility to customers.
- Award-winning support: DreamHost’s tech support is one of the best. Quick and efficient tech support is a necessity when it comes to web hosting services. DreamHost has many support options, including live chat, ticket system, knowledge base, active forum, and callbacks.
- Eco-hosting: If your aim is to limit your company’s carbon footprint, DreamHost is a good choice. DreamHost’s grids are powered by electricity from renewable sources. Additionally, DreamHost’s data centers use energy-efficient cooling infrastructure.
What fell flat
- Extra costs for certain features: All features are not covered in DreamHost’s packages. I dislike that I have to pay extra for certain features within the dashboard. Having to make consistent purchases or upgrade to another pack isn’t ideal.
- Intricate control panel: While DreamHost has easy-to-use features, the control panel and interface can take some getting used to.
- You may pay for some levels of support: While the support team at DreamHost is excellent, you do need to note that premium support may cost you extra. If you need a phone call returned from a tech expert, for example, you’ll have to pay for it.
- Data centers only in the U.S.: With data centers being located only in the U.S., load time can be slower for customers in other countries, and server speeds can be less than ideal.
Digital.com’s Editorial Review
While DreamHost offers some of the best features in the web hosting market, such as one-click installation, unlimited data storage, and bandwidth, unlimited sites, and a 100% uptime guarantee, it does have a lot of upcharges and premium features that you have to pay extra for.
DreamHost has a good reputation in the hosting space because of its ease of use, pricing options, and customization. DreamHost’s shared hosting plan includes the most popular apps, including WordPress, Weebly, and Wix, making them a go-to for DIY site-builders; they also offer a 97-day money-back guarantee for service testing, so giving them a try doesn’t hurt the wallet. – Kristina Knight, Biz Report
See how we review web hosting providers.
Plans & Pricing
- Shared hosting–$2.59 per month
- WordPress builder–$2.59 per month
- Cloud computing–$4.50 per month
- VPS hosting–$10 per month
- Managed WordPress–$11.99 per month
- Dedicated servers–$169 per month
Features
- Custom control panel
- Award-winning support
- 1-click app installer
- SSD storage space
- Free domain for the first year
- Pre-installed WordPress
Performance & Uptime
- 100% uptime guarantee
- Average response time: 1.57s
Security
- Free SSL certificate
- Complimentary domain privacy
- Malware remover
- Built-in firewall
- Support for HTTP/2
Support
DreamHost’s team of experts provides robust technical support and can resolve any issues you face. However, the methods of customer support are limited unless you’re paying a fee.
- Live chat
- Ticketing
- Knowledge base
- Scheduled callbacks (not free)
Improvements
DreamHost continuously works on updates and upgrades on all the services it offers. Recent updates include better site management, improved email performance, new tutorials, and additional support staff.
DreamHost Plans and Pricing
DreamHost offers a full gamut of hosting options to suit just about every type of website, from brand new business sites to massive online stores. Those plans include:
Shared hosting starting at $2.59 per month
- Good for: brand new websites, beginners, personal blogs
A WordPress website builder starting at $2.59 per month
- Good for: New WordPress users, beginners, small blogs
- Identical to shared hosting with a free WordPress website builder
Cloud computing starting at $4.50 per month
- Good for: experts looking for fully customizable, yet affordable hosting
- Bare bones cloud environment with full server control
VPS hosting starting at $10 per month
- Good for: Sites that have outgrown shared hosting, hosting multiple sites
- Fully managed environment with improved resources and performance
Managed WordPress starting at $11.99 per month
- Good for: Established WordPress websites, WooCommerce stores
- DreamHost handles all server and WordPress management for you
- Offers a boost in performance and resources over shared hosting
Dedicated servers starting at $169 per month
- Good for: Businesses with IT support, high security situations
- Get an entire server to yourself with complete flexibility
- Overkill for 99.99% of websites
With each type of hosting, there are multiple plans to choose from, depending on what you need. Check out all of DreamHost’s plans, here.
Features
DreamHost provides its customers with top-of-the-line hosting plans at bargain prices.
Regardless of the hosting plan you choose from DreamHost, you will get access to excellent features, including pre-installed WordPress and a free domain for one year.
Custom control panel
DreamHost’s packages come with a custom, easy-to-use control panel. The layout and options in the cPanel make using DreamHost’s services more effortless. Through the control panel, you can get admin access to everything you require to run your website.
What Is the DreamHost Control Panel For?
The control panel allows you to manage everything with regards to your website’s hosting and accounts, including websites, domain, WordPress, email, account, payment/billing, support, and more.
Award-winning support
With DreamHost, you’ll have a smooth time building and managing your website, even if you’re a newbie. With a robust team of tech veterans to answer your questions and resolve your issues, DreamHost can support you however and whenever you need.
DreamHost’s in-house support team is available 24/7.
One-click installer
DreamHost allows you to make attractive websites, even if you don’t know any programming. With pre-assembled apps available in DreamHost’s packages, you can create a website from scratch in just a few clicks.
100% uptime guarantee
All of DreamHost’s hosting packages provide 100% uptime with data center locations, redundant cooling, emergency generators, and consistent monitoring. Your hosting website will be available to serve traffic all the time. DreamHost guarantees 100% uptime and offers compensation for every hour of downtime.
Solid state drives (SSDs)
DreamHost provides its customers with many technologies to improve speed and response time. With the SSDs DreamHost offers, your website, caching, and database queries can run 200% faster than HDDs.
Free SSL certificate
All hosting packages at DreamHost offer a free SSL certificate that will protect your site with HTTPS by encrypting traffic and instantly boosting SEO with Google.
Additionally, DreamHost provides other privacy features that will mask and safeguard your personal information at no extra cost.
Free domain
With DreamHost, you can claim a unique, easy-to-remember address for your site. The domain name feature comes free for one year with all of DreamHost’s hosting packages.
Pre-installed WordPress
You can use DreamHost’s one-click WordPress installer to set your WordPress site up instantly. No matter the size of your business, you can easily create and manage all kinds of websites on WordPress.
Performance and Uptime
DreamHost claims that it has a 100% uptime guarantee, ensuring that websites load quickly and remain stable at all times. My tests showed that DreamHost was not able to meet that commitment.
Uptime and reliability
I ran several tests to check DreamHost’s uptime and reliability. According to my results, DreamHost servers had an average uptime of 99.8%over the past year. DreamHost’s all-time uptime is 99.76%, less than its competitors.
Site response times
DreamHost’s servers offer impressive site response times. I tested the site multiple times and got an average response time of 1.57s. If you use DreamHost to run your site, it’ll load quickly.
However, this is just the speed at which DreamHost’s servers respond to a web request. Your actual site’s load time will be influenced by how you build your site. With DreamHost’s cloud computing hosting packages, you can further enhance your site response times.
Security
It’s DreamHost’s priority to provide its customers’ websites, servers, and data with the best security possible including free SSL certificates, a malware remover, free domain privacy, and a firewall.
SSL certificates
All of DreamHost’s packages have a free SSL certificate that authenticates a website’s identity and authorizes an encrypted connection.
SSL is an encrypted link between a web server and a web browser that’s created and followed when sharing information. It ensures that the data being transferred is not intercepted by unauthorized parties.
How SSL certificates work
SSL certificates are small data files installed on website pages (login screens, payment pages, or online forms) that require users to submit sensitive information, such as name, credit card information, or passwords.
SSL certificates can also be installed on web servers, enabling a more secure HTTPS protocol and, therefore, a secure connection.
Essentially, SSL certificates serve one purpose: to bind together an identifier (domain name, server name, or hostname) and the identity of an organization. This proves the originator or the recipient of the files is who they say they are.
Other security services
Other than an SSL certificate, DreamHost provides its customers’ sites with the following security services:
- Malware remover: A tool to discover and fix malware on websites
- Free domain privacy: Protects customers’ data in the WHOIS records
- Mod_security: A web application firewall for apache that helps safeguard websites from various attacks
- HTTP/2: A standard security protocol that’s encrypted by default
- Lua-resty-waf: A high-performance, reverse proxy web application firewall (WAF) built that enhances security by redirecting all client requests to a protected backend server.
Support
While DreamHost offers technical support 24/7 year-round, you can’t call the support team on a high-priority basis. You can, however, schedule a callback for a fee. You can also contact the support team via email, open a ticket, or live chat, so you won’t have trouble getting the help you need. No matter how you contact the support team, you will get premium quality help.
DreamHost also has an extensive knowledge base and an active forum where you can find useful information.
Recent Improvements
The following are a few recent improvements rolled out by DreamHost:
When it comes to web hosting, using state-of-the-art technologies is essential. DreamHost ensures that it provides its users with the updates and upgrades they need.
Compare DreamHost Alternatives
While DreamHost offers top-of-the-line web hosting services, you can look at alternatives to gauge which one best fits your requirements. We’ve used, researched, and analyzed dozens of hosting providers–you can see all of our top web hosting picks or compare DreamHost’s closest competitors below.
Starts at: $2.59 per month
- 1 website
- SSD storage
- Unlimited traffic
- Free domain for 1 year
- Free SSL certificate
Starts at $2.95 per month
- 1 website
- 50 GB SSD storage
- Custom themes
- Free domain for 1 year
- Free SSL certificate
Consider Bluehost if: You want a one-stop-shop service for small businesses
Starts at $2.99 per month
- 1 website
- 10GB storage
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Free SSL certificate
- Free email
Consider SiteGround if: You’re interested in using WooCommerce.
Starts at $2.29 per month
- 2 websites
- 100 GB SSD storage
- Unlimited bandwidth
- 10 free email addresses
- Free SSL certificate
Consider InMotion if: Comprehensive customer service is a priority for you.
What You Need to Know
How many websites can you host on DreamHost?
All of DreamHost’s plans except the Shared Starter hosting package allow you to host an unlimited number of websites.
Is DreamHost good for WordPress hosting?
Yes, DreamHost is good for WordPress Hosting. It officially partners with WordPress by offering a Managed WordPress hosting package with three plans.
Does DreamHost use cPanel?
No, DreamHost uses it’s own custom control panel.
Does my DreamHost plan include email hosting?
All of DreamHost’s web hosting plans, except for Shared Starter, DreamCompute, and DreamObjects, offer email hosting.
Is it possible to sign up for DreamHost without a credit card?
Yes, you can sign up for DreamHost without a credit card. DreamHost offers a variety of other payment options, including debit cards (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover), ACH, PayPal, and electronic checks.
How We Reviewed DreamHost
I test web hosts based on the following factors:
Learn more about our review methodology.
