DreamHost Review 2021: Is it Fast, Secure and Does it Really Has 100% Uptime?


DreamHost is a titan of the industry. It’s one of the oldest hosting providers, which means that it had enough time to improve its services and impress a big circle of customers. It focuses on WordPress, but if you have large-scale projects, you can go for VPS or dedicated hosting.

With extensive product offerings that aren’t just limited to hosting plans, DreamHost can help you integrate domain names, website builders, and email hosting into your website efficiently and affordably. 

It’s web hosting with a purpose and will make sure your site is fast, secure, and up to date for your visitors.

So you’ve been looking into your next potential hosting platform. Maybe you have no idea where to start, or maybe you’re already thinking of specific companies and specific plans.

We’re here to help you figure out what different companies can offer you, and right now I’m about to tell you how DreamHost performs based on my own experience with them.

Does DreamHost’s reputation far outweigh its performance?

Or are things pretty aligned?

Keep reading to find out!

What is DreamHost?

DreamHost started as a project of some enthusiastic undergraduates of Harvey Mudd College of Claremont, California in 1996. These students were Dallas Bethune, Josh Jones, Michael Rodriguez. One year later in 1997, The name DreamHost was conceived and registered and DreamHost came into being an officially recognized hosting company.

Before long DreamHost was being counted as one of the renowned and reliable hosting companies of the USA. It garnered fame especially for being non-eig hosting and a cheap-and-powerful-hosting providing company.


DreamHost is one of the oldest web hosting services to date. Hosting over 1.5 million websites with 400,000 customers and 750,000 WordPress installations—I think 
DreamHost is one of the best web hosting services for most website owners. 


How Good Is DreamHost?

DreamHost is potentially one of the best web hosting companies for its price point and target niche. It delivers on high quality while keeping its monthly rates low for shared hosting plans, hitting the often hard-to-find sweet spot. There are enough features and potential upgrade avenues to meet all your hosting needs as your business grows without being too overwhelming at the start, making it both flexible and user-friendly.

Not many hosts offer a 100% uptime guarantee, but DreamHost does. This means they have a lot of pressure on their shoulders to provide that consistently to their users. The service provides shared hosting, VPS, and dedicated plans that come with a 14-day free trial so you can explore what DreamHost has to offer before jumping straight in. Once you have accustomed yourself to the hosting dashboard you will find that there are plenty of unlimited features and tools but they do lack a telephone number.

A 97-day money-back guarantee will also provide you with a confidence boost in case you find that the service isn’t to your expectations.


For Whom DreamHost Is Useful?

With its low price and high quality, DreamHost is an excellent option for most website owners. This may seem broad, but hear me out. 

DreamHost is the most inclusive web hosting service for both small and large businesses working on different-sized projects. This is because it has a high enough performance speed, customer support, and reliable uptime for most website owners. 

Whether you’re in the blogging or site developing niche, DreamHost will offer sturdy and dependable hosting support at an affordable price. 

Because it supports SSDs and high-level technology, DreamHost makes it easy for users to customize their control panel with no issues. 

From beginners to tech-savvy users, DreamHost knows that your website is your future, making it the best for most website owners who are looking for extra support and high-quality performance. 

DreamHost


DreamHost Highlights:

  • Free Domain: All DreamHost plans come with a free domain. Plus, if you ever need to host your site elsewhere or incorporate a content delivery network, you can update and change your DreamHost name servers.
  • Free SSL Certificate: Never fear data breaches and customer worry because you get a free SSL certificate with every site hosted.
  • Unlimited Storage, Bandwith, and Email: Unlimited means unlimited, with DreamHost putting no caps on your internal storage or website bandwidth. DreamHost email even comes unlimited and standard with every plan.
  • Website Builder: If you haven’t already selected your small business site builder, DreamHost does have an internal tool for managing content. Its Remix website builder comes preloaded with many themes to customize your site and features easy drag-and-drop usability.
  • One click-installation: Thanks to various app integrations and easy migration, you can get started with DreamHost in one click.
  • WordPress Sync: As one of the leading open source content management systems, it’s incredibly easy to sync DreamHost to your existing WordPress site. DreamHost FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is part of its one-click installer to migrate content instantly.

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What products does DreamHost offer?

A major benefit when choosing DreamHost as your web hosting provider is the price. It is one of the most affordable products on the market when you weigh it up against the high-quality services it provides to its users.

DreamHost Shared Hosting:

First up, we have the shared hosting plans that represent the cheapest way to host your website with DreamHost:

  • Shared Starter: From $2.59 a month to host one website with 50 GB of SSD storage.
  • Shared Unlimited: From $5.95 a month to host unlimited websites with unlimited SSD storage.

These prices may look very competitive, but you’ll have to pay for three years of hosting upfront to get access to them. Paying for one year upfront sees the monthly equivalent fee increase to $3.95 for the Starter plan and $6.95 for the Unlimited plan while choosing to pay monthly will cost you $4.95 and $10.95, respectively. If you’re creating a website for a non-profit organization, it’s worth seeing if you qualify for the relevant DreamHost discount.


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DreamHost VPS Hosting:


DreamHost offers Linux-based virtual private server plans (VPS) for larger websites and businesses that need more security or higher traffic. 

  • VPS Basic: From $10 a month with 1GB of RAM and with 30 GB SSD Storage.
  • VPS Business: From $20 a month with 2GB of RAM and with 60 GB SSD Storage.
  • VPS Professional: From $40 a month with 4GB of RAM and with 120 GB SSD Storage.
  • VPS Enterprise: From $80 a month with 8GB of RAM and with 240 GB SSD Storage.

These prices may look very competitive, but you’ll have to pay for three years of hosting upfront to get access to them. Paying for one year upfront sees the monthly equivalent fee increase to $13.75 for the VPS Basic, $27.50 for the VPS Business, $55 for the VPS Professional, and $110 for the VPS Enterprise. While choosing to pay monthly will cost you $15 for the VPS Basic, $30 for the VPS Business, $60 for the VPS Professional, and $120 for the VPS Enterprise, respectively. If you’re creating a website for a non-profit organization, it’s worth seeing if you qualify for the relevant DreamHost discount.

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DreamHost DreamPress Managed WordPress Hosting:

Although you can install WordPress on the shared plans, and even opt to have the WordPress software installed automatically during sign up, those looking for higher-performance WordPress hosting may find the DreamPress plans more appealing:

  • DreamPress: From $16.95 for 30 GB of SSD storage and built for ~100k monthly visitors.
  • DreamPress Plus: From $24.95 for 60 GB of SSD storage and built for ~300k monthly visitors, plus Jetpack Professional and unlimited CDN usage.
  • DreamPress Pro: From $71.95 for 120 GB of SSD storage and built for ~1M-plus monthly visitors, plus Jetpack Professional, unlimited CDN usage, and DreamCare site monitoring and troubleshooting feature.

Again, like the shared hosting plans, paying for a year upfront gets you the prices listed above, while paying monthly causes the rate to increase to $19.95, $29.95, and $79.95 a month, respectively. Also, as with the shared plans, there’s a non-profit discount available from DreamHost.


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DreamHost Dedicated Hosting:


Dedicated server plans start at $149 per month, a little more than other hosting providers but you get 1 TB of storage and unlimited data transfers. DreamHost doesn’t offer Windows-based dedicated servers which will be a non-issue for those familiar with Linux.

  • Standard: From $149 a month with 4 GB RAM and 1 TB Storage
  • Enhanced: From $279 a month with 16 GB RAM and 2 TB Storage

These prices may look very competitive, Paying for one year upfront sees the monthly equivalent fee is $149 for the Standard and $279 for the Enhanced while choosing to pay monthly will cost you $169 and $299, respectively. If you want a Discount then check the DreamHost discount.


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Features Review of Dreamhost Hosting:

Dreamhost Uptime:

Website uptime is a vital element of the web hosting experience. If your site goes down, clients or customers will be unable to find you or access your products or services.

As well as testing the loading times of the sites hosted on the DreamHost shared and managed WordPress plans, the uptime of the sites was also monitored for seven days.


Dreamhost Security:

DreamHost offers antispam on its email, but no antimalware services. That oversite aside, we like its attention to other aspects of website security. The control panel has an easy-to-find link for editing the .htaccess file to control access to the site or to set up a password. For parts of the site that shouldn't get indexed by search engines, you can block spiders. You can set up cron jobs (automated batch jobs) to schedule tasks and monitor processes on the site. DreamHost also offers free secure-socket-layer (SSL) certificates, which is a must-have addition for people who sell products online.

If you are a developer or manage a software development team, you will like the fact that DreamHost comes with Subversion, which can help you manage your source code files. Most web hosting providers restrict you to whatever applications are listed on their software marketplace. Version-control tools such as Subversion rarely make it onto these marketplaces, so it's nice to see the option to set up your own repository. Of course, that's assuming you don't just use Git repositories for your code.

What if you don't really want a website or a blog, but just a place to store your files? DreamHost also offers DreamObjects cloud storage plans, starting at 95 cents per month for 40GB and going up to 20TB for $299.95 per month.

Dreamhost Customer Support:

Easy as DreamHost already is, the whole deal gets even easier with its customer support.

As is typical of most hosting companies, you have two main forms of customer support: on-site educational/informational material, and options for contacting representatives.

For the on-site material you can consume, the main place to go is the knowledge base.

Dreamhost has one of the nicest knowledge bases I’ve seen, though this is due in no small measure to my own personal tastes.

I say this because many knowledge bases look ugly, or cluttered, or are too simple.

gets a perfect mix of the two: a search bar that is a quick scroll up from well-organized article categories.

Another thing DreamHost offers (which only a few other hosting companies do by the way) is a forum for the DreamHost community.

I personally think the forum page could be a little more organized, but it’s robust enough and the fact that they have one is great.

DreamHost offers the standard live chat and email support options, 24/7. Although they do not have phone support, they do offer social media communication—which isn’t very common.

The thing is, you can only access live chat if you have an account.

If you don’t have an account, you can still contact support—for example, if you have a question—but you’ll need to use an email/ticket system.

But that’s okay. My experience with DreamHost, as a customer, is that their live chat and email support have been very good.

You can typically expect a response within a minute or a few minutes at most.

In all, that makes for a pretty solid customer support factor.

Very solid representatives and comprehensive informational material on-site make one of the top-notch companies for customer support.

DreamHost Pros:

1. Affordable pricing: 

DreamHost is one of the most affordable web hosting services on the market, which we will cover later on. To make it short and sweet, DreamHost offers a nice variety of pricing plans you can customize to pay for in either monthly or annual installments. 

Monthly payments start at $4.95, whereas annual prices start at $3.95 per month, which means you save more by paying annually. This is a rarity for web hosting services, as many of its competitors seem to charge more for annual payment options. 

2. Automated integrations: 

DreamHost offers automatic integration and one-click installation for a few CMS options, such as WordPress, MediaWiki, and Joomla. 

This is a major advantage for most users because it gives them the option to choose a different website and transition with ease. It’s even easier for users who already use one of the supported CMS options because DreamHost will install it for you with one click. 

The most popular CMS option DreamHost supports is WordPress, and you will have the easiest time integrating this specific option with your hosting provider. DreamHost also allows you to choose any WordPress theme or plugin for your website. Essentially, you will have full control of your website’s appearance, while DreamHost does all the nitty-gritty behind the scenes. 

3. Extensive customer support:

Another significant feature of DreamHost is its comprehensive customer support base. There are two main ways to contact them for free support via your control panel, including live chat and email support. 

Live chat operates seven days a week from 5:30 am-9:30 pm Pacific Time, while the DreamHost support team strives to answer all emails within 24 hours. However, if you feel you need extra guidance for technical issues, DreamHost does offer a callback service for an additional fee. 

Because callbacks aren’t included in your hosting package by default, you will have to add them. You can choose to add three callbacks per month for a nominal monthly fee or a one-time callback feature for a fee as well. 

Not only does DreamHost offer those support services, but they also have dedicated pages for knowledge base questions, system status, tech support, and discussion forums.  

4. High-quality performance and speed: 

DreamHost offers incredible performance and speed that will permanently transform your website’s quality. 

For example, DreamHost specifically designs products to be compatible with WordPress for optimal performance. This ensures seamless and fluid integration between DreamHost and your WordPress website, making it run at peak speed. 

Another great performance feature involves the use of SSDs. With DreamHost SSDs, your overall website, data, and caching are 200 percent faster than old HDDs. With lightning-fast speeds and a loading time of 2.35 seconds, your visitors can scroll your website without lag and won’t get caught up in unnecessary wait times. 

DreamHost also guarantees 100% reliable uptime, so your site will always be online and functioning to its maximum potential. With emergency generators, constant monitoring, redundant cooling, and data center locations, your website will never operate as well as it does with DreamHost.

DreamHost Cons:

1. Additional fees for advanced features: 

If you’re looking for a more comprehensive web hosting service that offers advanced features and tools to transform your website, unfortunately, DreamHost lacks a little in this department. 

In the beginning, it’s possible to build your website for next to nothing—but there are some additional costs involved for those looking at extensive support. For example, DreamHost offers products outside of web hosting like website builders, G suite, design services, and marketing tools. 

However, they all cost extra and can become quite pricey, as they aren’t included in your hosting package. If you do want additional support all from one platform for the added convenience, you’re looking at forking out an extra $2.95 per month for website building up to $1,499 for design services. 

Even though a few of the features are quite affordable for monthly payments, if you want more professional services, it’s something you would want to re-evaluate and plan for in your budget. 

2. The Shared Starter plan doesn’t include email hosting: 

Although email hosting costs an extra $1.67 per month per mailbox for the shared starter plan, which is still reasonably affordable—it’s also an additional cost for those who wish to purchase the starter plan as a complete beginner with little tech experience. 

This is especially pertinent when it costs an extra $9 per month for the next plan with unlimited email hosting. This can be a disadvantage for website owners looking for a cheaper plan that aligns more with their budget. 

Final Thoughts:

When it comes down to it, DreamHost seems to have overall earned its status.

It does not have many flaws, and the few it does have are largely insignificant. The lack of an included domain name is unfortunate, but not the end of the world. The same goes for the lack of an included email package.

These things are mostly relevant only to people who are seeking a lightweight product: a small, probably personal website for a low price.

For those people, DreamHost is so close to being perfect, but these two things are common on other platforms for similar prices.

For that reason, I would not recommend DreamHost to those people.

For everyone else, is likely a top choice.

Even for the aforementioned section of hosting consumers, I would recommend trying it out first, to see if you can part with a little extra cash for a company you’re comfortable with.

DreamHost Hosting FAQs:

1. What is DreamHost?

A. DreamHost is a web hosting company that offers a full suite of solutions for web development. These include shared hosting, VPS plans, cloud hosting, dedicated servers, and domain management services. However, the most popular option is shared WordPress hosting.

2. Is DreamHost free?

A. No, but it does have a remarkable 97-day, money-back guarantee period.

3. Is DreamHost secure?

A. Yes, it is pretty secure. Free with every site comes a DreamHost SSL certificate.

4. Is DreamHost easy to use?

A. Yes, it’s effortless to use and manage. It’s definitely built to be straightforward and for more small businesses and projects, so it doesn’t overwhelm or have unnecessary customization complications.

5. Is DreamHost good?

A. Yes, DreamHost is a good and reliable hosting provider. In this DreamHost review, I overviewed its services, including performance, user experience, and security, among others. It has proved itself as a good provider worth recommending.

6. Is DreamHost safe?

A. Yes, DreamHost is safe. Not only is it an established and reliable company, but it includes strong security features as well. That is free SSLs, daily backups, domain privacy, and web application firewalls. It will keep your website (and business) safe.

7. Where is DreamHost located?

A. DreamHost is currently located in the United States. There are two data centers: one in Virginia and one in California.

8. Can I Install WooCommerce on DreamHost?

A. Yes, you can easily install WooCommerce on DreamHost shared hosting as well as VPS plans.

9. Which DreamHost plan should I get?

A. The answer really depends on your hosting needs. When you’re starting out, simply choose their shared hosting plan. DreamHost has only a single shared hosting plan, which makes it easy to get started with an account. If you want to create an online store, then we recommend using their WooCommerce hosting which is specifically designed to handle eCommerce websites.

10. Can DreamHost handle high traffic?

A. DreamHost is capable of handling high traffic. But keep in mind that it all depends on the plan you choose. If your site starts consuming too many resources, then DreamHost will ask you to upgrade to a higher plan.

11. Can I upgrade my DreamHost plan later?

A. We always recommend users start with the smaller plans and upgrade as needed. DreamHost makes it very easy for you to upgrade.

12. Does DreamHost offer a month-to-month payment option?

A. Yes! DreamHost offers a month-to-month payment option. However, keep in mind that they offer significant discounts for longer-term deals.

13. Can I create subdomains in DreamHost?

A. Yes, you can easily create subdomains in DreamHost using the cPanel.

14. Do I have to register my domain name with DreamHost?

A. No. While you can claim a free domain name while purchasing a hosting plan, you’re not obliged to register a domain name with DreamHost. You can use Godaddy, NameCheap, or any of your preferred domain name registrar.

15. Does DreamHost offer free SSL?

A. Yes, DreamHost offers free SSL with all of their plans. Ecommerce plans come with dedicated IPs and private SSL.

16. Do I need to purchase the addons that DreamHost offers me?

A. No, you do not need to purchase any add-ons at the time of purchase. Should you decide that you need them later, you can always add them to your account.

17. Does DreamHost really offer unlimited disk space and bandwidth?

A. Just like any other hosting company, DreamHost also advertises unlimited resources. When they say unlimited, it just means that you don’t have to worry about disk storage or bandwidth because you get enough resources to operate a small site in a normal condition.


DreamHost

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