The Best DreamHost Review (2021) – Is It Worth It?

Still can’t decide whether you should join DreamHost and build your blog or website on their hosting platform? That’s totally fine!   

After this Dreamhost Review, you will be 100% confident on whether Dreamhost is a Dream come through (no pun intended). Visit DreamHost.com

What is Dreamhost? 

Dreamhost was founded in 1997 by Sage Weil, Michael Rodriguez Josh Jones, and Dallas Bethune and has been an independent web hosting company ever since. It has offices in Los Angeles, Brea in California and Portland, Oregon. 

These group of friends banded together with a mission to build a company that was strongly committed to helping their customers. 

Under the guidance of its CEO, Michael Rodriguez, the company has grown to host over 1.5 million websites and now has over 400,000 members in 100+ countries around the world. 

It is also worth the mention that Dreamhost is one of our four web hosts that WordPress endorses personally.  They are also PCMag’s “Editors Choice” Winner 4 Years In a Row! 

Now that you have a nice back story about Dreamhost, buckle up and let’s dive right into the article!

What are Dreamhost’s features?

What makes Dreamhost so different from the other web hosting platforms? Here we have a list of Dreamhost’s top and main features. 

 

  • Employee Owned – Being an employee-owned company this means they are truly committed to helping everyone build success online sites. 
  • Incredible Security – They have security protocols such as Multi-Factor Authentication, auto-enabled sFTP and free secure hosting! 
  • Privacy ProtocolsThey have a strong anti-spam policy and free WHOIS privacy
  • 100% Uptime Guaranteed 
  • 24/7/365 Customer Support
  • Unlimited storage of data
  • Unlimited number of email addresses 
  • Cloud Storage
  • 1-click install for web apps
  • 750,000  WordPress installations
  • Unlimited Bandwidth

 

What Are the Different Web Hosting Plans and Types DreamHost Provides? 

DreamHost offers several different types of hosting solutions specifically made for e-commerce, WordPress, and any business that requires website hosting. 

Shared Hosting

It’s only right that we begin with the most affordable option. But with great prices comes great responsibility! Alright, I admit, that was a bit corny but Shared Hosting does have its limitations. Shared Hosting is for those small businesses that don’t receive high volumes of traffic. 

When it comes to Shared Hosting, customers share the server’s resources. This can result in the server that is receiving the most traffic to run faster than the site that is receiving a significantly lower volume of traffic. 

So when does it make sense to get this plan? Well if you run a blog, a personal/business site, portfolio or database-driven site shared hosting would be your best bet. 

When you purchase the Shared Hosting Plan you get: 

  • A Free Domain 
  • Unlimited Bandwidth & Storage
  • Free SSL Security
  • Advanced, Easy-to-Use Panel 
  • Free Email Address 
  • Automated Backups
  • Powerful 1-Click Installer 
  • Free Privacy Protection
  • Instant WordPress Setup 

VPS Hosting Plan
Dream Host Review

Moving on to the next hosting plan we have Dreamhost’s Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting. It’s no secret that VPS runs at greater speeds than shared hosting. 

This hosting plan is perfect for websites that need more power than what is offered on a shared server. VPS is perfect for the individual that runs businesses or e-commerce websites or maybe a designer or developer. It’s also key to note that it comes with a higher price tag! 

What should you then expect with a VPS Hosting Plan? 

  • Smart Assistance from world-class Technical Support and Operations teams
  • Unlimited Email Accounts
  • Unlimited MySQL Databases
  • SSL/TLS Certificate
  • Reseller and SUb Account Features
  • Unlimited Bandwidth 
  • Scalable RAM
  • Unlimited Website Hosting
  • Solid State Drives (SSD)
  • VPS Control Panel 

Dedicated Server Plans

Alright, we’re getting to the bad boys. When it comes to a dedicated server, this only contains YOUR files on it. Dream host is perfect if you have resource-heavy apps and HUGE websites. This is on the more expensive side but it includes: 

  • Full Root & Shell Access
  • Ubuntu Linux
  • RAID 1 Storage 
  • DDoS Protection
  • Unlimited Bandwidth 
  • Reseller and Sub Account Features 

Oh yeah! With the dedicated service, your MySQL server is on the same server, thus resulting in faster access. This is unique since with all other hosting plans your MySQL database is on a separate database server. 

Managed WordPress Hosting

We can not stress enough that Dreamhost is one of the four web hosts that WordPress endorses! Do you know what this means? Yes! They are experts in WordPress. They are so skilled in WordPress Hosting that they named the plan DreamPress.  If your business needs a website built on WordPress, you should definitely consider DreamHost as an option. 

By purchasing DreamPress you get: 

  • Instant WordPress Setup 
  • Auto WordPress Updates
  • Free Privacy Protection 
  • Free Domain 
  • Free SSL Certificate
  • Advanced, Easy to Use Panel 
  • Free Email Hosting 
  • Automated Backups

Cloud Hosting

Professionally called DreamCloud. 

I know what you’re saying! DreamHost is getting creative with these names! 

With DreamCloud you are offered two different cloud hosting products. These are Object Storage and Cloud Computing.  DreamObjects is a more cost-effective cloud storage service, which you can utilize to host static data for your websites or store backups. DreamCompute, on the other hand, is scalable cloud computing service built to be much better than VPS since you can deploy and customize your cloud data. 

Customer Support

When it comes to customer support DreamHost offers support 24/7 365 days a year! When it comes to customer support you get access to a chatbot, forums that discuss and answer questions you may have as well as support via Twitter.

Here’s what the DreamHost chatbot looks like.

DreamHost Pricing Plan

When it comes to pricing DreamHost has its ways of standing out for just $4.95 per month, you will be given access to a month-to-month billing option. This is something that most of its competitors do not offer. 

So if you’re not able to make the annual payment or you just believe you will need a website for let’s say a 6-month period this makes a great option for you. 

Below we have a list of the plans currently offered and the monthly price: 

  • Shared Hosting – $2.50
  • DreamCompute Cloud Hosting$4.50
  • VPS Basic$10.00
  • DreamPress Managed WordPress Hosting$16.95
  • VPS Business$20.00 
  • VPS Professional$40.00
  • VPS Enterprise$80.00
  • Standard Dedicated$149.00 
  • Enhanced Dedicated$279.00

 

DreamHost also offers an AMAZING Money-Back Guarantee! Wait for it …. 97 days! Yes, I just said 97 days money-back guarantee. That means you have 3 months to decide whether or not DreamHost is the correct web hosting platform for you.

P.S  This guarantee only comes with shared Hosting. 🙁 

Pros and Cons Of DreamHost

So what are the main advantages and disadvantages of DreamHost? Here are the main pros and cons: 

Pros:

  • Incredible Money-back guarantee (97 days)
  • 100% Uptime
  • Unlimited Disk Space and Bandwidth
  • Environmentally conscious – their offices are EnergyStar certified

Cons:

  • Only paid migrations are available 
  • Costs are slightly higher than competitors
  • No Custom Panel (only worry about this feature if you’re advanced)

DreamHost – Is It Worth It In 2020?

After a full in-depth look at DreamHost, we can, therefore, conclude it is worth the investment, however it may still be best to shop around with other web hosting providers before you can make a decision. Despite having paid migrations that can definitely add up over time, DreamHost still makes up for it with its optimal performance and great features. 

Still deciding which hosting provider to use? Read our article “The Best Web Hosting Providers” to view our other recommended web hosting providers.

All in all, DreamHost should definitely up for considerations despite the few disadvantages it may have.