As a hosting review expert/website owner myself, it made sense I reviewed Dreamhost – one of the most popular hosting providers in the world. Dreamhost is known for its speed and reliability and over 1.5 million domains trust them. In the rest of this piece, I’ll share my thoughts on the host’s pricing, overall features, performance, ease of use, and support… so you have all you need to know to make an informed signup decision.
Dreamhost Review
Dreamhost has been around for a long time – founded in 1996, they are now home to over 1.5 million websites, blogs, and apps. The company offers shared, VPS, dedicated, Cloud and WordPress plans.
On their basic shared plans, you get all the goodies – a free SSL/domain, SSD storage, unmetered bandwidth, SSH access, pre-installed WordPress and auto migrations, and access to the Dreamhost custom control panel.
DreamHost is rated A+ on BBB and compiled from over 3679 reviews, the host is rated 4.7/5 on Trustpilot.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Versatile hosting plans
- Impressive server speeds
- WordPress-heavy features
- Free domain and SSL included
- Unrivaled money-back guarantee
- Easier choice from to-the-point plans
- Offers other website and marketing-specific services
Cons
- Not the best support – limited time
- Not privately owned
- Storage is not the best on the market
Whether you are a small or mid-sized business, or a full blown Fortune 500 enterprise, Dreamhost has the hosting solutions for your needs. Looking for servers that host like a dream? Sign up for Dreamhost today!
Rating Breakdown
With the huge number of hosting providers on the market, it’s important that we have a standardized way to compare them. At HostAdvice, we created a hosting provider rating methodology to do just that.
So irrespective of the kind of hosting or features a particular provider offers, our methodology evaluates every important factor and scores each host based on how they perform.
| Parameter | Score | Why we gave this score |
| PRICES | 9.5 | Dreamhost offers hosting plans that are pretty affordable compared to other providers and a rather unusual 97-day money-back guarantee. I gave them a 9.5 because you can choose to commit to monthly, 1-year, or 3-year billing packages. |
| FEATURES | 9.0 | Vast hosting kinds, CloudFlare-compatibility, SSD servers, free domain and SSL, pre-installed apps and WordPress, a custom control panel, and other features make Dreamhost feature-heavy. I’d give them a 9.0 because some addons are not free. |
| PERFORMANCE | 8.0 | 300 ms response time, 99.9% uptime, SSD servers and storage, and great load times make the host among the high performers. I’d give them a 8.0 because there are still faster hosts. |
| USER FRIENDLINESS | 9.0 | Beginner-friendly Dreamhost control panel, intuitive UI, and 1-click installs make the host very user friendly. I’d give them a 9.5 because the custom control panel makes them very easy to use. |
| SUPPORT | 8.5 | Live chat, ticketing, phone support, discussion forums, and a vast knowledgebase. However, I’d give them a 8.5 because most of these are only available for existing customers. |
Dreamhost Prices & Plans – 2023
Dreamhost offers shared, VPS, dedicated, cloud and WordPress plans (managed and unmanaged). They also offer email hosting, a website builder, and a unique suite of pro services – web design, marketing, management etc.
On most of their plans, Dreamhost offers a remarkable 97-day money back guarantee – enough time to decide if you like their services and the right to cancel anytime.
And when you finally decide to commit to Dreamhost, you can pay via a credit card, debit card or Paypal.
Shared Hosting
| Plan name | Space | Bandwidth | Panel | Number of sites | Price (per month) |
| Starter | 50 GB | Unmetered | Custom panel | 1 | $2.95 |
| Unlimited | Unlimited | Unmetered | Custom panel | Unlimited | $2.95 |
Dreamhost’s unlimited shared plan is the most recommended as you get everything from the ‘starter’ plus unlimited websites to host and unlimited storage… for the same price range.
VPS Hosting
| Plan name | Space | Bandwidth | Panel | Number of sites | Price (per month) |
| VPS Basic | 30 GB | Unlimited | Custom panel | Unlimited | $13.75 |
| VPS Business | 60 GB | Unlimited | Custom panel | Unlimited | $27.50 |
| VPS Professional | 120 GB | Unlimited | Custom panel | Unlimited | $55.00 |
| VPS Enterprise | 240 GB | Unlimited | Custom panel | Unlimited | $110.00 |
I’d personally recommend Dreamhost’s VPS business plans if you’re just getting started with VPS hosting. 60 GB SSD storage and unmetered bandwidth at $27.50/month.
Dedicated Hosting
| Plan name | Space | Bandwidth | Panel | Number of sites | Price (per month) |
| Standard | 1 TB | Uncapped | Custom panel | Unlimited | $149 |
| Enhanced | 2 TB | Uncapped | Custom panel | Unlimited | $279 |
I personally recommend Dreamhost’s standard dedicated hosting plan if you’re just getting started with dedicated resources. You get 1 TB HDD, uncapped bandwidth, and 4 GB RAM in an Intel Xeon 4-Core 8-Thread.
Dreamhost offers three pricing tiers each under its standard and enhanced dedicated plans charged based on the amount of RAM you get.
For standard:
4 GB RAM – 1 TB HDD storage – $149
8 GB RAM – 1 TB HDD storage – $189
16 GB RAM – 1 TB HDD storage – $229
For enhanced:
16 GB RAM – 2 TB HDD – $279
32 GB RAM – 2 TB HDD – $339
64 GB RAM – 2 TB HDD – $379
16 GB RAM – 240 GB SSD – $279
32 GB RAM – 240 GB SSD – $329
64 GB RAM – 240 GB SSD – $379
WordPress Hosting
WordPress Basic
| Plan name | Space | Bandwidth | Panel | Number of sites | Price (per month) |
| Standard | 50 GB | Unmetered | Custom panel | 1 | $2.95 |
| Enhanced | Unmetered | Unmetered | Custom panel | Unlimited | $2.95 |
Dreamhost’s entry level and most affordable WordPress plans. I’d recommend the enhanced that gives you unmetered storage and bandwidth for the same price as the most basic.
DreamPress
| Plan name | Space | Bandwidth | Panel | Number of sites | Price (per month) |
| DreamPress | 30 GB | Unlimited | Custom panel | 1 | $16.95 |
| DreamPress Plus | 60 GB | Unlimited | Custom panel | 1 | $24.95 |
| DreamPress Pro | 120 GB | Unlimited | Custom panel | 1 | $71.95 |
DreamPress – fully managed WordPress that gives you extra resources and everything to run a successful WordPress website. Backups, support, free migration etc.
VPS WordPress
| Plan name | Space | Bandwidth | Panel | Number of sites | Price (per month) |
| VPS Basic | 30 GB | Unlimited | Custom panel | Unlimited | $13.75 |
| VPS Business | 60 GB | Unlimited | Custom panel | Unlimited | $27.5 |
| VPS Professional | 120 GB | Unlimited | Custom panel | Unlimited | $55.00 |
| VPS Enterprise | 240 GB | Unlimited | Custom panel | Unlimited | $110 |
Dreamhost’s VPS WordPress plans feature WordPress hosting powered by VPS servers for more scalability, control, and resources.
Features
- Free domain and SSL
- 1-click installs
- 97-day money back guarantee
- Unmetered bandwidth and storage
- Custom control panel
Dreamhost has some rather special features but among all these, the most prominent is probably its customized control panel – Dreamhost does not offer cPanel but rather, a custom-built control panel for user friendliness. Dreamhost also offers a remarkable 97-day money back guarantee on its plans.
Dreamhost also offering VPS-powered WordPress plans is not something you see everyday.
Performance
If you’re considering hosting your website on Dreamhost, it’s important that you know how well your website will perform – as a result of how the host’s servers perform.
Some important performance metrics to measure are the host’s server response time, uptime, and fully loaded time.
The quicker the host’s servers respond when a user visits your website, the quicker your web pages will load and be available to the user. This will mean longer engagement times, less bounce, and more conversions for you.
As a standard, Google recommends a fully loaded time between 1-2s. 99.9% uptime has become the industry’s standard and Dreamhost assures you of that.
To measure their server performance, I tested metrostyle.com – a domain hosted on Dreamhost – on GTMetrix and these were the results:
The server response time averaged around 250 ms and had a fully loaded time of 2.1s. The host also had a very impressive overall performance of 99%:
Level Of Support
Dreamhost promises support 24/7/365 via:
Live chat
To talk to a real person, you will have to be a paid customer, otherwise you only have a bot at your disposal.
While they have their place, their replies will of course be rigid. Via the bot chat, you can also create a support ticket and email thread to an agent who’ll respond in less than 24 hours.
Phone support
Phone support is also only available for paid customers.
Discussion forums
For some reason, Dreamhost’s discussion forums redirect to knowledgebase page. My guess is they’re also available only when you’re a paid customer and can be accessed via the control panel.
Knowledgebase
Dreamhost has a well-stacked knowledgebase and help desk equipped with a search engine to give you a library of answers to whatever questions you may have about their packages, how-tos, etc.:
User-Friendliness – Ease of use
Registration
Registering on Dreamhost is as simple as buying one of their plans. Using their shared plans as an example, simply click the ‘Get started’ and then ‘Sign up now’.
The chat portal seems connected with real humans (when you’re about to pay lol).
You’ll be asked whether you want to register a new domain, have an existing domain, or will get to that later:
You can also choose how you want to pay – monthly, yearly, or triennially.
Next, you’ll be asked to fill in your details – payment details (card or Paypal), billing info, your account info (name and email), and whether you want to add extra features like email and Dreamhost protection.
Proceed to checkout and you have your account ready!
DreamHost Control Panel
Dreamhost doesn’t support cPanel – they made it super clear. Instead, they offer a custom-built control panel. From here, you can manage your domains, mail, FTP & SSH, Support and much more!
So there’s no separate panel for the more technical stuff. Everything can be controlled from one dashboard, making the host incredibly intuitive.
Installing WordPress on Dreamhost
Dreamhost’s WordPress plans come with WordPress pre-installed and what’s more? You get automatic WordPress updates, free auto WordPress migrations, and the WP website builder.
Also, Dreamhost offers a 1-click WordPress installer, however, to use it, your website must be fully hosted on Dreamhost – i.e not parked, mirrored, redirected, or DNS only.
To install WordPress in the WordPress panel, click ‘Install WordPress’ then ‘Learn more and install’. Fill in the ‘install to’, ‘select database’, ‘deluxe install’, and then add the ‘WP website builder’.
Click ‘Install it for me now’.
Add an email account with Dreamhost
Do note that Dreamhost’s shared starter plan doesn’t include email and you’ll have to pay for it separately. However, on the shared unlimited and every other plan, you get unlimited emails.
To add an email to your domain on Dreamhost, in the panel, click ‘Manage emails’. Click ‘Create new email address’ and then fill in the details:
Choose an address, mailbox name, password (pick or auto-generate), set disk storage, choose whether you want daily warnings… and voila! Your email is ready.
Conclusion: Do We Recommend Dreamhost?
Dreamhost is indeed a great host with several unique features in its offering – a 97-day guarantee, VPS plans specifically for WordPress, and cPanel-free user interface that makes it especially great for hosting newbies.
So, do I recommend Dreamhost? I do. My only qualms with them is their support could be much better. No live chat or phone support unless you’re a paid customer. If you’ll be needing a lot of help, they may not be the best choice for you as their contact hours are limited.
Asides from those, I like how their plans are straight to the point when compared to other hosting providers on the market.
