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About DreamHost
Founded in 1996 by four undergraduate students named Dallas Bethune, Josh Jones, Michael Rodriguez and Sage Weil from Harvey Mudd College, DreamHost today hosts over 1.5 million sites and has more than 400,000 customers.
It’s an award-winning hosting that prides itself in winning the PCMag Readers’ Choice Award for best business hosting.
Today, DreamHost is popular in the market for its affordability, reliability and award-winning support.
Although a popular website in the market it may not be the right service for everyone. Below we will discuss the pros and cons of DreamHost.
The pros of DreamHost:
Budget-friendly-
When you choose a month-to-month plan, DreamHost is very affordable. The shared hosting plan starts at $2.59 per month and stared unlimited plan starts at $3.95 monthly for the first three years. The advantage of monthly billing is that cancellation can be done anytime and add additional fees won’t be incurred. The monthly plan provides the same features as annual plans.
The monthly plan is ideal for those users who find it hard to pay annually or those who don’t know how long they will need to use the website. Therefore, the flexibility that comes with affordability is something to look for.
100% Uptime guarantee-
To get a good experience from using web hosting services, uptime plays a very important role. Even if the site gets down due to unavoidable problems you want it to bounce back fast. It will be a bad experience if people cannot find your site because of downtime. DreamHost is often tested for its stability and reliability and it rarely failed the test.
The uptime guarantee of DreamHost is 100% with their multiple data center locations, redundant cooling, emergency generators, and constant monitoring. No other shared hosting services provide such a high guarantee as DreamHost. Their terms of service state that they will refund your money for the time your site was down if the servers ever get slow.
97 days Money Back Guarantee-
A vast majority of web hosting companies offer only 30-days money-back guarantee. DreamHost is beyond that. They offer 97 days money-back guarantee which is more than 3 months to test their services if you are happy or not. This is really impressive as this offer is not provided by any other web hosting platforms.
Only those who have shared hosting plans, for them this offer is applicable.
Custom Control Panel-
Rather than the industry-standard cPanel, DreamHost uses a custom-made control panel. For new users, it is beginner-friendly and easy to grasp through cPanel fans may not like it.
Admin access to all DreamHost products is given by the control panel. Databases, emails, billing, and websites can be maintained from there.
Free Domain-
One free domain name registration is included with the purchase of the DreamHost annual plan. It is free only for the first year after that a fee of $15.95 will be charged per year for a new domain.
Security-
Anti-malware services are not provided by DreamHost but it provides anti-spam email. It provides other forms of security like editing the .htaccess file when site access control is with you and setting up a password.
Spiders can also be blocked by adding ‘no index’ to your page. That way it won’t show up in search engines. To automate repetitive tasks or to schedule tasks, a cron job can also be set up.
Free SSL certificates is also offered by DreamHost and for people who sell products online, it’s a must-have certificate.
Excellent Chat Support-
Email, ticket support and live chat are offered by DreamHost. The chat support is very responsive. The waiting period is less than one minute. It has an extensive knowledge database too. Any questions or queries simple or complex will all be answered by the bot.
Automated Backup-
In order to keep your website safe, backup is very crucial. DreamHost automatically backs up your entire WordPress website and files daily. Advanced backup is available but for that, you need to pay separately.
DreamHost offers a lot of features but there are also drawbacks to it. Let’s take a look at them.
The Cons of DreamHost:
No email for Shared Plan-
DreamHost does not offer unlimited email accounts like other web hosting companies. The separate fee has to be paid to email accounts in the case of the Shared Starter plan. Though it is $1.67 per month which is affordable compared with other competitors, paying an additional fee feels like a burden, especially for beginners who wish to purchase a shared starter plan.
No phone support-
They do have excellent email and live chat support but it is unfortunate that they don’t have any phone support. This is especially bad when a problem comes up that only a human being could help to fix. Also, online support is not 24/7 and is limited to business hours. It’s available daily from 3.00 AM to 9.30 PM (Pacific Time). Outside of business hours, email support response could get slower.
Complex installs-
DreamHost does not provide 1 click installs to make things easy like many other web hosting services. Only for a few CMSs, automated installations are provided including WordPress. You will have to undergo a more complex installation if you want to use another CMS on the list.
Server located only in the U.S-
DreamHost has servers located only in Virginia and Oregon in the U.S. They don’t have data centers outside of U.S unlike its competitors like SiteGround and A2 Hosting which have many server locations. Users of other parts of the world especially from Europe and Asia may find it to their disadvantage.
Overall Rating
Overall it’s great and can be a good option for many. It’s a massive win for those who are interested in monthly plans. Whether you are small business or large one, it is ideal for both who are looking to host a website. Different plans offer different features so there are plenty to choose from. The pricing, money back guarantee, free domain, security and many more make it one of our first choices.
On the other hand, the customer service is restricted to certain hours which may not be ideal for you if you belong outside of North America. It also lacks professional features that tech-savvy users like developers or agencies may miss.
Do we recommend DreamHost?
Yes, we do.
It’s the best web hosting for pay-as-you-go so there’s no pressure for you to commit for a long period of time. The 100% uptime and the fact that you can test their services for 97 days before planning to cancel should at least motivate you to try them out. The pros outweigh the cons so we definitely recommend it for the growth and transformation of your website.
Is DreamHost a good host?
Yes. For a starter WordPress website of any type, DreamHost is a good host. They offer great features at an affordable cost.
Is DreamHost the cheapest web host?
No, Hostinger is cheaper than DreamHost. In fact, they are the cheapest web hosting services for most people.
Then which other web hosting services offer a similar price?
HostGator, Godaddy, InMotion and Bluehost also provide similar service and pricing as DreamHost
