dreamhost reviews by real users

Are you tired of your current web host? Are you looking for a web host that you can actually trust? Or perhaps you’re interested with what Dreamhost has to offer..

Let me introduce DreamHost…

DreamHost is one of the largest and most successful web host providers on the Internet today. It’s a private company owned by New Dream Network, LLC that is headquartered in Los Angeles.

The company achieved a phenomenal success and hosts over 1 million websites since its founding year in 1996. Its primary website is DreamHost.com.

They offer shared web hosting (for starters) for around $8.95/mo including unlimited core resources (disk storage, bandwidth, domains hosted, email accounts, MySQL databases, etc.. They also offer virtual private server (great for bigger sites) for around $15-$200/mo which comes with unlimited bandwidth and storage.

If you have a large site, you can upgrade to their dedicated web hosting for $100-$250/mo.

Not to mention they offer domain registrations with domain privacy protection included for free.

I am actually using them to host most of my domains. I use DreamHost, GoDaddy and Namecheap to host my domains. The one that I love DreamHost is that they offer domain privacy protection unlike other websites offering additional payment for those. So I get my domain for around $12 with privacy protection (which means my name, address, other info won’t show up when someone look for my domain’s info).

The only thing I don’t like about them is they don’t offer 24/7 support. Sometimes it takes a while to get a response from them.

Let’s see what other DreamHost users have to say:

The Review

Reliability 9/10

I haven’t had any horrible issues. If my site was done, it was temporary. I only experienced bigger outage once and contacted the support in order to resolve it.

They got back to me in a few hours and found I had a heavy memory usage. They pointed me to their knowledge library on wiki.dreamhost.com, where I could read about the problem and solutions.

I reduced the number of third-party plugins (that was one of their recommendations) and it got much better.

It’s helpful that DreamHost has a special website to inform of all the planned outages: www.dreamhoststatus.com If they need to do some server maintenance, they also send an email with information about it.

Features 8/10

For me, the most important was the unlimited disk space and bandwidth, so I appreciate DreamHost had this ready.

I always found any feature I needed was right there (e.g. copying mySQL database before updating to the newest version of WordPress). It’s quite user-friendly and the whole knowledge library helps tremendously.

Their ftp works seamlessly, I’ve never had any problem with it.
One feature I would like to have (but don’t feel like paying for additionally) is automatic backups.

Price 8/10

The pricing is similar to some other providers (e.g. Bluehost). It’s basically the minimum price one has to pay for a basic yet reliable hosting with unlimited disk space and bandwidth.

I also wanted a hosting plan to cover several websites in case I decide to run more. With my current plan I can have an unlimited number of domains.

Technical Support 8/10

It’s pretty good. You can specify how urgent your request is and the speed of support getting back to you depends on that.

It’s even possible to specify the level of tech knowledge, so they get back to you either with detailed explanations (for beginners or non-tech people) or if you’re a pro, they just steer you in the right direction.

The support is not 24/7 and one has to take into account the timezones (if outside America).

Only once I had an urgent request – I got in touch with support via a chatting window on the web panel and my problem was taken care of immediately. I had to contact support twice more during my last 7 months, each time the issue was not so urgent so I specified that and they got back to me the next day.

Each time I was able to resolve the issue with their advice and the documentation they provided me with – usually something from their knowledge library.

Security 9/10

I haven’t had any security issues. My only problem was getting a lot of comment spam, but installing one neat Wodpress plugin solved that.

It’s also easy to back up one’s mySQL database (manually), so that helps to hedge against any loss of data.

Extra Comments

• Relatively easy to set up, even for a beginner (1 click install)
• Sometimes rather slow (memory could be bigger)

What I’d do differently if I were to start over: I would get my domain via DreamHost – it’s free to get one domain via DH, and also pretty easy as one doesn’t have to manually change name servers.

Also, I’d pay more attention to the information about memory in the hosting plans and would choose a hosting provider based on that.

Overall Experience 8/10

I’m very satisfied with my current hosting plan and would recommend DreamHost to anyone on a self-hosted WordPress site. They are reliable and constantly innovating.

I have full trust in them and believe that if something happened to my site, they’d be here to help.
Btw. they also send fun newsletters, no corporate blunt talk.

The Review

Reliability 10/10

10- I can absolutely rely on DreamHost. Off the top of my head, I can think of two times that my blog was down because they were upgrading their servers. They brought my blog down in the middle of the night for 30 minutes and as far as I know, no one missed me at 2:00 am. I was very well informed in advance.

Features 10/10

The thing I love the most about DreamHost is that they’re so reliable. I don’t ever worry about them being down. They’ve also never throttled my blog’s speed because I’ve taken up too much of their bandwidth.

I’ve had that happen to a few friends who use a different service- at a certain point every month they’re blog’s speed slows down because they’re taking up too many “resources” on their unlimited server (seems a bit backwards to me).

For $8.95 a month I get unlimited bandwidth, unlimited disk storage, unlimited domain hosting, unlimited email, and unlimited tech support 24/7.

But best of all, I don’t have to pay an additional fee to have my information privately listed on whois.com. I know a lot of other webhosts charge a fee to keep your name and address off of it. I don’t want the world to know my street address and phone number. I may be a public figure, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want some privacy too.

Price 9/10

They aren’t the cheapest webhost out there, but I fully believe they are the best value. You get what you pay for right? I love that they don’t nickel and dime me for support or additional features. Everything I need is included in my price.

Technical Support 9/10

I know of a few webhosts that are faster than DreamHost with their tech support, but they are also much more expensive. I’ve always gotten an answer to my questions or support within 24 hours.

I once broke my blog beyond something myself or my software engineer husband could fix. We attempted to figure it out for the better part of a week on our own before reaching out to DreamHost. DreamHost had the issue identified and we were able to resolve it very quickly after speaking to them. We should have reached out to them in the first place! It was a huge plug in conflict after a WordPress upgrade.

Security 10/10

I’ve never had any issues with security at DreamHost, nor have I ever had any reason to be worried about security issues there.

Extra Comments

The only negative I can think of is that the interface is a bit clunky. And what I mean by that is there are words and buttons that I just don’t understand what they do or how they work. I don’t touch them because I don’t want to break my blog.

I would love it if DreamHost offered some 101 or 201 self paced classes so I could learn what things meant. I am likely missing out on some amazing features I could be utilizing if I knew what was what.

Overall Experience 9/10

My overall experience with DreamHost has been amazing. Some of my most precious parts of my soul live via my words on their servers. I know that by numbers I’m a “smaller” blogger, but my words are still my words and the place where they live online is important to me.

When I was shopping for a host, DreamHost was recommended to me by a few mega bloggers who were obscenely pleased with their dedicated server plans and support. They had spoken highly of DreamHost’s tech support and price. I’ve toyed around with switching hosts, but for the money I spend, I’m not sure that I can beat what I’ve got.