With over 1.5 million websites hosted and some of the most affordable pricing available, you might be wondering if Dreamhost is a worthwhile web hosting provider in 2024.
Taking a data-driven approach, we will provide an honest and comprehensive review of Dreamhost’s web hosting services.
Not to mention the rigorous tests we have conducted to provide you with objective data to help you decide if Dreamhost is the right choice for you.
Introducing DreamHost
Since I’ve had the opportunity to use DreamHost on several client sites, I can attest to its solid presence in the web hosting scene today.
It’s no surprise why WordPress.org recommends DreamHost as one of the leading web hosting companies in today’s market.
DreamHost is also one of the last big, independently owned and operated website service provider web hosting companies around, who delivers top-notch web hosting service.
Compared with other affordable web hosting providers, Dreamhost has a wide range of web hosting services available including:
- Cheap shared hosting
- eCommerce hosting
- Cloud hosting
- Reseller hosting
- VPS hosting
- Dedicated server hosting
Let’s take a look at each of these services and determine their features and benefits.
1. Shared Hosting
When my team of experts purchased DreamHost’s shared hosting plan, I realized that we needed to secure the best pricing by opting for the yearly or triennial plan instead of the monthly option.
If you’re after the best value-for-money shared hosting service from DreamHost, we would recommend checking out the Shared Unlimited plan and signing up for three years.
Dream Host also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on this shared hosting service as well.
As the name suggests, you get unlimited everything:
- Unlimited websites
- Unmetered traffic & visits
- Unmetered (unlimited) bandwidth
- Unlimited storage
- Unlimited subdomains
- Unlimited FTP, SFTP & Shell users
- Unlimited MySQL databases
The reason we suggest the 3-year plan shared hosting is that in the long run, it works out cheaper than if you signed up for the 1-year plan and then paid the increased renewal fee for the next two years.
It’s a difference of paying $142.20 if you pay three years upfront compared to $299.16 if you paid one year upfront and the renewal costs for the remaining two years.
2. WordPress Hosting
Since I’ve used DreamHost before, I can vouch for its reliability and performance. It has been listed as one of the official top three web hosting recommendations for WordPress sites.
It offers a fairly wide selection of WordPress hosting options compared with other cheap shared web hosting providers.For instance, when you compare DreamHost and Hostgator, DreamHost has so many more options for WordPress sites. You can even get managed WordPress hosting.
| WordPress Web Hosting | Monthly Pricing | Yearly Pricing | 3-Year Pricing | Renewal Pricing |
| Basic: WP Starter | $4.95/mo | $2.95/mo | $2.59/mo | $7.99/mo |
| Basic: WP Unlimited | $8.95/mo | $2.95/mo | $3.95/mo | $13.99/mo |
| Managed WordPress: DreamPress | $12/mo for 3 months then $19.95/mo | $16.95/mo | N/A | $19.95/mo |
| Managed WordPress: DreamPress Plus | $24/mo for 3 months then $29.95/mo | $24.95/mo | N/A | $29.95/mo |
| Managed WordPress: DreamPress Pro | $79.95/mo | $71.95/mo | N/A | $79.95/mo |
| Managed WooCommerce | From $12/mo for 3 months then $19.95/mo | From $16.95/mo | N/A | From $19.95/mo |
All of DreamHost’s plans for WordPress users include:
- Instant WordPress setup
- Auto WordPress updates
- Automated daily backups
- Free domain name
- Free domain privacy protection
- Free SSL certificate
- Free email hosting
DreamHost will migrate your WordPress site for free.
You’ll also get 1-click staging, on-demand backups, and built-in caching for better performance.
Not to mention the tw higher tiers also include Jetpack for free.
Jetpack is a plugin that helps with security, performance, and tools to help grow your WordPress website.
It’s made by WP experts and is valued at over $299/year if paid for separately.
That’s seriously great value if you get your hands on that for free with DreamHost. And you also get a 30-day money-back guarantee for a monthly plan.
3. Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting
VPS hosting stands for “virtual private server hosting”.
You’ll get a virtual partitioned space with all its resources dedicated to your projects instead of sharing all the resources with everyone else who is using the server.
This is why virtual private servers can be more pricey than using a shared hosting server but is often well worth the extra cost.
DreamHost offers four managed VPS plans.
| VPS Plans | Monthly Pricing | Yearly Pricing | 3-Year Pricing |
| VPS Basic | From $15/mo | From $13.75/mo | From $10/mo |
| VPS Business | From $30/mo | From $27.50/mo | From $20/mo |
| VPS Professional | From $60/mo | From $55/mo | From $40/mo |
| VPS Enterprise | From $120/mo | From $110/mo | From $80/mo |
All of DreamHost’s VPS plans include:
- Unlimited websites
- Unlimited traffic
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Free SSL certificates
- Unlimited email addresses
There are no hidden overage fees when it comes to traffic bandwidth as DreamHost doesn’t track your bandwidth or traffic usage.
Where each of these web hosting plans varies is in how much RAM and storage you can access.
4. Dedicated Hosting
If you want to go one level beyond VPS and have an entire server to yourself, DreamHost’s dedicated server hosting is right up your alley.
However, as you won’t be sharing the server, the costs are significantly higher.
Dedicated servers are ideal for people who manage a large portfolio of websites or have a high volume of traffic and require the best performance and extra resources to ensure minimal downtime.
| DreamHost Dedicated Servers | RAM & Storage | Monthly Pricing | Yearly Pricing |
| Standard | 4GB RAM1TB HDD | $169/mo | $149/mo |
| Standard | 8GB RAM1TB HDD | $209/mo | $189/mo |
| Standard | 16GB RAM1TB HDD | $249/mo | $229/mo |
| Enhanced | 16GB RAM2TB HDD | $299/mo | $279/mo |
| Enhanced | 32GB RAM2TB HDD | $349/mo | $329/mo |
| Enhanced | 64GB RAM2TB HDD | $399/mo | $379/mo |
| Enhanced | 16GB RAM240GB SSD | $299/mo | $279/mo |
| Enhanced | 32GB RAM240GB SSD | $349/mo | $329/mo |
| Enhanced | 64GB RAM240GB SSD | $399/mo | $379/mo |
DreamHost’s plans are fairly pricey for the amount of resources delivered.
Especially considering most of the plans are still running on HDD storage which is slower and less secure than SSD.
We believe there are better dedicated hosting deals on the market than what DreamHost has to offer.
Check out our Hostwinds review for more details on dedicated hosting that’s worthwhile in 2024.
5. Cloud Hosting
DreamHost also offers cloud hosting which spreads your resources over multiple servers instead of using a single server.
Cloud hosting allows website owners to reach global audiences with fast loading times and reduce the risk of downtime in the event something ever happens to the physical server your files are stored in.
DreamHost offers two different types of cloud hosting plans: DreamCompute and DreamObjects.
DreamCompute offers cloud servers that go live in 30 seconds or less.
They are ideal for hosting websites and web-based applications on a budget.
Both cloud hosting options that DreamHost offers have scalable pricing starting at $4.50 per month.
DreamHost Features
Now, let’s go beyond price and look at the hosting features DreamHost has to offer.
Where possible, we share the data from tests we’ve run to quantitatively prove whether DreamHost has what it takes to be a worthwhile hosting option in today’s market.
1. Ease Of Use DreamHost provides a user-friendly dashboard filled with features that can be activated with just a click.
This custom dashboard is often easier for beginners to navigate compared to traditional cPanel dashboards.
DreamHost specializes in managed web hosting solutions, which means if you’re a novice, you don’t have to stress about server maintenance, backups, or updates.
However, if you opt for DreamHost’s dedicated or cloud hosting, you might need some help from a developer. These hosting plans are designed to deliver superior performance but require proper setup.
2. Website Migrations DreamHost offers a free migration plugin that works well for many websites.
However, if you encounter any issues, or if your website setup is more complex, you might have to pay for their migration service.
| DreamHost | |
| Price | $99 – $199 |
| Number of Sites | Per site |
| Emails | Manual |
| Availability | All accounts |
3. Disk Space
What impressed us the most with DreamHost’s web hosting plans is how most offer unmetered or unlimited storage and bandwidth.
In fact, DreamHost doesn’t even track the bandwidth and traffic you use, therefore, it cannot limit your usage or charge you hidden overage fees.
However, when it comes to DreamHosts servers, we would have liked to see more RAM and disk space offered for the priced being charged.
There are a number of better solutions on the market which offer more resources for comparable prices to DeramHost’s.
4. Backups
The best way to check if your web host can support you if something goes wrong is to check out their backup policy.
However, it does not offer any further data protection unless you’re using cloud hosting.
Your website files are only stored on one server, and if it goes down, you risk your website going down with it.
5. Security
DreamHost has an internal team of dedicated security engineers. Internally, this team is known as Nightmare Labs.
So we dug deep in our research on this topic, and here’s what’s included in all of DreamHost’s web hosting services:
| DreamHost | |
| Free SSL Certificate | Yes (Let’s Encrypt) |
| Free Domain Privacy | Yes |
| Hotlink Protection | Yes – Manual Set Up Needed |
| Spam Protection | Yes – Configuration of Settings Needed |
| Free Automatic Backups | Yes (Daily) |
| Web Application Firewall | Yes |
| DDoS Protection | Yes |
| Brute Force Protection | Yes |
| Bot Blocking | Yes |
| Malware Protection | Yes (+Malware Removal Tool) |
| 24/7 Server Monitoring | Yes |
| WP Security Plugin | No |
It’s quite rare for a cheap web hosting service to include so many out-of-the-box security features in all plans.
Many of DreamHost’s competitors charge extra fees for multiple upsell services in order for users to secure their websites to the same level.
6. Servers
For anyone targeting audiences in a specific location, it’s worth looking at where your website’s servers are located.
DreamHost uses US-based data centers. That’s not a problem if the bulk of your audience is in the US. But if it’s not, then perhaps you might be better off choosing a hosting company with more server locations and a better web hosting service.
vDreamHost’s servers are located in Ashburn (Virginia), Hillsboro (Oregon), and Irvine (California).
If you’d like to choose your data center location, you can reach out to their phone or live chat support and request your preferred server location.
