Company Overview
DreamHost
Hosted Sites:
+800.000
Established:
1997
Location:
United States
Uptime and Reliability
With their multiple-internet-carrier and multiple fiber connections to the internet, DreamHost guarantees for total network redundancy. We have monitored 2 websites, hosted at DreamHost for 3 months and did not recognize any downtimes. Dreamhost promises a 97-day-back-guarantee, in case the customer is not fully content.We rate DreamHost's reliability and performance to be overaverage.
Hosting Plans and Tech Features
| # | Hosting Type | Plan Name | Storage | Bandwidth | Price/mo | Renewal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shared | Shared Starter | unlimited SSD | unlimited | $2.59 | $0.00 |
| 2 | Shared | Shared Unlimited | unlimited SSD | unlimited | $5.95 | $0.00 |
| 3 | WordPress Managed | DreamPress Basic | 30 GB SSD | unmetered | $16.95 | $0.00 |
| 4 | WordPress Managed | DreamPress Plus | 60 GB SSD | unmetered | $24.95 | $0.00 |
| 5 | WordPress Managed | DreamPress Pro | 120 GB SSD | unmetered | $71.95 | $0.00 |
| 6 | VPS | VPS Basic | 30 GB SSD | unlimited | $10.00 | $0.00 |
| 7 | VPS | VPS Business | 60 GB SSD | unlimited | $20.00 | $0.00 |
| 8 | VPS | VPS Professional | 120 GB SSD | unlimited | $40.00 | $0.00 |
| 9 | VPS | VPS Enterprise | 240 GB SSD | unlimited | $80.00 | $0.00 |
| 10 | Dedicated Managed | Standard 4 GB | 1 TB (RAID-1) | unlimited | $149.00 | $149.00 |
| 11 | Dedicated Managed | Standard 8 GB | 1 TB (RAID-1) | unlimited | $189.00 | $189.00 |
| 12 | Dedicated Managed | Standard 16 GB | 1 TB (RAID-1) | unlimited | $229.00 | $229.00 |
| 13 | Dedicated Managed | Enhanced 16 GB | 2 TB (RAID-1) | unlimited | $279.00 | $279.00 |
| 14 | Dedicated Managed | Enhanced 32 GB | 2 TB (RAID-1) | unlimited | $329.00 | $329.00 |
| 15 | Dedicated Managed | Enhanced 64 GB | 2 TB (RAID-1) | unlimited | $379.00 | $379.00 |
| 16 | Dedicated Managed | Enhanced 16 GB | 240 GB SSD | unlimited | $279.00 | $279.00 |
| 17 | Dedicated Managed | Enhanced 32 GB | 240 GB SSD | unlimited | $329.00 | $329.00 |
| 18 | Dedicated Managed | Enhanced 64 GB | 240 GB SSD | unlimited | $379.00 | $379.00 |
Control Panel and Software
DreamHost employes a self-developed control panel, wich they promise on their own website to be "the coolest thing ever, basically". Investigating and testing things for this review, we had a close look at it of course. We were interested to find out differences to e.g. Cpanel, wich is the industry-leading standard software for managing hosting accounts.DreamHost's control panel is really quiet cool, at least concerning the features. However, the design of the control panel is a text-based table - not so intuitive like Cpanel. Packed with features, it gives the customer the ability to adjust every aspect of his web hosting account: create a website, an email account or a database, backup files or rather common things like billing functions. Cron Jobs or autoresponders can be programmed, Streaming Video, Audio (Quicktime or RealVideo) and FrontPage extensions are only a few aspects, that can be all managed from within the control panel.
There is a strong sense of community in the DreamHost-ideology and is reflected through the integration of customer suggestion forms, community newsletters, a customer forum, a directory and a rewards program - all integrated right into the control panel.
Despite it's optical simplicity being a text-table, the features of the control panel are powerful, complete and professional. It's fun to work with.
Support Performance
DreamHost offers 24/7 support through email and live chat. However, a telephone support is not included in the $8.95 /month hosting plan at all. DreamHost's philosophy concerning support issues is a system, that rather helps the customer to help himself. This system includes the DreamHost Support Wiki, a giant FAQ knowledgebase, the customer forums where users can support each other and finally the email or chat system ot obtain support from a DreamHost employee.DreamHost promises to answer all support requests within 24 hours, but "mostly they are answered in substantially less time". Other hosting providers promise 2 minutes. We feel, a hosting package at this price and with such professional features (being interesting for business clients) deserves a faster and more responsive support and a support telephone.
This kind of support structure is OK for experienced users. Absolute newbies could feel lost, helpless and unattended. Other hosting providers taking $8.95 /month or less offer a toll-free telephone number additionally. We think, DreamHost's support level does not correspond with the rest of this high quality web hosting package.
Pricing, Value and Renewal Fees
The price of $8.95/month is not the cheapest in the hosting industry, but DreamHost provides a lot for that. Their single available hosting plan includes a free domain name, unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth and unlimited mySQL databases. Additionally to unlimited storage, 50 GB of file-backup storage space is included in the hosting plan. This should be enough for 95% of all website projects. Ruby on Rails is fully supported, as are Real Audio and Real Video streams.The hosting plan includes $75 in Google Adwords bonus and promises a 97-day-money-back-guarantee. A one-click-automatic-software-installer makes it easy for customers to install Joomla, WordPress, phpBB or Gallery.
The hosting plan is a high quality, high feature plan. We consider the price for this plan a litte overaverage, though.
Conclusion: Do we recommend DreamHost?
The 97-day-money-back-guarantee shows, Dreamhost is confident about customer satisfaction. We were satisfied with the hosting features, the reliablity, the server-performance and the self-developed control panel.
A toll-free telephone number (or at least any telephone-support at all) is missing in our opinion. To be fair, it has to be said that the Support-Wiki is huge and really complete.
We see DreamHost as a high quality provider, that can be a good choice for experienced users, that need only few support.
