What Is DreamHost?
DreamHost is one of the largest and most established hosting companies on the web. They have been in operation since 1997 (positive age by digital standards) and have grown to serve over 1.5 million websites and his 400,000 customers worldwide.
They are independent and employee owned (i.e. not Newfold Digital or another GoDaddy brand). They are also one of the longest standing proponents of open source and community-built software (such as WordPress).
DreamHost offers a full range of hosting solutions from shared (most popular) to his VPS to cloud. It also offers specialized WordPress along with complementary services such as email and domain management. But just because it’s old and employee-owned doesn’t mean it’s for everyone. While moving one of my side projects off my old HostGator VPS, I tried DreamHost’s shared hosting plan.
Simple Pricing Structure
Those who choose shared hosting know that planning can be confusing, to say the least. One host limits disk space, another limits the number of websites, and even Other hosts limit the number of databases you can use, and still others don’t offer “bonus” features.
Trying to find the best plan for you from a company can be a hassle. Not to mention finding the best value for money compared to other hosts, but pricing is a big consideration so It cannot be avoided.
DreamHost offers a variety of specialized hosting services, but their main shared hosting services have two very distinct characteristics.
No levels or upgrades. There are two plans with clear rates according to the number of contract years. One has only one website and no email included. The other is unlimited websites and emails.
Their prices are affordable and very competitive. There is also no heavily discounted bait and switch that allows you to renew the first year at a very low price and a very high price (for better or worse). Unlimited plans offer unlimited databases, unlimited storage, unlimited email accounts, and unlimited websites (*all subject to abuse policy). No need to worry about migration or sticker shock when updating, even if you may be responsible for multiple websites.
Customer Support & Transparency
All hosting companies claim to offer excellent customer service. And all potential customers are left wondering if they really do it, or if they’re just saying they do.
The problem with judging customer service is that it is extremely defined. One careless and inexperienced employee combined with a vague and demanding customer can create a nonsensical rating of “worst corporate survival”. On the other hand, by asking one Rockstar employee a simple question, a customer can create a meaningless “best company in the world” rating. What I find useful is looking at how companies handle the public part of customer service and how much they invest in their customer support infrastructure (user guides, onboarding, knowledge base, etc.) is. Both can give a good idea of whether a company is treating customer service as an investment or as a cost.
Overall, I’m impressed with DreamHost’s customer support. Their onboarding process is plain text, but useful. It has a solid knowledge base, forums, and user guides.
Decent Website Performance
You need a host that can not only host your website, but deliver your website files to anyone who requests them as quickly as possible.
Website speed, like customer support, has many variables that affect performance. There are often many ways to improve site performance. However, the host will still be the primary variable in the equation.
I like to check the time to first byte (TTFB) on every web host I use. This is a measure of how quickly the server returns the first byte of information after receiving a request from the browser. In other words, server processing time.
Conclusion
Overall, I found DreamHost to be an excellent hosting company with a few disadvantages. If you want a good hosting company, and you are a fan of their brand, independence, and simplicity, then go ahead and sign up for DreamHost.
