Choosing the right web host is essential to a smooth-running website for your brand or business.
As a longtime website builder and tech expert, I’ve had over a decade to analyze the ins and outs of web hosting, including what will make or break the technology.
If you choose the wrong host, it’s not only difficult to switch over, but the decision may come with negative effects like site malfunctions and wasted time/money.
To help you avoid that situation, I want to recommend one of the best web hosting providers currently on the market: DreamHost.
The TYB Team and I all have personal experience using Dreamhost, but we’ve also conducted dedicated lab testing and consulted extensive third-party research to deliver a comprehensive DreamHost review.
Let’s get started!
What is DreamHost?
DreamHost is a web hosting provider and domain-name-registration service based out of Los Angeles, California.
It’s currently one of the best web hosting services on the market.
DreamHost began hosting customers’ websites in 1997 and has grown since to host over 400,000 client sites.
Using the Ubuntu operating system, DreamHost offers the following:
- Shared hosting
- Dedicated hosting
- VPS hosting
- WordPress hosting
They also offer entrepreneur-friendly packages with cloud hosting and storage.
DreamHost offers an incredible user experience with an in-house designed control panel and expert-level customer support.
The DreamHost network is a major hosting influence in the tech world, including early contributions to OpenStack in 2011 and a number of other open-source spinoffs since.
However, what makes DreamHost most effective and important is the top-tier quality of its services.
From domain registration to web hosting to their simple-yet-flexible website builder, DreamHost ranks and rivals other major web hosts like HostGator and Liquid Web.
General DreamHost Review
The Tweak Your Biz team is dedicated to thoroughly testing every platform we review.
We’re committed to a variety of test methods, including our own personal experience.
Through these methods, we concluded that DreamHost is one of our favorite affordable web hosting services on the market.
Before I get in-depth about what DreamHost has to offer, here’s an overview of their web hosting services.
Overall Performance — 8.5/10
- Top-level uptime
- Decent loading times, but not as fast as other providers
- Generous feature offerings
Speed — 7.5/10
- Average page load time of 1.75 seconds
- Not the fastest loading times of all hosting services we’ve tried. Ranks on the high-average side.
- SSDs to improve site efficiency
Uptime — 10/10
- 99.99% uptime guaranteed
- The most any web hosting service can promise.
Customer Service — 9/10
- Highly responsive and patient customer service team
- Beginner-friendly
- No phone support
- Stellar chat support that nearly replaces the immediacy of phone support
- Chat support is with real people, not robots
- Extensive knowledge database
- Email and ticket-based support
- Available 24/7/365
Ease of Use — 10/10
- Excellent for beginners and small-business owners
- Designed for easy site management
- Variety of plans with options according to the customer’s knowledge level
- Intuitive and clean interface
- Visually appealing with great UX
- Unique and efficient control panel
- 1-click installation options
- Made our list of best web hosting for beginners
Variety of Hosting Options — 8/10
- Dedicated server hosting
- Shared Hosting
- WordPress hosting
- VPS Hosting
- Cloud hosting only available on Enterprise plans
- Bonus points for their WP website builder
Pros
- Generous inclusions in their packages, such as a free domain name with shared web hosting plans and email hosting
- Great value
- Generous money-back guarantee at 97 days
- Unlimited bandwidth to host mass amounts of web traffic
- Easy to scale up or down with their plans
- Secure web hosting features
- Easy WordPress staging
- Some of the strongest tech support of any web hosting provider, despite not having chat support
Cons
- No phone support
- Shared Starter plan doesn’t include email hosting
- No Windows-based servers
DreamHost Web Hosting Review
To better understand Dreamhost, the Tweak Your Biz team and I personally worked with each type of hosting software.
In this section, I’m going to reveal the data we collected and our impressions.
DreamHost’s shared hosting plan is a great option if you want to start a website without investing too much money.
Here’s what comes with this plan.
Pricing Plans and Features
SSL Included & Activated?
Both the Shared Starter and Shared Unlimited hosting plans come with free and activated SSL certificates.
Our Take
DreamHost doesn’t only offer affordable and reliable shared hosting features — they also offer two options.
The Shared Starter plan is a great option if you only want to host one website. Because it doesn’t come with email, it’s probably the best for users who are running a personal site where they don’t expect too much traffic.
The Shared Unlimited plan is where the serious value lies, though. For less than $2 more a month, you’ll gain access to extra room for unlimited websites, an unlimited email, and a free domain name of your choice.
Everything ran smoothly for the entire time we were working with these plans.
Managed WordPress Hosting
DreamHost presents WordPress hosting in three ways: DreamPress, DreamPress Plus, and DreamPress Pro.
The standard option of the bunch is DreamPress, which provides superior website care with automatic updates, daily backups, and high-level security protection.
Web Hosting Plans and Features
SSL Included & Activated?
Yes, the SSL certificate is included and activated.
Our Take
With DreamPress you can truly benefit from a one-of-a-kind white glove treatment for your website. Of course, we already knew this from when we researched their WordPress plans more in depth for our Top WordPress Hosting List.
You can’t go wrong with DreamHost’s managed WordPress hosting plans. You’ll receive the utmost care and priority attention, for half the price of other competitors.
If you’re not interested in managed hosting, you can also access regular WordPress packages from DreamHost for lower prices.
Dedicated Server Hosting
Dedicated servers offer optimal web hosting power for traffic-heavy sites and large businesses.
If you anticipate your website receiving a large volume of traffic, you should consider opting for Dreamhost’s dedicated hosting.
With this setup, the server is exclusively devoted to your site and all its resources will be at your disposal – allowing it to remain operational even when faced with immense amounts of visitors.
Dedicated hosting provides an unparalleled level of continuity; perfect for any mission-critical sites that must remain up or running 24/7.
Web Hosting Plans and Features
SSL Included & Activated?
SSL isn’t required for dedicated hosting, so these plans don’t include it.
However, they do include DDoS protection against harmful server attacks.
Our Take
DreamHost offers several dedicated server plans that range in price from $149/mo to $279/mo with features like unlimited monthly data transfers and root access.
Their dedicated servers are highly reliable — no complaints from Team TYB.
That is, unless you’re trying to build a Microsoft-operated website — DreamHost only offers hosting on Linux servers.
VPS (Virtual Private Server) Hosting
DreamHost provides four Linux-based VPS plans starting at just $10.00 a month when you commit to one year of service.
With VPS, your website will have fewer virtual roommates and access to significantly more server power.
With these plans, you can ensure that all the content on your site is running as optimally as possible.
Web Hosting Plans and Features
SSL Included & Activated?
SSl inclusion and activation confirmed!
Our Take
Whether it’s high performance or scalability you’re seeking, Dreamhost has got it covered.
You’ll also gain access to a generous amount of features, including unlimited sites and emails on any plan.
DreamHost’s VPS costs are also highly affordable compared to other web hosting services.
We will note, however — the base storage is pretty low for these plans. This is the only limiting feature when it comes to DreamHost’s VPS plans.
DreamHost Website Builder & Design Review
How it Works
We like DreamHost’s interface and hosting plans, but what about their website builder?
Along with their WordPress hosting plans, DreamHost offers their WP website builder.
After you make the first payment on your chosen plan, you’ll gain access to your DreamHost account dashboard.
To begin working with the website builder, click on the Open Website Editor link from your dashboard. Then, you’ll have to select a template.
You can then define your intentions for the site and adjust your template accordingly to make it easier to customize everything.
From there, the site will take you to a traditional WordPress screen. Once you hit the customizer, DreamHost’s site-building interface will appear.
Like WordPress, this site builder is a block-based design interface. This makes it easy to move columns around and rearrange the webpage.
Website Builder Plans
Ease of Use
DreamHost’s site builder is extremely easy to use, even for total tech newbies.
It’s easy to do all the basic tasks you need to create a stellar website, including photo additions and text.
Third-party options are a breeze to install.
Their site builder comes with a wide variety of themes and a simple drag-and-drop site builder.
You can get a beautiful site designed in no more than a day, depending on how detailed you want to be.
Our Take
DreamHost’s website builder is surprisingly efficient and easy to use, considering that it isn’t one of their main features.
With DreamHost, all of the features you would expect from WordPress are at your fingertips including:
- Tags
- Comments
- Scheduling
- Video embedding
The customizable page layout is a bonus for those who fancy themselves as web designers.
Interestingly enough, you can easily create search engine-friendly posts with the handy ‘easy
All in all, it provides an unbeatable blogging experience that experts and novices alike will love.
DreamHost Registrar Review
Starting Prices & Promotions
DreamHost “.COM” domain names are only $7.99/year without a hosting plan.
They also include free private registration.
Ultimately, though, the prices vary depending on the name.
Ease of Use
It’s extremely easy to set up a domain name with DreamHost. All you have to do is enter your desired domain name and they’ll tell you if it’s available.
They’ll also provide other suggestions if it’s taken, along with prices.
Privacy
DreamHost promises shielded contact information, email and spam protection, and defenses against phishing.
Our Take
DreamHost is the gateway to an extensive list of domain names for stellar prices.
DreamHost Pro Services Review
Services Offered
- Web Design with custom templates
- Web Marketing with
SEO strategies and social media outreach - Site Management with their DreamCare ($59/mo) site monitoring, site optimization, site transfer to DreamHost, site updates, and hacked site repair
- Web Development with a project manager, HQ code, and more
Are They Worth It?
If you’re a beginner or a busy entrepreneur with extra room in your budget, DreamHost’s services are worth it.
Their teams are thoroughly and well-trained, and will not disappoint.
Alternatives to DreamHost
Hostinger
Like DreamHost, Hostinger offers considerable bang for your buck with its amazing combination of features and affordability.
Not only do they offer a free domain name for one year with nearly any plan — more so than DreamHost — but also unlimited disk space and great uptime too.
Hostinger also offers more types of web hosting than DreamHost, including CyberPanel hosting and Cloud hosting.
However, they limit the number of websites on their plans to 300. DreamHost has no limits at all.
DreamHost also tops them when it comes to storage space and speed because they host from more databases.
A2 Hosting
if you want to use WordPress as the foundation of your website, both BlueHost and A2 Hosting will help you get the job done.
A2 Hosting offers more WordPress-driven features than BlueHost.
Where A2 Hosting triumphs over DreamHost is with their loading times.
As I said earlier, DreamHost is simply not the absolute best when it comes to quick loading speed.
Though DreamHost tops Hostinger, A2 offers 20x faster page loads.
However, A2 Hosting falls short of DreamHost’s impressive SSD storage amounts.
Bluehost
Bluehost is comparable to DreamHost when it comes to affordable pricing and reliable uptime.
Similarly, Bluehost offers WordPress-friendly tools and a custom control panel.
Their pricing plans are similar, but Bluehost tends to hike up the pricing more after year 1 than DreamHost does.
Ultimately, DreamHost and Bluehost are pretty similar hosting services — both offer robust features at affordable prices.
However, DreamHost’s prices are unbeatable.
It’s also required to commit for three years when working with Bluehost, whereas DreamHost offers more flexibility.
Wrap Up
Like all web hosting software, DreamHost has pros and cons — however, their benefits far outweigh any minor inconveniences, like a lack of phone support.
DreamHost really stands out with its efficient website-building software, top-notch security options, and insanely affordable prices.
Not to mention, they provide a stellar money-back guarantee for shared hosting services.
DreamHost comes highly recommended by the Tweak Your Biz team.
Frequently Asked Questions
Thanks to its unique tools, such as an intuitive site builder, as well as powerful security protections, affordability, and generous features, DreamHost is a top-tier TYB pick when it comes to web hosting.
We’d recommend DreamHost over GoDaddy, because it offers similar features for a more affordable price.
DreamHost offers a slew of pricing plans. The monthly cost will depend on your web hosting needs. We can say, however, that DreamHost is one of the most affordable hosting providers on the market.
DreamHost offers a slew of pricing plans. The monthly cost will depend on your web hosting needs. We can say, however, that DreamHost is one of the most affordable hosting providers on the market.
DreamHost is extremely easy to use and was designed with beginners in mind.
