DreamHost is a popular award-winning hosting company and one of WordPress.org’s officially recommended hosts. They offer domain registration and web hosting services, including managed WordPress hosting. Their platform offers everything you need to grow your website, whether you’re a new blogger or an established business. See our expert DreamHost review to decide if it’s the right choice for you.
In this detailed DreamHost hosting review, we’ll put their promises to the test. For a comprehensive overview, we’ll look into the following areas:
- Performance: Speed is critical for making successful websites. How fast will your website load with DreamHost?
- Reliability: Will your website be up all the time without any service disruptions?
- Customer Support: How good are DreamHost support options?
- Features: What features do they offer to make it easier to run your website?
- Pricing: How much would it cost you? Are there any DreamHost deals that can save you money?
This is a comprehensive DreamHost review with lots of details. If you don’t want to read the full review, here is the quick scorecard with our verdict right below it.
| DreamHost Review Summary | |
|---|---|
| Performance grade | A |
| Average load time | 1.69 |
| Average response time | 255 ms |
| Free domain | Yes |
| Free SSL | Yes |
| 1-click WordPress | Yes |
| Support | Live Chat / Knowledge base |
| Start with DreamHost | |
Bottom line: We found DreamHost to be fast and reliable. They have flexible hosting plans and friendly technical support.
That being said, let’s get into the detailed DreamHost review so that you can compare our test results and make up your own mind.
About DreamHost
DreamHost was founded in 1997 by four friends at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California: Dallas Bethune, Josh Jones, Michael Rodriguez, and Sage Weil. Since then, DreamHost has become one of the most well-known and popular web hosting companies. They now host over 1.5 million websites, including over 750,000 WordPress installations. They’ve won PCMag’s Business Choice Awards for Best Web Hosting Service for 2014-2016.
DreamHost is also a certified carbon-neutral host and makes every effort to conserve resources in its own offices. They’re also a member of the U.S. Green Chamber of Commerce.
Pros and Cons of DreamHost
DreamHost is a popular web hosting provider, but it may not be right for everyone. Consider these pros and cons before choosing a plan.
Pros
- Award-Winning Hosting – DreamHost has won the PCMag Readers’ Choice Award for best business hosting. They rated high in reader surveys for their reliability and tech support.
- Money Back Guarantee – DreamHost offers a 97-day money-back guarantee. That means you can cancel your account within 97 days of signing up and get a full refund.
- Free Domain and Privacy – Every DreamHost plan includes one free domain name registration plus domain privacy, so your contact information isn’t made public on the web.
- Monthly Billing With No Setup Fee – DreamHost pricing plans allow you to pay month-to-month without a setup fee.
- Automatic Daily Backups – DreamHost plans come with automatic daily website backups. Although we always recommend users to set up their own real-time WordPress backups.
Cons
- Limited phone support – DreamHost does not offer a phone number for technical support. Instead, customers can request a call back during set hours and at an additional cost.
- No Email – DreamHost doesn’t offer email accounts for the Starter plan of their WordPress shared hosting. However, you can get it for $1.67/ mo or use an external business email provider.
DreamHost Performance Tests
WPBeginner users trust our reviews of WordPress products and services because we only recommend the companies that we have used ourselves.
For our WordPress hosting reviews, we sign up for each top hosting provider. After that, we set up demo websites so that we can properly test their claims with our own performance tests.
We signed up for a hosting account and installed WordPress for this DreamHost review. We used the default theme and filled our test site with Theme Unit Test Data, including media and images. This way, our test site looked and behaved like an actual WordPress site.
DreamHost Speed Test Results
No one likes a slow website. A faster website is crucial for a better user experience and SEO rankings.
That’s why we ran the website speed test first. For this test, we used Pingdom, and here are the test results:
Our test site loaded in less than two seconds, which is good. However, this page load time test alone does not show the full picture because our test site has no traffic.
DreamHost Stress Test Results
Next, we wanted to see how well DreamHost handles website traffic during peak hours. To measure this, we used a tool called K6 (formerly called Load Impact).
We gradually built up to 50 unique visitors at once to see how the server would handle increased requests from multiple connections at the same time.
Here is our first stress test result.
The light blue line represents the page response time, and the purple line represents the number of requests on the site.
As you can see, our site remained available throughout the test. However, the response time fluctuated with users increased.
That’s because we turned off DreamHost’s pre-installed WordPress caching solution. Once we enabled a caching plugin, the stress test result improved dramatically.
As you can see, our test site handled 39.6 requests per second (6.600 requests total) with an average response time of 255 ms.
That’s incredible.
This means that if you have a WordPress blog, a small business website, or an online store, your website can easily handle sudden traffic spikes.
DreamHost Response Time Test Results
Next, we wanted to test how our DreamHost test site responds to requests from different geographic locations. To measure this, we used a tool called Bitcatcha.
As you can see, our response times remained steady across the globe. They were particularly great in North America and Europe.
DreamHost Uptime Test Results
It is also important to note that our website didn’t go down during testing. We enable the downtime tracker because often, during stress tests, some hosting servers will crash.
This is another sign that DreamHost is a reliable hosting platform.
DreamHost Hosting Plans and Features
DreamHost provides hosting for web designers, developers, bloggers, and online businesses. They support and use open-source technologies, apps, and platforms like WordPress and Joomla.
Their one-click installer includes configurations for many open-source apps. As a Dreamhost customer, you get expert support, free migrations, and built-in security features.
Their hosting options include shared hosting, email hosting, managed WordPress hosting, VPS hosting (Virtual private servers), and dedicated servers. They also offer cloud hosting packages and cloud storage.
All of DreamHost’s plans use SSD drives for faster loading. DreamHost also uses a proprietary control panel instead of cPanel.
Shared hosting includes:
- One free domain registration and Let’s Encrypt free SSL
- Unlimited storage and bandwidth
- Easy-to-use control panel
- Unlimited email accounts and subdomains (with WordPress unlimited shared plan)
- 1-click installation of WordPress
Shared Hosting Pricing
DreamHost’s shared hosting plans start at $2.59 monthly (3 years billed). You can also pay monthly for the Shared Starter plan, but the price goes up to $4.59 per month.
For additional functionality and email accounts, you can upgrade to the WordPress Shared Unlimited plan, which starts at $3.95 (billed 3-years). This plan also allows you to add unlimited websites to your account.
Managed WordPress Plans
DreamHost also offers a managed WordPress hosting plan called DreamPress. DreamPress is over five times faster than shared hosting. The Linux servers are optimized for WordPress, and they can handle traffic spikes (millions of visitors) without your website going down.
Managed WordPress hosting also includes:
- Automatic WordPress core updates for security
- Private IP address and SSL certificate pre-installed for eCommerce sites
- SSD storage and unmetered bandwidth
- Web application firewall to block malware and brute-force attack mitigation.
- One-click staging site set up
- Free website builder along with on-demand as well as daily backups
- DreamPress Pro and Plus plans also include unlimited CDN and Jetpack Professional add-on features.
- Dedicated hosting with your own CPU server resources for maximum performance
In our DreamHost review, we found that they provide high-quality, reliable hosting at very affordable prices. Their plans include everything you need to build your website and room to upgrade when your site grows.
Support and Customer Service
DreamHost offers 24/7 email support via a ticket system. You can open a request for support through your DreamHost account dashboard.
They also offer 24/7 Live Chat support through the panel. You can also request a callback service for an additional fee.
Customers can also access their vast knowledge base resources, including tutorials and troubleshooting articles.
Many reviews mention the quality of their support, though some reviewers were frustrated by not having access to immediate phone support (24/7).
While live chat and phone support can be helpful for simple questions, the support team can ask users to open a ticket for more complicated issues.
More experienced users would find their support resources and articles quite helpful when dealing with some common hosting issues.
Dreamhost used to offer a community support forum, but they ended it in 2022 because the reliability of information in forums cannot be guaranteed.
Conclusion: Is DreamHost Right for You?
Now that you have read through our entire DreamHost review, you might be wondering whether DreamHost is the right web host for you.
After reviewing DreamHost services in detail, we award them with the title “Best DIY Hosting” for WordPress users.
DreamHost is highly rated for its fast and reliable hosting. They’ve won numerous awards and get rave reviews from their customers. But it may not be the right choice for you if you need a lot of help getting started.
Their customer support can be slower, but the quality of support is excellent. We recommend DreamHost to DIY users who want affordable prices, a high uptime guarantee, and are comfortable figuring things out on their own using the comprehensive knowledge base.
Ready to get started with DreamHost? Click here to select your DreamHost plan today.
DreamHost Coupon
WPBeginner users get an exclusive 72% discount on shared hosting and a free domain with our DreamHost coupon code or a 16% discount on managed WordPress hosting with our DreamPress coupon code.
All you have to do is click on this link to purchase. The discount will be auto-applied.
Frequently Asked Questions About DreamHost
Following are a few of the commonly asked questions (FAQs) about DreamHost that we have been asked by our users.
Is DreamHost a good host?
Yes, DreamHost is a good host for any type of starter WordPress website. They offer great features, a rock-solid platform, and fast servers at an affordable cost.
Their quality of service and pricing is on par with Hostinger, HostGator, GoDaddy, InMotion Hosting, and Bluehost.
Does DreamHost use cPanel?
No, DreamHost does not use cPanel. Instead, they have built their own custom control panel that has all the management features you’ll find in cPanel.
You can easily do MySQL database management, change PHP versions, access 1-click installers for WordPress, manage SSH & FTP access, and more.
Which is better, Bluehost or DreamHost?
Bluehost and DreamHost offer similar features, and they are both good hosting providers. However, Bluehost has an edge in terms of performance and fast customer support.
Which is better, DreamHost vs SiteGround?
If you were comparing DreamHost vs SiteGround based on shared hosting prices, then DreamHost is better. However, if you were comparing DreamPress managed hosting vs SiteGround, then SiteGround offers a lot more value for better pricing.
DreamHost and SiteGround used to be similar, but recently, SiteGround has significantly improved their web hosting platform. However, they have also increased their pricing by 2x. That’s why the comparison isn’t fair anymore.
Where are DreamHost servers located?
DreamHost servers are located in the United States. They have data centers in Ashburn, Virginia, and Hillsboro, Oregon. DreamHost’s headquarters is located in Brea, California.
Can I Install WooCommerce on DreamHost?
Yes, you can easily install WooCommerce on DreamHost shared hosting as well as VPS plans.
Ready to start with DreamHost? Get 72% off on your DreamHost plan by clicking here to sign up for DreamHost. The discount will be auto-applied.
Syed Balkhi says
Hey WPBeginner readers,
Did you know you can win exciting prizes by commenting on WPBeginner?
Every month, our top blog commenters will win HUGE rewards, including premium WordPress plugin licenses and cash prizes.
You can get more details about the contest from here.
Start sharing your thoughts below to stand a chance to win!
Dave Dean says
Dreamhost has personal, friendly and helpful customer service — I’m quite impressed.
Sarah C says
EXCELLENT customer serve as usual; real humans, real conversation, no scripts, belligerent sticking to a company line or robot-style refusal to answer questions. REAL interaction, o how we all miss it!
Sam Grey says
I love Dreamhost. I had a problem with my contact page. The great and knowledgeable support staff guided me every step of the way, and fixed my problem. I can not say enough good things about my experiences with Dreamhost.
PatrickLong says
I have been a Dreamhost customer for about a month. I transferred to them because of difficulty getting support from my prior provider which did provide phone support. The phone support was nice at first, as long as I didn’t have a serious problem. When the rubber hit the road, however, it was useless.
What a contrast at Dreamhost! I’m fine with email support if I get a knowledgeable person on the other end. My responses and help were excellent. Most responses were within a couple of hours after the initial contact. Both difficult problems were solved promptly, without blaming Microsoft or Google or Apple, but helping me through. I’m reasonably knowledgeable, so I appreciate the question as to your skill/comfort level at the beginning, which can help sidestep the “reboot your computer” type of answer.
Hooray Dreamhost!
Subodh says
I had always had great service from Dreamhost. I have hosted all my websites with them. They are reasonable and good.
dirk van velzen says
It’s solid comfort to know that Dreamhost has my back when I get stuck with a technical problem, which is quite often.
Tip o’ the hat, Dreamhost. Awesome service and support!
Bob says
10/10 because I know very little about computers and WP. DreamHost have always helped out by getting access back into the dashboard, after I either crash through by forgetting my password or stuffing up a plugin. I really have nothing negative to say after over just six months experience with them and WP. I am learning though….
Ron Manor says
Twice in two years I needed some help from support, and both times the answers came in about 10-12 hours. I have mixed feelings because I can get help within an hour from other providers via phone. Yes, I understand phone support costs more, but I’ve seen so many reviews where a call to a real person would probably have fixed the problem. I like Dreamhost, but as long as I can’t reach someone instantly by phone I won’t use it for anything critical.
Carlos says
NO problem at all!! They solved all my requests!!! Great team in high speed!!!!!!
Keith says
I’ve contacted support a couple of times now, at first it was my lack of familiarity with their control panel, But once I got used to that I need some guidance in a couple of areas. The support was great, pointed me in the right direction with links guiding me to explanations and instructions.
I’m Very Happy – Thanks Guys
Camila says
Hi guys!
This lines is for telling you that I had a really good experience with DreamHost, they resovled avery problem that I had.
I recommend this host always!
Thanks, Camila.
Christopher Keener says
This review is for the extremely high recommendation for hosting with Dream Host. Best professional company I’ve purchased hosting from in many many years. Very great prices on VPS and Dedicated servers. I LOVE the servers they are the best my money has been spent on in all of my life. I will be hosting with them for many more years I foresee a great relationship with Dream Host as I make them allot of money as well. Overall best customer support on the entire web!
Thank you guy and gals, I know what you do and it’s a tough job but a fun one! Keep up the awesome fantastic work and customer support.
Rich West says
I am totally discussed with the quality of the support. I will be looking for a new host. This level of support is unacceptable.
The issue is still unresolved after about a month.
It usually took about 10 hours for a response.
The responses I did get were totally inadequate.
Signed,
A formerly satisfied customer
John Hemson says
30 Nov 15
I have been trying for months to get back as a subscriber. My VISA card ran out of date so it now appears all my Data has been lost for my website. I have tried to resubscribe but have failed to persuade Dreamhost to recognise me. Very sad as I really appreciated bing a customer.
John Hemson.
R. Wayne Parsons says
My site quit working as a result of the “upgrade” from PHP 3 to PHP 5. As a result I am forced to make (or have made for me, as I am not a web programmer) major changes in my site. It would be much easier if Dreamhost would continue to make PHP 3 available. Is that possible?
Marcelo Santino says
Man, you should consider maintain your website in PHP5, because PHP3 is older than my grandma!
Imagine how much bugs and security issues must have in this old version!
JulieT says
Coming from a host that used CPanel, I had a bit of a learning curve to learn how to do stuff on DreamHost. But the wiki documentation is amazing and I quickly found my way around the DreamHost interface.
I’ve found customer support from DreamHost is prompt and very helpful. You are contacted by a real person who really wants to help and the same person sees through your support issue so you don’t need to keep repeating the whole story.
Thanks DreamHost!
Dave Haberle says
As a new DH customer, some of the setup requirements are a little foreign to me — every hosting company has its own setups, especially where Linux servers are concerned because of the tremendous variability of linux add-ons from one host to another.
Along the way I have relied on the technical support folks via the live chat, and I’ve not once been disappointed. Everyone has been eager to help, provided an answer or a solution in only moments, and I couldn’t be more pleased.
So far, I would give DH an A+ for their service both in terms of timeliness and quality and I’m equally thrilled with the performance of their servers and hardware infrastructure. My site has never been so quick.
Chris Watkins says
I’ve been very happy with my dealings with their technical and accounts support. Prompt replies, problems solved, and very understanding.
Chris Martin says
I am a happy customer of DreamHost. I always appreciate the amazingly quick response times from them, and I really appreciate that the people who work there try their best to help me with my problems. They go above and beyond, sometimes I feel like I have professional web programmers on call, but I get people who actually care and do research and troubleshoot whatever problems I may be having. Very stable hosting, fair pricing, I cannot complain. Have been with DreamHost for a number of years, and I would not think to look elsewhere for my hosting and domain needs.
Karan Soni says
Dreamhost is the best! 10/10
Bojan says
Dreamhost is the best hosting provider I have ever worked with. 10/10.
Seun Oluleye says
I am very impressed with the technical support, very helpful and timely responses.
Dale Wisely says
This is a bit of a mixed bag for me. First, I would give the employees I’ve dealt with regarding tech support issues–during many, many years of being a DreamHost customer–high marks. They are reasonably prompt, courteous, and as helpful as they can be.
On the other hand, for some issues, I often receive from DH links to wiki entries that provide very detailed and complex instructions for researching and addressing my problem. These instructions presume a good bit of expertise. So, for my purposes, DH is more self-service oriented than I would like. I have a chronic database problem with a very large phpBB forum that’s hosted on DH and there appears to be no way I can just get their people to find the problem and fix it. Instead, I get referred to some materials about how I might use shell access to find the problem and fix it myself. I have better-than-average tech skills, but no experience of knowledge of MySQL and related services. So, I’m stuck.
Given that DH is quite inexpensive, I don’t really expect employees to spend the kind of time I need. So, how about a paid service of some kind for more complicated support issues?
Bottom line: Great support people, but a company that can’t seem to provide, even for a fee, the kind of advanced help I need.
Peter Connolly says
Dale, I think you need to consult a systems engineer about your issues; fixing client apps is not something I’d expect a host to do.
David Cox says
I was very impressed with technical support, especially when it was determined that the problem was with my ISP, they kept tracking the problem with my ISP and let me know when the ISP problem was resolved.
George G. says
DH is one of two ISPs I use and definitely the better. Their interface is cleaner and the support excellent. I’m more than happy to recommend them.
Fernando Hillermann says
Excellent service! Dreamhost has a great customer support. Its an awesome company, I definitely recommend it!
Five stars.
Eduardo Junior says
I am dreamhost user since 2006, and always had an adequate and rapid support. Definitely my problems with hosting stopped after signing the service dreamhost. the best
JC Melvin says
Always easy to work with. Thanks for your help. Fast and on the ball.
JC
Alin says
Everything is good excepting low speed and lack of cpanel
Jonathan Van der Merwe says
as a standard SOA and DNS option, dreamhost works well.
However when looking to rapidly expand within zone files, dream host falls short. the API is not as good as it should be, support team also seem to be unable to answer on the more complicated problems and seem to simply just not answer the more difficult questions.
I personally would not use dreamhost again, but I would recommend them if you use them for what they are, its not a bad option for owner managed and small business, corporate space they dont fair so well.
Graham says
Customer service for pre-sales was simply excellent. Of course you’d expect that because they want to gain more customers.
After sales – in respect of tech support – outstanding!
Rebecca Ross says
I have nothing but good things to say about DreamHost. This is my first time doing everything on my own so I needed help. The response from DreamHost everytime was fast and every issue resolved quickly.
Jeff says
Just received a customer survey from DreamHost inviting me to add a review to this page for an issue that was opened days ago was closed without resolution by DreamHost.
Since DreamHost invited me to leave a review, I’ll take a break from moving sites to another provider to express my disgust.
The original issue(s), caused by DreamHost’s technical team, miscommunicated by dreamhosts marketing team, and adequately addressed by DreamHosts support team has left me flabbergasted.
Obviously with 50+ domains on DreamHost I was a pretty happy long time customer. Spent the bulk of the weekend moving sites to AWS and Digital Ocean to get out from the cloud of another bungle.
We have been locked down for the holiday season for more than a month across all of our sites, this is costing us time and money that could be better used supporting our customers and their sites.
Stanley Akudinobi says
The customer service is detail oriented and they’re always eager to render more help to clients. I recommend Dream Host services to entrepreneurs without reservation.
Matthew says
Dreamhost was great for the last year, until they suddenly changed their VPS policies regarding root with only a few business days notice….over a holiday week no less. Very unprofessional support when I submitted questions, even refused to call me despite the fact that they are costing me thousands of dollars to rapidly move to a new service. Essentially they told me they don’t value my business. It’s really a shame they seemed like a good company up until now. Rating of 1 out of 10.
Jude LeMoine says
Recently had a question and was pleasantly surprised at the rapid and clear response. Go Dream Host!
Kevin Dahl says
Dreamhost has been great in getting our domain up and running. It was recommended to us by a long time user–and for a good reason! The service was fast, friendly and professional. Thank you!
Elmer Salazar says
I have had nothing but an AWESOME experience with DreamHost. These guys are always on point with support, which is essential. I am glad to be onboard and will recommend them to anyone who needs hosting!
Heriberto Interiano says
Dreamhost Support is very fast and efficient….I recommend them
Anne Campbell says
Terrible! I have two websites with Dreamhost. I let the site affiliated with this email expire and the moment I received an email from Dreamhost saying that site was down I began getting error messages on all incoming messages from my main Gmail account. Every incoming email has an error message attached ….
“This is the mail system at host homiemail-mx8.g.dreamhost.com. I’m sorry to have to inform you that your message could not be delivered to one or more recipients. It’s attached below.”
It refers me to Dreamhost.
I contacted customer service to ask them to fix this. My reply was to pay the $190 past due and it would be fixed. I wrote a second time and was told the Gmail account is not part of Dreamhost so it isn’t their problem.
Since this is how I’m treated at Dreamhost I’m looking for a new hosting company for my second website.
Sagar Patil says
i like there quick support,
while i migrating my site to DreamHost i had WordPress database issue, i ask there Chat/online support and in just 5 minutes they solved that problem.
Excellent support and hosting work.
James Jensen says
I lost my multi-factor authentication recently and, unfortunately, could not log into my DH account. So, I contacted support and was able to reset my security, log back in, and set up the multi-factor login once more. I suppose if I had actually remembered to search for the one-time codes, I would not have had to go through support.
Silly me, eh?
Nevertheless, support was fantastic. There was approximately a 24-hour period in between exchanges, but they were courteous and efficient. I was in no special hurry, and so I spent *my* time replying back. I am very satisfied with DH.
Peter Elias says
I have not needed help often, but when I have needed it, the response has been prompt and to the point. My issues have been resolved quickly, and on several occasions I received suggestions and information beyond the limited scope of my question that was very helpful going forward.
I am delighted with them.
Santiago Yongsan Chiong Rayo says
After been moving from one to another hosting provider, I can say that Dreamhost rockz!
Not only unlimited bandwidth and space, but the fastest live chat support and the best security experience.
Recommended 100%!
Jason says
I had a question about editing the A name on a domain. The support rep quickly guided me through the process and I was done with it in around 5 minutes. Thanks!
PB says
EXCELLENT customer service. Signed up for a year long WordPress plan after buying a ready-made template – turns out the template was mis-marked and was NOT a WordPress template. DreamHost was VERY helpful and got my account cancelled and credited. Other hosts would have told you to drop dead. DreamHost keeps my business.
Kinmond Smith says
I teach WordPress at a College in Ontario and use Dreamhost as the hosting service on behalf of the students. The One-Click Install feature is terrific and the Extra Security settings issue that dis-allowed acess was identified quickly and we were back up and running. Very pleased.
Many thanks.
Ricardo says
This guys are amazing!!
Fast response and problem solved!
5 stars!
Roy E says
DreamHost has given me excellent support as required. I recently used the chat to correct a ‘locked out of sign in due to too many attempts’ problem and that was solved in just a few minutes.
The non-cPanel interface is a little different from a ‘standard’ cPanel so that it is sometimes hard to find exactly what you want, but once you learn where things are located, it works just fine.
Support of the various sites that I administer on DreamHost has been a breeze over the past 2 years. Highly recommend!
vishnu dyal says
Excellent customer service. Two issues with the e-mail were responded to and looked after in a very timely manner. Qute satisfied
Michael Fitzpatrick says
Life savers when it came to my wordpress site! I had an issue that had me stumped and an associate recommended calling the host company. Oh yeah, duh!
Speedy response and had me up in running with in 24 hrs.