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DreamHost started in 1997 and remains one of the last independently owned hosting companies, powering over 1.5 million websites including more than 750,000 WordPress installs. Plans start at $1.99 per month and include 25 websites, daily backups, unmetered bandwidth, unlimited free SSL, and a free domain with privacy for the first year. Instead of cPanel, you manage everything from DreamHost's own custom control panel, with 24/7 support from an in-house team.

Pros:

  • Lowest renewal of our picks
  • Daily backups on every plan
  • 25 sites on the $1.99 plan
  • Free domain and privacy
  • Month-to-month billing option
  • 100% uptime in our tests

Cons:

  • Not the fastest in our tests
  • Needs a 4-year term upfront
  • Email paid after 3 months
  • No phone support line

WPBeginner users get an exclusive 72% off discount and free domain!

Visit DreamHost

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DreamHost Review From Our Experts

DreamHost has been selling web hosting since 1997, and it is one of the few hosts that WordPress.org officially recommends. A long track record is reassuring, but it does not tell you how fast a host is today.

In July 2026, I tested DreamHost the same way I tested 14 other WordPress hosting companies, with an identical WordPress site on a custom domain, the same tools, and the same checklist.

This DreamHost review shows you the real numbers from my hosting speed test, plus the pricing details that most reviews gloss over.

Quick Answer – Is DreamHost Worth It?

Yes, DreamHost is worth it if you want the lowest long-term hosting bill of any host we recommend. It scored 64 out of 100 on our WPBeginner Score, which places it 7th out of our 7 recommended hosts.

In our hosting speed test, the DreamHost site loaded its main content in under a second. That is fast enough for a typical blog or small business site, and every plan includes daily backups that most budget hosts skip.

The trade-off to know is that it was not as quick as our other budget picks, and the headline price requires a 4-year commitment.

DreamHost at a Glance

DreamHost Test Summary (July 2026)
WPBeginner Score64 / 100
Speed (LCP)986 ms
Global response time658 ms average across 6 regions
Uptime100% over a 30-day monitoring window
PricingFrom $1.99/mo with our link on a 4-year term, renews at $7.99/mo
Support24/7 live chat and email from DreamHost’s in-house team (no standard phone line)
Best forBeginners who want the lowest long-term hosting cost

You can see how DreamHost ranks against all the hosts I tested in our best WordPress hosting comparison, which uses the same data as this review.

About DreamHost

DreamHost was founded in 1997 by four college friends in California, and it remains one of the last independently owned hosting companies. Today it powers over 1.5 million websites, including more than 750,000 WordPress installs.

DreamHost website

DreamHost is also a certified carbon-neutral host, which is a nice bonus if sustainability matters to you. And while WordPress.org’s recommendation matters, I did not let it influence this review.

The verdict below comes from what my hosting speed tests actually measured.

Pros and Cons of DreamHost

Pros

  • The lowest renewal price of any host we recommend, printed right on the plan card
  • Daily backups on every plan, where Bluehost backs up weekly at a higher price
  • 25 websites, 25 GB NVMe storage, and unmetered bandwidth on the entry plan
  • Free domain for the first year with free domain privacy included – many hosts charge extra for privacy
  • Zero downtime during our 30-day monitoring window
  • Independently owned since 1997, with month-to-month billing available on every plan

Cons

  • Slower page loads than the other budget hosts we tested
  • Not the host for traffic-spike businesses (see the stress test below)
  • The headline price requires a 4-year commitment paid upfront
  • Email becomes a paid add-on after a 3-month free trial
  • No phone line – support is live chat and email, with paid callbacks

How I Tested DreamHost (Methodology)

I used the same testing protocol for every hosting company in our comparison. I set up an identical WordPress site with a default theme and test content, including images, on a custom domain.

Then I ran the same four tests – GTmetrix for speed and LCP, k6 for stress with 50 virtual users at the same time, a response-time test from 6 global regions, and 30 days of UptimeRobot monitoring.

Those four tests make up the performance side of the WPBeginner Score, which counts for 80% of the total. Each test carries a set weight, so no single lucky number can carry a host.

The other 20% of the score comes from value. For that part I look at what the plan really costs and gives you in return – the intro price, the renewal price, how many sites and how much storage you get, the plan limits, and the quality of support.

The full methodology, the exact weights, and every host’s raw numbers are in our best WordPress hosting guide.

DreamHost Performance Test Results

Below you can find my full DreamHost speed test results.

Speed Test – 986 ms LCP

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) measures how quickly the main content of a page appears. It is the speed number that Google’s Core Web Vitals care about most.

My DreamHost test site showed its main content in just under one second, and the full page finished loading in 1.5 seconds.

DreamHost speed test result in GTmetrix

I will be honest about this number. A load time around one second is fine for a starter site with no optimization.

However, when I tested other popular hosts, the median LCP was 659 ms. Among the budget hosts, Hostinger was the quickest at a similar price.

So DreamHost does not win on raw speed in our data. It competes on price and limits instead, which the pricing section below covers.

Server Response Time – 658 ms Global Average

Speed test tools load the whole page with images included, but that is only one part of the performance. To see raw server speed, I also measured time to first byte (TTFB) from data centers in 6 regions around the world.

The heading above shows DreamHost’s average across all 6 regions.

DreamHost global response time test

Response times were good in the US and Canada, and slower in the other regions. Our test site ran in DreamHost’s default US location, so this pattern makes sense.

If your audience is mostly in North America, DreamHost’s response speed will serve you fine. If your audience is global, DreamHost does not include a CDN on these plans, so I recommend adding Cloudflare’s free CDN to serve content from locations closer to your visitors.

Stress Test – 245 ms P95 Response

To see how a host behaves under a traffic spike, I send 50 virtual users to the test site with K6 by Grafana Labs and record the P95 response time. P95 means 95% of all requests finished faster than that number.

DreamHost held a 245 ms P95 response, and not a single request failed. The site stayed up through the whole run.

DreamHost stress testing result

Still, that number is the weakest under-load result of the hosts we recommend.

In practice, a quarter of a second under 50 simultaneous visitors is still fast for a typical blog, portfolio, or small business site. Most new websites never see 50 visitors in the same moment.

You should care about this result if your business depends on traffic spikes. If you are planning a store with sale-day rushes or content that attracts press mentions, then a managed host like Levamo is built for exactly that load.

Uptime – Zero Downtime Over 30 Days

I monitored the DreamHost test site with UptimeRobot, checking every 5 minutes. Over the 30-day window, it recorded 100% uptime with no incidents.

DreamHost uptime monitoring

DreamHost goes further than most hosts here, and its uptime guarantee promises zero downtime where most budget hosts only promise 99.9%. It backs that promise with multiple data center locations, redundant cooling, emergency generators, and constant monitoring.

In our monitoring window, DreamHost lived up to its own promise.

How DreamHost Compares to Other Hosts We Tested

The speed test numbers on their own do not give you the full picture. Here is how DreamHost performed compared to other similarly priced hosts from our comparison, all tested with the identical setup.

HostLCPGlobal responseUptimeIntro / renewalWPBeginner Score
DreamHost986 ms658 ms100%$1.99 / $7.9964 / 100
Hostinger659 ms227 ms100%$2.69 / $10.9988 / 100
Bluehost933 ms599 ms100%$2.99 / $9.9969 / 100
SiteGround608 ms369 ms100%$2.99 / $17.9975 / 100

The WPBeginner Score weighs performance at 80% and value at 20%. DreamHost’s 64 reflects exactly what you see above – it trails the group on speed, while its value is the strongest of the four.

DreamHost has the lowest renewal price of the group, so it costs the least over the long run. It is also the only one of these four that includes daily backups at the entry price, where Bluehost backs up weekly.

To see the full rankings, and the raw data for every host we tested, check out our best WordPress hosting guide.

DreamHost’s Infrastructure and Technology

Most other DreamHost reviews skip what runs under the hood, and I believe it is worth highlighting.

Storage – every plan runs on NVMe SSD storage, which is the faster generation of SSD. DreamHost says NVMe delivers up to 10 times faster load times than older SATA drives.

Control panel – DreamHost built its own control panel instead of licensing cPanel. You manage domains, databases, email, SSL, and backups from one place, and advanced users still get a full Unix shell.

Data centers – DreamHost serves shared and WordPress hosting from its US data centers in Ashburn, Virginia and Hillsboro, Oregon. Its newer Amsterdam and Singapore locations mainly serve its cloud and VPS products, so plan on a CDN if your audience is global.

Security and backups – every plan includes unlimited free SSL certificates from Let’s Encrypt, daily automated backups, and on-demand performance scans. Domain privacy comes free with the free domain, which many hosts sell as a paid extra.

Developer tools – you get SSH access, crontab, raw log files, MySQL databases, PHP 8, and support for Rails, Python, and Perl. That is more backend freedom than most budget hosts allow.

DreamHost Hosting Plans and Pricing

DreamHost offers shared web hosting, managed WordPress hosting, VPS, cloud, and dedicated servers. For most readers of this review, the three shared Web Hosting plans are the relevant ones.

PlanWeb Hosting LaunchWeb Hosting GrowthWeb Hosting Scale
Intro price (4-year term)$1.99/mo$3.49/mo$7.99/mo
Renews at$7.99/mo$8.99/mo$19.99/mo
Websites2550100
Monthly visits~40,000~200,000~400,000
Storage25 GB NVMe50 GB NVMe100 GB NVMe
Email20 mailboxes (3 months free)40 mailboxes (3 months free)60 mailboxes (3 months free)

The honest catch is the term. The intro prices above come with our link on a 4-year term, and you pay the full term at checkout.

On DreamHost’s public pricing page, the same Launch plan on a 1-year term costs $2.89 per month and renews at $10.99 per month. If you would rather not commit at all, every plan also offers monthly billing at a higher rate.

I like that DreamHost prints the renewal rate right on the plan card instead of hiding it in fine print. Whatever term you pick, you know what year two costs before you pay.

All plans include daily backups, unmetered bandwidth, unlimited free SSL, a free starter website, and a free domain for the first year on any 1-year or longer term. All plans also come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

DreamHost also sells DreamPress, its managed WordPress line, from $14.99 per month with built-in caching, a CDN, staging, and unlimited email. Most readers should start on the Web Hosting Launch plan and upgrade only when their traffic demands it.

Free and Paid Hosting Addons

DreamHost’s headline price is honest, but a few extras start free and later cost money. Knowing these up front will save you surprise charges.

  • Free domain – free for the first year on 1-year and multi-year terms, and it includes free domain privacy protection, which many hosts sell separately. After year one, the domain renews at the standard registration rate. This is fairly standard practice across shared hosts that offer a free domain.
  • Professional Email – a 3-month free trial on every Web Hosting plan. After the trial, mailboxes start at $19.99 per mailbox per year, so budget for it if you need email at your own domain.
  • Remixer AI website builder – free for the first 30 days on Web Hosting plans. Treat it as a trial rather than a permanent freebie.
  • Refund rules – every plan comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee on the hosting itself. DreamHost issues refunds to credit card payments, so pay by card if you think you might use the guarantee.

DreamHost for WordPress Beginners

DreamHost skips cPanel entirely and gives you its own custom control panel. Websites, domains, email, databases, and backups all sit in one clean dashboard.

DreamHost dashboard

If you have used cPanel for years, expect a short adjustment period. If this is your first host, there is nothing to unlearn, and the panel covers the essentials without the clutter.

Getting WordPress running is easy. You can have DreamHost pre-install WordPress at signup, or use its WordPress install assistant from the panel in about a minute.

Two extras stand out for first-timers. DreamHost’s team builds you a free 4-page starter website, and its Liftoff AI builder can launch a personalized WordPress site in under 60 seconds.

If you already have a site somewhere else, DreamHost includes a free automatic migration plugin that moves your WordPress site over for you.

DreamHost Customer Support

DreamHost runs its support fully in-house, with no outsourcing. You can reach the team 24/7 through live chat or email tickets from the control panel.

DreamHost support dashboard screenshot

There is no phone line to call. DreamHost offers callbacks instead, but they cost extra and are not part of every plan.

To be fair, phone support is rare at budget hosting prices, and most hosts at this level stick to chat.

DreamHost’s support team has won Gold Stevie and Globee awards for customer service, and it includes people who contribute to WordPress core. That matters when your question is about WordPress itself rather than the server.

Who Should Use DreamHost and Who Should Look Elsewhere

Choose DreamHost if you are building your first website on the smallest possible budget and want the bill to stay low at renewal. You get daily backups, generous site and storage limits, and a free domain with privacy included, all from a host that has been around since 1997.

Its zero-downtime record in our monitoring backs the reliability claim.

Look elsewhere if raw speed is your priority, since Hostinger and SiteGround both beat DreamHost in our tests. The same goes if you want cPanel, need phone support on an entry plan (SiteGround), or run a high-traffic store that needs proven performance under load, where Levamo is the stronger pick (see our full hosting comparison).

Final Verdict – Is DreamHost the Right Choice for You?

DreamHost is perfect for beginners who want the lowest long-term hosting bill without giving up daily backups or generous limits. It has earned trust since 1997 by keeping its pricing plain – the renewal rate sits right on the plan card, and every plan offers monthly billing.

My verdict – if budget decides your hosting choice, visit DreamHost and start on the Web Hosting Launch plan. If speed is your deciding factor, our best WordPress hosting comparison shows which host won each category on the same tests.

FAQs About DreamHost

1. What are the disadvantages of DreamHost?

Based on our tests, the main ones are page loads that trail our other budget picks and softer results under sustained traffic. On the billing side, the headline price needs a 4-year commitment, email becomes a paid add-on after a 3-month trial, and there is no standard phone support.

2. Is DreamHost good for WordPress?

Yes. DreamHost is one of the few hosts WordPress.org officially recommends, and its support team includes WordPress core contributors.

You get a WordPress install assistant, a free automatic migration plugin, and daily backups on every plan.

For heavier WordPress sites, its DreamPress line adds managed features like staging and a built-in CDN.

3. Is DreamHost good for beginners?

Yes. The custom control panel is clean, DreamHost’s team builds you a free starter website, and 24/7 chat is there when you get stuck.

The main adjustment is that there is no cPanel, but most beginners adapt to the dashboard quickly.

4. Does DreamHost use cPanel?

No. DreamHost built its own control panel instead.

You can still manage MySQL databases, change PHP versions, install WordPress in one click, and control SSH and FTP access, so you lose the familiar layout rather than the features.

5. Can DreamHost handle high traffic?

DreamHost rates its shared plans for 40,000 to 400,000 monthly visits, and bandwidth is unmetered, so a busy month never triggers overage fees. In our stress test, the site stayed up with zero failed requests at 50 concurrent users.

For a business built on traffic spikes, such as a store with big sale days, a managed host like Levamo is the safer pick.

6. Which is better, Bluehost or DreamHost?

On our identical tests, the speed difference was small – Bluehost loaded at 933 ms, just 53 ms ahead of DreamHost. DreamHost costs less over the long run and includes daily backups, where Bluehost backs up weekly.

Bluehost counters with the simplest setup we have seen and phone support on its higher plans. Pick DreamHost for the budget, and Bluehost for the most hand-held start.

7. Which is better, DreamHost or SiteGround?

SiteGround was faster in our tests, loading at 608 ms, and it includes phone support on every plan. However, it renews at $17.99 per month, more than double DreamHost’s renewal rate.

Choose SiteGround if speed and support matter more than cost. Choose DreamHost if the long-term bill decides.

8. Where are DreamHost’s servers located?

DreamHost’s main data centers are in Ashburn, Virginia and Hillsboro, Oregon, with headquarters in Brea, California. Its newer Amsterdam and Singapore locations mainly serve its cloud and VPS products.

Our test site ran in the default US location, which is why North American response times were strong while other regions lagged. A CDN closes most of that gap for global audiences.

9. Can I install WooCommerce on DreamHost?

Yes, you can install WooCommerce on DreamHost’s web hosting and VPS plans. A new store with modest traffic will run fine on the shared plans.

As your store grows, plan to move to managed hosting, because stores are harder on a server than blogs.

WPBeginner users get an exclusive discount on web hosting and a free domain with our DreamHost coupon.

Changelog

  • July 2026 – Rebuilt the review around our July 2026 test data (speed, stress, and response time tested July 23, plus a 30-day uptime monitoring window). Added the WPBeginner Score, the comparison table against similarly priced hosts, the infrastructure section, and the pricing fine print, and updated all plans, prices, and refund terms to DreamHost’s current offer.

We hope this DreamHost review helped you with your WordPress hosting research and helps you choose the right WordPress host for your needs. You may also want to see our pick of must-have WordPress plugins for business websites.

If you have any questions or feedback about my DreamHost review, please send me a message. I love hearing from our readers, and you can scroll below to read real DreamHost user reviews from other business owners from around the world.

WPBeginner users get an exclusive 72% off discount and free domain!

Reader Interactions

581 DreamHost User ReviewsLeave a Review

  1. I have been a Dreamhost customer for over eight years and I am extremely satisfied with the service and support.
    Any problems that I have had on my website were quickly resolved.
    I would recommend them to anyone looking for a hosting service.

  2. Have been using DH services for a at least 10 years with great satisfaction. Last week had a problem and contacted support via chat which turned to be super helpful with immediate response. The problem was solved already during out conversation. What else can one say about a good customer support ?

  3. Just switched from major US hosting company to DreamHost. Just want to share that dealing with DreamHost is excellent. The fact they have online chat helps massively and was a major factor in why I changed to them. Although I haven’t dug too deep yet into what they offer technically for hosting, all looks good to me. Had an issue with email setup but the gremlin at their end got dealt to. Pleasing purchase and transfer experience and an ease to deal with.

  4. I’m a dreamhsot customer for over 3 years now.
    I’m not really the kind of guy who knows a lot about hosting so I’ll skip the technical details: I’m using multiple domains all having wordpress installed (using the dreamhost one-click install option) and things are runing just fine.
    I got some third-parties to monitor my domains performance and uptime and I do confirm I have over 99% uptime. I sometimes get some delays here and there but it’s mainly due to buggy wordpress plugins, nothing to do with dreamhost.
    So I’m the average blogger if you want. Why am I picking dreamhost? it’s for 2 main reasons:
    1. Dreamhost allows you unlimited domains hosting with unlimited disk quota and bandwidth. Now I wouldn’t be surprised to know there are some actual limits to that but so far I’ve reached none. It’s good to be able to host as many domains as you want for free, it gets my work going (with some other hosts you’d have to pya a bit in order to add a domain each time).
    2. The customer support live chat. Now to be fair, sometimes I’ve reached the support and had to wait like 25 minutes till a representative shows up and then he looked distracted or not very responsive. This has happened few times. But on the other extreme, just yesterday I contacted them and a representative helped me out in the most perfect way. I was so satisfied that after ending the conversation I decided to contact dreamhost by Email and tell them how satisfied I was with their reprentative that day (the guy is “KevinH”, let him be recognised). Many sites throw you links of FAQ pages when you ask for help and this annoys me: if I could fix it myself by reading FAQ I wouldn’t be here… So that guy was very patient, understood I have little knowledge with hosting and he actually did all the required changes while explaining to me what he was doing. The chat lasted over an hour and the representative was very courteous and patient the entire time. So yeah, customer support has its ups and downs (usually depending on the time of the day you’re contacting them) but once you catch them in a good timing, their representatives are REALLY well-trained.
    Hopefully this helps you guys decide. For the beginners out there, just take my advice and go with dreamhost. After 3 years, I decided to make the commitment of renewing for 10 more years: by picking this option I get the priice of ~6$/month rather than the typical 10-11$/month. I did the math and that’s some big savings… Oh and about that… If I had to point out things I wish they had: coupons… As a 3 years customer, I’d feel good if I receive a mail telling me “hey you’ve been a loyal customer, if you take the 10 years plan we’ll give you an additional 20% off ” or something along that way…

  5. I work with several hostings services, but Dreamhost seems to be the best at responding to my demands so far.

  6. We have been using Dreamhost for a couple of years.
    In those two years, we have created half a dozen product prototype.
    This year, one of our projects became a real product.
    So, last week we moved from the shared hosting to the VPS option.
    We did have a few problems with the servers in the past, about one year ago.
    By the time that happened, we were about to move to some other hosting provider.
    But, we have decided to wait and it all was figured out and fixed.
    Everything has been working beautifully during the last 12 months.
    Since we have not had any problems in one year, we will stick with it when we move to dedicated servers.
    Overall, we are very happy with Dreamhost, specially with their support team during the migration to VPS.

  7. I’ve been happy with Dreamhost over the years, I’ve been a customer since 2011 and haven’t had any major problems. The email support is fast enough in most cases and I’ve found the staff to always be helpful and pleasant.

  8. Nothing but great service from DH. Extremely helpful and willing to explain details for the many issues I’ve faced (almost always user error :X).

  9. I have been with Dreamhost for I am not sure but maybe 10 years.. a previous server was bad and I am glad I found Dreamhost. nothing but good things to say, they help as much as they can. and anyone saying bad things about them are not understanding things.. they say you can talk to someone but for a fee. people can use go daddy but they will charge you more and seem to always up sell people for your lack of knowledge.. Dreamhost is great if you know somewhat about things.. because they let you run it.. and I love it. I host many sites.I am happy with them for sure. Godaddy is for people who know nothing and do not mind being charged way more, two different services, try to do what you can here.. you will not be happy , sure customer service is good but you pay for it, so you better use it :) but Dreamhost support through email is amazing.. they have helped me through so many troubles and went far beyond what I expected.. they really know what they are doing which is good because I know what I am doing but need that extra answer sometimes I do not know.. thank you so much. I am just sad Facebook is taking over so much business , the web is getting ugly , no one seems to care about pretty websites..which I want to change :) people dig into Adobe Edge.. It is the old beautiful stuff but it works on phones.. :) Lets make this a beautiful web again :) anyone have any Adobe Edge stuff to share please do :) thanks DREAMHOST !!!! never will I leave unless you change.. so far so good :)

  10. I have not signed up with Dreamhost yet, but did try the live chat which was not helpful at all. There really needs to be a telephone number one can call before becoming a customer. The only way for a potential customer to communicate with someone is via email which in today’s day and age is RIDICULOUS!!! I exchange emails with someone for over 35 minutes and still never got my questions answered. ONLINE should mean online help before, during and after signing up to be a customer. The website is not 100% clear and 24/7 service is NOT 24/7 service as I found on the blog. I still am not sure if this is the company for me and being you cannot talk to someone in real time, that may be the deciding factor in signing up with this company. Even some comments above say customer service is not good,. Leaves a LOT of room for questions about how they handle customer service…

  11. I moved over to DreamHost about a year ago, after being continually frustrated with my previous hosting company’s terrible support and frequent down-time.

    I have not had to contact DreamHost support as much, because things actually run smoothly now. When I have contacted them, I have been blown away with the speed and technical proficiency of their support personnel. They know exactly how to communicate to my skill level, and give me the direct answer I need (instead of dancing around the problems like the last company I used).

    They may cost a bit more than the plethora of cheap hosting solutions out there, but in my opinion they are completely worth it. Great packages and fantastic support. I strongly recommend them.

  12. I have been with Dreamhost for over 10 years and have seen very good and very bad services. As they have grown they have become less personable because in the “good old days” you knew most of the technicians, abuse team, developers and ever founders by name and they all were available to assist where needed. Now you wait for answers and assistance or pay a premium to get them to call you. However, overall, I would say they are one of the best going these days because of the features they offer, their pricing, and in the end, they do help you to solve your issues. I would, and have, recommended them to may people.

  13. i am using dreamhost hosting services since ten years, and I have always received an accurate and prompt reply. I recently had a very urgent issue (still, mistake was mine, i messed around with some config), and by applying for a urgent support ticket, I received reply in 4 minutes. I was amazed. the most responsible and reliable web-hosting I have been using.

  14. Love Dreamhost because they’re real & so is their support. I just had to ask a few detailed questions about email ports, etc. It took a while for the chat to start, like 30-45 minutes, but I was OK as I just kept the window minimized while I was working on other things…
    Have to admit the sound that told you that you were still on-line was a bit irritating (every 2 minutes) and not helpful because the conversation sound (Ding I think) is the same as the waiting sound… It would be more helpful if it were a different sound when someone came on… But I think the guy sent a couple of messages in succession to get my attention as I had the window minimized.
    Once we got to chatting, it was someone who was actually knowledgeable and worth the wait and my questions were answered quickly and insightfully. In just a few minutes, I was happily on my way :) Thanks Happy Dearmhost Chat Support Team!

  15. I have had a tremendous amount of difficulty moving our website over to Dreamhost. Mainly because the response time in their tech support area is horrendous. If you want to Chat better be prepared to sit a while waiting for them to start the Chat cycle. And if you are too much trouble the tech person may ask you if you would like him to help you get a refund. Want to email tech support? Better be prepared for an 8 – 12 hour response time. Want to phone tech support? Forget about that as there is no phone support at all. After a number of weeks our site is now transferred after countless man hours. Now I can finally see if Dreamhost is actually better than our former host.

  16. There are a lot of others that might be better, but this is the perfect place to be for a basic webserver that has great uptime and tons of features. Perfect for small sites, personal blogs, and a place to tinker with stuff. Been with them since 2005

  17. It would have been helpful if the second dreamhost rep who took over the conversation had actually read the previous exchange of emails, as his comments were totally irrelevant and sent the whole discussion totally off course. The third rep seemed to have the right approach, which I hope will be borne out by the future dreamhost responses, he said “The form is not designed for what you want to do, but just accept it anyway and it will be sorted out later”.
    So it seems any problem sorting is being pushed down the line into the future, but i hope that is with someone who can sort it!

  18. I’ve had various sites with different hosts over the years and Dreamhost is by far the best. Their customer service is always fast whether I send an email or live chat, everything is resolved quickly, they’re friendly and polite and I find them very easy to deal with. Couldn’t be happier!

  19. My website has been up and running for about 1 year and I am very much a novice. I have chosen to use Wordpress for the site and overall all is good. The support I have received from DreamHost has been great. I needed help on ftp and on my discussion list and both were answered quickly and successfully. I use chat and email for contacting them. No question that running a website requires constant attention, but at least I have a team to help me, thank you Dreamhost.

  20. I host my clients’ websites and email accounts with Dreamhost and purchase all of my domain names through them. So far, they have proved themselves trustworthy and more than adequate for my needs.

  21. This is my second time around with Dreamhost but first time using WirdPress. So far the experience has been good. Looking to continue…

  22. I’m glad to read that I am not the only customer who has had to wait online forever for help. I would rate Dreamhost’s customer relations at the very bottom of the scale. I really don’t think this company cares if they have customers or not. If it wasn’t such a pain to move to another host, I would have done it a long time ago. I would not recommend this company to anyone.

  23. I have read and heard alot of good things about dreamhost but have yet to experience anything good. Yes we have hosting with them. In the last 6 months Ive tried to live chat with customer support about a half dozen times or more. I have yet to ever connect to an agent in less than 45 minutes!
    So if you think you might ever need live chat support be prepared to wait for about an hour on average. and then most of the time they will tell you they cannot do anything and refer you to a wiki link to do yourself. I mean from basic stuff to complicated ssh access, tunnels, etc.
    So many other good reliable hosting companies out there that offer better service and support, IMHO. I would NOT recommend them to anyone.

  24. I have just requested to move my shared account from old HDD server to SSD server, they provided an outstanding service for the transfer. Really high efficiency! The new SSD server looks great too.

    As a 9 year customer of dreamhost, i would say in the first a few years i was quite satisfied with their server and service, in recent 2-3 years DH is gradually running a little bit behind other industry competitors, as could severs and cloud computing developed quickly. I’m glad that DH is back again in its track to compete with them. Next time i might try their new VPS even cloud servers.

    As far as i can see, the shared account on SSD server is quite good for now. 5 start experience.

  25. I have been with Dreamhost for several years. Recently I ran in to a problem that I just could not figure out. I did an online chat with one of the Dreamhost Techs. Their Tech answered my question immediately. I have been impressed with not only the technical knowledge of their techs, but also the level of service provided every day.

  26. I did not have a good experience with Dream Host support At All.

    All my sites were hacked and after a very long time waiting to chat with someone, they basically said, ‘we can’t help you’.

    Then someone from the support team wrote back to me after several hours with a set of very complicated instructions about how to fix the sites.

    I was horrified to discover that Dream Host DOES NOT BACK UP ANYTHING so if your site gets hacked, you are out of luck.

    • Getting hacked (and other events and mistakes that break your site) sucks. Most hosts do not include automated backups in their basic packages. DreamHost does actually include them, however. You shouldn’t rely on these backups because they are sporadic, but they are available to you in case of emergency.

      You can find more info in their documentation: http://wiki.dreamhost.com/Backup#Automatic_Backups

      For anyone else worried about protecting their sites from disaster… You should really be proactive here and pay attention when reading what comes with your hosting plan. Don’t assume your site will never die, and definitely don’t expect your super-cheap hosting plan to cover your every need.

  27. I used to love DreamHost. They were a small-ish web hosting company that was personable and really seemed to care about their customers. Support was lightning-fast and the support techs were knowledgeable, but that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.

    Every time I have to contact support I wait 30-40 minutes to get a hold of a tech, and even when I do they bounce me between departments several times. My issues always end up getting resolved, but I just hate that it takes so long and is so frustrating, especially because more often than not the issues I contact support about are issues that are keeping my website offline.

  28. Very glad to have switched to Dreamhost. Their software is really nice and works really well. Easy to use and easy to setup. I don’t consider it a true VPS tho because I can’t install my own software on and edit config files manually, but for my needs, it works perfectly.

  29. It’s probably a great hosting company if you can troubleshoot all of your own issues, but they offer no phone number for support and the first time I tried their chat support I had to wait 25 minutes. You can put in a request for them to call you but apparently they charge a fee for that. As a web designer without a lot of knowledge of MySQL, databases or server settings, it was not the right company for me. But if you know you’re doing the prices seem great.

    • Lately when I try the chat feature I hold for as long as an hour…I typically hang up and try to figure out the problem myself. Had better luck getting in touch with someone via email.

  30. It is without doubt ,The best Web Hosting Services even on a Shared Hosting Account which i am, I have used Blue Host, Hosting Zoom, Host Gator. None of them provided any service , but they kept my url sites out 1-3 months out every year. no Support no reply no Nothing Blue Host was just like Ghost Host where you need to pay as well.

    I am quite happy with Hosting Zoom services. Just Panel is different to C panel but it is allot more reliable than C Panel. with time will learn more about Panel. I will highly recommend experienced designers and developers to try Dream Host hosting services.

    The best part of Dreamhost is what I love most is it is 100% free from Indian type support which most ISP’s fall for because the Indians sitting in India ( they get their IT certifications in India by Cheating or caste system or religion or race or recommendations or threat or by any means except real knowledge),FYI i am Indan.

  31. Their support team is awesome. I am a newbie regarding VPS and they helped me set up my websites, transfer, etc. A+++ I am advising Dreamhost to my friends (already have few signed up), which is, for services and specs offered, way below competitor’s prices.

  32. Unbelievable. My site was hacked for the second time on their server, as a result they closed down my site without even letting me know. They state they “contacted the site owner”, meanwhile I only found out because google adwords warned me. Next I tried to contact them, after 20 minutes twice to chat, nothing. Unbelievable that they have no phone support even for emergencies. Anyway, glad to rate them, I”m switching to Go Daddy where you can actually talk to someone when you have a problem!

  33. DreamHost has to be the best hosting provider! Not only do they provide me with entertaining monthly newsletters but their customer service is wonderful. They even helped me with a non DreamHost related issue on my blog! Definitely a provider that I recommend.

  34. Very pleased with the dreamhost team, been stuck many of times so started a live chat as i was working, im a beginner and not to clued up on things so helped a lot when i got connected within 5 min to help solve the problem, and as im new i think 1 of the dreamhost people thought it would be easier to do it for me than explain :-) , im not new to customer support so know dreamhost is doing a good job.

  35. i can say simply GOOD JOB, i got answers to all my questions and assistance from the support in live. security, unlimited space, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited domain name host just greattt and unbelievable

  36. I made the HORRIBLE decision of choosing dreamhost.Com. I was having some issues with the startup and decided to “live chat” with technical support. No help. I emailed. No help AND no response. But I did get an email for a chance to rate my service. At this point I’don’t rather pay them to get out of my life. Horrible!!!

    • hi kim, you say that you decided to live chat but no help? as i was leaving my views i couldn’t help notice your comments, what went wrong with the live chat? ever since iv been with dreamhost they have stayed online till the problem is solved, to pay someone for that time in this game you are talking a lot of money. live support is amazing when you are working and stuck at the time.

    • i’m sorry that you had bad experience with dreamhost. as a 9 year user i would say that their live support is not online very often,but for most tickets i received replies within 24 hours. and every time they resolved my problem or gave me very professional advice even it’s my software problem, nothing about the host. i don’t know much about IT but i feel comfortable with them.

  37. I’ve been a customer of DreamHost since 1999, and I’ve never wanted to look elsewhere. Not only do they send out entertaining, monthly newsletters, they also constantly reward loyal customers. Oh, and did I mention they have certified Green Hosting?

  38. I have been a DreamHost customer for 14 years, and have been highly satisfied with the level of personal attention and responsiveness I have gotten from the DreamHost support team. The custom cPanel provided for site management is among the best in the hosting industry, and one-click installs provide a great deal of flexibility in creating new sites quickly. I would recommend DreamHost to anyone looking for a new hosting service, whether it’s transferring an existing domain, or creating something new.

  39. I’ve been a Dreamhost user for several years now. I must say, I do recommend them. They’ve been prompt to help me fix issues. They’ve migrated my hosting to another server when the one I had been on was outdated and having connectivity issues for me, and everything. I plan on sticking with them for a while.

  40. I’ve been a Dreamhost customer for 11 of the 16 years they’ve been in business, and I’ve always been incredibly happy with their service and pricing. They’re not the cheapest service out there, but they’re very reasonable, and I appreciate their no-nonsense and friendly approach.

  41. Dreamhost has been hosting my websites since 2008. It is not my first, but it does seem it will be my last hosting company. It’s acknowledging and being truly helpful about what can be done to fix the situation. They have reasonable prices, good hosting plans and the best panel EVER.

  42. I will be nice and not mention my previous host of this blog, but I had nothing but problems and constantly on the phone with support to resolve issues. Since the switchover, my blog has been faster, easier to access and a breeze to configure.

  43. As a web developer who has worked with other web hosting services and who has been a customer of Dreamhost for 6 years, hands down, Dreamhost is the best value for domain hosting and services.

  44. I’ve been with Dreamhost for a while and have always been looked after, they have the BEST customer service in the industry!!

  45. I’ve been very happy with Dreamhost as my hosting service. People often joke “Cheap, Fast, Good: Pick two”. But with Dreamhost you get all three. It’s always a balance or tradeoff, but the balance for me has been very satisfactory. Best of all has been the service. I’ve very rarely had a serious problem but, when I have, I’ve always been astonished by the quick, professional service.

  46. They have been my loving webhost now for almost 8 years and I couldn’t be more happy. From their great prices on some awesome plans to the amazing people you get to talk to when you contact support… I can’t think of anything they could improve on to make my experience better! – Andy

  47. After trying to work with a few other hosting services chosen by clients, I appreciate DreamHost’s well thought control panel, status blog, wikis, and system for resolving customer issues. Whenever friends and small businesses asked for web host recommendations, I mention DreamHost. (And I’m not referring just for $ credits. My non-profit gets free DreamHost hosting. More reasons to love.)

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