I’ve tested a lot of web hosts, but DreamHost stood out to me for one simple reason — it offers no-nonsense WordPress hosting that works well for DIY users. If you’re someone who prefers figuring things out yourself but still wants reliable support behind the scenes, there’s a lot to like here.
When I first signed up, I wasn’t expecting much. But after setting up a live WordPress site, running real stress tests, and pushing it through traffic spikes, I was honestly surprised by how stable and responsive the platform was, especially for the price.
In this review, I’ll walk you through what I tested, where DreamHost shines, where it still falls short, and who I think it’s best suited for. I’ll also share some behind-the-scenes performance data that most hosting reviews skip.
If you’re a blogger, small business owner, or just someone looking for dependable hosting with flexible billing and built-in backups, then this review will help you decide if DreamHost is the right fit.
My Verdict on DreamHost
After putting DreamHost through speed tests, stress tests, and uptime monitoring, I think it’s one of the best value options for WordPress users who don’t need hand-holding.
It’s affordable, reliable, and surprisingly capable, as long as you’re comfortable using a custom control panel instead of cPanel.
It’s not perfect. You won’t get instant phone support, and the entry-level email accounts are only free for 3 months. But DreamHost makes up for it with daily backups, a generous refund policy, and performance that held up even under load.
DreamHost is worth a closer look if you want flexible pricing, solid uptime, and a low-maintenance way to host your WordPress site.
| ⭐ Rating: | 4.8 out of 5 |
| 📈 Best For: | DIY WordPress users, bloggers, and startups looking for budget-friendly hosting |
| 🔥 What Stands Out: | 97-day refund policy, NVMe storage, daily backups, custom control panel |
| 💡 Pro Tip: | The ‘Web Hosting Growth’ plan offers a great balance of resources for growing websites. |
If you’re curious how I tested DreamHost and why I trust these results, the following sections break down everything I did and what I found.
My Hosting Evaluation Criteria
For this review, I didn’t rely on marketing pages or affiliate hype. I signed up for a real DreamHost plan, installed WordPress, and ran a full round of hands-on performance tests.
Here’s what I focused on to evaluate DreamHost for WordPress users:
- Ease of Use: I explored their custom control panel and dashboard to see if they are beginner-friendly, especially for users moving from cPanel.
- Speed and Reliability: I ran speed tests using Pingdom and GTmetrix, and performed uptime monitoring and global response time tests to simulate real-world conditions.
- Stress Testing: Using K6, I simulated up to 50 concurrent visitors to see how well their servers hold up under traffic spikes.
- Support Experience: I tested DreamHost’s live chat, ticket system, and knowledge base to evaluate how quickly and effectively they handle real support questions.
- Pricing Breakdown: I compared their web hosting and managed WordPress plans to see which ones offer the best value, and where the hidden trade-offs are.
This way, everything in this review is based on real use, not just what sounds good on paper.
Why You Can Trust WPBeginner 🧡
Why You Can Trust WPBeginner
At WPBeginner, we’ve spent the last 16+ years reviewing and recommending WordPress hosting providers based on real testing, not sponsored fluff or marketing hype.
We run performance benchmarks, interact with support teams, and set up live WordPress sites so you can see how a host performs under real conditions, not just perfect demos. You can learn more about our editorial process here.
This DreamHost review is based on actual testing, site setup, speed data, and support conversations — all to help you make the most informed decision possible.
Bottom line: I 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 the test results and make up your mind.
About DreamHost
DreamHost has been around since 1997 — making it one of the few independent hosting companies still going strong after more than two decades. It was started by four college friends in California and now powers over 1.5 million websites worldwide, including more than 750,000 WordPress installs.
I hosted my personal website on DreamHost for a very long time. And what I love most about DreamHost is its focus on simplicity.
They’ve built their own custom control panel instead of using cPanel, and while it takes a minute to adjust, it actually feels cleaner once you get used to it.
They’re also a certified carbon-neutral host and part of the U.S. Green Chamber of Commerce. This is a nice bonus if sustainability matters to you, and it’s not something many providers prioritize.
While they offer everything from monthly to cloud to managed WordPress hosting, I could tell right away that DreamHost is built for self-starters. If you like having control without needing constant support, this host will feel like home.
DreamHost Pros and Cons
After testing DreamHost, here’s what I found to be its biggest strengths — and where it still has room to improve.
✅ What I Like
- 97-day money-back guarantee: That’s one of the most generous refund windows in hosting. It gives you time to really test things out without pressure.
- Free domain + privacy: You get domain registration and WHOIS privacy included, with no hidden upsells like some other hosts.
- Daily backups included: Even the entry-level web hosting plan backs up your site automatically every day.
- NVMe SSD storage and unmetered bandwidth: My test site loaded quickly, even before I enabled caching or a CDN.
- Clean, custom control panel: Once I got used to it, DreamHost’s dashboard was easier to use than I expected. Everything’s in one place.
❌ What I Don’t Like
- No phone support by default: You can request a callback, but it costs extra and isn’t instant. Live chat works, but it’s not always ideal.
- Limited free email: Email accounts are only included for free for the first 3 months on their web hosting plans.
- Learning curve for the panel: If you’re used to cPanel, DreamHost’s custom panel takes some getting used to.
- U.S.-based data centers only: This might affect latency slightly for international traffic without a CDN.
DreamHost Performance Tests
Performance is always one of the most significant deciding factors for me when choosing a host, especially for WordPress sites. To see how DreamHost stacks up, I ran a series of speed, response time, and stress tests using a live demo site built with WordPress.
Here’s what I found.
Speed Test Results
I ran a GTmetrix test on a fresh WordPress install hosted with DreamHost. The results were strong — fully loaded in just 470ms, with a Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) of 375ms and no layout shifts or blocking time at all.
GTmetrix gave DreamHost a performance grade of 100%, and the structure scored 97%. That is excellent even before any speed optimization or caching tweaks.
That’s the kind of head start I love to see when launching a new site.
Stress Testing (K6 by Grafana Labs)
I used K6 to simulate up to 50 virtual users hitting the site at once. This is the kind of surge you’d expect during a promotion or product launch.
To really understand how DreamHost holds up, I tested both with and without caching enabled.
With caching turned off, response times fluctuated as more users joined.
The site stayed up, but you could see it struggling a bit, which is common when caching isn’t active.
As soon as I enabled DreamHost’s built-in caching, the results improved dramatically. The site handled 6,600 total requests with an average response time of just 270ms.
There were no slowdowns or failed requests. Enabling caching is a must if you’re planning to use DreamHost for a blog, small business website, or online store.
Server Response Time
I also tested global response time using PageSpeedPlus to simulate visits from different locations. DreamHost’s U.S. server in Oregon performed extremely well, completing the full load in just 1 second with a 46ms render time.
Performance stayed solid across North America and Europe, with Canada and Frankfurt staying under 3 seconds. The only noticeable slowdown came from Tokyo and Canada Central, but those could be improved with a CDN (I recommend Cloudflare’s free CDN, which also includes a built-in cloud firewall for improved website security).
Uptime Monitoring
During my review period, I ran 24/7 uptime monitoring to catch any outages, even short ones. I’m happy to report that DreamHost delivered strong results: 99.82% uptime over a 30-day window.
There was one short outage totaling about 18 minutes, but the server recovered quickly. That’s still a reliable track record for web hosting, especially when paired with their built-in backup tools for peace of mind.
Features and Ease of Use
Instead of using cPanel like most other hosts, DreamHost built their own custom dashboard. I’ll admit, I was skeptical at first.
But after using it for a few days, I found it surprisingly clean and easy to navigate.
I could manage everything in one place without dealing with a cluttered interface. This included websites, domains, email accounts, databases, and backups.
It might not have every advanced toggle that cPanel users are used to, but it covers the essentials well.
- One-click WordPress install: It only took me about 60 seconds to launch a clean WordPress site.
- Free domain + privacy: DreamHost includes a domain name and WHOIS privacy with all plans.
- Daily backups: I use Duplicator to back up all my WordPress websites. However, it is still good to know that there is an additional daily backup stored by the hosting provider.
- Built-in caching (for WordPress): This made a big difference in my performance tests. It’s included for free.
- Custom control panel vs. cPanel: I didn’t miss cPanel. DreamHost’s panel felt faster and more streamlined.
If you’re switching from another host or just getting started, DreamHost makes it easy to manage your site without needing a developer. Everything you need is in one place, and nothing feels overly complicated.
DreamHost Plans and Pricing
DreamHost offers a variety of hosting plans, but the two I focused on during testing were their Web Hosting and Managed WordPress (DreamPress) plans. Both come with solid features, but the right one depends on how much performance and flexibility you need.
Every plan includes NVMe SSD storage, free SSL, and daily backups. New site owners also get a free domain for the first year with yearly plans, which is a nice perk.
Web Hosting
This is the most budget-friendly option and is great for beginners, small blogs, and new projects. These plans are best when paid annually, but monthly options are available.
| Plan | Web Hosting Launch | Web Hosting Growth | Web Hosting Scale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price (First Year) | $2.99/month | $3.99/month | $9.99/month |
| Websites | 25 | 50 | 100 |
| Monthly Visits | ~40,000 | ~200,000 | ~400,000 |
| Storage | 25 GB NVMe | 50 GB NVMe | 100 GB NVMe |
| 20 Mailboxes (Free 3 mo.) | 40 Mailboxes (Free 3 mo.) | 60 Mailboxes (Free 3 mo.) |
The Web Hosting Growth plan is marked “Most Popular” and is the best starting point for most users.
It provides enough resources to handle growing traffic and gives you the flexibility to host up to 50 websites.
Keep in mind that email is only free for the first three months. After that, it becomes a paid add-on starting at $1.99 per mailbox per month or $19.99 per mailbox per year.
Managed WordPress Hosting (DreamPress)
If you’re building a growing site that needs better speed, security, or staging tools, then DreamPress is worth looking at. It’s a fully managed WordPress hosting plan that’s over 5x faster than their web hosting.
It comes with:
- Automatic WordPress core updates
- Pre-installed SSL and private IP (great for eCommerce)
- SSD storage, unmetered bandwidth, and caching built in
- One-click staging and daily on-demand backups
- Unlimited CDN and Jetpack Professional on higher-tier plans
| Plan | Visitors/Month | Storage | Price (Monthly) |
|---|---|---|---|
| DreamPress | ~100,000 | 30 GB SSD | $16.95/month |
| DreamPress Plus | ~300,000 | 60 GB SSD | $24.95/month |
| DreamPress Pro | ~1 million+ | 120 GB SSD | $71.95/month |
If you want a hosting plan that takes care of the technical stuff for you, DreamPress is a nice upgrade. It’s especially helpful for online stores or high-traffic sites that need extra stability.
Bonus Tip 💡: WPBeginner readers get a special discount on web hosting or 16% off DreamPress with our exclusive DreamHost coupon. Click here to apply it automatically.
Just remember: DreamHost’s best prices are for the first term. Renewal rates are higher, so it’s smart to lock in the longest billing cycle you can comfortably afford.
DreamHost Customer Support Experience
I tested DreamHost support using both live chat and tickets, just like I would if something broke on a real site. Overall, the support team was friendly and helpful, though there are a few trade-offs to know about.
✅ What I Like
- 24/7 availability: You can reach them anytime via live chat or email ticket.
- Award-winning support: DreamHost won both the 2025 Stevie Gold and Globee® Awards for service excellence.
- Helpful knowledge base: Their tutorials are easy to follow and cover most topics.
- Positive user feedback: Many users praise their fast response times and friendly staff.
❌ What Could Be Better
- No phone support by default: You can request a callback, but it’s paid and not in all plans.
- Email response time: Some replies can take up to one or two hours.
- Mixed reviews: A few users report issues with slow resolutions or trouble reaching support during busy hours.
In my experience, chat was the best option. I usually got connected to a human within 2–5 minutes, and they explained things clearly without copy-paste scripts.
Tickets were slower, but they were still answered within an hour. If your issue is urgent, go with chat first.
If you ever need hands-on help, DreamHost also sells professional services for site management, SEO, and development. It’s a nice add-on if you’re running a business site or just want extra peace of mind.
DreamHost’s support is solid if you’re okay with chat and email. But if you prefer phone calls and fast escalations, that’s something to consider before signing up.
Final Verdict: Should You Use DreamHost?
After using DreamHost for years and then testing it thoroughly again for this review, I’m genuinely impressed with the value they offer. It’s a great fit for WordPress users who want control, but don’t want things to feel complicated.
Performance was solid across the board. My site stayed fast and stable, even under load, and their daily backups and custom dashboard made management feel simple.
DreamHost isn’t trying to be flashy. Instead, they focus on reliability, privacy, and offering good tools at a fair price — and they mostly deliver on that promise.
Who is it for: If you’re a DIY website owner, blogger, or small business with a WordPress site, DreamHost is a strong choice. Their support team is helpful, and the knowledge base is packed with tutorials if you like solving things on your own.
DreamHost delivers a fast, affordable, and well-supported WordPress experience for most users, especially if you’re okay working through chat and email.
Want to give it a try? Click here to get started with DreamHost and save with our exclusive deal.
Here is a quick summary of our DreamHost review:
| DreamHost Review Summary | |
|---|---|
| Performance grade | A |
| Average load time | 1.69 s |
| Average response time | 255 ms |
| Free domain | Yes |
| Free SSL | Yes |
| 1-click WordPress | Yes |
| Support | Live Chat / Knowledge base |
| Start with DreamHost | |
DreamHost Coupon 🏷️
WPBeginner users get an exclusive discount on web 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 it. The discount will be auto-applied.
Frequently Asked Questions About DreamHost
The following are some of the most frequently asked questions about DreamHost from 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 are on par with Hostinger, Hosting.com, HostGator, GoDaddy, and Bluehost.
Does DreamHost use cPanel?
No, DreamHost does not use cPanel. Instead, they have built their custom control panel that has all the management features you’ll find in cPanel.
You can easily manage MySQL databases, change PHP versions, access one-click WordPress installers, manage SSH and 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 web 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 its web hosting platform. However, they have also increased their pricing by 2x, so the comparison isn’t fair anymore.
Where are DreamHost servers located?
DreamHost servers are located in the United States. Its data centers are in Ashburn, Virginia, and Hillsboro, Oregon, and its headquarters are in Brea, California.
Can I Install WooCommerce on DreamHost?
Yes, you can easily install WooCommerce on DreamHost web hosting and VPS plans.
Ready to start with DreamHost? Get a special discount on your DreamHost plan by clicking here to sign up for DreamHost. The discount will be auto-applied.
Andrei Marinescu
It’s okay. (okay for me is like awesome for everybody else. Awesome for me doesn’t come easily)
Jon Herrmann
I am relatively savvy but not a techie. Dreamhost has been a great resource, especially their live chat customer service available pretty much any time. And the structure of their Wordpress set up is great and easy.
Benny
awesome service. used to be with GoDaddy, and about 4 years ago switch to dreamhost. no comparison. Their support has always been top notch, and thats the key to everything.
Howard Cruse
So far I’ve found Dreamhost’s customer service to be very available and helpful, with actual humans ready to give me a hand.
Chris D.
I recently switched hosting from GoDaddy to Dreamhost and the service has been on-point in helping with a few issues I had getting things set up along the way. I would recommend Dreamhost.
Zoran Jankovic
Been with Dreamhost for 8 years now and during this time they never let me down. Their support service is excellent, promptly responding to silliest of my queries and resolving issues in no time. Well done Dreamhost team, I wholeheartedly recommend your services!
Chris
Support is a joke, I cancelled my service after 5mins and went with GoDaddy where I was able to pick up the phone and get support for FREE, what a concept! DreamHost is garage.
Fernando Andrade
These dudes have always been nothing but helpful and available, when I have needed their help. Thanks, Dreamhost!
Elaine Johns
My son switched me to dreamhost so I would be able to do a lot more with my website than what I could with my former host, and not come to him with every change i want. We’re both happy we made the switch.
Patrick
Dreamhost support is very good. In addition, they’ve made major improvements in capacity and speed of their systems in the last few years.
Stability is a lingering issue, especially on their mail clusters. It’s not unusually for these to be out of service for hours at a time.
Their basic plan used to be sufficient for most things, but increasingly you have to pay significantly extra for additional services. Their Wordpress hosting is a good example. There is no reliable, simple firewall available in the basic plan, only Cloudflare which is not very good.
In general I’m positive about Dreamhost, but also always considering alternatives.
Francesco Emmanuel
I had a problem registering a domain and the support group was quick and efficient in getting in touch with me. I would definitely use Dream Host again.
mike hayward
Same old messages which say that you have exceeded memory allocation – but no analysis as to why.
The majority of the VPS CPU is very low [2% average] – but the moment there is a modicum of traffic the RAM overloads.
It is clear that the server settings are not optimised correctly to have such a wild swing – but the support staff do not get this.
its getting a bit tired sadly
Dorian Pula
I have used DreamHost for more than 5 years, and overall I’ve been very happy. Their support staff is pretty awesome, once even helping find a bug with my webapp that I wrote. I was able to grow with them, until my specific needs outgrew their offerings. The VPS solution is pretty good, assuming you don’t need a specific OS or version of software or are very particular with your setup. The shared hosting is great too if you are using standard PHP-based apps and sites. Unfortunately DreamHost is not an awesome choice if you are trying to deploy custom Python webapps or anything Docker related.
Lauren
I’ve been using Dreamhost for… I don’t even know… over 10 years? I’ve never had an issue, and their awesome staff is always willing to help me through my n00b mistakes and/or cluelessness. I’ve even had times when my question had nothing to do with their service, but they answered my questions faster than the other company did. Love the live chat support.
Tex Brooklyn
Dreamhost is awesome. Everything has worked correctly from the beginning. Any difficulties I’ve encountered, I have caused, and they have helped resolve them without any attitude. It wasn’t always instantaneous, however it was resolved fairly quickly. Always within a few hours.
Excellent value on hosting, and domain registration. We are very happy with DH.
Ben Davies
Must say great service. I found out that there was an error on my theme after a recent wordpress update and at 4am I spoke to someone online and they sorted everything out for me within about 10 minutes. Can’t speak highly enough of them!
Steve Birtwistle
Having to jump through this many hoops simply to get mail working is completely unacceptable. The amount of trouble shooting, wasted time and frustration this has caused is ridiculous. No hosting service should be this temperamental and its is absurd to need to contact the provider to whitelist IP addresses due to their poor services. In my 20 years of IT and technology I have never had a worse experience with a hosting service.
Their web based tools for administration are crude and restrictive, the limitations of their email account settings are not acceptable, the webmail interface is years out of date and essentially unusable, the entire system is fragmented with multiple interfaces for various tasks, they have poor documentation and all of this is on top of the absolute shit reliability and performance.
The inconsistencies continue on our side with issues with sending and receiving but also occurring with attempting to move or delete emails with obscure error messages and seeming permissions errors.
Irene MacBain
Dreamhost have done above and beyond to give me time to sort out the website and some of the stuff that was on there just taking up space. With a huge number of roles I have to deal with in a short space of time, it has not been possible to be up to date with things recently. Dreamhost were timely in their correspondence and have been more than patient in providing extra time for me to sort things out. We’ve been with others but Dreamhost always wins for us in every aspect of web hosting.
Md Sajjadul Farooque Robin
I was using dreamhost shared hosting for last 4 years and 1 year with VPS. Shared hosting was good with lot of goodies, gmail integration, ssh, git availability. VPS experience, to be honest, is not that compared to digitalocean. It’s pretty slow. Other than, I will recommend dreamhost.
Terry Cabeen
I’ve been with Dreamhost for over 8 years now (over 10 years if you count leeching off a friend’s account before I got my own), and have been nothing but thrilled (with occasional hiccups). The most recent was some issue preventing me from installing WordPress or creating subdomains. Mere moments after requesting support, it was resolved.
My only disappointment is that “some issue with [my] account” was never really explained, so I didn’t learn anything from the experience. If it’s preventable, I have no idea how.
J. Johnston
I have a real problem with this hosting service. I have three (3) websites under active hosting with them, and one (1) Wordpress blog. The WP blog actually performs reasonably well, but the websites, which consist of plain-vanilla xhtml/css have had substantial load time issues. Two of the sites are generally pretty good performers, but one loads so slowly, it can take anywhere from 2 minutes to infinity (timeout) for the index page to load.
I double checked this problem by using several external page load checkers, including Google PageSpeed Insights. I found that page load times from these services were very problematic. I prepared screenshots and detailed information and contacted tech support. I also checked the IP addresses of the shared hosts, and noted that the problem site was on a different shared host than the others. ALL of this information was communicated to Dreamhost.
To put it mildly, Dreamhost tech support SUCKS. Three (3) contact attempts, and the first two people completely blew me off. In fact, that didn’t even ACKNOWLEDGE the information I sent them. One of these geniuses actually told me to CLEAR MY BROWSER CACHE. Yeah, dummy, my browser cache is going to affect how external speed checkers load my site, uh huh.
I’m a systems administrator and I work with many users at my regular place of employment. These people at Dreamhost:
1. Do not know what they are doing
2. Will feed you lines of bullshit to get you to go away
3. Are arrogant, and blatantly ignore even detailed information when provided.
As an admin myself, I really appreciate it when a user provides me with detailed information. It streamlines the troubleshooting process and helps me get to a solution faster. These guys, DON’T EVEN CARE.
Spend your money elsewhere.
Bill
I recently contacted Dreamhost about making some necessary DNS changes for my new email vendor. I very promptly received back the directions necessary to make all of the changes that I needed to make, with everything being taken care of in less than an hour! Awesome – actually totally awesome, thanks Dreamhost!
Pat Seguin
Excellent support and service. I’m recommending Dreamhost to all my colleagues. No extra bs sales pitches and fast and friendly response to my only support issue needed.
Giorgos Agopian
I create & consult on websites so I have accounts with a few US hosting providers.
Dreamhost was my first and through the years I have but one thing to say:
Dreamhost is the only hosting company that KEEPS GETTING BETTER!
I have seen substancial improvements server-wise (speed, stability etc) even on shared hosting and they keep adding services taking in mind user feedback.
Opinions may vary according to experience (we’re talking big companies here with many clients) but in the long run I find Dreamhost to be the best and have been always of great support.
I’m glad it was my first choice!
Tiago Pais
Great service. One of our users just deleted our media folder and they restored it in a matter of hours.
Dustin Barrett
I have been using Dreamhost for the last 6 months or so for about 10 websites. I just upgraded to a private server with them because I have been nothing but happy with their service so far. I have had hostgator as well as arvixe…two hosting companies that are supposed to be top notch. Hostgator I had billing issues that I had to call and have them fix EVERY MONTH plus it took FOREVER to get support. Arvixe was just SLOW with all of my sites. Dreamhost has been perfect. I have contacted support multiple times and they have been nothing but friendly and knowledgeable. I highly recommend their service.
Mark
Technical support was fast and thorough (as usual). I’m sticking with Dreamhost!
Duncan
After many months of always being impressed by Dreamhost online-chat support, this time I was left severely underwhelmed.
The first response to my query was “Wow”, which was not very helpful. Then a couple of phrases meant very little. Then silence. Then, after a query from me asking him to explain what he had just said, and then one more asking if he was still there, more silence. At this point I gave up.
Lucas
They are a little on the expensive side and their servers a very slow at running WordPress. Customer support can be slow at times and generally that supply you with links to help you solve your problems. Their referral plan is a little sketchy and I have lost some referrals because of their small print. My clients have then gone to having hosting fees that are too expensive. I’m switching to DigitalOcean and I wouldn’t recommend.
B Frey
I’ve used Dreamhost for 9 years, for 3 web sites. I first used PHP and then converted the sites to WordPress, so they could be maintained more easily. I’ve generally been happy with the service and support. Once every year or two email at the hosted domains runs into a problem that eventually gets fixed.
Robert Solly
I have used Dreamhost for many years with good support for all of my questions. The last time I had an issue, I asked two questions in the same email. I had the same results as one of the reviewers here, the second question was ignored or missed. It was answered in a second email.
I will number my questions from now on, but your tech support people should read more carefully.
Robert
Overall it was a bad experience.
1) Performance was very bad when loading pages. No matter what theme I used, it took from 2 seconds at the fastest front page load to as much as 10 seconds to load the first page. It never timed out completely, but was not something I could stay with. I had the $30 per month account.
I have a few other sites on Bulkregister and although they’re far cheaper at only $60 per year, they are giving me load pages of less than a second most of the time for the standard Twenty fourteen theme. I’ve had them for years and thought that I needed a dedicated site like Dreamhost, but it was a waste of time.
mike hayward
Support is generally excellent – during weekdays.
Weekend support is generally below average – to really infuriating.
The latest experience was awful since the Support could not be bothered to tackle this advanced issue.
The weekend support can often be nearly as bad as Godaddy [which is terrible]. They show bad habits of cutting off chats; being obtuse; pretending to not see what you are seeing and a host of other “…..if I do this enough….this person will give up….”
and you know I do – give up.
The servers need to be better optimised for caching.
Lucy Glorius
I needed help and even though it was because I had forgotten my password, and they were nice and helpful and never made me feel bad about it.
Gabe
I’m here, for a second time, after DreamHost asked me to rate their support. Unfortunately, after years of excellent service I’ve had two unacceptable support threads in a row.
The first was a simple email issue where their servers were blocking a confirmation email. A month later the issue resolved itself. Support didn’t even know the issue was resolved so they certainly can’t claim they fixed it.
At the end of the email issue I was contacted by someone higher up the hierarchy. They apologized, said they looked into it and found the response unacceptable. Then asked for my comments on how things could be improved. I gave them my comments, said I appreciated their time but I was still going to move my domains – dozens of them – to another provided. They asked me how they could make me a happy DreamHost customer again.
This directly led the to second issue. They asked what they could do and I explained that the apology had gone a long way to mending fences. All I needed at this point was a small token. I was looking into Pagely and MediaTemple’s managed WordPress options and suggested they make me a deal on their managed WordPress option as a token. Their response was to say, sure you can sign up for DreamPress right here it is only $25/mo (the normal, undiscounted, non-promo full price). They were running a promo on DreamPress for $20/mo at the time. I had the page open in my browser reading their sales page when the support ticket came in telling me I could sign up for $25/mo.
From what I can tell there are 2 major issues. First, their ticketing system seems to be redirecting my tickets to the wrong place. Second, the ticket thread isn’t being fully read. The 2 problems combine to create a very frustrating support experience for anything that can’t be immediately answered. If I ask 2 questions in a response it has become way too often that only 1 gets acknowledged let alone answered. Additionally, with both issues support responses suggested to me that they weren’t reading the entire support thread prior to responding to me. As a result, many of supports answers just made no sense in the context of the entire issue thread.
To top it all off I’m trying to move my domains as they come up on their expiration date and can’t. My first attempt was automatically blocked by DreamHost’s systems. I then contacted DreamHost support who told me everything was ready to go on their end. Now 1&1 is telling me DreamHost has to re-initiate the transfer…
For background, I have been a DreamHost customer for about 8 years now. I run my own dedicated servers through a different, cheaper, hosting company. I also code in PHP and Python. I’ve transferred domains a few times before without issue – typically 1&1 to DreamHost in the past. While the issue could be on 1&1’s side I’m inclined to blame DreamHost at this point until proven otherwise.
Laura
Dreamhost was super helpful. I’m teaching a wordpress class so tech support showed me how to set up twelve sub-domains at no extra cost! Then I did a one-step install of WP in each sub-domain and now each of my students is happily learning wordpress by practicing on their own site. Thanks dreamhost!
Josh
Had Dreamhost for 6 years. I finally didn’t have a use for it and let it expire for about a month. I now have a need for it and went to renew it. I contacted support to see if they would offer any type of discount to keep me as a customer. I was told it would need to be forwarded to a manager in which a email states I will have a response within 24 hours. No response after 2 days of waiting, I then contacted support again which I was again told it would be forwarded to a manager and they are very good at getting back to customer. Still no response.
Decided to go with another hositng service which offers way more for way less.. Thank you Dreamhost for not giving me the time or day and allowing me to choose a competitor at a much cheaper price that when I call / chat with them their responses are immediate.. instead of, “we have forwarded this issue to a manager” without a response.
Josh
Colm Branigan
Excellent, easy to use service, especially the one click install option for Wordpress. Support is also excellent- I use the online chat option. Would definety recommend.
Joao Costa
successfully moved our site to DREAMHOST; team was fully supportive during the process. Looking forward to a excellent service from now on.
Mary A.
Great Customer Service is so important, and Dreamhost provides it! No matter your level of expertise, you want an ISP you can rely on, and one that can guide you when you need it. Dreamhost is quick, friendly and is as hands on or off as you require. They have been a Godsend when I have gotten in over my head, but in addition provide fast, reliable web hosting that let’s me get on with creating my websites. I highly recommend them to anyone who wants top quality and friendly sevice!
Nasser Ahmed
One of the best support teams I have ever worked with. Very professional and always fix our issues in a timely manner. Thank you Dreamhost support team.
Dave Morgan
The Dreamhost techie squared me away in mere seconds. Had me doing stuff I never knew I could do. Did what he showed me. Went back to work. Whole transaction took maybe 30 seconds. My kind of whiplash!!!
Jacky Lopez
I need to have my sites backedup in DreamObjects, when I asked how to do that I received this message – “find it here”
http://wiki.dreamhost.com/DreamObjects_Overview_and_FAQs
Are you kidding me, create a real helpful page, not a vague splash of jargon.
I’m about to drop my account because I can’t use it
Paul
I’ve been with Dreamhost since 2002. After a recent service issue with Media Wiki upgrading and Dreamhost support basically neglecting my request I am starting the process to migrate my 15 domains and hosting services to other providers. Over the years my only complaints were associated with Dreamhost server response time and bandwidth. The currect Dreamhost lack of support for their One Click auto-upgrade features doesn’t support my low maintenance policy for using a hosting provider. I write scripts at work to automate functionality. Dreamhost has made a decision to force manual upgrades to their many many users instead of writing a custom script to perform all the work. Bad decision to put more work on users and not enough on yourself. I will cease recommending Dreamhost after this last issue.
Nicole Wrage
I hadn’t updated something right and wasn’t able to follow the first step to create a WordPress admin account for my new domain. The DreamHost rep provided a fast, easy reply and I was able to follow the instructions and fixed the problem. Not being super savvy with this yet, I really appreciate the support! Thanks!!
Diego Sinning
I have been client of dreamhost for more than eight years now and the other quality of their service and products has made me stay with them and even when I moved overseas. They are always offering more for your money, besides they are always nice and give quick to respond to your inquiries. I will definitely recommend and rate DREAMHOST as the best hosting provider ever….
Toby Allen
I was looking to move a photo site with 35GB of data to dreamhost from a personal hosted site. My account says unlimited storage but I thought I’d check that they were ok with me transfering up 35GB of data before I started.
Not a problem, so I’m in the process of unloading now.
Karen
I can’t give an honest review of the support since I never chatted with them.
It was Sunday and I opened a chat window. The time until they could respond was 22 minutes. As the clock ticked down I decided to go about finding the answer differently. I found it before they responded.
The question was simple. I was trying to find it while logged on as a customer what it cost to host. They don’t provide it online while logged in. You have to go to the basic website to get the information. I registered via DreamHost because Weebly uses them for registration. It wasn’t a conscious choice.
It’s okay. I don’t like that they can’t be called, only emailed or chatted with. I registered another site with them simply because I want to keep everything in one place.
Sarah Coleman
Dreamhost are always there when I need them, their Live Chat is better than a phone call in that it is 24 hour, I can write down/copy problems, issues and error messages and keep a log of the conversation. I went from 123-reg to DH many years ago and have never looked back.
I can’t fault any aspect of their service! Always so friendly and *human* too…so much better than talking to a machine!
charles Uibel
Fast, Fun, and Friendly, been with Dreamhost for a few years.
They made a mistake, refunded me, sent me some canned messages unless I needed a real human, and there he was.
I escaped the horror of Godaddy and here I am, thanks