WordPress Hosting

Complete DreamHost WordPress Hosting Review

DreamHost WordPress Hosting

$2.59/Month
8.9

Price

9.5/10

Server Performance

9.6/10

Features

8.5/10

Support

9.0/10

Security

8.0/10

What We Like

  • Terrific Server Response Time & High Uptime
  • 24/7 Chat & Email Support - 100% US-Based
  • 97-Day Money-Back Guarantee
  • Free Email and Unlimited Badwidth & Traffic for every hosting package
  • Free JetPack Professional license (worth $299/year) for every DreamPress Plus and Pro user

What We Don’t Like

  • No telephone support
  • Money-back Garantee does not apply to all payment methods
  • No CPanel
  • Free email account is not available for the Shared Starter plan users

The reason I decided to write this DreamHost WordPress Hosting review is that I recently found a Reddit post discussing the best WordPress hosting services. Since then, I’ve been discussing reliable WordPress Hosting companies with rich and long history lately, DreamHost is undoubtedly the oldest of the lot.

And in any business, the number of years certainly does add credibility. Hence the reason that many businesses boast about their established year on their documents.

Now, coming to the DreamHost review, this web hosting company offers two main kinds of hosting for WordPress users:

  1. Shared Server Hosting (a.k.a WordPress Basic)
  2. Managed WordPress Hosting (a.k.a DreamPress)

Sure, they also offer VPS and dedicated hosting but the server management lies in the hands of the user, I’ll discuss these plans in a separate article.

Before getting started, please read this important disclaimer:


DreamHost – WordPress Hosting Review

History

Undergrads establishing a prominent IT company is becoming a cliché and DreamHost is no different.

Founded by 4 undergrad students in California back in 1996, DreamHost has been providing web hosting services for the last 24 years. To date, they’ve hosted over 1.5 million websites almost half of which (700,000) are WordPress websites.

Dream Host Pricing — How Much Does DreamHost’s WordPress Hosting Cost?

DreamHost provides different pricing plans not for the kind of hosting that it provides but also for the number of periods you’re signing up for.

This means that you will end up paying a lower amount per month if you subscribe for longer periods.

There are 3 periods you can subscribe for which are 3 years, 1 year, and 1 Month.

Note that DreamHost’s pricing on their website is valid for their introductory period only which is 3 months. After that, you’ll be paying a bit higher than what you sign up for. I’ll mention both pricing below.

Shared WordPress Hosting – WordPress Basic – Pricing

WordPress StarterWordPress Unlimited
Monthly$4.95 / Month
Renews at $6.99 / Month
$10.95 / Month
Renews $11.99 / Month
1-Year$3.95 / Month$4.95 / Month
Renews at $9.95 / Month
3-Years$2.59 / Month$4.95 / Month
Renews at $7.95 / Month

Managed WordPress Hosting – DreamPress – Pricing

DreamPressDreamPress PlusDreamPress Pro
Monthly$16.95 / Month$24.95 / Month$71.95 / Month
Yearly$12.00 / Month$24.00 / Month$79.95 / Month

What Features Does DreamHost Offer For WordPress Websites?

Although not too extravagant but DreamHost provides a decent set of features to its WordPress users. Have a look at them here:

1. 100% Uptime Guarantee, But…!

DreamHost provides a 100% server uptime guarantee or customers can claim their money back.

DreamHost - Uptime Guarantee Liability
Uptime Guarantee Disclosure on DreamHost’s Website

However, upon reviewing and putting their claim to the test, I found that instead of 100%, DreamHost’s shared servers had been up and running 99.97% of the time in the past 6 months.

That’s still above-average performance though.

DreamHost WordPress Hosting - Shared Servers Uptime Guarantee

2. Super-Fast Server Response Time

Our test reveals that DreamHost shared servers provide above-average server response time. In the last 6 months, their server response time from all locations has been 157.86 ms or 0.157 seconds.

As expected, their West Coast servers are the fastest with an average response time of 53.37 ms or 0.05 seconds.

Similarly, their slowest servers are in Bangalore (India) offering 305.20 ms (0.3 seconds) to respond to the client’s request.

DreamHost WordPress Hosting - Shared Server Response Time in Secs

In addition to the quick server response time, DreamHost offers the following features that ensure that you get the best speed:

JetPack Image CDN: Formerly known as Photon, JetPack CDN image CDN is available absolutely free along with the whole JetPack plugin.

Built-in Server-Level Caching to render your web pages quickly. This is only for DreamPress plans though.

SSD Storage: Gives you better storage especially when it comes to data transfer

3. 24/7 Support – 100% In-House

Available for all the plans, users get 24/7 chat and email-based support.

The best thing is that for Managed WordPress Hosting, the team helping the customers out are dedicated WordPress experts hired in-house to provide customized solutions.

4. Free Email Account

Host unlimited email accounts assigned to your domain. This is not available to the Shared Starter plan but you can buy it for just $3.95/month.

5. Unmetered Bandwidth & Traffic

Normally web hosts charge tier-based pricing depending on the traffic that you receive and the data that these visitors download.

The more your visitors consume, the more you will be charged.

However, DreamHost provides unmetered bandwidth for every plan. This means that once you sign up and pay for any particular plan, you have unlimited bandwidth at your disposal.

6. Free Domain with Domain Privacy

Free domain is more or less a cliché. If not all then ALMOST all the web hosting provide it with their new accounts.

DreamHost goes one step further. Not only do they provide a free domain with a new account but also provide domain privacy to conceal the personal information of the domain owner.

Normally, web hosting companies charge for this service.

7. Free JetPack Professional License

JetPack is a valuable suite of WordPress plugins that provides utility features from security enhancement to performance boosts to WordPress websites.

Every user with a DreamPress Plus or DreamPress Pro account gets a free professional license of the JetPack plugin worth $299/year.

Although DreamHost is not the only web host company providing free JetPack licenses to its users. If you’ve read my A2 Hosting Managed WordPress Hosting Review, then you must know that A2 Hosting also provides that, however, they offer a personal license to its users which is a downgraded version of the professional license.

With JetPack professional license you get to enjoy many features such as:

  • Premium WordPress Themes
  • Unlimited CDN
  • One-click Backup & Restore
  • Malware Scanning etc.

8. Automatic WordPress Updates

Whether you’re using Shared or Managed WordPress hosting, DreamHost provides automatic updates to your WordPress updates.

9. 1-Click Staging

Test your plugins, themes or any other WordPress updates first before pushing them on the live website.

Although DreamHost does provide 1-Click Staging but this is only available for DreamPress users (all plans).

10. Free SSL Certificate

Since SSL certificates have now become mandatory or Google will label your website as unsecured, it’s good to see that the web hosting companies have now started to offer it with their packages.

The Same is the case with DreamHost.

With every DreamHost plan, you get a free SSL certificate to encrypt

11. 97-Day Money-Back Guarantee

DreamHost offers a generous 97-day money-back guarantee.

Although there are some web hosts that provide lifetime money-back guarantees like InterServer but most of them do not go beyond the 60-day limit.

So in that case, DreamHost does provide a better money-back guarantee as compared to its competitors.

But, just to be on the safe side, there are users who say that the money-back guarantee isn’t available on the payment methods such as PayPal, Checks, Money Orders, Cashiers Check, etc. Just make sure you do confirm this before signing up.

12. Free & Automated WordPress Migration

Every DreamPress user can migrate his WordPress website to DreamPress using the free and automated WordPress migration feature.

DreamHost WordPress Hosting – Pros & Cons

Pros

  1. Terrific server uptime and response time. In fact, DreamHost provides a money-back guarantee on their server uptime which reflects confidence in their services.
  2. 97-Day Money-Back guarantee. Better than many of its competitors.
  3. Free SSL Certificates
  4. Unmetered bandwidth & Traffic means you can entertain unlimited downloads and users without having to worry about running out of “steam” no matter which hosting package you use.
  5. Solid-State-Drive (SSD) Storage ensures high-speed data transfer.
  6. 24/7 chat and email US-based support.

Cons

  1. The money-back guarantee does not support payment methods such as PayPal, checks, money orders, cashier checks, etc. This essentially means that the money-back guarantee is only valid through a credit card or Google Checkout.
  2. No telephone support
  3. Though affordable still not the cheapest WordPress Web Hosting out there. Although, I still don’t consider it a major downside but I’m still mentioning it just in case you’re too meticulous about your web hosting cost.
  4. No CPanel. Since DreamHost offers its own Web Panel, this is not good news for CPanel fans.
  5. The free email account feature is not available for the Shared Starter plan users.

Who Should & Should Not Use DreamHost?

Let’s face it.

Not every product is cut out to serve every segment of the target audience.

And the reason is simple. Instead of appeasing everyone, companies choose their niche and try to specialize in it.

That’s true in the case of Web Hosting as well.

While there are many companies that provide services to the low-end segment, there are quite a few that target high-paying customers.

The same is the case with DreamHost and that is why you should know if it will prove to be the best web hosting company for your WordPress website or if should you check out the alternatives.

DreamHost is best for…!

  1. Although not the cheapest but still, DreamHost provides affordable rates so if you want to host a WordPress website in a budget, DreamHost can be a good option.
  2. Starters, who are just starting out as an easy-to-use interface will help you surf through their web panel swiftly.
  3. Although not the best scalable option but still, you can entertain a good amount of traffic on DreamHost making it a viable and scalable solution.
  4. If you want US-based support, DreamHost can be a good option as their DreamPress support is totally indigenous and instead of being general support staff, they employ WordPress experts to deal with their customer’s situation. By the way, there’s one more web host that has 100% US-based support staff. And that’s InMotion Hosting. Read our complete InMotion Hosting Review for WordPress Hosting

Who Should Seek DreamHost Alternatives?

  1. If you have a target audience in Asia then DreamHost may not prove to be the best web hosting. Although this can be overcome by the use of CDN but if you don’t want to use any CDN, then I’m afraid DreamHost does not provide you the best speed in that region.
  2. I’d regard DreamHost as an affordable WordPress Web Hosting company but there are competitors that offer even lower pricing plans but with a lower or at least the same level of service. You can try them if you’re really tight on the budget.

What Do Review Websites & DreamHost Users Say About DreamHost?

DreamHost is one of those few web hosting companies that enjoy solid customer ratings all over the internet.

Yes, there are many negative reviews as well but the positive user reviews far outweigh the negative ones.

For instance, let’s have a look at TrustPilot. The famous product review website. Out of 1,391 user reviews, 87% of users have rated DreamHost positively while only 9% rated it as either poor or bad.

4.7 out of 5.0

Due to this positive feedback, DreamHost boasts a rating of 4.7 on TrustPilot.

Let’s have a glance at these user reviews (not just from TrustPilot but other websites as well) to gain a better idea about DreamHost’s overall performance.

I’ll start with the negative reviews first:

Negative Reviews

A common trend that I’ve witnessed not just for DreamHost but a majority of the other web host companies is that most of the users who are critical, generally complain about the support of that web hosting.

DreamHost is no different than its peers.

Despite 24/7 localized support, there are many who are quite critical of DreamHost’s support level.

This could mean that either the support wasn’t actually able to meet the users’ expectations or the users were not able to convey their issues correctly.

Anyhow, let’s have a look at these critical reviews.

DreamHost - Negative User Reviews - 1

Here are a couple of users complaining about the quality of support.

DreamHost - Negative User Reviews - 4

Although this user had been a user for 10 years (which is quite a long time if you ask me) but decided to call it quits with DreamHost over a technical issue.

DreamHost - Negative User Reviews - 4
DreamHost - Negative User Reviews - 4

Positive Reviews

As said above, the positive user reviews of DreamHost far outweigh the negative ones.

DreamHost - Positive User Reviews - 1
DreamHost - Positive User Reviews - 2
DreamHost - Positive User Reviews - 3

Mixed Reviews

As I always say, if you need insightful information, instead of stellar 5-star or poor 1-star ratings, you need to check out the reviews with 2-4 star ratings. Here are a few of them for you.

DreamHost - Mixed User Reviews - 1
DreamHost - Mixed User Reviews - 2

How Do Other Web Hosting Review Websites Rate DreamHost?

I have discussed DreamHost’s ratings on TrustPilot above. Now, let’s see how do other web host review websites rate DreamHost services.

I believe this will give you a better idea to decide if you should really host your WordPress website on DreamHost.

Please note that on some occasions, the ratings have been calibrated to scale of 5.

Website NameScore
HostingAdvice.com4.8 / 5.0
HostAdvice.com4.4 / 5.0
HostingFacts.com4.1 / 5.0
PCMag.com4.7 / 5.0
WPBeginner.com4.8 / 5.0
TrustPilot.com4.7 / 5.0
HostingManual.net4.0 / 5.0
TechRadar.com3.5 / 5.0
WebsiteHostingRating.com4.1 / 5.0
HostScore.net4.0 / 5.0
G2.com3.9 / 5.0

DreamHost – Sentiments Analysis

To add another layer of confirmation, I performed a very basic sentiment analysis on different platforms just to see how the “netizens” perceive the overall services of DreamHost.

The analysis reveals that around 37% of the internet users over different social media platforms, who mentioned DreamHost, did so in a positive light.

Although 37% does not sound like a majority but if you see that only 5% of the internet users perceive DreamHost negatively then it surely sounds like an achievement.

Here are the numbers:

PlatformPositiveNegativeNeutral
Twitter55.0%0.0%45.0%
Facebook85.7%0.0%14.3%
Reddit40.0%18.0%42.0%
YouTube48.0%0.0%52.0%
DailyMotion44.0%8.0%48.0%
Flickr15.2%0.0%84.8%
Vk.com34.0%1.0%65.0%
Vimeo.com25.0%0.0%75.0%

So What’s The Verdict? Do I Recommend DreamHost for WordPress?

Well, DreamHost does provide nice features, fast servers, which is a vital feature given that your search engine rankings now depend heavily on the page load time.

Moreover, it also has a rich history and a long list of clientele to boast about which really makes it stand out from the rest of its competition.

So, generally speaking, DreamHost comes HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Interested in DreamHost Alternatives…?

Not convinced yet?

Just in case you happen to fall in the category of those people who like to keep their options open then you can have a look at the below alternatives that offer similar or even better service and performance than DreamHost.

Alternatives Similar to DreamHost

  1. A2 Hosting — (Read my detailed A2 Hosting Review for WordPress Hosting)
  2. InterServer — (Read detailed InterServer Hosting Review for WordPress)
  3. InMotion Hosting
  4. Blue Host
  5. GoDaddy
  6. HostGator
  7. iPage
  8. FatCow

Premium WordPress Hosting Better than DreamHost

  1. Kinsta
  2. CloudWays
  3. WPX Hosting
  4. Pressidium
  5. FlyWheel
  6. WP Engine
  7. Media Temple
  8. Liquid Web

Final Thoughts

Again, DreamHost is quite a decent web host. It’s affordable, reliable and has a history that spans more than two decades.

Although, I strongly recommend DreamHost and have also shared DreamHost alternatives in this article just in case you’re in a mood of “window surfing”, however, if all this technical jargon are not your cup of tea and you want someone to recommend you a web host based on your requirements then feel free to contact me!

Let me know your details, and requirements and I’ll help you figure out the best WordPress web hosting company.

2 thoughts on “Complete DreamHost WordPress Hosting Review

  • I get access to your site from Reddit.

    May I have your opinion of WP hosting for a super low visit, 24 hours or Asian time support, unlimited websites, which are based in Asia (specifically Hong Kong)?
    Response time is the main concern to me.

    Thanks for your time!

    • Hey Tutu,

      Thanks for posting the question. May I ask what is your budget and secondly, what’s your expertise level? Are you going to manage all these websites yourself?
      Your websites will be based in Asia but from where will you receive your targeted traffic?

      Awaiting your response.

      Cheers.

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