DreamHost review: Pros and cons in 2024
“Verified by an expert” means that this article has been thoroughly reviewed and evaluated for accuracy.
BLUEPRINT
Published 7:35 a.m. UTC June 27, 2024
Editorial Note: Blueprint may earn a commission from affiliate partner links featured here on our site. This commission does not influence our editors' opinions or evaluations. Please view our full advertiser disclosure policy.
Pros
- Award-winning customer support.
- 100% uptime guarantee.
- Integrated WordPress website builder.
- WordPress-recommended web host.
Cons
- No live telephone support.
- Free domain only included with annual plan.
- Malware protection only offered as add-on.
DreamHost is one of three hosting providers recommended by WordPress.org itself. It has over 20 years of experience hosting over 1.5 million websites, blogs and online stores, with dedicated WordPress support, services, features and experts. DreamHost offers shared, VPS, managed and cloud hosting plans starting at just $4.95 per month.
To provide a complete DreamHost review, we analyzed every plan the company offers, comparing key features with monthly pricing options to understand DreamHost’s value and where it stands out among the competition.
Featured web hosting offers
Bluehost
Price
Plans starting at $1.99 per month
Free domain included
Yes
HostGator
Price
Plans starting at $2.56 per month
Free domain included
Yes
Web.com
Price
Plans starting at $2.75 per month
Free domain included
Yes
Why trust our small business experts
Our team of experts evaluates hundreds of business products and analyzes thousands of data points to help you find the best product for your situation. We use a data-driven methodology to determine each rating. Advertisers do not influence our editorial content. You can read more about our methodology below.
- 17 companies reviewed.
- 1,568 data points analyzed.
- 100+ hours of research.
DreamHost overview
DreamHost is a website hosting provider specializing in hosting WordPress sites. While it offers hosting services for all types of websites — including shared, dedicated and VPS hosting — its bread and butter is WordPress.
Many of its plans and services are centered around the platform, and its in-house customer service team is highly trained in the engine. Its features are designed to enhance the WordPress experience, including:
- Free WordPress installation.
- One-click staging.
- Free WordPress website builder.
- Free migrations with DreamPress plans.
Even if you don’t have a WordPress site, there is a hosting plan that should work for you. Its Shared Starter plan starts at just $4.95 per month and includes 50 GB of storage, a free SSL certificate, unlimited bandwidth and traffic and up to five subdomains. For a base plan, this is pretty expansive and inclusive, especially considering that the included features only increase from there.
DreamHost pros and cons
DreamHost is an award-winning WordPress hosting platform with the highest uptime guarantee available, plus other unique benefits that make it stand out among the competition — especially if you already have a WordPress site.
Pros
- Award-winning support team: Its 100% in-house customer service team has won many awards, including a Bronze Stevie Award in the Sales & Customer Service category in the 17th annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. This award recognizes its fast and efficient support services.
- 100% uptime guarantee: Most companies guarantee anywhere from 99% to 99.9% uptime. At 100%, DreamHost’s uptime guarantee is a standout feature.
- Integrated WordPress website builder: The drag-and-drop website builder makes it easy to create, optimize and host a WordPress site all within DreamHost’s platform.
- Recommended by WordPress: WordPress has only recommended three hosting sites. As one of the three, DreamHost customers can trust that it does what it says it does when it comes to hosting WordPress sites.
Cons
- No live telephone support: While it does offer 24/7 live chat, phone support is only available via callback. For those who like to walk through issues via phone, this could be a deciding factor.
- Free domain only included with annual plan: Some competitors offer a free domain as part of the package. If you sign up for a monthly DreamHost plan, you’ll have to pay an annual registration fee for a domain (like $8.99 for a .com domain). While this isn’t a huge added cost, it is another thing to consider.
- Malware protection only offered as add-on: DreamHost doesn’t include expansive security features as part of its base plans, although WordPress has many security plugins and add-ons that you can use. As for malware protection, it’s only available as an add-on for an additional $3 per month.
DreamHost pricing and value
| STARTING MONTHLY COST | STORAGE LIMIT | BANDWIDTH | FREE SSL CERTIFICATE | FREE WORDPRESS MIGRATIONS | SERVER ENVIRONMENT | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Shared Starter
| $4.95*
| 50 GB
| Unmetered
| Available
| Included
| Standard shared
|
Shared Unlimited
| $8.95*
| 50 GB
| Unmetered
| Pre-installed
| Included
| Standard shared
|
DreamPress
| $19.95*
| 30 GB
| Unmetered
| Pre-installed
| Priority
| High-performance cloud
|
DreamPress Plus
| $29.95*
| 60 GB
| Unmetered
| Pre-installed
| Priority
| High-performance cloud
|
DreamPress Pro
| $79.95*
| 120 GB
| Unmetered
| Pre-installed
| Priority
| High-performance cloud
|
*DreamHost plans begin with three months of the listed promotional prices and renew at standard rates.
One of the biggest benefits of choosing DreamHost is its vast array of plan options and price points. From basic shared hosting plans to complex, fully managed dedicated server hosting, any type of business will find a plan that works for its needs. With so many plan options, DreamHost can easily scale alongside your site and business growth.
Based on our research, hosting plans typically cost around $15 per month. So at $4.95 ($7.99 per month after the first three months), DreamHost is certainly affordable. And all plans include key hosting features like its 100% uptime guarantee, custom control panel, at least 30-day money-back guarantee (more depending on plan) and the ability to add subdomains.
WordPress users will especially like the value of its DreamPress plans (starting at $19.95 per month and renewing at $23.99 per month), which include unmetered bandwidth, at least 30 GB of storage, pre-installed SSL certificate and 100,000 site visitors. These plans are managed by DreamHost and optimized for WordPress users with additional free services like priority migrations, a WordPress website builder and installer, one-click staging and 24/7 WordPress support.
And if you have an extra large site or require managed services, you can take advantage of its managed services as well. Its most comprehensive plan, called Dedicated Server Hosting, starts at $199 per month and includes the fastest servers, highest processors and 24/7 customer service.
Type of hosting
DreamHost offers nearly every type of hosting option, including shared hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated server hosting, WordPress-specific hosting and cloud hosting. None of its hosting plans require a contract or long-term commitment and all come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Shared hosting is the most economical, starting at $4.95 per month. Its three DreamPress hosting plans are managed by DreamHost and optimized for WordPress for as little as $19.95 per month. And if you have a handful of WordPress sites, VPS hosting is the best choice, starting at $15 per month per site.
Performance and uptime
DreamHost guarantees a whopping 100% uptime, which is rare in the industry. Most companies guarantee somewhere between 99% to 99.9%, opting to leave a small room for error. DreamHost, on the other hand, goes all-in on its guarantee, stating that customers will be compensated for one day of service for each hour of service interruption.
And while it doesn’t offer any guaranteed or expected response times, customers can take advantage of its Pro Services ($399 for most websites) to optimize their site speed, back-end code and other factors.
Bandwidth and storage
All of DreamHost’s plans include at least 30 GB of SSD storage, which is typically enough for most basic websites. If you need more storage, VPS Enterprise is a good choice, with up to 240 GB of SSD storage.
All of its hosting plans also include automatic daily backups, which is typically the industry standard. Some plans, like its three DreamPress plans, offer on-demand backups and one-click restore.
Security features
DreamHost takes security seriously, offering a free SSL certificate with all of its plans (most plans have it pre-installed, too). All domains also include free domain privacy, where its team anonymizes your domain’s WHOIS registration details to protect against spam.
Some of its more complex plans include enhanced security features like Nginx servers with http/2 support and DDoS protection. Malware protection is available for an additional $3 per month.
Customer support
One of DreamHost’s most significant selling points is its award-winning customer support department. Its team solves nearly three-quarters of all customers’ problems the first time — about 12% faster than other hosts.
No matter the time or day, customers can either contact its 100% in-house technical support team by email for a response, typically in less than an hour, or receive an answer via chat in under a minute.
DreamHost vs. top competitors
DreamHost is one of a few hosting companies that offer WordPress-specific hosting. We compared three of the top competitors against DreamHost to give you a better look at your options.
| MONTHLY PRICE | UPTIME GUARANTEE | 24/7 CUSTOMER SERVICE | STORAGE MAXIMUM | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 DreamHost | $7.99 after intro period | 100% | Yes | Unlimited | ||||||
| ||||||||||
 HostGator | Starting at $15.99 | 99.90% | Yes | 40 GB | ||||||
| ||||||||||
 InMotion Hosting | $13.49 | 99.99% | Yes, chat only | Unlimited | ||||||
| ||||||||||
 GoDaddy | $5.99 | 99.90% | Yes | 400 GB | ||||||
|
DreamHost vs. HostGator
Both DreamHost and HostGator offer WordPress hosting services. HostGator’s base plan is twice as expensive and offers 10 GB of storage compared to DreamHost’s 50 GB. Even its upgraded plan lacks (or matches) many of the features DreamHost offers for a more expensive price.
But, HostGator offers the industry-standard cPanel — which provides an intuitive user experience for most people. If that’s important to you, HostGator is the right provider. But if you’re looking for value and don’t mind a slight learning curve for its custom control panel, DreamHost is a better choice.
DreamHost vs. InMotion
At $13.49 per month, InMotion’s plans are pricey to start, though both providers significantly reduce their costs for their first year of annual pricing.
But, InMotion’s base plan includes some unique selling points that set it apart, like 100 GB of storage, hosting for two websites (DreamHost’s plan covers just one), 10 email addresses and a few more security and marketing features, including email. But, it doesn’t include domain privacy or daily backups, which, in conjunction with its lower price point, gives DreamHost’s base plan a slight edge in the end.
DreamHost vs. GoDaddy
Like DreamHost, GoDaddy includes many good features in its plans, including one-click WordPress installations, unmetered bandwidth and automatic daily backups. But, it also offers a few key features, including global data centers (DreamHost’s are only national) and a cPanel, that may set it apart for users who want optimized and efficient performance.
And when you first sign up for GoDaddy, you get access to many key features for free — like an SSL certificate, domain and Microsoft365 email. This makes the first year a great deal with its starting price of $10.99 monthly if you pay the annual price up front. But after the year or trial run out, you’ll be left paying for these extra features out of pocket, which may reduce the value for some.
Methodology
We extensively research the key competitors within an industry to determine the best products and services for your business. Our experts identify the factors that matter most to business owners, including pricing, features and customer support, to ensure that our recommendations offer well-rounded products that will meet the needs of various small businesses.
We collect extensive data to narrow our best list to reputable, easy-to-use products with stand-out features at a reasonable price point. And we look at user reviews to ensure that business owners like you are satisfied with our top picks’ services. We use the same rubric to assess companies within a particular space so you can confidently follow our blueprint to the best web hosting services of 2024.
Expert score (10%): We research and analyze key features of each company we consider for our rating, including critical factors to consumers (and particularly to small businesses). Chief amongst them is value, because its vital that you see an appropriate return for your money, but we also consider key features, support responsiveness and helpfulness, and a company’s reputation.
Value (32%): Small businesses are often very budget-oriented, and when every dollar counts, it’s important that you know you’re spending them wisely. We consider what resources and features a company offers compared to their pricing structure and how many of them are genuinely valuable and likely to be fully utilized by the majority of customers.
Features (45%): With so many web hosts offering similar core plans, features can be an important way for companies to stand out and add additional value. We consider things like app integration, security features, and bespoke features not offered by other hosts when evaluating each company.
Service and support (8%): Small businesses often need to be very flexible with their hours, which means they need customer support to be available as often as possible. We prioritize 24/7 support when evaluating companies and consider their responsiveness and helpfulness.
Customer reviews (5%): Part of evaluating a company’s reputation is by consulting customer review aggregators like Trustpilot and G2. We consider the overall impression of a company expressed by these sites, as well as individual reviews, and look for common issues and complaints, as well as areas where companies are frequently praised for exceptional service.
Featured web hosting offers
Bluehost
Price
Plans starting at $1.99 per month
Free domain included
Yes
HostGator
Price
Plans starting at $2.56 per month
Free domain included
Yes
Web.com
Price
Plans starting at $2.75 per month
Free domain included
Yes
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
With so many plans to choose from, plus integrated features like a website builder, one-click staging and free website migrations, DreamHost simplifies creating and managing a WordPress site. It’s also budget-friendly and offers 24/7 customer service for added support.
DreamHost does not offer a free plan. Its plans start at just $4.95 per month though, which is a great price point based on our research of the best hosting sites available. For that price, customers receive a lot of value, like free WordPress migrations, free SSL certificates and unlimited traffic.
DreamHost has a drag-and-drop website builder with more than 200 starter sites to choose from. This builder is included for free in all three of its shared hosting plans.
DreamHost doesn’t have cPanel, but it does offer a custom-built panel that allows customers to handle most cPanel tasks. The custom-built panel is the spot where you can manage your websites, databases, email and billing. Many customers say its panel is easy to use, although it may be a hindrance if your site requires a traditional cPanel.
Blueprint is an independent publisher and comparison service, not an investment advisor. The information provided is for educational purposes only and we encourage you to seek personalized advice from qualified professionals regarding specific financial decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Blueprint has an advertiser disclosure policy. The opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the Blueprint editorial staff alone. Blueprint adheres to strict editorial integrity standards. The information is accurate as of the publish date, but always check the provider’s website for the most current information.
-
Best WordPress hosting services in 2024
Web hosting Alan Bradley
-
GoDaddy review: Pros and cons in 2024
Web hosting Alan Bradley
-
Best cheap WordPress hosting in 2024
Web hosting Alison Kilian
