Dreamhost Review: Is This Budget Host Worth It? [2024]

A Good Budget Host – But You May Be Able To Find Better Elsewhere

DreamHost is a US host with English and Spanish support that provides shared, VPS, cloud, and dedicated server hosting. It also offers DreamPress, a managed WordPress and WooCommerce cloud hosting service optimized to maintain your website’s loading speeds and uptime even during bursts of high traffic.

Despite the lack of green branding, DreamHost is one of the hosts doing a lot for the environment. It partners with clean wind programs, uses cooling and power-efficient infrastructure, and relies on clean energy grids. It even encourages remote work, paperless filing, and videoconferencing over face-to-face meetings to eliminate unnecessary emissions and paper consumption.

As a budget host, you can expect to pay less with DreamHost. It also claims to provide a hassle-free service – and it does. From signing up to installing WordPress and creating my site, I found everything straightforward and easy to navigate. Even speaking to support ended up being a stress-free ordeal.

On the other hand, I noticed a lack of critical features in DreamHost’s plans. Not only do you need to pay extra for security tools, but on non-DreamPress plans, you also need to manage your own content delivery network (CDN) and backups – as well as cover the costs for them. Definitely an extra hassle after all.

This may seem standard for a budget host, but I assure you it isn’t. Many notable budget alternatives will include these features at no extra cost. Hostinger offers all the above for free1 with similarly priced hosting plans. Despite being a few cents cheaper than many competitors, I ultimately found DreamHost’s hosting service less valuable.

Enough Features To Get By – But Not as Many as There Could Be

DreamHost includes a number of features in its hosting plans, such as a free domain for one year and domain privacy on qualifying plans. Still, the lack of a few important security and caching features is obvious and a little disconcerting.

For example, DreamHost doesn’t offer a CDN or backup tool add-on at all. And although DreamShield security is available for an extra fee, it costs just as much as the discounted shared hosting itself.

DreamHost Account Backups

DreamHost doesn’t offer a free or paid website backup tool but it does offer a backup service. The host automatically backs up your website files and data in case of an emergency. But according to DreamHost, this is not guaranteed, and you cannot access or edit these files. In fact, DreamHost advises its customers to arrange their own backups to ensure safe data storage.

Every 30 days, you can manually create a backup of your DreamHost account (not the same as backing up your website, though), including FTP users, mailboxes, and MySQL databases. You can download and store the files remotely on your computer.

With (much pricier) DreamPress WordPress hosting plans, you do get access to advanced backup tools, such as on-demand backups and 1-click restores. It remains unclear why these tools aren’t included or available for any of DreamHost’s other plans.

Unlimited Email Accounts

With all Unlimited Shared, DreamPress, VPS, and dedicated server plans, you can create unlimited email accounts for free. For Starter plan tiers, you have to pay for email accounts, but they start at only a few dollars per account for up to 5 mailboxes with 25 GB of storage space.

DreamShield Protection & SEO Toolkit Add-Ons

With DreamHost, you need to pay extra for security. Its DreamShield security suite includes a web application firewall, automatic scans, malware detection, and notifications – basically all the necessities. But the DreamShield suite is expensive and doesn’t include hacked site recovery, which can be purchased separately.

DreamHost offers an SEO Toolkit, which includes a personalized checklist you can follow. This kit includes beginner-friendly features like automatic search engine submission and website audit. You can also track keywords and conduct competitor research.

Paid Pro Services

DreamHost offers a paid migration service, among other additional Pro Services. For example, custom website design, hacked site repair, SEO marketing, web development, and website management services are all on the menu.

These services are handy if you ever need to outsource specific website tasks, perhaps when your website grows. But bear in mind that these are all paid services that aren’t included in your hosting plan. Basically, it appears DreamHost lacks a lot of features you’d find for free elsewhere.

DreamHost Features at a Glance

User-Friendliness Is Definitely DreamHost’s Top Feature

One of DreamHost’s top features is how beginner-friendly it is. When testing DreamHost, it took me minutes to sign up. It was undoubtedly one of the quickest and most straightforward sign-up processes I’ve experienced during my tests. I literally just selected a plan, added a domain, and paid.

DreamHost also has its own proprietary control panel. It’s easy to navigate and doesn’t use up your server resources like a third-party panel such as cPanel. You can install WordPress directly from the platform, but I found the installation takes longer than usual.

Creating a New Account With DreamHost

DreamHost has further streamlined the sign-up process by allowing you to select any of its shared, WordPress, and VPS hosting plans from one page. You just have to click the drop-down menu at the top of the relevant hosting type and choose one.

I signed up for DreamHost’s yearly Shared Unlimited plan, which ends up costing the same as the Shared Starter’s yearly plan. With this plan, I also qualified for a free domain that’s selectable at checkout. You can skip this step or add an existing domain. Then, add your personal details (address, contact number, email, etc.) on the payment page.

If you use PayPal, DreamHost will automatically fill in your wallet details (just another super efficient thing about the sign-up process). Your other payment options besides PayPal are major credit/debit cards. On the payment page, there’s a list of add-ons, including Google Workspace, DreamShield Protection, and the DreamHost SEO Toolkit. But only one – DreamShield – is pre-selected.

DreamHost will prompt you to create an account or you can use your Google account to sign in. Once you make your payment, you can create a password and are immediately logged in to your dashboard.

With shared hosting, there are no data center location options, but that’s typical. You can ask support to change your data center location between Ashburn (Virginia) and Hillsboro (Oregon). Yes, this provider only has data centers in the US.

Connecting a Domain and Installing WordPress

If you purchased or transferred a domain name, you’ll see that it’s connected to your DreamHost plan. In some cases, you may need to point to DreamHost’s nameservers, but generally only if you’re changing your domain after sign-up. Free and paid domain options include many popular extensions like .com, .info, .online, .org, and .net.

Your website’s SSL certificate isn’t installed by default, but you can do so under the Websites menu > Secure Certificates. Let’s Encrypt certificates are free, but you can purchase a paid Sectigo certificate or import your own.

You can install WordPress via the DreamHost hosting panel on all plans, including shared and VPS. The installation setup includes domain or subdomain selection, website type (local business, blog, portfolio, etc.), and plugin installation. It took me 5 minutes to install WordPress, likely due to my additional plugin and website template installations.

You can log into your WordPress Admin Dashboard directly from the DreamHost control panel without a password. Thereafter, you’re initially asked to select the ZipWP AI site builder or Starter Templates to create a site. Alternatively, you can exit the WordPress Admin Dashboard if you want to upload your own site files.

Proprietary Dashboard

Some consider DreamHost’s proprietary control panel even more user-friendly than cPanel and other popular third-party panels. This was certainly my experience when using it. All your options are on the left-hand menu so it’s almost impossible to get lost. Using the search bar saves time by immediately connecting you to the tools and settings you need.

Even better, the control panel comes free with all DreamHost hosting accounts, meaning you won’t have to pay extra for licensing fees. Here, you can access SSH, set up cron jobs, install WordPress, create email accounts, and more. It’s very versatile. Plus, because it’s hosted on DreamHost’s servers and not your own server resources, you have more resources available for your website.

AI Business Advisor

DreamHost is one of many hosts incorporating AI into its workflow – in this case, through a chatbot. The DreamHost AI Business Advisor can help answer your questions about growing your website and business – another pro for this host when it comes to usability.

I tested it out and found the AI Business Advisor can handle everyday hosting questions, such as how to add a CDN or set up an email account. You can just ask instead of searching the FAQ or DreamHost’s already impressive knowledge base.

Free WordPress Website Migration Plugin Tool and Paid Migrations

DreamHost doesn’t offer free website migrations (these start at $99 per site!). But you can move your existing WordPress site or multisite network for free using DreamHost’s Automated Migration plugin.

After purchasing a DreamHost hosting account and installing the WordPress platform, you can follow a tutorial to move your site. There’s also no limit to the number of sites you can migrate. That is, provided you buy a compatible Unlimited DreamHost hosting plan to host them all.

Otherwise, DreamHost does make an exception by offering free Professional Site Migration for DreamPress plan customers.

Fast in America and Europe – But Not So Satisfactory Elsewhere

Considering its lack of international data centers, I assumed DreamHost would be one of those hosts that’s only ideal to use locally. After testing this host, I’m glad to say otherwise. DreamHost performed well in the Americas (yes, even as far away as Brazil) and Europe. And that’s without an active CDN.

However, results left something to be desired in Australia, Asia, and the Pacific. In these regions, my test site loaded in about 2.5 – 3.5 seconds. Since DreamHost doesn’t have data centers in these locations, only a CDN can remedy this issue.

GTmetrix

DreamHost scored a “B” rating in my GTmetrix tests with a typical fully loaded time of 1.7 seconds. The score could be slightly better, but overall, it’s satisfactory.

During monitoring, it appears that loading times for my site did vary – but only by around half to 1 second, and not specifically on weekends. That said, peak demand hours during midday and evening saw the largest spike in loading time.

GTmetrix Global Speeds

As you can see from the GTmetrix results above, performance was also good for the rest of the US. With two local data centers in Virginia and Oregon, I wouldn’t expect less.

I monitored my site hourly for a week on GTmetrix’s Chicago, Illinois server, hence the lower rating compared to the other US cities. However, I’d expect a similar result over time in other states.

Otherwise, performance was equally good in Japan (probably due to its proximity to the US), the UK, and central Europe. But it dropped off in Oceania, Southeast Asia, and Atlantic Europe.

UptimeRobot

DreamHost delivers 100% uptime, at least throughout my testing. It also offers a 100% uptime guarantee, so if you suffer any downtime, you’re entitled to compensation equivalent to 1 day’s hosting for each hour of downtime.

Bear in mind that the maximum payout is 10% of your next monthly, annual, or triennial renewal payment (regardless of the downtime experienced).

Helpful Support – But You’ll Need Some Patience to Access It

With DreamHost, you have multiple points of contact available 24/7, including:

• Chatbot
• Live chat
• Ticket
• AI Business Advisor chatbot
• Callback (English primarily; Spanish upon request)

I initially clicked on what appeared to be the live chat box. After typing my request, I realized it was just a bot suggesting help articles. I had the option to click the Contact Support button, which redirected me to the ticket system area of my dashboard. Here, I could send a ticket or click the Chat with an agent now button, which I selected.

My request was now in the queue, so I had to wait. You also have the option of requesting a callback. However, it seems DreamHost has streamlined its support functions to minimize agent traffic. Depending on how you look at this, it can be a good or a bad thing: while it can lead to frustrated customers, it also minimizes unnecessary support queues. That said, I waited a few minutes to chat with a live agent.

All is generally in order, though, with a comprehensive knowledge base, automated chatbot, and ticketing and callback systems in place. Let’s not forget the AI Business Advisor chatbot, which can also help with rudimentary requests. The live chat agent was super helpful, redirecting me to all the relevant self-help guides in the DreamHost knowledge base (available in English and Spanish).

I decided to also follow up via ticket on how to optimize my website for performance outside of America and Europe. I didn’t have to wait long for a reply to my ticket. Similar to my live chat reply, I only had to wait a few minutes. I suspect the ticket agents must be on a similar schedule or pulling double-duty as live chat agents.

Big Discounts To Start With but Pricier Renewal Rates To Come

When it comes to discounts, DreamHost offers promotional rates that beat many notable competitors, including GoDaddy and HostGator. Notably, its basic Starter (for 1 site) and Unlimited (unlimited sites and free email accounts) shared hosting plans cost the same when you sign up for an annual plan. So you can try out the superior Shared Unlimited hosting option for less.

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You can also purchase shared hosting plans discounted on 3-year terms, but the prices for Unlimited jump up a dollar monthly. That said, your cost is set at a discount for longer. Shared plans are discounted significantly, so expect to pay around 3 to 5 times as much post-renewal.

DreamHost offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. For VPS and dedicated hosting, you’re only refunded for unused services. You can cancel and get a refund within 30 days of each subsequent renewal, not just your initial order. With shared and DreamPress cloud hosting, you’re given a full refund (even on monthly plans) when you cancel within the initial 30-day period. Amazingly, this guarantee period jumps to 97 days for shared hosting.