dreamhost_com_review_300x250-Sunny2Website: www.dreamhost.com

Category: Website Hosting

Rating: Strongly Recommended

Price: $8.95/month

When it comes to web hosting solutions, Dreamhost is a clear winner in my book. With almost 20 years of experience, they are one of the veteran, high-quality hosting providers out there, and that experience translates to high uptime and excellent customer service for their users, all at an affordable price.

In this Dreamhost.com Review I’ll provide a little background on their service, as well as explain why I think it’s one of, if not the best hosting option out there.

Dreamhost Services

Hosting

Dreamhost’s main business is provided shared, VPS, and dedicated hosting solutions.

The difference between these services largely comes down to how CPU and RAM resources are allocated. For the average individual and small business, there isn’t any need to consider the more advanced VPS and dedicated options. The shared hosting works excellently, so it’s definitely the way to go.

Domains

Dreamhost also can serve as a registrar for new domains, but I don’t see this as being their core value. Connecting a domain via GoDaddy or Namecheap is very easy, and I prefer to keep my domains listed in fewer places, rather than have them scattered across different registrars.

Why I Like Them

High Uptime

In my mind, high uptime should be a given when it comes to a hosting provider. You want to look for a provider that has 99% uptime or better, so this is more of a checklist must-have than an incredible feat. Nevertheless, I’ve had no problems here with Dreamhost.

Excellent Value

At $8.95/month for the basic option, Dreamhost is by no means the cheapest hosting option out there, but for a professional, business-oriented site, that’s not a deal-breaker in my mind.

Unlike some other hosting providers, the Dreamhost Basic Plan includes a lot of freedom. For example, the plan includes unlimited domains and emails, something many of the cheaper options limit.

Like all starter plans, the service is for a shared hosting plan, which means that your site sits on a server along with several other sites. For the overwhelming majority of websites this is perfectly fine, and only if you have tens of thousands of visitors per day would you consider upgrading.

Easy to Use

Mostly, I use hosting providers to integrate with existing third-party websites and APIs, like what you do when connecting your WordPress account. It’s a “set and forget” type of action, and the mark of a good hosting provider is one that takes the pain out of the process. The Dreamhost One-Click-Installer supports all of the major platforms, including WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, etc.

Especially when it comes to getting WordPress up and running, the process is simple and straightforward. Just plugin your A-Name records to your registrar (eg: GoDaddy or Namecheap) and after a few clicks you’re good to go.

Great Customer Service

I’ve never encountered any significant problems with the Dreamhost system, and that in and of itself is one of the best reasons to recommend them. However, over the years I’ve had to deal with their customer service team for a few minor issues (for example, taking care of a few specific questions related to integrating with a third-party site I’d never used before).

I was pleasantly surprised to find that all of my questions were easily resolved through an email or IM exchange, and always within 24 hours. In the event that I’d had a more serious problem with my website, the experiences reassured me that the support center was competent, friendly, and able to resolve issues quickly.

Conclusions

Dreamhost is, overall, an excellent company and hosting provider. The only downside to their service is that it is a few dollars more expensive than other providers (like bargain priced Arvixe or HostGator, for instance). If you’re running a personal site than it might not be worth the few extra dollars a month, but for any business where you need streamlined processes and excellent reliability, a few dollars extra is well worth it.

Remember that plans start at $8.95, which is an excellent value.