DreamHost Review 2024: Should You Host Your Website With Them?

DreamHost is a giant and sought-after web hosting provider in 2024. It is highly recommended by the world’s largest CMS, WordPress.org, contributing to its popularity among webmasters and designers. They offer affordable plans and optimized servers for WordPress sites to deliver high performance.

However, since it is not popular amongst the general public, we deemed it fit to conduct a DreamHost review for 2024. It will help many prospects that need insights into their services to get them without making a financial commitment.

We conducted the DreamHost review for 2024 through thorough hands-on tests, which we made possible by purchasing a plan and using it as a normal customer. Are you wondering if DreamHost is better than Bluehost and GoDaddy? Read our detailed analysis to make up your own mind.

DreamHost Pros and Cons

Onboarding Process: Creating a Site With DreamHost

We shall commence our DreamHost review for 2024 with the onboarding process.

After purchasing the Shared Unlimited plan, we logged in to our DreamHost control panel to continue the setup. We were asked to add a domain to our plan upon logging in, so we chose a temporary subdomain. We then installed WordPress on the site with a website builder and waited for the installation to complete.

Once the installation was complete, we used the autologin feature from our Panel to log in to our WP-admin area. The first thing we noticed was the website builder powered by BoldGrid that we pre-installed. The website builder gave us a lot of templates or premium themes to choose from. So, we picked one and our site was up immediately.

However, even though the website builder claimed to be drag and drop, we could not change the elements and sections on the page. Well, at least not until we used the WordPress customizer.

Therefore, from our perspective, the website builder is not worth it because it limits you to the themes prepared.

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Dreamhost Control Panel: Simplicity is the Key

One important aspect we looked at during our DreamHost review was the control panel.

DreamHost has a custom control panel that is very intuitive and easy to use. You can manage your domains, hosting add-ons, security, WordPress installation, and site analytics.

Additionally, you will be able to manage your files in File Manager, MySQL databases in PhpMyAdmin, and emails in a snap. Moreso, from the control panel, you can generate a Migration Key to initiate moving your site from another host to DreamHost.

However, because the cPanel is very simple, it is missing a lot of features. For example, installing any CMS or script other than WordPress on your site is very hard. This limits what you are capable of creating with these plans.

Speed and Performance Tests of Dreamhost

Another very important aspect we critically examined during our DreamHost review for 2024 was the speed and performance of their servers.

Speed is an essential quality any web hosting provider must guarantee and seamlessly deliver because it is directly proportional to the success of your online business. Fast-loading web pages make both Google and real visitors happy to navigate through your website. Hence, it will decrease your bounce rates, retain your visitors, and boost your SEO performance, increasing your traffic and revenue.

In contrast, nobody likes a slow website, and thus it will hurt your business. Slow-loading pages are harbingers of high bounce rates and low SEO performance, leading to low or decreasing traffic and crippled sales or conversation rates.

Therefore, testing and ensuring a web hosting provider can deliver great speed is important. To test this in our DreamHost review for 2024, we used the three most trusted and transparent performance tools; GTmetrix, PageSpeeds Insights, and Pingdom.

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GTmetrix

GTmetrix is a tool developed and owned by Carbon60. It sends traffic to web pages from servers in different locations worldwide for speed performance tests and suggests how to fix areas where there are issues. GTmetrix analyses the performance of web pages by comparing it with the standards set by Google core web vitals and gives a grade to show how they perform when real users visit. Here are some of the metrics GTmetrix uses:

• GTmetrix Grade: The Performance column measures your web pages’ performance when real users visit your site. It compares the performance to that of Google’s ideal site according to the core web vitals. On the other hand, the Structure column shows how well-arranged your web page is for SEO and user experience by inspecting the JS, HTML, and CSS elements.
• Time To First Byte (TTFB): This metric calculates how long your server takes to respond to the first request made by the user’s browser. An ideal TTFB is 0.8 s or less.
• First Contentful Display (FCP): This metric measures the time it takes the first item in your page’s HTML to display on the user’s browser. It could be an image, text, button, etc. An ideal FCP is 1.8 s or less.
• Largest Contentful Display (LCP): This metric calculates the time it takes the largest visible item on your web page to show on the user’s browser. It could be a big section or a hero image, a heavy background image, a CTA button, etc. An ideal LCP is 2.5 s or less.
• First Input Delay (FID): This metric measures how long before your web pages respond to interactions. It could range from a simple scroll on your web pages to navigation to another. An ideal FID is 300 ms or less.
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): This metric calculates how stable the elements on your pages are when users interact with them. Unstable web pages make users take unplanned actions that could have unexpected results. A good CLS leads to a great user experience. An ideal CLS is 0.1 or less.

First GTmetrix Test Results

We commenced our GTmetrix speed test for the DreamHost review with a simple WordPress installation. After the installation, we deleted all the pre-installed themes and themes plugins, leaving only Twenty Twenty-two as the active theme (just like we did in our SiteGround review). We left the WP Super Cache plugin that was pre-installed on the site without further customization.

During the GTmetrix analysis, we recorded a TTFB of 155 ms, which is an impressive speed. It shows that our server can quickly respond to browser queries, leading to fast-loading pages and high SEO performance.

We recorded the FCP and LCP of 238 ms and 329 ms, respectively. Thus, proving that DreamHost SSD storage technology is as fast as they claim to be.

Furthermore, we recorded a CLS of 0.08, which is pretty bad and barely escaping the 0.1 benchmark. However, this is due to the poorly optimized Twenty-two theme based on the results from similar reviews.

At the same time, we recorded an amazing fast-loading speed at only 430 ms. This indicates that DreamHost’s optimized servers are really up to the task of delivering fast-loading web pages that will boost your SEO performance.

Overall, we had 99% scores for both performance and structure, with a GTmetrix grade of A. It shows that our DreamHost server made our test website fast enough to beat Google’s ideal website in performance. Therefore, we not only have one of the fastest websites on the internet, but we also have a site with great potential for SEO success.

Here is a summary of DreamHost’s first GTmetrix speed test:

• Time to First Byte (TTFB): 155 ms (almost 700ms faster)
• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): 329 ms (almost 2s faster)
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): 0.08 (0.02 faster)
• Fully loaded time: 330 ms (very fast!)

GTmetrix Second Test Results

During the DreamHost review, we made a few changes to our second GTmetrix speed test. We wanted to know how fast our test site would be if it were fully functioning with main customizations done. So, we installed the Neve theme with one of its starter websites and contents. Afterward, we deleted the Twenty Twenty-two theme and left the WP Super Cache plugin untouched.

Our TTFB for this round was 199 ms. It is a slight drop from the previous test but still well amongst the 20th percentile of fast sites. This further proves that DreamHost servers are very fast and will help your websites achieve SEO success.

We recorded FCP and LCP at 268 ms and 444 ms, respectively. Again, this is a slight drop from the previous test, proving that DreamHost SSD storage delivers fast data transfer speed. We can attribute this slight drop to the big hero image contributing to a large LCP. However, it is still better than what we recorded during the reviews of SiteGround and Hostinger.

In addition, we recorded a perfect CLS of 0. Thus, we can rest assured our server’s optimization technology or the caching plugin did not break our site’s code. Besides, it proves that the theme’s poor optimization caused the bad CLS from the previous test.

At the same time, we recorded a fully loaded speed of 482 ms, which is freaking fast and one of the fastest speeds we have seen. It shows that our server can deliver fully functioning websites with great loading speeds that will drive more traffic and boost SEO.

Overall, we had 100 % and 97% performance and structure scores, respectively, with a GTmetrix grade of A. Therefore, this review shows that DreamHost can host websites as fast as Google’s ideal sites.

Here is a summary of DreamHost’s second GTmetrix speed test:

• Time to First Byte (TTFB): 199 ms (more than 600ms faster)
• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): 444 ms (almost 2s faster)
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): 0 (perfect!)
• Fully loaded time: 482 ms (very fast!)

DreamHost PageSpeed Insights and Pingdom Tests

The next tool we used for our speed test during our DreamHost review was PageSpeed Insights.

PageSpeed Insights is a Google-owned project that helps webmasters and website owners test web page speed and performance. The tool measures how well a web page performs when real users visit on mobile and desktop devices by comparing the results with core web vitals and gives a performance score of 0-100. It informs on speed and performance issues on the web page and gives suggestions on how to fix them.

Generally, a good PageSpeed Insights score indicates that Google perceives your site or web page to be fast and offer a good user experience. Thus, you will have a great chance of attaining exceptional SEO performance.

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Here are the results we got from our DreamHost PageSpeed Insights test:

Mobile Test Results

• 96 Performance score
• FCP: 1.1 s
• LCP: 2.7 s
• CLS: 0

We noticed that even though our FCP passed the test, our LCP failed by about 200 ms. This means that our DreamHost server and SSD storage cannot deliver fast websites to visitors on mobile devices.

Desktop Test Results

• 99 Performance score
• FCP: 0.3 s
• LCP: 0.6 s
• CLS: 0

From the results of our DreamHost desktop test, we noticed a better performance than we had in the mobile version. This is because mobile devices have slower processors in them compared to desktops. Thus, pages tend to load slower on mobile devices.

However, since we focus mainly on desktop performance during speed tests, we can conclude from our results that Google perceives our site as very fast and between the first and fourth percentile of ideal sites. Thus, stand a great chance of achieving SEO success.

Nonetheless, we have seen better mobile LCP performances on Hostinger (1.6 s), SiteGround (1. 5 s), and A2 Hosting (2.0 s).

In conclusion, we tested our DreamHost website with a Pingdom server from Washington, DC, USA, and recorded a load time of 951 ms. This is a huge drop from our results from GTmetrix and PageSpeed Insights, which is never good news.

DreamHost Load and Response Tests: Can it Handle High-traffic Sites?

Another crucial aspect we considered in our DreamHost review for 2024 was how fast and great our website could handle traffic surges during peak hours.

Traffic surges are very common to a business that is scaling, selling seasonal products, or achieving SEO success. As a result, choosing a host or server that will serve your business during times like this to prevent downtime or failure is important. To test how much traffic our DreamHost site can handle during peak hours, we decided to send virtual visitors using loader.io.

First Load Test

We sent 20 visitors to the site for the first load test within one minute. The fastest and slowest response times we recorded were 627 ms and 3886 ms, respectively. We recorded the average response time for this session to be 1016 ms.

These results show that DreamHost servers can handle 20 visitors at once without failing, but there would be a significant drop in speed. Hence, they are not suitable for high-traffic websites.

Second Load Test

To increase the challenge a little, we sent 50 visitors to our DreamHost test website within one minute. Our fastest and slowest response times for this test were 557 ms and 2018 ms, respectively. On average, we recorded a response time of 713 ms.

These results show a better improvement from the first test. Hence, our server could handle 50 visitors in one minute and can handle mild traffic surges.

Third Load Test

For our last load test, we sent 1000 visitors to our website within one minute. We recorded the fastest and slowest response times to be 770 ms and 10935 ms, respectively. On average, we recorded a response time of 7230 ms.

Further, we recorded a 51.4% error rate, indicating that our server failed to respond to a high percentage of visitors within one minute.

Therefore from these results, our DreamHost server could not handle 1000 visitors simultaneously and still deliver great performance. This means that you cannot use it to host websites that have high traffic or are prone to surges from time to time.

For this reason, we recommend considering Hostinger or SiteGround since their servers have proven to handle high traffic and still deliver fast-loading sites.

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DreamHost Uptime Tests

The next item we are examining in our DreamHost review is their uptime.

Uptime is a very important aspect of hosting that a provider must guarantee and deliver to its clients. A good uptime helps your business grow by ensuring your site is always online to serve your customers anytime they need your services – especially during peak hours. As a result, your clients will trust your brand, and you will be able to make more sales since you are always open.

Downtime, however, will harm your business and dissolve your customer base. If, at a time, your customers are making buying decisions, your site decides to go off due to traffic spikes or other unforeseen circumstances, it will harm your business. Customers may get frustrated and get their products or services from a rival instead, thus leading to immediate and future sales losses since these clients may not patronize you anymore.

As a result, there is a need to be sure if DreamHost is capable of keeping our site online for customers and visitors most of the time in this review. To test this, we used Freshping, a 24-hour monitoring tool, to check if our site was online every 5 minutes and record.

Our findings showed that our DreamHost test website had 100% uptime, which is pretty impressive. However, we decided to use more accurate uptime data dating back days and years. So, we checked the uptime of DreamHost servers monitored by Pingdom and discovered 100% uptime for the last 7 days.

Therefore, according to this DreamHost review, their servers have impeccable uptime, and you can rest assured that your websites will not unnecessarily have downtime.

DreamHost Support Review: What Is It Really Worth?

Another important aspect we tested during our DreamHost review for 2024 was customer support.

No matter how good you are around websites, you will eventually run into trouble that requires your host’s support. Hence, it is important to ensure your host has a customer support team to help you when you have issues with your site or its products and services.

DreamHost has an established customer support system with team members that are fast and ready to help you every step of the way if you ever have issues. You can contact them using the ticketing system or live chat, which can be accessed directly from the pop-up on their website. What’s more, you may request a callback if you wish to speak to an agent on the phone.

Furthermore, DreamHost has a very rich and large Knowledge Base with tutorials about everything you need to know about WordPress, hosting, and websites in general. These tutorials include graphical aids and illustrations like videos to help you understand and follow the steps more effectively.

To test the speed and competence of their support staff during this DreamHost review, we created a very simple problem. We changed our database table prefix from our wp-config.php file from “wp_ucsndt_” to “wp_01net_”. Since our database was compromised, it caused our site to request a new WordPress installation when we tried to log in to our wp-admin area. So we contacted the support to fix it for us.

The support agent joined us almost immediately after we initiated the chat. We told the agent our problem, and he was willing to help. However, in the end, after a lot of troubleshooting, the agent could not find the problem and offered a rather crude method of resolving it. The worst part was that we were told it would take up to 24 hours to resolve. I mean, a competent support agent can do this within 2 to 5 minutes, so that was below the belt.

Therefore, this review shows that DreamHost support staff are fast and available, but they need to be more competent in WordPress.

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Prices and Features of DreamHost offers

The area we thoroughly examined during our DreamHost review for 2024 was the aspect of pricing and the features each plan has to offer.

Pricing is one of the most important factors when choosing a hosting provider, and as a rule of thumb, every package and its features must be worth its price tag. Otherwise, it is not worth investing in, especially when others are hosting providers that offer good value for money.

DreamHost offers a variety of plans like shared, managed WordPress (DreamPress), cloud, VPS, and dedicated server hosting. All the plans come with greatly optimized servers for the WordPress environment, so they are perfect for WP sites. Hence, you will get an extremely fast WordPress site that will help your SEO performance on any DreamHost plan.

That said, let’s see a breakdown of DreamHost hosting plans.

Explanation of the DreamHost Shared Hosting Plans

The first packages we are examining in our DreamHost review are the Shared hosting plans. DreamHost has two packages under this category: Shared Starter and Shared Unlimited.

Shared Starter Plan

DreamHost Shared Starter plan starts at about $3 per month and renews for almost $6 monthly. It allows you to host one domain, 5 subdomains, and 6 different MySQL databases. You will get a free domain for one year, a free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate, and domain privacy to prevent your personal information from leaking.

In addition, the Starter plan gives you 50 GB SSD storage to handle a media-heavy site and simultaneously deliver swift data transfer speed. It includes unmetered bandwidth and unlimited traffic to accommodate huge data transfers and handle medium-traffic sites.

Furthermore, this plan comes with managed WordPress features such as updating core files, plugins, and themes. Thus, enhancing your site security by automatically updating outdated codes that could leave a backdoor for hackers.

Still, on security, the plan gives you automated daily backups for your files, codes, and databases. This will help to prevent data or file losses that could occur when there is a mishap or customization error on your site.

Furthermore, you will get access to a free website builder powered by BoldGrid to kickstart your design journey and make it easy. BoldGrid has a lot of premium WordPress themes and templates that a beginner can use to build their first site.

In conclusion, if you already had your website with another host, you can migrate it to DreamHost using their migration plugin without paying a dime. You can do this for as many sites as you want free of charge.

Shared Unlimited Plan

The Shared Unlimited package is more powerful than the Starter plan. It costs about $4 per month for an initial subscription and renews at almost $11 monthly. Aside from all the features of Shared Starter, it can host unlimited websites, subdomains, FTP accounts, and databases.

Unlimited offers free email hosting throughout your subscription to help improve your marketing success and generate more revenue. This is because it allows you to create email accounts with your domain name, and it builds your visitors’ trust when they see your sales emails or newsletters. Moreover, it hosts your emails and allows for easy management in the future.

In addition, you will get unlimited SSD storage to store as many files as you want. It is a great opportunity if you are running multiple websites that require high storage capacity because of their media heaviness.

Overall from our DreamHost review, we recommend the Starter package if you run only a single website that does not have email hosting. However, if you need email hosting, you can add it to your plan since it is cheaper than the Unlimited package.

On the other hand, the Shared Unlimited package is perfect if you run multiple sites. You will get access to all the possible features plus unlimited storage, which is great for media-heavy websites.

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Managed WordPress and WooCommerce Hosting Plans Breakdown

As mentioned earlier in this review, DreamHost shared servers are greatly optimized for the WP environment. However, these servers have better performance when it comes to their managed WordPress or DreamPress plans. Here is why.

DreamHost offers a premium configuration and environment that delivers top-notch speed to WP sites hosted on these plans. The server’s resources are commissioned to every site or owner in a normal shared environment. As a result, when a particular user uses too many resources, it affects the rest of the tenants on the server.

However, in these managed WordPress plans, DreamHost isolates each account on a server such that when the resource usage of a tenant is too much, it does not affect the others. Therefore, you can rest assured that your server will always deliver your site at its peak performance irrespective of the pressure on it.

DreamPress plans include managed WordPress features like automatically upgrading core files, plugins, and themes. This helps to eliminate loopholes and backdoors that outdated codes can create. Thus, it locks hackers or attackers out of your server and WordPress backend.

Furthermore, these plans give you access to WordPress specialist support. This is ideal if you ever encounter a problem when building a WordPress website. You will enjoy advanced features such as SFTP, Shell Access, and WP-CLI too.

DreamPress Plan

The DreamPress plan is the starter package and costs around $17 per month. It can only host one WordPress site and comes with a free domain, privacy, and an SSL certificate. At the same time, it comes with free email hosting to help you achieve your marketing and branding goals faster.

You will get 30 GB of fast SSD storage to host as much media content as possible and deliver fast data transfer speed. It includes unlimited bandwidth to accommodate frequent data transfers and traffic.

Additionally, the plan allows you at least 100,000 monthly visitors to dynamic or uncached versions of your site without impacting performance. In addition, you will be able to receive unmetered traffic to the cached versions of your site without a decline in performance.

This means that if you run a site where most of the pages are static, you will enjoy unlimited monthly traffic. On the other hand, if your site is highly dynamic and there are changes now and then, you will enjoy at least 100,000 monthly traffic without a performance drop.

Furthermore, you will enjoy built-in caching at the server level that will deliver cached versions of your web pages to visitors, thereby reducing load times.

For security, you will have access to automated daily backups to secure your files and databases. Moreso, you will get to make on-demand backups and restore them with one click. It is especially useful when you are making changes to your site.

Lastly, you will get a free BoldGrid website builder to start your design journey and a free migration plugin to easily move your WordPress site from another host.

Overall, this plan is suitable for a WordPress site with medium traffic for fast speed and unrivaled performance.

DreamPress Plus

The next managed WordPress plan in our DreamHost review is the DreamPress Plus package. It costs around $25 per month for a yearly plan and can host only one WP site. Aside from all the features of DreamPress, you will have access to more server resources.

You will be able to accommodate more than 300,000 visitors monthly to an uncached version of your site without declining performance. This is very helpful, especially if you run a site with high-traffic demand.

Furthermore, you will get 60 GB of fast SSD storage to store a lot of media content and deliver them at high speed. Thus, it will decrease your FCP and LCP, decreasing your bounce rate and improving SEO performance.

In addition, the DreamPress Plus plan gives you access to unlimited Content Delivery Networks (CDN) to store and deliver fast-loading web pages to visitors irrespective of their location. You can request a callback through the phone support system, and the agents will try to call you up to 3 times.

Lastly, you will get a JetPack Professional plan pre-packed with your hosting and WordPress installation. It gives you access to premium WordPress themes, malware scanning, on-demand backups & restores, and downtime monitoring.

DreamPress Pro

The last package in the managed WordPress plans is DreamPress Pro. It costs around $72 per month and allows you to host only one website. In addition to all the features in DreamPress Plus, this plan gives you access to the highest resources.

With this plan, you can deliver an uncached version of your web pages to at least one million visitors per month without compromising speed and performance. Hence, it is the perfect plan for hosting a website with a high-traffic requirement for optimal performance.

In addition, you will get 120 GB of fast SSD storage to store and deliver media content at a very high speed. Moreso, if you request a callback from phone support, they will attempt to call you up to 5 times.

Lastly, the DreamPress Pro plan gives you access to priority support which consists of experts with a higher level of experience. It involves proactive monitoring and advanced troubleshooting if you ever encounter an issue.

Overall, from our review of DreamHost DreamPress plans, we deduced that they could handle big WordPress websites with medium traffic and deliver fast speed. However, based on the results we got from our load tests, they may not be suitable for sites that experience peak hours or traffic surges. Sites with evenly spaced traffic will experience better performance.

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Overview of DreamHost VPS hosting

The VPS packages are other hosting plans we critically examined in our DreamHost review for 2024.

DreamHost VPS plans are very powerful because of the configuration of their servers. They are suitable for your website projects with high performance and speed requirements. So if you are starting a resource-demanding project or just looking to scale your existing one, you should consider DreamHost VPS plans.

The plans give you dedicated resources. With these resources, you will have the power of a real server at your disposal. You will also get fast SSD storage and scalable RAMs to facilitate swift processing and data transfers.

In addition, the plans allow you to host as many sites as you want, and you do not have to worry about bandwidth because it is unmetered. Therefore, the servers can handle huge traffic and surges. Additionally, you will get unlimited databases, SSL certificates, and email hosting.

Furthermore, depending on your business needs, you can choose between Apache and Nginx servers with DreamHost plans. For instance, if you are hosting sites with low traffic, Apache servers are good. Whereas, if you are hosting websites with medium to high traffic, Nginx is a better option.

Also, DreamHost uses OPcache on their Virtual Private Servers to optimize PHP for faster execution. Hence, if you run PHP-based applications on the servers, you will experience high performance.

Additionally, the VPS environment is greatly optimized for Ruby, Perl, PHP, Python, and Node.js. Lastly, the VPS control panel has a one-click installer for most web apps, software, OS, PHP versions, and WordPress core files that are automatically updated.

Breakdown of DreamHost VPS Plans

The first VPS plan we are looking at in our DreamHost review is Basic. It costs around $10 per month for a 3-year subscription. The server has a CPU with 1 GB RAM and 30 GB fast SSD storage.

The configuration of this server is very basic and is, therefore, only suitable for websites that are just growing. Nonetheless, you will enjoy unmetered bandwidth and unlimited traffic to handle huge data transfers and visitors.

Furthermore, we have the VPS Business plan. It costs around $20 per month for a 3-year plan. The server is configured with 2 GB RAM and 60 GB of fast SSD storage. Therefore, it has 2x the power of the VPS Basic plan and can power more resource-demanding websites and online applications.

The next in the VPS plan is the Professional package. It costs around $40 per month for a 3-year subscription. The server comes with a configuration of 4 GB RAM and 120 GB of fast SSD storage. Hence, it can handle more resource-demanding websites and deliver them at great speeds, boosting SEO performance.

Lastly, we have the VPS Enterprise plan. This plan costs around $80 per month for a 3-year subscription. The server is configured with 8 GB RAM and 240 GB of fast SSD storage. It means that our server can process or execute tasks faster and still deliver swift data transfers.

With all this information in mind, we can conclude from our review of DreamHost VPS plans that they are suitable for medium to high-traffic websites requiring high performance. They are also suitable for hosting a Minecraft server.

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Overview of DreamHost Dedicated Server Hosting Plans

The last plans we thoroughly examined during the DreamHost review were the dedicated hosting server packages.

DreamHost dedicated servers are more powerful and configured with higher resources to handle bigger projects.

The plans are fully managed and do not require you to worry about maintenance, configuration, monitoring, etc. Nonetheless, you will have full root and shell access (SSH) to the servers for maximum control.

Furthermore, you can host unlimited websites on the servers and have unmetered bandwidth to handle any traffic volume. The server environment is also optimized for PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby, and Node.js, so you will have a great experience hosting these applications on DreamHost dedicated servers.

Additionally, DreamHost servers are equipped with OPcache, which makes PHP execution easier and faster by compiling or caching them from time to time. Besides, the storage disks are set up using RAID 1 configuration. Therefore, your files and databases are mirrored into another disk so that a new or redundant disk takes its place when your storage fails. This way, your site will not experience lag or downtime.

Lastly, support agents and specialists constantly monitor the servers to maintain the 100% uptime guarantee promised on the plans.

Standard Dedicated Server Hosting Explained

The Standard plan consists of three variations. The Standard 4 plan starts at about $140 per month. The server comes with the Intel Xeon 4-Core CPU with 4 GB RAM and 1 TB HDD storage.

Furthermore, we have the Standard 8 plan. It costs about $190 per month. Aside from the features in Standard 4, it has a higher RAM of 8 GB, making it easy to store more frequent operations in the cache for faster processing.

The last plan in this category is the Standard 16 package. It costs around $230 per month. This plan has a higher RAM of 16 GB to handle more operations simultaneously.

Overall, these plans are great because the servers have powerful processors with 4 cores; thus, they can easily deliver very fast websites. Nonetheless, the plans use outdated and slow HDD storage disks; therefore, they use more resources. Thus considering the price, the HDD storage is not worth it.

Enhanced Dedicated Plans Explained

The Enhanced dedicated plans are a big improvement from the Standard packages. The first plan, Enhanced 16, costs around $280 per month. The server comes with an Intel Xeon 12-Core processor, 16 GB RAM, and 2 TB HDD of storage. This processor is so powerful that it executes operations and solves problems quickly. This, in turn, will lead to faster load times which will cause an improvement in SEO performance.

Enhanced 32 is the next package and costs around $330 per month. The package comes with all the features of Enhanced 16 but has a higher RAM of 32 GB.

Furthermore, we have the Enhanced 64, which costs around $380 per month. The plan comes along with all the features from the Enhanced 32 with a better 64 GB RAM. This means that the server is more capable of handling more tasks simultaneously.

The Enhanced SSD plans are very similar to the HDD packages in terms of the processor used and pricing. For example, Enhanced SSD 16 costs about $280 per month, the same as the HDD variation. It has an Intel Xeon 12-Core processor, 16 GB RAM, and 240 GB of fast SSD storage. This means we have an improved server for faster data transfers, processing, and loading times.

At the same time, the Enhanced SSD 32 (32 GB RAM) and 64 (64 GB RAM) packages have 240 GB of SSD storage and cost the same as their HDD counterparts.

Based on our review of DreamHost’s dedicated plans, we recommend getting the SSD variation of the Enhanced packages. Because even though the HDD versions have higher storage, the performance will never measure up to the SDD variations. Hence, for faster loading time and improved SEO performance, choose SSD.

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Performance Technologies: Analysis of DreamHost

Another detail we inquired into during our DreamHost review was the performance technologies the host uses. Speed and performance are important aspects of web hosting and are greatly influenced by the technologies used.

Web Server Software

DreamHost provides two different types of web server software: Apache and Nginx. Apache servers are outdated software and can only handle low-traffic websites and deliver outstanding speed and performance.

On the other hand, Nginx web servers are faster and use fewer resources. They suit websites and online applications with medium to high traffic requirements. It will deliver fast-loading web pages for medium-traffic sites without compromising performance.

We can notice the limitations of the Apache web servers in the load tests above, where our server failed due to high traffic. Even though we experienced great speed, the server could not handle traffic surges, so it failed. This would not have occurred if we were on an Nginx server.

As a result, we decided to let you know how to choose the right server for better performance. The shared plans primarily use Apache web servers, while the DreamPress packages use Nginx. For the other plans like VPS and dedicated server hosting, you can choose which web server software you prefer upon purchase.

They Use Fast and Redundant SSD Storage

Another performance technology we noticed during our Dreamhost review was fast SSD storage.

All the files on your sites are stored safely on a disk inside the server machine. Hence, when your page loads, the user’s browser attempts to download the content from the disk. Now, the speed with which the content is downloaded from the server depends on the type of disk used.

HDD, for example, uses a lot of resources, is very slow, and makes the server overheat, thus leading to possible service disruption. On the other hand, SSD storages are very fast and use fewer resources than HDD. Hence, they will help to deliver fast web pages by cutting down your FCP and LCP.

Additionally, the storage disks are arranged using RAID 1 configuration. Meaning that if your disk ever fails, your files are served from the mirrored storage. Therefore, your visitors will not experience downtime, and your site will still deliver fast loading times.

Optimized In-house Caching, OPcache & CDN

The last speed and performance technologies we noticed in our DreamHost review for 2024 were their in-house caching, OPcache, and CDN features.

In-house caching is a server-level technology that saves instances of your web pages and delivers them faster to visitors. This leads to faster-loading times and an opening to achieve lower bounce rates and better SEO performance.

Additionally, OPcache is an extremely useful technology that ensures faster PHP execution by caching the codes. As a result, all PHP-based applications hosted on DreamHost will load lightning-fast.

Lastly, DreamHost stores different versions of your websites or web pages on several machines with a CDN’s help. Therefore, it creates low latency when visitors try to access web pages on your site since they will be served from a data center closest to their location. This creates an avenue for lower bounce rates, higher traffic, and SEO improvement.

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DreamHost Free Unlimited Automated Site Migrations

Free unlimited migrations were one of the most important findings we loved during our DreamHost review.

DreamHost has designed a beginner-friendly and free WordPress plugin to help users move their site from another host. You only need to generate a token from your Dream Panel to use the plugin.

Afterward, you should install the plugin on your site and provide the token when asked. This copies all your files and saves them in your DreamHost File Manager. Then, you can change your nameservers to DreamHost’s and enjoy a fully migrated site with no downtime.

This is a great offer since many web hosting providers, like Bluehost and A2 Hosting, will charge you for site migrations after the first free cPanel or website migration. Feel free to read our Bluehost review for more details.

Up to 97-Day Money-Back Guarantee

Money-back guarantee is another aspect of web hosting we thoroughly examined during our DreamHost review. A good web hosting provider, that is confident of the quality of its services and the satisfaction customers will derive from using them, provides a money-back guarantee.

As expected of DreamHost, they offer both a whopping 97-day and 30-day money-back guarantees. The 97-day money-back guarantee only applies to Shared Hosting plans, where you will get a no questions asked full refund after you close your account. After the 97th day, you are no longer entitled to even a partial refund. Also, it only applies to credit card payments. Checks or bank transfers do not qualify.

On the other hand, the 30-day money-back guarantee applies to other plans except Shared hosting. If you buy a DreamPress or dedicated hosting plan that you are not satisfied with, you can close your account within 30 days from signup and get a full refund of your initial subscription. Afterward (on the 31st day), you are no longer entitled to any form of refund.

However, domain registrations and third-party services or add-ons do not qualify for refunds. If you got a free domain, DreamHost would deduct its value from your subscription before processing the refund.

DreamHost Sucks at Security

It was really disappointing during the research for this review to discover that DreamHost cares so little about the security of your website. Of course, the host has security features like SSL, SSH access, automated backups, anti-DDoS protection, website staging, malware remover, and firewalls, but they are not commercial-grade. Besides, they are not available on every plan either.

For instance, only SSL, automated backups, and SSH access are available on the shared hosting plans and you need a dedicated server to have a taste of anti-DDoS protection. At the same time, you will need the DreamShield Protection add-on for an extra $3 per month, to get the malware scanner and other security features.

When compared with alternatives like Hostinger and SiteGround which give you a whole security suite on all their plans, DreamHost really needs to do better.

Conclusion: Is DreamHost a Good Choice?

Yes, DreamHost is a great company.

They offer affordable hosting plans with some great features. You can use their services to host low to medium-traffic sites and deliver terrific speeds that will help improve your SEO performance.

Also, DreamHost is great for hosting very fast WordPress sites if you have the budget to handle it.

Alternatively, you should consider Hostinger, SiteGround, or A2 Hosting if you want to host multiple sites for maximum speed and performance.

DreamHost Review Summary

Features/Yardsticks	Ratings (1 - 10)	Comments
Pricing	10.0	DreamHost has affordable hosting plans and the renewal prices are reasonable.
Ease of Management	10.0	Even though it doesn’t use cPanel, the host presents a custom control panel that enables easy account and site management.
Performance	8.5	DreamHost has great loading speeds and can deliver a fast site. However, it cannot handle sites that experience traffic surges or peak hours.
Security	7.0	The web host has good security features but they are not sophisticated enough. Besides, only a few of the features are available for free.
Support	7.5	DreamHost needs to improve the response times of its support and the competency of its agent. Their availability needs to be worked on as well.
Overall Rating	8.6	Overall, DreamHost is a terrific host and it is quite reliable.

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FAQs About DreamHost

Is DreamHost Fast?

Drawing from the results of our speed and performance tests, DreamHost is indeed a host that can power a fast site. So if you have a landing page, a blog, or a standard website that you want to host on a lightning-fast server, DreamHost is a great choice.

What Performance Tools for WordPress Does DreamHost Have?

Aside from in-house caching, DreamHost does not provide any performance tool of its own on any of its plans. However, on the DreamPress plan, you will get a Jetpack Free package. At the same time, it gives a Jetpack Professional package on the DreamPress Plus and DreamPress Pro plans. Additionally, DreamHost pre-installs the WP Super Cache plugin on your site for performance tuning.

Who is DreamHost Best for?

DreamHost is best used for a low-traffic WordPress website or eCommerce store where fast loading speed is important. If you are going to use it for a high-traffic website, ensure that it does not experience traffic surges. Otherwise, the performance will be quite poor.

Does DreamHost Use cPanel?

No, DreamHost does not use the cPanel. Instead, the web host uses a custom control panel called the DreamHost Panel. Nevertheless, the host still gives access to phpMyAdmin for managing your MySQL databases, SSH, and FTP. From our firsthand experience, the DreamHost Panel is quite intuitive and a beginner would like it.

Is DreamHost Good for Beginners or Small Businesses?

DreamHost is a beginner-friendly host for anyone interested in building a WordPress website. Not only that, the affordability of its hosting plans makes it a perfect choice for small businesses.

What is Better than DreamHost?

Judging from our results from the review of DreamHost services, it is evident that the web host is not perfect. Our comparison with other web hosts has shown that DreamHost has a long way to go. Better alternatives to DreamHost include Hostinger, SiteGround, and InMotion Hosting.

Check out our Hostinger vs DreamHost comparison for 2024 to see an example of what we mean.