DreamHost Evaluation: Can You Trust Their Shared Hosting?
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DreamHost might not be as popular as Siteground and Bluehost amongst average internet users, but think me, it's a remarkably well-known brand among developers, designers and digital marketers.
Given that they were founded in 1996 ( in Los Angeles), they've grown to host over 1.5 million sites and have hundreds of workers. Impressive. Dreamhost Email Signature
DreamHost is among those companies that you can find recommended all over. In fact, WordPress themselves endorses them – but I'm not sure how seriously I ‘d take this recommendation, as while they show SiteGround as a choice (which we authorize), they likewise advise Bluehost, which is a much more doubtful choice.
For their little price tag, they appear to provide a lot: endless storage and bandwidth, backups, 24-hour support and even free SSL certificates.
However do they do not have crucial functions? And how does DreamHost carry out?
I am going to address all of these concerns and more in this DreamHost evaluation so you can find out all about their pros, cons, rates and when (and when not) to use them.
However if you don't have much time to read this thorough DreamHost review, take a look at the video listed below:.
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What Products Does DreamHost Offer?
As their offering is not limited to shared hosting plans, let's review what other services you can get with DreamHost.
Along with hosting plans, you can get domain at DreamHost. Select from over 400 TLDs (like.com,. org,. net) or more unique extensions (like.club or.guru). Nation particular TLDs such as.es,. fr,. co.uk or.de are also readily available. A.com domain name is $ 15.99 at renewal.
DreamHost's shared hosting will give you a lot for your money, they cost $ 3.95 a month for the 1-site plan or $ 9.95 for the Limitless tier– straightforward rates. This type of hosting is great to begin, but if your task grows a lot (e.g. more than 200,000 visitors a month), you'll require to upgrade.
You can imagine a Virtual Private Server (VPS) as a shared hosting server that has actually been divided into smaller sized servers. This indicates that you can configure it to your requirements. Your site will be hosted individually from other customers'– the resources aren't shared either. VPS hosting plans at DreamHost begin at $ 13.75 a month and can go all the way up to $110 a month. Dreamhost Email Signature
If your site gets so huge that you require your own server, that's when you need to think about getting a devoted account– beware, these are a bit more costly. Devoted hosting at DreamHost starts at $169 monthly.
That's not all, DreamHost likewise uses cloud hosting. Picture this as a series of interconnected servers that host your website. This solution is ideal for those expecting peaks of traffic as more resources (e.g. RAM and CPU) can be included as you need them. Determining how much will you pay it's tricky as the price depends upon the resources (e.g. RAM or storage) that you need.
On top of all that, they likewise provide WordPress hosting plans– they have special WordPress bundles for their shared and VPS hosting. If you ‘d like automated updates, staging areas and dedicated WordPress support, you can opt-in for a Managed WordPress account. Shared WordPress hosting starts at $3.95 a month, VPS at $10 and Managed WordPress at $19.95.
Nevertheless, if you don't desire any technical trouble and simply wish to easily launch a simple website, they use a website builder too. It seems really cheap (begins at $4.95), however in all honesty, I have not tested it so I would not know if it's any good.
The focus of this DreamHost evaluation is their shared hosting plans, so from now on, I'll be referencing those.
DreamHost Prices: What Do Their Shared Plans Consist Of?
DreamHost has an ‘Unrestricted Policy' and they don't accept certain tasks like file circulation websites.
I really value that DreamHost's rates and strategy structure are both transparent and easy. They just have 2 shared plans which come with most of the fundamentals you'll require– no aggressive and costly upsells.
Let's take a look at what plan will you need:
The Shared Starter strategy is restricted to 1 website, so if you are just looking to host 1 website, this is your best alternative. Know that if you require e-mail accounts, those are paid individually in this plan ($ 1.67 a month extra)– a fair price if you ask me. The only other constraint is databases, as you will not have the ability to create more than 6– but do not fret, for 1-site projects 6 is a lot.
To host more than 1 site you'll require the (still budget-friendly) Shared plan. This one includes email accounts and endless databases too. There aren't any other functions included as the standard strategy is currently pretty generous with storage, FTP accounts, bandwidth and so on.
There are also enhanced prices plans for WooCommerce users, that you can discover here.
DreamHost Evaluation: Pros & Cons
Sure, DreamHost is pretty affordable and provides quite a lot, however how they carry out and what features are they missing out on? * Spoiler Alert *: they're missing a number of advanced features.
Let me assist you out:
When to Use DreamHost's Hosting?
Well, a lot of website owners must consider utilizing DreamHost. It integrates both low prices and high quality, something that's very difficult to discover nowadays in the hosting world.
I would say that small jobs (e.g. a dental practitioner's site) trying to find the best value for their money must consider DreamHost.
However, bigger websites might discover an excellent partner in DreamHost's shared hosting too. It has enough speed, great support and reputable uptime for devoted bloggers and hardcore site developers.
Even if it's not PCI certified out-of-the-box, DreamHost supports this innovation– you might make it happen geeking around. This is certainly a massive pro for ecommerce jobs.
When Not to Use DreamHost's hosting?
There are a couple of cases where I would not advise DreamHost.
As they do not have servers outside the US, if your audience doesn't come from North America, it's most likely not the best option. Bluehost, SiteGround or A2 Hosting could be a much better fit.
tech-savvy users like developers or agencies may miss some advanced features like staging locations, integrated caching system or pre-installed Git repositories. If you expensive having these, SiteGround is the method to go.
DreamHost Shared Hosting Particulars
DreamHost Performance Tests
Is DreamHost slow and/or have consistent service interruptions?
Prior to you commit and leave your site's ‘well-being' to a new hosting supplier, you must check out their performance.
Obviously, I do not anticipate you to have time to go and check 5 or 6 hosting companies over a number of weeks. To make your life much easier, I've just recently checked DreamHost's efficiency and benchmarked it against their competitors.
DreamHost Speed Test
No one desires their website to take ages to load. This can damage your user engagement metrics (e.g. conversion rate) and screw up your natural (online search engine) rankings. And of course, a fast hosting company is an essential player for your website to load fast.
I was a bit unwilling about DreamHost's speed as they don't appear to have an integrated caching system and are also missing a number of other functions. However, as you can see in the table above, their speed efficiency was top of the class throughout our tests.
So take a look at DreamHost if speed is a crucial factor for you.
Is DreamHost's Uptime Good?
Some hosting suppliers have constant interruptions and their schedule (uptime) suffers. As you can imagine, this can be a huge issue for hosting-dependant projects like online shops or digital marketing companies. On top of that, Google and other online search engine will not treat you too positively.
In light of this, I continuously keep track of hosting providers' uptime. Let me share DreamHost's with you.
DreamHost uptime results are astonishing, for the last 4 months they have had 100% uptime. Practically no other provider, at this level, can provide these outcomes.
DreamHost Review: Do I Suggest It?
Yes, I do suggest DreamHost.
This hosting company can be a great option for lots of. Fair rates, strong assistance and a very generous unrestricted policy (for storage and bandwidth) will be extremely enticing benefits for many.
In addition, their efficiency is one of the best I have actually tried, suggesting that your job (even big sites) will be securely hosted at DreamHost.
Know nevertheless, that if you are searching for professional features like staging areas, integrated caching and pre-installed Git repositories, DreamHost might fall short. Likewise, it's not perfect if your traffic comes generally from outside The United States and Canada.
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DreamHost Alternatives
Alright, I need to state that I do think DreamHost can be a great match to host most sites. Let me suggest a couple of options for some situations:.
Together with DreamHost, SiteGround and Bluehost use the very best support.
In my experience, SiteGround is a top-performing host. They offer a fully-featured hosting service and are an excellent match for WordPress users. Dreamhost Email Signature
-> If you still wish to opt for DreamHost, you can attempt them totally free for 97 days.