DreamHost Hosting Services Review
If you are searching for a hosting services provider, you might be torn between picking those with top security and starting with more affordable providers. DreamHost Company is one of the high end hosting services providers with most of its plans costing hundreds of dollars per month. In this post, we carry a comprehensive review at this hosting services provider to establish the nature of its features and why most clients are very satisfied despite the high cost.
DreamHost is among the oldest hosting companies in the globe today. It was started in 1997 and has molted to one of the most competitive firms in the industry. The company has over 400,000 active users and about 1.5 million websites.
It has diversified its services through multiple plans to ensure it attracts more clients to its portfolio. It has also added great features such as website building software that helps webmasters craft top-notch DreamHost-powered sites fast and easily. This is the reason why DreamHost and HostGator are grouped at the top of the industry. In this post, we comprehensively review this hosting provider to help you make the right decision on whether to go for it or competitors.
DreamHost performance
The effectiveness of a hosting service depends on its performance. You should only pick a hosting service provider that guarantees your clients the best user experience. The performance is mainly assessed using site speed and uptime rate.
DreamHost is one of the firms with great uptimes in the market today. They deliver a 99.7% uptime for their clients. Though this is indeed high, some people argue that the company should consider enhancing it because it is dealing with the elite clients. Other top hosting services providers have an uptime of even more than 99.9%.
When it comes to speed, it is always a good idea to pick the fastest hosting provider. DreamHost does not disappoint on this. Its servers are about 21% faster than the average competition. This means that your clients will get the requested files faster to deliver better UX, get a higher ranking by search engines, and drive conversions.
Security at DreamHost
Every client shopping for hosting services is concerned about the security of his site. At DreamHost, the focus has been to progressively enhance the security of all plans to guarantee clients of better security all the time. Here are some of the strategies used to protect clients’ sites and data at DreamHost.
The DreamHost’s control panel is very easy for customers to use and enhance the security of their sites. It is particularly easy to reach and edit the .htaccess file to restrict the people accessing your site and info. If you do not want some sections of the site indexed by search engines, simply block the bots on the .htaccess file.
DreamHost also provides free SSL certificates for all sites to enhance their information security. SSL certificates are actually a must have for all traders selling their services or products online.
For developers or software managers, DreamHost also provides Subversion. This is very helpful in managing source code files. Many other web hosting providers insist on restricting users only to the preferred applications they have listed on the software market. However, control tools such as Subversion provides greater diversity on the apps you can use.
DreamHost hosting plans and prices
When DreamHost was established in 1997, its main mission was to help users get the best hosting services. This focus is replicated through the diverse hosting plans for its clients. Despite this commitment to diversity, it is important to note that DreamHost plans are some of the most expensive in the market today.
1) The shared hosting. This is the cheapest plan in DreamHost that involves clients sharing the server resources. Unlike other hosting services that break the shared hosting into a number of plans, DreamHost only provides a single plan at the cost of $7.95/month.
2) The managed WordPress hosting. This plan is priced at $19.95/ month payable twice a year. Some of the great features of the plan include 30GB SSD storage, capacity to handle 2.1 million visits, support for unlimited email accounts, and a dedicated IP address.
3) The VPS hosting plan. This plan is priced between $15/month on the lower side to $120/month on the upper end. The lowest plan on the VPS hosting comes with a 1GB RAM and 30GB SSD storage. If you opt for the highest level, the DreamHost will provide 8GB RAM and 240GB SSD storage. All the plans in the VPS category have unlimited bandwidth and support for unlimited domains.
4) The dedicated hosting plan. The dedicated hosting plan at DreamHost starts at $149/month and spreads through to $379/month. If you opt for the lowest plan in the dedicated category, you enjoy 4 cores, 4GB RAM, and 1TB HDD. The dedicated servers also come with unlimited MySQL databases, Ubuntu Linux, RAID-1 storage, and DDoS protection.
Customer support
If you want to know how effective a company is, one of the components to check is the customer support. A firm with great customer support is a demonstration that it values clients and wants to connect with them often. At DreamHost, the support services are offered through two main channels; the live chat and ticket-based support. It is very unfortunate that people cannot call directly to talk to company representatives on the phone.
The company’s live chat and ticket support are very effective. The support staff is very professional and always ensure every question is thoroughly answered. Whether you want a specific item on the site checked or simple clarification about different plans in the hosting company, the response is always professional.
To help users who want to learn more about DreamHost, the company provider also runs a comprehensive knowledge base. These include regular posts, tech-based publications, and interactive blogs. Here, you will also meet the savvy community in the industry to learn about related technologies.
Pros of using DreamHost Hosting services
A 90-day money back guarantee. This is better compared to the common 30 days-money back guarantee offered by competitors.
They provide green services.
They offer a lot of security features.
Most plans come with extensive domain management tools.
Great VPS offering.
Unlimited data transfer.
Cons of using DreamHost services
o The hosting plans are very expensive and unaffordable for most startups.
o They do not have direct phone support in their support services.
o The advanced security features such as DDoS protection are only available in the advanced hosting plans.
The final take
DreamHost has demonstrated its commitment to providing excellent services to its clients. Its focus on offering unlimited bandwidth and excellent security to its clients makes every customer give positive feedback. However, the charges are very high and out of reach for startups. This means that many startups might opt for alternatives that are cheaper such as iPage and leave DreamHost to bigger enterprises.
