DreamHost is a US based web hosting company, which was launched in 1997. Over the years, it has built a solid reputation for itself as a good service provider. The company has a huge customer base with many loyal customers. Although it provides good quality hosting, the star attraction is its solid money back guarantee and uptime assurance. The company takes pride in being environment friendly and it is carbon neutral, despite hosting more than a million websites. This DreamHost review will help prospective subscribers understand the strengths and weaknesses of the company’s product range.

DreamHost web hosting products and features

DreamHost offers three types of web hosting: shared, VPS and dedicated. All its products are based on Debian Linux. In terms of freedom and resources,DreamHost is very liberal. The features provided in its lowest priced plan are usually available only in high-end plans of other companies. Although DreamHost cannot be termed as a cheap web hosting company, its prices are extremely attractive if you consider the quality and reliability of its hosting products.

DreamHost provides its own custom control panel for all its hosting plans. It gives complete control of the hosting account, including billing functions. As the software is very intuitive and user friendly, the learning curve is not huge for people familiar with other web hosting control panels. Having a custom panel gives the company the ability to quickly add or change features depending on customer feedback.

DreamHost provides a web based FTP client in case customers don’t want to use an FTP client like Filezilla. The script installer installs popular scripts like WordPress in a few clicks. However, the number of scripts is much lower than what is available in Fantastico.

Infrastructure, reliability, support and user experience

DreamHost’s servers are co-located in two data centers in Los Angeles, which are owned by a company called Alchemy. DreamHost owns a large stake in this company. The state of the art data centers have high-speed data connectivity, are managed by skilled staff and are designed to withstand earthquakes. Generators and UPS ensure about three Megawatts of power backup allowing them to stay operational even during long power outages.

DreamHost gives an uptime guarantee to all its customers. If any downtime occurs due to DreamHost’s fault, other than for scheduled maintenance, the customer is credited with the cost of one day’s hosting for every hour of downtime. Downtime is calculated from the time the problem is reported to support to the time it is resolved. The accumulated credit can be used to obtain up to 10% discount on the hosting fee when the subscription is renewed.

Managed backups are provided only for dedicated servers and all customers are expected to keep their own backups to avoid data losses. Data can be backed up easily from the control panel.

The company does not offer telephone support, but email support is available in all plans. Premium support, which includes live chat and callback, is available at extra cost. The email support is reasonably quick and useful, and there is a wiki on the website which provides solutions to known issues. A forum is also available to ask questions and discuss any issues. The company newsletter provides updates about changes and enhancements.

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Overall DreamHost review

DreamHost is a well-established US based hosting provider with an excellent track record. Their plans provide great value for money, especially for those who wish to host several websites. Few in the industry can match their uptime guarantee and anytime money-back policy. Subscribers of DreamHost web hosting can leave at any time without any loss except for domain fees.