Company Overview
Before we kick off our DreamHost review, we want to cover some basics about the company. DreamHost is one of the longest-running web hosting companies, originally founded in 1996 out of Los Angeles, CA. Through their long history, they have grown to support over a million websites. DreamHost is also one of the few WordPress hosting companies officially recommended by WordPress.
This article is a DreamHost review for their WordPress offerings. This includes WordPress Basic and Unlimited, DreamPress, and WordPress VPS Hosting. Each of these plans has different use cases that we will explore to help you find which is best for you.
Let’s get into our DreamHost review to see their options. That way you can make the best decision for your business.
WordPress Hosting – Basic
WordPress Starter
The first plan we will cover in our DreamHost review is WordPress Starter. This plan is a cheap and reliable option for those who are unfamiliar with WordPress. The plan comes pre-configured with a website builder and several tools to get you rolling. This is all backed up by a 97-day money-back guarantee in case you are unable to get the site configured the way you want.
This is definitely a budget option, but it does have its perks. The smaller basic option includes Free SSDs, automated migration, free SSL certificates, and one website.
You should note, that this plan does not include a domain name if you purchase less than a year term and email is not included. However, you can purchase an add-on for emails at $1.67 per month. You are also limited to only 50 GB of storage space and a finite number of FTP users, subdomains, and databases, so if your goal is to have multiple sites up and running you may want to look further down this list.
WordPress Unlimited
Consider the WordPress Unlimited plan as a literal description of what it is, WordPress hosting with limitless growth potential. You are able to host unlimited sites, serve up unlimited traffic, and send as many emails as you want.
Included with the WordPress Unlimited option is the ability to get a free domain for a year, provided that you selected a plan that lasts at least a year. This is a great value-add to get your business known.
DreamPress – Managed WordPress Hosting
DreamPress is DreamHost’s managed hosting for WordPress. DreamHost offers three levels of plans under its DreamPress banner. Metrics such as monthly visitors, ranging from 100,000 to 1,000,000 visitors guides each level.
DreamPress plans have a 30-day money-back guarantee. They also included caching tools installed by default, security updates, and like the above plans, pre-installed WordPress. All of this allows you to focus on managing your business while DreamHost takes care of the technical items.
DreamPress
DreamPress plans are based on monthly visitors to your site. In the case of the base DreamPress plan, that is 100,000 visitors per month. This plan also comes with a site builder, unlimited email, SSL, backup tools, JetPack, a staging environment, 30 GB of SSD storage, and 24/7 support.
The staging site is a tremendous offering and one we wholeheartedly recommend you have. A staging site allows you to make a duplicate of your live site in which you can make changes (such as updating plugins or themes), without the risk of knocking out your production site. In other words, this testing-area is a great way to ensure site uptime.
DreamPress Plus
DreamPress Plus is the next level of DreamPress offering. This is a middle-tiered option targeting 300,000 visitors per month. Accordingly, the offerings in the base plan also are here, along with an increase to 60GB in SSD storage, JetPack Professional, and a CDN.
The CDN, included with JetPack Professional, is unlimited. CDN’s allow your visitors to load your site quicker as the content is located closer to them. If you want the best performance on your site, configuring your CDN is a must!
DreamPress Pro
The highest DreamPress plan, DreamPress Pro, will accommodate one million visitors a month and ups your SSD storage to 120 GB. The largest of the plans, Pro is best for the customers who need the best performance on their site.
VPS Hosting for WordPress
Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting is a setup in which server resources get allotted to your account. In contrast, Shared Hosting, shares resources with your and other accounts on a server, not allowing you to adjust your share. Therefore VPS hosting is a great choice when you want to have more control over your platform and allow you to have multiple sites on one hosting account.
When it comes to WordPress VPS hosting, it means that the VPS is made for WordPress sites. DreamHost has this option if you wish to have the control of a VPS but focus primarily on WordPress. Another cool part of this is you can create subaccounts on the VPS, meaning you can have the ability to manage multiple sites and clients, extremely helpful as an agency or reseller.
DreamHost offers several choices of VPS servers for WordPress: Basic, Business, Professional, and Enterprise. All of the plans come with unlimited websites, traffic, databases, email addresses, and easy SSL certificates. The only differences in the VPS options are the amount of storage and memory offered.
VPS Basic
The VPS Basic is great for small websites. It comes with 1GB of RAM, 30 GB of SSD storage, and a free SSL certificate. Again this option is great for small businesses or those who are somewhat new to space.
VPS Business
The next level up for the VPS plans is the VPS Business option. It expands upon the storage and memory of the basic plan, offering 60 GB of storage and 2 GB of RAM. This is great for existing sites and those interested in eCommerce.
VPS Professional
Again, as the Business plan does for the Basic plan, the Professional ups the storage and memory, allowing 120 GB of SSD storage and 4 GB of RAM.
VPS Enterprise
Lastly, the Enterprise plan offers the most for multiple websites or one really large site. It doubles both the storage and memory of the Professional plan bringing it up to 240 GB of storage and 8 GB of RAM.
Summary – Our DreamHost Review
In conclusion, after reviewing DreamHost’s various plans, it is clear that they are among the best you can get. If affordability, reliability, and scalability are important to you, we definitely recommend DreamHost as a terrific option for your WordPress hosting needs. Be sure to check out our other reviews for the best WordPress hosting options.