Below is our review for DreamHost. It is
based on our ten plus years of experience reviewing Web Hosts and Host
Finders. It is based on our
proven test procedures,
and on our
reader's reviews. This review is also based on the feedback we get
from our reader's comments, and emails as well as from the our
interaction with the business and Web developer/design communities in
the numerous online forums. Much of this review was conducted by a
non-paid independent panel of experienced Web developers that are very
good at what they do. We know that all of that combined makes our review
process different from anyone else's in this industry, but to top it off
it is important for you to know that unlike other review sites, we
Purchase the Web Hosting services we review. That's right. The
absolute BEST way to review Web Host services is by actually using those
services and comparing them to other Web Host services that have been
similarly tested with the same testing criteria. We do these tests
using an anonymous account so the Web Hosts will not treat us any
differently than any other customer. Our process is expensive, but it is
what we do because we want to be the best, and we want you to have the
best information possible.
Whether you agree with this review or not, if you have some experience
with DreamHost please let us know what your thoughts
are in the comments below, and by doing your own
your own review of DreamHost.
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Here's a Tip for you: We have never accepted money to give a
company a better rating. Our reputation is more important than that.
However, even though the vast majority of the "top
10" review type sites you see in the search engines appear to be genuine, they
actually base their lists of "Top Hosting Companies" on the affiliate
rates (or other advertising revenue) they
receive from the companies they list. The Web Hosts they list may be
good but the rating method used is faulty.
In our opinion, you should NEVER trust those types of review and rating
sites.
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Editor's Note: DreamHost is a pretty well known and very well liked Web Host. We searched high and low for disparaging remarks about them and could not find any. What we found was quite the opposite. Their customers really like DreamHost.
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Web Host Review:
DreamHost
"Designer Web Hosting!"
 This Review covers Unix Linux services
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Review Rating |
88 |
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| Individual Score Breakdown |
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| Support |
(0-20) |
17 |
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| Reliability |
(0-20) |
17 |
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| Features |
(0-15) |
14 |
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| Value |
(0-15) |
14 |
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| Network |
(0-15) |
13 |
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| Industry |
(0-15) |
13 |
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Overview:
DreamHost has been in the hosting business since April 1997. They started small and now they host more than 30,000 sites. DreamHost offers E-Commerce, Database and Dedicated Server hosting utilizing the Unix operating system.
When last we looked at DreamHost (February of 2005) our Independent Review Panel enjoyed the features, dtat transfer, control panel, and support. They felt they were loosing in the area's of slowdowns to server performance in 2005 and the lack of phone support. during our re-look of DreamHost we found that they still had excellent value and reported no performance loss during our review. However phone support hasn't been added.
Hosting solutions at DreamHost pack a lot of features such as spam filters for all email accounts, unlimited MySQL databases, PHP, Crontabs, CGI, SSL (Secure Socket Layer), SSI (Server Side Includes) Real Media, Ruby on Rails, and a lot more come standard with all virtual hosting accounts.
The amount of Data Transfer and Web space have been increased to the point of ludicrousness. Monthly Data Transfer on the low end plan is set to 1 Tera byte (1000 GB). Our Independent Review Panel thought that is simply a marketing ploy, but their Terms of Service do not have any hidden agendas, so if you do need tons of data transfer they have it in large quantities. Rounding out the features, DreamHost provides their customers with an easy to use and powerful control panel to aid them in administration of their Web site.
Support is handled via 24/7 email, a large searchable Knowledge Base, forums, and a technical support call back option. Also DreamHost is one of the first Web Hosts to use a Support Wiki, which has replaced their previous knowledge base. True to the form of a Wiki, the new face of DreamHosts knowledge center is easy to browse and search.
Our Independent Review Panel found that DreamHost answers their email at the industry average and their forums were a good place to go for help. However, we believe that the best support is 24/7 toll-free phone support answered by a well trained staff and though email is responded to quickly, DreamHost's support falls somewhat short of this measuring stick.
DreamHost carries a no-questions asked 30-day Money Back Guarantee on all plans.
With the overselling additions, many customers have been complaining about slow downs on Web page load times. Server stability has also been called into question. As with all hosting plans, the customer needs to make the call as to what is best for them. Our Independent Review Panel thinks that the prices for what you get is amazing as long as you are looking at a non-mission critical Web page.
Verdict:
DreamHost has a lot of strengths. Their support is reliable and they offer substantial bandwidth and web space. The DreamHost support is staff is also very helpful. However, if they offered some more features, lowered setup fees, and provided phone support they would be truly great.
Pros:
Lots of Features • Tons of Data Transfer • Excellent Control Panel • 24/7 Email Support • Wiki Knowledgebase • 30-Day Money Back Guarantee
Cons:
Lack of Phone Support • Recent Slowdowns in Server Proformance
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In Their Words:
On Technical Support
"We offer the same unparalleled technical support free to all our customers, no matter what your plan! You can contact support at any time day or night, every day of the year via email at support@dreamhost.com or through our web panel. From there you can also access your full support history including all account-related emails ever sent to you! We do not offer phone support currently as we feel it would be impossible to offer the quality services we do at the price points we do were we to take it on. However, our customers generally agree they'd rather send an email and have their solution within a few hours than wait on hold for hours just to talk to somebody on the phone who doesn't even understand their problem! We have some of the happiest customers in the industry, mainly due to our very high quality support team!"
On Unix
"Our choice to not provide the Microsoft NT operating system for any of our hosting products is one that is a common subject of inquiry. We feel strongly that the best products available for the job of serving Internet content are those based on Unix, and that the efforts of the open source community specifically (Linux, Apache, MySQL and so on) are best of breed. To use any NT or NT-related products would be to us a vote of no confidence against the very technology that made it possible for us to compete in this industry in the first place! It turns out that once our customers give open source alternatives a chance they are overjoyed with the performance and feature set available to them. Of course, some will decide to go with someone else and use NT, and for those we respect their decision. Our only request is that if in the future the need ever does arise for a Unix-based solution they'll give us another shot!"
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Comments From Customers & Forums:
WebHostingTalk
From TheMMIz
"While I think you can get a better deal, you really gotta weigh your priorities. DreamHost offered me great support, and If I remember correctly walked me through the FTP process, and answered all my support questions. I have not a SINGLE negative thing to say about them.
Now that I am in more advanced stuff, I enjoy the ability to have a CGI-BIN and other things, but for a beginner, I would definitely suggest DreamHost. They best part is, as you grow you can upgrade to a higher plan if you so wish. Like they said, they have a 30 money back guarantee, so you have nothing to lose."
Google Groups
From Mel
I'm a DH client, and as of yet (fingers crossed), I have yet to have a problem. The one time that I did have a question about my account,
Customer Service answered my e-mail within two hours, by a real person. He was polite and informative,
and asked me to write back to confirm that my problem had been solved.
WebHostingTalk.com
From Hai2u
"i've been with DH for 1 year+ now and i'm very happy with them.
there have been outages on the sql servers, but they're fixed very quickly and their support staff always lets me know whats going on.
i'd reccomend DH to anyone."
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