Review: Dreamhost (Web Hosting)

Overview

Dreamhost provide web hosting, domain name registration, and a heck of a lot more (like one-click installs of popular software such as WordPress and Joomla). They’re perfect for bloggers, small online business owners, or anyone who needs a site that’s a step up from the “hobby” level.

Price

Although Dreamhost proudly proclaim that you can get hosting from $5.95/month, this does rely on you buying 10 years’ worth in advance! More realistically, you’re looking at $9.95/month if you pay for one year, or $10.95/month if you pay monthly.

What’s Included?

I’ll spare you all the techy details: for pretty much anyone reading this, you can do anything you want to (and lots of things you’ll never have considered) with your Dreamhost space, from running a blog to a forum to a shop.

Dreamhost give you a ton of space and bandwidth (I have 12 sites on one account there, at present, and no problems whatsoever – though they have upgraded me to unlimited space!) You could have a very graphics and video-heavy site on Dreamhost without any problems.

You also get a free domain name chucked in (at a value of $9.99).

Good Stuff

I’ve used Dreamhost for my web hosting since I started out blogging. I needed somewhere I could install the WordPress software, and they fitted the bill.

A year and a half later, I’m still an extremely happy customer! I’ve found the one-click install system absolutely brilliant: it makes it incredibly easy to set up WordPress on a new site, and you can upgrade in just the same way. Make sure you use the “Advanced” one-click install though: it’s really very simple, and it gives you full control.

My Dreamhost control panel is very simple and straightforward to use: unlike many hosting/domain registration companies which I’ve used, Dreamhost’s interface is intuitive, clear and fast.

Dreamhost are also a green, carbon-neutral hosting company. If your online activities cause you qualms of environmental conscience, this should help alleviate them.

Oh, and they have an even more strange and random monthly newsletter than IWOOT…

Tech Support

I want to give a special mention to the Dreamhost tech support team here: a very friendly and capable bunch. While setting up this very blog, I needed to delete some undeleteable files (don’t you love it when that happens?) and sent Dreamhost a support request. They got the files removed for me in under 8 minutes: I even have the incident documented on Twitter!

Bother, can’t proceed until I delete two undeletable files. Emailed support. Same problem as here: http://bit.ly/VwNIQ Anyone know a fix? – 2:39 AM Jul 16th from web

Then…

Wow. That has to be the fastest tech support response EVER. Jay H from Dreamhost, you are my new favourite person. – 2:47 AM Jul 16th from web

(I wasn’t actually up working on this blog at 2.47am: I’m in Britian, so it was a slightly saner hour!)

Bad Stuff

I have almost nothing  negative to say about Dreamhost: pretty impressive, given that most tech-type companies bug me (you should hear me rant about Virgin Media…)

I did have a few hours of downtime on a few isolated occasions, fairly early in my time using Dreamhost. As mentioned above, their technical support team were always absolutely fantastic; friendly, helpful, and always willing to go the extra mile. The problems were resolved very quickly.

When they needed to move my site to a new server, they warned me in advance, so I could check my sites for any problems or downtime (everything was absolutely fine) and they also gave me unlimited bandwidth and space for life, due to the inconvenience (not that there was any!) I was pretty darn impressed.

Verdict

I’d wholeheartedly recommend Dreamhost for any blogger, small business owner, or hobbiest needing to run a site forum or similar. It’s not the cheapest hosting you’ll find anywhere – but frankly, it’s worth paying for the peace of mind, the simple and clear interface, and the great technical support (and online documentation).

Because I love them so much, I’ve even got a discount code with them, for my lovely readers: put in “aliventures” (without quotes) when you register, and you’ll get an extra free domain (giving you two free domains). In my online experience, I’m not good at stopping with just one site – and I imagine you’ll find a good project to use that second domain too!