Dreamhost stands out as a leading web host, serving thousands of businesses worldwide. In this comprehensive guide, I’ll break down the DreamHost pricing plans and share insider tips on how to maximize your savings based on my years of experience with the platform.
If you’ve already read my review of DreamHost, you might be eager to sign up. However, before you commit, let’s dive into the intricacies of DreamHost’s pricing structure. This knowledge will help you select the ideal plan that aligns with both your needs and budget constraints.
DreamHost Pricing Overview
DreamHost offers a diverse range of web hosting services to cater to various needs and budgets. Here’s a quick rundown of their five main hosting types:
- Shared web hosting ⇣: $2.95 – $4.95 per month. Ideal for beginners and small websites.
- DreamPress WordPress hosting ⇣: $16.95 – $71.95 per month. Optimized for WordPress sites with higher traffic.
- VPS hosting ⇣: $10 – $80 per month. Offers more control and resources for growing sites.
- DreamCompute cloud hosting: $4.50 – $48 per month. Scalable solution for developers and high-traffic sites.
- Dedicated server hosting: $149 – $279 per month. Maximum performance for large-scale websites and applications.
As someone who’s used DreamHost for various projects over the years, I can attest that their pricing is competitive, especially when you factor in the reliability and features they offer. However, choosing the right plan requires careful consideration of your specific needs.
In my experience, most small to medium-sized businesses find the shared hosting or DreamPress plans sufficient to start with. These plans offer a good balance of performance and cost-effectiveness. As your site grows, you can easily upgrade to VPS or dedicated hosting without any hassle.
One thing I appreciate about DreamHost is their transparent pricing. Unlike some hosts that lure you in with low introductory rates only to hit you with steep renewal fees, DreamHost’s pricing remains relatively stable. They also offer a 97-day money-back guarantee, which is one of the longest in the industry and shows their confidence in their service.
To help you make an informed decision, I’ll dive deeper into each hosting type, highlighting the key features, pros, and cons based on my firsthand experience. This detailed breakdown will guide you in selecting the plan that best suits your website’s needs and your budget.
Dreamhost Pricing Plans
Dreamhost offers Shared Web Hosting, a Managed WordPress Hosting solution called DreamPress, and VPS plans.
All their plans come with 24/7 support and come with up to 97-days in money-back guarantee.
That means, if you are unhappy with the service at any time within the first 97-days, you can ask for your money back.
Another great thing about DreamHost is that they don’t increase prices when it’s time to renew your plan.
With DreamHost, your hosting plan will renew at the exact same price that you originally signed up for.
All their web hosting plans come with an easy control panel that lets you manage your website and all the other products you get with it. You can use this control panel to install applications such as WordPress and Magento with one-click, and you can manage other products such as email and backups.
DreamHost Shared Hosting
DreamHost shared hosting plans are their cheapest type of hosting. All shared plans come with unlimited traffic, free domain name, SSD storage, free SSL certificate, WordPress pre-installed, and free automated WordPress migrations.
| Shared Starter | Shared Unlimited | |
|---|---|---|
| Websites | 1 | Unlimited |
| Traffic | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Bandwidth | Unmetered | Unmetered |
24/7 Support | Yes | Yes |
SSD Storage | Included | Included |
SSL Certificate | Included | Included |
Free Domain | Included | Included |
Starting At | ||
Monthly Cost |
DreamHost DreamPress WordPress Hosting
Dreamhost also offers DreamPress, a managed WordPress hosting service. It is designed for performance and can give your WordPress site a huge boost in performance.
All the DreamPress plans come with Unlimited Email and 1-Click Staging. Here’s what their DreamPress plans look like:
| DreamPress | DreamPress Plus | DreamPress Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|
Websites | 1 | 1 | 1 + Staging Site |
Visitors | ~100k | ~300k | ~1M+ |
Bandwidth | Unmetered | Unmetered | Unmetered |
SSD Storage | 30 GB | 60 GB | 120 GB |
Customer Support | 24/7 Access | 24/7 Access | Priority 24/7 |
Jetpack | Free | Professional | Professional |
Unlimited CDN | Not Included | Included | Included |
Free Migration | Included | Included | Included |
1-Click Staging | Included | Included | Included |
Starting at | |||
Monthly Cost |
DreamHost VPS Hosting
Dreamhost also offers VPS Plans. A VPS (or Virtual Private Server) offers you complete control over how your website works and how the server behaves.
It also offers better performance than most other types of web hosting. But they require some heavy-lifting on the technical side to maintain:
| VPS Basic | VPS Business | VPS Professional | VPS Enterprise | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RAM | 1 GB | 2 GB | 4 GB | 8 GB |
| SSD Storage | 30 GB | 60 GB | 120 GB | 240 GB |
| Unlimited Email | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Websites | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| SSL Certificate | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Starting at | ||||
| Monthly Cost |
Which Dreamhost Pricing Plan Is Right For You?
Dreamhost offers you a lot of different solutions for your web hosting needs. Even though Dreamhost’s pricing is one of the simplest in the market, there’s still a lot of room for confusion if this is your first time picking a web host or if you aren’t tech-savvy.
Here’s a quick cheat sheet to help you pick the right type of web hosting. Once you know which type of web hosting is right for you, head over to the next section to find the best plan for your business.
Is Shared Hosting Right For You?
If you are just starting out and want to launch your first website, this is the best type of web hosting for you. It’s the cheapest option of all and lets you scale your operations with just a click.
Dreamhost’s shared hosting plans start at only $2.59 per month (or $4.95 if you prefer to pay monthly).
Which Dreamhost Shared Hosting Plan Is Right For You?
The Starter Shared Hosting plan is right for you if:
- You only have one website: If you only own one website, this plan is perfect for you. It comes with everything you will need to start and grow your website. It comes with unlimited storage and bandwidth.
- You are a beginner: If you are starting a hobby site or if this is your first time, this is the best plan for you as it is the cheapest one. It is one of the cheapest on the market.
The Unlimited Shared Hosting plan is right for you if:
- You own multiple websites: The starter plan only supports one website. If you want to host multiple websites, this is the plan for you. It supports unlimited websites meaning you can set up as many websites on it as you want.
- You want email on your domain name: If you want to set up email addresses on your domain name, this plan comes with unlimited email. That means you can set up an email address for all the employees in your business.
Is DreamPress Hosting Right For You?
If you are a WordPress user or want to launch a new WordPress site, DreamPress is the best choice for you. It is managed WordPress hosting optimized for high-performance. It will let you focus on growing your business without worrying about the technical side of things.
I recommend DreamPress for anyone who wants to launch a WordPress site especially if you are launching a business site.
Which Dreamhost DreamPress Hosting Plan Is Right For You?
The DreamPress plan is for you if:
- You aren’t expecting a lot of visitors: If you are just launching your website or if you aren’t expecting more than 100k visitors in your first few months, this is the plan for you. It is the cheapest DreamPress plan that comes with 100k visitors, Unmetered Bandwidth, 30 GB storage, and Unlimited Email.
- You don’t need unlimited CDN: This is the only DreamPress plan that doesn’t include unlimited CDN. The other two plans include it. A CDN can boost the speed of your website by serving content from the server closest to your visitors.
The DreamPress Plus plan is for you if:
- You need more storage: DreamPress Plus comes with 60 GB SSD storage space. The DreamPress starter plan only offers 30 GB of storage.
- Your business is growing fast: If your business is growing fast or if you are expecting a lot of visitors, you need this plan. It allows up to 300k visitors every month. The starter plan only allows up to 100k visitors.
- You need unlimited CDN: If you want unlimited CDN for your website, you need to subscribe to either the DreamPress Plus plan or Pro plan.
The DreamPress Pro plan is for you if:
- You need a staging site: A staging site allows you to create a development version of your website that isn’t available to your visitors. It can be useful for testing and reviewing purposes.
- Your business is growing REALLY fast: If you are expecting a lot of visitors to your website, this is the plan for you. It allows up to 1 million visitors every month. That’s more visitors than most websites need even if you are running ads.
- You need priority support: Pro is the only DreamPress plan that offers Priority WordPress support 24/7. If that’s something you are looking for, this is the plan for you.
Is VPS Hosting Right For You?
VPS Hosting is generally not recommended for beginners or anyone who doesn’t like dealing with the technical side of running a website. Unless you know how to control a server or know someone who can help you with that, this isn’t the best web hosting for you.
Try DreamPress first. But if you need high-performance, scalable hosting that outperforms all other types of web hosting, this is the one for you.
Which Dreamhost VPS Hosting Plan Is Right For You?
There are only two differences between all four VPS plans that Dreamhost offers. One of them is the difference in RAM. The other is the difference in storage.
These plans are designed to be scalable. They scale as your business grows. You can upgrade or downgrade your VPS any time with just a click.
I recommend starting with the Basic VPS plan. It comes with 1 GB of RAM and 30 GB of SSD Storage, which is a configuration that is enough to handle thousands of visitors every month. It only costs $10 per month.
If you get more than 30k visitors a month, I recommend starting with the Business VPS plan. It comes with 2 GB RAM and 60 GB storage, which is enough to handle a lot of visitors to your website.
It only costs $20 per month and offers more resources than what most websites need.
The number of visitors a VPS server can handle isn’t something you can calculate because it depends on thousands of factors such as the operating system, your software stack, your website’s code, etc.
But the good thing about a VPS is that once you set up your website, you can upgrade your VPS server’s specs with just a click. That means you can scale your website without having to deal with any technicalities once you set it up.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Dreamhost cost?
DreamHost offers four different types of hosting plans: Shared hosting, from $2.59 to $10.95 per month, DreamPress WordPress hosting from $16.95 to $79.95 per month, VPS hosting from $10 to $120 per month, and Dedicated servers from $149 to $399 per month.
Is Dreamhost good for beginners?
Dreamhost’s support team is available around the clock. They are helpful, responsive, and will help you out of any technical problems you face. If you aren’t sure about your computer skills, you might want to start your first website with the DreamPress hosting solution. It is the easiest way to start and run a WordPress site. And the best part is that it comes with everything you will need to start and grow your website.
Does Dreamhost offer a free domain name?
Dreamhost gives you a free domain name when you subscribe to an annual Shared Hosting or DreamPress Hosting plan. They even throw in free WHOIS privacy protection with the domain name, which domain registrars such as GoDaddy charge a premium for.
Is there a free trial to Dreamhost?
Dreamhost, being a web hosting company, doesn’t offer a free trial. But that doesn’t mean that shouldn’t scare you as their shared web hosting solutions come with a 97-day Money-Back Guarantee. And their DreamPress hosting plans come with a 30-day Money-Back Guarantee.
Is DreamHost better than Bluehost?
DreamHost is aimed at users who have a bit of experience with hosting websites. Bluehost, on the other hand, is aimed at total beginners who need a little bit of hand-holding. See my Bluehost vs DreamHost comparison for more information.
Wrap Up
Having used DreamHost for various projects over the years, I can confidently say they offer solid value for most website owners. Their shared hosting plans are a great starting point, with prices from $2.95 to $4.95 per month. These work well for small business sites or personal blogs.
If you’re running a WordPress site with growing traffic, consider their DreamPress plans. Starting at $16.95/month, they provide optimized performance and managed services that save you time and headaches.
For those needing more power, their VPS options ($10-$80/month) offer a good middle ground between shared and dedicated hosting. I’ve found their VPS plans particularly useful for web applications or sites with unpredictable traffic spikes.
My advice? Start with shared hosting if you’re new or have a small site. Upgrade to DreamPress or VPS as you grow. Take advantage of their 97-day money-back guarantee to test things out. And don’t forget – their pricing is straightforward without hidden renewal hikes, which I really appreciate.
Ultimately, choose based on your site’s needs and budget. DreamHost’s range of plans means you can easily scale up as your online presence expands.
