DreamHost Review
Detailed Reviews
DreamHost is one of the Web hosts that have managed to develop a reputation of a robust host with customized hosting solution featuring reliable servers. However, its unique feature is its uptime guarantee of 100%, which is very rarely on offer by other hosting services. Moreover, it is a green hosting service provider believing in protecting the environment from otherwise server emissions.
With the current focus on increasing its support staff to overcome the support-based dissatisfaction of its customers, it is a fact that the company is placing a strong focus on customer support and service. Nevertheless, the presence of 97 days of money back, 100% uptime, and free trial keep up the reliability factor. Its shared hosting plans are simply suitable for a variety of purposes: hosting sites, blogs, ecommerce sites, and client sites.
Shared Hosting Plans
As per the billing interval, there are three plans: monthly, 1-year, and 2-year, each varying in terms of price. Of all, the 2-year plan is the most affordable one. No matter which one you choose, the Web host offers free setup, free domain name, and free domain privacy protection.
Features
The most notable feature of DreamHost is its green hosting service. It has invested in clean, renewable energy by setting up solar panels or using a green power utility called Renewable Energy Credits (REC). Similarly, for neutralizing the harmful emissions, it has offsets or Emission Reduction Credits guaranteeing effective eradication of the remaining impact.
The shared hosting plan, regarding its billing period, offers unlimited disk storage, bandwidth, domain hosting, email accounts (MAP and SMTP enabled), and 24/7 support. Apart from these unlimited features, you even get 1-click WordPress installer, one domain name free for one year, SFTP/FTP and SSL support, Debian Linux OS, cPanel with one-click installer, and easy-to-use customized Web-based control panel.
Custom Control Panel
This is fully customized, which might not tempt you if used to standard cPanel or Plesk. You do work with cPanel but the company has customized it. However, it is truly easy to use, as it is easy to find all the essential hosting stuff, right from billing details, email and MYSQL management options, and scripting and tools. In the admin panel, you can easily find the company’s own one-click installer for scripts and apps such as Media Wiki, Moodle, Drupal, Joomla, WordPress, wikis, ecommerce shopping portals, forums, and phpbb. For ecommerce, you get PCI-compliant tools! The app list is not that robust as Fantastico but you can find most popular scripting languages and apps that you have to install manually. The languages include Ruby on Rail, Full CGI, Python, Perl, and Full Unix Shell.
Uptime
DreamHost claims 100% uptime guarantee, perhaps because of its multiple redundancies in the system keeping you connected. To be specific, UPS system, a back-up generator, and multiple redundant gigabit Web connections retain the system up at all times. The company further offers 1-day free hosting for every hour of downtime featuring disrupted emails, sites, databases due to system failure.
Extras
Regardless of the plan billing period, you get PHP5 support, SSL security, raw log files, Server Side Includes (SSI), Subversion Repository (SVR), IPv6 support, and $100 Adwords credit. Further, you can invest in add-on services such as SSL certificates, unique IP address, and premium support.
Conclusion
DreamHost certainly offers an efficient shared hosting plan to get your site online. It is robust and feature-rich, which attracts entry-level sites, blogs, and small business sites.