DreamHost coupons, deals and short review

DreamHost has many features not typically included with most web hosting packages, such as the unique DreamPress upgrade, a free domain for life, and a free two week trial. Of course there is plenty of bad to go along with using this host, most notably the fact that they want you to pay for phone or live chat support, an $8.95 price tag, a mess of a knowledge base, and no video tutorials for those who need visual ‘how to’ tutorials.

More About the Company

DreamHost was founded in 1997 and has its main headquarters in Brea, California. The company that owns DreamHost is New Dream Network, which is a company that was built up by four college students. One of the students, Simon Anderson, is the CEO of the hosting company.

Features

Standard features include unlimited bandwidth and disk space, unlimited domains, an impressive 97 day money back guarantee, a DreamPress option, 100% up-time guarantee, a two week free trial, and best of all a free domain for life. The DreamPress option is great if you are looking to start a WordPress site as DreamPress gives you many added features such as automatic backup via cloud storage, enhanced performance, a ‘dreampress team’ that will take care of WordPress management, and extra WordPress security.

Notable features:
Unlimited Disk Space
Unlimited Bandwidth
1 click install scripts such as WordPress
Free Domain for lifeDreamPress
Free Trial
Custom Control panel

Reliability

A unique reliability plus to using DreamHost web hosting is that they guarantee 100% up-time with every single one of their hosting plans. If your website were to ever go down, DreamHost will credit you with one free day of hosting for every single hour that the your website was down for. This sound great, and it is, but the calculation is based on the moment you get a support ticket. DreamHost has two data center locations, both of them are in LA and are shared facilities, though DreamHost has a large share in them.

Ease of Use

Unlike most web hosting companies, DreamHost web hosting uses a custom control panel called Web Panel. This web panel is pretty easy to use, though it comes with a slight learning curve, especially to those who are used to cPanel.

First the good: web panel has most of the same features as cPanel with a few differences. In web panel you are able to access billing and support from the same dashboard; this is great for convenience since you need only remember one username and one password.

Now the bad: If you are a regular cPanel user you are almost certainly going to find web panel awkward and it may take you a slightly longer time getting used to it.

Price and Current Coupons

$8.95 is price if you are looking to buy the shared hosting plan. This is one of the higher prices for web hosting services, though it does come with unique features such as a free domain name and the DreamPress option. This is somewhat offset by the fact that you must pay for two of the four help and support options. As to their current deals – how about a nice round $50 OFF! To take advantage of this deal just click here and copy and paste the coupon code at checkout.

Help and Support

What I most dislike about DreamHost web hosting is that they have precious few options for any technical support you may need. Shockingly, DreamHost does not offer any phone or live-chat support unless you are willing to pay a small fee for it (for every other hosting service on our top ten list, these support options are free). In addition to this the “knowledge base” is a mess. Most web-hosting services offer a well organized information base, but DreamHost offers you a hard to read, clustered Wikipedia page, with article tutorials exclusively – no video tutorials at all.

Pros: DreamPress feature option, free domain for life, free trial, custom control panel, 1 click install, backup of data, great for WordPress websites, 100% up-time guarantee.

Cons: You must pay for phone and live chat support, hosting is pricier compared to other hosting services, web panel has a slight learning curve, knowledge base is clustered and hard to look at, no video tutorials.

Folks interested in this DreamHost review also checked our Stablepoint review and deals and this guide on how to pick a great web hosting company. Enjoy!