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DreamHost
Independent and transparent
An employee-owned independent host with month-to-month billing, a 97-day money-back guarantee, and an unusually principled stance on privacy. A favorite among developers and privacy-conscious site owners.
Where DreamHost actually fits
DreamHost is best understood as a shared host built for privacy-conscious users, monthly billing fans. Plans start at $2.89/mo/mo and are backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee window, which gives you a realistic runway to test under your own traffic before committing to a renewal. Support is handled via 24/7 chat + email — a detail that matters far more once something breaks at 2 a.m. than it does on the day you sign up.
On performance, our composite Perf Index puts DreamHost at 97/100 across 3 data-center regions. Readiness for modern workloads breaks down as good for SaaS and not suitable for AI-adjacent workloads — numbers we re-check quarterly rather than inherit from a brochure.
Our take: The most transparent pricing in the industry.
The specs that matter
- Uptime
- 100% Uptime Guarantee
- Support
- 24/7 chat + email
- Refund window
- 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee
- Starts at
- $2.89/mo/mo
- Perf Index
- 97/100
- Data center regions
- 3
- SaaS-ready
- Good
- AI workload-ready
- Not suitable
Perf Index is Hostilo’s composite of TTFB, sustained uptime, and median support response — scored 0–100. See our methodology for the full weighting.
DreamHost — findings, not adjectives
4 support audits · How we test
- Support first response
- 8m 04s avg6 chat tickets, Apr–Jul 2026
- TTFB (Frankfurt, cached)
- 198 ms p507-day Pingdom, Apr–Jul 2026
- Refund honored
- 1 of 197-day money-back tested, Apr–Jul 2026
- Renewal multiplier
- 1.7x$2.95 intro → $4.95 renewal, shared starter
- Competitive introductory pricing for shared hosting
- Comprehensive 100% uptime guarantee
- Generous 30-day money-back guarantee
- Award-winning in-house 24/7 customer support
- Fast NVMe SSD storage included
- Steep renewal price increase after first year
- Limited phone support options
- Lower storage on some WordPress plans
- Free domain only for the first year
What you get
DreamHost intro vs. renewal — tracked
Observed intro price over time from our automated checks, plotted against the disclosed renewal rate. Hover any point for the source and date.
Every point is an observed intro price from our automated checks against DreamHost’s public pricing page. The dashed line is the disclosed renewal price. At today's intro, renewal is 3.8× higher.
Intro $2.89/mo/mo, renews at $10.99/mo.
Managed WordPress via DreamPress with built-in caching.
We’d revise DreamHost’s score if…
- If starting_price increases by more than 20%, re-evaluate value for new customers.
- If renewal_price decreases by more than 15%, improve long-term value score.
- If uptime drops below 99.9%, strongly re-evaluate reliability score.
- If support wait times increase or quality declines, reassess customer service rating.
- If refund_policy duration shortens, adjust trust and risk assessment.
Every revision is logged on the public corrections log. If you have evidence that one of the above already applies, email corrections@hostilo.net.
What's actually changed at DreamHost
Every price move, outage, policy change, and ownership shift we’ve verified — chronological, sourced where possible. This is the record behind the score.
- PriceAuto-verified
Intro price changed from $2.95 to $2.89/mo
Detected during automated Q3 2026 audit of DreamHost.
Source ↗ - SupportAuto-verified
Support channels updated: "24/7 chat, ticket-based" → "24/7 chat, email, knowledge base"
Detected during automated Q3 2026 audit of DreamHost.
Source ↗ - FeatureAuto-verified
New features detected: 25 Websites, 25 GB NVMe SSD storage, Unmetered Bandwidth…
Detected during automated Q3 2026 audit of DreamHost.
Source ↗ - FeatureAuto-verified
Features no longer listed: Free domain & SSL, Unlimited bandwidth, Automated WP migrations…
Detected during automated Q3 2026 audit of DreamHost.
Source ↗ - PolicyAuto-verified
Score-revision criteria updated
Detected during automated Q3 2026 audit of DreamHost.
Source ↗ - PriceAuto-verified
Intro price changed from $2.95 to $2.89/mo
Detected during automated Q3 2026 audit of DreamHost.
Source ↗ - SupportAuto-verified
Support channels updated: "24/7 chat, ticket-based" → "24/7 chat + email"
Detected during automated Q3 2026 audit of DreamHost.
Source ↗ - FeatureAuto-verified
New features detected: Free Domain for 1 Year, Free SSL Certificates, Daily Automated Backups…
Detected during automated Q3 2026 audit of DreamHost.
Source ↗ - FeatureAuto-verified
Features no longer listed: Free domain & SSL, Unlimited bandwidth, Automated WP migrations…
Detected during automated Q3 2026 audit of DreamHost.
Source ↗ - PolicyAuto-verified
Score-revision criteria updated
Detected during automated Q3 2026 audit of DreamHost.
Source ↗ - PolicyEditorial
Money-back guarantee shortened on monthly plans
Annual plans still 97 days; monthly plans reduced to 14 days.
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