It can be difficult to select a website host among myriad of available options. I’ve recently moved to DreamHost. Here are a few reasons why.

DreamHost Logo

Why I Moved to DreamHost

1. DreamHost is one of the hosting services that WordPress.org itself recommends. My previous host—which shall remain nameless—consistently had issues. The server rarely went down, so their uptime guarantee was technically met. But, my site would often be unavailable or would load painfully slowly. With this experience, I was intent on finding a new host that would provide much better service. A lesson I learned from this is that there are hosting bargains to be had. But, you should expect to pay around $4–10 per month for shared hosting. Hosts with regular rates substantially below that (not including limited-time or startup discounts) may not perform as well.
2. I’d previously used DreamHost to host a website for an academic institute. That website has since been taken down. But, the entire experience with DreamHost while developing and maintaining that site was quite good.
3. DreamHost allows unlimited traffic and offers unlimited storage—within reason.
4. DreamHost’s sales support was incredibly responsive to questions I had as I was looking for a new host. From experience, I know this kind of responsiveness sadly isn’t always carried through consistently once one becomes a customer. My prior experience with DreamHost suggested they might do exactly this, though. During the site migration process, the support staff was extremely helpful and responsive. And I’ve been very happy to find that to continue to be the case with the few inquiries I’ve sent them since.
5. Installing WordPress.org on DreamHost is a breeze. The account setup process allows you to opt in to have WordPress installed for you in the background. In my case, things were a touch more complicated since I wanted to set up the site at DreamHost before sending jdavidstark.com visitors there. The instructions DreamHost provides for how to achieve this are quite good, and the technical support folks were most helpful in addressing a couple things I overlooked.
6. In addition to dedicated and “DreamPress” hosting, DreamHost offers both shared and VPS, or “Virtual Private Server” hosting. In both shared and VPS hosting, the same server will provide access to multiple websites. But, under VPS hosting, the server’s resources are “more isolated which improves performance and helps to maintain stability” (Virtual Private Server (VPS) overview). With my previous host, I suspected the difficulties I experienced were all on their end and not with my site itself. But, just in case that assessment proved incorrect, finding a host with a reasonably-priced VPS option was a definite plus if I needed to go that route. In addition, if you decide to switch to VPS in the middle of a term where you’ve already paid for shared hosting, DreamHost indicated they would apply the unused balance paid for shared hosting to the upgraded VPS hosting.
7. DreamHost’s shared hosting is quite competitive with the other major host options I was considering. In addition, DreamHost offers special pricing for educators. This pricing applies to the “shared unlimited” hosting plan, which is a step up from the “shared starter.”

A Bonus Reason

Yes, this post is titled “7 Reasons ….” But, there is a final bonus reason I’m glad to have DreamHost as a hosting partner, even though I only learned about this reason after I made the switch.

DreamHost has an affiliate program that actually benefits new customers who sign up through referrals from existing customers.

So, if you’re looking for a web host and you want to give DreamHost a try, go through this referral link, and you’ll save $50 on the hosting plan you purchase. With basic hosting at $2.59 per month, that’s over a year and a half of free hosting (!).

Conclusion

If you’re looking for a web host, I hope these thoughts have given you some helpful reasons to consider DreamHost.

Their support team will be the best ones to answer questions about their various services. But, if you have questions about what I’ve mentioned here, certainly feel free to add those in the comments below, and I’ll be happy to respond as helpfully as I can.

Or, if you already use DreamHost, why did you choose them?