DreamHost is a solid pick if you want an independent host with honest renewal pricing shown upfront. Its entry Launch plan costs $2.89/mo for the first year, then renews at $10.99/mo, and covers up to 25 sites. The catch: the famous 97-day refund window is now 30 days, and email is free for only the first three months.
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Show me DreamHost’s current price
We love that DreamHost is an independent company not owned by Newfold Digital (the old EIG) or GoDaddy. They’re a high-value host with the right balance of features and cost. Their custom dashboard isn’t everyone’s favorite, and they’re neither the cheapest nor the highest quality host on the market, yet they do have a great balance for most people. Read on for all the pricing, refund, uptime, and plan details of DreamHost.
Key takeaways
- DreamHost retired Shared Starter and Shared Unlimited. The new plans are Launch, Growth and Scale.
- Year two costs 2.6 to 3.8 times year one. Launch goes from $2.89/mo to $10.99/mo.
- The refund window on the new plans is 30 days, not 97.
- DreamHost is still independent and employee-owned, which matters if you are tired of hosts being bought and folded.
Verdict card
| Our score | 7.5/10 (editorial judgment from published plans and terms, not lab tests) |
| Best for | Bloggers and small businesses running several WordPress sites who want an independent host |
| Not for | Anyone who wants phone-first support or the lowest possible year-two price |
| Owner | Independent, employee-owned (no parent company, per DreamHost) |
How much does DreamHost cost after the first year?
It used to be that if you wanted to go with DreamHost, you had to be prepared to shell out a bit more monthly than your average plan. No longer. On intro prices, DreamHost has matched the pricing of the big boys like Bluehost, HostGator, and GoDaddy. And they’re fighting hard.
This is the question most reviews bury. DreamHost doesn’t: its plan cards show the renewal rate right beside the promo price. Here is what they said on September 24, 2026.
| Plan | First year | Renews at | Sites | Storage | Email accounts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Launch | $2.89/mo | $10.99/mo | 25 | 25 GB NVMe | 20 |
| Growth | $3.99/mo | $12.99/mo | 50 | 50 GB NVMe | 40 |
| Scale | $9.99/mo | $25.99/mo | 100 | 100 GB NVMe | 60 |
Prices are for 1-year plans. DreamHost also sells monthly, 2-year and 4-year terms. Sources: DreamHost pricing, Web Hosting overview, plan announcement.
So what’s the catch? You want to stick with a host for the long term, not for subprime pricing that turns into a bait-and-switch, and year two is where you find out. Here’s the thing. If you compare them to more “premium” hosts like WP Engine and Kinsta, you’ll quickly find that DreamHost is extremely affordable. But against other shared hosts, the renewal is what you are really buying. If you just want a simple site at a cheap price and don’t intend to grow, you’re probably better off going with a cheaper option that renews low.
Do the math before you check out. Launch costs about $34.68 for year one and about $131.88 for year two at the listed rates. Fine for a hobby site. Just don’t call it a $3 host.
Perhaps they can’t really be called free since you do pay for the plan, but we like that DreamHost includes a bunch of extra features in their standard shared hosting plan that most other hosts charge extra for: an SSL certificate, daily backups, and a free domain name for the first year. Two costs hide in plain sight. The free domain lasts one year on annual plans, then renews at the normal registration price. And every plan lists its mailboxes as “3 Months Free.” DreamHost’s help center says a Paid Email plan is then added to your account automatically, so plan for an email bill. Ask for the post-trial email price before you commit; we did not find it on the plan pages.
Show me what Launch costs today
What we tested
Nothing yet, and we won’t pretend otherwise. We have not run speed or uptime tests on DreamHost for this rebuild. Everything on this page comes from DreamHost’s own pricing pages, help center and legal terms, read in September 2026. When we run real tests, the results will go here with dates and methods.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Renewal prices are printed next to promo prices.
- Clear site caps (25, 50, 100) instead of vague “unlimited” claims.
- NVMe storage, daily automated backups, free SSL and unmetered bandwidth on every tier, per DreamHost’s plan cards. The features offered rival lots of the premium plans that other shared hosting providers charge extra for.
- Independent and employee-owned, with no parent company, per DreamHost.
Cons
DreamHost has some of the most comprehensive features on the market, but there are a few catches. Consider these points carefully before you pull the trigger.
- The refund window dropped to 30 days.
- Big jump at renewal: Scale goes from $9.99/mo to $25.99/mo.
- Email is free for three months on every plan, then a paid email plan is added.
- Storage caps are real. 25 GB fills fast if you host video or big media libraries.
Clear limits beat “unlimited”
Lots of websites say they offer unlimited bandwidth and disk space. But what they really mean is that they don’t set a clear limit for you; they can decide at any given time if you are using too much space. One too many spikes in traffic and you may find your account has been suspended for abusing the capacity of the shared server. Or, your hosting company may passive-aggressively insist that you upgrade to a more expensive hosting plan.
DreamHost’s new plans go the other way: 25, 50 or 100 sites, with storage caps printed on the plan card and unmetered bandwidth. If you plan on growing a popular site, you know where the ceiling is. When you couple that with the fact that you can always upgrade to a VPS server or a dedicated server, the sky is the limit.
Performance
We have no benchmark numbers of our own, so we won’t quote any. What DreamHost publishes: NVMe SSD storage on all three plans, and a traffic estimate per plan (Growth is sized for about 200,000 monthly visits). Treat those visit counts as the vendor’s sizing guide, not a guarantee.
Is DreamHost’s 100% uptime guarantee real?
While most other providers boast about a 99% uptime guarantee, DreamHost offers a 100% uptime guarantee. If, for any reason, your website is down, they will credit your account with one day of free hosting for every hour that it’s down. It is in the terms of service, but read the small print. You get one day of hosting credit for each hour of downtime, capped at 10% of your next prepaid renewal. The clock starts when you open a support ticket, not when the outage begins. So the guarantee pays out modest credits, and only if you report the problem quickly.
Support
DreamHost says every Web Hosting plan includes 24/7 support. We have not timed support responses ourselves. Sometimes you really just want to talk to a real person with a real voice. If you’re the type that likes to get the same agent on the phone each time, DreamHost isn’t for you. If phone support matters to you, confirm what is included before you buy.
Love cPanel? DreamHost does not.
DreamHost has their own control panel and does not use the typical industry standard cPanel. This isn’t so much a con as it is a matter of preference. DreamHost’s dashboard is significantly more modern looking than cPanel, but can also be intimidating to the uninitiated. And sometimes it can just be irritating to have to learn a new interface, especially if you already interact with dozens of different ones on a daily basis. If you’re really comfortable with cPanel and reluctant to adopt something new, DreamHost may disappoint.
One-click installs
DreamHost runs their scripts in such a way that you can install WordPress at the click of a mouse. The beautiful thing about scripts is that you can use someone else’s script without the need to know any code whatsoever. As a webmaster, you can enjoy the fact that you can make your site look and feel however you want it to, and add in any theme or plug-in that you want in a matter of minutes.
Security
Every plan includes free SSL certificates and daily automated backups, per DreamHost. Growth and Scale add one free monthly DreamShield malware scan per site; Launch does not include it, according to DreamHost’s plan announcement.
What happened in DreamHost’s October 2026 security incident?
On Friday, October 23, 2026, DreamHost found that an unauthorized third party had broken into the server behind its web-based File Manager at files.dreamhost.com. It published the details on October 29 (DreamHost).
- What was exposed: the attacker used a vulnerability in the third-party software the File Manager runs on. It got the FTP/SFTP usernames and passwords of people who had logged into the File Manager, plus the webmail logins of a limited number of users. In a small number of cases, DreamHost believes mailbox contents may have been viewed, and it says it is contacting those customers one by one.
- What DreamHost says was not exposed: it found no evidence, so far, that control panel logins or billing details were accessed. It does not store full card numbers.
- Who may be affected: you, or an FTP/SFTP user on your account, logged into File Manager between about August 2026 and October 23, 2026, or a mailbox on your account was signed out on or after October 23. DreamHost puts the share of affected email and FTP/SFTP accounts at “well under approximately 10%.”
- What to do: affected passwords were reset, and only the account holder can set new ones from the control panel. DreamHost also recommends unique passwords for every user, updating saved passwords in mail and FTP apps, checking your site files for changes you don’t recognize, and checking webmail forwarding rules and filters. Change the password anywhere else you reused it.
The investigation was still open when we read the notice on October 30, 2026. We will update this section if DreamHost changes its findings.
Who owns DreamHost?
Its employees, by its own account. Founded in 1997 by undergraduates at Harvey Mudd College, DreamHost is among the veterans of American web hosting companies: four college friends decided to venture into the online realm of business and started it as the New Dream Network. DreamHost describes itself as independent and employee-owned and says it has no parent company. If you have watched other hosts get bought and folded into bigger groups, that independence is the main reason to look here.
Bottom line
If you know what you’re doing, DreamHost can be a dream come true. We love that DreamHost has been around since 1997, they’re independent, and they offer good options for beginners. We’d definitely recommend DreamHost to folks who have considered upgrading to a more expensive shared hosting option as their site outgrows bottom-of-the-basement hosting. We recommend DreamHost for shared hosting power users who know they can get a great bang for their buck, as long as they budget for year two. If you’re deciding between DreamHost and other mass-market hosts, DreamHost deserves a hard look.
Who should pick an alternative?
- You want cheap renewals above all. Compare year-two totals, not promo rates, on our best web hosting list.
- You need a big-brand phone line. See DreamHost vs GoDaddy.
- You want managed WordPress with staging and caching tuned for you. Look at DreamHost vs SiteGround or WP Engine.
- You need a 90-day-plus refund window. DreamHost no longer offers one on the new plans.
Methodology
We read DreamHost’s pricing page, help center, plan announcement and terms of service on September 24, 2026, and recorded each price with its renewal rate. Our score weighs year-two cost, plan limits, refund terms, ownership stability and support promises. No lab tests are included yet.
FAQ
Was DreamHost hacked in October 2026?
Yes, in part. On October 23, 2026, DreamHost found that an attacker had accessed the server running its web File Manager and obtained FTP/SFTP logins and some webmail logins. DreamHost says it found no evidence that control panel logins or billing details were accessed. If you logged into File Manager between about August and October 23, 2026, treat those passwords as compromised.
Is DreamHost good for beginners?
Yes, if you mostly run WordPress sites. Annual plans come with a free domain for a year, and every plan has free SSL and daily backups. Beginners should budget for the renewal price, not the promo.
Does DreamHost still have a 97-day money-back guarantee?
No. DreamHost used to offer a 97-day money back guarantee, longer than most hosting providers. The standard is a 30-day money back guarantee, and that is now what DreamHost offers. DreamHost’s refunds article now gives a full refund on Web Hosting plans canceled within the first 30 days, and the plan cards say 30-day money-back guarantee. Some third-party reviews still quote 97 days, so trust the checkout terms.
How long is the introductory price valid?
The introductory price that you pay DreamHost when signing up for a new hosting account is valid until the end of your first term. After that, Launch renews at $10.99/mo on an annual plan.
Can I run several websites on one DreamHost account?
Yes. If you want to run several websites for your various hobbies, personal interests and business ventures, Launch covers 25 sites, Growth 50 and Scale 100. You can easily have a different domain name for each interest, hobby or business venture that comes to mind.
Can I still buy DreamHost Shared Unlimited?
No. DreamHost says Shared Unlimited is no longer available for purchase. New buyers choose between Launch, Growth and Scale. If you are on an old plan, ask support what your next renewal will cost.
Is DreamHost owned by Newfold Digital or GoDaddy?
Neither. DreamHost says it is independent and employee-owned, with no parent company.
How much does DreamHost cost per year?
Launch runs about $34.68 for the first year and about $131.88 for year two, based on the listed monthly rates.
Show me DreamHost’s plans side by side
Sources
- DreamHost pricing
- Web Hosting overview, DreamHost Knowledge Base
- New hosting plans announcement
- Shared Unlimited hosting overview
- DreamHost terms of service
- Refunds and account credits
- About DreamHost
- DreamHost: An Independent in a Corporate Hosting Industry
- DreamHost overview, DreamHost Knowledge Base
- DreamHost Singapore data center release
- DreamHost: October security incident
Related
- DreamHost company hub
- DreamHost pricing
- DreamHost vs HostGator
- Hosting.com review (formerly A2 Hosting)
- Best web hosting
Update log
- : Rewrote and fact-checked the page: the first full update since 2023; A2 Hosting appears under its new name, Hosting.com. Kept Joe’s original writing where it still holds.
- : Prices and facts checked against the cited sources, read September 24, 2026 to October 30, 2026.
