I have been hosted by DreamHost for a month, and there is a few things that I would like to say about them. There is good side about them, and also bad side.

Why I like DreamHost:

• Generous disk space and bandwidth. The cheapest plan on DreamHost offer a basic 200GB of disk space and 2TB of bandwidth. The disk space and bandwidth will increase every week too. This is the very first time I see host doing such things.
• $97 reward for referring a customer to them. You can either create a promo code or use the affiliate link to refer people. For the promo code, you can share the $97 with the one you refer. For example, you can set the promo code to discount the people you refer $50, and you take $47. You can either request the money or use it to pay your hosting bills.
• DreamHost do have a function that allow its customer to receive donation to pay their hosting bills. The donor will pay using PayPal, and it will automatically be used to pay the hosting bills. No way for us to take out the money. If someone have a popular website, this is very useful. But I don’t think someone would help me to pay my hosting bills here =p
• 90 days money back. If you are not happy with them in the first 3 months, you can get back the money you have paid. This is one of the reason I choose them.

Why I dislike DreamHost:

• Bad support. Sometimes they will use up to more than 24 hours to reply my single email. It is not good compare to other host. Like BlueHost, they do offer 24/7 live chat support. They do have phone support too. BlueHost offer these support to everyone, even non-customer. Unlike DreamHost, they only offer phone support to customer that bought their bigger plan
• No subdomain hosted by others. I can’t use subdomains offer by third party, like mooo.com by freedns.afraid.org. Not everyone can afford a domain name. So - they have no choice but to choose a subdomain. When we can’t use subdomain hosted by others, their “unlimited domains and subdomain” become meaningless.
• Unstable hosting? I am not sure if this is my ISP problem or DreamHost’s problem. Sometimes, my blog will take ages to be loaded. Do you have that problem too? It’s not down, but it only take a long time to load. However, it’s not always. Once every 2 days maybe.

Control Panel
DreamHost doesn’t offer cPanel, like what most host did. They do have their very own custom control panel that will allow you to control your hosting account - from domain name to one click installer, from billing information to support panel. I don’t especially like or dislike the control panel. To compare cPanel and DreamHost’s panel, I will say they are more or less the same. You will found that it is easy to use when you are using it for a long time.

I face no problem using DreamHost’s control panel. They make it easy because I can view my billing statement and other junks in one place. Since they are developing the control panel by their own. They can simply add more functions to it as they like. If they are using cPanel, they might not modify it as free as now.

Is choosing DreamHost wise?
It really depends on you. There are hell lots of bad review out there about DreamHost. You can just simply search on Google with the term “DreamHost sucks”, I bet you will see tons of results. I choose DreamHost because I have a maximum discounted price, by using a promo code. I only pay $24+ for my first year. This is extremely cheap compare to others - as I don’t have enough budget. For the second year, it will be $100+. I predicted I can still cover the hosting cost next year, although it’s quite expensive. Back to the topic - if you feel that it’s suitable for you, go for it. If you think that it sucks, say NO to it.

Conclusion
This is just my very first month with DreamHost. So my review might not be accurate. I heard someone say that they will treat you nicely in the first 3 months. So that you won’t refund the money and leave them. After the 3 months, they will start to nag you about the CPU usage or bla bla bla. I’m not sure if this is true. I will try to express my experience with DreamHost once in a while - so that users that is in doubt of going for DreamHost can have better idea. I’m also one of them who search for lots of review on the host I plan to go - so I understand what’s the feeling. That’s all for now, my first month with DreamHost.

Some relevant posts you might be interested:

• DreamHost Planned 3 Hours Downtime
• Host Changed to DreamHost
• 500 Internal Server Error