DreamHost vs. GreenGeeks

If you're not too technical, don't want to spend time managing a server and want something quality while sticking to a budget, DreamHost is the best it can get. We may be able to save money by switching to something like AWS, but for our usage it doesn't totally make sense even with potential cost-savings and improved speeds. The support and ease of use cannot be overstated here.

Incentivized

If you are looking for a shared hosting service, Green Geeks pricing is comparable to most vendors. T2 tech support is generally knowledgeable, T1 is responsive via chat, but often is not able to resolve issues (other than KB questions). Load balancing on a shared server is difficult for all vendors, since individual website usage is hard to predict. Vendors have different ways of dealing with this - some simply do not guarantee resource limits (e.g. available memory, PHP threads, etc). Green Geeks does provide resource limits as part of their contracts, but they frequently downgrade those limits, presumably to address overloaded servers. BUT BE AWARE - I believe GreenGeeks uses unethical practices when a customer wants to cancel. It is my personal experience that they make it extremely difficult / impossible to cancel a contract. I feel the process is not transparent and they will ignore emails directing them to cancel. In my experience, they will then proceed to charge customers for a renewed contract. I believe multiple customers have reported this problem.

• Dreamhost has very good hosting plans that can be matched for different levels of hosting needs and expected web traffic bandwidth.
• The hosting service is very friendly for coders and those needing to tinker "under the hood" with their sites.
• Great uptime service with limited technical issues.

Incentivized

• T1 support generally responds w/i 15-30 minutes

• There was one instance where DreamHost support caused unnecessary downtime because they misread my request. Unfortunately I don't have access to that account anymore (it was an old employer) so I don't remember the details. To avoid this, make it very clear whether you're just asking a question or want support to handle it (they can be quite eager to fix the problem even when you've just asked a question), and be VERY clear what you need when doing the wrong thing may cause serious problems.

Incentivized

• In my personal experience, the billing department uses unethical practices when customers cancel subs.

We have every intention of staying with Dreamhost, but we are a tad concerned with the company's recent involvement in high profile litigation and controversial topics. While we don't take a position one way or another on what type of content they should host, one concern we have is that repeated attacks on their infrastructure have caused significant downtime during business hours for us, and that's something we'll have to take into consideration going forward.

Incentivized

Whether we're calling in on the phone, live chatting or emailing, we get immediate high-quality, native English-speaking support. This cannot be overstated when it comes to hosting, because support tickets are usually time sensitive and high stress. I've always had great experiences with the limited times we've needed to use DreamHost support. We've dealt with support for many other providers and no one comes close to DreamHost.

Incentivized

We've tried a few other WordPress-specific hosts, as well as other shared hosting providers (Rackspace, WPEngine, and others). We have found that DreamHost gives the best balance of cost, performance, and features, for our needs. All vendors have their own pitfalls and shortcomings, and DreamHost isn't without its own, but it works for us.

Incentivized

From a technical perspective, all shared server vendors are comparable. Bluehost has terrible customer support. A2 is more expensive, but has more personalized support.

• It's a great product for a relatively cheap price
• We can offer a simple hosting solution for our clients
• Even the VPS (virtual private servers) are very affordable and you can manage it as you wish (SSH access)

Incentivized

• Throttling servers impacted website availability.