Likelihood to Recommend Dreamhost was previously a great web host with reliable service and top-notch features, but I can no longer recommend them. If you're looking for web hosting on a Linux platform (such as running PHP or platforms like Wordpress, Jooma, or Drupal), with simple pricing services, then this is the great service for you. One big downside is lack of phone customer support. This is especially frustrating because of their many issues the last few weeks, which aren't easily resolved or addressed by their team.
Read full review Well suited: Small businesses and entrepreneurs: WebWave is an excellent option for small businesses and entrepreneurs who need a professional-looking website without spending a lot of time and money. It's easy to use, customizable, and offers fast load times and responsive design. Less appropriate: Large e-commerce websites: If you're looking to create a large e-commerce website with a vast number of products and advanced features, WebWave may not be the best option. Its e-commerce functionality is limited compared to other website builders, and it may not be able to accommodate the needs of a large-scale online store. Also, if you need much coding, you would rather have it with something that is wordpress-based.
Read full review Pros Customer service is industry-best. We've never had a problem that wasn't solved by them almost immediately. Their dashboard is extremely easy to use and doesn't cause any confusion at all. Their website speeds are good but not great. In an age when speed is important, they are good enough, especially for the price. They have a great backup feature. Read full review WebWave's site builder is the platform's truly innovative feature. I've never come across another service that deploys a layer-based approach in web design, as most of them usually deploy a grid-based system. This is an incredible alteration that ensures WebWave behaves much like a traditional graphic design tool, thereby resulting in an experience that is a lot more intuitive and instinctive. I believe this has the potential to radically change the way people approach no-code web design. WebWave provides automatic, daily backups and a free SSL certificate for every website. This results in excellent security. WebWave's support team is first-class! I had some teething-issues in the beginning, but the support team quickly got me back on track. WebWave's community/forum is an excellent place to vote and request new features. This proves the development team is committed to making WebWave better by listening to their users. Read full review Cons They could have better deploy solutions for not so experienced users More integration with external services to automate some tasks Better ways to track hosting performance The user management could be easier to understand Read full review Some scope for improvement in UX (colors are not very appealing). It is simple to use but design is a little dated. Especially in the builder section, I'd like to see modern design for buttons and maybe gradients also: as this is where visual motivation is also important Some edits take effect only after pressing OK. That should be eliminated as it's an unnecessary addition. It's also kind of annoying to do that again and again, which can add up to a lot as we do so many small tweaks while building the website. Few things (maybe glitches) in design. The rectangle below the footer was uneditable for me. I spent quite some time trying to figure it out so I'm convinced it's a glitch. Website speed should be increased. Read full review Likelihood to Renew 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.
Read full review Usability Very easy to use, intuitive, has many options and plug-ins, and is cheap.
Read full review Support Rating 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.
Read full review 1. The support person does not seem to understand the issues, and seems like they go off to talk to somebody and revert back every 5 to 10 minutes. It takes up a lot of time. 2. There is a lack of reading material to address simple issues like changing the website name in the dashboard, pasting a code, etc.
Read full review Alternatives Considered 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.
Read full review WordPress is a more flexible and adaptive content management system than Webwave. In addition to the functionalities that are already built-in, I am unable to add any customizable plugins or add-ons. However, in the majority of cases, the inherent features of Webwave are sufficient for developing a website that serves its intended purpose. Webwave also makes it possible for you to add animations and the appearance of each of your design elements, whereas
WordPress builders require additional plugins in order for users to access most of such capabilities. Webwave has several essential design features available internally, thus saving money and time.
Read full review Return on Investment The service can really be a positive value with its very solid performance and lack of downtime issues found with other services. For those with limited hosting or web development knowledge, the service can be a challenge to fully utilize. Sometimes this may mean additional training. The service also provides a number of expansion opportunities for growing with greater functionalities. Read full review saved 30 hours per year per site (previously I had to manually run updates and check if everything is fine) earns money for me without a touch (thanks to automatic billing of my customers for hosting and support) - additional (ca.) 120 USD per year per site no negatives so far Read full review ScreenShots