Comments on: Thoughts on The Dreamhost Meltdown

By: Jeremy Wilson

Jeremy Wilson — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 16:37:54 +0000

Thanks Mike. I finally decided to throw in the towel with them after several years. Bastards are still trying to charge my credit card so I finally had to ask BofA to put a block on them. I simply becametoo busy with my new role as the only Web Developer at Laplink Software this past year and let my site go. No more though.

Since joining the great team at Laplink, I’ve learned so much about Apache, Apache Tomcat, and Debian Linux distro’s that I just decided to dive completely into the deep end of the pool and built my own server out of spare desktop PC parts at home . I intend on hosting it out of my wife’s non-profit office space and will upgrade her bandwidth as needed.

By: Mike D.

Mike D. — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 03:39:18 +0000

Hi Jeremy: Yep, I’m still on Dreamhost. Have tried three other hosts and none was as good as Dreamhost, unfortunately.

By: Jeremy Wilson

Jeremy Wilson — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 17:29:40 +0000

Hey Mike,

Are you still using DH at this stage? I am thinking about switching and wondering if you would publicly recommend any other solutions.

-Jeremy Wilson (a former Sherpa)

By: phototristan

phototristan — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 07:13:40 +0000

A friend of mine has been experimenting a bit with HostGator and concluded that their load times are way faster than most (including DreamHost) primarily because with them the MySQL database resides on the same server as your web pages, rather than on a totally different server.

As luck would have it, my Dreamhost site seemed slow and also had gone down a few times in just the last two weeks. I was still under their 97 refund period so I canceled my account with DH and switched to Hostgator.

They are about the same price yet my site is noticeably faster and I have better uptime. I frankly think less of DH now than when I posted my last comment since I really did have too many incidents of down time due to the server being too busy.

By: Mike D.

Mike D. — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:17:05 +0000

FYI: I have deleted all comments by “dhsux” and related conversation because I just Googled his name and he’s spamming a ton of blogs with the exact same message. This blog will not host such material.

By: phototristan

phototristan — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 00:39:36 +0000

I’ve been following the comments here for a while but never really felt compelled to leave one of my own until now.

The bottom line is that Dreamhost is fine as a cheap host. Sure you could get faster and possibly slightly more reliable service if you are willing to pay over twice as much (think Media Temple, EngineHosting). But compound those fees over say 10 years and you are really looking at a lot more money for not that much more benefit. Dreamhost is generally quite reliable and also mostly fast.

Dreamhost has served Mike well throughout the years and the fact that he is still hosted with them to this day should also tell you something.

There are other good cheap hosting companies but compared to DH, each and every one of them have some negatives. Either the control panel is not as good, you don’t get SSH or equivalent features, or they practice censorship.

Example, Bluehost will delete your account if you post any pictures that are even the least bit sexy. It doesn’t even have to be nudity-if it’s a sheer or slightly see through top, you are in violation. Not that I want to host porn or anything but I’m against this kind of censorship especially when it’s perfectly okay for a customer to post a photo of someone killing someone but not one of the natural human body form.

Again, other cheap hosts have other issues and I have literally not found one that can compare to Dreamhost for the price.

By: Justin Blanton | Pondering a move back to Movable Type (3)

Justin Blanton | Pondering a move back to Movable Type (3) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:49:09 +0000

[…] issues I’ve had with DreamHost as of late, I encourage you to check out Mike Davidson’s post on the matter (aptly titled “Thoughts on the DreamHost meltdown”). As he points out, he makes around […]

By: Mike D.

Mike D. — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 20:30:30 +0000

Hi Cody: I’m still with them, but I’ve officially stopped publicly recommending them after a security-related incident that has me feeling less than satisfied.

By: Cody McKibben

Cody McKibben — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 12:01:28 +0000

Hey Mike, I’ve sincerely been enjoying your writings and your insights on web 2.0 and quality design lately, and I found the older link to this article… I’ve been hosted with Dreamhost since mid-2006, and in that year and a half I’ve experienced a few problems. I’m just curious, after all this time, do you still recommend the service or not, and what changes have you experienced with it?

By: Josh(ua/y)

Josh(ua/y) — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 20:29:24 +0000

Hmm, I just went to that post at the Dreamhost blog and got an error message: “The server at blog.dreamhost.com is taking too long to respond.”

Apparently things are not all rosy now.

By: Adrian

Adrian — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I have one account with them and I’ve been really disappointed from the time we’ve have ever asked for tech support. They take forever to respond to problems, there has been times when they have taken over 24 hours to get back to us. Every time we create an email address, we then have to send a support query to ask them to enable it. Something buggy with their panel.

I just can’t recommend them to anyone.

By: Rob Goodlatte

Rob Goodlatte — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I don’t use Dreamhost myself, but I’ve noticed several prominent sites hosted by DH go down over the past few months. One of the more frustrating cases was having CSS Reboot go down the day of the reboot.

30 grand a year is a helluva lot for some host pimp’n though.

By: Christian

Christian — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I don’t use Dreamhost, because we run our own hosting solution, but I really have to wonder about the sanity of Dreamhost (and everybody else in the building, for that matter) co-locating out of a telecom building in Los Angeles. Earthquakes, fires, riots, and endless power grid problems are a few of the issues I can think of. Typically, colo facilities like to be in large, underground bunkers in uninteresting places, such as gypsum mines in the middle of Michigan.

It’s not unforgivable, but honestly, LA isn’t anywhere near the top of my list of “good places to stick a colo.”

By: Baxter

Baxter — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Funny you should write this. I followed almost exactly the same arc (minus the 30k!) with them. Considering the amount of stuff I have tucked away on them, moving would have been hairy, but I wasn’t sure how much more I could take.

A little honesty goes a long way. A little honesty coupled with real moves to fix the problems will go even further.

By: DocDave

DocDave — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I was one of those people that got you your $97 about a year and a half ago and have never been so happy. DreamHost was a great find! I host few sites and have always been satisfied with the support, features, and the way thing are handled in general. This whole mess could not of come at a worse time for me. I am now considering taking on actual clients and hosting there sites through DreamHost but the recent barrage of problems had me on the fence of staying and hoping or looking for someone else. After finding the blog post the other day, I felt much better. That is one of the things I have always like about DreamHost, no B.S., just the facts. Here’s to a hopefully long relationship with DreamHost.