DreamHost Pricing: How Much Does Hosting Cost in 2026?

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DreamHost’s pricing starts from $1.99 per month for a 48-month subscription. The web host provides a lot of flexibility with its hosting plans, limited paid extras, and transparent renewal fees, helping small businesses budget accordingly.

To help you find the right DreamHost plan for your site, I’ll walk you through the different introductory deals, standard rates, and additional fees.

Key Takeaways 🔍

  • Introductory deals start from $1.99 per month (for a 48-month term) – the best prices vary depending on the hosting type
  • DreamHost’s shared and standard WordPress plans share the same pricing model, but VPS and dedicated plans are more expensive
  • Pricing for DreamHost’s dedicated plans stays the same, meaning there’s no higher rates when it’s time to renew
  • DreamHost doesn’t force you to pay for many premium add-ons, with basic security features already built into your plan (but enhanced security costs an extra $3/mo)

How Much Does DreamHost Cost?

DreamHost shared hosting plans and prices with features listed below the 3 options
DreamHost's pricing starts from $1.99 per month with its cheapest shared hosting plan. Source: Website Builder Expert

DreamHost’s pricing ranges from $1.99 to $749 per month, depending on your hosting type and subscription length. The cheapest deal available is with DreamHost’s shared and WordPress hosting plans, if you opt for a 48-month term.

Cheapest plan Shared (Web Hosting Launch) WordPress (WordPress Hosting Launch) VPS (VPS Business) Dedicated (Standard 16)
Starting price (48-month term) $1.99 per month $1.99 per month / /
Renewal price (48-month term) $7.99 per month $7.99 per month / /
Starting price (36-month term) / / $10 per month /
Renewal price (36-month term) / / $24 per month /
Starting price (12-month term) $2.89 per month $2.89 per month $13.75 per month $165 per month
Renewal price (12-month term) $10.99 per month $10.99 per month $31.99 per month $165 per month

Important note 🚨

DreamHost’s subscription options vary, depending on the hosting type chosen. For example, shared hosting is available for 48-month, 12-month, and monthly terms, whereas dedicated hosting is only available for annual or monthly subscriptions.

DreamHost’s Pricing: Hosting Plans Explained

DreamHost has a selection of plans and subscription options for shared, WordPress, VPS, and dedicated hosting. I’ll walk you through the different plans and what you get for your money in the sections below:

Shared Hosting

DreamHost’s shared hosting plans start at $1.99 per month (for a 48-month term) – this is the best introductory discount you can get with DreamHost, saving you 83% compared to the monthly rate.

With the cheapest plan, you’ll unlock plenty of features and benefits, including up to 25 websites, 25GB NVMe storage, unmetered bandwidth, daily backups, a free domain for one year (not applicable to monthly plans), and unlimited SSL.

Web Hosting Launch Web Hosting Growth Web Hosting Scale
Introductory deal (48-month term) $1.99 per month $3.49 per month $7.99 per month
Standard rate (48-month term) $7.99 per month $8.99 per month $19.99 per month
Standard rate (24-month term) $8.99 per month $9.99 per month $22.99 per month
Standard rate (12-month term) $10.99 per month $12.99 per month $25.99 per month
Standard rate (monthly) $11.99 per month $13.99 per month $27.99 per month

WordPress Hosting

Like shared hosting, DreamHost’s WordPress plans start at $1.99 per month (for a 48-month term). You’ll essentially get the same tools as the shared plans, which also include specialized WordPress features, such as free migration and automatic WordPress updates.

However, DreamHost splits its WordPress plans into two categories: WordPress Hosting and High-Performance WordPress Hosting (or managed WordPress hosting). These are the fees for the standard plans:

WordPress Hosting Launch WordPress Hosting Growth WordPress Hosting Scale
Introductory deal (48-month term) $1.99 per month $3.49 per month $7.99 per month
Standard rate (48-month term) $7.99 per month $8.99 per month $19.99 per month
Standard rate (24-month term) $8.99 per month $9.99 per month $22.99 per month
Standard rate (12-month term) $10.99 per month $12.99 per month $25.99 per month
Standard rate (monthly) $11.99 per month $13.99 per month $27.99 per month

The managed WordPress hosting plans are specifically optimized for businesses and agencies using the CMS, with free bunny CDN for faster performance and one-click staging. There are six DreamPress plans to choose from, ranging from $11.99 to $63.99 per month (for a 36-month term):

DreamPress 1 DreamPress 2 DreamPress 3 DreamPress 5 DreamPress 10 DreamPress 20
Introductory deal (36-month term) $11.99 per month $14.99 per month $16.99 per month $24.99 per month $38.99 per month $63.99 per month
Standard rate (36-month term) $16.99 per month $21.99 per month $25.99 per month $36.99 per month $59.99 per month $97.99 per month
Standard rate (12-month term) $19.99 per month $24.99 per month $28.99 per month $40.99 per month $65.99 per month $107.99 per month
Standard rate (monthly) $24.99 per month $29.99 per month $34.99 per month $49.99 per month $79.99 per month $129.99 per month

VPS Hosting

DreamHost’s managed VPS hosting plans range from $10 to $60 per month (for a 36-month term). Unlike shared and WordPress hosting, you can’t subscribe for four years.

Each plan includes unlimited websites and bandwidth, 60-360GB NVMe storage, 2-6 Cores, 2-12GB RAM, and unlimited email.

VPS Business VPS Professional VPS Enterprise VPS Premier
Introductory deal (36-month term) $10 per month $20 per month $40 per month $60 per month
Standard rate (36-month term) $24.99 per month $46.99 per month $92.99 per month $114.99 per month
Standard rate (12-month term) $31.99 per month $57.99 per month $114.99 per month $141.99 per month
Standard rate (monthly) $37.99 per month $69.99 per month $137.99 per month $169.99 per month

Dedicated Hosting

DreamHost’s dedicated hosting plans start at $165 per month (billed annually). You’ll be paying the standard rate for DreamHost’s dedicated hosting plans from the start, and forever – your plan won’t increase in price once it’s time to renew.

You can configure your plan to choose between six or 12 Cores, 480-1920GB SSD, and 16-128GB RAM. All plans also include full root and shell access, DDoS protection, Ubuntu Linux, RAID 1 storage, and 24/7 server monitoring.

Standard rate (12-month term) Standard rate (monthly)
Standard 16 (480GB) $165 per month $199 per month
Standard 16 (960GB) $195 per month $235 per month
Enhanced 16 (480GB) $229 per month $275 per month
Enhanced 32 (480GB) $249 per month $299 per month
Enhanced 64 (480GB) $289 per month $349 per month
Enhanced 16 (960GB) $279 per month $335 per month
Enhanced 32 (960GB) $309 per month $369 per month
Enhanced 64 (960GB) $349 per month $419 per month
Enhanced 16 (1920GB) $449 per month $375 per month
Enhanced 32 (1920GB) $415 per month $499 per month
Enhanced 64 (1920GB) $455 per month $549 per month
Enhanced 128 (1920GB) $625 per month $749 per month

Additional DreamHost Costs

Like any web host, DreamHost does have a few premium add-ons to consider, such as your custom domain name and professional email:

  • Domain name – free for 1st year, then a .com domain will cost $19.99 per year
  • DreamShield Protect (enhanced security) – $3 per month
  • DreamHost SEO Toolkit – $4.99 per month
  • DreamHost Email – free for 3 months, then $19.99 per year per mailbox

To compare prices across the first and second year, I’ve compared the annual fees for the cheapest Web Hosting Launch plan (without any of the premium extras available):

Year 1 (intro deal) Year 2
Hosting $34.68 $131.88
Domain $0 $19.99
Total annual price $34.68 $151.87

Top Tip 💡

By paying annually for the Web Hosting Launch plan, your total cost will increase by 338% when it’s time to renew, and that’s without any of the paid add-ons. But, if you choose to pay for a four year subscription, you’ll only be paying $95.52 upfront, locking your outgoing hosting costs for multiple years.

How To Save Money With DreamHost

DreamHost offers great value for short and long-term hosting, but there are a few extra ways you can keep your recurring costs low:

  • Pay for a multi-year subscription – for example, with the Web Hosting Launch plan, it’ll cost you $122.88 for a full year when paying monthly or you can pay $34.68 with an annual subscription
  • Use the right domain name – a .com domain name can be expensive since it’s so popular and recognizable, but you could choose a cheaper alternative (for example, .club costs $14.99 with DreamHost) or look for a different domain registrar
  • Budget for necessary features – DreamHost includes a lot of features as part of your plan, such as daily backups and free domain privacy, but consider if you need to pay for additional security, email, or DreamHost’s SEO Toolkit as well, since this will increase your subscription charge

What is DreamHost's refund policy?

DreamHost has a 30-day money-back guarantee, which is pretty standard in the hosting industry. The web host used to offer a unique 97-day refund window, but this is no longer available.

DreamHost Pricing: Is It Good Value for Money?

DreamHost’s pricing starts at just $1.99 per month for its cheapest shared hosting plan. That said, new and scaling businesses can explore different hosting types and plans to find the right fit for their website and budget, from affordable WordPress plans to more expensive and powerful dedicated hosting plans. This gives you, the potential DreamHost customer, a lot of flexibility and choice.

What stands out to us the most is that DreamHost’s introductory prices are cheap across subscription lengths, and a lot of critical features, such as domain privacy, are included as standard, so you don’t need to worry about a bunch of premium add-ons.

Written by:
Headshot of Emma Ryan
Emma is Lead Writer at Website Builder Expert, having first joined the team in 2022. She manages the website's topical content strategy to help website owners navigate the highs and lows of being online. Emma also specializes in following the development of leading website builders Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify, through hands-on testing and research. Her work and expertise have been featured in Startups.co.uk, Digiday, TechRound, Industry Today, and Digital Information World.
Researched by:
natasha_willett
I love to understand human behavior and the cognitive biases that drive us to do what we do. For over nine years I have worked as a mixed method researcher – research using a mix of numerical data and personal experiences – across a range of sectors, from insurance and policy development to finally arriving at Website Builder Expert five years ago. Fascinated by consumer decision-making, I meticulously built our leading ranking methodology to explore where providers like Wix sit within a competitive industry and what value they truly bring to our audience.
As a member of the Market Research Society, I’m an advocate for high ethical, commercial, and methodological best practices. All of this combines to give you the most ethical recommendations based on real data.

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