Is dreamhost cheap compared to others?

Although the initial discount at dreamhost is pretty impressive, I find that renewal fees are pretty high compared to other hosts offering similar package. It's about $10/month is it? Other similar hosts are mostly in the $5-$7 range.

http://www.linewbie.com

Other similar host don't offer as much space/traffic and unlimited domains/users

But all hosting company have their own pros and cons

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It's about $10/month is it? Other similar hosts are mostly in the $5-$7 range.

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I think Dreamhost is comparable to its competitors when you consider both companies' prepayment options.

Looking critically purely at pricing, the hosts in the same market/class as dreamhost priced in a little lower - that is $7.95 for one year prepayment and $5.95 or $6.95 for two years prepayment. Yes, this is a little cheaper than dreamhost (though one of them charges $7.95 per domain for domain privacy, which kills the savings for my situation).
You'd have to move up to a 3/5/10 year prepayment on dreamhost to access that exact pricing.

Purely on price, you can also factor in promotional factors. I'm not going to go into the feature bonuses that can make dreamhost superior based purely on price and stated features, but which depend on your particular needs (do you need to register 3 domains?). Instead, let's only look at the cash discount. So let's consider the $97 discount I kind of consider to be amortized across the prepayment period you're going to pick. Well, it would give dreamhost an unfair advantage to look at one year, so let's pick 2, 3, 5, and 10 years.

2 years: $214.80 - $97 = $117.8 = $58.90 per year = $4.90 per month
3 years: $286.20 - $97 = 189.20 = $63.07 per year = $5.26 per month
5 years: $417 - $97 = $320 = $64 per year = $5.33 per month
10 years: $714 - $97 = $617 = $61.70 per year = $5.14 per month

I haven't factored in the time value of money which would make the longer plans less attractive. There's also the option value of not being locked into a long term contract to consider.

I'm also haven't fully covered the $38 discount that I *think* you can access on one of the competitors I considered.

Finally, there were competitors which I ruled out because I considered them too evil. You all know who they are. :)

Anyway, my final conclusion was that dreamhost is competive on price and was superior on the "soft" features and qualities that I found to be compelling. Yes, this last bit is a testimonial but I hope you've been helped by getting a glimpse into my thinking. I'd be happy to share my "soft" analysis if you want.

I was a little worried about this as well when I signed up, but after the first year I actually got enough referrals to have my next year completely free. YMMV, but if you get only a few of your friends to sign up via your referral, you save lots of money compared to other companies.

If you pay long term, as lensman points out, it's not noticeably more expensive. Many of those other "competitive hosts" also do not have the shell access that DreamHost provides (which is worth a couple of bucks a month to me!)

--rlparker

The critical thing to remember about domain registrations with DH is that they COME with registration protection.

If you sign up with someone else, they'll charge you 5-7 for the registration and then 20 a year to keep you from being spammed by real mail.

I considered registering somewhere else but when I saw how much they charge and that it's EXTRA, I came right back.

Wholly - Use promo code WhollyMindless for full 97$ credit until 12/11/07.

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If you sign up with someone else, they'll charge you 5-7 for the registration and then 20 a year to keep you from being spammed by real mail.

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That's certainly true for some hosts. As I said, one of the competitors I was looking at charged $7.95 for domain privacy. The other one, like Dreamhost, provided domain privacy for free.

The reality is you find what you're comfortable with. My last hosting company was really nice and support was really fast (but not always helpful) and the servers were so incredibly locked down that you really couldn't do much with them.

DH was like being let free to roam and do what I needed to do without the handcuffs to me.

But everyone has different tastes. Some people like having 15 web builders that can produce a "site" but generate the WORST looking and least optimal code in the world. Or have restrictions on how many databases and tables you can have - the reality is that there is a limit here, it's just that it's don't mess up others.

I like it. Could I find cheaper? Maybe, but since I just resigned for another 2 years it'll be hard to find a place that can touch it.

Wholly - Use promo code WhollyMindless for full 97$ credit until 12/11/07.