2024 DreamHost Free Trial — Try it 100% Free

The DreamHost free trial offer has a 97-day money-back guarantee. This guarantee provides you with plenty of time for a new website to be configured, staged, tested, and pushed into production.

The main advantage of this trial period is to take the host for a spin risk-free.

The DreamHost free trial offer is ideal for entrepreneurs with a three-month MVP runway. It includes all of the platform resources for professional website development that enable new projects to grow from concept to application — all without risk. Read on to learn more.

Shared hosting plans at DreamHost start at $2.59 per month for a single website with SSD storage and unlimited bandwidth. The company’s official refund policy guarantees a 97-day free trial on new sign-ups.

When I reviewed its packages, I noticed it offers the standard free domain name registration and automatic website migration from your previous web host for contracts of one year or more. But the 97-day money-back guarantee doesn’t apply to every plan. For example, the DreamPress free trial offer is limited to 30 days.

If you are dissatisfied for any reason, make a refund request under the 97-day hosting money-back guarantee. Special products like DreamObjects storage plans carry a 60-day free trial and others, such as VPS hosting, have a 30-day policy. A special tip from the pros: If you can afford to wait, use Black Friday deals for the lowest overall pricing.

Note: The Remixer app is limited to 14 days from sign-up for any money-back requests. Make sure to confirm your subscription terms before applying for refunds to avoid any confusion.

The shared hosting plans at DreamHost are designed to save you the most money when compared to a VPS or managed WordPress plan. DreamHost’s managed WordPress package, DreamPress, is priced at $16.95 monthly, meaning you’ll pay more to host your WordPress site if you want hands-on support. But on the flip side, DreamPress offers a lot of value for what you pay.

DreamHost makes the refund process simple. All you need to do is contact DreamHost customer service and provide the reason for canceling the account. You will still need to cover the domain registration fees, but the bulk of your multiyear plan will be automatically refunded to the original billing source. DreamHost’s 24/7 customer service will process the reversal with a quick turn-around.

Other web hosting platforms provide money-back guarantees that are equivalent or comparable in functionality to DreamHost. The best of these offers are found at Kamatera, Cloudways, and Wix.

One way to screen money-back plans is to determine whether a credit card is required on sign-up for billing. This is standard with the DreamHost, Kamatera, and Wix free trials but not for Cloudways.

Credit Card Required: Yes

The Kamatera one-month free hosting offer applies to its cloud server platform and optional web server resources. The $100 credit is applied to all new accounts on sign-up. Plans include one terabyte of SSD storage along with one terabyte of monthly bandwidth. You can apply the $100 credit to any web server configuration with 24/7 technical support from Kamatera’s expert data center technicians.

Credit Card Required: No

The Cloudways free trial offer is unique in that you do not need a credit card to sign up. You can test the entire platform without limits to get experience with the interface, server configuration options, domain name support, and email account management. The only downside to this free trial is its short duration compared to that of Kamatera and Wix. After the three-day free trial, you will need to pay for a subscription plan with PayPal or a credit card to continue platform services.

Credit Card Required: For some plans

You can get Wix for free in two ways. The first is to sign up for an always-free plan, which doesn’t require a credit card. You can use this free plan to build and deploy your site. When you’re ready, upgrade to a premium plan for full access to Wix’s features. Alternatively, you can sign up for a premium plan from the get-go, and you can cancel within 14 days for your money back.

DreamHost provides shared hosting and a virtual private server (VPS) platform that focuses on WordPress solutions based on its DreamPress product. WordPress Basic accounts provide all of the essential features for web development, including a free domain, website builder, automated website transfers, unlimited web traffic, and SSD storage.

The DreamPress distribution of WordPress is a package that includes an additional set of plugins and themes that optimize the development of new sites with integrated caching and pre-installation of essential features. The platform includes NGINX server support with unlimited email accounts, daily backup of site files, and one-click restoration of changes from snapshots.

VPS plans include the same features as DreamHost’s WordPress plans, with greater isolation of files, unlimited user traffic, and the ability to support unlimited domain names from an integrated control panel. VPS plans rely on KVM virtualization with configurations from 1 gigabyte to 8 gigabytes of memory. You can add more memory and storage as your WordPress website traffic grows over time.

DreamHost offers tiered billing depending on the requirements of your WordPress installation. For reference, the basic hosting plan for a single website is $2.59 per month with unlimited storage and bandwidth.

Single site plans with the DreamPress distribution are priced at $16.95 per month with a high-performance environment that scales for more users on DreamHost hosting plans. Each hosting option includes an extensive knowledge base for dedicated server hosting, shared starter plans, and Google Workspace options.

DreamHost VPS plans offer greater isolation of the database and website files for more flexibility when deploying WordPress in production. You can add larger RAM allocations at flexible pricing that starts at $10.00 per month with a custom control panel and premier support options for developers.

The 97-day money-back guarantee at DreamHost is the longest in the industry, followed closely by InMotion Hosting at 90 days. But DreamHost’s record-breaking policy only applies to standard shared hosting plans and its Remixer offering.

Its VPS plans and DreamPress products have a 30-day policy, and dedicated plans are not covered by a money-back guarantee. And DreamHost is not being stingy; This is pretty standard among hosting companies.

If you are unsatisfied with your DreamHost plan for any reason, you can apply for a full refund during the specified window to get your money back.

Pro tip: You should note that certain products, such as domain registration, are not eligible for refunds.

One of the drawbacks of DreamHost plans is the limitation of a single website on shared hosting. A single website is fine for most individuals, but agencies and developers can often benefit from having multiple websites.

Support for unlimited websites on VPS plans starts at $10.00 per month. Developers will need to decide whether to focus on a high-performance hosting environment for single sites or bulk hosting on VPS plans with DIY development options.

See our DreamHost review for more info and to compare services to other web hosts.

My research on DreamHost and its DreamPress platform in particular has uncovered its value to WordPress site owners. While it’s unfortunate the web host’s 97-day money-back guarantee doesn’t apply to all plans, you can still take advantage of its month-long refund policy for DreamPress and VPS hosting.

No matter if DreamHost is the place your site calls home in the long run, rest assured you’ll get your money back if you cancel on time for the plan you choose.