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Ask HN: Why is Dreamhost so bad?
I feel there is a lot of hate for dreamhost, but I am boggeled but this.
I pay $119 dollars a year, or roughly $9.00 a month. I manage 64 domains, 20 unix users, 10 control panel users, a couple 100 email users.
I have been with Dreamhost since 2006. My support questions always get answered, and my sites have never been down longer then a couple hours.
So, my questions starts here, for $9 dollars a month , isn't that okay? If you want something to be up %99.999 shouldn't you expect to pay a lot of money?
Why the hate?
- minsight 17y agoI love Dreamhost, and find that they are fantastic value for the money. There are many people who believe that their sites should be up AT ALL TIMES. Unfortunately, they don't realize that the uptime percentage for Dreamhost at that price point is better than its competitors. And they don't realize that the uptime percentage that they want costs many times what they're paying. If you really want a great host, and are willing to pay more, I'd recommend pair.com. I'm just lucky enough to have been burned by some truly awful hosts before landing at Dreamhost.
- thegoleffect 17y agoLack of control for one, unless you go with a VPS, which, by the way, should be a good thing. I don't want to always worry about security or scalability. But its not great in this case. The machine my personal domains were on got hacked and everyone else on that machine also got screwed. I had to clean that up myself. Not that I mind, but if the expectation is for them to handle root, security, etc - then they should be. Otherwise, I love the deal and use it for cheap file storage. But, it takes DH a while to pick up new trends, they move pretty slow for what should be a nimble company. So, DH isn't something I fanboy over though.
- voidfiles 17y agoI don't fanboy, either I was just remarking at the level of hate for something doesn't seem that bad, its like the anti-fanboy effect.
- dotBen 17y agoFor me it's a price point game. I have a dreamhouse account I only paid $20 for an entire year (I think it's the same $119/year account - it was a promo). What a great deal But the question is are you paying a false economy. No point buying my friends' 900mhz laptop for $100... yeah it's cheap but I can't do what I need performance wise with it at that spec - so it's actually expensive. Business wise, they are a cooperative rather than a traditional company structure, and I think the lack of business drive at the top of the company doesn't help them.
- voidfiles 17y agoSo if it does what is needed it's a deal right, mayby even a steal. Also could you expand on the coop thing. Is it actually a worker owned coop?
- bradshaw1965 17y agoI think Dreamhost is fine as long as your comfortable with their limitations. Limitations like their backup server being down for over a month. http://www.dreamhoststatus.com/2009/10/30/hanjin-backup-server-down/ http://www.dreamhoststatus.com/2009/10/30/hanjin-backup-serv...
- rikthevik 17y agoIt's stuff like this that made me move to Slicehost, who I'm very happy with.
- dnsworks 17y agoBecause people with good business sense avoid business models that feel like ponzi schemes.
- voidfiles 17y agohow is it a ponzi scheme. I pay $119 a year and that is it.
- dnsworks 17y agoThe overselling of resources with the hope that users won't use anything near what they've paid for. If those resources do get used, then the hope that they will keep signing new customers to pay for those infrastructure costs.
- gexla 17y agoDreamhost sucks because shared hosting sucks. When someone detonates a bomb on your server, everyone on that server is affected. This isn't Dreamhost's fault though, that's a problem with most shared hosting providers. Otherwise, you get what you pay for, you can bitch about it, but it's not necessarily Dreamhost being bad.
- voidfiles 17y agoThis is what I am talking about. Why "sucks", I mean so what if a bomb goes off everyonce in a while, why does that equate sucks.
- unperson 17y agoNot to pick nits, but could you elaborate on how you manage 20 unix servers with a managed host?
- voidfiles 17y agoI manage 20 Linux users, not servers. There is difference between users that have control panel access, and users that have shell access.
- timinman 17y agoI'm happy with Dreamhost. It's a great value.