DreamHost vs KnownHost
DreamHost and KnownHost compared on measured uptime, response time, pricing and features from our own tests. DreamHost scores higher overall.
By Jennifer T. · Updated
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Verdict
DreamHostWins overall
Independent since 1997: three shared plans with renewals printed on the card, daily backups and a 100% uptime credit
Managed cPanel hosting since 2006 on LiteSpeed and NVMe with stated cores and RAM, daily backups and three locations
DreamHost wins 2 of the six sub-scores and comes out ahead overall (7.6 vs 7.4).
How do the scores compare?
DreamHost leads on 2 sub-scores, KnownHost on 3. Higher is better.
Which one is faster and more reliable?
Which one costs less?
On renewal, KnownHost is cheaper ($7.16/mo vs $10.99/mo). Intro prices need the listed term.
What does each include?
| DreamHost | KnownHost | |
|---|---|---|
| Free domain | First year, on annual and multi-year terms only | No |
| Free SSL | Unlimited certificates on every plan | Every plan, every domain |
| Backups | Daily automated backups on every plan, restored from the panel | Daily JetBackup with 2-day and 1-week retention on every plan; extended retention sold as an add-on |
| Free migration | The product page links a migration path for existing sites; terms not read | Migration team copies files, databases and email and tests the site |
| Free CDN | No | No |
| Caching | No | LiteSpeed Web Server with LSCache on every plan; Redis and Memcached optional |
| Staging | No | No |
| 20, 40 or 60 mailboxes free for the first three months, then billed separately | 5, 25 or unlimited mailboxes by plan, with webmail | |
| Resource limits | No | CloudLinux isolation with 1, 2, 4 and 6 cores and 1, 2, 4 and 6 GB memory limits by plan |
| Data center choice | Oregon, Virginia, Amsterdam and Singapore per the product page and help center; the panel shows where each service lives | Atlanta, Seattle or Amsterdam at checkout |
| Uptime guarantee | 100% in the terms, with a credit of one day of hosting per hour of qualifying downtime, up to 10% of the next renewal, counted from the support ticket | The network page claims a 99.999% availability SLA and 99.99+% uptimes; the terms of service contain no uptime clause or credit schedule |
| Performance scans | Automated and on-demand performance scans on every plan | Not stated |
| Phone support | No | A US toll-free number on every page, with 24/7 ticket support |
| Windows hosting | No | No |
| SSH, Git and cron | Not stated | Every plan, with current PHP versions |
| Security | Not stated | Imunify360 with real-time malware scanning and a web application firewall; Patchman optional on Basic and Standard, included above |