DreamHost vs GreenGeeks: Which Is Better for Your Website?
DreamHost and GreenGeeks are both independent US hosts that sell affordable shared hosting to bloggers and small businesses. DreamHost, hosting websites since the late 1990s, runs its own infrastructure in Oregon, Virginia and Amsterdam, includes unmetered bandwidth and sells everything up to fully managed dedicated servers. GreenGeeks, founded in 2008, runs cPanel on LiteSpeed with nightly backups and phone support, and markets itself as an eco-friendly host. Prices below are live from our tracker.
At a glance
| DreamHost | GreenGeeks | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry shared plan | Web Hosting Launch: $1.99/mo, renews at $11.99 | Lite: $2.95/mo, renews at $13.95 |
| Websites on the entry plan | Up to 25 | One |
| Backups | Daily, automated | Nightly |
| Control panel | DreamHost's own panel | cPanel |
| Support | 24/7 live chat and tickets | 24/7 live chat, phone and ticket |
| VPS and dedicated | VPS from $5.99/mo; managed dedicated from $119.99/mo | Managed VPS from $69.95/mo; other servers through sales |
| Data centers | Hillsboro, Ashburn, Amsterdam | Chicago, Montreal, Amsterdam |
| Money-back guarantee | 30 days on hosting | 30 days |
Shared hosting
DreamHost's Web Hosting Launch costs $1.99 a month and renews at $11.99; its headline rate needs DreamHost's longest prepaid term, and it hosts up to 25 websites on NVMe storage with unmetered bandwidth. GreenGeeks's Lite costs $2.95 for 25 GB SSD · Unlimited traffic and renews at $13.95, needs a 12-month prepayment and hosts one website. Both include a free first-year domain and free SSL.
What is included
Both include backups. GreenGeeks runs nightly backups and real-time security scanning, with a free CDN and LiteSpeed with LSCache on cPanel. DreamHost includes daily automated backups and on-demand performance scans on its own control panel, and its mailboxes are free for the first three months. For managed WordPress, DreamHost's DreamPress, from $11.99 a month, adds caching, a CDN and free migrations.
Growing beyond shared hosting
DreamHost sells self-managed VPS from $5.99, managed VPS, and fully managed dedicated servers from $119.99, all with unmetered bandwidth, ordered online. GreenGeeks sells managed VPS with cPanel/WHM from $69.95 a month online; its self-managed VPS and dedicated servers are ordered through sales.
Green hosting, domains and support
GreenGeeks says it buys renewable energy credits equal to three times the energy it uses and plants a tree for every hosting account. DreamHost is an ICANN-accredited registrar that includes WHOIS privacy for the life of a domain. GreenGeeks answers by phone, chat and ticket around the clock; DreamHost by chat and ticket. Our monitor checks each company's own website every few minutes; over the last 30 days it measured 99.77% for DreamHost and 99.83% for GreenGeeks.
Which one should you pick?
- Choose DreamHost for many sites on one cheap plan, unmetered bandwidth, DreamPress for managed WordPress, and VPS or dedicated servers you can order online.
- Choose GreenGeeks for real-time security scanning, cPanel with LiteSpeed, phone support and a green-energy commitment.
DreamHost is an independent web hosting and cloud services company founded in 1997 by four Harvey Mudd College students — Josh Jones, Sage Weil, Michael Rodriguez, and Dallas Kashuba. What started as a dorm-room project has grown into a major hosting provider serving more than 400,000 customers and hosting over 1.5 million websites, WordPress installations, and applications worldwide.
Headquartered in California, DreamHost has built its reputation around an open and independent approach to web hosting. The company emphasizes customer control, privacy, open-source technologies, and freedom from proprietary platforms. DreamHost describes its mission as helping people “own their digital presence”, with a particular focus on giving customers control over how their online content and data are used.
Hosting Services
DreamHost offers a broad portfolio of hosting solutions designed for everyone from individuals and small businesses to developers and growing organizations.
Its portfolio includes:
- Web Hosting — traditional hosting for websites and small online projects
- WordPress Hosting — optimized hosting for WordPress websites
- DreamPress — managed WordPress hosting with additional performance, staging, backup, CDN, and support features
- VPS Hosting — virtual private servers for websites and applications requiring more isolated resources
- Managed VPS — VPS infrastructure with additional management and support
- Self-Managed VPS — developer-oriented VPS infrastructure with full root access and greater control
- Dedicated Servers — dedicated infrastructure for higher-demand applications
- Cloud services — including DreamCompute and DreamObjects
- Email Hosting — professional email services using custom domains
- Domain Registration — domain registration and management across a broad range of TLDs
- AI Website Building — AI-powered tools such as Remixer for creating websites and web applications.
WordPress Focus
WordPress has been a central part of DreamHost's business for many years. The company provides both standard WordPress hosting and managed WordPress infrastructure through DreamPress.
DreamHost positions itself as an active member of the WordPress ecosystem, supporting open-source development and contributing expertise and resources to the WordPress community. Its current platform hosts more than 750,000 WordPress installations, according to DreamHost.
DreamPress is aimed at customers who want WordPress management, performance optimization, backups, staging and other infrastructure features without having to manage the underlying hosting environment themselves.
Domains
DreamHost is also an ICANN-accredited domain registrar. The company has registered nearly one million domain names for customers and offers a wide selection of domain extensions.
One notable feature is its approach to domain privacy: DreamHost includes domain privacy protection at no additional cost for supported domain extensions, although privacy availability can vary by TLD.
Developer and Cloud Infrastructure
DreamHost has historically maintained a strong connection with open-source infrastructure and developer technologies.
Its cloud portfolio has included DreamCompute, a cloud computing platform, and DreamObjects, an object-storage service. DreamHost has also been an advocate of technologies such as OpenStack, Linux, Apache, MySQL and other open-source projects.
In 2026, DreamHost expanded its VPS offering with a new Self-Managed VPS product aimed specifically at developers building modern applications with AI-assisted development tools. The service provides full root access, unmetered bandwidth and preconfigured application options including n8n, OpenClaw, PostgreSQL, Supabase, Dokploy and GitLab CE.
This represents a broader shift in DreamHost's positioning from traditional website hosting toward infrastructure for developers, applications and AI-assisted development.
AI and Website Creation
DreamHost has also expanded into AI-powered website and application creation.
Its Remixer platform allows users to describe what they want to build using natural language and generate a complete website or web application. The platform is designed to combine website creation, hosting and infrastructure without requiring users to assemble multiple services themselves.
DreamHost also offers AI-assisted tools within its WordPress ecosystem, giving less technical users an alternative to building websites completely from scratch.
Privacy and Open Web Philosophy
Privacy and user control are important elements of DreamHost's brand identity.
The company states that it does not want customers' content to become a source of marketing data and promotes an open platform where users retain control over their digital content. DreamHost has also historically positioned itself as an advocate for an open and independent web.
Its current privacy policy covers hosting, cloud, WordPress, email and domain-registration services and explains how personal information is processed, shared and protected.
Customer Support
DreamHost provides 24/7/365 support through its support channels, with an emphasis on in-house technical assistance. The company says its support team is available around the clock through live chat, email and other support channels.
For WordPress customers, DreamHost also maintains dedicated WordPress expertise and provides specialized support for WordPress hosting environments.
Infrastructure and Global Reach
DreamHost operates a distributed hosting infrastructure serving customers worldwide. Its WordPress information currently lists data centers in Ashburn, Virginia; Hillsboro, Oregon; Amsterdam, Netherlands; and Singapore.
The company also promotes a global CDN infrastructure with more than 100 edge locations, helping customers deliver websites and applications closer to their visitors.
Company Ownership
One of DreamHost's differentiating characteristics is its independent ownership structure. The company describes itself as employee-owned, with no private-equity owner or corporate parent, and says it has remained independent since its founding in 1997.
This independence is closely connected to DreamHost's long-standing positioning around privacy, open-source software and customer control.
DreamHost Today
After nearly three decades in the hosting industry, DreamHost has evolved from a traditional web hosting company into a broader digital infrastructure provider.
Today, its platform combines domains, web hosting, managed WordPress, VPS and dedicated servers, cloud infrastructure, email, AI website creation, developer tools and professional services under one ecosystem.
DreamHost's strongest positioning is its combination of long industry experience, independent ownership, WordPress expertise, open-source philosophy and an increasingly broad range of infrastructure and AI-powered tools.
For individuals and small businesses, DreamHost provides an accessible path from domain registration to website hosting. For developers and more technical users, its VPS, cloud and dedicated infrastructure provide additional control and scalability.
Founded: 1997
Headquarters: California, USA
Customers: 400,000+
Websites & applications hosted: 1.5 million+
Core services: Web Hosting, WordPress, Managed WordPress, VPS, Dedicated Servers, Cloud, Domains, Email, AI Website Tools
Domain registrar: ICANN-accredited
Support: 24/7/365
Ownership: Employee-owned / independent
Primary market: Global
GreenGeeks (est. 2008, Agoura Hills, CA) is an eco-friendly hosting provider that matches 300% of its energy use with renewable credits and plants one tree per account. It offers shared, WordPress, reseller, VPS and dedicated hosting from data centers in Chicago, Montreal and Amsterdam, with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Comparison Table
| Feature | DreamHost | GreenGeeks |
|---|---|---|
| Price / mo | $1.99 win | $2.95 |
| Renewal price | Promo on first term | — |
| Datacenters | 3 | 3 |
| NVMe storage | ✓ Yes win | ✗ No |
| Free domain | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Backups | Free | — |
| CDN | ✗ No | ✓ Yes win |
| Support | 24/7 chat/tickets | — |
| Uptime · 30d | 99.77% | 99.83% win |
Price History
Collecting price history — the trend fills in as we track this plan.
Collecting price history — the trend fills in as we track this plan.
Uptime & Performance
Pros & Cons
- Up to 25 websites, daily backups and unmetered bandwidth on the entry plan
- DreamPress managed WordPress from $11.99/mo
- VPS and fully managed dedicated servers, ordered online
- ICANN-accredited registrar with free WHOIS privacy for the life of the domain
- Free mailboxes on shared plans last three months
- No phone support
- Its own control panel rather than cPanel
- The headline price needs the longest prepaid term
- Nightly backups and real-time security scanning included
- cPanel with LiteSpeed and LSCache
- 24/7 phone, live chat and ticket support
- Renewable energy credits for three times its energy use, by GreenGeeks's own account
- The entry plan hosts one website
- Renews at $13.95/mo after the first term
- Self-managed VPS and dedicated servers go through sales
- Only three data centers
The Verdict
DreamHost covers more ground: up to 25 sites with daily backups and unmetered bandwidth on its entry plan, a dedicated managed WordPress platform, and VPS and fully managed dedicated servers you can buy online. GreenGeeks's entry plan hosts one site, but adds real-time security scanning, LiteSpeed on cPanel, phone support and a green-energy commitment. Pick DreamHost for a portfolio of sites or room to grow; pick GreenGeeks for a single site where cPanel and phone support matter.
DreamHost & GreenGeeks alternatives
Cheaper than DreamHost / GreenGeeks
FAQ
DreamHost's Web Hosting Launch costs $1.99 a month and renews at $11.99; GreenGeeks's Lite costs $2.95 and renews at $13.95.
Up to 25 on DreamHost's Web Hosting Launch and one on GreenGeeks's Lite.
Both do. DreamHost includes daily automated backups on its shared plans, and GreenGeeks includes nightly backups.
GreenGeeks, 24/7, along with chat and tickets. DreamHost supports customers by 24/7 live chat and tickets.
Yes at DreamHost, from $5.99 a month. GreenGeeks sells managed VPS online from $69.95; its self-managed VPS goes through sales.