joshbuhler.com » Blog Archive » Dreamhost vs. MediaTemple

I’ve been hosting my site with MediaTemple for the last couple of years now, but ever since I “upgraded” to their GridServer setup, I’ve been less than satisfied with my service. My sites seems a little slower, accessing files via FTP seems a little slower, and I’ve had problems getting my email more & more as well.

I’ve heard good things about Dreamhost, and after checking out their plans, I’ve very tempted to switch. Especially since it looks like I’ll get more features for half the price I’m paying MediaTemple.

So, here’s my question: Those of you that are on Dreamhost, or, that have used either service, which do you prefer, and why?

April 5th, 2007

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13 Responses to “Dreamhost vs. MediaTemple”

Zeh Says:
April 5th, 2007 at 10:51 am

I’ve been using DH for 4 years or something.

In price:benefits rate, they beat MT easily. Hands down. No question. Jesus, it’s not even a comparison.

I’ve only used MT when updating some clients’ websites, though, so I can’t comment a lot about them. But I’ve always been impressed that for the same prices you get with their GS, you get a much better package at DH. I also prefer DH’s features (control panel etc) immensely.

DH has faced random downtimes lately though. So depending on who you ask, you WILL find people who hate the service because their server have been affected. I still have trust in them and I believe it’s the most honest, down-to-earth hosting service I’ve ever used. The previous hosting services I used, I’d always have to quit after sometime because their feature set would be frozen in time and it wouldn’t be worth it anymore.. DH, on the other hand, increases features like bandwidth and disk space every month.

So yeah, my vote is for DH, easily.

Mike D Says:
April 5th, 2007 at 11:06 am

I’ve had a dreamhost account for about 6 months.
+ve: bandwidth/space/features
e.g imagemagick / customisable php/ffmpeg /install other stuff via ssh (have a look at the latest post on my blog for an example app that uses something unusual installed on the server - though the rest of the blog doesn’t run on DH)

-ve: not convinced with uptime. They’ve had a couple major outages since I joined. I’m not sure I’d host anything mission critical there. I don’t use their email so couldn’t say.

I had hosting on media temple and was unconvinced too, you pay a premium price but it doesn’t live up to the hype.

Jon Says:
April 5th, 2007 at 11:10 am

I’ve been using DH for a few years now as well, and I have to say, for a developer there is nothing better. They allow a lot of control, and I have always had great response from their support. In addition, they have a status blog (http://status.dreamhost.com) so you are never left wondering what any issues might be.

Frankly, they don’t go down more than any other host. They just publish when they do go down so users know, and because no other hosts are doing so, it makes them seem like they are down a lot more.

Lastly, be sure to search around for a referral code. You can easily save up to $97 just by checking Google.

Claus Wahlers Says:
April 5th, 2007 at 11:21 am

I’m a DH client. For the ridiculously low price you get a LOT of value (i pay $20/month and got 4TB traffic and something like 4GB disk space, which roughly translates to ‘flat’). The support is responsive and kind, and they usually know what they’re talking about.

Two issues:
- Their FTP servers do not support resume.
- Not as reliable as Mediatemple (uptime), as mentioned in comments above.

Claus Wahlers Says:
April 5th, 2007 at 11:28 am

> 4GB disk space

Sorry, 400GB disk space it is.

Mick Says:
April 10th, 2007 at 3:11 am

I’ve heard mixed things about dreamhost - but mostly good things (you get unhappy people at all hosting companies).

I also took my biggest site off MT about 3 months ago as I was losing $ from the downtime and their endless mySQL connection issues.

I’ve actually moved to a Dedicated Virtual with another host and am just amazed at my freedom, service and uptime now. I am spending more time administrating the site because I do have more control, and hence more manual customization. I am NEVER effected by other users accounts which is a big plus.

This is by far the best resource I found when looking for a hosting company…
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/

I recommend spending a few hours reading all the responses - look up dreamhost reviews, and alternatives…

Good luck - the MT hype is over

Seth Taylor Says:
October 16th, 2007 at 11:12 am

I’ve had a lot of problems with MT recently too. I’m actively hosting with 5 different hosting companies with “high” ratings and all of them have downtime. I’d be willing to sacrifice storage for reliability any day. I don’t care that I have 100 gb+ of space, especially if it is inaccessible. Honestly, I don’t need more than 10 gigs on a webserver. The additional space is handy, but not necessary. Reliability is necessary but I haven’t found a host that lives up to its claims.

wheat Says:
October 16th, 2007 at 1:15 pm

I used to be with mediatemple, now I’m with DH. Like you, I became unhappy with them following the gridserver upgrade. I used to be really happy with (mt)’s uptime and stability. But that seems to have taken a hit. I’d say the servers at DH can run a little slow sometimes. But they allow a lot more freedom and a lot more features for less money. I finally bit the bullet and moved all my sites over to DH. I’m a happy customer.

SA Says:
December 7th, 2007 at 10:50 pm

Thats funny because I’ve been with dreamhost since late 1999. I can tell you honestly how great they were back then but as of late (2005- now) alot has changed with performance, downtime, email problems and other things! I’m not a network expert, or claiming to know much about how servers work but before you switch, take a look here www.dreamhoststatus.com. I was considering jumping ship to MT, but the price is so high for a “mediocre” reviewed host, i am sticking with DH. This note is just a mild warning.

Mopie Says:
January 2nd, 2008 at 2:39 pm

I have been using DH for close to 3 years now and all the complaining about the downtime has been about what you’d expect for what you pay. 98% of the time it’s superb, but that one day when you’re testing something and suddenly it all goes black and that server/email error pops up its the biggest pain in the butt.
I have a small company on the side of my day job and have a lot of smaller companies as clients, local jewelers, photographers, artists, etc… and DH has been great for them/me. Im the only one who notices the downtime for server/emails because they are not needing the immeadiateness of the internet as I do as a Dev.
With that said, at my day job, I’m the head nerd here, we needed to move hosts as our last one was terrible (don’t get me started about 1&1), so the question came to me, where do we host?

Right off the bat I said DH is not the level we need (we have tons of traffic and the sporatic email/downtime would drive my bosses insane) so we did a looong hard look into media temple, got a hold of a number of big ad agencies listed on their client list and I emailed the techs there and asked them questions about service… for the most part they all said it was great. Issue here and there but over all worth it.

So we moved to MTs DV hosting…
We’ve been on MT here for almost a year now.

Over all its quite good, there is some silliness that buggs the hell out of me, but we’re yet to have any downtime or emails issues at all.

the BIG issue with MT that keep me cursing the darkness are

PHP4 is the default version installed, you need to manually go into the site via shell and do a 3-4 step modification to the vhosts.conf file for EVERY DOMAIN and SUBDOMAIN
EVERY ONE BY HAND
A big pain in the ass, but thats the only big one.

so in conclusion: (and remember this is all just my opinion)

DH is good for smaller clients who wont notice the downtime
their add ons, gallery, ffmpeg, wordpress and other one-click installs are absolutely great

MT is good if you have the need for somebody larger and if you have a slight knowledge of tinkering under the hood of a server.
the 1 click installs on MT are really nice too.

Just thought I’d throw in my $0.02.

TheMopie

rick Says:
April 3rd, 2008 at 8:39 am

My sites ave been ‘down’ for the past two to three weeks on Dreamhost. Essentially down, because eveyrthing has slowed toa crawl to the point of time out. So I’m in the process of moving to MT grid right now. So far all the sites I’ve moved over are running fine. They’re (Dreamhost) offering a refund though so at least they get points for good customer service.

deltawing1 Says:
July 24th, 2008 at 12:25 am

Remember that Dreamhost only does shared hosting, and if you want to scale (when your site becomes popular), you’ll need to switch hosts. Yes, Dreamhost does have and link to VPS and Managed Dedicated plans but they don’t operate those services. And BTW, DH oversells a lot more than MT. Be weary of overselling and don’t just look at the pricing.

If you go with MT and start with the Grid, then you don’t have to change hosts when you want to migrate to VPS or dedicated. MT has (dv) and (nitro) plans, not just (gs).

Rob Says:
October 8th, 2008 at 8:36 am

Dreamhost does run their VPS servers and their prices are very very good

13 Responses to “Dreamhost vs. MediaTemple”

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