Okay, not really long, nor sordid, but I did notice however that it’s been two years since I started hosting with Dreamhost and, according to the archives, two years next month since I moved vtluu.net over to DreamHost. Funny how I couldn’t even remember who I was using to host vtluu.net prior to that; I had to search my archived E-mail to figure out it was Your-Site.
Was Your-Site that bad that I’ve apparently repressed all memories of it? Probably not; nevertheless, that Your-Site seems still the sleepy little company it was two years ago and that DreamHost has grown and developed even in the same period of time says a lot of about the two.
Without sounding overly gushy, I couldn’t be happier with DreamHost. I think it’s their ability to anticipate everything that I want out of a hosting service. When I wanted to set up websites using Joomla and WordPress, they made that easy. When more recently I decided to move my E-mail hosting over to Google, they made that a breeze as well. Looking at their company info, I get the impression that their philosophy is to stay small, do one thing and do it well. I admire that kind of ambition—no fame-seeking, no Superbowl Ads… not what you’d expect from a company based in the heart of L.A.
Of course, business is business, and when it comes to the bottom line DreamHost has very competitively-priced service and a great referral bonus program, but here are a few other noteworthy items that make DreamHost stand out:
- Their corporate blog, a genuinely interesting read.
- Their environmentally-friendly approach (waste reduction, renewable energy, carbon-neutrality, etc.).
- Their charitable efforts (e.g. matching donations); I’m a bit cynical about charitable contributions by corporations (i.e. why take my money and give some of it away when I could just give it away myself) but I nevertheless appreciate the effort.
Anyway, if you’re looking for a new/replacement web/domain hosting service, check out DreamHost (and kick a referral bonus my way) at this link: http://www.dreamhost.com/r.cgi?225447.