80 Comments

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1. 1

   Ha! Freaking awesome. Dave@hosting-review must be thrilled by this post. DreamHosters are my kinda people. Since I know you take bribes now, I’m going to move down to LA and buy you rounds of beer until you hire me.

   Comment by Keaka — May 5, 2006 #

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   I already wondered why Dreamhost.com is not registred in many sites! I have been soooo naive ;D

   Comment by Anonymous — May 5, 2006 #

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   The same holds true for almost every review site, from “Top 10 Computers” to “Top 10 Underpants”. Some are more reputable than others, such as those that are extensions of published magazines, but on the whole they are all as crooked as Nixon.

   Comment by Simon Jessey — May 5, 2006 #

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   I forget how I found Dreamhost web site… except by doing a lot of research and finding for the price, the number of mysql connections, and the storage, that Dreamhost trumps all of the other sites. Now there have been a few problems with downtime, but transferring over to a 99.99% uptime host with only 5 GB maximum storage doesn’t really beat out >50GB at $19.99 a month with only 90% to 98% uptime. If I was running a business, I would most likely go with the other web sites because I like making the money, but really, Dreamhost does a good job for the price and amount of features.

   Only 8 databases for 20 dollars a month, get real! I want my unlimited amount of databases, connections, and users. While it is true that I’ve rarely ever gone over 8 Mysql databases, it is nice to know that I can have 100 or a 1000 if I so desired. Being forced to a set amount is a bitch, which is why I’ll probably still be with Dreamhost.

   Actually, the best ‘review’ sites are the ones that allow other customers to review the product. It is also true that companies are going to pony up some cash to pay a few people to give some ‘excellent’ reviews, but on sites that have +300 you would have a good idea. On products that have +2000 to +100000, you get an excellent idea on who is the better host.

   Except for the fact that some people are always going to be pissed off about any small thing, and some people are always going to give a good review even if the company came to their house and spit in their face (except if they did do that then the person would give a bad review).

   It is true that I have tried the hosting review sites to find a better host than Dreamhost, but after all the time I searched, I couldn’t find a host that beat out Dreamhost, which made me sad and happy. Sad that all hosting companies suck, but at various degrees depending on what feature you desire the most and happy that I’ve been with the ‘best’ for a long time.

   Affiliates can kiss my ass, I work for my money. If you do want to make me some ‘free’ money, then you can donate to my paypal account under sexybeast666@I’mjustkidding.com.

   Comment by santos — May 5, 2006 #

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   I signed up for six months with one of those “top ten” companies some years ago. I only stayed with them for 2 months and had more down time than I did hosting my site on my own DSL line on a Windows server! I spent the next four months trying to get my money back and eventually just chaulked it up to experience.

   Finding Dreamhost was a lot of work. Mostly I used DejaNews and read and read to see what hosting companies got consistently recommended by people that seemed (form their usenet posts) to be sober.

   I was still skeptical, because the Dreamhost site is just like the ripoff sites. Names like “crazy domain insane” just made me think it was another “just give us your money” site. I believe what sold me was that at the time I think you had a 30 day money back, no questions asked, garrantee.

   It is interesting that I have never found a SINGLE “real” web hosting review site on Google. Maybe it is because there is no point. Dreamhost is the best, the rest stink. :)

   I still have trouble though convincing friends not to go with the “highly rated” and “very cheap” hosting site they found on some “top ten” site. I really appreciate this article. Now I have something to send friends to.

   Comment by clofland — May 5, 2006 #

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   I wonder how long their positive review of Dreamhost will stay up:

   http://www.hosting-review.com/hosting-reviews/dreamhost.shtml

   Comment by Seth — May 5, 2006 #

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   The review will probably stay up for as long as it keeps earning them money.

   Comment by riki — May 5, 2006 #

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   >> I’m going to move down to LA and buy you rounds of beer until you hire me.

   I think I’m gonna move to LA and pretend to work for DH now..

   Comment by Nathan Friedly — May 5, 2006 #

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   Oh, man, that was very cool indeed. Thanks for sharing this!

   Comment by Matt — May 5, 2006 #

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    I always suspected as much, but it’s shocking to see it spelled out in such graphic detail… it’s a shame there aren’t genuine webhost comparison/review sites out there. Finding a webhost these days is such hard work; finding the websites is the first and hardest step. Then making notes of the packages on offer, reading through the T&Cs for any nasty surprises, googling for horror-stories… and even after all that you have to take it on faith and hope they can deliver what they claim they can and won’t be offline every Tuesday to Saturday. I found it a very frustrating process.

    So of course, I’m with Dreamhost because a friend strongly recommended you guys, and I’ve had no cause to regret the decision. :)

    Comment by James Farmer — May 5, 2006 #

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    Paying to get listed in the Top Ten? Pffft!
    Dreamhost doesn’t need to waste their time on website review sites! ;)

    Comment by Sara — May 5, 2006 #

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    There are however sites that are legitimate.

    I’ve dealt with Dave at hosting-review before (on behalf of another company) and while he does convert sales (and insanely fast) I’m simply not into the whole ‘crooking’ customers style of business.

    The majority of the lists aren’t legitimate and they do their best to hide it. It’s a sad sad fact but to be honest Dreamhost: By having an affiliate program with such a high payout you’re helping spur it.

    Just be wary of who you trust!

    Comment by David — May 5, 2006 #

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    I’ve seen that in other industries and had suspected that the rating sites are at least as hopelessly manipulated as the industry magazines and major “analysts” but it was great to see just how much open they are about it.

    Comment by Chris Adams — May 5, 2006 #

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    You know what? This only reaffirms my confidence in Dreamhost. It would be easier for them play along with those guys and buy their place on their “top ten”, but exposing them is a bold thing to do.

    Thanks for this.

    Comment by Clark Nova — May 5, 2006 #

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    I must say that I am seriously impressed by your blog generally and the tone of this entry in particular. I work on a corporate blog and every entry has to be vetted by lawyers–it must be very refreshing to be able to post whatever you want and call another company a “skidmark.” I know I would love to at my job.

    I earlier went with the recommendation of one of those review sites and it was horrible: overpriced and underfeatured. DH is my last stop (until I need Windows hosting and then I’ll check out your partner hosting.com).

    Comment by Bill Brown — May 5, 2006 #

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    [...] Dreamhost may have made marketing redemption with the beautiful and revealing Web Hosting’s Dirty Laundry. A brief, and quality, tirade into the realm of ‘independent hosting review sites’ that market themselves as user sites displaying the best of the best; though apparently the independent reviews are simply fluff for the highest buyer, not the best value. [...]

    Pingback by pull to inflate » Blog Archive » Dreamhost : Hosting Redemption — May 5, 2006 #

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    That’s hilarious… I took a chance w/Dreamhost, even in light of some recent bad reviews at an webhosting chat forum, and have been completely pleased with my service. After reading this article, I’m even more proud to have chosen them as the host for my main personal site.

    GG DH!

    Comment by Phrozt — May 5, 2006 #

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    [...] May 5th, 2006 in Links Dreamhost uncovers the Web Hosting’s Dirty Laundry: unbiased hosting review sites are not all that unbiased. [...]

    Pingback by warpedvisions.org » Blog Archive » Dreamhost on Web Hosting’s Dirty Laundry — May 5, 2006 #

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    [...] Some companies just seem cool to deal with. As an example of what is cool about Dreamhost (who I’ve used now for web hosting for getting on for 2 years), have a read of their blog. In particular, articles like this make interesting (and often amusing) reading. [...]

    Pingback by my weblog » Blog Archive » Why I like Dreamhost. Why I don’t like Goldfish. — May 5, 2006 #

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    [...] Read more at Dreamhost Blog. Lots of dirty laundry here. [...]

    Pingback by Mac Web Design » MacTheWeb » Host Ranking Ripoff — May 5, 2006 #

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    Phony “top 10″ sites…

    Dirty laundry of web hosting and Internet Marketing, or why most “top 10” type of sites are phony…….

    Trackback by Jaanus on the internet — May 5, 2006 #

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    [...] The rap dictionary is way cool. (props Dreamhost Blog) [...]

    Pingback by Dropping a Dime on the Bus at mahalie.com — May 5, 2006 #

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    nothing can assure Dreamhost is out of that industry, just playing with different cards - like pointing out some dirty trash - to make my mind and try to make me feel proud of signing with them.
    there’s always the question in the air.

    but the service is the best I’ve seen, they talk to their customers (personally I don’t like this word, DH seems to see us like real people), they listen. DH earns with this, so do we do.

    other companies don’t seem to like this strategy, they just see the statistics and the profits. that’s why I should choose and recommend DH for everyone.

    Comment by nemontemi — May 5, 2006 #

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    Taking about “Dirty Laundry”, I recently had a bad experience with Dreamhost Rewards, which I really pray they take steps to ensure doesn’t happen again.

    I’m a webmaster who’s been with Dreamhost since October 99 and I’ve always referred my clients to Dreamhost as standard practice. I’ve apparently had around 40 direct referrals in that period, at least a dozen of my own clients.

    I recently signed up, one of my new clients with their own Dreamhost account. So we’re sitting patiently waiting for the account to be activated only to discover that the transaction was automatically tagged as “potential fraudulent” and the initial two year payment was automatically refunded to my clients credit-card. Great for security I guess, but not something we wanted or requested.

    When I asked why it was tagged as potential fraudulent. I was told that this was standard practice for almost all overseas customers. First of all I’d like to say “thanks we really appreciated being wrongly accused of fraud, it does wonders for ensuring client confidence”.

    So luckily my client didn’t ditch me at this point. Any mention of internet fraud normally scares the carp out of most people. So just a minor gotcha. Luckily my client (a person I’ve never meet before, we live in different countries) understands the situation and submits the credit-card rubbing as requested and we make a second cc payment. The account is fully activated, up and running, no problems. “Whew!”

    I get to work, setting up two sites for my client, pointing the DNS for their .COM.AU domain names to Dreamhost, setting up a database etc. A few days later I notice my Rewards payment hasn’t come through to my DH account. I contact Dreamhost only to be again wrongly accused, but this time for requesting “what appears to be a Charge-Back”, which is a serious transgression as the DH sales support person correctly points out. So DH has deleted my rewards payment and apparently charged me a $20 fee. Wow thanks for the referral, ouch! did that just cost me money???

    But wait a second, the clients account is fully paid up, two years in advance. Their sites have been up and running for several days now. A fact which is easily determined if the DH sales support person had done his job properly.

    Here’s the thing: It wasn’t a Charge-Back, it was the “Dreamhost Unnecessary Pain System” which automatically refunded my clients money in the first place that was still causing me grief.

    To the credit of Dreamhost the situation was finally resolved. In the end I got through to a very kind and helpful DH sales woman who assessed the situation and sorted it out for me.

    I imagine the DH Rewards system has probably played a big part in the significant growth of Dreamhost over the past few years. I’m sure the large $97 rewards payment must attract it’s share of scum. Like flies to fresh roadkill. But you should be careful when weeding out the scum, that you’re not wedding out legitimate long term clients. As Dreamhost continues to grow, this will become more of an issue.

    As a webmaster it’s always myself that opens the new Dreamhost account for my client. Personally I think you need to have some sort of honor/reputation system to make it easier to identify trusted longterm clients.

    Comment by riki — May 5, 2006 #

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    Regarding riki’s comment above;

    I have seen similar things here, which leads me to believe that the DreamHost rewards system does have some flaws. Legitimate referrals can sometimes fall between the cracks, with the referrer missing out on their rewards payment.

    If a particular referral is flagged as ‘fraudulent’, their payment is refunded and any rewards payment is reversed. So far, so good.

    However, if the ‘fraudulent’ customer subsequently provides documentation and has the account re-instated, the rewards payment does not seem to be also re-instated. Leaving DreamHost with a new customer and the original referrer without their rewards payment.

    Mark

    Comment by Raz2133 — May 5, 2006 #

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    Oh, the hosting-review site has a blacklist of hosts, and you can only get to it from mailing list. Several guesses on who may or may not be on it now.

    Comment by santos — May 6, 2006 #

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    Way to go, DreamHost. Thanks for finding this out and for publishing it!

    Comment by John Koetsier — May 6, 2006 #

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    Yet another reason I don’t use rating sites for things like this.

    My ultra-scientific research process involved asking friends and acquaintances in the free and open source software community for reccommendations. Any time I mentioned web hosting, at least 5 people professed their undying love for DreamHost. :)

    I’m willing to bet that you get as much or more business from word-of mouth than any other source.

    HedgeMage

    Comment by HedgeMage — May 6, 2006 #

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    [...] Dreamhost prefers moral integrity to free customers. Also, their wordpress anti-spam mod seems to work, as I’ve had one spam comment since signing up, compared to 3-4 per day on my vanilla install. [...]

    Pingback by Welcome to MekTrix 4.0 » Blog Archive » An assortment of pimpage — May 6, 2006 #

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    Haha, that’s hilarious! Someone actually registered the domain on the underwear: http://www.totallyunbiasedhostingreviews.com — Classic!

    Comment by Mark Anderson — May 6, 2006 #

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    Yeah, I found many of those sites were pretty suspicious from the get-go. I visited half a dozen and they had minimal overlap. I would see one or two hosts I recognized and the rest would be completely different on each site. I’m sure if you went to a bunch of “Top Ten Cars” sites, you would see all those Ferraris you were talking about, but if the sites were run like the hosting review ones, we’d see Pintos and Yugo GV’s.

    Even individual people were all over trying to make a buck through affiliate programs. One guy bashed DH (for a problem that sounded like his own fault) and suggested users try his new host. He had links to both hosts, both using affiliate programs.

    Ultimately it came down to word of mouth and the fast replies of the DreamHost staff to finally convince me. Seeing this blog pleases me all the more.

    Comment by Ian Clifton — May 6, 2006 #

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    I guess I’m smart enough to smell a rat and I never trusted these “review” sites from the word go.

    Then when I researched them and found they weren’t affiliated with any tech-related web publishers I know (e.g. Ziff Davis, CMP, ArsTechnica, CNet, etc) it was obvious to me that I Was right.

    I did my research based on reviews from “real” tech sites (nothing dedicated solely to web hosting reviews) and just asked around.

    Regardless of where I looked Dreamhost was always at or near the top.

    However, you only offer SSH to business accounts. And I think everyone serious about web hosting (or email for that matter) should have access to SSH.

    So I looked around some more. I found several that offered it (I don’t recall who they were anymore except for the one I ended up with).

    I finally decided on ace-host.com (a/k/a Acenet). They had gotten “average” reviews. But they offered everything I wanted and were ridiculously inexpensive (so much so that I figured if I hated them I’d bail out early and lose that little money I’d spent).

    Well they’ve turned out to be “average” overall and they did discontinue IMAP (which I really wanted as I run multiple operating systems) so that was a bit annoying (I’ve ince decided to use my old computer as a personal IMAP server).

    But, they still offer SSH to anyone (they did require a copy of my Driver’s License and it had to have a current address on it, but that seemed reasonable).

    I don’t recall how I found them at this point. But considering I believe you get what you pay for, they aren’t bad.

    But I digress….

    I knew these “hosting review” sites were a joke from the word go. As time went on it became even more apparent.

    So my advice to anyone reading this is to go with trusted names in technology review sites (like the previously mentioned ones).

    Don’t stop there though, see what else you can come up with. You might be able to find a customer or two whom you can ask. Several of the better hosts even encourage this (mine wouldn’t be among them).

    Then there’s always word of mouth. I’m on several Linux related mailing lists and so far I’ve seen the question come up twice in the past 6 months.. Both times there were 3-4 hosts mentioned. And both times one of them was none other than Dreamhost.

    If SSH wasn’t important to me, I’d be with you now.

    Comment by Scott — May 6, 2006 #

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    SSH is now available on all DreamHost plans :)

    Mark

    Comment by Raz2133 — May 7, 2006 #

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    [...] En fin, Dreamhost hizo publicos unos correos con conversaciones entre el representante de ventas de Hosting-review.com y el representante de ventas de Dreamhost. [...]

    Pingback by Radio Levhita » Archivo » La ropa sucia de las reseñas de hospedajes. — May 7, 2006 #

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    Choosing A Web Host? Do Your Research!…

    If you’re going to run a blog or any other kinds of site, you need a place to put it: a host. You need a server, either your own or someone else’s. Standing up, securing and administering your own web……

    Trackback by StrayPackets — May 7, 2006 #

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    I love you guys,

    Keep up the good work,

    Making money online is a dream,

    but not one that should be cheating people in such a way,

    $3200 ,

    hah, Ive known for a while the industry is fixed. You’d be interested to know that some companies that we are dependant upon such as ventrilo, intentionally hold back their VOIP software so that we cannot effectively compete with them,

    My heart goes out to decent companies like dreamhost that are just trying to make an honest living, without cheating their way to the front, or monopolising the industry, which in the UK is illegal!

    Kind Regards,

    Adam

    Comment by Adam — May 7, 2006 #

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    “SSH is now available”? When was it ever *not* available?

    Comment by Shish — May 7, 2006 #

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    > “When was it ever *not* available?”

    I only used the word ‘now’ in my reply because Scott stated that when he was shopping for hosting that SSH was only available on business accounts.

    SSH has been available on all plans since I have been hosting with DreamHost, but I have no idea if at some time in the distant past this wasn’t the case.

    Mark

    Comment by Raz2133 — May 8, 2006 #

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    I am with you guys until I see the signs that your overselling has began to hurt your exisiting customers. I know this day will come.

    Comment by S Jain — May 8, 2006 #

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    Smart enough to smell a rat but not smart enough to look around and see what the current hosting plans offer before looking like a fool.

    hehe..

    Dreamhost is the only one for me.

    Period.

    Comment by miklos — May 8, 2006 #

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    Great! Now do us all a favor and make the servers run faster please :)

    Comment by Montoya — May 8, 2006 #

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    Thanks for lifting that skirt and air out that dirty laundry.
    Now that I’ve seen that skidmark I’m disgusted.

    You gotta feel Dave’s pain though. I mean with gas prices the way they are can you imagine how much it costs to keep a yacht running?…

    Right on guys! Great job!

    Comment by Randy — May 8, 2006 #

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    [...] Dreamhost: vi voglio bene assai! [...]

    Pingback by Googlando » Blog Archive » Tam Tam — May 9, 2006 #

44. 44

    [...] DreamHost recently had an investigation into hosting-review.com and dugg up a few surprising facts. A must read for everybody who has ever visited any sort of hosting review website.read more | digg story Posted by nil Filed in General [...]

    Pingback by /home/nil/ » Blog Archive » The dirty truth about webhosting review websites. — May 9, 2006 #

45. 45

    Interesting blog post but it is not without *irony*.

    The hosting industry offered big affiliate comissions for sales generated from sites in the first place. Of course this leads to people creating sites to serve up reviews in an attempt to make some sales, and in some cases these sites begin to recieve a lot of traffic.

    When a review site starts turning big dollars due to the amount of traffic they have pass through their site, they can then use this traffic to bata with hosting providers for better payouts.

    As hosting-review.com has become on of the big players in the hosting affiliate market, they can name their price for listing on their site.

    I guess what I am saying is that the hosting industry as a whole (but no necessarily DH) made their bed by offering affiliate payments, now they have to sleep in it!

    Comment by David — May 10, 2006 #

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    On a barely related topic, I find it funny that their site doesn’t seem to understand our sleeping kid. He’s not dreaming of partying, he’s conked out because he’s been partying!

    It’s funny because he’s a kid!

    Okay, that’s all I’ve got.

    Comment by Pete — May 10, 2006 #

47. 47

    Fantastic you should have done this - if only more people were this honest.

    Comment by Dave — May 11, 2006 #

48. 48

    [...] What do all of these so-called “review” sites actually do? They make money. A lot of money. ⇒ [via] Tags: reviews , scams , webhosting [...]

    Pingback by the imbroglio » Blog Archive » Web Hosting’s Dirty Laundry — May 11, 2006 #

49. 49

    Brett, you were cruel. I always thought hosting review sites were serious. Now I enter hosting-review.com and feel discouraged to do a single click.

    Comment by vinicius — May 11, 2006 #

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    [...] DreamHost, a popular hosting company, gets into the nitty-gritty of bogus review sites on its blog. It’s a blow-by-blow account of their experience after a review site solicited them to appear on their “Editor’s Picks” page. Money, it seems, was all it took. [...]

    Pingback by StrayPackets / Choosing A Web Host? Do Your Research! — May 12, 2006 #

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