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Keri Hēnare

Media Temple vs DreamHost

As I’m heading overseas to travel I’ve decided to switch to a US based webhost. I’ve been hosted at iServe in New Zealand since I decided to start my own website. Friends tried to convince me to move my hosting offshore to take advantage of the lower pricing, but I’ve always been a loyal kiwi. iServe have been a great host and I recommend them to all New Zealanders.

My needs have changed now. I won’t be in New Zealand, I’ll be in America, maybe Canada and later all over Europe. So I’ll need easy and quick access to my FTP and email. I also plan to open a few sites based on concepts that I’ve been working on which will involve a lot more international traffic.

So the question now is who to host with. I narrowed it down to two contenders, Media Temple and DreamHost. I chose these two because they seemed to be the two most used in the web standards industry. It was a little confusing because everyone seemed to support their host equally.

Media Temple

DreamHost

For the plans that I was looking at DreamHost seemed to have more on offer, but there was just something so appealing about Media Temple. I suddenly noticed that everyone who suggested Media Temple was on the Dedicated-Virtual plan, not the Shared-Server plan that I was looking at. So I decided to go with DreamHost as their Level 1 plan suits me best.

The winner is DreamHost

Thanks Mike for the extra DreamHost users.

Comments

  • Robert on :

    Did you already sign up? Otherwise you can take advantage of one of the promo codes from <a href="http://www.dreamhost-promo-code.com/" rel="nofollow">dreamhost-promo-code.com</a> and get the setup fee waived.

  • Keri Henare on :

    Yeah I already did. 1 year of level one. I have my own promo codes now 'khenaremax' gives the full discount allowable. Up to $97 off.

  • Mike D. on :

    Sweet. I hope things are going well for you. Cederholm and I pretty much kill Zeldman, Inman, and Bowman in street cred anyway. Those guys are not to be trusted. :) Some more names to add under the case for Dreamhost: Shea, Santa Maria, and God himself.

  • Keri Henare on :

    Mezzoblue! I knew there was someone else I'd seen as hosted on DreamHost but I couldn't remember who. Thanks for visiting my site Mike.

  • ZenBug on :

    I'd be interested to know how your experience with Dreamhost goes. I signed up with them a few months ago - moving all seven of my client sites there - after reading Mike D's praise of them on his blog. Since then, their servers have gone down *several* times, affecting websites *and* e-mail, and costing my clients a lot of money. I'm considering switching to Media Temple in hopes that despite their lesser deals, they'd be more reliable. Read more about Dreamhost problems here: http://www.dreamhoststatus.com/2006/04/17/clarifications-on-this-site/ Good luck.

  • Bruce on :

    So you stuck with DreamHost thru <em>The Troubles</em> then? I didn't, and for those considering what might be involved in switching an shared server account to Media Temple <a href="http://bioneural.net/2006/08/05/making-the-switch-from-dreamhost-to-mt/" rel="nofollow">this</a> might be helpful.

  • Keri Henare on :

    Haven't really noticed issue lately. Ran out of time to change over anyway because I left the country and came travelling. Like right now I'm in a hostel in Chicago.

  • Matt Johnson on :

    Cool. Welcome to Chicago Keri :) I've got hosting packages with both MT and Dreamhost. I use MT for my personal projects, and Dreamhost for my company. I'll be converting all to (mt)'s (dv) standard-base plan in a couple of weeks. The only significant difference that I see between them is that I enjoy using MT more, and their support is 10x faster/easier/better If your doing basic things, dreamhost is not a problem, if you don't mind their clunky, ugly control panel. Being that I'm a visual designer, aesthetics are extremely important to my everyday life, and I just tend to like to deal with things that "look good" All in all - Yeah (MT) Is pricey, but it pays for itself in support, uptime, and ease of use.