DreamHost vs. Flywheel

Last verified 34 days ago · 29 sources · Updated automatically

DreamHost and Flywheel compared across Company facts, Pricing, Performance & infrastructure, WordPress management, Support & security and Platform & integrations — every fact sourced and re-verified from each vendor's public material.

DreamHost

Independent host whose DreamPress tier is managed WordPress hosting; WordPress.org-recommended.

HQ Brea, CA

Visit DreamHost Full profile

Flywheel

Managed WordPress hosting built for designers and creative agencies; now part of WP Engine.

HQ Austin, TX

Visit Flywheel Full profile

Attribute

DreamHost

Flywheel

Company facts

Headquarters

Brea, CA DreamHost (New Dream Network, LLC) is headquartered in Brea, California.

Austin, TX Flywheel is a WP Engine product; WP Engine is headquartered in Austin, TX

Employees

300 Roughly 300 employees (LinkedIn band 201-500).

1.1k Headcount of parent company WP Engine (~1,100 globally)

Pricing

Starting Monthly Price (USD)

$19.99 DreamPress 1 entry plan; renewal rate. Intro $14.99/mo first year.

$25 Starter plan billed monthly; $300/yr (2 months free) if annual

Entry Plan WordPress Sites

1 sites DreamPress 1 includes 1 WordPress site.

1 sites 1 WordPress site on the Starter plan

Entry Plan Monthly Visits

40k DreamPress 1 includes 40k monthly visits.

25k 25,000 monthly visits on the Starter plan

Entry Plan Storage (GB)

15 GB DreamPress 1 includes 15 GB NVMe SSD storage.

10 GB 10 GB disk on the Starter plan

Free Trial Length (Days)

0 days No free trial; DreamPress offers a 30-day money-back guarantee instead.

0 days No free trial; free demo sites and a 60-day money-back guarantee instead

Money-Back Guarantee (Days)

30 days 30-day money-back guarantee on DreamPress.

60 days 60-day money-back guarantee (excludes Agency and Custom plans)

Performance & infrastructure

Underlying Cloud

own datacenters Runs on DreamHost's own US datacenters (Ashburn, VA and Hillsboro, OR).

Google Cloud Runs on the Google Cloud Platform

Datacenter Locations

3 US East (Ashburn), US West (Hillsboro), EU (Amsterdam)

5 5 data center regions worldwide

Free CDN

Free Bunny CDN included on DreamPress.

Free global CDN powered by Fastly on all plans

Web Server

NGINX NGINX with FastCGI caching.

NGINX NGINX serving static files and reverse-proxying PHP-FPM

Built-in Object Cache

Redis persistent object cache included.

Page caching only (FlyCache); no persistent object cache

Latest PHP Version

8.5 Newest panel PHP: 8.5 (8.2–8.5 selectable)

8.2 PHP 8.2 (default for new sites); 7.4 also selectable

Free SSL Certificate

Free Let's Encrypt SSL, auto-provisioned and renewed.

Free Let's Encrypt SSL (Simple SSL) with any plan

WordPress management

Automatic WordPress Updates

Host applies WordPress core updates automatically (cannot opt out).

Automatic major and minor WordPress core updates

Staging Environments

1-Click Staging with push-to-live, on every DreamPress plan.

One-click staging sites included on all plans

Automatic Daily Backups

Automatic daily backups with one-click restore.

Automatic nightly backups with one-click restore

Backup Retention (Days)

14 days DreamPress 1 retains 14 days of daily backups (30 days on DreamPress 5 and above).

30 days 30 days of nightly backups retained

Free Site Migration

Free professional migrations (one per included site) plus a free WordPress migration plugin.

Free site migrations included

SSH & WP-CLI Access

SSH/shell access with WP-CLI on DreamPress.

SSH gateway with WP-CLI on all Cloud Platform sites

WordPress Multisite Support

WordPress Multisite (Network) is not supported on DreamPress.

Multisite requires Freelance, Agency, or Custom plan; not on the entry Starter plan

Support & security

Uptime SLA (%)

100% 100% uptime guarantee (service-credit remedy)

99.9% 99.9% uptime

24/7 Support

24/7/365 support from in-house, US-based WordPress experts.

24/7/365 chat support on all plans

Malware Removal / Hack Fix

No free hack-fix/malware-removal guarantee; DreamShield (scan/alert) and DreamCare (repair) are paid add-ons.

Free malware cleanup / hack fix if your site is infected on-platform

WAF / DDoS Protection

Built-in Web Application Firewall + DDoS protection, included at no extra cost.

Fastly-based WAF and DDoS protection at the edge, included on all plans

Platform & integrations

Control Panel

custom DreamHost's own custom panel (not cPanel/Plesk).

custom Custom Flywheel dashboard (replaces cPanel)

White-Label / Agency Features

Agency Partner Program is referral/commission/discounts + priority support — no white-label, sub-account, or client-billing tooling.

Billing transfer to clients, collaborators, and multi-site management for agencies

Email Hosting Included

Unlimited mailboxes at your domain included with DreamPress.

No email hosting; Flywheel recommends a dedicated provider like Google Workspace

The verdict

DreamHost

Best for value, traffic headroom, and bundled email

DreamHost's entry plan is cheaper ($19.99 vs $25) yet carries more headroom: 40k monthly visits and 15 GB storage versus Flywheel's 25k and 10 GB. It adds a Redis object cache, PHP 8.5, a 100% uptime SLA, and unlimited email mailboxes Flywheel omits. Trade-offs: 14-day backups and no free malware removal.

Full profile

Flywheel

Best for agencies and managed-risk peace of mind

Flywheel adds white-label/agency tooling (client billing, collaborators) DreamHost lacks, plus free malware removal if a site is infected. It retains 30 days of backups versus 14, offers a 60-day money-back window versus 30, and runs on Google Cloud across 5 regions. Costs more ($25), with no object cache or bundled email.

Full profile

Sources · 29 verified references

en.wikipedia.org wpengine.com linkedin.com dreamhost.com getflywheel.com help.dreamhost.com

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