I know Dreamhost is not really a dream and cheap means cheap. All right. But...

I tried them a few months ago and I didn't like the fact that email wasn't totally under my control unless I used the precious FTP accounts for it. But now I'm moving most of my email needs to Google Mail Hosted (yeah, even cheaper, but I simply love their webmail and all of my domains are for family, friends and colleagues). Back then they were offering 20 GB of storage, which was already bigger than most competition. Now they're offering 200 GB, which might look absurd but it makes me think of something different than just webhosting. One of my users is a photographer and the idea of backing up all of his work remotely is starting to sound good.

So one starts to wonder: is this just crazy overselling? Will I eat up my alloted bandwidth before I can even fill up or download those 200 GB? Can I stay confident that my data will be safe there? It's 6:50 AM EST and I can't open Dreamhost's front page in my browser...

EDIT: I could open Dreamhost's front page at 6:54 AM EST. They offer 2 TB bandwidth which I suppose covers those 200 GB for two or three users moving data back and forth each month.

Read their TOS.
You probabally can't use it for "storage" like that.

I did. Maybe I missed it, but I can't see any mention to what you can upload/download to/from any of your FTP accounts?

You may want to get clarification on number 7:

The customer agrees to make use of DreamHost Webhosting servers primarily for the purpose of hosting a website, and associated email functions.

Storage isn't really a website...

I will ask them for clarification on that number 7. If I understand that point correctly it's trying to prevent CPU abuse, not storage:

The customer agrees to make use of DreamHost Webhosting servers primarily for the purpose of hosting a website, and associated email functions. Servers are shared with other customers, and as such IRC-related activities, BitTorrent software, or severely CPU intensive CGI scripts (e.g. chat scripts, proxy scripts, scripts which have bugs causing them to not close properly after being run) are not encouraged. IRC bots and bouncers (BNC) specifically may not be run on any DreamHost Webhosting server, and if your processes are adversely affecting server performance disproportionately DreamHost Webhosting reserves the right to negotiate additional charges with the Customer and/or the discontinuation of the offending processes.

I would sign up and use all of the 200 GB. You wont run out of bandwidth if they include 2 TB.

Is it just me or are they giving away dedicated server to each client? I will answer that myself, they are using the law of large numbers (I think that's what its called). Which basically means they are really overselling, but they know most people will never use all of those resources. These high numbers have been great for DH and are allowing them to grow quite quickly, but even someone that knows nothing about hosting can see there will be a big problem down the road.

Well, this is what I wrote them:


I intend to fill up those 200 GB by backing up my brother's work as a photographer. We might upload all of his pictures, along with his website's gallery and those would easily fill up your 200 GB offer nicely. Also, I would like to use that huge FTP space for backing up other files from the rest of my family.

And this is their reply:

This is perfectly acceptable. We offer the space, and some people actually do use it. Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Of course they're overselling, but it doesn't seem to be against their TOS to use that huge space as an online backup and I believe this is what I'm going to do... :)

SJRHosting, may I ask what you mean by the big problem down the road?

SJRHosting, may I ask what you mean by the big problem down the road?

Overselling does work in the short run, but the longer people stay the more space and bandwidth they normally use. So DH may be ok now, but in a year will they be able to afford people using much more than they are now?

About 7 years ago I created my first website and it was only 2 MB or less at that time. Seven years later it is now over 20 GB. Will all sites grow like that? Probably not, but nearly all of them will grow at least some.

Dreamhost can swing it. They've stated that most customers use less than 1% of what's available, so it's no problem at all if some do. Do they oversell? Let's see, they're a web host, so I'll guess "yes." ;)

The overselling they do isn't quite on the same scale as someone overselling a $20 reseller plan. They have plenty of resources to back it up. Plus, if you search their forum for "files forever" you'll see that they're even spreading into the online storage business, so I doubt they're worried about running out of disk space.


Overselling does work in the short run, but the longer people stay the more space and bandwidth they normally use. So DH may be ok now, but in a year will they be able to afford people using much more than they are now?

Well, they've been doing it for almost 10 years and they're one of the biggest hosts, so it seems their math is working. They've had plenty of years to chart their growth rate and seem to put plenty of thought into each upgrade.