General Terms of Service

Anything you tell DreamHost as a suggestion, review, or testimonial is licensed to the company permanently, cannot be taken back, and is granted "exclusive" — a word that normally means even you lose the right to use those words elsewhere. DreamHost can edit it and use it in marketing without paying you, crediting you, or telling you.

“You hereby grant to DreamHost a perpetual, worldwide, exclusive, irrevocable, and royalty-free license, and right to use, copy, modify, or otherwise utilize your suggestions, feedback, reviews, or testimonials for any purpose, including but not limited to marketing purposes, without any notice, compensation or other obligation to You.”

What you can do — Assume anything you write to DreamHost about the service can be reused in its ads. If you want to keep control of a review or testimonial, publish it on your own site or a review platform instead of sending it to DreamHost.

Your plan renews by itself for the same length at the regular non-promotional rate, which can be much higher than the intro price you signed up at. Trials turn into paid plans automatically. If you cancel late, billing stops but you get nothing back for time you already paid for.

“At the end of the contract term, the contract will automatically renew at the then-current, non-promotional rate for the original contract length indefinitely until canceled. At the end of any trial period, the applicable Service will convert to the corresponding paid Service and be charged at the applicable rate, unless canceled prior to the trial end date.”

What you can do — Put a calendar reminder a week before each renewal date and before any trial ends, then cancel in the Manage Account panel at panel.dreamhost.com if you don't want to be charged. Renewals hit at midnight PST.

The company can rewrite these terms whenever it wants — including adding fees or discontinuing products — and it only "may" notify you. The written rule is that you have to keep checking the page yourself, and simply continuing to use your hosting counts as agreeing.

“In some instances, we may provide you with additional notice of updates including but not limited to adding a statement to the website, via the newsletter, or sending you an email notification. However, it is your responsibility to periodically check for the current version of our Terms by visiting this page (and other pages referenced in the Terms).”

What you can do — Check dreamhost.com/legal for the "Last Updated" date every few months, especially before a renewal, so a price or policy change doesn't take you by surprise.

DreamHost can suspend or permanently disable your hosting whenever it decides, in its sole judgment, that there's a "reasonable suspicion" of a terms violation — and it doesn't have to refund you. The same no-refund shutdown applies if you don't cooperate with an investigation, don't answer account questions within 15 days, or trigger a sanctions block. Losing hosting on short notice can take your website and email offline.

“DreamHost reserves the right to disable or suspend without refund any account or service at any time should it feel, in its sole discretion, that there is a reasonable suspicion that it is being used in violation of any agreed upon terms.”

What you can do — Keep your own off-site backups of your website, databases, and email, and keep your contact details current so you can respond to DreamHost inquiries within 15 days.

DreamHost disclaims warranties, says it isn't responsible for lost data, outages, or unauthorized access to its systems, and caps everything it could ever owe you at the total you paid in the six months before your claim. If a failure on their end destroys a business website, your recovery is limited to a few months of hosting fees.

“Customer's exclusive remedies and DreamHost's total liability for all damages, losses and causes of actions whether in contract, tort including negligence or otherwise, arising out of or in connection with these Terms or from the use or inability to use the Services, shall not exceed the aggregate amount which Customer paid to DreamHost during the six (6) months immediately preceding the claim.”

What you can do — Don't rely on DreamHost as your only copy of anything important — maintain independent backups, and consider business insurance if your site is revenue-critical.

If someone brings a claim over products you sell, material you upload, or copyright on your site, you must defend DreamHost and cover its losses and attorney fees. A separate promise makes you cover any export-control or sanctions fines caused by your breach, and that one survives even after you close your account.

“Customer agrees that it shall defend, indemnify, save and hold DreamHost harmless from any and all demands, liabilities, losses, costs and claims, including reasonable attorneys' fees, ("Liabilities") asserted against DreamHost”

What you can do — Make sure you actually own or have licensed every image, font, and piece of content you upload, since infringement claims land on you financially.

If your saved card expires or is declined, you've agreed DreamHost may charge other payment methods connected to your bank account, including replacement card numbers your issuer sends out automatically. Cancelling or replacing a card is not a reliable way to stop charges.

“If the customer's payment card is determined to be expired, invalid, or otherwise not able to be charged, the customer agrees that DreamHost may use other payment methods linked to the customer's bank account (such as new credit card credentials from your card issuer).”

What you can do — Cancel the service in the panel rather than relying on a card expiring, and remove old payment methods from your account when you leave.

If DreamHost decides your software or configuration is end-of-life, it can charge extra maintenance fees that scale with how many sites you run. Notice is only 14 days before it starts, and fees already charged are never refunded — though you can cancel the affected service before the fee kicks in.

“DreamHost will provide such notice at least fourteen (14) days before the effective date, and may provide additional notices as a courtesy. If Customer does not agree to the Unsupported Software Maintenance Fees, Customer may cancel the affected Services before the effective date without incurring additional change fees.”

What you can do — Watch for fee-notice emails and keep your PHP, CMS, and server software on supported versions; if you get a notice, cancel or upgrade before the effective date to avoid the charge.

Filing a chargeback — a normal consumer protection when you're billed wrongly — can get your services permanently disabled, and each rejected charge adds a $50 fee you must pay before anything is restored. This pushes you to settle billing problems only through DreamHost.

“Disputed charges ("chargebacks") associated with any DreamHost account, at DreamHost's discretion, may result in immediate and potentially permanent disablement of Services or the full account. Each rejected charge will incur a $50 fee on the account which must be paid before any Services may be reactivated.”

What you can do — Contact DreamHost support in writing first about any wrong charge and keep records; use a bank chargeback only as a last resort, after backing up your site.

Domain registrations, SSL certificates, trials, Remixer fees and credits, third-party add-ons, and dedicated server payments are all non-refundable, and payment methods other than credit card and PayPal get no money-back guarantee at all. Prepaying for a year of a dedicated server means the money is gone even if you leave in month two.

“Domain registrations (including the value of any used domain registration credits included with the plan) are not refundable under any circumstances.”

What you can do — Pay by credit card or PayPal and start with a short term on anything you're unsure about, since long prepayments on excluded products can't be refunded.

You choose a currency once at signup and can never change it, even if you move countries or the exchange rate moves against you. Prices in each currency may already build in conversion and regional markups, and DreamHost takes no responsibility for exchange-rate losses on refunds.

“Once you select a preferred currency, this choice is final and cannot be changed.”

What you can do — Compare the actual price in each available currency before you finish signup — you're stuck with the choice for the life of the account.

California law governs every dispute regardless of where you live or which currency you paid in. For customers outside California — especially outside the U.S. — that can mean losing the protections of local consumer law and facing a costly, distant legal process. Currency-conversion complaints are ruled out as a basis for a claim entirely.

“All transactions, regardless of currency, are governed by the laws of the State of California. In case of disputes, currency exchange rates will not be grounds for dispute resolution claims.”

By signing up you consent to DreamHost using robodialers and prerecorded voice messages on the landline or mobile number on your account. It's limited to non-promotional matters like billing and renewal reminders, but it's still consent you're giving away at signup.

“Customer agrees that DreamHost may use an automated dialing system and/or prerecorded voice messages to call the account primary contact landline or wireless phone number on file for any non-promotional account, informational, or Service-related purpose”

You grant DreamHost permission to share your account details with outside companies for fraud prevention and security. The purpose is narrow and it's tied to the Privacy Policy, but it is still a standing consent to disclose your information without asking you first.

“You hereby grant us the right to disclose to third parties, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Data Processing Addendum, such Account Information for the purposes of fraud prevention and ensuring the security and integrity of DreamHost systems.”

What you can do — Read the linked Privacy Policy at dreamhost.com/legal/privacy-policy/ if you want to know which third parties are involved.

DreamHost advertises 100% uptime, but compensation is capped at 10% of your next renewal fee, comes as account credit rather than cash, and the outage clock only starts once you open a support ticket — so downtime you sleep through may not count.

“DreamHost's assessment of downtime begins when Customer opens a support ticket to report the problem.”

What you can do — Open a support ticket as soon as you notice an outage, and claim DreamObjects credits within 14 days, or you lose the compensation.