Getting started

This article introduces you to DreamHost’s most important services you need to set up your website. While this doesn't cover everything, it does cover the five basic steps to help you get started after you purchase an account.

Step 1: Basic setup

• Creating a DreamHost account
• Logging into the panel
• Registering a domain

Step 2: Add a hosting plan

• Adding a hosting plan
• Adding hosting to a domain

Step 3: WordPress hosting options

• Adding WordPress
• DreamPress Hosting
• WordPress migration options

Step 4: Add an SSL certificate

• Adding an SSL certificate to a domain

Step 5: Additional configurations

• Creating an email address
• Adding site statistics
• Adding the DreamShield malware remover service
• Contacting support

If you wish to use any DreamHost services, you must create an account. View the following article for instructions on how to open an account.

• How to open a DreamHost account

Once you finish the signup process, you’ll receive a message to notify you that your account is set up. From there, you can log in to the panel at:

• https://panel.dreamhost.com/

To log in, use the credentials within the email that was sent to you.

To load any web page, the owner must first own the registration of the domain name. If you do not own the registration, you have no right to use the domain name.

To register a domain, go to the Manage Registrations page.

On the Manage Registrations page, you can register any domain you wish that is still available:

DreamHost allows the registration of many different Top Level Domains (TLDs). You can view a full list of these on the Manage Registrations page by clicking the See full pricing link.

For further information, please review the Domain Registration article.

After you purchase a registration, you must then add a hosting plan in order for it to resolve online. There are a few different hosting options you can use for your domain.

• Fully hosted — your site is hosted on a server and is visible online
• WordPress — your site is still Fully Hosted, but it's running the software for WordPress
• DreamPress — your site is Fully Hosted and running WordPress, but it's hosted on the DreamPress plan

To add a hosting plan to your account, navigate to the Manage Account page.

On the Manage Account page, you’ll see a section titled Active Plans:

If you already added a plan, you’ll see it listed here. In this example, a 'Shared' hosting plan has been added for the entire year.

If you do not see a plan, add one by clicking the Add a Hosting Plan link.

View the following article for instructions on how to add hosting to your domain so it is Fully Hosted.

• Adding a website and hosting

If the nameservers are set to DreamHost already, then all you need to do is set up hosting. View the following articles for further information:

• Adding Domains & Subdomains
• DNS
• Nameservers

WordPress is the world's most popular content management system (CMS), and DreamHost is one of the very few recommended providers by WordPress.org. If you're new to hosting a website, you'll want to check out WordPress to help you build your website. Within minutes, you can build a site that incorporates all of the modern features that websites now include, with a nearly limitless capacity to add new features as you need them.

To help you get started with building a WordPress site at DreamHost, please see the following articles:

• Install WordPress using the DreamHost WordPress installer
• DreamHost WordPress Hosting plans
• DreamHost Guide to WordPress

DreamPress is DreamHost's managed WordPress product, which provides even more powerful features such as larger memory & storage plans, faster speeds, and improved caching.

More information on DreamPress can be found here:

• DreamPress

Free migrations using the DreamHost Automated Migration Plugin

You can now migrate your own WordPress site to DreamHost for free, using the DreamHost Automated Migration Plugin. The plugin can be used on any DreamHost account with an active hosting plan. See the following article for more details:

• Using the DreamHost Automated Migration WordPress plugin

WordPress Migration Service

If you are having trouble migrating your website from another host, or just don't have the time, DreamHost currently offers a WordPress Migration Service that takes care of that for you. You can find more information in the DreamHost Website migration services article.

After you set up hosting for your domain, it's highly recommended that you also add an SSL certificate to it (either a free Let's Encrypt or a professionally-signed certificate). Adding a certificate is a simple process that not only secures your site for transactions and eCommerce, but also ensures that your site is rated as secure. In fact, Google will more favorably rank it since having a secure site is an important factor in search rankings.

To help you get started with adding a certificate, please see the following articles:

• Adding a free Let's Encrypt certificate
• Purchase a professionally-signed SSL certificate
• Add a free self-signed SSL certificate

The following are additional services or products you can add to your site, but are not mandatory in order for it to operate.

Once you add hosting to a domain, you can then create an email address(es).

To create an email address:

1. Go to the Manage Email page.
2. Click the Create New Email Address button at the top.

   You’ll then be able to enter a new email and a password.

Once you save the changes, the necessary DNS records for mail are added to your site’s DNS.

More information can be found at Email Setup regarding the creation and configuration of email accounts with DreamHost.

It is also possible to host your email outside of DreamHost. To host elsewhere, you can configure custom MX records to point to your external mail host. Visit the following article for further instructions.

• Configuring custom MX records

All DreamHost accounts have the ability to add site statistics to any fully-hosted website, which you can enable on the Site Statistics page. There, you can track information such as number of requests, traffic by domain, traffic by file, requests by browser types/OSs/URLs, and more.

To find out more about adding site statistics to your site, please see the following articles:

• Enabling statistics
• Making stats accessible with an .htaccess file
• Analog stats overview

DreamHost also offers a paid security service in the panel. When enabled, this service allows you to scan your website for malware and alerts you if any issues are found.

To learn more about how to enable the Malware Remover service, please see the following article:

• Enable and manage DreamShield

If there’s anything support may assist you with regarding setting up and loading your website, feel free to submit a support ticket on the Contact Support page of your panel.