Managed or unmanaged dedicated: what we do, what's still yours

Root comes with every DreamHost Dedicated Server, managed or unmanaged. Even on managed, you can add an admin user in the panel with full root access through sudo, per the Help Center, so you can install software and change system settings on either setting.

What differs is whether those changes last. The same article warns that the admin user's custom changes are overwritten whenever DreamHost runs a server config, which can happen when you add hosting to a domain or add an SSL certificate, and a major OS upgrade overwrites them too. Unmanaged is a single panel toggle on the server you already have, and the Help Center's Unmanaged Dedicated Servers article covers it step by step: your changes stay, and the web server setup and OS updates move to you. Below is what each setting leaves to you, the next OS upgrade, and a month of updates we counted.

What a config run overwrites, and who does the rest

Every Dedicated Server starts out managed. The Dedicated page FAQ offers both ways: Fully managed from day one, or self-managed if you like being in charge.

Where the rows come from, read October 22, 2026: the unmanaged root access and 24/7 support from the Dedicated page; the admin-user root, the line that support can't help with custom server changes, and the other rows from the Help Center articles under Sources and the Terms of Service. Three cells are our reading, since no page spells them out: hardware stays with DreamHost after the switch, your changes stay put on unmanaged, and unmanaged has no plan of its own.

On a managed server you choose Apache or Nginx, and DreamHost sets up the web server for each site you add in the panel, as the Help Center describes. Its reload article adds that the panel's Reload HTTP button rebuilds the web server's configuration file, which takes about five minutes.

Every Dedicated plan comes with free guided onboarding with a real person and 24/7 monitoring, according to the Dedicated page, which also lists a Success Manager, a named expert, as your point of contact. Old sites on end-of-life PHP versions keep running under PHP Extended Support, which the Help Center's Dedicated overview says Dedicated plans get free.

The Help Center doesn't list which files a config run rewrites. The Resolute upgrade article advises keeping a list of every system change you make as the admin user, so you can put back anything a run or an upgrade replaced.

Which of your changes need to survive a config run

Both settings come with root, so test each change you plan against one question. Will it need to stay exactly as you wrote it after you next add an SSL certificate? In our reading of the Help Center, reading a log or installing a package works fine on managed, as long as you check your installs after updates. We'd call a hand-tuned Nginx file the clearest unmanaged job.

The Dedicated page lists Docker & Custom Services and Tuned NGINX or Apache as things full root lets you run. Our reading of the Help Center: Docker and custom services work on either setting, while a tuned web server file survives the next config run only on unmanaged.

Two answers aren't in the Help Center yet: whether you can switch a server back to managed later, and whether monitoring, backups, the Success Manager and the panel's site tools carry over. Ask support before you flip the toggle.

The next OS upgrade, on either setting

DreamHost's Help Center article Preparing for Ubuntu Resolute covers its current OS upgrade to Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS (Resolute), Dedicated Servers included. On a managed server DreamHost emails you ahead, and the article says the upgrade should take no longer than an hour. Sites that rely on the server's own MySQL databases, such as WordPress, aren't reachable until it finishes, and email isn't affected. On an unmanaged server, the Unmanaged Dedicated Servers article says DreamHost stops applying major updates automatically, so you pick the date and run the upgrade yourself.

Either way, the same software changes land on your server. We pulled the ones that need work afterwards from that article:

On managed, the upgrade also overwrites the admin user's system changes, so your change list from the section above is what you'll reapply. On unmanaged, you run the upgrade and do the testing yourself.

What becomes yours on an unmanaged server

The switch takes a few clicks, and you don't order anything new. DreamHost's Help Center lists the steps: on the Servers & Usage page, click Manage next to your server, then toggle Web Server off under Server Configuration. From then on, the web server settings are yours.

The Dedicated page lists an Ubuntu LTS operating system. For a sense of the monthly update job, our update test in October 2026 (method in our managed or self-managed VPS guide) built a small Ubuntu 24.04 web server from a month-old package archive. It found 31 updates waiting, an 18 MB download, with the OpenSSH server and PHP 8.3 FPM in the list. That was one run, in a container on a test VM (not a DreamHost server) (amd64 emulated on an arm64 machine) rather than a DreamHost server, and it leaves out kernel updates.

1. Write the web server configuration

   On an unmanaged server, the Help Center's unmanaged article says Apache and Nginx configurations are yours: DreamHost doesn't set them up. You'll write each site's configuration and keep it working, including the sites you add long after the switch. After each edit, reload Nginx over SSH with sudo /etc/init.d/nginx reload. The Help Center notes that a reload keeps the server running, and it won't go ahead if it finds a syntax error.

2. Install operating system updates

   From that one run, expect a list of roughly that size after a month, plus kernel updates. The Help Center says support can help when you ask. The Terms of Service set a time window for applying updates on an unmanaged server, and DreamHost doesn't send reminders, so put your own on the calendar.

3. Plan major OS upgrades

   You'll schedule each move to a new Ubuntu release and work through a list like the Resolute table above, with support's help if you want it.

4. Keep a record of your setup

   If a change leaves the server not working, DreamHost's Help Center says support can re-image an unmanaged server for the fee in the table above. Keep copies of your configuration files with your notes, off the server.

Backups, billing and size

DreamHost's Help Center says site-file backups on a Dedicated Server sit in /mnt/backup, with older copies kept as snapshots, and that Dedicated has no restore button in the panel, so you restore over SSH as your admin user with rsync. The site stays down until the files finish copying back.

As far as DreamHost's pages show, billing doesn't change with the setting. DreamHost's Help Center refunds article says monthly Dedicated plans get no refund on cancellation, and a yearly plan canceled within 30 days of its renewal gets the current subscription cost back as credit.

Standard has 6 CPU cores and 16 GB of RAM. Enhanced has 12 cores and up to 128 GB, and our guide to which dedicated server to pick matches each to a workload. If the server turns out to be more than you need, the Help Center says moving to Managed VPS means adding that plan first and then deleting the Dedicated Server. Still deciding whether you need a dedicated server at all? See whether you've outgrown your VPS, or, if you're weighing one against a cloud bill, cloud vs dedicated server cost prices three steady AWS workloads line by line.

Managed or unmanaged dedicated server FAQs