What we mean is, you don't have to worry about disk storage or network transfer when your site gets popular.
You DO still have to worry about plenty of other things though… if your site isn't well optimized and is causing issues for others on your shared server (either because it's pounding the CPU, hogging RAM, or doing tons of disk I/O), you may be asked to sign up for your own DreamHost Private Server.
Trust us, every host out there has exactly the same limitations… we're just trying to be up front about them!
The Unlimited Policy will no longer apply to any DreamPress accounts, nor to VPS machines provisioned on or after November 12th, 2014. The specified disk allotment will be listed on the sign-up page for each VPS and DreamPress plan offered.
It should be noted that the Unlimited Policy still applies to any existing VPS machines provisioned before November 12th, 2014! For machines that were provisioned before November 12th, 2014, the unlimited plan will remain in effect, even during renewals. DreamHost reserves the right to change pricing with notice to customers 30 days prior to renewal. Amount of network transfer is unlimited on all VPS services.
You're certainly allowed an unlimited number of MySQL databases, but in the interest of server stability we request that you try to keep them optimized and no larger than a few GB in size.
The Unlimited Policy doesn't apply to email. Any new email addresses will have a 2GB limit, and we'll be enforcing these limits on all accounts if it gets out of hand!
Basically, sites whose essential purpose is to use disk or bandwidth. When making a website, you should be thinking about "How can I make an interesting site for my visitors while minimizing my server storage, bandwidth, file system, memory, and cpu impact as much as possible?"
The result will be a better experience for your visitors, your web host, and yourself!
DreamHost reserves the right to delete data stored on our servers that violates any of the terms in the Unlimited Policy, and, generally, in our Terms of Service. DreamHost has sole discretion to determine what does, and does not violate either policy.
Actually, for you, my dear Legitimate Website Owner, it is unlimited.
This whole page is just to announce to the <.1% of people who want to try and run free porn affiliate sites or anime video trading forums or host pirated rips of The Dark Knight on DreamHost that we're not having any.
But our pledge to you is to do our best to always keep your website, with the content you created, UP… no matter how many times you get Slashdotted or Reddited.