Exactly, the size of the company is among the last considerations I would have while choosing a host.
I feel the same way! That Hostgator is the biggest in reputation and how well known they are! It's like, Hostgator was the first hosting company i knew of when i start my online existence! (but that is a long time ago) and i think that for new webmasters and for new people online then Hostgator is one of the first host they will know about and one of the first host someone else will recomend them! I myself seriosly think that almost all webmasters KNOW about Hostgator.. Not necessarly that everyone is hosted with them, but that they know about hostgator and it's existent! I assume one off the good reasons alot of people know about Hostgator is because of their affiliate program were you make good serious bucks on refering people to them!
In terms of raw numbers, Verio is first. They grew to their current size by acquiring smaller hosts over the years. In terms of domain name numbers, Godaddy would be number one according to ICANN data I have reviewed. Given Verio is a public company it is much easier to see their numbers and they are of course verifiable, unlike the claims made by man hosts out there. Bigger is not always better however!
I believe HostGator would be one of the largest, but many of these hosts fluctuate in size as clients come and go. I'd almost claim they hit an even amount of clients at some point... of course some being an exception. For me however I like to go with medium size hosts that have a high number of employees and enough of them to cover however many customers they have
As far as client base and income wise, I'm really not sure. As far as popularity it would be hands down HostGator. They have a great paying affiliate program and go app **** on Adsense..I even see hostgator ads on sites not even related to hosting...
Hostgator may host a lot of domains but that does not make them huge. We all know they oversell and probably have 1000 domains or more per box.
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I would have to say Godaddy. They offer free hosting when someone purchases their domain names. So Out of all the people who register I'm sure they'll get the free hosting with their domain. Even though I'm not a big fan of their Control Panel. And a lot of people don't realize this because of all the other stuff it really makes the process of ordering a domain with them a long and drawn out process. But As I've said before. In terms of biggest, that does not mean its the best. Thats a lot more customers to keep happy. Even though I have noticed godaddy giving me a courtesy call after I signed up I was quite shocked. And to get Jeff gordon as a promotional Icon that coasts big buck. Hostgator Doesnt have their own servers they are in the Planet (wwwThePlanet.com) Along with many other datacenters.