Price or Reputation, what is more important?

So I wanted to get DP's views on whether they think price or reputation is more important when looking for a host? Hopefully the results will benefit members that are looking at starting their own web hosting company.
From experience I go for reputation over price. I am more than happy to dip that bit further into my pocket knowing that the company I am hosting my data I can trust. Not only that but if the price is a little higher, then personally I feel that the level of customer service I will receive will be better. I want to know that the host is making enough money to continue doing business and investing in new infrastructure.
When I see companies offering packages at $1 or less, it instantly makes me dubious about their business plan and I will turn else where.
Let me know whether you agree or disagree, and what you look of in a web host!

 

I would say neither (if that's a valid option)

Generally I would go for reputation over price, however reputation in the Internet can be somewhat misleading. I can't think of a host, who won't have bad reviews, bashing threads in a forum, or some clients with negative experience, who are eager to share it. Of course, some companies will have much fewer occurrences like those, but I will mainly use their online reviews as a factor of shortlisting them before I make my final decision. However the driving force that influences that decision should be...

Support, support, support! In my mind this is the factor that most hosts fail to look after and this is why it will seed most of the shortlisted candidates the easiest. This is where you can use the reputation factor too - you can easily check if the opinions you read/heard were based on facts, or were just empty accusation by a spiteful user. The easiest action you could take is have a list of questions you feel important for your project, including a couple of tricky ones, and visit the Live Chat of the company. Then you can simply judge the operator's knowledgeability and assistance skills and get your own idea of how suitable the overall service would be. Trust me, after you've had a few chats, even if there is at least one above standards, it will certainly stand out before the rest

 

Completely agree with this, but I do feel that reputation and good customer service is linked. Customer service is a priority of mine when looking for a host. You mention that live chat is a good way of judging customer service, and I think that ticket response time is also a good sign. I will send in a support ticket, and judge them on how long it takes for me to receive a response to my question (not just a response saying "we have moved this onto the correct advisor"). I will look for a response within an hour

 

There's no use saving money on a cheap host if you're going to be losing money while your site is down.

 

Rightly said YJunK. If you are getting unlimited OR good resources at cheaper price it might be that you have to compromise on the customer service & server management. The customer service and uptime reputation should be of utmost importance.

 

As a freelancer myself, I prefer a good reputation rather than a good price. Since clients will trust you once you have a good reputation and will still patronize your service even if you have a higher price than the other company.

 

I do agree, however it depends on how the company operates. For example with our hosting business, and many others too, the ticketing system is open for all existing customers, while for presales we have only the Live Chat, phone and mail. This means that one cannot use the ticketing system before signing up as its main purpose is extra customer service and technical assistance.

Still, taking advantage of the 30 day money back guarantee many hosts offer, you can go around that and still test everything before making a final decision

 

I'd say both, people will ofcourse say reputation over price, but there are webhosts out there who have a decent price and have a good reputation. So personally I would say both in this case.

 

When it comes to hosting business "You get what you pay for." but this is not always true...

Generally people are looking for shared hosting and you get too many issues because of shared environment. Some of them are:
1. DDOS
2. IP getting black listed for mass emails
3. Null routing of entire server by DC due to SPAM and Fraud.

Coming back to topic:

Reputation:
Whole EIG N/W(HostGator, BlueHost, iPage, FatCow) was down many a times because of various reasons.
Actually it is faked. Affiliate is the reason. HostGator is running at this level bcoz of its affiliate then comes their actual hard work.

Price:
Never go on prices go on your budget as unless it is a real offer by legally established company.

I will soon start a thread here to guide what all points to keep in mind to choose host.

Source: Experience of starting a web hosting company from reseller then from Dedicated Server and then back to resellers.

 

Word of mouth is golden.

 

Reputation rules!
Reputable companies always have great solutions to their customers, they are flexible, they care about quality, they deliver superior service and others are speaking about them!

 

Go for the repu first, price later.

 

Reputation is the most important thing in web hosting business, low cost web hosting will remove peace in your life