How to find a good host?

I am not trying to buy one..

But would like to know how to find a good one.
(not cheap one)

At the same time I know high price does not really buy me good hosting.

What should be the criteria to select a good host?

Thanks

 

Well are you looking into shared, or dedicated/VPS hosting? First thing to lookout for, is generally stay away from "unmetered" hosts, as you cant offer fully unmetered hosting for cheap.(there are SOME exceptions)

 

One which has been around for a while, good reviews on the internet (search on digitapoint, webhostingtalk, google), good terms of service (no silly catches).

 

One which has been around for a while, good reviews on the internet (search on digitapoint, webhostingtalk, google), good terms of service (no silly catches).

 

You should personally test the web host...

1. short list web hosts
2. test their tech support
3. Ping their servers
4. Read reviews
5. and make your decision.

 

Well, you have the right attitude. Finding a good one, not a cheap one, is the right idea.

Also true.

What you should be after is VALUE!

Service/Support
Uptime/history
Years in Business
References
Type of connections
Location
To name a few.

A good place to start is webhostingtalk.com IMO.

 

Definitely test their support out before your decide.

 

To Jeremy, good post. To the OP, what Jeremy posted is very good advice. I also think Webhostingtalk.com is a good place to go. Believe me, you can find reviews about almost any company you want there. One word of caution though, some customers get unsatisfied, and run to slaughter the host on WHT. So, some reviews are bogus. The WHT moderators do a good job weeding those out, but it's always good to evaluate the reviews for yourself.

Good luck!

 

My advice would be to make sure you stick to a monthly contract in case anything goes wrong, then you can leave without having spent too much money. Avoid anything more than a 1 year deal even if you get a good discount.

 

Thanks for the compliments. And yes, one of the really nice things about WHT is that the mods do a fantastic job of enforcing the rules. It's one thing to know about potential problems with hosts, but it is another to constantly start thread after thread bashing people, which luckily is not the norm over there.

The best place to go is the offers section. There's a lot of long time members over there, and all the big names hang out there as well, so you more often than not, are talking to qualified sellers directly!

Its a nice place!

 

Ignore the 20 or so people that will blindly PM you with offers and the people that post offers without reading what you are looking for.

As much as the i-trader system here has it faults, you can look up the sellers trading history and view the sales threads. See who their buyers were and read some of their posts and then PM the buyers and ask how happy they are months or even years down the road.

A couple people mentioned testing their support, I agree with that!

Somewhere on the first page of the web hosting section of DP I have a thread where I bought hosting, at the end of it I left some comments about why I bought. Most of the hosting companies here were very helpful in steering me in the right direction.

Good luck!

 

And that was much appreciated! Always nice to have feedback like that! Thank you!

 

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When You Know Such A Host, Why You Need To Find

 

ask on forums "who has the best host" also every host their strengths and weakness

-Peter