Hi there,

I am looking at switching hosts. I thought ***** had the features I want. However, after reading the various comments about their service I would be interested to know what similar alternative hosts there are.

Our site is mission critical (we are a software company) and as such it needs to be up 99.9% at least. Needs 150MB growing to 500MB storage.

Can the big hosts similar to ***** (and please list any that you think are good) actually respond professionally and with a businesslike manner to emails, support calls etc?

Is it better to try and find a mid-size or smaller host?

Do the users of this news group have a top 10, top 25 list of favorites? Are there websites that rank hosts by independent user feedback and comments?

Thanks in advance for any comments.
Mark

Dear Mark:

I suggest looking at the small or medium-sized hosts instead of the big ones. The small companies usually utilize the same type of equipment and connections as the big ones. Big hosts usually can respond to e-mails in a business-like, friendly, and helpful manor, but they often a have large number of requests to handle and cannot afford to spend a lot of time with one customer. In most cases, a well-run small company can do a better job of serving customers than the big ones.

Since you consider your website mission-critical (which most businesses do), you might want to consider a dedicated or co-located server. You will be able to control the operating system, what software runs, and who has access to the system. With your own server, you can usually guarantee a much speedier response time for your customer and potentially greater uptime.

Take a look at the various hosting offerings available, see which will satisfy your disk space and bandwidth needs, and check for reviews on hostinvestigator.com and hostsearch.com. If the host you find does not have many reviews it probably means they are very small or all of their customers are happy (whatever way you want to look at it).

Best regards,
Frank Rietta

Originally posted by AtlantaWebhost.com
I suggest looking at the small or medium-sized hosts instead of the big ones. The small companies usually utilize the same type of equipment and connections as the big ones. Big hosts usually can respond to e-mails in a business-like, friendly, and helpful manor, but they often a have large number of requests to handle and cannot afford to spend a lot of time with one customer. In most cases, a well-run small company can do a better job of serving customers than the big ones.

Never a truer word said about the hosting industry. SME web hosts nearly always give much better and more personal service - with the exception of those who are running scams, but you can most likely find out about those on these forums.

Agreed. Smaller companies tend to give better service. Not in stone, but as a company gets bigger they feel "Oh, what's one customer more or less." Not good customer relations!

If you know someone who has a good host look into that host too.

Originally posted by Jaiem
Agreed. Smaller companies tend to give better service. Not in stone, but as a company gets bigger they feel "Oh, what's one customer more or less." Not good customer relations!

If you know someone who has a good host look into that host too.

yep, thats exactly what happens...
companies start thinking about superficial things and tend to forget the quality things.

don't be fooled by how they look on the outside, you'll surely regret it if you are

Well, you're certainly starting off on the right foot by heeding all the warnings about *****! I was one of their victims.

The reason so many of the big hosts are big is because they are primarily interested in being the biggest, not in being the best. I disagree about relying on reviews at sites like hostinvestigator.com and hostsearch.com. They may be falsified reviews, or out of date. Host quality can change very quickly, as many of us have learned to our regret. Your best bet is to inquire on more than one online forum regarding the quality of any specific hosts you're considering, and see what comments you get from current and former customers. See the last link in my signature for more information on how to shop for a host. Good luck!!

Some host suggestions, with great features and good price:
venturesonline.com (support in 10 minutes)
Liquidweb.com (I`m their reseller, good support, best features)
Hosting4less.com (Check their uptime at netcraft.com, been up since started. And good support but a small buisness)

You will find a huge list of hosts here
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=3053

Also just a note to add...when looking at reviews from hostsearch and other places, pay special attention to the user reviews. Usually you can spot fake reviews by identical info being listed in one form or another (same ip address or email, etc)
Be sure to check out your potential host before signing up anywhere!
Good Luck

You could try searching on a few of the leading hosting directories:

http://www.Webhostdir.com
http://www.ispcheck.com
http://www.hostspeople.com
http://www.hostindex.com

They should provide a good starting point. Once youve made a short list I'd advise asking about the hosts on a few of the main forums. That way you'll get pretty unbiased feedback.

Reviews and ratings are worthless without knowing the background, experiences and expectations of the reviewer, as well as their needs. The only way to learn something useful about a company from people who have used it is to read their comments. There are no shortcuts.

Someone who just signed up with a company and is already recommending them has little credibility in my eyes. Lots of companies can seem okay at the beginning. It's only later that you learn about their problems. The longer someone is with a host, the more likely they are to be aware of any problems, and the greater credence can be given to their comments.

Likewise, someone who only has a few HTML pages may have very different experiences from someone who has greater needs, cgi at the least, possibly MySQL and other things.

There are no Cliff's Notes in choosing a proper host. You have to do your homework and can't take any shortcuts. If you do, chances are high you'll get a failing grade and have to repeat the course.