I've found a lot of leads here and gone to many sites to get the low down. I can't help notice that many load terribly slowly.

Is this an indication of general performance? Does it mean that your webspace is going to perform badly or their emails, forums and helpdesk are going to perform badly?

How often do webhosts share the same webspace? You expect a "what's good for the goose is good for the gander" situation wouldn't you?

How much generally does performance of shared webspace vary?

I'd expect many smaller hosts to share webspace on a server. While it's not always the case - our main site isn't hosted in our office while many clients are - that's bad for advertising. Like advertising a beaten up, rusting car from the sixties for a car dealership, not very enticing.

If you're having problems with a host's site and interested in pursuing a relationship, ask them about it. Could be something as simple as a poorly-made script or too many tables waiting to load rather than a server issue. Even if things don't work out they'll certainly appreciate the input!

Sincerely,

-Matt

Matt is quite right, the speed a hosts site loads may not be an idication of the performance. Your best bet is, as suggested, to talk to them and see about it, you should also ask for a few of their clients sites to check the performance of hosted sites.
Do a quick whois and make sure those sites are on the server though, you don't want to get scammed.

As for shared webspace, usually this only happens with reseller accounts and when some people decide to split the costs of a server. The performance may very, but you should always check if a host is a reseller or sharing space. If they are, then make sure you ask what they do when performance begins to slow down.

If a host is a reseller and they tell you/you find out who they are reselling for, look into the 'mother' company and see how they check out.


Well, I just woke up so what you have there is a nice jumble of ideas, but hopefully they help :)