A bit audicious perhaps, but as I work for a company that manages web-everything, including hosting, for many companies, I thought it might add value to share my experiences over the last 12 months.
We use many different hosts, for different purposes (not all clients needs are the same). These tend to come down though to two basic hosting types.... single site hosting, and VPS/multi accounts. I have organized my reviews accordingly.
The usual disclaimer here: these are just OUR experiences, which in some respects are limited. That is all I am producing: so please don't shoot me for doing it!
SINGLE SITE HOSTING
Two hosts have been oustanding for us:
1)
HostMySite / SmarterLinux
To replace Pair as our #1 'single site' host takes an exceptional effort, but these guys have been awesome throughout. We signed up 15 months ago with a nuke site on their Linux platform. First off, they spent 30 mins on the phone with us to help us get it going: all issues due to our own lack of basic Linux knowledge. On $7.95 per month that's well beyond the call of duty! Since then we've had no downtime that we've noticed (and we tend to notice VERY quickly). Performance is excellent, and on the handful of occasions I've called them (yes, there's phone support) they've been there for us. 10 out of 10.
2) Pair Networks
Rock solid. Again, we've never noticed any downtime. Performance is excellent.... not a glitch in sight. Pair are the bedrock of quality hosting in my opinion.
VPS/MULTI ACCOUNTS
1) Servint
Who else? The only real problem we had was the well known fibre cut last year which hurt (we have our most important sites there!). They've been excellent apart from that. Support is excellent (they are always there when we call) and uptime is also excellent, apart from a couple of glitches recently (I hope it isn't a trend). Not the cheapest, but worth the money.
2) RShosting
Don't be surprised... smaller companies CAN deliver really top notch service, which is what we've had from RS. You can often measure a provider by the quality of the support, and these guys have been responsive, friendly and helpful from day one. Uptime is superb, and speed equally impressive.
Honorable Mentions:
- Openhosting.Co.Uk... another lesser known and smaller host, but well established and a good provider.
- AxisHosting... Tina's new company. Hopefully she'll carry on where she left AffordableHost, because the uptime we had was excellent.
- Xcalibre... we've been with these a long long time. Quietly efficient. The sort of host we hardly notice because they deliver the goods. A good safe bet.
- DixieSys... we don't hear too much of them these days, but we should, because they are sound. Good hosting again here, with no downtime we can recall.
New Kids On The Block:
The following are relatively new sign-ups for us, but are showing real promise: Kualo, PowerVPS
TO AVOID
I don't like this section, because it's usually too far easy to criticise hosts, and there are usually too many posts here doing that. However, I feel that a couple of hosts have recently gone well beyond the line.
1) I would avoid Web Host Pro (Dinix) at all costs. Why? There's a mega thread of crying ex-customers in the 'Host Down' section of this message board (
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showth...hreadid=387709). Read it.
2) The same applies to EasySpace. We have suffered horrendous support from them.... waiting for days for a response and then getting a "copy and paste" irrelevant answer. But that's merely the start. A lengthy thread on here (
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showth...hreadid=347347) gives you an idea. Yuk!
FINALLY
I hope the above is of use. I will try to do a more detailed review later (including many more of our hosts).
Jenni
My Hosting Reviews: 2005
Serving the web since 1997! 
Dis Honorable Mentions: Openhosting.Co.Uk...
Shared Hosting >< Reseller Hosting >< Dedicated Servers & VPS
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