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The Best Web Host Providers
as Voted by the Users

Condensed from the original hosting review page

DreamHost is the best high bandwidth / space host according to my research. Use special promo code: T4Z365 to save $50!

Hunting for a decent web hoster?

If you want to maximize the performance of your website and ensure its best chances of success, it's absolutely vital to have a good host provider.

The problem is, many people don't have time to research all of the available options and simply plump for one of the "big name" providers. Others read reviews, but how can you be sure that the writer's views are impartial and unbiased? The writer might be tempted to shower praise on a company offering an attractive affiliate scheme or they might even be from the company itself!

What's the solution?

We have painstakingly researched the best (and worst!) providers in the only way that can possibly yield fair and accurate results. Using Google, the most popular search engine, we entered both positive and negative phrases (such as "I love host x" or "host x sucks") and counted the results. Naturally, we looked deep into these results, weeding out any that appeared to be unusually biased as well as sarcastic comments, duplicates and advertisements. If you want more information on how we achieved this, click here for the filtering details.

So which is best?

The table below represents the five very best out of a total of the 63 most popular providers. We have only shown the top five here simply because we didn't think you would be interested in the rest. However, click here for the featuring all 63 providers as well as their specs and scores (sites further down the table are plagued by the usual problems - lack of disk space, bandwidth, or customer service issues such as site downtime, missing email, download/upload speed, and cost).

Top 5 Affordable Hosts (under 10 dollars per month)
	Host Name	Basic specs: disk space, monthly bandwidth and cost	Popularity	Positive comments	Negative comments	SCORE
1	dreamhost.com	4800 MB 120 GB $7.95 Use special promo code: T4Z365 to save $50!	348	249	49	82%
2	lunarpages.com	3000 MB 400 GB $7.95	98	66	9	79%
3	34sp.com	50 MB 1 GB $2.20 200 MB 4 GB $6.60	50	28	2	74%
4	directnic.com	20 MB ? GB $0 20 MB 2 GB $1.25	60	38	4	73%
5	crystaltech.com	1000 MB 20 GB $2.95 2000 MB 40 GB $8.95	56	33	4	71%

Most popular hosts (not best!)
1: Geocities	2069
2: Tripod	1122
3: Angelfire	966
4: Freewebs	705
5: Bravenet	489
6: Brinkster	354
7: Dreamhost	348
8: 1and1	186
9: Powweb	174
10: Netfirms	169
11: Interland	152
12: ipowerweb	129
13: Hostrocket	121
14: Fortunecity	120
15: Lunarpages	98

The percentage rating is based on the ratio between positive and negative comments. However, weighting is applied where there are more comments to ensure that a host with one positive comment and no negative won't score 100% :-)
For the curious, the following formulae were used to calculate the rating:

reliability = (popularityOfHost/60) / (1 + popularityOfHost/60)
ratio = (p1+p2+p3+p4+p5/2+1) / (n1+n2+n3+n4+n5/2+1)
weightedRatio = ratio ^ reliability
SCORE = weightedRatio / (weightedRatio+1) * 100

Conclusions

The table clearly shows DreamHost to be the winning provider. The reasons for this become clear when you look at what's on offer: Excellent customer service, reliability, 4,800MB of disk space, 120GB of bandwidth (that would easily cover thousands of visitors per day to your site!), as well as useful goodies such as PHP, MySQL, CGI, PERL and streaming media.

For those on a limited budget, both 34sp.com and Directnic.com come into play. However, you will have to forego the extra bandwidth and disk space that DreamHost provides. Furthermore, as your website grows, switching to a superior provider might be a time-consuming and inconvenient necessity. It might be worth paying that bit extra to start with to protect yourself against growth and to ensure any future improvements and expansions to your site can be implemented without additional hassle. If you go with Dreamhost, you'll save up to $50 on most packages if you use the special promo code: T4Z365

Why not go for a free provider?

It is tempting to look for a free host, but with a few exceptions, this can be quite a dangerous trap to fall in to. The help and support of free providers can be very limited, and certain features (forums, ordering etc.) are either unavailable or restricted. You might also have to put up with banners, pop-ups and other unwanted inclusions. This site explains in more detail some of the pitfalls of choosing a free web hoster: www.2createawebsite.com.

Any other considerations?

Some users will have specific requirements or special features. These include PHP, CGI/perl, MySQL, number of email accounts, email POP / SMTP Access, Windows and Linux/Unix hosting, FTP access, number of domains hosted, access to raw logs, free domain registration/transfer, and other special discounts.

We would advise checking the provider's website to ensure that their package meets your requirements. This includes the terms and conditions as well as any smallprint.

Other resources:

Finding the best web site host the Googalistic way - The original long version of this article. Find more information on how we gathered the data, and filtered it to find the best hosts.

Choosing a web host to build your website - Following on from this article, we detail what features you'll want from a host, and discuss whether you should go for a free or paid host.

Webhostmagazine.com - One of the most comprehensive host information resources out there, and what appears to be one of the most reliable from what I can see. Also read their section on host finding

Webhostingunleashed - Excellent resource for host hunting, though DreamHost should be up there! :)

Web Hosting Jury - User Reviews - One of the best host tables I've seen, with tons of ratings and reviews by customers.

Hosting-comparison - Reviews and rankings of many hosts

Webhostingratings.com - Another web host ranking resource. Filter your ideal host using a comprehensive form.

Webhostmagazine.com - How to Find Your First Web Host (For Beginners)

2createawebsite.com - Lists disadvantages of free web hosts.

Free-webhosts.com - What it says by the looks of it. Reviews and rankings of many free hosts.

Created and researched by Daniel White © 2005+
Article first published 14/10/2005 (last updated 28/12/2005)
All pictures, data and text on this page are copyright 2005 onwards Daniel White.
If you wish to duplicate any of the information from this page, you must contact me for permission.