Before buying web hosting you must do your research on the different web hosting companies you are considering. Once you have learned about customer service, server reliability, pricing you must verify that the information they have provided on their websites and through contacting them are true. Keep in mind while doing your research that it would be impossible for any web hosting company to satisfy every single customer, so even good web hosting companies will have negative reviews. If you find an overwhelming amount of complaints about the same issue, than you know that it is likely you will have a similar issue.
Forums
Forums are the best way to get user feedback on which hosting companies are delivering on what they promise. Members post daily keeping you up to date with the most accurate information on most web hosting companies. If there are no post on the company you are interested in, feel free to ask others on the forum if they have heard of them. You can also do a search on the forums to see any history that a web hosting company has had recently. I usually only trust the last 1-3 months of reviews as anything older is not relevant to what is happening at the company today. Also you should keep an eye out for any fraudulent activity as these will always be relevant no matter how aged the posts are. Another great thing about forums is that the hosting companies may also participate and provide further feedback on any reviews that may be left by the members.
Blog Posts
When reviewing blog posts verify if they are actually currently hosted with the hosting company they are reviewing or if they were at one time. If they are not even hosted with them you might want to consider their reason for doing the review in the first place. With affiliate programs bloggers might try to get commission giving good reviews for hosting companies they may not even be hosted with. I tend to only trust reviews when they say they are currently hosted with the company they are reviewing.
Search Engines
Search engines might be a great place to find out a lot of information on a web hosting, including ThisHostingCompanySucks.com websites. But overall I find it difficult to come up with legitimate reviews without knowing if they have based their review on getting an affiliate sale. Similar as blog posts, verify that they are actually hosted with that hosting company before trusting their review.
Friends, Family, and Acquaintances
Your friends, family, and even acquaintance are great sources to find out about hosting companies. Just ask them what their current hosting experiences are and if they have any recommendations. You might come up with at least a few leads and if it is a personal recommendations for hosting company you won’t have to worry about them giving you a bias review as they won’t receive commission for your referral.
Web Hosting Directories
Directories often times have a review and rating system so that current and past customers can give feedback on their hosting companies. I find the reviews from the larger directories to be overall legitimate if there is over 5-10 reviews. Sometimes the hosting company will have the option to respond to any feedback and this will also help you see how they handle customers. If a hosting directory is only listing banners without a feedback system, than it is possible they are just listing affiliate links or only selling banner ad listings.
Social Networks
I have not seen that many reviews on social networks, but the ones I do find are negative or a customer out to get the company that they really don’t like. I can’t say I recommend using social networking websites as a way to research for your new web hosting company.
Researching your web hosting company can sometimes be a long process. If you stick to researching customer service, server reliability, and pricing you will find a good web hosting company that can provide the services you need. I always start my research at the most popular web hosting forum, Web Hosting Talk. This is where the hosting worlds merge between customer and web hosting companies, and there is a clear communication to locate the companies and services that are working best for other webmasters.
The Insiders Guide to Buying Web Hosting Series
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To check on reliability, I will get services such as SiteUptime.com or Host-Tracker to check the downtimes of the site. 1 week should be good enough to realise if it’s down often.
Good idea Felix. I use them too and it is an easy way to keep track of what your hosting company is doing since many of them will not tell you if your server had problems.
I love this series of web hosting articles you’ve published so far. Too bad I didn’t read them before I picked my hosting company lol.
I typed every web hosting company in Google and did a comparison before my web host. I checked out what each company offered and what kind of features they have before deciding. I would type keywords like complaints, reviews, best after the webhosting companies to see how reliable they were. I hope this help as well!
Shaun, if your hosting company is working great for you now than you’ve done a good job finding them :c).
Good ideas David. Thanks for sharing!
I have hosted with many hosts, and I find a reliable online chat support is very important. It is because email support sometimes can be slow (15 mins to 48 hours !!) . And phone support may take up an hour before your turn. So a reliable and fast response online chat support is one of the key to find reliable host.
Just my two cents.
http://www.top10webhosting.com
Excellent guide Sarah. Many of us have been there – choosing the wrong hosting provider, and the power of research should certainly never be underestimated!
[...] Presents: The Insiders Guide to Buying Web Hosting: Research saying, "Before buying web hosting you must do your research on the different web hosting [...]
[...] The Insiders Guide to Buying Web Hosting: Research – “Before buying web hosting you must do your research on the different web hosting companies you are considering. Once you have learned about customer service, server reliability, pricing you must verify that the information they have provided on their websites and through contacting them are true. Keep in mind while doing your research that it would be impossible for any web hosting company to satisfy every single customer, so even good web hosting companies will have negative reviews. If you find an overwhelming amount of complaints about the same issue, than you know that it is likely you will have a similar issue.“ [...]
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