Fast Money Affiliates

Web hosting is almost the most important thing you need to get right at start.  You will lose time and money while your website server is down, and the search engines can suddenly drop your pages out of sight if they cannot find your domain when they come crawling.

The big problem with the reviews you read online is that you don’t usually know how old they are, nor the motives of the reviewer. Did they give awards to that host because they had something to gain?

With this in mind, I created a couple of surveys for my newsletter to try to find the best, most affordable web hosting services. The idea was to get real webmasters to give ratings for the hosts they had used in the last couple of years. This survey could then act as a guide or reference for anyone looking for a reliable host.

I didn’t differentiate between shared hosting or dedicated hosting in the surveys, and nor did I look at specific features like inclusions of MySQL databases, number of email account, fantastico, etc. If one particular host is given a good score, then its because they are a reliable company, so all of their hosting is probably good.

The first survey asked them which host they used, and details of how reliable etc. From that initial information, I narrowed down my search for web hosts to just 9.

The second survey was based only on these 9, and asked anyone who had used any of these 9 hosts in the last 2 years to score them from 1 (poor) to 10 (Perfect).

Since these votes all came from my newsletter subscribers, they are unbiased, and should help you make some decisions.

OK, the Web Hosting Survey results. Drum roll please……

208 people answered the survey. A big thanks to everyone who took the time to do so.

The first question was a tough one. I asked you to put the following in order of importance to you: features, cost, support, reliability.

Here are the results:

1. Reliability
2. Support, Cost
4. Features

Reliability was voted as the most important factor in web hosting by around 62% of those who answered the survey. I totally agree. If reliability is poor, the rest doesn’t matter because when my sites are down, I don’t make any m0ney.

In second place, it was too close to call, with Support and Cost being equally important.

The least important factor was features.

I suppose this last point probably indicates that most web hosts have all of the features that standard users will want, therefore it’s not so much of a concern.

It is probably only the power users that will need a little bit more.

OK, the second question in the survey was a grid showing the top 9 web hosts (according to newsletter subscribers who took the previous web hosting survey a couple of weeks back).

I asked you to rate any host that you had used in the last 2 years on a scale of 1 (poor) to 10 (Perfect).

The results surprised me.

HOST #1 - 1&1 UK
This is the web host I use for most of my sites. I find it has unparalleled reliability, which for me is the most important factor.

Here is what you thought:
Average score 6.3 based on 13 users.
Lowest score 3 (1 vote)
Top score 9 (2 votes)

HOST #2 - 1&1 US
The US 1&1 started up a few years ago after the huge success of 1&1.co.uk. Initially, reliability was a problem, and as with most new businesses, there were teething problems. What do users think now?

Here is what you thought:
Average score 5.9 based on 35 users.
Lowest score 1 (3 votes)
Top score 10 (2 votes)

HOST #3 - Bluehost
Here is what you thought:
Average score 8.0 based on 31 users.
Lowest score 1 (1 votes)
Top score 10 (9 votes)

NOTE: 27 out of the 31 who answered this survey awarded Blue Host a score of 7 or more.

HOST #4 - Go Daddy
Here is what you thought:
Average score 5.3 based on 46 users.
Lowest score 1 (4 votes)
Top score 9 (6 votes)

20 people awarded GoDaddy a 4 or less, 25 people awarded a 6 or more.

HOST #5 - Host Department
Only three people answered the question for this host, so I wouldn’t read too much into it. However, the three people awarded this host 8,8,9. Obviously they are happy with it, so it might be worth checking out.

HOST #6 - Host Gator
Here is what you thought:
Average score 8.0 based on 109 users.
Lowest score 1 (3 votes)
Top score 10 (22 votes)

Out of the 109 who answered the survey for this host, 10 people awarded Hostgator a 5 or less. 31 people awarded them a score of 8, 31 awarded them a score of 9 and 22 awarded them a score of 10. This certainly looks like a host to consider.

HOST #7 - Host Monster
Here is what you thought:
Average score 8.9 based on 8 users.
Lowest score 8 (3 votes)
Top score 10 (2 votes)

There were only 8 users of this host, so again, while it looks promising, it would be nice if there was a little more data to go on.

HOST #8 - iPower
Here is what you thought:
Average score 4.5 based on 15 users.
Lowest score 1 (1 votes)
Top score 10 (1 votes)

NOTE: 8 of the 15 people who rated this host gave them a 3 or lower.

HOST #9 - Lunar Pages
Here is what you thought:
Average score 8.1 based on 9 users.
Lowest score 7 (3 votes)
Top score 10 (1 votes)

After reading horror stories on the Internet about this host, I was pleasantly surprised by their average score of 8.1. OK, its only based on 9 users, but the fact that no-one gave a score lower than 7 means this host may well have improved in the last couple of years.

The Winners

The top scoring host was Host Department with an average score of 8.3 out of 10 - [based on 3 votes])

Because it only had three votes, I have excluded it from the top web host table below. However, be aware that it might be worth investigating yourself.

Top 8 Web Hosts as voted for by readers of the ezSEO Newsletter are as follows:

#1 - Host Monster (Score 8.9 - [8 votes]).

#2 - Lunar Pages (Score 8.1 - [9 votes]).

#3 - Host Gator (Score 8.0 - [109 votes]).

#4 - Bluehost (Score 8.0 - [31 votes]).

#5 - 1&1 UK (Score 6.3 - [13 votes]).

#6 - 1&1 US (Score 5.9 - [35 votes]).

#7 - Go Daddy (Score 5.3 - [46 votes]).

#8 - iPower (Score 4.5 - [15 votes]).

If you are looking for a host, the table above gives you an unbiased score for each host in the survey.

I would particularly recommend you look at those in the top 4, as achieving a score of 8 out of 10 is some going. While the top two had relatively few votes, Host Gator was voted for by 109 people, and still achieved an impressive 8 out of 10. That would be my recommendation for best host.