How We Rank The Best Web Hosting

Each host must pass our strict 12 point expert checklist before it can be ranked on our top 10 list. Web hosting companies are ranked starting with the best value at #1. Uptime, reliability, customer support, essential features and bonus offers are also taken into account.

We run several accounts at StartLogic ranging from blog sites to brochure-type sites in the financial industry, and performance is always good. Our sites have never seen any downtime in the past 2 years, except for once when they let us know they’d be taking the servers offline for about 10 minutes at 2am for hardware upgrades to make our website load faster. This combined with their robust features and good customer service means we recommend StartLogic without any hesitation as the best web hosting company. Feel free to check out reviews of StartLogic for more happy customers.

BlueHost comes in at a close second. From our own tests and reviews by BlueHost customers, we believe their servers can’t load your site as fast as StartLogic’s hardware. It’s unfortunate for them but for most website owners 2 extra seconds of load time isn’t a big deal. They more than make up for their slightly slower servers by going above and beyond in customer service and tech support. We like to see companies taking care of customers.

What makes the best web hosting?

here are so many factors to consider and things to achieve before a web hosting company could declare they offer quality web hosting for their customers. Customers and web masters also have their own preferences in a web host that one web hosting company may come out as perfect for a certain business or personal setting while looking ridiculously bad for the other. But in general, a quality web hosting should have these: 

Technical Capabilities

“Massive” is such a big word for a web hosting companies but considering the speed of web development techniques and the increasing demand for information and service from customers, a good web host should be able to cope up with these demands through their technical knowledge and hardware capacity. Advanced web development techniques such as AJAX should be easily handled by these servers.

Going Above and Beyond Service Agreement

Service Level Agreement (SLA) is the assurance of quality by the web hosting provider. Companies should strive not only to meet this agreement but to exceed them. SLAs are usually focused on the uptime of the customers’ website as this is the main focus of their business. Ensuring that the website is up and running 24/7 is above and beyond service.

Speed of Resolution

No one is perfect in any business. Although web hosts are judged according to their ability to ensure uptime, a web host is also judged based on how fast they could provide resolution to a problem. The channels of communication are also very important for the speed of resolution. Toll-free phone numbers, e-mail and even chat support should be available 24/7 so that customers can easily get in touch with their providers to seek resolution.

The best web hosting company will always offer these capabilities. Technical needs are met, service is exceeded and problem resolution is almost instantaneous. Any consumer, business owner and webmaster should be able to identify these factors to ensure their website is working as expected.

As always, we love to hear your feedback about our research, so if you have any questions or suggestions, please email me directly. Name’s Ian, by the way. It’s nice to meet you, and I’m here if you have any questions about setting up your first site. It’s easier than you might think. Good luck!