Finding Trustworthy Webhosting Reviews? 89
Nylisk asks: "I've been searching for a new webhost for my site and upcoming sites. While searching for a host I find many webhost review sites that feel fake. They are primitive and limit themselves to a small amount of hosts to examine. They will display any where to around 30 hosts to 'review' but mostly I find sites that review only 5 or 6 hosts. When you look further you find no community on the site to provide further comment on those reviews. The site is done by a single publisher with minimal information, and most of it looks like an advertisement. There are only email links and basic submissions boxes. I was going to post example links, but why give them the publicity?
The more I snoop, the more webhosts I find that are connected. I can't say I am surprised, but to be honest its tough not to find these results from search engines. I can't seem to find anything real. Are there any websites run by a community of members who review webhosts?"
I'm a good one (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I'm a good one (Score:2)
Re:I'm a good one (Score:1)
Re:I'm a good one (Score:1)
Only downside with dreamhost is that they have no phone support. They make up for it by answering all emails within an hour. I've never had trouble with them, even when it was to fix something I broke.
If you use MY referral code, yo
Re:I'm a good one (Score:1)
It is not reviews, but (Score:5, Informative)
whois (Score:2)
best place to look (Score:1, Redundant)
Re:best place to look (Score:1)
layeredtech (Score:2)
Re:layeredtech (Score:1)
David - you might want to check on your server's hardware, there may be a problem there causing it to hang. Maybe give LT a bu
WHT (Score:1, Redundant)
Re:WHT (Score:2)
Classic webhosting is passe... IMHO (Score:5, Interesting)
I think this is the future. First of all take a look at linode.com - you will get your *own* server with full access to everything. No more waiting for ISP admin to fix that one httpd option or some permissions.
Re:Classic webhosting is passe... IMHO (Score:1, Insightful)
If you do, VPS's are a great deal. $20/month can buy a nice little VPS (9GB space/ 96GB bandwidth) that can handle a few database driven sites, and email, and DNS quite nicely.
Right now, one of my favorites is unixshell.com. What I really like about them is that you get console access via SSH in addition to normal SSH access. This is great for when you accidentally screw up your firewall
I don't know of any review sites but... (Score:1)
We have had no problems with them thus far, and any changes we needed to accomidate the special needs of certain sites were made in a very timely fashion, not to mention the support representatives spoke English! (I think they are based in KY)
Re:I don't know of any review sites but... (Score:2, Informative)
Let me give you an example of some other hosting companies' offerings. For $9.95/month dreamhost [dreamhost.com] offers 2400MB of space, 120GB transfer/month, unlimited mysql, and a boatload of fe
do it yourself (Score:1)
Re:do it yourself (Score:1)
For the record, I agree that using Apache (or any Web server) at home isn't the same. There are all sorts of complications that go along with that - the most obvious being low bandwidth and uncertain uptime. And if your site gets Slashdotted on a home connection... well, good luck to you when your ISP finds out. You'll need it.
Unlike some other people here, though, I don't go about saying that it is "th
Check with friends (Score:4, Informative)
So that they get to experience the wonders of the slashdot effect?
he more I snoop, the more webhosts I find that are connected.
Yes, many webhosts are just resellers of services that they acquire from other hosting companies. Actually, many different businesses have deals like this, it is not just limited to webhosts.
Are there any websites run by a community of members who review webhosts?
There are quite a few, but they all have either too few users that they are just as bad as a single user's review, or they have so many that there are an equal number of bad and good reviews of most hosts.
Personally, I would just ask friends and local IT people how they like their providers, and what they have and what they are missing.
A market for lemons (Score:5, Insightful)
Other than by talking with friends (which isn't very scalable), it's hard to know who's good, and who is just some random loser thinking he's going to make a buck. It's really easy to put up a fancy site, even answer the phone professionally, but you only learn they're no good when your server dies on Friday evening and no one can fix it untill Monday!
Re:A market for lemons (Score:2)
Why isn't this scalable? Of course everyone talking to the same friends doesn't scale, but everyone talking to their own friends seems to scale fine.
Re:A market for lemons (Score:1)
Because the majority of people don't ask their friends. It's the same reason why you can't use your six degrees of seperation to get a date with Tyra Banks.
Re:A market for lemons (Score:5, Insightful)
It was great to read the 'market for lemons' post. It takes a fair bit of experience in the 'industry' to be able to pick the good hosts from the bad. And unless hosting customers are savvy enough to tell a good host apart from a bad one the good ones will indeed be driven out of the market.
Here is my advice for finding a good host.
--
Disclaimer: Take all this advice with a grain of salt, since I happen to run a VPS hosting outfit [rimuhosting.com].
Just Google it (Score:1)
Hang out.. (Score:4, Informative)
Hit web dev forums. (Score:3, Interesting)
You can usually find a number of recommendations by freelancers such as myself for hosting suggestions.
A Small Orange [asmallorange.com] is really popular right now among devs. I'm setting a client up with them, myself. They apparently have superb service and reliability. Another popular one is Dreamhost [dreamhost.com]. I'll be switching over to them in 6-9 months, more than likely.
Re:Hit web dev forums. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Hit web dev forums. (Score:1)
Re:Hit web dev forums. (Score:1)
Re:Hit web dev forums. (Score:2)
And to those considering switching to dreamhost, It would be cool if you would use my referral link and help a poor college student out (using the referral link does not raise your bill at all).
Re:Hit web dev forums. (Score:1)
Re:Hit web dev forums. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
DreamHost current promotion (Score:2)
PHP4/5, RoR, CVS, anon FTP server, etc. -- I've been looking around for shared hosting for all of my "little" sites to live on, and this is now it (I signed up about 10 minutes ago). If you'r
Re:DreamHost current promotion (Score:2)
Re:DreamHost current promotion (Score:2)
Dreamhost (Score:1)
Re:Hit web dev forums. (Score:2)
There's also a coupon floating around that'll get you $50 off any signups - just enter "PBP" when signing up.
Also - bear in mind that although dreamhost does NOT have telephone tech support, they really don't need it. They've been doing fine by me with just email suppor
Try this (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Try this (Score:1)
Re:Try this (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Try this (Score:2)
The catch is that you have to pay
Re:Try this (Score:2)
2 host stories (Score:2, Interesting)
the first host i went with was dailyrazor. they provide you with a private JVM for about $20 a month, give you 10 mysql/postgresql database, a decent amount of space, unlimited subdomains, bladiblah.
good: they have excellent support. i had trouble getting hibernate working, and they were actually googling with me trying to find out what was causing my problem (the database connections would g
2ADV (Score:1)
True, most "reviews" of ISPs are advertisements. (Score:2)
From the Slashdot story: "The site is done by a single publisher with minimal information, and most of it looks like an advertisement."
I've found that also. Most "reviews" of ISPs are actually advertisements, and the reviewers, because they represent differently, are lying. Therefore you cannot trust them.
Email response time (Score:1)
One thing i've found about web hosts through trial and error: it's hard to find a good host with awesome tech support.
I've had 3 hosts in my years that respond within "48 hours". Modevia usually responds within 2-3! Not only that but i'm truly amazed by how they are willing to help their users... just the other day i had one of my sites defaced because of my stupidity. Modevia hopped right
Re:I use... (Score:1)
if you're using /. for a recommendation (Score:1)
i did follow a link from someone's sig here for www.dreamhost.com and found them to be a good deal. i read a lot of good reviews about them when googling them directly and the price is good.
i've found them to be pretty relaible, a touch slow on creation of new databases, but that's more an issue with dns than anything else. what you get for the money
Hostgator (Score:1)
I'll recomend them to anyone
Listen to your community (Score:2)
Ignore articles published by news sites, magazines and the like. They are out to make money and hence are biased. You cannot get a feel for how good a hosting service is,
Netcraft Server Uptime Table (Score:5, Informative)
Hosting provider = www.valueweb.net
OS = Linux
Outage hh:mm:ss = 0:00:00
Failed Req% = 0.00
DNS (Time taken for the DNS lookup of the hostname) = 0.181
Connect (first phase of the http GET request when the TCP/IP connection is setup to the remote server) = 0.105
First byte (time from when the last byte of the http GET request is sent until the first byte of the response header is received) = 0.211
Total (This is the time from when the http GET request is started until the last byte of data is received) = 0.211
Kb/s = -
Size (K) = 0
The table displays the top 50 hosting providers with respect to failed requests, so, personally, I restricted my search to all the hosting providers that had a Linux OS (for script compatibility), and a failed request percentage below 3.0%. Given these performance constraints, I subsequently chose the cheapest suitable plan offered by a hosting company in this sample set, based on my bandwidth/disk space criteria.
Hosts that sponsor open source projects (Score:2, Interesting)
Not so much because they support open source, but more because if an OSS project is hosted there, it's probably there because of the quality, not just because of the sponsorship. OSS projects are run by savvy people who know how to not stay stuck on a bad host.
If you look around at where various respected OSS sites are hosted, a few big names keep p
Re:Hosts that sponsor open source projects (Score:1)
What they do have is reasonably priced hosting where you can tell exactly what you're getting. There are several different setup options, and a continually updated list of all the software installed (down to the details of the perl modules), including version numbers. That was very appealing, given some of my experience wrestling with bunches of packages that aren't all upd
My hosting recommendation... (Score:1)
Overall I would give them 10/10 every time.
JohnCompanies (Score:2)
They also offer discounts if you're hosting an open source-related, non-profit, or educational site!
The only reason I left them is that a client allows me to colocate my own servers in his cage for free... if that deal ever goes away, I'm switching back to JohnCompanies in a heartbeat.
Bihira.. (Score:1)
Beware WHT (Score:4, Insightful)
One thing to note about WHT though is that there is a "WHT Level Host" and that level is quite low - what I mean is that a lot of the time WHT attracts those $1/month overselling fly-by-night teenage (or less) managed "hosts" (who are almost certainly kids who bought a $1/month mammothly oversold reseller account) that will ignore support requests when they go on summer holidays with thier parents. Unfortunatly these hosts start out well, and they often get good reviews (probably tooting thier own horn), but very quickly they will die off.
Also make sure you know exactly what you want, ask questions. You're posting here so I'll assume that things like SSH access are important, and if you're using PHP you probably don't want anywhere that has safe_mode restrictions (and probably not open_basedir), you might also want to avoid hosts that run php as suPHP (basically cgi-mode php in a wrapper).
In short, take your time, choose wisely.
PowWeb (Score:2)
The interconnectedness of it all (Score:2)
I work around a number of bandwidth resellers. Their most numerous customers are little webhosting companies,
A useful site for UK users (and others as well) (Score:2)
This site was created to provide an impartial, unbiased system for users of OcUK Forums [overclockers.co.uk]to share experiences with different webhosts (both positive and negative) and for people who perhaps have never bought webhosting before to have a reliable source of information.
My Favorite Hoster (Score:1)
They have quite good uptime, and you can always talk to the admin on their irc network (irc.cyanide-x.net) about custom plans/setups.
Re:Not a reviewm but use some real statistics (Score:2)
I have used 1and1.com for my host for almost 2 years now, and the downtime has been minimal, twice in almost 24 months, though the tech support borders on suck, for under $60 a month for the developer package, the only thing I lack is a telnet shell. I do not like that most of the admining is done through a 1and1 webportal though. I would much prefer more hands on administration.
Nobody mentioned Site5? (Score:2)
Look at the webhosting forum links early on. I jumped in with Site5. Looked good, was easy to set up, and forums were very responsive. And with 12GB storage - enough for my personal and business data to all be stored (we're talking non-secure s
That's why I started my own host (Score:1)
We haven't advertized at all and I don't have to deal with some 9/hour guy that doesn't know how email works. One time I had a guy telling me my internet connection was the problem when I was online chatting with him!
No review site but this might be usefull still.. (Score:2)
I use for all my hosting needs. They are extremely well connected (being at the same location and on the same network as www.debian.org for example). [gnulinux.nl]
They support Linux, and as long as you know what you are doing, will also support other OSS based installations (using FreeBSD myself). Currently running on a dedicated server with a celeron 180
Personal Colo (Score:2, Interesting)
It's all about the referrals. (Score:2)
If that isn't applicable to your situation, I would get a half a dozen companies that fit your criteria - price, capacity, etc. and then search the major web master hangouts like webmasterworld.com and sitepointforums.com and even google for previous posts of problems with those webhosts. E.g. "testwebhost.com problem" or "testwebhost.com downtime
Have you tried www.webhostingjury.com (Score:1)
Epinions (Score:1)
I personally like epinions. http://www.epinions.com [epinions.com] There are quite a few reviews there on some
Reviews For Web Hosting [epinions.com]
I use the site a lot when I am looking for new appliances, furniture, just about anything I am planning on purchasing. Although it does not make the decision for me, I am able to see unbiased reviews.