Hosting Advice

Data

In order to group data into proportional slices and bars we rounded host ratings with a php function. See https://php.net/manual/en/function.round.php for details.

 echo round(3.4);   // 3 
 echo round(3.5);   // 4 
 echo round(3.6);   // 4 

Interpretation

Not all web hosts equal. We've been looking into this issue for a long time. Some of them lack reliable customer support, yet have 5-star ratings accross many review sites on the web.

These are just some of our general observations when it comes to ratings distribution:

• Affiliate websites, built for the sole purpose of generating income through affiliate traffic, have most of their reviews within 4 to 5-star range. All of their promoted products are glittering and dazzling.
• Open directories have a left-skewed (negative) distribution, where the mass of reviews is concentrated on the right of the figure. The reason for this is the overwhelming ammount of 5-star ratings. To gain visibility, small and unnoticeable companies usually ask their customers for positive feedback, while at the same time there is no one to complain.
• On the other hand, right-skewed (positive) have nothing but customer complains.

Go with a review site that has a symetrical bell-shaped ratings distribution curve. Most likely, their ratings are based on both positive and negative reviews. Once again, if the shape of the distribution resembles a bell curve, the feedback data is likely real. Learn more about normal data distribution here.

This table consists of all hosting provider ratings we were able to find at the reviewer's website, along with the calculated number of hosted domains and global ratings.

We believe with this information, it is much easier to understand how a web host performs on a global scale and to avoid making a biased decision.

Data

• Domains Hosted (Total) - The total number of all domain names hosted by a web hosting provider.
• Domains Hosted (Trend) - The net amount of domains gained/lost by a web hosting provider during a 3-month period.
• Reviewer Rating (Value) - The aggregated host rating, assigned by a reviewer on a scale from 1 to 5.
• Reviewer Rating (Reviews) - The number of reviews used by a reviewer in calculations of a host rating.
• Global Rating (Value) - The average rating of a web host accross all known review sites. It also takes into account the Trust Score of reviewers.
• Global Rating (Sources) - The number of sources (reviewer websites) we used in order to calculated the Global Rating of a web host.

Performance

If you want to build a good quality website, you definitely need to get a good website hosting. Hosting that is well managed will often stay online for most of the year, give you good support with any problems, and remain affordable for the long-term. The main problem, though, is that most hosting sites are judged on their price alone. There is, though, far more to choosing a good hosting site than simply making sure you get a good financial deal. If you would like to keep that lesson in mind, then you should take a look at Hosting Advice.

This is a quick, simple, no-nonsense website that builds a lot of information up for you and puts it into actionable steps. They will make sure you can get an updated view of the best modern hosting sites, with a lot of good information about the basics of web hosting. It also goes into more advanced information about web hosting, which can be good for enhancing your own knowledge and expertise of the wider hosting industry.

One of the main reasons why you might wish to start taking a look at Hosting Advice, though, is their excellent blog. While the reviews are good and their basics and how to sections are quite diverse and detailed, their blog is excellent. It’s full of topical details and information that other hosting comparison sites are not covering. They also regularly add to their how-to guides and their basics section, so make sure you check back on a regular basis. It’s got enough content here to help most, if not all, people get started on picking out a hosting package that is very much made for your long-term needs.

One of the best things that you can do when you wish to build up a good website is to host it on the correct platform. Given there is far more to your choice than just the price, we heartily recommend that you look closely at the hosting options open to you.

This should make it a bit easier for you to understand their features beyond the flat cost. If they are a site with good/bad support, good/bad features, etc. then Hosting Advice will make that clear. While some reviews can feel a little harsh, the general quality and standard of information on this site should make it easy for you to get actionable, easy to understand information that should make choosing a hosting provider simple.