Okay, if you’ve been searching for a web name hosting provider for any length of time, you’ve probably typed in some combination of the phrase “best web host provider.” This is a logical search given that you absolutely want to invest in the best product, right? It is very likely that within your search results you’ll find at least a handful of Top 10 lists-just on the first results page! If you’ve ever compared any of these lists, you quickly find that the results are not the same-making your search for a web hosting provider even more difficult. Well, this article will attempt to explain some of the reasons for these differences.
After reviewing a few of these Top 10 lists, I have a couple of hypotheses about the differences that I simply offer as food for thought (and web host shopping).
1. The criteria for each list are based on different service-related parameters.
If you look carefully at some of the labels applied to the providers in Top 10 list, this will be apparent. For instance, one of the Top 10 lists that I researched highlighted highlighted a specific rating category for each provider. These categories included “Good Host for Linux & Windows”, “Best Choice for Reseller Hosting”, “Very Popular and Responsive Host.” Based on this type of categorization, for example, a host selected as the #1 host could be rated as a “Good Host for Linux & Windows” but it could be provide horrible customer support. The problem with this categorization is that the hosts rated 2-10 are likely rated based on completely different parameters. So, you really end up with a “Best Of” list for 10 different categories. It might be more helpful if the each Top 10 lists focuses on a single parameter. That way, webmasters can refer to lists based on characteristics that are most important to them. Sorry, I digress.
2. Some Top 10 lists are based 100% on customer reviews.
You’ve seen these. They usually utilize star rating systems (the more stars the better). Here is a common scenario. Consider reviews by 20 different people for the same web host provider. Imagine that 10 of the people give the provider a 1 star rating because they had to wait 5 minutes to speak to a tech support person (and they just finished arguing with their significant other). Faced with the same 5 minute wait, the other 10 people might give this same web host provider a 5 star rating because they don’t consider a 5 minute wait time too long to wait (and they just read a really sweet text message from their significant other). It’s kind of like 20 people going to see the same movie and half thought it was the best movie ever and the other half thought it was a total waste of time. At the end of the day, you have to go to the movie and make your own decision (like I had to do with “The Proposal” starring Sandra Bullock).
Now… these two hypotheses about why Top 10 lists differ so much are not meant to negate the validity of lists but rather are meant to perhaps explain why there are discrepancies from one list to the next.
So, what is a guy or gal to do? Let’s assume that these lists are somewhat valid and, in general, reflect characteristics that are most important to webmasters. Therefore, it might be smart to sign with a web host that consistently appears on a lot of different Top 10 Lists. It is probably a pretty safe assumption that they are that popular for a reason.
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