What makes a good web host?

I'm curious how other developers have based their decision for web hosting.
I have noticed that all hosts seem to offer the exact same services at practically the exact same prices.

So what did you base your choice on?

Shame this post never developed into a discusison... perhaps giving it a little bump will help people find it.

I know myself, my latest web hosting was mostly related to the languages that the company supported... in particular, Ruby On Rails. I have been pretty big on learning ROR and wanted space that I could serve any of my creations.

A big bonus for that web host was that they offered a one-time-fee... which means I never have to pay them again... and they support other languages such as PHP, Python, and all kinds of other things.

Discussion question: does anyone care if their hosting box is Windows or Linux? Why?

Heh, maybe all hosts in your country I've noticed that the hosting prices in the netherlands seem to be an order of magnitude higher for substantially less services, at least when i investigated.. That's why I'm hosted in the usa..

As to your question: I guess it depends on which purposes I want to use the host for. I.e. for a customer I would just want a _reliable_ host, so it does not matter if the host is up to the latest technology just that it makes regular backups, has very limited downtime and has great support, preferably a phone number!

My current (private) hoster _claims_ to have 7 big pipes to the internet, daily backups, 99,9% uptime and ssh access (which i really want). Turns out that for ssh access I had to work really hard and I got a really limited jailshell.. The uptime is definitely not 99%, every day at aroun 11AM I experience around 5 mins to an hour downtime (I guess it's 3AM there and it's maintenance time, but it really sucks here...). 7 big pipes translates to: your ping is decent but don't expect to pump more data than needed for simple browsing.. Oh and daily backups mean: when the harddisk crashes and we need 2 week to repair all damage, we will restore your data from one week ago, we'll not tell you we did it so you can find the corrupted data for yourself (gif images were transformed into frontpage directories, not kidding here..).

Still that hoster did all this for a tenth of what I would pay in Holland

Hmm, got a little bit carried away there, dealing with some bitterness.. ;-) Is ROR really all that they say it is?

call me arrogant or crazy or both, but i like to deal with co-lo or dedicated boxes. personally i like to be the one to make the backups and control the security levels on the box, and let the hosting company do the hosting for me.

i like to be able to access the critical files when needed, and be able to configure and edit apache or php when need be. too many don't take advantage of the mod_gzip or mod_deflate technologies, to help you save a little money on your plan.

i really don't like a lot of regular hosts out there, simply because most do not use updated servers and such, making it hard for you to really get the most out of your hosting experience. i mean i am not saying update your os everytime a new version of fedora comes out right away, but geez who wants to keep using apache 1.3.14 as their server, when apache 2.2.0 has been out for a while now ya know.

I agree, my problem is that I do not wish to spent time on maintenance of my server, I do not have the time nor the knowledge for it. If I could hire a dedicated sysadmin who can assure me he can keep the server safe and up then I'm with you.

Offcourse the costs are a bit more In my previous job we had a dedicated server and it took a lot of time maintaining it (updating, backups, configuring new stuff..), all that time was taken from the real development efforts..

asp_man, you're arrogant and crazy... Although I see the enjoyment in having full control over your own box, I also see the hassel in making sure security updates and patches and new versions are all installed.

Icon, sounds like you're having a miserable experience. There's other cheap american hosts, you should consider switching

I don't believe the Ruby On Rails hype... but I'm definitely enjoying it... it is very easy to get a simple CRUD application out there... Ruby itself is a ltitle tricky, but overall it's always fun to learn a new language.

Hi! You can have more information in this site and compare the marketing strategies of different web hosting companies.
Here is the site: http://www.hosting-buyers-guide.com
Best regards,
Youngblood

Hello,
What i feel is required from a web hosting company would sum as :

1. Reliability
2. Reputation
3. Valid contact information
4. recommended by someone else
5. price/range of services
6. included great email, subdomain, database and webstats options
7. Positive reviews
8. Support
8. Uptime
10. Webspace
11. Traffic

Consultant

Hosting, Web Design, Reseller Hosting, Virtual Servers, Dedicated Servers

www.comforthost.net

Does anyone from this forum have any info related to this link: http://www.hosting-buyers-guide.com/gl/ that has a lot of updated technical definitions? Need help. Thanks a lot.