What do you want in a hosting company?
 

What are the things you find important to a hosting company and in what order?

1. Price - lowest cost possible
2. Tech support - If you have an issue, you can get hold of somebody competent to resolve
3. Reliable Network with little to no downtime
4. Company thats been around for some time, not a newcomer, one that wont disappear overnight


what else?

Flexible IP assignments.
WG

good wg, thx

1. Price - lowest cost possible
2. Tech support - If you have an issue, you can get hold of somebody competent to resolve
3. Reliable Network with little to no downtime
4. Company thats been around for some time, not a newcomer, one that wont disappear overnight
5. Wide Service and Product Range offerings (various O/S offered, backups, Control Panel, extra IPs options, etc)

1. Up time - Some hosts can guarantee 99.9% uptime, however if the server does go down I expect them to immediately bring it back up. I have had a few hosts I had to manually reboot my server.
2. Technical Support - If I have an issue I want to be able to contact someone immediately, preferably by live help and not by submitting a ticket (although some hosts have a quick ticket response time).
3. BACKUPS - Most hosts require an add-on for storage space. If this is the case ALERT your client, I lost 115+ sites at the end of last year in a server crash because it was my understanding my host kept backups when they did not. Eye opening experience to say the least.
4. Reputable - Want to ensure my data is not going to disappear on any given day.

1. Uptime, I pay for a service (show my pages on the web) and expect that service to be fully functioning. If an uptime is guaranteed, offer an incentive. Most 99,9% uptime garantees are often useless as there is no statement about what the compensation would be, should the host not be able to provide the guarantee. So show that you're serious about the guarantee.

2. Tech support, depending on the size of your hosting company, why not show pictures and names, could as far as I'm concerned be screen names, of the tech support. Like Bradlee, certified Microsoft server technician and also Cisco CCNA certified. Specialty: PHP scripts. Gives a much more personal feeling and trust.

3. Different payment options. Credit card is a given, Paypal preferred and maybe ePass and some others. Also the choice of not receiving bills every now and then, so the option to choose say 3, 6 and 12 months payment cycles.

4. A thourough walk through of exactly how the back up works, if I can recover my files myself or how long it would take to have it done for me, i.e. how long down time can be accepted should that occur. Costs associated with restoring back ups and for how long they are saved, seven days at a different location is somewhat of a minimum.

5. Always keep a backup on an external hard drive that you own. Should the host disappear, or heaven would just implode and you wouldn't reach your files or sites, you never want to have to just drop it and restart completely. A 1TB hard drive is quite cheap now, there's no excuse for not having one of those on your desk and just keep a backup there. You don't even need to do it right, just one backup every month or every second week will save you should the worst happen. That life insurance is worth a few hundred.

6. Do any of my friends have a story with this host? If so, what are their opinions? That matters a lot. Secondly, other people that I trust or respect, what do they say, for example here on GFY?

excellent points and spot on

Not a good #1. Getting the best often means paying a little more, and if that means getting the quality uptime/tech support/extras then the extra cost is going to always be worth it.

We offer all of the above and have been in business for a long time :)

Hit me up on ICQ/AIM if you're interested in making your sites more profitable.

414-084-516 / fortressbox

i think over the years, hosting has become more of a commodity, in the past 10 years prices have fallen and strong established companies have emerged that offer a consistant high standard of tech support and good uptime

hey man, this wasnt an invitation to spam. at least contribute something useful to this thread!

this is #1, imo

Totally agree. Ive just been advising someone starting up on hosting, and price, (Unless its silly) shouldn't be a requirement. You get what you pay for.

*peace of mind*

Exactly, which is exactly why I host with Techiemedia.

I started a similar thread a few days ago. Support seemed to be the answer common to all of the replies.

Beyond that, reliability.

Recommendations from people you know is a good indicator of a good service.

I'd like a host to actually be giving people a dedicated box when you're telling a customer that's what they're buying... Not a virtual machine. :2 cents:

If the customer wants a virtual machine, let him choose to have that instead.

I understand webhosts do this for the obvious profitability of doing it, but it's still a bit deceptive... especially if you count on having the ability to squeeze the most out of that machine.

whats a host that does this?

Go look at my other thread that I just started last night titled "commom practices of webhosts?". Deductive reasoning will answer your question. :winkwink:

i read that thread and couldn't deduct whom you were talking about

Maybe go read it again and see if any webhosts answered the question. Then, judging by the lack of response over the past 24 hours, you can deduct what the answer is.

I like when tech support is done via a ticketing system so it doesnt get barried in my email inbox. and I like when they dont take 24 hours to respond.

i see. they all do it.

Yeah, definitely this one :thumbsup

Customer service is most important after uptime for me.

Correlation is not causation... but it's interesting none-the-less.

i dont think your thread got enough attention to warrant hosts posting in it, doesnt seem to be that big of an issue, any host has to be very careful doing shady shit because of the transparency of this industry, you get caught one time and your rep is ruined and its very tough to restart

Nice price and good support

same here

Free Blowjobs.

couldn't agree more :)

got everything I need, thank you

1. Reliable Network with little to no downtime (If your server is down you will loose money and your customers will not know if you are in business or not. The last thing you want to do is leave money on the table and have your business appear to be unreliable to present/potential customers. Uptime says a lot about your company and tells potential/existing customers whether or not they should do or continue to do business with you. If the uptime is higher than 99% it is good; below 99% look elsewhere.)

2. Tech support - If you have an issue, you can get hold of somebody competent to resolve (Its important that you have someone there to make sure that all technical issued are resolved in a timely manner and that your business continues to grow and operate smoothly. Its well worth paying a reasonable premium for a company that is going to make themselves available to you at your disposal)

3. Price - lowest cost possible (Affordability is important; however, the cheapest hosting company is never the best. Fact of the matter is that hosting companies need to factor in labor cost to provide the best service possible and satisfy the above two)

4. Company that?s been around for some time, not a newcomer, one that wont disappear overnight (I rate this the least important because if hosting provider cannot satisfy the above three they should not be considered).

*Many others have touched on this; other than the above, I think customization, flexibility, and options are also very important. Whether it is additional bandwidth, CPU adjustments, additional memory, upgraded drives, or additional IP addresses it?s important that a hosting company can satisfy your needs in the present and also the future as your business grows and needs change.

how do you know if a host has all of the above factors? would you look at the website, talk to a sales rep, ask around?

:thumbsup:thumbsup:thumbsup


I have to say NatNet has great support, one of the things I love about them!

Very well said:thumbsup and that is why so many people host with www.techiemedia.com because they simply Rock in the hosting world.:2 cents::2 cents:

Very important points you've raised here. :thumbsup

I want a company that's going to pick up the phone at 3am their time when I have a problem.

Or better yet, I want my hosting company to see a problem before I do, take care of it, and then send me an email saying "We found this problem and fixed it for you before it became a bigger problem".

That's why I host with National Net.

thats nice

I want my hosting company to make my galleries, submit them with my ref codes, all with a 99.999999% uptime gaurantee.

Actually... Forget my posts above...

What I am REALLY looking for...

























































































IS...................



















































LOTS OF POO !

Free bandwidth and blowjobs. :2 cents:

Ive found what i was looking for and im going to stick with them for a very long time.
No tickets, no need, i call the owners on their cellphones and the problem is taken care of in minutes. They took care even of several DoS attacks, every time my server was back up in less than 20 minutes on a different IP! I have everything i need with 1 phone call or IM. Prices are better than most of the other companies that promote their stuff here and i think my sites have gone down once in the past 18 months for like 3 hours.
If anyone has a hosting company that can beat that, hit me up.

That is exactly why I switched to Techiemedia over a year ago. In addition to that I have never had a minute of downtime (yet << crosses fingers) either. A true class act.:thumbsup

-Uptime should be disclosed on the company website; if not that's a huge red flag

-To confirm that you are getting what you pay for as far as technical support, your going to want to contact the technical support department, ask some questions, and see what type of response you get prior to placing an order!

-Again, cheapest isn't the best, but you are going to want to make sure that you are paying a "reasonable" premium for the service that the web hosting provider should be providing you in the first place (uptime, technical support, affordability)...A little shopping never hurts

-Word of mouth and positive referrals are always very useful in confirming that you are working with a company that's not going to disappear overnight.

*As far as customization, options, and flexibility, it's important to go through the checkout process and see if the hosting provider has the appropriate extras, options, etc. that will satisfy your present needs and give you plenty of room to grow.

thats a good idea, dont think many hosts do this

the first fact does not go along with the rest! you can't get a good service for a few bucks...

yea, put that on there for the purpose of discussion, i realize that a client of, lets say, alphared for their freehostedgalleries may be more concerned about price than the other stuff

for a business model that doesnt require the most premium and expensive bandwidth, you may settle for shitty support and an OK network if the price is dirt cheap

for a members area, uptime and support may be the most important factors

i want backrubs and for them to whisper sweet nothings into my ear

1. Solid Network (i.e. uptime).

2. Support. I want my tickets resolved as quickly as possible, and RIGHT, the first time.

3. Communication. I want multiple contact points (email, icq, phone). Not just support email.

4. Ties in with #2. English speaking support. This means I understand what in the fuck you are saying, and do not have to repeat myself, nor explain American slang.

5. Cost. While important, it is secondary to other issues.

1) 7 9s uptime
2) 24 hour tech support - with fast response times
3) Cheap Load balancer solution
4) Option for second GB NIC for internal local network
5) Choice of Linux flavor