Here are my thoughts on web hosts:
When I first started out looking for web hosting many years ago, I went for the ultra cheap. I just had one site and I couldn’t afford the $40 / month prices that popular companies like Hostway were charging at the time.
So I ended up using a company called DirectNic. They were cheap for the basic hosting — I think something like $5 a month. The problem was that they would nickle-and-dime you for everything like having extra email addresses. Also, they didn’t offer any phone support. You could email them and they typically would respond within a day. Because uptime for my site wasn’t super-critical the slower response was OK for me. It was the tradeoff that I assumed came with cheap hosting.
After a while I got tired of paying for every add-on and I switched over to HostGo. They were about $10 / month although they didn’t charge for each email address and they had a lot of webspace and bandwidth. Plus I could administer some of the features using cPanel. They only offered email support although I was used to that already.
The next step up for me was hosting that allowed multiple domains. I found two hosting services for about the same price. The Prime Host and WestNic. They were basically doing reseller hosting and that was cheaper for me because I could have lots of websites for almost the same $5 / month price I was getting at Direct Nic for just 1 domain. Both The Prime Host and WestNic also only offer email support.
Since that time the industry has matured and I’ve settled on hosts that typically use a cPanel interface, have reseller plans, and now I’m also looking for phone support and extra IP addresses if they have it.
Today, here’s my list of good and bad hosts that I’ve used or have heard about from VERY reliable sources:
Good List
Host Nine - www.hostnine.com. I’ve just started using their service. 24/7 support and a mini-reseller plan for about $10 / month.
PowerVPS - www.powervps.com. I’ve heard only great things about this host, although they are a step up in price for me. $45 / month is a bit steep although for $4 more you can get an extra 4 IP addresses so perhaps it’s cheaper to use them rather than 4 different cheaper reseller plans. Also, for $45 / month you get great support and a Virtual Private Server which is better than shared hosting on my reseller plans and right below a dedicated server. All the benefits of a dedicated server at a reduced price.
SLHost - www.slhost.com. Competitive with PowerVPS at about $45 / month as well. Good reports on this host. I see lots of discounts so the true price may be closer to $35 / month.
Bad List
I can honestly say that you should avoid these hosts!
The Prime Host - www.theprimehost.com. They were my first cheap reseller host. However, I’ve come to realize their support is awful and I don’t have to live with it. I can get better support for the same price. They’ve shut down my sites before without any email notice. I don’t know how many times I would email them a question and they would either answer only half of my question or give me a totally useless response. They are the worst of my bad list.
Host Go - www.hostgo.com. I’ve decided to move away from this host. $9.95 / month is too much to pay today for single domain hosting and no phone support.
DirectNic - www.directnic.com. Too little support and not enough features for the price.
WestNic - www.westnic.com. They are borderline problematic like The Prime Host. I’ve had a site or two shut down from them and later unsuspended after I sent them an email. I still have sites with them and I plan to slowly migrate my sites to another host.
Undecided
Reseller Zoom - www.resellerzoom.com. I’ve had OK service from them so far. A few people have had problems with them. No phone support. I might stick with them for a while because they are so cheap. Budget reseller plan for just $5 / month.
HostGator - www.hostgator.com. Some people like them although a lot of people are starting to say their sites are getting shut down for running RSS2B and similar blog software. Also, their reseller price of $24.95 is a bit high. I’d go for PowerVPS and get extra IP addresses if I was going to pay that much.
For higher end hosting you can check out offers here. Expect to pay about $40 - $50 per month for this type of host. However, you can expect great uptime and phone support.