Here’s the problem, there can often be just as many people saying that they love a particular host as those who hate it. Everyone has a voice when it comes to the internet and this can make things quite complicated when it comes to evaluating which hosting service is for you.
One of the main techniques I use to find out what people really think about a host is the discussions search on google. Essentially this service allows you to search forums and message boards for all discussions on a particular phrase (the name of your host). It’s really easy to do too, just search in Google like you normally would and then expand the “more” tab and click on “discussions”. This then filters all the results and it’s a great way to get an overview of what real consumers are saying about the host.
It’s also really important to work out what part of the service a reviewer has purchased before evaluating their review. For instance just because someone purchases the hosts lowest £5 shared package and got bad support that doesn’t meant their top dedicated server at £500 is going to have the same problems. Don’t get me wrong how a company handles its customers should be taken into consideration no matter how valuable they are but you have to put things into context.
Looking for reviews of a host on blogs is another great way to get an insight into what people really think of a web host, but this too is problematic. A lot of the time bloggers are incentivised to promote a particular host as they are signed up to an affiliate program, this means they get paid for every new customer they send to the host. If this is the case then obviously it won’t be possible for this blogger to provide an impartial review, check the details before you take stock in any particular review.
If you’re worried about impartial reviews then you may want to check out some of the big review sites which try to collect lots of reviews for the same company into one handy section. I’m a big fan of sites like Ripoffreport and also Ciao which allow users to quickly rate services like web hosting. These sites can be a big help when you’re searching for hosting as anyone who is out and out scamming people will come to the surface pretty quickly, it’s hard to hide on the net if people are talking about you!
As you can see finding quality reviews on providers can be quite difficult. My main tip I suppose is finding a large collection of reviews and getting a feel for what they are saying before taking the plunge, don’t rely on one random stranger’s judgement. Until next time.
