Hello,

If you are searching for a good hosting company that can meet your needs at an affordable price, which way would you use more?

1. Request price and info quotes from web hosts
www.HostMarker.com and www.HostQuote.com provides these services.

2. Search for web hosts' hosting plans using web hosting directories.
Some examples to these provides can be listed as follows:
www.HostSearch.com
www.WebHostDir.com
www.HostMarker.com
www.HostPulse.com

Google is also a strong alternative to web hosting directories.

3. Searching hosting related forums to get information on a web host
www.webhostingtalk.com is the most widely used one..

What do you think?

I think all those are great suggestions. I think "time" plays an important factor too though. It seems (from what I read at various forums, etc) that most people do not take the time to do proper research.
Thats understandable too. Some dont look for another host until they have had it with their current one, AND in a big hurry to move they choose and go, only to realize they didnt get much research done. Sad, but true.
I think any and all avenues one can come up when searching is a good one.
Nice thread :-)

I would try a litte of each. See if you can talk to some of the hosting companies directly. If its a small to medium sized company talk with the person who runs the company they would be best to determine if your going to get the type of support and service your looking for.

I surpose people have a good chance to get the info about hosting companies in the forums where such questions are discussed. Or I am wrong?

Karry you are right!

Katty, you are right of course. People will most likely to trust opinions of other customers of hosting companies but sometimes people post incorrect views on several hosts to blackmail or in opposite to promote a company.

Therefore, it is not enough just to use forums to get a clear idea of a web host. Also on forums you can not compare web hosts based on their features generally... In my opinion, searching forums is efficient after selecting a few hosts from web hosting directories or search engines...

Thanks for your suggestions. They are really helful for the begginers like me .

You're very welcome!

Katty, one more suggestion for you. Do not consider very cheap offers that say: unlimited traffic, 3 gigs of disc space, everything else... for something like $4,99 per month.

Such guys usually have VERY bad support (main reason of low prices) and a bulk of security holes on their hosts. Don¨t get a headache with them :-)

I agree with H4H,

Such web hosts that especially offer unlimited services like unlimited disk space or unlimited bandwidth generally limit users or cut their service suddently without prior notice. These are generally fraud web hosts that exist for only a few months then disappear.

Be careful and research your candidate web hosts before purchasing any plans...

Web hosting directories and web hosting related forums will help you a lot.

Hi,

I would recommend trying both approaches. Initially I would start with the hostquote, hostvoice to get an idea of the sort of thing you are looking for and the sort of price you are likely to pay for it.

Then I would go and do a bit of research yourself to see if you are not getting ripped-off. A few things to lookout for are offers which are too good to be true such as H4H mentioned earlier.

Finally once you have chosen a company I would do a bit more research such as the company background and how long they have been in business etc.

Once you are happy with all that then you are good to go.

Hope this helps

Good Luck