Here are some qualities to look for in a host:

• Reliability – up-time is obviously one of the most important factors.
• Speed – having a fast loading website is another very important factor.
• Software/Tools – your website has certain requirements and not all hosts can meet those.
• Space – this is usually not an issue unless you plan on hosting hundreds or thousands of movies.
• Support – you will run into issues. Having a good support team will ensure your problems are solved quickly.
• Security – Another important and somewhat overlooked factor.

You basically have three types of hosts – shared, VPS, and dedicated. Shared hosting is basically for smaller website accounts. They come in different packages, allowing you to manage multiple websites on each. A shared hosting account is usually pretty good for most sites or small site administrators, controlling 10 small to medium websites or less. Small to medium would be something around 300 daily page views or less, but of course it depends on how much content each page view or visitor is downloading. Do the math and you can figure it out.

Over the years I’ve used several different shared hosting accounts through my own efforts and for clients. I’ll speak about some of the popular ones and what I found. 1and1 – I used 1and1 for a while, and still might have an account over there. They offer pretty good value, but the support isn’t too great. The reliability started off great several years ago, then sites weren’t always loading, or they were loading pretty slow. That’s when I realized they were going down hill. The next one is Bluehost. They give you a good amount of control, but every time I’ve used them, their speed has been terrible. With my experiences, I would stay away. Godaddy seems to be a popular choice now days. Godaddy is okay. Their support was relatively good the only time I had to call. Their panel, however sucks. It’s hard to get around and when you need to login to MySQL to do something it always takes forever. They don’t give you too much control either, and a lot of options are hidden and you have to dig for them, but most would know that if you’ve registered a domain with them, checking-out is like trying to get out of the center of a flea market. Their value is good for the speed and up-time they have. The speed isn’t anything too amazing, but for shared hosting and the price, it’s not bad. I also used DreamHost a few years ago. When I used them, they were pretty good, great control, pretty good prices, good speed and reliability. I haven’t used them for a while, so it’d be best to read how they are now and if things have changed. And another popular one I’ve used is Host Gator. They’ve been one of my recent favorites for shared hosting. I’d pick them over the other ones currently. Control is good there, speed is good for the price, and so far, haven’t had a problem with reliability.

A VPS is the next step for serious administrators that need all the tools and control available to them, but don’t need any serious memory for traffic needs yet. A VPS can hold several websites and handle a good amount of traffic as well, again, depending on how much content is being downloaded. I use a VPS the most and usually have about 60,000 monthly page views, which it handles without a sweat. Servint is pretty good, and many other companies have been offering VPS packages now, which I can’t really comment on because I haven’t used too many.

When you need a dedicated server, you have a lot of choices, and it’s good to get it right because they can be pricey. The one I used before was SoftLayer. I’d recommend them easily since they were great and I did a good 12 hours of research and a lot of phone calls before making my decision.

So there you have it! If you have any positive experiences (or negative) feel free to share them.