What do you look for in a web host?

[pipeten]

I was wondering what you consider to be the most important factors when choosing a web host?

Cheers!

[steven]

an amount of webspace appropriate to my needs and a price that is reasonable.

[PeOfEo]

bandwidth and their hosting like what server sides they host and space and price

[khalidali63]

I look for
free web hosting,
unlimited downloads/uploads ,
at least 100 gb hard disk space,
support for java related applications(at least tomcat web server)
support for MS IIS
support for Oracle 9i
including all MS related DB support..

and not a penny to pay,now thats what I want from a web hosting service.

:D

Lets see if some one else shares this feeling

[AdamGundry]

...with the option of a Linux server running PHP, MySQL, HTTPS available..oh, I'm dreaming again.

Adam

[Zemog]

This is my list

1. Features
2. Reliability (uptime)
3. Service / Support
4. Price

1. Feature.

Obviously they need to meet your requirements for space/bandwidth/OS and all required features.
Hint: Backups?

2. Reliability

I've had bad experiencies with low cost hosts, their uptime sucks because due to being cheap they usually have lots of customers and that could lead to lots of problems on a server. The more people you share a server with, the higher the chances of service disruption.

This factor weighs more if you are a reseller or host your own clients. If the server goes down your customers WILL call YOU.

3. Service / Support
And what if the server crashes? How will you contact their tech support? toll-free number with long on-hold times? email? live chat? help desk ticket? forums?

My Advise when asking for support:

If they have a toll free number:

- Call before you sign in and measure the time it passes until you can talk to a live person.

- Call at odd times, like late at night, or early morning

If you have to contact by email:

- Configure your email client to always request a read receipt and see if they acknowledge it.

- Check time lapse between sent-ack-response

4. Price

Sometimes you get what you pay for. I've learned this the hard way :(

It's a lot smarter to pay for peace of mind. Unless you don't care for downtime.

But it would be great to pay a reasonable fee and get outstanding features/reliability/support. :)

[Vladdy]

If you got a personal site that does not get thousands of hits per day, and you have DSL or cable modem, consider being your own host (I am).
For <$100 a year (for dynamic DNS service) you get a dedicated server in your own basement (room/garage) that YOU are in charge of... that is when the fun begins :D :D :D

[Bullschmidt]

Windows Host With Lots of Domains Allowed

I'm looking for:
o a Windows server shared host
o ASP
o Access
o a lot of domain pointers allowed that can point to subdirectories with no extra charge
o shared SSL
o at least 200MB
o $25/month or hopefully a lot less
o account control panel
o A US host would be nice but perhaps not totally necessary
o responsive tech support
o static IP would be nice but perhaps not toally necessary

[havik]

I look for at least:

100 MB web space
10 GB Data Transfer
5 email accounts
ASP, PHP, Coldfusion support

Havik

[KeshavaR]

My List :

Ditto as Khalid Ali's ! :D

plus no Advertisements and Banners ! !

Cheers

- Keshav