Web Hosting BlissHonest Reviews of the Best Hosts

Web Hosting (also known as Shared Hosting)

Typical web hosting is when one large server hosts many websites of different users. The websites hosted on the server “share” the resources of the server which is how it gets the name “Shared Hosting”.

One of the most important things to consider when looking for shared hosting is that the host is not putting too many user on a server. The more users sharing the same server the more likely there won’t be enough to go around and this will cause slow sites and even sites that are ‘down’ or not available to your users.
Most hosts won’t share their quota’s for how many users they put on a server and usually give a vague response when asked outright, like “It depends on the server specs and users on the server.” The vague response isn’t necessarily a bad thing unless they are trying to cover up that they put way to many users on a machine (Also called OverSelling). They make more money this way.
So how do you know who’s overloading and who isn’t?
Well you’ll certainly find out after you signed up with a host whether the server is slow or goes down a lot. After sign-up you can also check the exact number of domains hosted on the server you’re on using the IP address and a online tool called Reverse-IP. But if you want to save yourself a huge amount of wasted time host hopping until you find something that isn’t plain awful then you don’t have much to go by.
The most obvious way to know if a host is overselling is to look at the plans and prices offered.
Web Hosts that oversell usually have only one plan and offer “unlimited” resources. They also usually lure you in with a low monthly price only to find out that to get that price you need to sign-up for 2 years and pay all upfront.
If you see a host like the two points above Run!

Honest hosts will offer a few to several plan options with specific resource usage stated and will have reasonable pricing (prices may range from $4 to $20 across the scope of their plans) for those plans and can usually be paid monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, or yearly.

Other things to consider when looking at shared hosting is the Control Panel that is offered by the host.
cPanel is the most common but it has some positives and negatives.
cPanel offers a wide range of ways to manage your shared hosting account on the server. Several other control panels offer the same or nearly the same options with slightly different ways of accomplishing things.
One nice thing about cPanel hosting is that most hosts will transfer your site from another host that also uses cPanel control panel for free. If you have a slightly more moderate skill level then this might not be a real concern for you though.
The main drawback of cPanel is that it uses a fair amount more overhead then some other, lighter control panels available such as DirectAdmin, H-sphere or Interworx. Because of this, some hosts will choose one of the alternative hosting control panels so they can place more users on the server without the overhead of a “heavier” control panel.
When it comes right down to it, the control panel shouldn’t be a dertermining factor when searching for a shared hosting company. All the main things you require from a control panel are available in any of the control panels listed above and all of them are quite simple to use.

One more point I’ll touch on that’s worth your consideration is the hosts network.
The network is extremely important because no matter how fast the server, your web site will only be as good as the network that connects that server to your users.
This can get very complex quickly so I’ll keep it simple and suggest that you never go with a host that is using a single bandwidth provider. As a general rule you will see much better speeds if your host is using at least two bandwidth providers (three or more is better). You don’t necessarily need to know all the providers details but if you ask a host (or it’s shown of their site) the number of bandwidth providers they use. The amount (the more the better) will give you a good idea of whether it’s a quality network or not.