Hosting the Leading Websites: A Way to Choose One That’s So Simple and Reliable We Should Have Set This Up Years Ago!

We need Web hosting services who know what they’re doing. We need the ones who understand the technical issues and don’t sweep bugs into the rug and tell you everything’s “um, er, oh, we think fine, yeah, that’s what we meant, fine”. We need the ones who are proactive and on top of problems without waiting till the hundredth complaint. Hosting should not be run as if it’s a sweepstakes. We need skilled hosts. We polish our content to within an inch of perfection. We expect our hosts to be super-careful with our creation. And we don’t want to pay a fortune.

I know. I started out with a bad turn. The problem was in the host’s business practices, but one of their answers implied something was wrong with their own website but didn’t want to talk about it or fix it. Yes, the host’s own website. And the host is a very well-known company with a well-known brand. I found a host I liked and switched. I got all my money back from the first one and got them to close my account. They said they couldn’t close it. I saw that they were transmitting my password in plaintext over the Internet, while telling me I’m responsible for anything done with my password. That combination is a no-no. Then they said they were having a developer look at how they could go about closing my account. I waited patiently. A month later, they hadn’t done it. One more contact and they closed it.

That was maybe ten years ago, so perhaps it wouldn’t be fair to name them now. I’m happy with the host I chose to replace them. But it left me wondering how I could have avoided the first host and their problems.

I think I found a solution. I look at websites which are likely run by people who are especially expert in computer issues and who will not tolerate bad hosting. They would not be stuck out of ignorance. They know how to switch, and fast. I researched three hundred sixty-one of these high-tech customers initially. They include customers who are in Internet infrastructure, set standards or are about standards, offer their own goods and services, sell others’ goods and services, are literature authors, are media, do education or research, provide forums, or are individuals who are part of the field. I did not include myself. I generally do not include games. I generally do not include any firm likely to do its own hosting. If a firm is part of another, I consider the parent only, and only if the parent is itself centered mainly on computer technology.

I looked for Web hosts that are hosting more than one of these customers. I ranked the website hosts by how many of these more knowledgeable customers use the same hosts.

I give you the results. The rankings may surprise you.