Posted by Jerry in There are a lot of changes in hosting industry for the past six months and I have been working hard to reflect these changes in my web host review section – revise web host ratings, new web host reviews, update hosting plans…. (Gosh, I wish I have more time!)
In summary, here are the ‘In-and-out’ of my web hosting reviews.
The winners: FatCow and Hostgator
FatCow hosting is the biggest winner for the past 6 months. Not only that the hosting company grew exponentially in the first quarter of 2009 (user base up 29%); the company also took a huge leap in term of brand image with the introduction of HeiferCratic Oath (credo for customer support) and the recent ‘FatCow Goes Green’ policy. The web host is now rated as the best web host (rated A+) alongside with Hostgator.
Reliable web server, responsive customer supports, wide hosting features, reasonable pricing, and eco-friendly – it’s hard not to like Hostgator on the other hand. I’ve been hosting with Hostgator for more than 4 years, the experience (through out these years!) is nothing but pleasure. Without doubt, I rate them as one of the best and would recommend them to all my friends and family.
(Hmmmm coincidentally, both of my top rated web hosts are related to animals! 
)
The loser: Lunarpages
Lunarpages is the only web host with major drop in term of rating – their score dropped from A- to B.
Why? Mainly because they changed their pricing quietly (I’m an existing customer and heck I don’t even get a notification e-mail!). As for now, their original $4.95/mo hosting deal is only available for shoppers who are willing to signup 5 years in advance (which sounds ridiculous to me).
Sum up with the fact that Lunarpages provides no livechat/phone supports, I’m convinced that Lunarpages doesn’t deserve to be in my A-list anymore.
Bluehost is another web host with dropping scores, falling slightly from A to A-, mainly due to my bad experience with their server in January and February. Everything is fixed and alright now; but I’ll just observe them a little longer before revising their rating.
New Kids on the block: InMotion, JustHost, and GreenGeeks
Both JustHost and InMotion hosting services are amazing – both grabbed the seats in my top 5 hosting list.
InMotion provide supreme quality hosting service – which is best for business web hosting. They are one of the very few that allows users to select their server location (Los Angeles, CA or Washington, DC). Also, InMotion has the longest full-money-back trial period – up to 90 days.
JustHost, on the other hand, is a new web host name that focuses in shared hosting service. Managed by a group of young talented entrepreneurs (a few directors in JustHost have experience in owning and running their own web hosting companies), business is growing ultra-fast at JustHost. They hit the 50,000 customers in first year and at this time of writing, they are looking at the 200,000 mark.
GreenGeeks is a hosting company that focuses on clean energy hosting. In fact, they are the “Greenest Hosting Company” as GreenGeeks replaces, with wind power, 3 times the amount of energy consumed by their web servers. This makes all their customers’ websites “300% green”.
To learn more about these hosting services, check out my detail reviews on InMotion Hosting, JustHost, and GreenGeeks. Also, I conducted an Interview with Sunil Saxena, co-owner and EVP of InMotion Hosting not long ago – the Q&A tells a lot about InMotion, go read it.
I have fatcow as number one on my review site.
Best Damn Web Hosts
Great post — and excellent job on the screenshots btw!
Great review! This tells us what are the changes made buy some web hosting provider. It is really better to read reviews so not to be cheated by those who just want to get customers. Web reviews are really a great help for us.
I recently read that Bluehost and HostGator are owned by the same company. Is this true?
@K Anne: No, it’s not. Bluehost is under the same management with Hostmonster, not Hostgator.
DON’T go with justhost.com
There web site says: “Money Back Guarantee Your satisfaction or your money back! If you decide to cancel your account at anytime Just Host will refund you for the remainder of your term”.
Its a scam! I was never able to activate the cPanel (even after extensive help with Rajah). But instead of a FULL REFUND- They send you an email telling you they are keeping your registration site fees. Where was this disclaimer?! You will find at the bottom of their web site in fine print… “If you cancel your account we will provide you with a full refund for the remainder of your term, excluding any setup fees that were charged when you signed up, and excluding domain registration fees. (Even if you received your domain for free through one of our promotional plans). Parenthasis were not added by me-that really is how their web site reads! But good luck trying to find this little zinger!
Justhost is a rip off organisation. They have two levels of support one group no virtually nothing the other are developers and its pot luck if you get a good one. However they do have a real attitude problem and there is no person you can complain to, so don’t wast your money