Compare my favorite web hosting

So who’s your favorite web host?

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As you guys might be aware, I’m recommending several web hosts here in W.H.S.R. Bluehost, Hostgator, Lunarpages, as well as FatCow Hosting are all rated an ‘A’; and Dot5 is awarded as Best Budget Hosting.

(You can visit these hosting online here: Bluehost, Hostgator, Lunarpages, FatCow, Dot5 Hosting).

Now what if you’re suppose to pick just one host? What if you need just one recommendation instead of five – who should you go with?

The problem, apparently, fell on my blind side. You see when I started this website, all I knew is to signup new hosting account, test and review them, I had never thought about picking up the best recommendation.

So honestly, I don’t know the answer. But what I can offer here in this blogpost is a fair comparison between my favorite web hosts and hopefully, it can help make your decision easier. For those who emailed me, thanks for pointing out the issue – I hope this article answer your question.

The A list: Bluehost vs Hostgator vs Lunarpages vs FatCow

Generally, I find all four of hosting listed above remarkable.

Basic Hosting Features

All four hosting companies offer reliable hosting services in affordable price, provide responsive customer supports, plus offer a wide range of hosting features. The differences of hosting features and pricing among these top rated hosting are minimum – as you can see from table below, users of any one of Bluehost, Lunarpages, Hostgator, or FatCow get unlimited hosting capacity. Also without any question, web servers are working around the clock, all four of them achieved respectable uptime in my record.

Business Reach

In term of popularity and global reach, Bluehost and Hostgator are far in front, with Lunarpages falling third and leaving FatCow at last. I am not surprise about the trends as Bluehost had been in the business for long and their affiliate program is the most aggressive among all.

A quick check on Attention Meter verified the statement. From the graph, you can clearly see that Bluehost and Hostgator average around 500K – 700K unique visitors monthly; while Lunarpages 200K and FatCow 100K.

Blogger’s preferences

The same trend is observed from the blogsphere as Bluehost and Hostgator are listed top in term of Technorati’s measure. While the more you’re mentioned by bloggers doesn’t mean that you’re better; the statistic nevertheless indicates that both Bluehost and Hostgator have the wider reach in hosting business.

Reputation

I wouldn’t lie to you – all four host received complaints all the time. Logically speaking, when you’re doing international business and dealing with hundreds of thousands of clients, it’s impossible to please every single of them – thus I wouldn’t care too much about unreasonable rantings and complaints.

It is worth noting, however, that I see increasingly amount of complaints on Bluehost (mainly in server speeds and customer response time) – was that a sign of good host turned bad? I’ll leave it for you to answer. But all in all, I find all four hosting companies dependable and I’m willing to write a 300 words positive testimonial for them anytime.

What about Dot5 Hosting?

It’s tough not to mention Dot5 when it comes to cheap hosting. Their unlimited hosting plan cost just $3.96 per month. On top of that, Dot5 clients are given free domain name for life and all new customers are entitled of a 90 days trial period (the longest trial period I knew).

Without doubt, Dot5 Hosting is the cheapest – thus the awarded as the Best Budget Web Hosting. In case you wonder, here’s a quick look on Dot5 Hosting features:

What’s up with FatCow?

Yeah, what’s up with FatCow hosting? I often receive comment about recommending FatCow, like “Why are you recommending FatCow?” “FatCow? I don’t hear about the name often!” “FatCow never appears on [enter name of hosting review sites]“…

The right question to ask is: Why not FatCow? Over the years I can’t explain why FatCow isn’t promoted by other webmasters or bloggers (maybe their affiliate program isn’t attractive enough). But personally, I find their service very good. I don’t read much complaints on FatCow services, their price is reasonable ($6.5/mo), and they just upgraded their hosting plan to unlimited (great savings!).

So why not FatCow? (Read detail review on FatCow)

Conclusion: Who should you go with?

Wrapping things up and back to our initial question: Who should you go with if you can only choose one: Bluehost, Hostgator, FatCow, Lunarpages, or Dot5? Apparently there’s no one answer fit all in this situation. If I’m forced to choose just one, I would have go with Hostgator… or FatCow. But that’s irrelevant with the other’s service quality – it’s just because I’m attracted to the company’s image (something to do with the mascot perhaps? I don’t know).

So how about you? Who’s your favorite hosting if you can only choose one? Cast your vote, I’ll leave the poll results for further discussion in the future.

Vote for your favorite web hosting here.