Webmasters, what do you want in a host?

[micksss]

Originally Posted by dirboss

98% uptime
quality after sales support
clear and easy TOS
competitive pricing
proper load balancing

I agree with everything but I prefer higher than 98% uptime.

That would be:

8760 Approx hours in a year
8585 Approx hours @ 98% uptime
175 hours down a year

I don't want it to go down at all but 99.9% uptime is nice

[chicgeek]

Well as Todd said, the the 99.9% guarantee doesn't mean it will be up that much, but at least you'll get a rebate if you do lose some uptime.

[bond007]

You guys already listed what should be on the list. However I will add one:
- a good control panel (so that you can solve/configure yourself whatever you need)

[webmidas]

Originally Posted by dirboss

98% uptime
quality after sales support
clear and easy TOS
competitive pricing
proper load balancing

98% uptime is very poor.
100% i know is not easy to get.
but anything less than 99.99% is not good.
Next important thing is load balancing.Load balancing is very important.
Money not important but should vary according to quality.
Customer should be nice, important thing is that customer support guys should be trained to use their brains.

[lordofdalord]

Flexible Tos .
The hosting should not be famous for banning the users
all the features, important addons,
99% uptime

I Always Prefer host that is located in usa/europe

[unlmtdrw]

I'm really amazed at the low level of uptime several posters have noted. Wow! For me that's one of the primary items I look for! If I don't see a 99.9% guarantee, I wouldn't consider them as an option.

Aside from what I consider standard items that have already been mentioned -- like 24/7 access to responsive telephone support, stable environment, current software/platform offerings -- what I also really rate highly is multiple domain hosting and multiple databases (without ridiculous size limitations) without requiring a significant increase in hosting costs. Some hosts offer quite cheap rates, but if you want to upgrade their next step up is double or more what they charge for their base account. Depending upon what you're looking for this could price clients out of the market (or maybe that's on purpose)?

I haven't yet run into a true "developers" host... anyone have suggestions?

[StarLab]

There's not much more to add that hasn't been mentioned already.

Besides all the technical specs, I believe Telephone Support to be a big plus. If they don't want to talk to me, then I don't want to use their service.

I only say this because I've had problems with a client's host in the past which didn't have a support number to call. Had to reply on their painfully slow support ticket system.

I wasn't long convincing the client to move to a new host.

[~ServerPoint~]

Besides all the technical specs, I believe Telephone Support to be a big plus. If they don't want to talk to me, then I don't want to use their service.

Sometimes tech staff is quite buzzy and they also in t his time can be answerinfg tickets etc.

[Codefixer]

Evening and weekend support
Good selection of components
Competitive pricing

[Hahh]

No overselling
I also want my host to send me a few notifications if my site's bandwidth reaches its limit and they want to suspend it.

[dh_eddie]

If dedicated servers:

on-site support - including 24/7 phone support
have there own datacenter
includes good features
good pricing - cheap isn't always best.

[DarkAzrael]

One huge selling point for me would be a COMPETENT technical staff. If I need tech support, trust me, some guy with a script can't help. I need a fast way to get to a higher up who can even understand the issue. And for the love of Zeus... when I call support I want to speak to someone from the US, not India. Also I play around a lot with my own code and some open source, so a flexible install on demand at least once in a while feature would be awesome.

[sethuhdiah]

From a host, I NEED
php5 mysql5
curl, cron, awstats, fantastico
Cheap Dedicated
Unlimited Bandwidth
Unlimited Space

[scamp]

Definitely Support
Uptime
Ease of Use

[~ServerPoint~]

on-site support - including 24/7 phone support

So if web hosting company do not offer phon support 24/7 you will not consider that. You know sometimes that is not easy to have a huge stuff sitting only on the phone.

[berlin56]

24/7 support
reliability
uptime
good prices
open to custom solutions :-)

[adalmi]

for me the best host i ever used (and i tested about 10 hosts) it's jaguarpc.com

they have it all:
- 24/7 online support
- good server (i use VPS)
- good pricing structure
- my sites where never down since i use them

i think on a host you get what you pay...

[JetWash]

Has to be:

- Reliable Site
- One that does not oversell and lie about it overselling
- One that host reasonable uptime 99.95 +
- Excellent Customer Support
- Offers E-mail and phone support
- Occasionally a Discussion Board

[Manish Pandey]

Capability to hold huge traffic, like when it usually gets when something hits the front page of digg. With reasonable price and good uptime.

[JetWash]

Look at it this way, If your host is offering 100GB Bandwidth for $1 that would be overselling and coping with such traffic ... Do not think so.