Webmasters, what do you want in a host?

[busman3000]

Basically I want to make community sites that function like facebook and myspace.

So all the above and more

I need a host that will let my site visitors upload their own videos, pictures and allow them to have their own space and be able to make their own chat rooms and mega bandwidth... thats all I can think of for now.

[JetWash]

By the sounds of this, you may want a Dedicated Server. From there you can do this yourself. You can purchase some cheap Decicated Servers now a days and get 2000GB 2TB worth of Bandwidth.

I pay $173 for a Quad Xeon Server.

[busman3000]

Originally Posted by JetWash

By the sounds of this, you may want a Dedicated Server. From there you can do this yourself. You can purchase some cheap Decicated Servers now a days and get 2000GB 2TB worth of Bandwidth.

I pay $173 for a Quad Xeon Server.

Is that $173 for a year or monthly?
You got anyone in mind?
How long have you been with them?

Our hosting bill is £39 per month, for a resellers account.

We have 30+ sites hosted
We = Me, my brother and my dad.

[markus]

In addition to everything else;

A web host that cares enough to run a service smoothly.
To actually care. Have never come across that.
Some are happy to help, and some could care less.

Being proactive in everything they do.

This means they would have excellent FAQs that are easy to search.

And they don't do dumb little things that kill your site for a day or two
coz you were busy on other things and discover they've done something
like upgrade to php 5, which then requires a call to tech support who
drop in some ini file as a workaround. (yup, happened)

Take ownership of their mistakes. Don't need lots of apologies - or excuses

I've heard of the "fanatical support" that one company offers, but I'm looking
at shared hosting, not dedi

You know what would be amazing?
Tech support that does help on your code.

[Brazzell Marketing]

1. Ability to manage all my websites from one place (i.e. virtual dedicated servers). Most of my clients do not want to establish relationships with hosting companies, so I have to manage the hosting for them if I want to get the design job.

2. Very good uptime

3. Very good price (I need to be able to charge clients a hosting fee that is competitive with other paid options).

4. Actual technical support available for a fee on an as-needed basis. Not like freaking GoDaddy who will deny there is a fee-based technical support for days before they finally realize your problem is "Advanced" and offer the fee-based service I was requesting from the beginning. I know when I can do it myself or if I need to pay their "Expert Hands." Don't make me suffer for days with obvious do-it-yourself tutorials when I tell you I've already done all that and I need an actual analysis. At $150 per hour, you would think they would be happy to do easy stuff, but they literally deny there is such a service until you push for days, and then they literally offer and price the service. I need really technical support.

[broadcast-monitors]

Not the most important but these things come to mind:

Less overselling... it mostly amounts to false advertising / bait and switch if they ever rape you on overage charges.

Easy signup process. Less stupid name restrictions (only 8 characters?) and/or password restrictions. Interface is more consistent and shows you the price you are looking for. That kind of thing.

[xentech]

1. Uptime
2. Speed
3. Support
4. Upgrade easily

[goodzollder]

patient and fast support;
adequate price;
99% uptime;
multiple add-on domains (as a consequence - multiple MySQL and so on... ) but not unlimited because it's a bull****;
all possible CMSes included;
free domain name (1st year) and adequate price in the following years (up to 10 USD I assume);

[kingofoverkill]

In addition to what has been mentioned, I want a host to tell me before they do any server maintenance and to tell me what they are doing. I don't want to find out later that they upgraded Apache, MySQL, etc. and that is why parts of my website do not work anymore.

[xentech]

Wow just realised this thread is years old.

[web hosting]

I want a reasonable price, decent amount of space and bandwith, and most of all good customer support. Customer support is very important imo.

[dWhite]

Originally Posted by Cricket

#1 Dependability

#2 24/7 Phone support

#3 Workable pricing with easy upgrading as site needs grow

#4 Affiliate program

Can't ask for more than this.

[sequincer]

support and a nice Feature set is what I look for In a Hosting company.Good support is important for people who are novices in website hosting and related stuff,This really helps them around.
While A Good feature set helps novices as well as experienced webmaster(s) as well.

forgot to mention,but a Live Chat is really essential during these days.