We've developed this self-proclaimed “genius” quiz to very quickly find the best host for you.
With hundreds of web hosts out there, we've narrowed down the most common factors and jammed them into just 7 questions in this little matching quiz.
There's no one-size fits all with web hosting, and comparing hosts manually can be boring…so we did something about it
Everyone loves quizzes.
Buzzfeed has quizzes on stuff like “what cat would you be” or “what Game of Thrones character are you” – and while that stuff is fun to fill out when you're flirting with your people, why not apply quizzes to everything in life – even serious, boring tech?
Like, shouldn't there be a quiz for “what HR information systems tool are you” or “what financial model are you”? Well we're not experts in that, but we are in web hosting.
We started as wee lads and lasses, just learning HTML back in 1999 and playing around with Geocities…
Remember that? Before Myspace and Facebook, cute little nerds like us would build out our own Geocities and Tripod sites.
The first time I created one, I showed my parents and they were proud. I showed my cool uncle and he gave me a fist bump. See he was at Peoplesoft when they were hostile-take-over'ed by Oracle and he new databases as well as any other enterprise sales executive. So he knew when his nephew concocted a dazzling little Tripod.com site that that kid was magic. And that kid would one day futz around with about 99 other websites across the next 20 years and then eventually write this paragraph.
But the web has changed, and web hosting is actually great now.
It used to be that 1and1 would pull out full-page magazine ads in PC Mag – I take that back – 6-PAGE MAGAZINE ADS in PC Mag – and just blast their brand in front of you. I remember that and was drawn to that.
Remember Network Solutions? They were the big kahuna. Then GoDaddy disrupted them.
Now there's been constant disruption in web hosting because it's so profitable. Once they lock you in, they know how hard it is to migrate your web hosting. So it's a blood bath, with constant disruption, Eastern European companies entering the mix, I'm sure we'll see the Chinese Tik Tok/Temu version of web hosting soon once they crack the western market.
All this to say…
It's not about finding the cheapest hosting, it's about getting the best ROI
Here's what I'll say. Take your hourly rate. That's how much you should spend on hosting a month.
Make $10/hr? Great – $10/mo is your budget.
Make $100/hr? Dude – spend $100/month on hosting.
If you go with the cheapest, and your site goes down, you'll be pissed talking to slow customer support. You don't have time for that. You have to get back to project managing the regional leader in tech sales for…well whatever it is you do.
Here's what's important: Support, Value, Speed, Features, Innovation
These are the key ingredients for finding the best web hosting.
Support: you want them NICE and SUPER HELPFUL and SUPER FAST. Honestly this is 80% of it for me
Value: This is not equal to cost.