If you're thinking of venturing online to open a store, offer a service, or even just create a blog, you'll need a web hosting service to reach your intended audience. Though all web hosting services operate in a similar manner—they store data on servers that are accessible to others via the internet—they are not all exactly the same. There are many variables to consider when the time comes for you to sign up for a web host, and we consider—and test—all of them when we evaluate hosting services.
Uptime Testing
Uptime is, without question, the most important aspect of web hosting. If your website is inaccessible, you'll lose traffic, customer confidence, and, depending on your site's purpose, money. You don't want users looking for alternatives while your site is down—and maybe never coming back. No matter how good a service's pricing, specs, and features are, it can't score well overall if it doesn't have rock-solid uptime.
We monitor a website's uptime by opening a hosting account as any customer would do, purchasing a URL, building a website, and using Dropmysite to keep an eye on the uptime. Every 15 minutes, Dropmysite pings our test sites and sends us an email alert if any of them is unable to contact the sites for at least one minute. By digging into our Dropmysite data, we can see how long a site's been down. Naturally, we favor sites that demonstrate strong uptime. We've seen a few poorly rated websites go offline for days, which is unacceptable. But even being down a few minutes at a time several times over the course of the testing can affect a host's score.
In the past, we gathered data over a 14-day period, but we've expanded that to 30 days to get a better overall picture of a host's uptime track record.
5 Things You Need to Know About Web Hosting
Operating System Options
The operating system, just as on a desktop or laptop, determines how the server works. And, in the case of web hosting, it also determines which tools you can use to build your site.
One thing you'll notice while exploring server operating system options is that Linux is ubiquitous. You may see different flavors of Linux, such as CentOS or Ubuntu, but every web host that we've reviewed offers the OS. It's the baseline expectation, the bread of your sandwich. The operating system is compatible with the many free, open-source tools in your web host's app library.
However, we give an extra point to web hosting services that also offer the Windows Server operating system. Some businesses need that OS's support for the ASP.NET framework, SQL Server databases, Sharepoint, or Exchange.
Determining the Value Factor: Hosting Types and Pricing
A robust web hosting service caters to as many potential customers as possible, which is why PCMag's highest-scoring web hosting services include most, if not all, of the six major hosting categories: Shared, VPS, Dedicated, WordPress, Cloud, and Reseller. Please follow those links for in-depth category explanations, as well as the top web hosts in each class.
Related to those categories is pricing. In fact, the two go hand in hand. Shared hosting, for example, is typically the lowest-cost hosting available from any particular web hosting service; dedicated hosting, on the other hand, is often the most expensive. Therefore, when we compare web hosting services in terms of features and pricing, we do apple-to-apple comparisons within hosting categories. We include an Editors' Choice for each category within our reviews, so you can see which host is our current favorite.
Comparing Specs and Features
Spec comparisons comprise a large chunk of our reviews, as they give readers an idea what to expect from competing web host in terms of storage, RAM, email accounts, and monthly data transfers. Just what do the services offer for the money? And which one delivers the best value?
We favor web hosts that offer unlimited email and monthly data transfers, as well as large RAM and storage totals. That said, the expected numbers vary depending on the type of hosting we're reviewing. For example, it's not uncommon to see web hosts offer unlimited monthly data transfers with their shared hosting plans, but 1TB or 2TB of data with their dedicated hosting plans.
Customer Service
The customer service experience is an important part of our testing process, too. During our test period, we contact the web host's customer service teams at various times during the day, with various questions that require specific answers. (We do not identify ourselves as reviewers.) For example, we may ask "How do I set up WordPress hosting?" or "What's your money-back guarantee?"
We evaluate the customer service experience based on whether or not there's phone support (many hosts simply rely on ticketing or web chats), whether there's a 24/7 squad on duty to field questions around the clock, wait times, and the overall pleasantry and clarity of the responses we get.
Security Features
The internet poses numerous dangers, so you need to make sure that your website is armored against potential threats. If you plan to sell a product or service, you need a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) or the newer Transport Layer Security (TLS) certificates to encrypt data as it travels between a customer's computer and your site's server. As a result, we greatly value web hosting services that offer SSL/TLS certificates. Most web hosts include them for free for a limited time when you sign up for hosting or let you outright buy one. This is a good thing. After all, if you need to visit another web page to purchase a SSL/TLS certificate, you may forget to do so or believe that it isn't very important. Note: It is!
Recommended by Our Editors
Email is another avenue by which people are exposed to online-based threats. Thankfully, there are authentication technologies available to protect domains from phishing scams, such as Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM). In addition, Domain Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance (DMARC) instructs receiving mail servers how to handle unauthenticated incoming email. For example, DMARC can block them or send them to your email client's junk folder. Like SSL/TLS, the availability of these technologies factor into a web host's score. As do general antispam and antimalware tools.
Note that we do not currently test the efficiency of each of these security features. We note what's offered and score accordingly. In other words, a web host that provides these tools will get a better score than one that does not.
Ecommerce and Email Marketing Tools
Not everyone who signs up for web hosting requires ecommerce and email marketing tools, but it's nice to see services offer them just in case they are needed.
Ecommerce software consists of shopping carts, such as Shopify and Wix Stores, that let you sell items or services online. Email marketing software, such as Campaigner and MailChimp, lets you communicate with a large group of customers on a regular basis and in an automated fashion.
As with web hosts' security features, we don't test ecommerce and email marketing tools. Instead, we reward hosts for including these business-enhancing tools.
Trust the Testing
A lot goes into evaluating web hosting services, so we hope that this breakdown helps you understand the process. For more on web hosting, please read How to Create a Website, How to Register a Domain Name, and The Best Website Builders.
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