Let’s face it: if you were to type “web hosting provider” or “best web hosting provider” in any search engine, you would be swamped with links to hundreds of hosting companies’ websites. They will all, unfortunately for you, claim that they are the best in the business.

We were taught in school that a superlative adjective describes a single object of the highest degree when compared to many others – so it really can’t be true that they are all the best, right?

Well, not necessarily.

You see, what one hosting provider offers its clients could make it the best choice because it delivers exactly what they require. It is up to you as the client to dig through the entire search results and find the one provider that will give you all that you need… and then some.

And so, the question now becomes: How do you find the best hosting provider for your specific website?

Here are some ideas:

Public Reviews

Once you have a handful of potential hosting providers, pass them through the wringer: let the public tell you what they think about them.

Google for “[Insert Hosting Provider Name Here] Web Hosting reviews” or similar phrases to come up with reviews from users that have something to say about them. Just like the review sites, make sure you aren’t swayed by false posts and comments.

Here too, you can make a list of the positive and negative comments and then see how many sites represent one side or the other – as you increase the number of sites, you get closer to pinpointing which comments are true and which are not about a host.

Sponsors and References

It isn’t only John and Jane Q. Public that can shed some light on how good – or bad – a hosting provider is. Standards and regulatory offices and organizations can tell you a lot about a business. The Better Business Bureau (BBB) should be one of the first places you head to next when checking your list of candidate hosting providers.

Search online for companies (preferably well established and reputable ones) sponsoring and/or advocating the providers on your list.

Here too, make sure it isn’t just a paid advertisement but really testimony.

Package Specifics

By now, you should know what it is your website will need in terms of features like operating system, databases, applications, hosting type, disk space, bandwidth, etc.

Go down your list exhaustively and drop the hosting providers that do not meet all your requirements. Remember, they should cater to all your needs and you shouldn’t have to make any sacrifices.

Extra Goodies and Freebies

Once you’re sure you have all your needs met, you can start looking into the provider that offers more. Will you get extra applications, apps and plug-ins for free? What about limits? Will you have ample disk space and bandwidth? Will you have as many sub-domains, databases and mailboxes as you will need?

List all of these offers for each of your selected hosting providers that have made it so far. The ones with the best and most extras win.

Price

Yes, price was put so low down the list because the most common mistake people make when choosing a hosting provider is to assume that just because it costs too much it is the best choice; or vice versa.

It is only after you have come so far that you should throw price into the equation. At this point you can afford – pun unintended – to go with the hosting provider with the lowest price because all other conditions have been met.

Don’t forget to consider the long and short term price offers.

The Free Trial Period

Ok, so you are nearing the final selection process and you have a couple of candidates remaining. So, what’s the tie-breaker?

Take them for a spin.

Any decent hosting provider will offer you a few weeks’ trial period. Take advantage of such offers and test every possible business process scenario you could possibly think of (you can even generate flash-floods of traffic to simulate a surge in visitor numbers).

Put your sites under as much stress possible, and the last site standing wins!

No? You’ve still got a couple left? Well, it was precisely for situations like this that the good old flip of a coin was invented – use it.