webhost rating

I kinda like Dreamhost - but I'd like to make an informed decision about staying, so my question is:

Where we can see webhosts rated cost vs reliability? Suppose cost is mapped along the X axis, and reliability up along the Y axis (which is an oversimplification, since reliability itself has many dimensions) then most hosts should be bunched along the diagonal rising upwards and to the right

and hopefully, Dreamhost would be nicely in line with the lower left part of the diagonal -

or, even more nicely, it might be an outlier to the upper left.

Where can we see this picture?

Amazon S3 is very reliable, but a bit different.

Good luck. Host rating sites are generally just affiliate link dumps.

You can cut out the middle man: Open a CJ account, see which host pays the highest referral fee... and count on seeing them in most 'best host' lists.

Well if you have been with dreamhost now I imagine you already have an idea of how reliable they have been for you.

From what I have seen any webhost seems to have people crying out about their problems. The problem is the people with problems are the ones most likely to speak out about problems, content and happy customers are probably less inclined to comment on how good something is. This means if you look at customer reviews the reliability would probably be skewed downward.

If dreamhost has been suitable for your needs then maybe you should stay with the devil you know.


More codesEdited by monkeyboy7706 on 06/07/07 02:31 PM (server time).

Thanks. Dreamhost's reliability has been OK for me (customer since 2004).

But if the practice of rewarding referrals has poisoned the industry so much that there's nowhere one can get a comparative picture of overall reliability

then I suggest that this practice is a Bad Thing.

I would like to put it to Dreamhost that they should set a good example by stopping the practice of rewarding referrals.

In reply to:

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I would like to put it to Dreamhost that they should set a good example by stopping the practice of rewarding referrals.

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Unlike most hosting companies, DreamHost not only rewards the referrer, but also gives the referrer the chance of sharing this reward with the new customer via promo codes.

I really can't see DreamHost discontinuing their referral scheme any time soon, as I imagine doing so would severely impact their sign-up rate.

Mark

Yeah, the promo code scheme may actually have served the same purpose. I imagine that the linkdump ratings sites don't put DreamHost on their sites because smart customers will sign up using a promo code and thus eliminate the referral fee from the review/ratings site.

Someone else mentioned http://www.realmetrics.com in another post on this forum. It doesn't look like they have information on Dreamhost, but they do have information on a bunch of other hosts.

In reply to:

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But if the practice of rewarding referrals has poisoned the industry so much that there's nowhere one can get a comparative picture of overall reliability then I suggest that this practice is a Bad Thing.

I would like to put it to Dreamhost that they should set a good example by stopping the practice of rewarding referrals.

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Ha! I wouldn't count on that.

It's not a web hosting thing. It's advertising. Almost everything is affiliate driven and unless you directly type CompanyName.com into your browser (and it's actually their site), you'd probably be surprised if you knew how rich people have gotten off of your mouse clicks.

Then, throw in all of those people that think the top Google results are really the top results. They send affiliates a fortune.

Besides, Dreamhost's promo codes have the opposite affect. If an affiliate is willing to give up their $97 and recommend them, then it's probably a real recommendation. Especially considering there are a bunch of hosts they could recommend instead at $100+ per referral.

It doesn't mean that you can't truly recommend a host that just happens to pay you to do so, but it's silly to think that's what everyone's doing, especially people that basically recommend every host on the planet... well, at least the ones with affiliate programs.

I'm not saying what they're doing is wrong--it's just marketing. I'm just saying it's not the place to be doing research.

As mentioned most review sites are owned by hosting companies... And it works really well to draw in customers!

This is really one of the best sources for feedback, if a host has forums...Then ask around.

In reply to:

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Someone else mentioned http://www.realmetrics.com in another post on this forum. It doesn't look like they have information on Dreamhost, but they do have information on a bunch of other hosts.

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Yeah... I think they get listed as they already paid for that :)

That was certainly my thinking...

I noticed that siteground was in there... (snicker)

Wholly - Use promo code WhollyMindless for full 97$ credit. Let me know if you want something else!