Hallmarks of popular hosting providers
What makes a good web host a great one? Having the ability to reach more customers in more geographic locations and provide them all with great service is certainly one thing, but not all of the most popular web hosts are huge companies.
An ability to address pain points of customers today, and an ability foresee what customer needs will be tomorrow, both play a big part in satisfaction ratings and consumer goodwill. Since a lot of the most popular web hosting plans are driven by word of mouth, being able to keep people happy is job one!
Investing in infrastructure to have the fastest or most expansive network may help in certain areas, but there is nothing that gives more confidence (not to mention repeat customers, and new business leads) than customers who are happy with your services and who promote them for you.
Why being popular helps
Pretty much every customer that comes your way will have done some product comparisons of their own, either in depth or at a basic level. They may have read reviews, or asked around about what other people are doing.
One result of this fact is that consumers are more aware of products and services prior to purchase than ever before. Another result is that reviews and customer comments have become an increasingly important part of the decision process of new, would-be clients.
In the game of consumer vs. producer, consumers band together and share experiences and feelings. This has a snowball effect where the top popular web hosts consistently rank high and score high marks in the areas that matter to consumers, while low scorers have a harder time making a break and developing their user base. In short, the top folks are there for a reason!
Does popular mean big?
In many cases, yes. What good would being a popular web host be if you are unable to capitalize on positive user sentiment and cater to more people (unless keeping your business small is a strategic goal to begin with)?
Most of the popular web hosting plans belong to big players, but many small companies provide services to specific user groups that have specific requirements that go above and beyond regular needs, or are more stringent or rigorous than average web hosting clients. Rest assured, however, that we've covered such companies in our rankings as well!
Yardsticks and measures
When dealing with things like being popular and preferred, find the right mix of how to measure these qualitative characteristics can be a challenge. Our approach uses measures of customer satisfaction and real-life customer experiences, along with comparisons of price, features, and speed, plus overall sales and market performance, to gauge who is doing well, and who the most popular web hosts really are.
Combining all of the above with publicly available stats and data allows us to pinpoint hosting leaders from the rest of the pack, and the leaders are those whom we have featured here.
Popularity reflects actual services
When choosing a web host for your needs, whether your needs are for business, are personal, or otherwise, go for a top popular web hosting service. You never know how your needs may change tomorrow, or what you may or may not need later with respect to your current plan. You may need to change operating systems, or launch a different version of service not compatible with your current setup.
Because migrating from one service provider to another, or even from one plan to another, represents quantifiable time and monetary costs, save yourself the hassle and the losses by locking in a popular hosting plan today.
