Are these the best hosting companies

[kgun]

Top 10 Best Web Hosting Companies

and by what criteria are they best?

[hostBrain]

and by what criteria are they best?

Criteria? - The higher the affiliate payout, the higher the rank.

Most of these host review sites are crap. They're full of affiliate links, so they can make a buck off their visitors, while claiming so and so host, is top ranked.

There is very, very few host ranking/review sites that are legitimate.
Buyer Beware... in fact I always advise to just stay away

[kgun]

I use ImHosted, 7 on that list, august 10 2007, and are fairly well satisfied with them.

I will also take your advice with a "hand of salt" as we say it in Norway, since as I understand, from your signature, you are a competitor

To your advantage: You have a telephone number that a potential client can call.

Is the physical visiting address the same as the mailing address?

ImHosted has a fairly good control panel where I by a glance get an overview of the sites linking to my forum etc.

[chowell]

Never even heard of about 70% of those listed on the Top 10 list.

We use The Planet (in Houston), which is pretty good.

[kgun]

How good are their control panels? Example: Can you by a glance at the screen see who links to you?

How many add on domains can you get? That is not sub domains.

Example: The first and second in my signature. I know that they are on the same IP, so Google may regard them as a Link Farm etc. etc. Later I may host them on an unique IP.

[hostBrain]

Well, you don't have to take my word for it. You can do your own research

Look at #1.. click on the stars on the right and you'll see..
wow, a whopping 1 Review.
And that's enough to give them the #1 spot ?

Look at #3.. 10 reviews, 2 are poor and 2 are average
Ix Web Hosting is Awful
This is the worst hosting i ever see. Always down, very slow
I'm dumbfounded by the positive reviews on this site

Regardless, of the fact that I'm in the same industry....
I'm not saying the hosts are bad... just the review site

The whole idea of a review site, whether it's hosting or another industry, is to provide independent and unbiased reviews and rankings.... - this is hardly unbiased.

[kgun]

Great info thank you. I am an amateur on this, hopefully you are a professional.

I have to mention one very important experience I had with ImHosted.

I registered the name ForumNorwy.com through them. There was no problem when I wanted to move that domain to my Norwegian hoster where I administer all my name services. I used nearly a year to do the same with another domain from another hoster. After 100 emails they gave up and I deleted them They was stupid enough to send me a bill for the next year. Then I had already, silently moved the code to another hoster.

I could have mentioned their name again, but they have got the negative story indexed elswhere.

I think, in todays internet, it will never pay for a hoster to handle their clients badly.

Their message:

Hi Kjell,

With regard to your query, we have unlocked 'forumnorway.com'. Thank you.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any more questions.

That is professional.

[brandrocker]

Regarding hosting issues,

#1) Webmasters ( Newbies mainly), particularly those, who look forward for cheap hosting services (assumption) may not have very great experience to share at least initially and my own experience was no different.

#2) Not that all review sites are useless and biased. findmyhosting.com may be a good example of a good review site.

#3) Promotion is a big issue and it demands big budget. Not all the hosting companies, irrespective of the quality of services offered by them so far, may have enough budget to promote their brands. So, we may not be aware of their existence. ( Personal opinion)

[kgun]

Note, I am not affiliated with ImHosted.

I only comment on their customer service that is excellent.