Leveraging Dotcom-Monitor services, NCM Online developed fact-based observations about the performance of 20 leading web hosts in June, and continues to test additional hosts throughout the year (the most recent update to the list was 8/2/2014). These tests include purchasing a shared hosting plan from each provider and gathering page-load speed averages and uptime percentages from at least 10 concurrent days using identical websites on each provider. This process provides 2 of the ten criteria NCM Online uses to rank different shared hosting service providers.
Anthony Ailed, Online editor at NCM stated that their review process is “heavily” objective. Ailed explained that the best way to stand out from other ranking sites is to provide rankings that are predominantly data-driven. “There are hundreds of Web hosting review sites online.” Explained Ailed, but “Of the 10 criteria we utilize to rank hosts, eight exclude the reviewer’s opinion.”
Utilizing Dotcom-Monitor performance metrics gives NCM Online a truly independent view of their websites on each host from different monitoring locations around the world.
Search for Best Web Host – NCM Online Results
NCM Online’s analysis produced some surprising results: Better-known website hosting companies collectively did not rank as highly as one might think. In fact, mid-sized hosts ended up scoring the highest thanks to their technical excellence, ease of use and cost transparency. Mr. Ailed added, “We urge anyone who is considering the purchase of shared website hosting to take a look at our reviews. We believe you’ll be a better consumer for it.”
Consumers looking to select a web hosting service are no longer blindly signing up with a provider based upon price alone. NCM Online breaks their host ranking down into 10 different ranking criteria.
| NCM Online Best Web Host Criteria | |
| 1. Price | 6. Uptime |
| 2. Ease of Use | 7. Support |
| 3. Disk Space | 8. BBB Rating |
| 4. Bandwidth | 9. Guarantee |
| 5. Speed | 10. Satisfaction |
While all of these criteria are important to consider when purchasing a hosting service, it is critical to note that at the end of the day, the performance factors will be the most important in terms of serving the sites content in a quality manor to the intended audience. Thus, website owners are now scouring the web to find unbiased reviews based upon hard performance facts, and not biased opinions.
In a more recent 2016 analysis, one company found GoDaddy and WebHosting Pad to be the fastest web hosting providers when tested with Dotcom-Monitor. This demonstrates that the hosting marketplace is extremely competitive, especially on entry-level shared hosting platform, and web hosting companies are constantly fighting to improve their infrastructure to meet today’s performance demands.
Desiring facts—not speculation—as to how web hosting companies were performing, NCM Online and others are looking to Dotcom-Monitor for help. Providing actionable data relating to website monitoring, reporting and analysis, Dotcom-Monitor has been providing businesses with the information they need to enhance their websites since 1998. Visit our free website speed test to run an instant analysis of your site’s performance on your current web hosting provider.
page updated: 5/26/2016
