How we research and rate web hosts

Prices

Every price comes from the host's official pricing page, captured on the date shown on the page. For each plan we record the intro monthly price, the term required for it, the renewal price (from footnotes, the terms of service or the cart), the month-to-month price where offered, and key limits. When a host shows placeholder prices or blocks automated access, we use a dated third-party price tracker and say so in the plan notes.

3-year cost

intro price × intro term + renewal price × remaining months, over 36 months. If no renewal price is published but a regular price is listed, we use it and mark the result estimated. If neither exists, we show no 3-year cost rather than guess. When a host doesn't state the intro term, we assume 12 months and flag it.

Ratings

Each host gets 1-5 for value, performance, support, ease of use and features. These are editorial judgements based on published specs and policies (backups, refunds, data centers, panels), plus the consensus of independent expert reviews, published benchmark sites and customer reviews. We haven't run our own lab tests.

The Host Finder

The Finder maps your answers to a hosting type, filters on your 3-year budget and prepay preference, then scores fit on your priority, region and our ratings. Every match lists the reasons and what it misses.

Free tools

Tools query public data only (DNS, the certificate a site presents, RDAP registry records and the headers any visitor receives) with timeouts, rate limits and a 10-minute cache.