Cheap web hosting is a bit of a conundrum. As with anything, you get what you pay for. Web hosting is no exception. However, in web hosting, many of the best services are still quite cheap, and some of the worst ones can be more pricey. For those who want to find the best web hosting service, this can make things complicated.

One of the best sources of information on the subject would be your peers then. Fellow webmasters and web hosting customers alike have most likely used one of the services you are considering, and in some cases, they might of used all of the ones you are thinking of using. However, it can be difficult to determine the truth of their answers, as from time to time you may run into employees of the web hosting companies who are often caught writing fake reviews or impersonating the average joe customers and spreading positive information about their company, or in more nefarious cases, negative information about their competitors.

A good place to look is on the webmaster and web hosting forums, preferably the more populated ones, as those paid shills are often easily exposed there, and a larger body of users may give their advice, helping you understand what the consensus may be. However, many of the users simply don’t know many of the web hosting services as they might of only used one or two and might give false information based on whatever impression of the service they made based on what others have told them.

The next, and most common sense decision next, would be to go directly to the web hosts themselves. Taking it a step further, you could make a list of the prices and features you like from each web host and compare them. This allows you to make an easy choice.

Lastly, as with most things on the internet, fraud is something to be taken seriously. If you have any lingering suspicions about a web hosting service you are about to purchase, it’s best to search for clues on google, Rip Off Report, or the Better Business Bureau’s complaint reports. Keep in mind that a good Better Business Bureau simply means they respond properly to the complaints, they don’t necessarily have to have solved them. Also consider that due to the thousands of customers each web host typically has, there are bound to be a few angry customers even with the best of web hosts, just as any popular person is bound to make a few enemies even if they do nothing wrong.

It’s important to get a feel for how the internet as a whole percieves any service for that matter, hosting aside. It should be a relatively simple task to notice the trends on various forums, in google, and in the fraud reports, and to make an informed decision about your future web hosting service.