Since the quality of many hosting reviews is questionable you might think about looking at web hosting comments by users. In theory this should give you a better idea about the quality of service provided by a website hosting company and there are sites that show a score of positive versus negative web hosting comments. When looking at these you should bear in mind:

• It is impossible to please everybody so there should always be some negative comments.

• The number of web hosting comments should be proportional to the size of the company.

• People are always more likely to complain than praise.

• Some of the things that get people very upset may not matter to you.

What strikes me looking at web hosting comments is how they tend to categorize the host as very good or very bad with little in the middle. This would indicate that for most customers everything goes well and they are happy but for a few things go badly and they are unhappy. Many of those that write negative web hosting comments are unhappy about financial and administrative issues rather than the hosting service itself. This can include problems in canceling the service, problems getting refunds and problems with renewals. However many of these could have been avoided by the websites being made clearer and/or the customers reading the TOS (Terms of Service). For example:

• There may be a procedure to follow to cancel which is only detailed in the TOS.

• If you register a domain name as part of a package you will have to pay for this if you cancel, even if there is a money back guarantee. This is usually mentioned on the website but only spelt out in the TOS.

• Promotional prices are for new customers only, renewals will be at the standard rates. Some websites do not make this clear.

Web hosting comments also indicate that many users do not understand the position as regards backups. For $5 per month it is not reasonable to expect hosts to provide a full backup service and they don't. The TOS make it clear that backups are the user's responsibility (and they may provide tools to help with this) although the host will usually take backups of their shared servers periodically without accepting any liability. Obviously hardware failures can affect even the best hosts so if you are unlucky enough to be affected by this you may find your site restored to the last backup (which will probably be taken weekly or even monthly).

To avoid becoming a writer of negative web hosting comments read the TOS of your host carefully and take the necessary action.