My first impression from web hosting provider web-site is very important. The site should be clear, informative and friendly. Then i check the foundation year of the hosting provider if it’s new provider, try to host a personal blog or a very small site to test the service if you like the offer, but not a business or a big site. Check how many customers this provider support if it’s for example 100,000 this host is probably reliable. 100,000 customers can’t be a group of fools, they read reviews, check other providers and decide to go with this provider. Next check if you get refund 100% of your hosting fees after 30/45/60 days if you are not happy. Now it’s time to check the payment options, most of the hosting providers today provide cheap shard web hosting under $10 a month, it’s important to have no contract, pay monthly or once every 3 months, unless you find a great deal for less then $100 a year. Don’t pay extra money for setup, shared linux/unix hosting should be setup free. If you happy with the price check the support and ask for a small list of site that hosting with them, if it’s possible. Check the sites for speed and functionality, run a php query. If you are happy check some technical details, for example the provider should support PHP 5, multiple mySQL 5, phpBB, WordPress, MediaWiki (wikipedia), phpMyAdmin, AWStats, FTP, multiple domains (you can host 10, 20 and more web sites under one account), multiple sub-domains, and multiple addon domains. About Hosting Space and Bandwidth, most popular & professional providers today provide more than 500 Gigabytes of space and 1,000 Gigabytes of bandwidth, it’s more than enough for the most of us. Have a big site and a lot of traffic ? check LiquidWeb for Dedicated Servers Hosting Solutions. If you have specific needs that you didn’t find in the hosting plan list, check the support again and ask them about your specific needs. This blog and all my sites host at Hostgator I’m happy and you will be happy too, Try Hostgator Service for one month, You will enjoy this web hosting provider.