Expand open source reach

I found an interesting thread in Webhostingtalk yesterday.

The person who started the thread is inquiring as to what a website which reviews web hosting companies should contain, in order to be truly useful for people who want to host web sites and are in the process of assessing various web hosting offers.

I think the idea is really interesting. Indeed, choosing a web hosting company is a real challenge today. I cannot recall any web site which covers the hosting industry and which exhaustively and fairly reviews all the existing companies and their offers. I know that it is possible to get a broad idea of who are the top players in the industry (see Webhosting.info ) and that there are around 35,000 Webhosting companies worldwide. It is also possible to find several directories, where the position in the directory is tied to how much was paid for the placement by the web hosting company (For example Webhostdir.com and Tophost.com ).

If ever I wanted to compare a webhost Alpha with a webhost Beta, all I can do is go to their websites, pick up my pen, hope that they are disclosing everything properly as I write down what each of them offers... and even then, how can I know what level of experience of their technical team has, how reliable their servers and backup system are, etc. The only way would be to give them a try and hope for the best... Playing trial and error with 35,000 webhosts could be painful.

I often receive e-mail or calls from people who, for instance, would like a list of web hosting companies offering the online site builder Drag Drop site creator ( See it here ) that we offer to web hosting companies and ISPs. I am sure that it would be much easier for those people - and for Web hosts - to have a "Google"/"Cnet" site comparing, reviewing all the existing web hosting companies and what they offer.

So I wish long life to this project and I hope you will take the time to add your ideas to this Webhostingtalk thread. ( Click here to read the thread. )