As I stated I would write a review of hostaz.   In short this is just another “top 10” , the only thing that makes it different is that it belongs to one Michel Low, owner of webhostingstuff.com.    This was inspired when I first read webhostingstuffs promise:

http://www.webhostingstuff.com/our_ranking.html

Unlike some dubious “top 10 hosting sites”  that promote web hosts based on affiliate commissions, our fair and honest ranking system helps visitors find the real top web hosting companies.

Despite the fact that on webhostingstuff rankings are paid for – I had to laugh to myself, because Micahel Low was doing just that with hostaz.com.   His site hostaz.com has 10 top hosts 8 of which are probable through commission junction or directly through the hosts themselves.   Though I have to wonder why not go through Commission Junction when there seem to be too many problems with being an affiliate directly with a webhost.  By Micael Low’s opinion hostaz is a dubious site.  I have to wonder how many people that click on the top 10 realized that.

I honestly thought this site was owned by someone in Arizona when I first heard of it.  I should have looked at the whois information:

Domain name: hostaz.com

Registrant Contact:
   W3Centric Network Pte Ltd
   Michael Low ()

   Fax:
   9 Bukit Batok Central Link
   27-10
   Singapore, SE 658074
   SG

I would not be surprised between the two webhosting review sites that there are more that he runs.  When you look at the commissions that many host pay out there is a lot of motivation to make a webhost look better then they really are.

How much does Michael Low get paid per referal at HostAZ.com

All but two sites are listed on Commission Junction, A2 Hosting and Green Geeks.

The dollar figure is per sale, every time someone clicks on one of these ‘top 10’ and buys hosting Miachel Low gets a rather huge chunk of change for no real valid reason.  Its not hard to believe the only hosts for consideration for being in the “top 10” are hosts that have a nice pay out for just one click.   There is little work done to put a host in the top 10 or in their directory.

How does Hostaz prove to you that their top 10 are the best hosts

They simple do not prove any thing.  The editors do nothing more then echo simple details that can be found on a page.  Anyone can do that, the details they provide can be repeated by anyone that bothers to go from host to host.  Or better yet goes to cj.com and looks up hosts to promote.

According to them:

“Our Top 10 Hosting Chart features the top 10 website hosts reviewed by our editors. From web page hosting to web site hosting, HostAZ.com tm offers webmasters a concise and useful web site hosting directory that busy webmasters can use to quickly find the best web hosting service to host their websites.“

There is not much detail to what their “editors” review.  Looking at their review on Lunarpages:

Lunarpages is just their top host, and it reflects all the hosts that they “reviewed”, The moving blue arrows on the site are put there to inspire someone to click to the top 10 hosts where they get you to buy hosting.

Why trust hostaz?

First of all they are not hosted on any of the top 10 hosts that they recommend.  Why should you turst a host that they are not willing to use? I have more reason to trust reviews at Amazon.com in regards to a book I am about to read.   You get far more details in the initial review, and then you get reviews from consumers that bought the book. I don’t get many details from this site only cost per month, but no mention of how long I have to pay for to get that price.  No Set up, regardless that most hosts don’t charge a set up fee these days.   Disk space and bandwidth, and platform.   Nothing to mention how fast you can get support, methods of support.   Not to mention reviews from other customers.  There is no reason to trust hostaz, because they give no information to prove that their top 10 are better then any other hosts.