This is the site that got me involved into exposing the evils of web reviews and top of lists for pay.
First off lets take a look at their whois information:
Registrant Contact:
W3Centric Network Pte Ltd Michael Low () Fax: 9 Bukit Batok Central Link 27-10 Singapore, SE 658074 SG
While I can’t off hand back up with facts, I am going to say that the bulk of webhosting companies are from the United States. Especially those that webhostingstuff.com lists in their top 1 – 25. But unlike those companies, this website is clearly not from the United States. Though at this time they appear to be on SoftLayer Technologies Inc servers.
Here is the link I get a kick out of, and I am sure it was not there when I looked2 years ago.
http://www.webhostingstuff.com/our_ranking.html
In a nut shell they claim to be pure of heart and that they would never delete negative comments (though no claims on not deleting positive feed back on people they do not get paid by). That there system can keep tracks of the traffic on the 10,530 webhosts listed in their data base (though the site only lists 10,293). Which is hard to believe, but if it were true they would have number to back up their claims. But at the same time they have lied about not deleting feed back. Which when you look at host gator.
Back in September 2008 according to youcanhost.com http://blog.youcanhost.com/host-reviews-exposed/webhostingstuffcom-consumer-reports-for-hosting-or-advertising-for-web-hosting/ They had a 80% approval rating. Now some how we have to believe that they are never deleted any negative feed back. After all Hostgator now has a flawless 5 star rating. Regardless a 100% rating is really hard for me to believe. In my years of webhosting I would say that atleast 90% of my customers were happy with my service I was providing them. But finding positive feed back from them posted online was next to impossible. It was always easier to find negative feed back from people that I, or for that matter no one could please.
Then there is this tidbit of interest at youcanhost.com,
Number 2 HostDawgs.com is defiantly new according to WhoIs Info: Creation Date: 24-feb-2008“
This is a company that is not even in business, but yet its listed still in webhostingstuff.com’s data base
http://www.webhostingstuff.com/company/HostDawgscom.html
The only person to have given them a review appear to have an inactive website.
Here is what Webhostingstuff.com says about HostDawgs:
HostDawgs.com Uptime: 0.00%
Site Established: Unknown Traffic Popularity: #3,920 of 10,293 companies
Somehow a site with zero uptime is 3,920 out of 10,293 sites.
Does this mean that webhostingstuff.com is keeping track of close to 7,000 defunct websites? When you goto hostdawgs.com it takes you to GoDaddy’s generic landing page for newly registered domains.
Also keep in mind that HostDawgs.com used to be number 2 on webhostingstuff.com’s top 25 list, search engine results are few and far between, and seldom taking me to anything relevant to hostdawgs.co.
However if you go look up GoDaddy.com’s ranking’s at webhostingstuff here is what it says:
Site Established: 2 Mar 1999 (11 years and 99 days ago)Traffic Popularity: #2 of 10,293 companiesThe GoDaddy site was established 11 years and 99 days ago since 2 Mar 1999.
Their website’s popularity is ranked #2 of about 10,293 hosting companies listed here – based on the estimated number of visitors to GoDaddy’s website.
I am a bit confused, JustHost.com was supposed to be number 2, and I don’t see GoDaddy.com on the top 25 at all.
Site Established: UnknownTraffic Popularity: #21 of 10,293 companiesTheir website’s popularity is ranked #21 of about 10,293 hosting companies listed here – based on the estimated number of visitors to Just Host’s website.
It looks like JustHost.com gets to stay on the top 25 based off of what ever number that webhostingstuff.com is not willing to share with its vistors. But still it does not make sense. So I figured lets try a few others:
Site Established: 15 Nov 2002 (7 years and 205 days ago)Traffic Popularity: #8 of 10,293 companiesThe BlueHost site was established 7 years and 205 days ago since 15 Nov 2002. Their website’s popularity is ranked #8 of about 10,293 hosting companies listed here – based on the estimated number of visitors to BlueHost’s website.
Another host not in the top 25 ,Bluehost
Site Established: 27 Apr 1998 (12 years and 43 days ago)Traffic Popularity: #11 of 10,293 companies The Network Solutions site was established 12 years and 43 days ago since 27 Apr 1998. Their website’s popularity is ranked #11 of about 10,293 hosting companies listed here – based on the estimated number of visitors to Network Solutions’s website.
Wow, Network solutions is not on the list, but according to the traffic popularity it should be 11.
So what about the one thats listed number 1:
Site Established: 24 Mar 1995 (15 years and 78 days ago)Traffic Popularity: #60 of 10,293 companiesThe iPage site was established 15 years and 78 days ago since 24 Mar 1995. Their website’s popularity is ranked #60 of about 10,293 hosting companies listed here – based on the estimated number of visitors to iPage’s website.
So, in conclusion: Webhostingstuff.com can not even by their own numbers validate where websites rank in regards to their popularity. They are just as bad as those companies they claim are not legit. But just for fun, lets take their actually rankings and stack them against those in the top 25 list. Bold face lie does not even cut it, this is a web of lies.
Its pretty funny, but there is only one site that has the right position according to its rankings and that is HostGator, and only one other site that should be in the top 25 and thats JustHost.com which should be number 21 not number 2. All the others are 51 – 3555.
Listing in top 25 – actual ranking – company name
1 – 60 – iPage
2 – 21 – Just Host
3 – 46 – FatCow Web Hosting
4 – 77 – Arvixe Web Solutions
5 – 5 – HostGator
6 – 51 – InMotion Hosting
7 – 92 – MochaHost
8 – 2633 – nativespace
9 – 349 – Interactive Online
10 – 3555 – IoxHost
11 – 298 – Essentials Hosting
12 – 1065 – Greenville Host
13 – 200 – Omnis Network
14 – 2271 – Identity Website Hosting
15 – 59 – Site5 com
16 – 232 – 2GB Hosting
17 – 172 – Green Geeks
18 – 909 – Cloud bg
19 – 74 – iWeb Technologies Inc
20 – 530 – Indichostsnet
21 – 365 – Scala Hosting
22 – 103 – Steadfast Networks
23 – 764 – LFC Hosting
24 – 3382 – Netmar
25 – 1180 – ThePrimeHost
Curious about who would be number 1? I found out by accident. I wanted to see where Yahoo ranked, and surprise surprise they were number 1.
Webhostingstuff.com clearly states:
Web Hosting Stuff uses a Quality Scoring method to rank hosting companies featured within each hosting category.
The Quality Score for each web host is calculated using realtime visitor statistics and other quality indicators.
By using quality indicators such as visitor statistics, the system is able to determine which web hosts visitors liked.
To build a fair and honest ranking system, ranking is always performed automatically by the system – free of human interference.
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.
I wonder what these other quality indicators are, perhaps this link can point us to it: https://www.webhostingstuff.com/advertise.html
I have not actually seen any advertising on their site, so this is a bit of a curious link.
