How we rank hosting

HostingVotes ranks hosting providers from public community evidence. Paid placements are labelled and never move a provider up or down a list. This page is the methodology behind category rankings, the leaderboard and the reviews on each provider page.

Community votes

Every member has one vote per provider: up or down. The vote can be changed or removed at any time. The vote score is upvotes minus downvotes, and the top voted leaderboard sorts by that score.

Verified user reviews

Star ratings come from written reviews. A member can file one review per provider. Reviews may be held for moderation when that setting is on, and hidden reviews are left out of the average and the review count. Sub-scores for user friendliness, support, features, reliability and uptime are averages of the reviews that include them.

YABS benchmarks

Members and verified providers can submit YABS-style CPU, disk and network scores. A result stays in the review queue until an admin publishes it. Published results show on the provider page and in comparisons. They are not part of the category ranking score below.

Claims and verification

A provider can be marked verified after a listing claim is reviewed and approved. Verification is a badge that the listing was confirmed by the company. It is not a quality award.

Category ranking score

Best-of category pages include every approved provider whose primary category is that category, plus approved providers attached through extra category memberships. Pending and rejected listings are left out. Providers are ordered by this score:

• Start with the vote score.
• Add a review signal: (star rating ÷ 5) × ln(1 + review count) × 8. Providers with no reviews get no review signal, so one glowing review cannot outweigh a long review history.
• Add 2 points when the listing is featured, and 1 point when it is verified. Those bonuses are tie-breakers. They are too small to buy a ranking.
• If scores tie, the higher star rating wins, then the higher review count, then the name in alphabetical order.

The number shown next to "Ranking score" on a category page is that total.

Moderation

Admins can hide reviews, threads and replies, reject benchmark submissions, and approve or reject provider listings and ownership claims. Hidden or rejected material does not feed public scores.

Affiliates and sponsorships

Some outbound links are affiliate or sponsored links, and sponsor modules are labelled as paid placements. A sponsorship, ad, or affiliate relationship does not change votes, review averages, benchmark results, or the category ranking score. Providers cannot pay to delete an honest review.