Every score on this site comes from the same six-criteria rubric, applied the same way to every host. Here's exactly how it works.
Each host is scored 0–10 (one decimal) on six criteria. The overall rating is a weighted blend, with performance and reliability counting most.
| Criterion | What we measure |
|---|---|
| Performance | Server response times (TTFB) on entry and mid-tier plans, caching stack quality, storage type (NVMe/SSD), CDN availability, and data center spread. |
| Reliability | Measured uptime over our monitoring window, the strength of the uptime guarantee, and whether SLA credits actually compensate. |
| Support | Channels (chat/phone/tickets), real response times from repeated test contacts, and whether agents solve problems or read scripts. |
| Pricing | Total cost of ownership: renewal rates (not just promos), term requirements, and which essentials — SSL, backups, email — cost extra. |
| Features | What's included at each tier: staging, backups, migrations, email, site builders, developer tooling. |
| Ease of Use | Control panel quality, onboarding flow, and how much a first-time site owner can accomplish without support. |
Category pages (like Best Shared Hosting) don't simply sort by overall score. Each category re-weights the criteria for its use case — cheap hosting weights renewal pricing ruthlessly, e-commerce weights uncached checkout performance, managed WordPress weights platform tooling and support depth. That's why a host can be #1 in one category and mid-pack in another.
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Hosting prices and plans change constantly. Prices shown are editorial estimates as of the review date noted on each page — always verify current pricing on the host's own site before buying. When a host materially changes its platform or pricing, we re-score it.
