What do you look for in a review of <your> hosting companies?

[Ted S]

Due to popular demand I have decided to add reviews of various hosting services to my site (not a directory style user review but actual evaluations by our writers). However, before I get started I am trying to figure out what type of review is of most value to a potential client.

My thoughts so far are to review the host in parts, starting with an overview of their services, then their pricing structure, support time (established by emailing them with a random support question) plus review any extras.

My question to all of you as a host or a end user what else do you think is important to talk about? How valuable would it be for me to actually have an account (like a trial) with the host in order to test their speed, uptime and support for actual issues? What more do you think I should do?

Besides format how do you feel a review is best posted? I had thought about putting the reviews in one long article but perhaps that is less useful to a host as customers could see other hosts information so that got me to thinking each review should be a separate article? Again, what do you think would work best for you as a host or a client?

Thank you greatly for your input.

[Robert]

Well... Newbies probably are just looking for price. But some things you may want to have the host or review include are:

What DataCenter are the servers located.
What was the past 90 days uptime for them.
What OS, Control Panel and Experience do they have.
What kind of support do they offer? Email, HelpDesk, Faq, etc.

There are others *yawn*, but too tired to think. :D

[StLHosting]

Just how flexiable you are, has been my top ten question the past two weeks. Most of the those other questions I have on the website already answered (they still ask though) but its been the popular one lately.

Others might ask what type of billing do you offer, credit cards, check, cash, paypal, that sort of thing, how long you been around, have you had any other businesses or business websites other then what you have now, do you allow adult content, you have managed or unmanaged dedicated servers, auto install software... etc etc theres dozens of things I get asked everyday to early yet to get my brain working :D :D

[Living Media]

What skill level do their users need to have?

Some hosts give newbie-centric support and service. Others prefer clients who already know the basics of web publishing, or know how to help themselves. Many are in between.

I think that this kind of information would be most valuable to potential clients.

One long article might be difficult to read. Maybe a format which has ****** points, linked to the related paragraph. Users could read up on the sections that are important to them and just skip the rest.