If your a seasoned veteran when it comes to dealing with web hosting then you probably already know everything you need to about what makes a good hosting company. For me there a few things that really make it or break it though, so here are my top 10 reasons to go with a smaller company rather than one of the hosting giants!

1. I'm a believer in supporting the smaller companies, especially in these tough economic times. After all they are what used to keep everybody in business and making money. In many ways it's the giants that have hurt our economy.

2. The small companies tend to be more upfront with what they are offering, as apposed to preying on people who aren't experts only to find out that they have to pay extra for this and that, ie. Godaddy charging for email addresses and SMTP relays, while Canadian Web Hosting offers unlimited free email addresses.

3. Customer service. I prefer to not have to call my hosting company ever to be honest, because generally if I'm calling them it's because of an emergency that can't wait for a support ticket to be responded to. Smaller companies are better at having a human answer the phone and not sticking you on hold for a long time.

4. When you go to the hosting company's web site, I've found that the larger companies tend to have a lot of ads, and banners that can be very distracting and confusing even to the experienced users.

5. Abuse. I know that many companies are more lenient than others, and on the web so much of what is considered abuse is relative. I'm not condoning things like spamming, for example, but I think that if something a customer does blurs lines of the hosting companies policies they should deal with it by contacting the customer and evaluating what it is that they are doing. Many larger companies will simply just shut down a paying customers web site, without notice or explanation because a "red light" went off somewhere.

6. Smaller companies tend to be more ahead of the times than larger ones, at least when it comes to offering new services and technology.

7. Flexibility. There have been times that I have needed to change my hosting plan, or even cancel and transfer file hosting in the midst of my hosting plan. I have never had a problem doing so when using a smaller hosting company, where as the giants fight you tooth and nail.

8. Fees and charges. This one always gets me. You pay for your hosting and maybe even buy a few domains through the same company, then the the big companies decide that they get to charge you a fee to activate your domain, or add a domain to your hosting account. Why don't they just start charging per second anyone is on your web site?

9. I sort of covered this before with customer service, but if you are unsure as to what you need or want, call a smaller company and talk to them. They will offer advice that will work for your business because they want you to be a customer for life, not just so they meet their quarterly quota.

10. Price. The big guys will claim to have affordable hosting, but there is always something hidden. The small guys can sell hosting for less because they are not employing an army and don't have nearly as much overhead.

In short, there really is nothing redeeming about these large companies that offer "cheap" hosting. It ends up being less affordable and more of a headache in the long run.

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