How we rank

Hosting reviews usually end in a verdict you are expected to accept. We prefer to lay the workings on the table. Below is the complete procedure behind every ranking on HostingShortlist: what feeds it, which sources we lean on, how often it gets refreshed, and the boundaries we keep. Should you find a recommendation that cannot be traced to the data described here, it is an opinion that slipped through, and we want to hear about it.

What the order is built on

The order is decided by things we can measure, weighted in the sequence below. You will not find a “73.5% score” on this site: one expired promo or one quiet renewal increase and that decimal would be fiction. What we stand behind is the order itself; where two hosts sit close together, the review explains the call.

• Measurements from outside. When a neutral party has published figures on what matters, those figures come first. For hosting providers we lean on published third-party uptime and speed measurements, not on the uptime figure a host prints on its own homepage.
• What you pay once the promo ends. We log the amount you will actually be billed rather than the first-term teaser, and wherever the renewal rate differs from the intro rate, both appear side by side. The month-by-month series is kept in the Price Index, a benchmark we compile ourselves.
• What a plan really includes. The breadth and quality of what you get, held against what someone running a real website uses, not a comparison grid stuffed with extras nobody switches on.
• Whether you need to pay at all. When a free tier or something already bundled with your domain covers most people, we say that outright.

The rules we work by

Treat these as constraints rather than mission statements: each one is baked into the way the order gets computed.

• Independently compared. Speed, support and price decide the order. Nobody can sponsor a spot in it.
• Renewal prices shown. A $2.99 intro deal can come back at four times that amount in year two. Wherever the renewal rate is confirmed, it stands next to the promo price.
• Judged on real work. Uptime, page speed, backups and a support desk that actually answers: the things that matter once the site is live.
• Kept up to date. Hosting promos expire without notice, so we revisit each price on a fixed rhythm and stamp every review with the day it was written.

How current the numbers are

Nothing loses a developer faster than a hosting price that expired two promos ago, so we rely on automation instead of good intentions. Each deploy pulls the hosting prices afresh and rebuilds the Price Index; an automated monthly measurement is being rolled out so a trend line can build up over time. That month-by-month history is something hardly any other hosting site publishes, and it is why we would rather be cited than go asking for links. Each data page carries a visible last updated date and a machine-readable feed; nothing stops you from checking the numbers.

Lines we do not cross

• A place in the ranking is not for sale, and no hosting company can pay its way up the list.
• Gut feeling, brand familiarity and a slick homepage carry no weight. Anything we cannot back with a number stays out of the ordering.
• We never bury the renewal rate, the fine print or a cheaper competitor because a commission would be nicer.
• Star ratings are never made up; one appears only where there is evidence to justify it.

Where the money comes from, and why it stays out of the order

Using HostingShortlist costs nothing; the site pays for itself through affiliate links, which means a sign-up through one of them can earn us a commission while your price stays the same. The order is fixed by the inputs above before anyone looks at what a host pays. The complete terms are in the disclaimer; the people behind the site are on the about page.

Check our work

A published method is only useful if you can test it against the outcome. Spot a ranking that contradicts the data, or a hosting price that has since changed, and you have found a bug we want fixed. For that reason the underlying figures are published in full: the Price Index comes with a free machine-readable feed under CC BY 4.0, so readers and AI engines alike can verify the numbers and reuse them with credit.