Yes, I know, most of you have had problems with your previous web hosts. Did you have to wait a week before the support team sent a reply saying “Yes, sir.”? Was your site down for a month because your hosting company forgot to turn the servers’ CPUs on? Then… no doubt, it’s time to find a new home for your website.

Look and Feel of the Site

A webmaster asked me to review his web hosting directory called HostingRef and I can say that it’s a good one if you’re trying to find a few hosts, check them all out (and look for reviews), then decide which one to choose.

HostingRef has a clean look and an easy-to-use navigation to help you find that web host in a click. The web hosts are sorted by their type (shared web hosting, reseller hosting, etc.) which makes it easier for you to find the perfect host for your website. If you don’t know which type of web hosting suits you, don’t worry! HostingRef has brief but comprehensive articles regarding the hosting types at the bottom of each category page.

I almost forgot, HostingRef is one of the web hosting related sites that isn’t full of ads everywhere. I only saw one 468×60 banner that isn’t obtrusive. This means that the owner isn’t so hungry for money.

The Content

The directory contains quite a number of web hosts to choose from. Each web host that is listed has a short description which can help you ‘filter’ which hosts you are considering. The only bad things that I can see regarding HostingRef is that 1) there are no reviews for each host and 2) there are only a few web hosts available.

A review is very crucial; it can help you distinguish if a host is worth the money or not. Since HostingRef does not provide web hosting reviews, I don’t think that you’ll be able to choose wisely if you’re going to rely on HostingRef only. You may, however, visit a few links that can be found on HostingRef then search the web for reviews. But then, wouldn’t it be easier to just check a bigger web hosting review site?

The other problem with HostingRef is that there are only a few web hosts listed. Most of you know that there are thousands of web hosts, but I can only see three (3) hosts under the “Reseller Hosting” category! It surprised me, because usually, when I visit web hosting directories/web hosting review sites, there are at least twenty (20) reseller hosts. I’d suggest the owner of HostingRef to research more and add a whole lot of web hosts to his directory.

The Good and The Bad

The Good

• The directory has a really clean look, which doesn’t make the visitors’ eyes suffer.
• A very easy-to-use navigation is there to help you find a web host in a single click
• There are articles available for newbies to understand different terms in the web hosting world.

The Bad

• Only a few web hosts are listed.
• There are no reviews, and as we all know, reviews are very important when choosing a web host.

Conclusion

Well, HostingRef can be a good site if you’re in a hurry and don’t want pop-ups and ads to disturb you, and need to find that host in a minute. Other than that, I’d suggest you to check out web hosting sites with a bigger list of web hosts and a couple of good reviews.

Other posts that you might find interesting:

• Web Hosting Business: Not for Rookies!
• DownTownHost Review
• Guess What? It’s My Fault!