CompareWebHosts.com is an older web hosting review and comparison site with a reasonably clean interface and a satisfying amount of content, but is plagued by problems normally found only with newer operations. It forces its users to deal with antiquated controls, and sometimes, an intolerably slow connection.

The significance of a web hosting review site encountering problems with its hosting can not be understated. Users will question why a site with access to information about the best web hosts can't seem to pick a reliable host itself. If you plan to make use of CompareWebHosts.com, be prepared to relive, at least in spirit, the glory days of dial-up, as each page casually unfolds on the monitor. While it's difficult to say if this is a permanent issue or just a temporary quirk, after it's happened once, it's almost guaranteed to happen again.

Those who can handle the speed issues will find a site filled with vast stores of information, though categorized in the old-fashioned style, before Web 2.0 became such an important buzzword. The database is updated regularly to include the newest hosts alongside the most veteran, and is organized conveniently by all the expected fields: location; platform; cost; bandwidth; available hard drive space; and the various tools each host provides.

Searching this large bank of data is simple and leads to the correct results. It can be filtered in just about any way imaginable, and includes separate searches for shared and dedicated hosting, and a method for searching for servers near one on which a site is already hosted, to simplify sharing of one site's resources between two hosts.

A unique and interesting feature can be found on the "Request a Quote" page. Rather than the user doing all the legwork searching for a host, he or she provides the desired specifications and contact information, and then lets the hosts make the offers. The idea is to force companies to compete for a customer's business.

After all, with as much competition as there is, it's truly a buyer's market; it only makes sense to involve the companies themselves more directly in the search. Note that this feature will probably work better for larger and already-established websites, which will bring more business.

The design of the site is acceptable, doing what's necessary and no more, but it lags behind major competitors in terms of usability and overall appeal. An enormous wall of ads in the top half of the homepage also hurts its credibility somewhat.

The additional content, found in the form of blogs, reviews, articles, guides and so on, attempts to round off the site and push it to the next tier, yet most of it is of moderate quality at best. Better information can be found on other sites. CompareWebHosts.com should spend more time resolving its hosting issues and improving the old-fashioned interface, and less on creating what is essentially redundant content.


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