a) Communication: they actually speak English, you aren't forwarded to some call center in India

b) Response: If you call someone, will pick up within 3 rings. If you email you'll get the first response after 5 minutes. They really are around 24/7. I once needed something done at 3:30 am, I got a reply to my email in less than 10 minutes.

c) Its all managed, you really don't need to know anything about servers. Need a library installed? Just drop them a line, Can't figure out how to setup your server? Drop them a line. And there are no support ticket fees or any other crap like that, that other managed hosts charge.

I mean honestly, if Rackspace is any better, there better be some sex involved while I wait for them to fix the server. And with the higher prices Rackspace has, that better be the case.

Note: You should really only be using them with dedicated servers, their shared/virtual is a little bit pricey

And to those that complain about prices, think to yourself, would you rather get a problem resolved in 20 minutes, or 20 hours.

For smaller-scale sites, Media Layer (medialayer.com) gets nothing but rave reviews on the webostingtalk.com forums, though I don't have any first-hand experience with them. I've used EngineHosting (enginehosting.com) for a couple ExpressionEngine based sites for clients, and they're great, too.

I've used DreamHost, but their crap up-time and extra crap support drove me out. I still use them for domain registration, but that's about the same anywhere, and transferring registrars is a little bit of a pain. If you just want an easy plug-and-play test server or a personal blog, they're cheap and not completely terrible.

If you honestly want to be "green" you can make changes to your personal behaviour (such as using CFLs, recycled packaging etc.) and not rely on some company to hold your hand and make you feel like you're making a difference for a little extra cash.

I personally tend to lose respect for companies that try to upsell their "green" options, much in the same way I am dubious of extended warranties.

I also hope you realise that even if they were to offer a "green" option it probably wouldn't mean they're going to stick a windmill on top of their colo, they'd just use your extra cash to offset the environmental cost of the electricity you used, much in the same way you can.

Don't get me wrong, I a happy Slichost customer and have made efforts to recycle and use public transport for the environment's sake since I was a child, but this recent rash of "green" buzzwording really ires me as it seems to be used in a most insincere and vapid manner, instead of people actually taking a rational, pragmatic approach to environmental efficiency.

But surely hosting is by definition an area where you need a company to do it for you? Things like what you eat, how you travel, etc, you can control yourself, but the whole point of shared hosting is that you don't own or even see the server.

One of the main things about purposefully choosing "green" companies, often at increased cost, is that you are influencing the market based on your preference. Choosing environmentally friendly products encourages companies to offer them (I also appreciate that this is why many abuse the term).

Furthermore, if you wish to brand your site or company as "green" you should probably do a little more than choose a "green" VPS provider lest you further obviate the term.

I never said I wanted something gimmicky, I never said I wasn't personally environmentally conscious. I like to do everything I can in all aspects of my life to try and leave as small of a footprint as I can. I have never owned a car, I became a vegetarian for its environmental (not animal rights bullshit) reasons (10 pounds of grain or a pound of beef?), and leave the furnace off for a good part of the winters even though I am Canadian.

I'm not wanting some company to hold my hand and make mne feel like I'm making a difference, because I know I am. I'm saying I want a company that cares as much as I do. I want one that does power its servers off of 100% renewable resources. and not to say to my customers "LOOK! I CARE!".

I understand the best I'm going to get it someone purchasing offset credits, but that's better than nothing. So please sir do not judge me before you know me, do not make assumptions about what I am doing. I don't want a buzzword, I want solutions.

In all seriousness, that's retarded.

There are places that are trying to offer green options, that aren't that slimy -- I have met the follow that runs http://burlyhouse.net/, and his operation is nice. His prices are high, but I think most of his customers are people who also hire BurlyHouse for programming or other services.

Automatically purchases renewable energy to offset CO2 emissions due to your clients, network, and servers, independently of your hosting provider, so you can use it with Slicehost.

Just started with them too. Steep learning curve getting everything done myself (other hosts really pamper their customers!) but dang are the servers fast.

And besides, every true web hacker needs to know how to set up a server from scratch!

For me great service is a must. Unlimited possibilities is why I moved to slicehost.

For lower budget, I love Slicehost.

I either want full control, or someone I trust in control.

In multiple cases of downtime, the only response from Softlayer was "not really sure what happened." With Rackspace, I can sleep at night - and the extra $150 a month per server is well worth it to us. Peace of mind is invaluable, and expertise is irreplaceable.

I also recommend Slicehost highly.

One of my friends from US told me that slicehost is good and i see a lot of fan comments above.

I have also been using Google AppEngine since a week. Its blazing fast. But they currently have only free accounts and have mentioned on their blog that they will start a paid cloud hosting service soon for those who reach their free hosting limits. Yahoo! too have announced that they will soon offer cloud hosting. So if u you wait for a couple months you might get to choose between EC2 and Google and Yahoo and slicehost and others. Because if you are using php, i have a wild guess that Yahoo's hosting will be php inclined(most of their services are php-inclined). If u are comfortable with python, go for Google AppEngine.

Also a word of CAUTION: if you are going to choose shared hosting packages, then always read terms of service agreement and whatever agreements they have. I once used a one month trial coupon with Hostgator and stumbled upon their T.O.S. It was clearly mentioned that they allow only '50000 inodes' on shared hosting accounts, which in simpler words translates that you can have a max of 50000 files. So if you are going to host something like a social networking site, beware! Your users might get to the max files limit if u are going to have a feature like photo uploading.

Pros: super low latency connections, ssh access, decent setup, no frills, $10/month.

Cons: they don't keep their installations in the bleeding edge version-wise. I use Perl a lot. They are at 5.8.0, which is not bad, but not the very latest. Of course you can install your own anything (perl, python, ruby, etc.) in user space, which makes library management more simple too.

Unknowns: I've never had it tested under a serious load. Just playing around.

I WISH there was a host that gave me the speed, simplicity and low price of HE but also supported more than one domain name on the same account (for the same price). There are sites that do that, but typically they have something else wrong with them, such as having the "feature" of being control-panel based.

I recommend all 3, just depends on what you need.

For example...

Otherwise for me it's a tie between slicehost, dreamhost (because i had a free promo code..) and asmallorange (i have a lifetime account). All of them meet different needs of mine, sooo.

I used to run a lot of mailman lists and have discovered the hardest thing to do is to get a set of "clean" IP addresses. Serverpronto was tough, they were blocked a lot. Interland was ok. My Verizon address block (I get 5 static IPs) is not on any RBLs but they sit in the middle of what are generally dynamic IPs so some big sites (esa.int, notably) reject email from my system.

1U Dedicated server (BYOS) for $50/mo.

I joined up recently, and they're fantastic. Handle spike traffic well too :)

Last time they had a problem was a few years ago (server hardware failure) and they bothered to give updates frequently and rapidly opened up new temporary hosts for customers who had backups to restore from. Pretty good service for a 'no support' plan.

Had no problems with them so far.

I always get complimented on how fast my site loads and performs on it and have never had any problems that haven't been taken care of rather quickly.

And of course additionally we also use EC2 and other AWS services.

They are carbon free and have provided great service since 2000. They use 100% solar power and have bio-diesel backup generators. Have used them for 4 months and have had a great experience.

He runs his own sites and needs a lot of server power, but also leases out to his contacts (me) and the people they refer.

VPS? Slicehost

Dedicated server(s)? Softlayer

never had a problem.

Yes it's an affiliate link but they are truly amazing. Prices are great and come with full support and management. Highly recommended. Have never had an easier experience.