I want to have a new shared hosting plan for my blogs with features as it must have cPanel, good uptime, malware protection, support 24x7, ssd, fast loading...etc but there are so many offers here making me confused in choosing one as the best. How to choose a good shared hosting that you have ever not use them before? what should check, avoid and somethings to test making sure they will be a good provider to go with. Any recommendations, thoughts or advice to choose a share hosting plan. All your comments are welcome.
This is really an excellent question.
In the era of marketing, where every brand is shouting one and the same thing, what would make you buy a certain service from any provider. This just takes the cake.
Here is what I feel and its my two cents on this since I come from the web hosting industry, having worked here for long.
Firstly, understand your requirements. What do you as a blogger want for your blogs? More content? More videos? What is it? So, how much storage do you think you will need if you are doing this for a schedule or, consistent period of time.
Are your visitors going to be from your own country or other countries too? What's your actual market?
These questions will narrow down your search with respect to the storage required, bandwidth, budget, domains etc. and help you arrive at a plan or requirement of a plan.
Once you have it mapped, just see which provider has done well. Like you suggested check out their sites, that are hosted on some kind of a tool as you talk about and get an idea that 'okay this could be a good plan for me'.
I did follow this process and also got hosting of different providers tested via tools etc. to see which provider gives the best uptime, but honestly, these tools will only give you half the story.
So, I got a review and feedback from a colleague who was using HostGator India's VPS servers with similar requirements as mine. In a few days time, I hosted the blog and realized that I made the best decision ever. So, going forth, I feel find as much information as you can and find your own process and hosting that suits you.