Seeing as someone else bumped this thread, just want to put in my two cents on hosting companies -
For VPS servers in particular -
Host-stage - they offer great servers, reasonably priced and their knowledge is superior to probably anyone else I have worked with as well as their level of customer support (They are a member here as well btw).
OVH - OVH are another very good service, I think with them you get basic uptime monitoring and so on but other than that you really need to manage your own system so its more for the advanced user. Pricing is very good though.
Hetzner - These guys are the same as above, similar pricing but probably better for larger servers as they dont have much low end stuff.
servercomplete - Another very good provider but i think mostly they are for dedicated servers. pricing is also very competative though and support is good and fast.
Hosting in general -
1and1 - used these guys for years and whilst most people hate them they are ok in some ways - they are reliable in the sense that their services are what they are, they are always up, they never go wrong and they have rock solid backups. On the downside their CP is slow, they dont offer cpanel hosting and their support is also a bit teadious to deal with.
Host-stage - as above their hosting is also rock solid, fast and personally I feel really confident having my websites hosted on their systems because I know they are very skilled (Disclaimer - I do have an arrangement with host-stage so I am not a paying customer, but my thoughts on them are genuine regardless of that fact).
Hostgator - I really like these guys, again I know a lot of people dont like them because they are part of a massive group, but i have always found their systems to be very robust and the support is really good. downsides are that a) their servers (at least reseller services) are not THAT fast compared to other providers i have used. Also they dont offer any leway on anything - you have to do things their way and by the book and thats the end of it.
Nimbus hosting - These guys are in the UK so may not suit everyone but they are excellent, rock solid servers, very fast infrastrucutre and great knowledgable support - I beleive they possibly host BHW as well.
hostwinds - another very solid host.
Powerup hosting - great provider of hosting services, really good prices and very fast responsive support. also offer instant setup which is great.
Krystal hosting - another UK provider but very good, great support, great systems, great backup service with hosting plans and so on.
There are some bad hosting providers I have used in the past as well, but i wont bother mentioning those
