Methodology
HostVeritas builds hosting profiles from three separate layers of evidence: provider information, moderated customer reviews, and independently recorded monitoring data.
Most hosting directories rely heavily on one of these sources. Provider-submitted data can be selective. Customer reviews can be difficult to verify. Published uptime guarantees describe a contractual promise, not necessarily what users experience. HostVeritas brings these records together while showing where each piece of information came from and what it can, and cannot, prove.
This takes more work than publishing a list of hosting companies. It also creates a more useful record. Readers can see what a provider sells, how its pricing changes at renewal, what customers report, and what our own monitoring has measured over time.
Every Profile Begins with Structured Research
A HostVeritas profile begins as a structured research record. Our team collects information from the provider’s official website, including hosting services, server locations, support channels, payment methods, and advertised pricing ranges. We organize this information into consistent fields so readers can compare providers without working through dozens of differently formatted websites.
Hosting products and policies change frequently. A profile's record update date shows when its structured data was imported or changed; it is not proof that every source was rechecked on that date. Hosting companies can claim their profiles and submit corrections, but claimed profiles do not become unmoderated advertising pages. Changes to sensitive fields pass through admin review before publication.
Signup and Renewal Prices Are Kept Separate
Prices are approximate, shown in USD per month, and taken from our latest published record. Always confirm current pricing on the provider's website.
HostVeritas records signup and renewal ranges separately because the first price shown by a hosting company may apply only during an introductory term. Renewal pricing can be significantly higher, particularly when the original purchase requires a long billing commitment.
Separating these figures gives readers a more realistic view of hosting costs. The goal is not to reproduce every temporary promotion, but to show the difference between the price used to acquire a customer and the likely ongoing cost of keeping the service.
A Shortlist Shows Differences and Gaps
Comparisons include up to three providers in one hosting category. “Not recorded” means we do not have that fact; it does not mean the provider lacks the feature. We highlight known differences separately from missing information. Price ranges are shown only when recorded for the selected category, and they are not directly comparable plan quotes.
Source labels distinguish imported research, provider-submitted information accepted after admin review, and any separately verified record. Where a specific source page and observation date have been recorded, the comparison links to them. A profile claim confirms who maintains the listing; it does not verify every statement. HostScore's editorial take is attributed to HostScore and is never influenced by payment.
Commercial Placement Is Separated from Directory Order
The default HostVeritas directory order favors claimed and verified profiles, profile completeness, and review activity. Paying for a brand plan does not move a provider higher in this default order.
Providers may purchase a featured placement above the standard results. Every paid placement carries a visible “Featured” label so readers can distinguish commercial visibility from directory ranking. Featured status never changes a provider’s review score, trust badges, moderation treatment, recorded uptime results, or comparison order and highlighted facts.
Every Review Passes Through Human Moderation
HostVeritas does not automatically publish reviews. Every submission passes through human moderation so we can check for spam, duplicate submissions, conflicts with our guidelines, and suspicious review patterns.
Moderation does not mean removing criticism on behalf of a hosting company. Providers may respond publicly, explain what happened, or describe how an issue was resolved. They cannot edit or remove a customer’s review. Removal requires a moderation decision under our review guidelines.
This creates a public record rather than a one-sided rating. The original experience, the provider’s response, and any later reviewer update can remain visible together.
Uptime Is Measured Rather Than Copied from a Guarantee
Hosting companies commonly publish uptime guarantees, but a guarantee is a service commitment rather than an independent performance record. HostVeritas therefore runs its own availability checks for monitored providers.
Each uptime record covers one specific endpoint, either the provider’s homepage or a test site submitted by the provider. It does not represent every server, data centre, customer account, or service operated by that company. We make this distinction because no single test site can prove the availability of an entire hosting network.
HostVeritas sends a standard HTTPS request every 10 minutes from our monitoring location. A response with an HTTP status from 200 to 399 counts as successful. An incident opens after two consecutive failed checks and closes when the next check succeeds. Requiring two failures filters out most isolated errors without hiding sustained outages.
Availability is calculated by dividing successful checks by total checks across 30, 90, and 365-day windows. Uptime publishing forms part of the paid brand plan, but payment cannot change, remove, or improve the measurements. The published result is whatever our monitoring recorded.
One standard HTTPS request to every monitored endpoint, around the clock.
Enough to filter isolated errors, not enough to hide a sustained outage.
Below that a day reads “not enough data” instead of scoring a small sample as perfect.
A 30, 90, or 365-day figure is published only once monitoring has covered it.
The Uptime Chart Shows the Record Day by Day
Each monitored profile displays one cell for every day in the previous 30 days, with the oldest day on the left. Green means every recorded check succeeded. Amber means at least one check failed but daily availability remained at or above 99%. Red means availability fell below 99%.
HostVeritas uses UTC days. An outage near midnight may therefore appear under a different calendar date from the one shown in the reader’s local time zone.
A percentage is only useful when enough checks were completed. If fewer than 50% of the expected checks ran during a day, HostVeritas marks that day as “not enough data” instead of treating a small sample as a perfect result. Twenty successful checks, for example, are not enough to prove that a service remained available throughout an entire day.
Readers can hover over a chart cell to see its exact figures or open the table view for the complete 30-day record. The response-time line uses successful checks only. When a day contains no usable data, the line breaks instead of drawing across the missing period.
Long-Term Figures Require Long-Term Evidence
HostVeritas publishes a 30, 90, or 365-day availability figure only after monitoring has covered that full period. Until then, the profile shows how many days have actually been recorded. We do not place a short measurement under a longer label.
Recorded percentages are also never rounded up to 100%. If a failed check occurred within the reporting window, the displayed figure reflects it.
What HostVeritas Uptime Data Cannot Prove
HostVeritas uptime records are consistent measurements, not guarantees of total provider availability. A check runs every 10 minutes, so an outage that begins and ends between two checks may go unrecorded. Monitoring one endpoint also cannot reveal the condition of every server or customer account operated by a provider.
These limits apply equally to every monitored provider. The value of the record comes from using the same interval, success criteria, incident rules, and reporting thresholds over time. Readers can compare providers using a consistent external measurement without mistaking that measurement for a complete audit of their infrastructure.
The specific address monitored for each provider is not published.
A Record That Becomes More Useful over Time
A HostVeritas profile is not intended to be a static company listing. Provider data can be updated, customers can add new experiences, brands can respond publicly, and uptime records become more meaningful as the monitoring period grows.
No single source tells the complete story of a hosting company. Our methodology is designed to preserve the source, limits, and history behind each piece of information so readers can judge the evidence for themselves.