At HostSort, we don’t believe in “pay-to-play” rankings or arbitrary 5-star reviews. Our HostSort Score (1-100) is a strict, programmatic algorithm calculated in real-time based on the actual technical specifications of the hosting plans.
We feed the data into our scoring engine, and it grades each host across three weighted categories:
1. Hardware Power (40% of Total Score) We look at the actual engine under the hood. No matter what the marketing says, your site’s speed is dictated by these three metrics:
- RAM (up to 15 points): 4GB+ earns maximum points. Less than 2GB is heavily penalized.
- CPU Cores (up to 15 points): More processing power means handling more concurrent visitors. 4+ Cores gets maximum points.
- Storage Architecture (up to 10 points): NVMe drives are significantly faster than older SSDs, earning an immediate 10-point bump. Standard SSDs earn 5 points. HDDs earn 0.
2. True Value & Pricing (30% of Total Score) Hosting companies love to hide expensive renewals behind cheap introductory rates. We calculate the actual out-of-pocket cost for your first 12 months.
- Under $50 / Year: Maximum 30 points.
- $50 – $100 / Year: 20 points.
- $101 – $150 / Year: 10 points.
- Over $150 / Year: 5 points.
3. Quality of Life & Security (30% of Total Score) We grade hosts on whether they include the essential tools you need, or if they hold them ransom as paid add-ons.
- Backups (up to 15 points): If a host includes Daily automated backups, they get the full 15 points. Weekly backups earn 5 points. If backups are a paid add-on, they get 0.
- Professional Email (up to 15 points): If the host includes free
@yourdomain.comemail inboxes, they earn 15 points. If they force you to pay for Google Workspace or third-party email, they get 0.
The maximum possible algorithmic score is 100. Because this is hard-coded into our platform, no host can pay us to alter their score.