How to check credibility:

First we check how long they have run the business..we do a whois (http://www.allwhois.com) on their domain name. Then look for the creation date of the domain name. If the domain name was created less then a year ago, it's more of a risk to join that hosting company. They could be a great host, but considering more than 95% of new hosts go out of business within a year. We check their IP Address (http://www.selfseo.com/find_ip_address_of_a_website.php) and what country the IP assigned.

Second we check from independent free forums at google... we use keyword: 'domain_name bad + forum' to search free forums. No hosting company will have only happy customers. So don't worry if you find an occasional negative review or opinion. Look at how the situation is handled by the host, usually at the host replies. Also keep in mind that unhappy customers are much more likely to complain than happy customers are to praise.

Third we check from forum of their own... some good hosting companies have a forum of their own (often called a support forum). They use this to allow customers to interact to each other, and also as an alternative means to provide support. Great is the fact that you can see what/if problems occur often and how problems are dealt with. The ultimate benefit is that you can contact their customers and find out what they think about the service: are they satisfied, did they notice certain problems that never get solved etc.

Fourth we check their datacenter and network... it's too easy to become a hosting company. All someone has to do is join a reseller plan and they are now a host. It's important to check what they claimed about their datacenter and network.

Fifth we check awards they've got.

Click each company to see evaluation process: