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From my own experience the best web hosting provider is BlueHost. I host my 4 big sites with them and all works fine for me. Moreover you get a free lifetime domain with a hosting package and they support all common hosting features like PHP, MySQL databases, FTP, CGI, Ruby, etc.
When it comes to choosing a web hosting provider, the decision is not always an easy task. You should consider all what your website will need, how many visitors are you going to have, will it be a simple website or just a Wordpress blog? Are you going to host some large images, videos or other files on your web site? In such case you will need more space and bandwidth.
If you are going to run your website on a certain application, you will probably need a database - either MySQL or others. Also make sure the hosting plan has everything what your web page’s software needs to run - e.g. PHP, Fantastico, ASP, Perl, Ruby, CGI, eCommerce, etc.
Then to manage your hosting account, I prefer web hosts that have a CPanel, and FTP access is a must for me as well.
Also check out if a free domain name is included. Nowadays almost every web hosting provider offers a free domain together with a host plan. And check how many addon domains and subdomains can you add to your account if you want to host more than just one web site.
The last thing, and maybe the most important thing to consider when picking your new web site host, is the support quality. Especially if you are not familiar with all the hosting stuff, you had better choose a web host with reliable support. A good example of such web host is BlueHost - they have been awarded the 2008 Best Support Award.
Good luck on choosing your new web hosting provider and may you be happy with their service!
Here is a list of some more cheap web hosting providers worth checking out:
