Finding the right web hosting company is no easy task given the amount of factors involved. You need to take into account things like storage storage capacity, bandwidth, features, support and affordability before you ever make a decision. And how do you make the right one? Hundreds of web hosting companies claim to be the best bargain in town, touting their features and competing for you business night and day. Fortunately, there are some that outshine all the rest — providing a central location for all your data, photos, apps and other content online.

Here’s is our guide to the best web hosting companies so you can get the most bang for your buck without the headache. Be sure to check out our picks for the best free web hosting sites while you’re at it.

With more than 8,000,000 registered domains, HostGator continues to be one of the flagship web hosting companies on the Internet. The company offers three separate packages (the Hatchling Plan, the Baby Plan, and the Business Plan), all at moderately affordable prices. The Hatchling Plan ($3.96 a month) is the smallest and most basic of the three packages, but still offers unlimited bandwidth and disk space.

The two larger plans ($6.36 and $10.36 a month respectively) allow for multiple domains as well as your own toll-free number. All the packages come bundled with 24-hour technical support, an assortment of email features and even a $100 Google Adwords credit to kickstart your marketing campaign. Per usual, you will receive a bigger discount the longer you sign up for.

Web Hosting Hub offers comparable pricing, but falls a little short of its competitors in the features department. The standard package ($4.95 a month) will work fine for most small-to-medium sized websites, but you may want to look elsewhere s if you’re looking for greater customization and extras such as anonymous FTP access.

That being said, the features and tools Hub does offer are solid, straightforward and easy to use. Unlimited bandwidth, disk space, websites, free domain registration and a $150 Google Adwords Credit are enticing enough to give the company a whirl. Plus, Hub offers a 90-day money back guarantee if you are dissatisfied with the service and want your money back for whatever reason.

Bluehost is another cheap, yet noteworthy, choice for a great web hosting company. Plans start at $3.95 a month and include everything from unlimited bandwidth and disk space to various e-commerce features and free domain registration. Although the company built its web hosting system with the cPanel control panel (an industry standard), there is enough 24-hour technical support to get even a novice up to speed in no time.

One of the best features Bluehost offers is the exhaustive customization and intuitive control panel design. There are more than 70 one-click, installation scripts for application such as WordPress and Drupal so you can tailor and build your website to your liking. The professional version runs an upwards of $20, but the standard customization and design options will suffice for the average user.

Name and bovine jokes aside, FatCow is one of the best web hosting companies for both novice and professional webmasters alike. The Original FatCow Plan starts as low as $3.15 a month and includes unlimited bandwidth, disk space, domains, and email accounts as well as free Google and Yahoo! advertising credits. The company also offers a 30-day money back guarantee, an extensive website builder and quick technical support for people looking to get their website up and running with little or no hassle.

FatCow’s facilities are even solely powered by wind energy for all you environmentally conscience folk out there.

InMotion offers one of the widest selections of packages on the market, but the plans are a bit on the pricey side when compared to similar equipped plans offered by web hosting companies such as FatCow and HostGator. The six packages, suitable for small businesses and individuals, vary drastically in their capacities and price points. The three business packages include unlimited disk space and bandwidth, one-click install options for more than 180 applications, and a website builder. Drawbacks include limited domains and a somewhat slow technical support network.

There are countless other web hosting alternatives besides the previous five we mentioned. All differ in pricing and features, but they are worth checking out if our top choices don’t offer what you’re looking for.

What do you think of our picks for the best web hosting companies?  What web hosting company do you use to get the job done? Let us know in the comments below.