I chose mine after having considered all these factors AND after having contacted their customer service via Email & Phone to see how responsive they were going to be. The final consideration was what they were willing to do in the way of incentives and discounts. (NEVER assume the price quoted on their websites are etched in stone, I was able to save about 35% off of the listed prices for several server packages). As I knew in advance what I wanted to do both immediately and in the future see more for my site, I chose two separate dedicated servers, (one for the site itself and another to run strictly the Flash Media Server for my chat application) to give me the flexibility to expand as the site grew. My host also provides 17 worldwide caching servers to allow my members to connect to the closest server to them (for an additional cost of course), but worth it if the site reaches the point where it would be cost-effective to do so.

While my needs probably differ considerably from a lot of users, I spent more time looking into what I was going to need and what I should be aware of prior to installing the first file. I tested the software for 3 months prior to taking the site live to give me time to understand it and to tweak it to where I wanted it.

It's been 3 years since I first took a look at Dolphin and decided to download a free version and I've never looked back. (Yeah, I bought the ad-free license within a few days of installing it too!)