I'm a business, not a charity and the same goes for the webhosts. Are they going to give me business because I am small? Go with whoever can provide you with what you need. As far as budget hosts go, they are all the same except that small ones are likely to disappear with all your money.

I remember there were a few members here who owned hosts, one in particular was very vocal about caring about service and the customer and how how he was there for the long haul. His host was sold within a year of that and doesn't exist today (~2.5 years after the sale). Don't buy in to community members running the best hosts.

While I have nothing against small hosts, they are in general incapable of providing the service and reliability that larger hosts are. This doesnt mean that larger hosts will, most of the big names are horrid in the field of service. The host I'm with owns their own data center's so they are in control of what happens. Reseller hosts (the majority of those out there) are at the mercy of their reseller, often one of those large unreliable companies.