Everyone offers plain ol’ FTP for content transfer, but the really good hosting systems offer one or more of the following:
* SSH (full shell access)
* SFTP (implied by SSH, but may be offered in a limited form by some hosts)
* FTPS (standard FTP protocol over TLS/SSL)
It would be nice to know if a provider offers one or more of these encrypted file transfer formats. SSH itself is a nice data point; if offered, that means there are more tools at the user’s disposal to help maintain the site.