Cheap hosting can become expensive when a site goes down or gets hacked. These are the things we look at first.
SSD storage and enough resources
SSD storage makes sites noticeably faster. Check CPU and memory limits, not just disk space.
Free SSL
Every site should load over HTTPS. A free, auto-renewing certificate should be included.
Backups you can restore
Ask how often backups run, how long they are kept and how quickly a restore can be done.
A control panel and real support
cPanel makes email, databases and files easy to manage. And when something breaks, you want a human who answers.