I host most of my sites using godaddy shared hosting. I have not had any issues, and I have seen no really big ranking differences between my shared and dedicated hosted sites. You can host a site for under $100 a year, google for coupon codes and you can find really good deals for godaddy products.
I don't have a clue how much I pay, I have some dedicated IPs and some other add-ons thrown into the mix that changes up the prices a bit.
I also use ixwebhosting for my start up sites... To be honest the quality can suck at times. I have had to put up with some stuff hosting with them, but they are very cheap. I have a large number of sites on there, they give you 20 dedicated IPs free and can host unlimited domains... But mainly I use them because that's who I started with before I knew any better lol.
Then I host a couple on UK servers, at 123reg, I don't recommend them either, had an issue with double charging my account a few times.
It really depends on what your looking for (budget vs performance), and what area of the world you intend to target? Hosting can go from $60 a year to thousands of dollars.