What makes you change one mining pool for another?

[hashradar]

I'm trying to compare different mining pools because nowadays everything is quite similar. I can't really find any major differences between mining pools, but I want to. 

It seems that miners don't always move to the pool that appears to offer the best returns.

There are obvious reasons to stay with a pool:
- trust built over many years;
- reputation;
- reliable payouts;
- a large community;
- good support.

But even when two pools seem equally stable, it's common to see many miners choosing the one with slightly lower effective profitability.

That made me wonder whether profitability is actually much lower on the priority list than people think.

So I'm curious:
What usually makes you switch pools?

Is it:
- higher earnings?
- lower fees?
- better support?
- a better dashboard?
- payout system?
- fewer stale shares?
- transparency?
- something else entirely?

If you had to rank the three most important factors when choosing a mining pool, what would they be? 

[FP91G]

Most large Bitcoin mining pools have been around for a long time and have earned their trust and reputation.

The main criterion is a good ping, because even if the pool is the best, you'll lose shares due to a poor connection and receive less profit. If you have a high-quality internet connection, then you will look at other parameters.

[FP91G]

Hi! Honestly, if the ping and the reward method are virtually the same across several pools, you won't notice any difference. That’s exactly why pools are now focusing on developing additional products to help boost mining revenue. At our pool, EMCD, we’ve introduced a savings account feature; you can set up automatic deposits from your mining earnings and earn up to 14% APY. We’ve been around for over nine years, and if you're interested, we can discuss a custom fee rate for you on our pool.You can email me at my work address.

Rebooting an ASIC and reaching full hashing power takes 10-20 minutes on a new pool. If you think miners are eager to experiment just to make a few extra dollars, you're wrong.

[hashradar]

Hi! Honestly, if the ping and the reward method are virtually the same across several pools, you won't notice any difference. That’s exactly why pools are now focusing on developing additional products to help boost mining revenue. At our pool, EMCD, we’ve introduced a savings account feature; you can set up automatic deposits from your mining earnings and earn up to 14% APY. We’ve been around for over nine years, and if you're interested, we can discuss a custom fee rate for you on our pool.You can email me at my work address.

Rebooting an ASIC and reaching full hashing power takes 10-20 minutes on a new pool. If you think miners are eager to experiment just to make a few extra dollars, you're wrong.

I agree that 10–20 minutes of downtime is a real cost, especially when you're managing a single ASIC.
But I think it depends on how persistent the difference in profitability is. If the new pool consistently earns even a couple of dollars more per day, the initial 10–20 minute loss becomes pretty small over the long run.
So I wouldn't switch for a random $2 difference on one day, but a consistent difference over weeks or months might be a different story.

[philipma1957]

Consistent payouts. I do viabtc pps+.

No luck involved. Consistent well known payouts.

Variance does not matter.