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Yes. The biggest problem they face is credibility - often consumers don't trust them, and the ratings/comparisons are not "like for like".
The problem is that insurance products are fairly simple and easy to compare; although there are differences in product details, these do not form the majority of the product. The additional differentiating factors such as quality of the support/service in the event of a problem/claim are often ignored by comparison sites, and the consumers purchasing from them.
In terms of hosting, there's a vast array of options available depending on the service that a particular customer requires. There are so many different products which may all be suitable for one specific case, yet characteristically different (a good example is trying to decide between a shared hosting plan, VPS, semi-dedicated, or dedicated); each may be acceptable at the moment, but price is not necessarily the primary factor for the site owner to consider - there is also scalability, reliability, functionality etc.
Beyond all of that, there are also differences in the level of technical support (can be a major component for a hosting service, but yet you may never speak to your insurance company at all!).
Overall it's very difficult to clearly summarise the differences between products and providers to help a consumer decide which product to select. This same issue is something which providers struggle with just within their own product range (e.g. in their marketing materials), but at least they have an intimate knowledge of their products, and only need to consider their own (on the whole). For a comparison site the problem is 1000 times greater because you need to match everything up.
So it's not really that it can't work, but more that there's a difficult challenge in presenting all of the information in an appropriate manner. Then after clearing that obstacle, you then need to find a way to ensure that the service is credible, and has appropriate mechanisms in place to prevent abuse by hosting companies and/or (unfairly) irate customers.
On the whole, forums seem to naturally handle this, and also provide information which you can easily judge the relevance of (e.g. you can tell the difference between old and new posts: may not be the case with ratings on a comparison site) - that's why I think they're a more popular choice.
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. It's actually maintained by a very active and respectable member of this forum.
