Moving to a new city is never as simple as packing up and buying a one-way ticket. If you want to move to the right place for you, then Teleport is one site you should bookmark right now.

It's a web service that recommends cities based on your lifestyle and helps you select the best place to live and work. And you can spare yourself the heavy research to find the right city for you and your family.

The best thing about Teleport is that it's global and not restricted to the U.S. alone. Right now the site covers 265 of the most creative locations in the world. Find the ideal location for your next move based on over 300 different metrics (e.g. cost of living, quality of education, tolerance towards minorities, environmental quality, cultural activities, job availability, labor regulations and economic growth).

If you already know where you want to go: This is the direct non-comparison route to find out about the city you plan to move to. Evaluate the city on standards like life quality scores, cost of living, job salary calculator, safety, education and more.

Use the city drop-down menu at the top to compare with the city you are in right now or any other location.

If you aren't sure where you want to go: Start exploring. Teleport gives you multiple tags to select and each selection will help fine tune the right location for you. For instance, you can select low living costs as one criterion and pair it against a location near a mountain. Throw in school quality as another preference.

In the next few steps, tell a bit about yourself. Along with the life quality aspects, give some background information on your financial situation, such as your area of work and monthly rent budget.

Teleport Cities churns your preferences and displays list of cities with a breakdown of your match score (qualitative features of a city), and budget differences (the hard numbers) compared to your current city. You can always tweak the data points and arrive at other results to explore.

Once you have settled on a specific city, Teleport walks you through every quality of life aspect in that city that you could possibly imagine. Pay special attention to Local Reviews. There is also a small community section where you "Ask a Local".

Is Moving to A New City Painful or Pleasant?

As someone who has moved around a lot, I can attest that it is a lot of both. The pain comes before the pleasure. The decision to move is the first big step. A site like Teleport with its 300+ comparison points helps you make an informed one.

Share your own experience of making a move. Which is the one critical factor you use to evaluate a new location?