HostGator Review
HostGator was founded in 2002 in Houston, Texas. Since then, the company has expanded internationally, with more than 12,000 servers and roughly 200 employees who provide localized support to local customers. HostGator reports that they currently offer web hosting to over two million websites across the globe.
Overview & Verdict
Built on its reliability and friendly customer service, HostGator is among the market’s top web hosting service providers.
Among its services, HostGator provides plenty in the form of shared hosting, WordPress hosting and dedicated servers to match any business requirement.
Pros
- Affordable hosting
- Above-average site speed, especially for their managed WordPress plans
- Up-to-date infrastructure
Cons
- Many features are paid.
- Enterprise-grade CDN access not included in affordable plans
- Can be integrated with Cloudflare CDN plans, but they’re not included
- WordPress Plans don’t include staging sites
Quick Info
Reseller options | Yes |
VPS hosting | Yes |
One-click installs | Yes |
Select Services & Pricing
Shared hosting | $2.75 – $5.25 /mo |
Website builder | $3.84 – $9.22 /mo |
WordPress hosting | $5.95 – $9.95 /mo |
VPS hosting | $23.95 – $59.95 /mo |
Performance
4.3/5
HostGator’s performance is quite good, and the offered uptime is adequate. The server response times and the loading speeds were very good, indicating that HostGator belongs indeed among the best web hosting providers.
The speed and overall server performance are well suited for small to medium-sized businesses and website projects, but you have to invest in a good CDN to have worldwide traffic without any hiccups.
Scoring
We’ve covered all the popular issues and made very easy to follow instructions so you can get started easily and make all the right choices!
Uptime
4/5
HostGator offers 99.9% uptime and reliable speeds. Its servers are powered by state-of-the-art technology, ensuring your website is always up and running.
While this number is already enough, some midsize businesses might seek a hosting provider with a claimed percentage of 99.99% instead.
Support Quality
4/5
Paired with 24/7 customer support, it’s a good combination for new website builders, albeit you might need it in the future regarding renewals due to their antagonistic upselling policy.
Customer support is available via phone, live chat, Twitter, and HostGator also has an extensive knowledge base and a blog, with the latter being dormant for quite some time now.
Live Chat | 0m 38s |
Phone | 0m 25s |
27m |
Ease of Use
4.6/5
HostGator’s intuitive cPanel is suitable for beginners. However, some essential features are sold as extras and not included in your base plan could translate into a minimal experience. This is especially true if this is your first time managing a website. The back end isn’t going to swamp you with options, and you get used to it very quickly.
But overall, HostGator is a solid option for a newbie who wants to start their own website because of the added website builder. The website builder hosting plan is an easy way to set up and publish your site online.
Costs
4.1/5
The shared hosting plans start at $2.75 per month and can reach up to $5.25, making HostGator a generally good starting choice.
HostGator also offers all shared hosting plans a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can be sure that your website is in good hands. That’s enough time to determine if their hosting performance is on par with your standards.
Another important thing to look for is their added services. With a hosting plan, you get access to a free SSL certificate, easy WordPress installation and a free domain name for one year. Other than that, there are a few additional services that come at an extra cost, and they may increase your subscription cost significantly.
For example, HostGator’s backup service costs $2.75 per month for its basic plan, offering 1GB of storage. This is the same price as the most affordable shared hosting plans offered by the host.
Overall
4.2/5
HostGator is a well-known web hosting provider that is reliable and offers great customer service and plenty of hosting plans ranging from simple shared hosting to VPS, dedicated and reseller hosting too. Its services also come at very competitive prices, although additional services might be required and may increase your subscription fee.
Apart from that, it offers free website transfer if you already have a site with another company. It also comes with one-click installs of popular apps and a free domain name for one whole year.
HostGator’s Managed WordPress includes some of the key features of plans in this category. For instance, it comes with daily backups and more server resources than shared plans. But it still doesn’t include some key perks that other hosting companies offer.
The company hosts websites of various types, sizes, and traffic volumes. But, considering the pros and cons we mentioned in this post, HostGator may be better suited for small-to-midsize websites.
Ready to rock with HostGator?
The scalability present on HostGator’s hosting solutions is simply great, and it’s ideal for individuals or businesses. And all that for a good introductory price.
Starting from $2.75/mo
Help Us Help You
Making these in-depth reviews isn’t easy and we’d love to hear your feedback – if we did a good job, what you find informative, what was missing, what could be better – we’re very interested in your experience, please share!