Since its founding in 2002, HostGator has grown to become one of the most successful and widely used hosting businesses in the world.
The fact that they have such a large client base is sufficient indication that they are succeeding in some aspect of their business. They provide a comprehensive selection of web hosting services that are appropriate for users of all types and sizes.
However, can your website really benefit from using HostGator as its host?
We’re going to help you decide.
In this review of HostGator, we will take a more in-depth look at the services they have to offer, present an overview of their performance data, discuss their price, and determine whether or not they are capable of providing the high-quality website hosting service that you need.
Ready? Let’s start
About HostGator
Brent Oxley established HostGator in 2002 as a company that offers web hosting services. The company is situated in Houston. Shared hosting, cloud hosting, VPS hosting, reseller hosting, dedicated web hosting, and HostGator even comes with a site builder are just some of the hosting options offered by HostGator.
Today, the corporate headquarters of HostGator are located in the state of Texas, and the company has more than a thousand workers who collectively contribute to the hosting of over 2.5 million websites throughout the world.
Endurance International Group (EIG), which also controls several other hosting industry heavyweights such as Bluehost, Hostmonster, Site5, and many more, purchased HostGator in 2012. The transaction took place in 2012.
The majority of its servers are housed in the cities of Houston, Texas, and Provo, Utah. In addition, you have the option to activate CloudFlare, which will send your content to an extra 23 data centres located all over the globe.
Every HostGator plan is loaded with a wide variety of practical features. Let’s take a more in-depth look, shall we?
HostGator Features Overview
Every HostGator plan is packed with many useful features. Let’s take a closer look.
Storage and Bandwidth
Every hosting plan offered by HostGator comes with unmetered bandwidth and storage space.
What exactly does it signify?
So, what this essentially implies is that you have unrestricted access to both the bandwidth and the storage space. Having said that, it must be within the scope of what the hosting business is able to get. It would be beneficial for you to have a look at the use policy for HostGator so that you would have knowledge about the restrictions.
Security
HostGator gives a free SSL certificate, which safeguards the domains of your websites and encrypts the interactions that take place between the server and those who are seeing your websites.
In addition to that, they provide a few more security options, such as the possibility to add SiteLock monitoring to your website. This service will operate on a daily basis, monitoring your website for any possible security holes or hackers, and will immediately notify you if they discover anything. The only drawback is that you will need to pay an additional $5.99 per month to make use of SiteLock.
In addition, as part of their email services, they provide a programme called Spam Assassin, which works to stop spam from entering your inbox in the first place.
Site Migration
HostGator has your back if this isn’t the first website you’ve ever created and you’re attempting to transfer an existing website to their platform.
You will have a period of thirty days following the sign-up process to get in contact with them and request that they assist you with moving any site files, databases, scripts, or even a domain name over to the new platform.
This includes transferring your whole cPanel account. You won’t run into any problems even if you have several site installations (such as subdomains for a single huge site).
A single site migration (or cPanel migration, if you prefer) is available in all of HostGator’s shared hosting plans at no additional cost. Different plans, such as those sold by resellers, will have access to a greater number of (up to 30).
When compared to other hosting, the transfer of a single free website is not very extensive. However, this is still an improvement than doing nothing.
Money-Back Guarantee
Because HostGator is so confident in the quality of their service, they have increased the standard 30-day refund guarantee for its customers to 45 days, an increase of about two weeks.
This implies that you may use them for more than a full month before having to worry about getting your money back if there are any problems.
All shared, reseller, and virtual private server hosting packages are covered by this 45-day money-back guarantee.
The one and only catch is that this offer does not apply to HostGator’s dedicated servers, administrative fees, or install costs for specialised software. Following a comprehensive review of a large number of Terms of Service contracts, we came to the conclusion that the hosting sector generally adheres to these stipulations.
Therefore, if your plan includes a free domain name, for instance, they will subtract the regular charge of $15.00 for the domain from the total money that is being refunded to you.
There are a few other considerations to take into account. According to the terms and conditions of HostGator, they have up to ninety days to actually provide a refund. In addition, there will be no reimbursements made for payments made through cheque, money order, Western Union, or wire transfer from a bank.
It is only possible to get refunds for brand new plans or accounts. Therefore, you will not get anything in return if you have already signed up for one and are now cancelling a renewal or a second try.
The processing of reimbursements in foreign currency is done according to the current exchange rates for the United States Dollar, which brings us to our last point.
Ease of Use
HostGator is an excellent option for webmasters or bloggers just starting out.
Their website is loaded with guides, tutorials, and other resources that will assist you in navigating the complicated world of DNS and data centres.
They also provide additional capabilities for novices who are interested in establishing a website but do not want to go to the trouble of paying other people to design, create, and maintain everything.
Their website building tool, which they call Gator by HostGator, is one of the more impressive ones that we have used. Because it already includes free hosting and a domain name, you will only need to buy a single account to cover all of the essentials for your website.
The customisable templates all have a fairly contemporary style to start, and you can quickly change the way they seem by dragging and dropping the various elements that make up its design. You will also get site statistics and a free SSL certificate to aid in the protection of the personal information of your visitors (like their physical location).
cPanel is used as the control panel for HostGator’s website. Since cPanel is one of the most widely used control panels in the hosting market, if you have any prior expertise with web hosting, you should have no trouble becoming used to using it.
Nevertheless, even if you are just starting out, you won’t have any trouble navigating it, and the learning curve isn’t very high.
Customer Support
A knowledge base, phone, email, and live chat assistance are all offered by HostGator, just like they are by other well-known service providers like as SiteGround and Dreamhost.
The live chat feature was evaluated by our team.
Within a minute and a half, after asking a basic query regarding their shared hosting services, we were connected to a customer service representative. The responses came back quite quickly and were really informative.
Overall it was a good customer support experience.
HostGator Performance Stats
In our assessment of HostGator, you don’t just have to take our subjective comments at face value; we also have cold, hard facts to indicate how they perform.
Uptime
In the last six months, HostGator has maintained an uptime average of 99.85% with more than six hours of downtime, which is a performance that is lower than the benchmark for the industry.
One more advantageous feature is that they have an uptime guarantee, which states that if their availability falls below 99.90%, you are eligible to get a month of free service credited to your account.
This warranty does not take into account any hacks that are hard to anticipate or scheduled maintenance that may be performed. You will, however, be responsible for reaching out to them and requesting the credit within the allotted time frame by filing a support ticket to their billing department.
Recently, we have begun to observe that a significant number of additional servers are popping up with uptime guarantees. As a consequence, this implies that all customers are winners. When competitors step up to the plate and accomplish something like this, it helps raise the standard for the whole industry. It puts pressure on everyone else in the market to either match their promise or enhance the usual quality of service, or else run the danger of falling behind.
Page Load Speed
Over the last six months, the servers we use from HostGator have had no problems keeping our website up and functional.
Nevertheless, what about the speed of their server?
The average amount of time it took for a page to load on HostGator was 688 milliseconds.
In addition, HostGator has continually worked to optimise the amount of time pages take to load. When I first started using our website, it would take well over a second to load completely.
Why is it so vital to have a quick loading time for the page?
It has been shown that a slow website loading time has a direct influence on the experience of your visitors. And it has a knock-on impact on your bottom line as well as other aspects of your business.
There are a few things you can do to improve the performance of your site without having to transfer hosting providers. However, if your host is continually sluggish, it indicates that you will always be waging a war that you cannot win.
HostGator Pricing and Plans
HostGator has three shared hosting plan options to choose from:
Let’s begin with the most affordable option for the Hatchling plan offered by HostGator.
The prices for the hatchling plan begin at $2.75 per month. However, you will only be eligible for this pricing if you commit to working with them for a period of three years. The pricing will automatically renew at $6.95 per month after the first sign-up term.
You also have the option of selecting a yearly plan for the price of $3.95 per month, which renews to $8.95 per month, in the event that you do not choose to make such a long-term commitment. You also have the option of selecting a plan that lasts either one month or six months, in which case the cost of the plan will be $10.95 each month (same renewal price).
With HostGator’s Hatchling Plan, you get:
- One website
- Unlimited storage and bandwidth
- Free SSL certificate
- Free domain for a year
Here’s an example of HostGator’s billing for Hatchling Plan:
All of the other shared hosting plans, in addition to their other features, provide an unlimited number of websites as well as storage space. You are provided with an infinite number of add-on domains beginning with the Baby Plan. You receive a dedicated IP, free SEO tools, and a free upgrade to the Positive SSL certificate when you sign up for the Business Plan.
There are also several other kinds of plans, such as the following:
WordPress hosting starts at $5.95 per month
Dedicated hosting starts at $89.98 per month
Virtual private server (VPS) hosting starts at $23.95 per month
Reseller hosting starts at $19.95 per month
HostGator Pros and Cons
While doing our research of HostGator, we came across the following advantages and disadvantages. Be sure that you are not bothered by any of the drawbacks associated with working with them before you go ahead and make the commitment to join their service.
Our Verdict
Although we suggest HostGator, there are other, maybe superior hosts available to choose from.
The shared hosting solution provided by HostGator does come with a good number of advantages. They have made improvements to their uptime, the speed has been consistent, and the customer service is satisfactory. Additionally, the abundance of settings that are suitable for novices makes it simple to use.
However, due to the further price increases, it is now outside of our price range and hence cannot get our full endorsement.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What HostGator plan should I get?
We suggest that you sign up for their “Hatchling” plan, which is their most affordable option, if you are just getting started. You have the option to upgrade to a higher-tier plan in the event that you will have a greater number of visitors.
If your website currently has more than 50,000 visitors per month, you might consider switching to hosting on a virtual private server.
Is HostGator reliable?
HostGator demonstrates to have a speed that is reliable. In addition, we promise that they will be online 99.9% of the time. They are also one of the oldest and most well-known hosting companies in the market, which should give you the confidence to give them a go. In addition, they provide a wide variety of helpful services.
Is HostGator a good hosting provider for WordPress?
You got it right! The fact that all of their shared hosting plans include a WordPress installation that can be activated with a single click makes it incredibly simple for anybody to get started with WordPress.
You might also opt with one of the Managed WordPress hosting plans that HostGator offers. In this approach, WordPress will already be installed on your hosting account before you even log in.
Where are HostGator’s data centers located?
The majority of its servers are housed in the cities of Houston, Texas, and Provo, Utah. In addition, you have the option to activate CloudFlare, which will send your content to an extra 23 data centres located all over the globe.
Can I try HostGator for free?
Most of their servers are located in Provo, Utah, and Houston, Texas. You can also optionally activate CloudFlare which would route your content through an additional 23 data centers worldwide.
