Hostgator review: Hostgator is among the low-cost full-service hosting providers. Along with low-budget services, Hostgator provides a superb infrastructure with Live 24×7 customer support. These amazing features make Hostgator a reputed web hosting provider.
However, we have done an in-depth research to provide you the most authentic and unbiased review about Hostgator.
What is Hostgator
Hostgator is a web hosting service provider in which you can host websites and blogs online. You can use HostGator for purchasing domains.
Hostgator was founded in 2002 and has turned into a major player in the hosting business. Hostgator offers reliable web hosting plans with quality customer support.
With HostGator, you can easily setup a website and host it for minimum investment for up to three years along with perks like free SSL certificates and quality live chat support.
Hostgator Pricing
The Hostgator starter package starts from $2.75 to $5.95 for the business plan.
Different Hosting Plans
Hostgator offers three different plans on shared web hosting.
- Hatchling: The hatchling plan is intended to host only one website. You can go for the hatchling plan if you want to host a personal website or blog. You get a one-click WordPress install and a free domain and SSL certificate.
- Baby: If you want to host multiple domains, then the baby plan is good for you. With baby plan, , you will get a free WordPress/cPanel along with a free SSL certificate.
- Cloud Server: If you are looking to buy a faster domain server, you can opt for a cloud server where you get dedicated CPU cores and RAM for your website.
- VPS(Virtual Private Server): A virtual private server allows you to manage virtual resources on a cloud hosting platform. This is suitable if you have websites that get frequent traffic spikes.
- Dedicated Server: You can opt for a dedicated server if your traffic on your website is very high. But in a Dedicated plan, you have to maintain and set up the server by yourself.
Features of Hostgator
Hosting
HostGator offers web hosting, WordPress hosting, cloud hosting, and VPS hosting with dedicated servers for lightning-fast load speeds. Apart from this, the Linux/shared hosting plans are available in four plans so you can choose according to your needs.
Start-Up Plan:
If you are looking for a hosting service for your startup, you can get an affordable start-up plan with five email accounts and a 10 GB of online storage space. There is an option to upgrade to three more plans as your business grows.
Multiple Domain Hosting
You can host one, three, or unlimited domains in a single account depending on your plan.
Website Builder
You get an easy-to-use site pad website builder tool with a drag and drop option to build your website which is handy if you don’t know how to code.
Strong Language Support
HostGator supports 300 plus web applications along with PHP, Ruby on Rails, Curl, Python, ASP.NET, and Apache languages.
Free Credit
You get a $100 credit each for google AdWords and Bing ad credits.
Also read – How To Transfer Web Hosting From One Company To Another
Hostgator Support
You can also connect via live chat with a support agent by raising a ticket. however, the live chat is not available 24/7. If you have raised your query in off-hours, you will receive an email response regarding the issue.
Hostgator has an active forum where you can get answers from fellow community members and support staff.
The FAQ section on the HostGator website covers most of the beginner level instructions and issues faced during the setup process.
Benefits of Hostgator Hosting
Excellent Uptime
HostGator has an excellent uptime of 99.98% over the last 24 months. So you can expect very minimal maintenance time. You get additional one month of hosting if their uptime drops under 99.90%.
Customer Support
With their super-fast customer support, you can get a support agent in under 15 seconds for super fast response.
The support staff are friendly towards customers and are knowledgeable so you can ask issues related to multiple queries.
45-Day Money-Back Guarantee
Hostgator offers an extended money-back guarantee of 45 days as compared to the 30 day period other hosting services offer.
This gives you an option to try out the plan to check if it fulfills your requirement and change to other plans if you find any issues.
Site Security Features
HostGator offers basic security features for shared hosting plans. You get sitelock monitoring on your site that runs daily to check potential breaches or hacks and report instantly if founded.
For email plans, you get Spam Assassin so your inbox won’t fill with spam emails.
And last but not least, foreign currency refunds are processed based on the U.S. Dollar exchange rates.
Also read – Godaddy vs Hostgator
Free cPanel and Site Migrations
If you are migrating to HostGator with an existing website, then you will get a duration of 30 days to migrate your site files, databases, scripts, and domain name for free.
The complete cPanel transfer also covers multiple site installs which is useful if you have multiple hosted domains and subdomains.
Beginner Friendly
Hostgator has an easy to navigate User Interface along with well-explained tutorials, walkthroughs about setting up your website and configuring necessary files to get started.
HostGator Website Builder
The website builder comes bundled with the plan that has extra features for webmasters as well as an easy console to design, build, and manage the website so you don’t have to hire a developer.
You get customizable templates to build your website by just dragging and dropping each feature making it a seamless procedure.
If you are buying a site from Hostgator, you will get a free SSL certificate to make your site HTTPS right from the beginning.
Disadvantages of Hostgator Hosting
Misleading Advertisement in shared hosting
Even though in shared hosting, you will be getting 2 CPU cores and 2GB of RAM, it is not allocated solely to your websites but is shared with other hosted websites at a given time.
No Cash Refunds
You get a refund option for shared, reseller, and VPS hosting plans. But you won’t get the refund amount back to your bank account. You can only buy alternate plans or create new accounts with the money.
Lack of Extra Features
As you go to the checkout page, you will be asked to opt-in for services for Gmail Access, basic SEO tools, and sitelock monitoring for extra money. In fact, the competitors to Hostgator like godaddy and bluehost do have some of these features accessible in basic plans.
Pricing Tricks
If you want the advertised $2.75 plan for shared hosting, you need to opt for the long term plan – 3 years. After three years, the renewal prices get very steep at $6.95 a month which is double of what you paid in the beginning.
Also read – Transfer Hosting From Godaddy To Hostgator Following Easy Steps
Final Words
If you are just starting your own blog or a website with support for e-commerce, Hostgator is a good choice for the low cost of entry. If you are an experienced webmaster looking to switch hosting, then you get good deals in the more expensive plans of HostGator. You can opt for the 3 year plan to save money by locking in the low entry price.