HostGator could be one of the most important, oldest web hosting companies within the industry, but they’re still posting a solid average uptime of 99.93% over the past 12 months.
Their basic shared hosting plans accompany unlimited storage, bandwidth, free domain (for the primary year), and a free SSL certificate. They even have great customer service, who connected through a live chat instantly and answered each question within a couple of seconds.
Unfortunately, many extra services, like backups and security, are going to be tacked on as additional fees. Plus, the renewal rates rise aggressively after your first term expires.
Here’s an entire check-out of our hands-on test, using third-party data from Pingdom to shed light on their performance.
General Info & Hosting Overview
Pros of Using HostGator Shared
HostGator’s uptime performance wont to be a problem in years past. But not anymore, supported our 12 months’ worth of tracking.
On top of that, their customer service was fast and friendly. They’ll help move your site over to their service for free of charge. And beginners will sort of a lot of the straightforward, intuitive options directed their way.
Here’s a fast summary:
1. Stable Uptime of 99.93%
HostGator has posted a mean of 99.93% uptime with a touch of quite six hours of downtime over the last 12 months. That’s not the simplest uptime we’ve seen but also not the worst.
The good part is that they need an uptime guarantee which says that if they drop below 99.90%, you'll receive one month of credit on your account.
Obviously, any planned maintenance or impossible-to-predict hacks aren’t factored into this guarantee. You will, however, need to reach out and invite the credit by submitting a support ticket to their billing department within 30 days.
We’ve begun to see a couple of other hosts crop up with uptime guarantees recently, and it means all customers win as a result. Competitors beginning and doing this helps raise the bar for the whole industry. It forces everyone else within the market to either match their guarantee and lift the quality level of service or risk falling behind.
Last 12-month average uptime:
- March 2021: 99.95%
- February 2021: 99.99%
- January 2021: 99.97%
- December 2020: 100%
- November 2020: 99.99%
- October 2020: 99.99%
- September 2020: 99.50%
- August 2020: 99.99%
- July 2020: 99.98%
- June 2020: 99.99%
- May 2020: 99.96%
- April 2020: 99.78%
2. Decent Load Time 734 ms
HostGator’s servers had no issues keeping our site up and relive the past year.
However what about their server speed?
HostGator delivered a mean page loading time of 734 ms over the last 12 months
This is definitely not the fastest speed we’ve seen but it’s decent enough to urge a spot in our pros section. Moreover, HostGator has improved its page loading times quite a lot. Not a really while ago, it took quite a second to load our site.
Why is it important to possess a quick page loading time?
Slow page loading times are shown to impact your visitor’s experience directly. which features a trickle-down effect to hitting your bottom line, too.
There are a couple of belongings you can do to hurry up your site without switching hosts. But if your host is consistently slow, it means you’ll constantly be fighting a losing battle.
3. Good Support
Similar to other known providers like SiteGround and Dreamhost, HostGator provides a knowledge domain, phone, email, and live chat support.
We tested out their live chat option.
We asked an easy question about their shared hosting plans and got connected to a customer rep within two minutes. The replies were fast and knowledgeable.
Overall it was a good customer support experience.
4. 45-Day Money-Back Guarantee
HostGator is so confident in their service that they extend the industry-average 30-day refund policy an additional fortnight approximately to 45 days.
That means you'll use them for over a full month and still get your price back if any issues crop up.
This 45-day money-back guarantee applies to all or any shared, reseller, and VPS hosting packages.
The only catch is that this doesn't apply to HostGator’s dedicated servers, administrative fees, install fees for custom software. After combing through many Terms of Service documents by now, we’ve found that these caveats are fairly common within the hosting industry.
So, for instance, if your plan included a free name, they’ll deduct the quality fee of $15.00 for the domain from the refund amount.
There are a couple of other points to form. HostGator’s Terms give them up to 90 days to truly issue a refund. No refunds are going to be given on checks, money orders, Western Union payments, or bank wire transfers, either.
Refunds are only available for brand spanking new plans or accounts. So if you previously signed up for one, and are canceling a renewal or second attempt, you won’t get anything reciprocally.
And last but not least, foreign currency refunds are processed supported by the U.S. Dollar exchange rates.
5. Site Security Features Available
HostGator’s shared hosting plans are fairly bare-bones. You’re getting enough for one site, but not an entire lot of extras on top of it.
Fortunately, they are doing offer a couple of extra security measures just like the ability to feature SiteLock monitoring to your site. This service will run daily, searching for any potential site breaches or hacks and allow you to know instantly once they find it.
They also offer Spam Assassin on their email plans to assist prevent spam from hitting your inbox within the first place.
The only downside is that SiteLock will cost you a touch extra. We’ll expand on this below within the Cons, but the sticker price is $1.99/mo, billed annually at $23.88.
6. Free Site & cPanel Migrations
If this isn’t your first site, and you’re trying to maneuver an existing one over, HostGator’s got your back.
You’ll have 30 days after sign-up to urge in-tuned and have them help move any site files, databases, scripts, and even a website name over for you.
This includes a full cPanel transfer. So if you happened to possess multiple site installs (like subdomains for one large site), you’re covered.
👉 Also, you can read: HostGator Review: What Features Make This Site Builder Stand Out?
All of HostGator’s shared hosting plans accompany one site (or cPanel) migration included. Different plans, like resellers, as an example, will get access to more (up to 30).
A single free site migration isn’t tons compared to some hosts. But it’s still better than nothing.
7. Very User-Friendly for Beginners
HostGator is tailor-made for beginner bloggers or webmasters.
Their site is filled with tutorials, walkthroughs, and more to assist you to navigate the murky world of DNS and data centers.
They even have extra features for beginners who are looking to line up a site without the effort of hiring people to style, build, and manage everything.
Their website builder tool, Gator by HostGator, is one of the higher ones we’ve reviewed. It comes with free hosting and a website name, so you only got to purchase one account for all of the necessities.
The customizable templates are all pretty modern, to start with, and you'll easily customize how they appear by dragging and dropping each feature. You’ll also get site analytics and a free SSL certificate to assist safeguard your visitors’ personal data (like their physical location).
Gator by HostGator even comes with an eCommerce plan, so you'll found out a fully functioning online store with inventory and more, all without fear about payment gateways, plugins, or the other messy technology. It just works.
Cons of Using HostGator Shared
HostGator’s consistently strong uptime was, frankly, surprising (in an honest way). We’re also fans of their uptime guarantee.
Beyond that, their beginner-friendly approach and helpful customer service mean that there are tons to love about their service.
Unfortunately, we also saw a couple of issues along the way while testing them out. Here are the most important problems we found:
1. Lots of Extra Fees for ‘True’ Backups, Gmail, and Malware
HostGator’s shared hosting plans are cheap, with introductory pricing starting at only $2.75/month (for 36 months).
Their cheapest plan (“Hatchling”) comes with one name, one-click installations of popular apps like WordPress, Joomla, and more, unmetered bandwidth, unlimited storage, and a free SSL certificate. Basically, all of the core features you would like for an entire website.
However, that’s about all they supply in their default plans. All of the ‘extra’ stuff, like site backups, Gmail access, SiteLock Monitoring, and SEO tools will all cost you additional when it’s time to checkout.
It’s disappointing because many of those features are worded carefully on the location, like “available,” to form you think that they’re included. Browse the opposite top hosts we’ve reviewed and you’ll see that a lot of them, in fact, do throw these into their basic pricing.
It’s only you get to the very end of the method, once you attend enter your billing information, that you’ll realize all of those extra features will cost you, well, extra.
Gmail is that the standard $5/month or $60/year per user, which is their normal pricing. on the other hand, SiteLock will cost you $19.99/year, CodeGuard (to backup your sites) will cost you $23.95/year, and that they don’t even keep many previous versions of your site on entering case you run into any problems.
So while the initial plan seems inexpensive initially, it starts to become pretty pricey when all is claimed and done.
2. Industry-Standard Pricing ‘Tricks’
In addition to extra fees, HostGator pulls two pricing tricks that are pretty standard within the industry.
The first is advertising a coffee rate like $2.75/month, just for you to understand that it requires you to prepay for a full three years to truly catch on. Otherwise, you’re watching $10.95/month for an actual single month’s worth of service.
That’s just the start, though. Because on top of this, HostGator’s renewal pricing jumps dramatically after your initial plan expires.
So let’s say you plow ahead and lock therein low rate for 3 years. You’ll be getting a reasonable bargain, no doubt.
The trouble starts when it’s time to renew your plan in three years. At that time, your monthly rate for an equivalent plan jumps to $6.95/month (or $250.20 total) — quite double what you only purchased an equivalent exact service.
Essentially, they’re preying on the very fact that after a couple of years, the likelihood of you eager to switch services is pretty low. So you’re locked for certain a short time (like a cable company or gym membership).
Lots of other hosts we’ve reviewed pull this same stunt. However, that doesn’t mean we've to love it.
That’s just the start, though. Because on top of this, HostGator’s renewal pricing jumps dramatically after your initial plan expires.
So let’s say you plow ahead and lock therein low rate for 3 years. You’ll be getting a reasonable bargain, no doubt.
The trouble starts when it’s time to renew your plan in three years. At that time, your monthly rate for an equivalent plan jumps to $6.95/month (or $250.20 total) — quite double what you only purchased an equivalent exact service.
Essentially, they’re preying on the very fact that after a couple of years, the likelihood of you eager to switch services is pretty low. So you’re locked for certain a short time (like a cable company or gym membership).
Lots of other hosts we’ve reviewed pull this same stunt. However, that doesn’t mean we've to love it.
HostGator Pricing, Hosting Plans & Quick Facts
Shared Hosting: HostGator has three shared hosting plan option to choose from:
Quick Facts
- Domain: Yes. For the primary year.
- Ease of Signup: Easy signup process.
- Payment Methods: Mastercard, PayPal.
- Money-Back: 45-day money-back guarantee.
- Hidden Fees and Clauses: Introductory pricing is merely available for long-term plan purchases. Renewal rates also will quite double. Extra services, like backups and malware monitoring, are all extra fees, too.
- Upsells: many upsells.
- Account Activation: It can take up to 24 – 48 hours to activate your account.
- Control Panel and Dashboard Experience: cPanel.
- Installation of Apps and CMSs (WordPress, Joomla, etc.): they create it easy to put in popular apps and CMSs during a few steps using QuickInstall.
Do We Recommend HostGator Shared?
Yes, we do. But there are better options out there to settle on from.
HostGator’s shared hosting does offer tons of advantages. The uptime has been solid alongside improved speed. The customer service was good. and therefore the plethora of beginner-friendly options makes it user-friendly.
However, the additional pricing hikes make it too expensive to urge our 100% recommendation.
Best alternatives for HostGator:
- Bluehost
Very Good Uptime | Easy to Use for Beginners | 24/7 Customer Support
Read Bluehost review
- Hostinger
Extremely Affordable | Top 3 Load Time | Multilingual Support
Read Hostinger review
- DreamHost
Best Month-to-Month Plan | 97-Day Refund Period | Unlimited Bandwidth
Read DreamHost review
Further reading: the ten Best Web Hosting Services (In 2021)
Have you used HostGator before? Please consider leaving a review below — good or bad — doesn’t really matter as long it’s helpful to our visitors.
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