HostGator Web Hosting Review

 

PROS

• A variety of feature-packed hosting plans
• Excellent shared hosting offering
• Good for novice webmasters
• Useful site-building software
• Good customer service
• Outstanding uptime

CONS

No Windows-based VPS hosting

Whether it's a fully functional e-commerce setup or a simple blog to post regular updates, every company needs a website. You'll need a web hosting service in either case. HostGator is a great option, with quality cloud, reseller, virtual private server (VPS), and dedicated server plans, but it's the company's shared plans that really stand out in the crowded web hosting market. In reality, HostGator's shared hosting packages are so good that they earn our Editors' Choice award in that category.

Shared Web Hosting

If you're unfamiliar with the term, shared hosting is a form of web hosting in which multiple websites share a single server. Since sites share server resources (hence the name), a large traffic spike on Site A will, unfortunately, negatively impact Site B's results. If you're looking for a low-cost alternative, shared hosting is a reasonable choice; if you want more server resources dedicated to your domain, you'll need to go with VPS or dedicated hosting.

HostGator provides month-to-month shared web hosting plans but strongly encourages you to sign up for longer terms, beginning with six months. I don't like how HostGator automatically signs you up for a three-year contract during the signup process. It's one thing to allow customers to forego month-to-month service, but forcing them into a three-year contract right away seems excessive.

On the other hand, HostGator offers Linux and Windows-based shared hosting packages that enable small and medium-sized businesses to expand. Hatchling (starting at $10.95 a month) includes unrestricted storage space, regular data transfers, databases, email addresses, and support for one domain and third-party applications like content management systems and e-commerce sites. The Baby plan (starting at $11.95 a month) expands on the Hatchling plan by allowing you to have an unlimited number of domains. The top-tier Business plan (starting at $16.95 a month) contains highly specialized features including a toll-free number and a private SSL (secure socket layer) certificate for your business.

In the shared hosting market, Arvixe is a similar competitor to HostGator, but HostGator provides a little more bang for the buck thanks to the inclusion of a private SSL certificate and a toll-free VoIP number. Moreover, over the years we've been evaluating Arvixe, it's been plagued by issues like sluggish page load times and support issues. As a consequence, for shared web hosting services, HostGator is our Editors' Option.

VPS Web Hosting

VPS (virtual private server) hosting is for those who need more server horsepower than shared hosting can provide. Multiple sites can also be found on a VPS hosting server, but they are far less than on a shared hosting server. A VPS server costs more, but you get more server capacity in return.

Linux-based VPS hosting starts at $19.95 a month with HostGator. These are good options to consider if you need more capacity, anticipate high traffic levels, or have strict compliance criteria that preclude you from using shared servers (but you don't want to pay dedicated server prices).

Snappy 2000, the most basic VPS plan, starts at $79.95 per month (or $19.95 per month with a three-year commitment) and includes 2GB of RAM, 120GB of disk space, and 1.5TB of monthly data transfers. Starting at $119.95 per month (or as low as $29.95 per month with a three-year plan), the Snappy 4000 package offers 4GB of RAM, 165GB of storage, and 2TB of monthly data transfers. Snappy 8000, the most advanced package, starts at $149.95 per month for 8GB of RAM, 240GB of disk space, and 3TB of monthly data, or $39.95 per month if you sign up for 36 months. The plans are much more versatile than Network Solutions', but not as comprehensive as Hostwinds, our Editors' Choice for VPS hosting.

Hostwinds ($3.29/month at HostWinds) has a variety of budget-friendly, well-rounded VPS plans to start at $16.99 per month for 1GB of RAM, 30GB of disk space, 1TB of monthly data transfers, and unlimited email. Plans range from $574 per month for 96GB of RAM, 750GB of disk space, 9TB of monthly data transfers, and unlimited email to $574 per month for 96GB of RAM, 750GB of disk space, 9TB of monthly data transfers, and unlimited email. The VPS plans from Hostwinds also include a Windows operating system option, which HostGator does not.

Dedicated Web Hosting

Dedicated hosting is a powerful form of web hosting in which your website is hosted on its own server. As a consequence, although this hosting is the most costly, it is also the most efficient. It's what should fuel your website if you expect a lot of visitors. Dedicated server packages from HostGator start at $119 per month and provide a comprehensive collection of features. Users of HostGator can configure their servers with up to 1TB of SSD storage, 32GB of RAM, and unlimited monthly data transfers, which outperforms many other dedicated server packages in terms of bandwidth.

Dedicated servers from HostGator are available in both Linux and Windows flavors, which isn't as popular as you would think; Linux seems to rule the field. In reality, HostGator is one of the few web hosts we've tested that gets high marks and supports both operating systems. Even DreamHost, one of our favorite hosting companies, does not offer dedicated Windows servers. However, when it comes to dedicated hosting, Hostgator isn't the Editors' Option. AccuWeb is the owner of that title.

AccuWeb's feature set is impressive. Its dedicated hosting plans (which start at $105 per month) will include up to 2TB of storage, 512GB of RAM, and 50TB of monthly data transfers. The servers are also available in Linux and Windows flavors. Nonetheless, HostGator's dedicated hosting plans aren't to be sniffed at. If you need dedicated hosting with high-capacity SSD storage, give them a look.

Cloud Web Hosting

HostGator, like many other web hosts tested by PCMag over the years, provides cloud hosting. The resources that your site requires to run are spread across several servers with cloud hosting. What are the advantages? Since your site isn't constrained by physical server limitations, you can scale resources in real-time. Unlike DreamHost, the category's co-editors Option, HostGator's cloud hosting service is only available on the Linux platform; if you want Windows, you'll have to look elsewhere. Nonetheless, HostGator offers appealing cloud hosting plans that are worth considering.

The Hatchling Cloud plan costs $12.95 a month and includes 2GB of RAM, two CPU cores, a domain, and unrestricted data and storage. After that, the $13.95 a month Baby Cloud plan adds limitless domains, four cores, and four gigabytes of RAM. The Business Cloud, which costs $19.95 a month and includes six CPU cores, 6GB of RAM, and a dedicated IP address, is at the top of the list. The other co-editors Option for cloud storage, 1&1 Ionos, is geared toward enterprise-level companies. There are 16-core CPUs, servers with 48GB of RAM, and other high-end features available. You can also fully customize your package. Please read the review for more details.

WordPress Web Hosting

The WordPress content management system (CMS) can be installed on any of HostGator's servers, but the web host also provides three managed WordPress web hosting tiers: Starter, Standard, and Company.

Starter (starting at $14.95 a month) includes 25,000 monthly visits, one WordPress site hosting, 50GB of storage, and unlimited email. Standard (starting at $20.95) adds two WordPress pages, 200,000 monthly visits, and 150GB of storage to the package. Three WordPress pages, 300,000 monthly visits, and unrestricted storage are included in the Business plan (starting at $27.95 per month). Page caching and a WordPress hosting environment are included with both plans.

Our Editors' Choice for WordPress hosting, A2, outperforms HostGator and the competition by providing three excellent WordPress hosting tiers—Lite, Swift, and Turbo—all of which provide unrestricted storage and monthly data transfers. Its pre-built environment includes several WordPress-friendly features, such as real-time malware security and curated plug-ins to improve your experience.

Even if you don't go the managed-WordPress way, WordPress is simple to set up on HostGator. Quick Link is a feature in the customer portal that opens a dedicated interface for downloading third-party applications. Get Started With WordPress Today is a useful shortcut that takes you to the Fast Links interface. I entered the username for the WordPress administrator account and clicked the install button after setting the path to my blog's installation. My website was up and running in no time. To help boost blog efficiency, HostGator also installed the WP-Super-Cache WordPress plug-in automatically.

Since the database was already present, the process of setting up my WordPress site was simple during testing. There was also a connection to the Mojo Marketplace, which had premium add-ons and services for my blog, under WordPress services. While HostGator lacks a blog import button, WordPress makes the process simple enough.

👉 Also, you can read : Best eCommerce Hosting Companies of 2021 (Real Reviews)

Setting Up a HostGator Hosted Site

Since the interface takes some getting used to, HostGator sends a getting-started email with links to all the tools you'll need to build a website. At the top of HostGator's website, there is a Billing Login page that takes you to the customer portal, where you can find all of your payment information, plan details, and add-on options. This page has tabs for account and domain management across the top. The actual control panel with site-building software, programs, website statistics, and more can be found under the Hosting tab. The control panel is also linked in the introductory email, but it looks different from what you'd get from the Hosting tab, making the experience a little confusing at first.

HostGator offers many website-building solutions, including its own website builder. I easily created an appealing page with slideshows, contact forms, social media links, and more using the drag-and-drop functionality. You may also use WordPress or other content management systems (CMS) including Drupal, b2evolutions, Joomla, Mambo, and Tiki, to name a few. You can build a website by manually uploading files to the server using a File Manager program. Since you can edit files directly or use the built-in HTML editor, the tool is superior to a simple FTP client.

If you sign up for at least 12 months of cloud, shared, or WordPress hosting with HostGator, you'll get a free domain name—dedicated and VPS hosting may not count. While this isn't a unique feature in the web hosting industry, it is a nice touch. However, there are two caveats. Your chosen domain must end in either the.com,.org, or.net extensions, and the no-cost duration lasts for one year. If you already have a domain name with one of the above extensions, HostGator can move it to a server at no cost to you.

Reseller Web Hosting

Check out HostGator's reseller hosting packages if you want to get into the web hosting market but don't want to deal with infrastructure issues.

Unlimited email is included with all of the plans, which start at $19.95 a month. While the shared, dedicated, and VPS packages are available in both Linux and Windows, HostGator does not have unlimited storage or monthly data transfers at each tier, as does the reseller Editors' Choice Hostwinds. On the plus hand, HostGator allows you to brand the servers you rent and provides 24/7 technical support.

E-Commerce Tools on Hand

As previously reported, HostGator provides Mojo Marketplace, which includes email marketing tools like DaDa Mail (which starts at $34.95 a year) and allows you to send email newsletters to a subscriber list. Magento, phpCOIN, SugarCRM, and ZenCart are among the e-commerce packages offered by Fast Links. I built Magento, which allows me to build an elegant online store using a drag-and-drop GUI. There are numerous design choices available, which can be overwhelming.

Excellent Uptime Results

One of the most critical aspects of a hosting service is website uptime. Clients and consumers would be unable to contact you or access your goods or services if your website is down. Over the course of 14 days, I used a website monitoring tool to track the uptime of our HostGator-hosted test site. The tool pings my website every 15 minutes and sends me an email if it is unable to contact it for at least 1 minute. HostGator is surprisingly stable, as shown by the fact that it did not go down once during the two-week testing period. You shouldn't have to be concerned about your HostGator website being unavailable for long periods of time.

Quality Customer Service

HostGator, like HostMonster, provides both 24/7 phone support and online video chat—I tried both. On a weekday afternoon, I called phone tech support to ask if I could import my WordPress.com blog into my HostGator account. I was pleased with the thorough instructions I received via email.

After typing my query into a form and starting the chat with HostGator, I was given an approximate wait time of two minutes. A customer service representative appeared less than a minute later and gave simple instructions on how to import the blog. HostGator also has a comprehensive knowledge base that addresses virtually every query you may have, from the most simple to the most complex. Overall, HostGator's customer service is outstanding.

With a 45-day guarantee, HostGator outperforms most of its rivals, but Dreamhost, our top choice for advanced users, goes even further with a whopping 97-day guarantee.

Dedicated to Hosting

HostGator is a great web host with a lot of control and versatility in terms of hosting. Along with DreamHost, Hostwinds, and the enterprise-friendly LiquidWeb, HostGator's generous hosting services earned it the PCMag Editors' Choice designation in the shared web hosting subcategory, and it's also an overall top selection for web hosting. When it comes to web hosting for beginners, HostGator comes out on top.

Read our tips on how to build a website for more information on getting started online. You may also be interested in our guide to registering a domain name for your website.