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Saturday, May 8, 2021

2021 HOSTGATOR REVIEW MY HONEST VERDICT

 


In this Hostgator review, I'll go through the benefits and drawbacks of this web hosting service so you can decide if it's worth your time and money. The company Hostgator is well-known for its...

Hostgator is a large and well-known web hosting company. It offers dedicated web hosting, cloud hosting, collaborative web hosting, and controlled WordPress hosting, among other services.

Hostgator claims to provide an inexpensive but efficient hosting service on their website. Can the service, however, deliver on its promises? Is this just another deceptive advertisement?

In this Hostgator analysis, I'll go over the web hosting service in detail and tell you if it's worth your money and time.

2021 Hostgator Review: My Honest Verdict What is Hostgator? Hostgator Features & Benefits Reliable Uptime – 99.9% Load Times – How Fast Is Hostgator? Robust Site Security Control Panel Features Free Site & cPanel Migrations More Freebies Ease of Use Good Customer Support Hostgator Pricing, Plans, and Payment Methods Shared Hosting Plans Cloud Hosting Plans Managed WordPress Hosting Plans VPS Hosting Plans Dedicated Hosting Plans Hostgator Refund Policy Payment Methods Do We Recommend Hostgator?

WHAT IS HOSTGATOR ?

Hostgator is a web hosting company based in the United States, with offices in Houston and Austin. Endurance International Group (EIG), which also owns Bluehost, HostMonster, and iPage, operates the app. Hostgator, which was established in 2002, now has over 8 million hosted domains and offices in multiple countries around the world. Although the company has experienced considerable growth in recent years, it has also experienced several debilitating accidents, including several service outages in 2013.

However, that was seven years ago. Hostgator has improved since then, and now offers dependable service with fast speeds and advanced protection. I put Hostgator through its paces in order to see how it will do in 2020. I examined its speed, uptime, protection, WordPress, backups, and a variety of other factors. Is it up to par? Continue reading to learn more!

Pros

  • 99.99% uptime guarantee
  • Unmetered bandwidth
  • Free migration
  • Flexible billing periods
  • 45-day money-back guarantee
  • Good support

Cons

  • No free domain
  • Average load times

HOSTGATOR FEATURES & BENEFITS

Reliable Uptime – 99.9%

When it comes to websites, keeping them up and running 24 hours a day is critical. Downtime can harm your brand's image as well as cause financial and productivity losses. As a result, you can choose a web hosting company that provides consistent and dependable service throughout the year. Hostgator guarantees 99.9% uptime and a one-month free credit if the service fails to meet expectations. This gives me faith, particularly because not all web hosting companies guarantee uptime.

As is customary, we put Hostgator to the test to see how it performs. The service was dependable and consistent, as advertised. During our 6-month testing cycle, there was no noticeable downtime. Hostgator has built-in uptime monitoring so you can keep track of your server's status.

Hostgator Uptime in 2021

  • July – 100%

  • August – 100%

  • September – 100%

  • October – 100%

  • November – 100%

  • December – 100%

LOAD TIMES – HOW FAST IS HOSTGATOR?

The time it takes for a page to load is an important factor in the user experience on your website. Nobody likes a sluggish website – not you, not your visitors, and certainly not you. In reality, if your website takes longer than three seconds to load, nearly half of your visitors will abandon it.

Although Hostgator had no downtime during our testing, we did notice that some of their servers were sluggish when under load. Aside from that, the response and load times were exceptional.

Here's a look at the traffic in the second half of 2021.

  • July – 1178ms

  • August – 1039ms

  • September – 1195ms

  • October – 1164ms

  • November – 992ms

  • December – 1003ms

ROBUST SITE SECURITY

Cybercrime is on the rise, and the best way to protect your website is to make sure your web host is safe and stable. In this respect, Hostgator outperforms the competition. It has outstanding security features that are on par with the best in the industry. On all of their plans, the hosting service includes free SSL encryption. SFTP (SSH FTP) and FTPS (FTP over SSL or TLS) are also available on all servers, with the exception of the ‘Optimize WordPress' plans. Furthermore, Hostgator defends your website from Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, which can overwhelm your site and block users from accessing and communicating with it.

Hostgator's data centers are highly secure locations with limited access, and their servers are protected by a powerful firewall. The HG Firewall plugin for controlling firewall settings from WHM is available from the vendor, but it is only available to those who manage VPS or Dedicated servers. HostGator offers automatic weekly backups for Shared, Reseller, and VPS accounts to avoid data loss due to vulnerability. You can also make manual backups of up to 10 GB or 150,000 inodes using cPanel.

Hostgator, like most hosting companies, offers the SiteLock protection add-on. You would, however, have to pay an additional $1.94 a month to use the program. If you're willing to spend a little more money, the SiteLock protection add-on is available for $1.94 per month. SiteLock is a cloud-based security solution that scans for malware and vulnerabilities while also preventing automated bot attacks. However, there is a catch. You'll need to switch to SiteLock's Fix Plan, which begins at $6.97 a month, to delete any detected malware. You will further eliminate bugs by keeping all CMS installations and other add-ons up to date.

CONTROL PANEL FEATURES

Hostgator provides the most recent versions of the cPanel and Plesk control panels. If you have Shared Web Hosting, you can use cPanel to easily track your bandwidth and disk space usage, as well as build email addresses, MySQL databases, and subdomains. AWStats, a feature of the service, helps you to keep track of stats in real-time. Error logs, referrer logs, and Webalizer, which show in-depth traffic statistics for your platform, are among the other features.

FREE SITE & CPANEL MIGRATIONS

Free WordPress/cPanel website migration is available from Hostgator. However, the free site migration is only available for the first 30-days after signing up. The provider may charge you a fee if you are outside of the 30-day window. Content migration for new accounts and inter-server transition between HostGator servers are also included in HostGator's site migration services. The procedure is straightforward, and all you have to do is complete a transfer form.

MORE FREEBIES

Apart from the free website move, Hostgator provides a slew of other benefits. There are some of them:
  • Bandwidth is limitless.
  • Storage is limitless.
  • A website creator
  • Templates for websites
  • MySQL databases are limitless.
On top of that, new accounts get a $100 Bing Ads credit upon registration, as well as a $100 Google AdWords credit after spending $25 on ad buys.

EASE OF USE

Setting up and managing your website is a breeze with Hostgator. Their control panels are well-designed and easy to use, allowing you to manage everything from one place. In Shared Web Hosting, Reseller, VPS, and Linux Dedicated accounts, Hostgator uses cPanel. Plesk is used in VPN and Windows Dedicated accounts, on the other hand.

Although the architecture of Hostgator is a little dated, its user-friendliness impressed us. You don't need to be a tech wizard to get your website up and running thanks to its one-click installs. Installing a CMS on your website is simple and takes just a few mouse clicks. All of these features and facilities make Hostgator an excellent option for both new and experienced users.

GOOD CUSTOMER SUPPORT

When choosing a web hosting service, make sure the company can respond quickly and accurately to any problems that might arise. The customer support provided by Hostgator blew me away. The company provides customer service via phone, email, and live chat 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Their customer service staff was polite and professional, and they quickly answered all of my questions. The live chat service was the quickest, as is always the case, but I was also pleased with the efficiency of their toll-free phone support. In addition to the aforementioned support options, Hostgator also has a Knowledge Base section with tutorials and other useful information.

HOSTGATOR PRICING, PLANS, AND PAYMENT METHODS

  • Hostgator provides a comprehensive service. Shared, VPS, Dedicated, Cloud, and Managed WordPress hosting are all supported.
  • Shared Web Hosting: This is the most affordable and widely used hosting option. Users share the same server, with a fixed number of resources allotted to each of them (disk space, memory). Shared Web Hosting is suitable for new websites because it has beginner-friendly features. Monthly rates begin at $2.75.
  • Cloud Hosting is similar to shared hosting, but it's a lot more efficient. Cloud hosting, unlike shared hosting, distributes the resources needed to manage the website through multiple servers. It becomes much quicker and more stable as a result of this. Monthly rates begin at $4.95.
  • Hostgator's Managed WordPress Hosting is 2.5 times faster than shared web hosting, making it an excellent choice for hosting WordPress pages. Depending on your strategy, it provides easy simplicity, advanced protection, and support for up to three websites. Monthly rates begin at $5.95.
  • VPS (Virtual Private Server) Hosting: VPS hosting uses a virtualized dedicated server and is ideal for small businesses. It's completely scalable, with improved customizability and access to server services. The first month's fee is $29.95.
  • Dedicated Hosting: Each user is given their own physical server, as the name implies. Dedicated hosting provides unrivaled power and control, making it suitable for companies with more than 500,000 monthly visitors. Monthly rates begin at $118.99.

Shared Hosting Plans

Shared Web Hosting from Hostgator is one of the most exciting on the market. It includes all of the expected features, such as free email marketing software, dedicated IP, and SEO tools. It's also reasonably priced, with three options to choose from:



Hatchling plan

The Hatchling plan is Hostgator's most accessible hosting plan, starting at $2.75 per month. You get unlimited bandwidth and storage, as well as free SSL, but you can only host one domain.
  • The following is the pricing for this plan:
  • An annual subscription costs $10.95 a month.
  • A one-year subscription costs $5.95 per month.
  • A two-year subscription costs $3.58 per month.
  • A three-year subscription costs $2.75 a month.

Baby plan

The cost of this package begins at $3.95 a month. It's close to the Hatchling plan in that it offers unlimited bandwidth, storage, and SSL for free. The Baby plan, unlike the Hatchling plan, provides for an infinite number of domain names.
  • A monthly subscription costs $11.95 a month.
  • A one-year subscription costs $8.95 per month.
  • A two-year subscription costs $6.95 per month.
  • A three-year subscription costs $3.95 per month.

Business plan

This is Hostgator's most expensive shared hosting package. This package, which includes a full e-commerce solution for shared web hosting, begins at $5.95 per month. It's a step up from the Baby package, with advanced features including a dedicated IP, private SSL, and free SEO software, making it an excellent choice for setting up an online shop.

  • An annual subscription costs $16.95 per month.
  • A one-year subscription costs $8.95 per month.
  • A two-year subscription costs $6.95 per month.
  • A three-year subscription costs $5.95 per month.
When it comes to pricing, keep in mind that Hostgator employs the normal gimmicks and ruses. Purchases made for the first time are highly discounted, and renewals can be more than twice as expensive.

For example, although the Hatchling plan is just $2.75 at signup, monthly renewals start at $6.95. The Baby and Business plans have the same pricing policies, with renewals for the latter beginning at $8.95 a month.

Cloud Hosting Plans

For beginners, Hostgator Cloud Hosting is a more flexible alternative to Shared Web Hosting. Due to several caching layers, it loads two times faster and is four times more scalable.

Its plans are comparable to Shared Web Hosting's. They are as follows:

Hatchling Cloud

  • A monthly subscription costs $12.95.
  • A one-year subscription costs $7.95 per month.
  • A two-year subscription costs $6.95 per month.
  • A three-year subscription costs $4.95 per month.

Baby Cloud

  • A monthly subscription costs $13.95 per month.
  • A one-year subscription costs $9.95 per month.
  • A two-year subscription costs $8.95 per month.
  • A three-year subscription costs $6.57 a month.

Business Cloud

  • A monthly subscription costs $19.95 per month.
  • A one-year subscription costs $11.95 per month.
  • A two-year subscription costs $10.95 per month.
  • A three-year subscription costs $9.95 per month.

Managed WordPress Hosting Plans


There are several subscription options available, including:

Starter Plan

The most simple Managed WordPress Hosting plan is this one. It only supports one platform and can comfortably accommodate up to 100k monthly visits.

  • Here's how much the Starter package costs:
  • A monthly subscription costs $14.95.
  • A one-year subscription costs $7.95 per month.
  • A two-year subscription costs $6.95 per month.
  • A three-year subscription costs $5.95 per month.

Standard Plan

The Standard Plan supports two sites and builds on the Starter Plan's traffic levels and backup storage. The following subscription plans are available:
  • A monthly subscription costs $20.95.
  • A one-year subscription costs $9.95 per month.
  • A two-year subscription costs $8.95 per month.
  • A three-year subscription costs $7.95 per month.

Business Plan

This is the best option for you if you run or plan to operate three websites. It comes with 3GB of backup space and can handle up to 300,000 monthly visitors.

  • A monthly subscription costs $27.95.
  • A one-year subscription costs $11.95 per month.
  • A two-year subscription costs $10.95 per month.
  • A three-year subscription costs $9.95 per month.
For users with more than three sites, Hostgator also provides Managed WordPress Hosting plans. There are some of them:
  • Starting at $11.95 a month for a business plan with five sites.
  • Starting at $22.95 a month for Pro - 10 pages.
  • Starting at $33.95 per month for Pro - 20 Sites

VPS Hosting Plans

Hostgator VPS Hosting allows you to customize your server completely without the cost of a dedicated physical server. The following are some of the plans:

Snappy 2000

  • An annual subscription costs $89.95 per month.
  • A one-year subscription costs $49.95 per month.
  • A two-year subscription costs $39.95 per month.
  • A three-year subscription costs $29.95 per month.
  • Without cPanel, plans start at $19.95 per month.

Snappy 4000

  • An annual subscription costs $129.95 per month.
  • A one-year subscription costs $59.95 per month.
  • A two-year subscription costs $49.95 per month.
  • A three-year subscription costs $39.95 per month.
  • Without cPanel, plans start at $29.95 per month.

Snappy 8000

  • An annual subscription costs $159.95 per month.
  • A one-year subscription costs $69.95 per month.
  • A two-year subscription costs $59.95 per month.
  • A three-year subscription costs $49.95 per month.

Without cPanel, plans start at $39.95 per month.

Dedicated Hosting Plans


The most expensive Hostgator package is Dedicated Hosting. It's also the most strong, with an entire physical server dedicated to your website.

The following subscription plans are available:
  • Starting at $118.99 a month, the Value Server is a great value.
  • Starting at $138.99 a month for a Power Server
  • Starts at $148.98 per month for Enterprise Server.

Hostgator Refund Policy

Hostgator has an industry-leading 45-day money-back guarantee, enabling you to fully test their service. The industry norm of one month is rarely broken by most hosting providers. Simply cancel your subscription within the first 45 days and receive a refund.

Only Shared, Reseller and VPS hosting are eligible for refunds. Dedicated servers and domain name transactions are not refundable. Refunds are not available for subscriptions charged via wire transfer, scan, or money order.

Payment Methods

Hostgator supports a number of different payment options. There are some of them:

  • PayPal

  • Visa

  • MasterCard

  • American Express

  • Discover

  • JCB

Bank cable, personal checks, and money orders are also accepted by the provider. They also accept regional payment methods through PayPal, but this is subject to PayPal's payment options in your area.

DO WE RECOMMEND HOSTGATOR?

Absolutely!

Hostgator is a fantastic web hosting site for beginners and small businesses alike. Their most simple shared hosting package has more features than the majority of their rivals. Multiple app integrations are supported, and the service's security features are commendable. The ease of use and convenience of Hostgator's Managed WordPress Hosting also impressed us. However, Hostgator's server response times when under load need to be improved. Aside from that, the service is consistent and dependable. Take a look at it and let us know what you think in the comments section.


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