HostGator Review

 

OUR VERDICT

HostGator stands out from the competition with its low-cost budget hosting plans that provide unrestricted bandwidth and storage, but its VPS and dedicated server options are less appealing.

PROS

On shared hosting plans, you get unlimited bandwidth and storage.

Excellent after-sales service

CONS

Managed hosting is deficient in functionality.

VPS and dedicated server options are uninspiring.

HostGator is a web hosting company headquartered in Texas that provides shared hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated servers, reseller accounts, and more. This provider keeps it easy by offering only a few plans for and form of hosting and limiting the number of choices that can be customized.

In our HostGator web hosting review, we learn that HostGator has real strengths that could make it the best website hosting company for your business, particularly if you're on a budget.

HostGator: Plans and pricing

Website builder plans shared hosting plans, WordPress hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated servers are all available from HostGator. Both plans have a significant discount for the first year, so the headline rates are still attractive. Your first term is discounted between 40% and 75%, but subsequent terms are charged at full rates. The longer you pay in advance, the less expensive the plans become. We mention the full price in this HostGator review, not the introductory price since that is the price you will pay in the end.

The Gator Website Builder is a beginner-friendly drag-and-drop website builder. A two-year plan begins at $7.68 per month. A domain name, website analytics, 24/7 support, and free SSL support are all included. A plan with priority support costs $11.98 per month, while a plan with eCommerce support costs $18.44 per month.

There are three different shared hosting plans to choose from. If you pay for three years in advance, the Hatchling package costs $6.95 a month. It comes with a free domain, unlimited bandwidth, and disk space, as well as free SSL support. You'll also get a $100 advertisement credit to use on Google AdWords or Bing. The Baby plan is $9.95 a month and includes unlimited domains, while the $14.95 Business plan includes a dedicated IP address and Comodo SSL certification.

There are six different WordPress hosting plans to choose from. The more expensive plans allow you to host more websites at once, but that's it. The Starter package ($9.95/month for three years) is limited to a single site but includes unlimited storage, free SSL, and $100 in Google AdWords credit.

HostGator offers three virtual private servers (VPS) hosting options. $79.95/month for a two-core system with 2 GB of RAM, 120 GB of disk space, and 1.5 TB of bandwidth. The price rises to $119.95/month if you add 4 GB of RAM, 165 GB of disk space, and 2 TB of bandwidth. At $149.95 a month, the most costly package includes four cores, 8 GB of RAM, 240 GB of disk space, and 3 TB of bandwidth. During the promotional time, you'll save 75% off the regular price.

Choose a dedicated server with the most strength and flexibility. These are well-equipped, and you have the option of choosing between CentOS and Windows hosting at no additional cost. Plans may be fully managed or partially managed. HostGator's most affordable semi-managed dedicated server features a four-core Intel Xeon-D CPU, 8 GB of RAM, a 1-TB hard disk, and unmetered bandwidth. This will set you back $179 a month. The Power Server ($239/month) comes with an eight-core CPU, 16 GB of RAM, and either a 2-TB hard drive or a 512 GB SSD. Finally, the Enterprise package ($279 per month) comes with 30 GB of RAM and a 1-TB SSD.

Features

The shared hosting plans from HostGator come with a 99.9% uptime guarantee. According to HostGator, if you choose the controlled WordPress hosting plans, your WordPress site will be cached and optimized, resulting in load times of up to one second faster. Automatic WordPress updates are included, and HostGator can move any existing WordPress site to its servers for free.

You have the choice of renting a professionally managed or semi-managed dedicated server from HostGator. Semi-managed effectively means you're on your own, as you'll only get cPanel, offsite backup solutions, and proactive software patching from the web host if you go with the fully managed option.

Interface and in use

Purchasing from HostGator can be a pain because the website only displays the low promotional prices and hides the prices you'll pay when you renew in the fine print. When you sign up for a shared hosting package, for example, a program called SiteLock is automatically installed, which scans your website for malware on a regular basis. It's classified as $1.99/month, but there's a tiny disclaimer that says you'll be charged $71.88 for each subsequent year after the first 12 months. We prefer hosting companies to be more transparent about their costs.

👉 Also, you can read : HostGator Review 2021 – Is HostGator The Right Web Host For You

The website builder provided by HostGator is very capable, enabling you to quickly create appealing pages with contact forms, social media links, and slideshows. There's also a File Manager app that lets you upload files directly from your browser, and you can use a wizard to install common content management systems like Joomla, Mambo, Drupal, and WordPress.

During our research, we used a website monitoring tool to track our website's uptime for two weeks. HostGator performed admirably, as our website was never down. Answer times in speed tests ranged from 216 to 807 milliseconds, with an average of 251 milliseconds. Although we've checked hosts that reacted up to two times faster than HostGator, this is about average, and no one will notice the difference.

Support

The knowledge base, which has over 3,500 articles organized into roughly 20 groups, is your first point of contact with HostGator. You can either use the search bar or drill down into the subcategories you need. Despite a large number of posts, the search returns results that are important to your question. Many of the articles contain lengthy videos that show you precisely how to complete the tasks at hand. It's one of the most user-friendly Help Centers we've seen.

If you prefer, HostGator offers live chat and phone support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We never had to wait more than two minutes to talk with an agent during our research, and they were always friendly and professional.

The competition

If you want a similar web host with more configurability, consider Bluehost. HostGator has decent shared hosting prices, but if you want a similar web host with more configurability, consider Bluehost. In reality, Endurance International Group, the parent company of both HostGator and Bluehost, now owns both companies (EIG). Both companies have similar services, but while HostGator is known for its “unlimited everything” shared hosting plans, Bluehost has a wider selection of choices.

We suggest InMotion Hosting over HostGator if you're looking for controlled WordPress hosting. Whereas HostGator's handled WordPress hosting just covers the basics, InMotion Hosting takes a more hands-on approach to assist you with any WordPress-related issues.

Final verdict

HostGator comes highly recommended, mostly because of its excellent shared hosting plans. They're extremely affordable and feature-rich, and they performed admirably in our tests. The live chat and phone support are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

If you have an application that you only expect to run for three years or less, HostGator's heavily discounted introductory rates on VPS and dedicated servers make this host an appealing choice. The standard rates are generally affordable, but you'll have to pay extra for features that other hosts provide for free, such as cPanel support on VPS plans. The VPS and dedicated server plans are satisfactory in general, but we would like to see more hardware options and configurability.

Overall, HostGator is a great web hosting service with great plans for consumers and small businesses, particularly if you're looking for a low-cost, high-performance shared hosting option.