HostGator Review

 

So here we go again, another round of expert, well-informed, well-written, hilariously funny WebHost reviews from the Aussie Hosting team.

The first is HostGator.

First and foremost, let's get one thing out of the way: HostGator is a terrible name.

What We’re Looking At

Sure, alligators are native to Australia. Full marks for patriotism. However, no longer do tech firms have names like "HostGator." What's the deal with the mascot's silky blue and yellow color scheme? Alligators are known for their ferocity, not their cuddliness. I'm not sure why he's standing up like that. What's the deal with him being blue?

For me, it's just a little too cute. I like my tech firms to have names like "Optima" and to use only tasteful cream colors. HostGator's branding seems to be trapped in the year 2005, and they think AskJeeves is pretty cool.

Aside from their wacky branding, Host Gator is a fantastic web host. They're fast, dependable, and their pricing is extremely competitive, at least in Australia. Best of all, they don't do what most budget Australian web hosts do: charge you extra for things that should be free in 2017 (like SSL).

How We Collected Our Data

This analysis, like all of our others, will be heavily focused on numbers. Perhaps that sounds tedious, but I assure you that analyzing data is by far the most effective way to evaluate web hosts.

After all, if I only based this review on HostGator's logo, it wouldn't turn out very well.

For more detail, we've compared HostGator to other hosting services; for an in-depth comparison, see Bluehost vs HostGator.

So here's how I'll approach this review:

• Examine HostGator's uptime, speed, and dependability.
• If you can't wait any longer, the conclusion of this section is that HostGator is actually very fine.
• Then we'll look at some more figures, this time for HostGator's pricing.
• Spoiler: it's currently among the best in Australia.
• Finally, I'll equate HostGator to the web hosts we use here at Aussie Hosting (primarily SiteGround) to see if it passes the test.

However, first and foremost...

We know a lot about web hosting, to be honest. We've been working with web hosts and gathering data on them for almost ten years at Aussie Hosting.

In that time, we've amassed what we like to think is Australia's best (and probably largest) database of web hosts. You may find it strange that we are proud of that (my database is larger than yours! ), but we are.

Click here to see our HostGator monitoring in real-time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. To gain a better understanding of results, we monitor uptime and downtime through multiple websites.

All I had to do for this analysis was looking at the database. We focus all of our reviews on this information because we believe it is the most effective way to understand success vs. potential.

The Numbers

Now it's time for the main event. I'll just send them to you so that those who understand what they mean can decide for themselves.

Sydney	Melbourne	Canberra	Adelaide
·         Uptime – 98.6%	·         Uptime – 98.9%	·         Uptime – 97.5%	·         Uptime – 98.09%
·         Average Loadtime – 1,912Ms	·         Average Loadtime – 2,012Ms	·         Average Loadtime – 2,182Ms	·         Average Loadtime – 1,658Ms

These figures are very impressive. Of course, Canberra is a little behind in everything, but then again, Canberra is a little behind in everything.

What Do These Numbers Mean?

Oh, and for those of you who don't spend their days looking at web hosting statistics, I should probably clarify that.

Uptime

The term "uptime" speaks for itself. This is the percentage of time a web host is available.

In other words, how long their servers are on, operating, and serving web pages to your customers. In terms of the amount of time, your website is available. Is that clear?

The uptime of a successful web hosting company should be greater than 98 percent. A poor one would have less than 97 percent of the time. Even a.1 difference in web hosting will make a significant difference in the amount of revenue you produce from your website.

People despise downtime, and if your site is down the first time they try to come, they won't return.

As you can see from the table above, HostGator performs admirably in this field. These are some of the best uptime stats I've seen in a long time, and they show that HostGator knows what they're doing when it comes to server maintenance.

Speed

“Speed” should also be simple to comprehend. However, when comparing web hosts, even minor variations in speed can make a big difference. According to research, even a one-second delay in page loading would cause several potential customers to leave your site.

When it comes to pace, HostGator is among the best web hosts in Australia. If you have a big website and want to include high-resolution images, HostGator is a great option.

You see, once you understand the numbers, they're really a lot of fun!

Pricing

What does that obnoxious alligator charge for his fantastic hosting services?

Not by a long shot. Alligators, after all, don't seem to need anything in the way of hard currency. The following is a list of HostGator's prices.

Argh. Do you notice how their website has the same dreadful colors as the alligator?

But, once you get past the obnoxious interface, you'll see that HostGator is actually very competitive. Sure, the simple plan doesn't include SSL, but their business plan for $6 a month is a steal.

One thing I'd like to point out is that I don't believe it's worth it to go with HostGator's basic plan. It's fine, and you'll still get a dependable and quick service, but the number of additional features included in the other plans, for just a few bucks more, make them much more valuable.

In reality, when it comes to value, HostGator is only second to SiteGround when it comes to the Baby and Business plans. They did an excellent job.

Extras

But perhaps the best thing about HostGator is that all of their plans come with a slew of extras as usual. It will take an eternity to list them all here, so go to http://www.hostgator.com/shared-compare and take a look.

Tables similar to this:

Are a fantastic sign. You may not be familiar with Perl (though my inner geek encourages you to learn), but trust us when we say that a web host that supports so many languages is rare. It also implies that HostGator is serious about web hosting and provides serious web hosting for serious people.

This is the type of thing you should be on the lookout for.

SSL

If you've read some of our reviews (which you should, because they're fantastic), you'll find that we talk a lot about SSL. This is because there is a serious issue – some may even call it a con – with SSL in Australia.

This is how the scheme works.

A web host provides fairly average hosting for a very low price, enticing a large number of customers to sign up for year-long contracts.

The plans, on the other hand, are so basic that these same consumers end up paying hundreds of dollars more each year for features that should be normal. SSL certificates are the very worst.

However, I'm happy to report that HostGator has no such issues. Except for the most simple, all of their plans provide SSL as standard. That's nice because it means I won't have to go on a rant about this topic like I usually do.

👉 Also, you can read : HostGator review just cheap or cheap and reliable

Talking To The Hostgator Alligator Support

One final stage. HostGator's customer service is really very nice. This, I believe, is due to the fact that they don't have anything to do.

I'm not implying that they're slackers.

However, there seems to be a pattern: hosts with decent uptimes have good customer service departments since they are not bombarded with calls every few days because the server is down.

Servers are less likely to go down if you know how to maintain them, and you'll have more time to react to people. At Host Gator, this seems to be the case.

Everyone at their call center, I believe, is dressed as a blue and yellow alligator. However, after conducting extensive research, I can confidently state that they are not the case the vast majority of the time.

The Alternatives

It's a sad fact that by this point in the article, most readers are eager to learn about the alternatives to whatever shoddy web host I'm reviewing. I'm not overly cynical; it's just that most Australian web hosts are terrible.

HostGator, on the other hand, does not. There are a few other web hosts that are just as good (if not slightly better) than HostGator, but the alligator is the way to go if you want easy, inexpensive, and reliable web hosting.

And if, after hearing what I've said, you're considering switching from your own web host, now is the time. I don't want to belabor the case, but a successful web host will significantly boost your revenue, profit margin, satisfaction, and sexual potency (citation needed).

It will also provide you with the following:

But apart from that, we also saw a marked improvement in some of their other stats:

• An improvement in the number of time clients spend on the platform (people like fast websites)
• An improved Google ranking (Google also likes fast websites)
• Improved Uptime and
• Quicker loading times

And even if you’re trapped in a year-long deal with a sucky host, you should consider moving your site anyway. Web hosting in Australia has come a long way in recent years, and you will probably get a lot more for your money now than you could a few years ago.

While HostGator is a good choice, let's look at some other options in case you can't stand seeing the color scheme every time you log into your back end.

In reality, HostGator is so good that there is only one choice, which is the one we use:

So, where do I begin? SiteGround is the wave of the future for Australian web hosting, and the competition has a long way to catch up.

SiteGround has the best statistics of any web host in the country for those who are interested in statistics. They aren't quite as good as HostGator, but they're similar.

SiteGround, like HostGator, offers free SSL and a slew of other extras that come in handy if you're running a unique website.

SiteGround's biggest drawback is that they are a little more costly than HostGator. However, the difference between the two companies is around $1 a month, and if you're concerned about that, you may need to make a more dramatic change than simply changing your web host.

In Conclusion

In summary, HostGator is a great, modern web host with a ridiculous, out-of-date mascot.

You can't do much better than HostGator if you want a web host that is dependable, quick, and provides excellent customer service on rare occasions when something goes wrong.

You can also visualize your server engineers as alligators, which will help the day go by quickly.