At a look

Expert’s Rating

Pros

• User-friendly management panel and a free web site builder
• Great uptime
• Many characteristic plans, offering flexibility for numerous wants
• Quick and thorough help

Cons

• Lack of transparency in pricing, hiding renewal charges till checkout
• Confusing options web page
• Video tutorials haven’t been lively for over a yr

Our Verdict

HostGator is a dependable hosting firm with aggressive pricing and a user-friendly setup course of. However, it’s not as clear as its opponents concerning renewal charges and have particulars. It presents a variety of internet hosting plans with respectable options and a free web site builder. Their help is responsive and useful, they usually have a complete data base. Overall, HostGator is a strong alternative for internet hosting your web site.

Price When Reviewed

$2.75 / mo to $5.25 / mo

Best Prices Today: HostGator

With over twenty years of expertise below its belt, HostGator has develop into a family identify within the hosting trade, particularly within the Shared Hosting space. HostGator’s uptime is unmatched, and the service presents respectable options at an inexpensive value throughout its numerous plans. However, the corporate isn’t as clear about its charges as Bluehost or InMovement Hosting.

HostGator: Pricing

HostGator presents numerous internet hosting plans with completely different options and pricing choices to go well with numerous wants and budgets. Like its opponents, it presents a big low cost to your first-time fee. 

One of the most important annoyances about how HostGator handles this in comparison with Bluehost or InMovement Hosting is that it hides the renewal price. Where the competitors is specific about their pricing on their respective plan pages, HostGator doesn’t present the renewal price till you’re at checkout—and it’s in very tiny print.

Regardless of this main flaw, HostGator’s pricing remains to be aggressive. It doesn’t provide reductions for its one-month and six-month choices for the Shared Hosting plans, however you may get a pleasant low cost starting from 60 p.c to 73 p.c for the one-year and three-year choices.

Here’s a breakdown of HostGator’s pricing and subscription tiers for the Shared Hosting package deal.

Marshall Gunnell / Foundry

HostGator additionally presents a Dedicated Server package deal for these operating small- to medium-sized enterprise. The costs are far more costly than the Shared Hosting plans, however the efficiency makes it value it. There are additionally extra versatile subscription plans for Dedicated Server subscribers. These costs are simply a place to begin, however they’ll change a bit relying on which working system and onerous drive kind you choose.

Marshall Gunnell / Foundry

HostGator’s Shared Hosting costs are fairly normal, whereas their Dedicated Server packages could also be seen as a bit pricier than the competitors—although it does provide extra subscription plans to satisfy numerous wants.

HostGator: Setup

HostGator’s setup course of is about as simple because it will get. HostGator presents a user-friendly management panel that makes it simple to handle your web site and internet hosting account.

In the management panel, or cPanel, you’ll discover a vary of instruments and options that you should utilize to handle your web site. These embody instruments for creating e mail accounts, putting in apps like WordPress, and managing your web site’s information and databases.

One of the good issues about HostGator is that it presents a free web site builder that you should utilize to create your website with none coding expertise. This builder is a drag-and-drop instrument that makes it simple to create professional-looking web sites with little to no expertise.

Customer help is all the time fast to help you, whether or not you name or use the reside chat service. If you favor to determine issues out your self, HostGator has some useful content material on getting began, in addition to an entire data base that covers every other points it’s possible you’ll be going through. It additionally presents a good library of video tutorials, although that hasn’t been lively for over a yr.

HostGator: Features

HostGator presents a aggressive characteristic set throughout even its most elementary plans. Regardless of your expertise stage and desires, HostGator probably has what you want for an affordable value. Depending on which plan you subscribe to, you may anticipate issues like unmetered bandwidth, free SSL certificates, area transfers, and extra.

As with its pricing pages, although, HostGator makes it obscure what you actually get. For instance, discover how within the “Top features” tab on the plan comparability web page, it reveals the Hatchling Plan as providing “Chat Only” help.

Marshall Gunnell / Foundry

But in case you swap to the “Support” tab on the identical web page, which supplies extra particulars in regards to the help the plans provide, it states that you simply get 24/7 reside chat and cellphone help throughout every plan, together with the Hatchling Plan.

Marshall Gunnell / Foundry

These conflicts make issues a bit complicated for potential prospects, and will dissuade them from utilizing the service all collectively. But, in case you’re not deterred by the inconsistencies on the official website, right here’s what HostGator claims comes with every plan.

Each plan additionally comes with a free area for the primary yr, however provided that you subscribe to 12 months or extra. The Baby plan comes with a $500 Google Ad spend match credit score and $100 Microsoft Advertising credit score, which is a improbable deal in case you’re trying to get the phrase out about your new website.

Overall, HostGator offers respectable options, particularly with its Business plan. Hopefully the web site shall be up to date to make issues a bit simpler to know what’s provided, and at what value.

HostGator: Backup and safety

HostGator presents a number of choices that guarantee the protection of your web site and its information. One of the first backup choices they supply is CodeGuard, a cloud-based backup resolution that takes every day computerized backups of your web site’s information. CodeGuard additionally presents options like web site monitoring, malware detection, and straightforward restore choices. 

This characteristic is crucial for companies, nevertheless it’s not free. You’ll have to fork out between $2.75 to $8.33 monthly, relying on which CodeGaurd plan you go along with. If this can be a bit out of your funds, HostGator additionally offers weekly backup choices for its prospects, however this isn’t really helpful for companies. These backups are saved on a separate server, which offers added safety to your web site’s information, nevertheless it solely retains one backup. Once a brand new backup is made, the previous one is deleted.

HostGator additionally presents SiteLock, a robust safety instrument that helps shield your web site from malware and different cyber threats. SiteLock performs every day scans of your web site and alerts you in case of any safety points. It additionally offers a firewall and different security measures to forestall assaults in your web site. Like the backup choices, SiteLock isn’t free, and you may anticipate to pay between $5.99 to $24.99 monthly, relying on the plan you go along with.

HostGator: Reliability

HostGator ensures a 99.9 p.c uptime for its internet hosting companies, which implies that your web site shall be up and operating virtually on a regular basis. This stage of uptime is crucial for companies or people who depend on their web site for producing leads, gross sales, or income. Downtime = cash misplaced.

HostGator has a number of information facilities situated across the U.S., which helps be certain that your web site’s information is saved securely and that your web site is well accessible to guests from completely different areas.

We ran a web site hosted by HostGator for roughly 15 months and skilled no main outages and little or no downtime. As you’ll anticipate operating a web site on a shared server, there have been moments the place the location would run sluggish once we had giant spikes of visitors, however this difficulty will be fastened by utilizing a devoted server. Overall, HostGator offered a dependable hosting service with excessive uptime.

HostGator: Customer help

HostGator presents buyer help by numerous channels, together with cellphone, e mail, and reside chat. Its buyer help group is offered 24/7, which implies that you may get assist with any points or questions you could have at any time. If you want instant assist, the reside chat service is the best way to go.

Confusingly, as talked about above, it was unclear if cellphone help was out there for Hatchling Plan subscribers, as there’s conflicting content material on the location. We reached out to Support for affirmation, they usually confirmed that cellphone help is offered for all plans.

Marshall Gunnell / Foundry

HostGator additionally presents a ticketing system the place you may submit a help request, and the help group will get again to you inside 24 to 48 hours. This ticketing system is useful for non-urgent points or in case you favor to speak through e mail.

Finally, HostGator offers a fruitful data base with detailed articles and tutorials on numerous matters associated to hosting. This data base is accessible by the web site and may help you troubleshoot frequent points or be taught extra about hosting.

Overall, HostGator presents complete buyer help by numerous channels, is fast to answer, and is all the time useful in offering help, no matter what it’s possible you’ll be combating.

Should you employ HostGator hosting?

HostGator is a superb alternative for internet hosting your web site, providing a variety of internet hosting plans with completely different pricing choices to go well with numerous wants and budgets. 

The pricing is aggressive, with reductions out there for one-year and three-year choices. However, one main flaw is that HostGator hides the renewal price till checkout, not like its opponents who show it transparently on their pricing pages. 

HostGator’s setup course of is user-friendly, with a free web site builder, cPanel, and a variety of instruments and options to handle your web site. It presents 24/7 reside chat and cellphone help, with useful content material on getting began and an entire data base that covers any points it’s possible you’ll face. 

HostGator additionally presents a aggressive characteristic set, however its presentation of options will be complicated for potential prospects. Despite this, HostGator stays a strong alternative for these searching for dependable hosting.