Introduction
Last Updated Feb 12, 2021
TL;DR:
HostGator offers intuitive and easy to navigate hosting which suits beginners well. The plans scale well and would be great for someone wanting to host a small website.
Visit HostGator
Hostgator is another hosting behemoth similar ranking as the second most popular host in N. America, after GoDaddy. We can understand why they’re so popular; as they offer great plans and pricing with an easy to use and understand control panel. HostGator, boasts a fairly large global presence as well. They’ve achieved this by launching operations in India, with a data center located in Nashik Maharashtra. They have also launched websites catering towards customers in China, Russia, Brazil, India, Turkey, Mexico, UK, and Australia.
Plans and Pricing
Hatchling, Baby, and Business plans are their plans gear towards most users, a type of hosting called ‘shared hosting’
Here is what they offer:
Now this all looks great, but in order to get the prices they list you have to pre-pay for 3 years of service to get the listed prices above. Otherwise it works out to be far more expensive than what they initially show you.
Renewal Fees:
| Plan | Promo Price | Renewal Price |
| Hatchling | $2.75/mo | $6.95/mo(3-year) |
| Baby | $3.95/mo | $9.95/mo(3-year) |
| Busniess | $5.95/mo | $14.95/mo(3-year) |
Features:
- SSL certificate
- “Unlimited” domains (only on higher tier plans)
- “Free” domain for 1 year
- Easy to use cPanel with one click installs
- 45 day guarantee
- 24/7 support
- SEO tools (only on the business plan)
- Automated Backups (costs extra)
- domain e-mail
Opinon
Overall, it’s hard to beat the prices that HostGator offers. Even after the promotional period the prices are some of the best in the industry. We like the included SSL certificate, SEO tools, and automatic backups. If you’re looking for a budget hosting plan with good features that scales well, HostGator should be near the top of your list. Nevertheless, these shared plans don’t come with SSD storage, which might hurt speed. Useful extras like site back-up costs more. In a way, the “extras” are a way to keep the plan truly budget, and save some money. If you do decide to go for some of the extras the plans are about comparable in price with other industry hosts such as SiteGround or BlueHost.
WordPress Hosting
WordPress hosting is a type of shared hosting that is optimized for WP. Boasting enhanced security, better speed, and easier management WordPress hosting is quickly becoming a popular option as nearly 30% of websites on the web are using WP content management system.
Plans and Pricing
Renewal Pricing
| Plan | Promo Price | Renewal Price |
| Starter | $5.95/mo | $9.95/mo(3-year) |
| Standard | $7.95/mo | $15.95/mo(3-year) |
| Busniess | $9.95/mo | $22.95/mo(3-year) |
There are a few plans that aren’t listed on their main page, as they are scaled version of the business plan. They are as follows
Expanded Packages/ Options to Scale:
| Plan | Promo Price | Renewal Price |
| Business 5 websites | $11.95/mo | $27.95/mo(3-year) |
| PRO 10 websites | $22.95/mo | $54.95/mo(3-year) |
| PRO 20 websites | $33.95/mo | $74.95/mo(3-year) |
Features:
- Free WP site migrations
- Easy to use and manage control panel
- Free domain for 1 year
- 45-day guarantee
- Site-Lock: malware scan and removal
- Daily automatic backups
- SSL certificate
- Unlimited email accounts
- 99.9% uptime guarantee
Opinion
Overall the packages are great, and the promotional pricing is also exceptional. We like that all the extras missing from shared hosting are basically included in these plans. With features like malware scan and removal, and daily backups there is a lot better value here. Furthermore HostGator has easy scaling options. They’ve got you covered if you ever do decide to manage more than 3 websites, as you can scale up to 5, 10, or 20 websites depending on our needs. Our main scuff here is with the prices after renewal. All the plans nearly double in price, which makes them go from affordable, to expensive.
VPS Hosting
VPS hosting is a popular option for those in need of more power, flexibility, and resources. Those with multiple websites, high traffic websites, or resource intensive applications may want to consider a VPS type package.
Plans and Pricing
Renewal Prices:
| Plan | Promo Price | Renewal Price |
| Snappy 2000 | $19.95/mo | $79.95/mo(3-year) |
| Snappy 4000 | $29.95/mo | $119.95/mo(3-year) |
| Snappy 8000 | $39.95/mo | $149.95/mo(3-year) |
Note- Keep in mind you’ll have to add an additional $10 dollars/mo to each plan if you want to use cPanel to manage your VPS.
Features:
- Full root access
- Weekly off site backups
- cPanel option (+$10/mo)
- Easy scalability
Opinion
At first sight, these plans might seem like a good deal, but upon further inspection we just can’t stomach the renewal pricing. If you’re planing to make a living online, or host something for long periods of time the price after renewal really sours the deal for us. From $20 to $80/month ? No thanks. We suggest you look elsewhere like DreamHost or NameCheap for more cost effective VPS options.
Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated hosting is renting an entire server machine giving you access to more resources, configuration flexibility, and speed. Dedicated servers differ from VPS in the fact that VPS are “virtualized” sections of a dedicated server. A VPS still shares the hardware with other VPS users, whereas a dedicated server is all to yourself.
Plans and Pricing
Renewal Pricing:
| Plan | Promo Price | Renewal Price |
| Value Server | $89.98/mo | $189.00/mo(3-year) |
| Power Server | $119.89/mo | $249.00/mo(3-year) |
| Enterprise Server | $139.99/mo | $289.00/mo(3-year) |
Some Things to take note of:
These prices all include cPanel, which is considered “managed” by HostGator, and costs an extra $10/month. If you don’t want that option, simply subtract $10/mo from the plans. The value plan only includes a HDD type hard-drive, where as the Power Server has an option between HDD or SDD type storage.
Managed vs. Semi Managed
If you choose to go managed you’ll get access to the easy to use cPanel to manage your websites and server configuration. Host Gator claims if you go managed they “help with virtually any technical or configuration requests, excluding custom software/scripts installation.” If you opt for semi managed HostGator will still help out with any basic configuration, hardware configurations, or operating systems.
Features:
- Full Root Access
- cPanel
- Fully managed, or semi-managed options
- Linux or Windows operating system
Opinion
If you’re looking for dedicated server options, you’ve got a lot of options these days. HostGator falls somewhat in the middle of the road in terms of price and value. The flexibility of the root access allows the servers to be used for virtually any type of application. Overall, if you’re running high traffic websites, enterprise solutions, applications, games, or large online businesses HostGator’s dedicated plans are some of the better ones on the market.
Wrap Up
Pros:
Up-time: The company is reliable and has proven have an excellent uptime record, with almost no downtime. Meaning your site will stay live without interruptions. They offer a 99.9% uptime guarantee and if for some reason you experience downtime beyond 0.01% they’ll credit you with 1 month of free hosting.
Price: If you’re looking for a plan that scales well, and won’t break your wallet, HostGator is a good option. Maybe you just want to try out blogging or run a small website, not having to pay a fortune for premium hosting from the get-go is a pretty smart move. If your business or blog does take off, you can easily scale up to a higher tier of shared hosting or a VPS plan.
User Friendly, good for people new to websites:
HostGator offers a free drag and drop website builder with lots of nice templates to choose from. Furthermore, they have a massive portal with helpful articles on “how to do this and that” and walkthroughs, so it’s pretty easy to find an answer to common questions.They also offer an eCommerce plan! Pretty amazing, you can set up a fully functional store, and start selling stuff without having get used to plug-ins or unfamiliar systems! I really like this feature.
Cons:
Support: The company has a live 24/7 chat, which is a great feature! I really like this, no matter where you are or when, you’re able to get in touch and get help. They also provide phone and email support options, which are great if you prefer to use those methods. The staff is well trained and knowledgable.
This all sounds great, so why did we put support in the CONS section? Well, people on TrustPilot and other web forms really seem to be unhappy with HostGators support. There a slew of negative reviews; but we’re going to take them with a grain of salt as there are also hundreds of positive reviews as well. Its a “mixed bag” for sure.
Fees for “extras”:
When you go to purchase your hosting plan, upon check out you’ll be presented with a plethora of expensive extras, some of them already automatically selected. Although these extras aren’t necessary, some of them can give peace of mind (like the site backup feature, or anti-hacking).
The Bottom Line:
The good uptime, and easy to understand user friendly interface make HostGator a good choice for anyone who is interested in starting their first website. Not the best page loading speed, but not the worst either. We think their plans scale really well, offering new bloggers the ability to easily scale. Nevertheless, there are mixed reports on the support and the renewal pricing can be a deal breaker for some.
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