This HostGator review will tell you about what is great about HostGator and who should
use it. I will also show you the features that you can expect with your hosting. HostGator ranks among the top web hosting companies on the www. A few of its features will impress you.
You should check out its affordable prices. Maybe even more critical is its marketing, which has always been top-notch, with plenty of ads. Perhaps it’s the reason you’re here today.
Is Hostgator Good for Beginners?
HostGator provides quality features, good server performance, and an affordable price. It makes your site load fast and works without any problems if you have a large audience located in the US. Although, it doesn’t offer a training platform for total beginners to learn how to build an internet business.
What is HostGator, and what type of hosting can it provide?
HostGator was started in 2002 by Brent Oxley. Its accomplishments over the years are impressive, and it doesn’t seem like they have an arduous task to stay top of the pack.
It is a company that has experienced many significant milestones during its history.
Here are some of these:
HostGator introduced its customized managed WordPress hosting packages
in 2015 to compete with some of the more costly boutique WordPress hosts. HostGator today serves more than 800,000 customers across more than 200 nations.
You’ll find the following in HostGator’s offering.
Shared Hosting
That is HostGator’s top-of-the-line hosting plan. These plans provide all the features that users will need and at very meager prices.
This plan comes with unlimited bandwidth and storage. So you don’t need to worry about your website growing too much.
You also have the option to install WordPress with one click. You can get a free SSL Certificate and a website transfer at no cost. In addition to all that, the first year is free with a domain name.
WordPress Hosting
This tier of hosting offers a variation on shared hosting plans with additional optimizations to WordPress sites.
You get a free domain, and the plans are equally affordable. The bandwidth is unlimited, and you can have as many as 100k monthly visitors (on your cheapest plan) or as many people (on your far end).
What is the secret to making them WordPress-friendly?
- Automatic daily backups
- WordPress offers additional security features
- Optimized WordPress sites to speed up
- WordPress themes integrated catalog
- Integrations with SiteLock/CodeGuard
These setups include WordPress from the beginning – for those who plan to create a new site. Or, you could transfer an existing site. Get started here today on Hostgator.
Disclaimer: This article contains affiliate links where I may receive a small commission at no cost to you if you choose to purchase from a link on this page. These are tools and tips that I fully recommend when it comes to hosting a website. You can read my full affiliate disclosure in my affiliate disclosure policy.
Site Builder
This one is unique because it completely changes how users think about hosting and obtaining a website. HostGator suggests you start by creating a website. This model allows you to access the builder and create your site from the bottom up.
The website creation portion is very user-friendly. The builder has lovely templates, and it’s entirely visually oriented.
VPS Hosting
We’re now in the realm of pro-level web hosting!
VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting allows you to host virtual tools that you can customize to your project’s requirements.
Hosting on a Dedicated Server
It doesn’t get any better than dedicated hosting.
As the name suggests, dedicated hosting allows you to access a physical machine (computer) that runs your server program. It’s the most expensive hosting type, but it’s also the most customizable to fit users’ needs. HostGator provides dedicated hosting plans.
Reseller Hosting
This hosting type is perfect for users who resell hosting services to their clients. The concept is quite simple. You purchase a HostGator Hosting package and then sell it to your clients. The difference between the HostGator price and what you sold the hosting to your clients will be yours. HostGator offers reseller hosting options.
Which HostGator Hosting plan is best?
It all depends on your needs and the type of site you want.
You should choose WordPress hosting plans if you want to build a WordPress website that serves a serious purpose (e.g., business or professional portfolio).
Shared hosting plans are great for smaller projects and experiments.
Pricing and Features
This review will be focusing on HostGator’s WordPress hosting plans. That is the hosting that’s most in-demand because of WordPress’ popularity as an online platform.
HostGator Pricing
Here’s how prices change depending on what plan you choose and how much of a contract you have:
Plan: 1 month, three months, 6months, one year, two years, and 3 years;
- Starter: $14.95, $14.95/mo, $14.95/mo, $7.95/mo, $6.95/mo, and $5.95/mo
- Standard: $20.95, $20.95/mo, $20.95/mo, $9.95/mo, $8.95/mo, and $7.95/mo
- Business: $27.95, $27.95/mo, $27.95/mo, $11.95/mo, $10.95/mo, and $9.95/mo
The cheaper per month it will cost you, the longer the time frame.
Here are the features:
Its hosting plans all have similar performance and server powers. The difference is only in how many sites you can host and the number of visitors you can welcome.
First, let’s look at what all plans include:
Unmetered bandwidth: This means that your bandwidth can be unlimited provided you do not exceed the HostGator reasonable usage limit.
For the first year, you get a free domain name.
That is a great deal. However, not all hosts offer it for free. It also includes unlimited email address aliases, autoresponders, and forwarders.
$150 credit to Google Ads
WordPress installation is free – so you don’t have the responsibility of installing WordPress on your own. There are many WordPress themes that you can consider.
- SSL Certificates are available for free
- CodeGuard integration is free for backups
- SiteLock Fix integration is free. It scans your site to find malware and other security concerns.
- 24/7/365 customer support
- There is also a 45-day money-back guarantee.
So, which hosting tiers are different?
Site Migrations to Plan Sites are allowed monthly traffic.
- Starter 1 site: 100k visits plus one free website migration
- Standard 2 Sites: 200k Visits + 2 Free Website Migrations
- Business 3 sites: 500k views plus three free website migrations
The plans are well-balanced, and anyone can choose the one that suits their project. HostGator has a solution that will work for you, whether you want to launch one site or multiple sites.
What is most important is that the plans are all identical in terms of performance. It is easy to use
HostGator has a simple signup process that doesn’t involve any surprises. It requires only your name and payment details to get you up and running.
It provides the option for setting up an eCommerce store, although it isn’t selected by default because most users won’t require it.
HostGator Upgrades
After you complete the purchase, your main user panel will appear.
HostGator Review: The main dashboard.
There is a lot to it, and the sidebar gives you easy access to the most important actions for your server.
Hosting – It is optional to interact with this section. It is available in case you ever require it. HostGator strives to make your job easier by making the most basic settings readily accessible.
Marketplace – That is where you will find upgrades to your setup. You can get things like Google Workspace integration, SEO Tools, and so on.
Email & Office – HostGator supports integration with Google’s, Microsoft office, and email tools.
Domains – Buy and manage additional domains.
Billing and Support – It is pretty straightforward.
The HostGator dashboard allows you to quickly access all settings and important features while not overwhelming you. There will be many reasons that you need to visit this dashboard every day. Everything I consider “working to your site” takes place in the WordPress Dashboard.
Performance and load time
While everything is great, the next thing that I need to discuss in my HostGator review is how fast these servers work.
Customer support
HostGator has a 24/7/365 customer care line. You can access your user panel for help.
Chatting live is the best method to get in touch with customer support. It’s available 24/7. You can also call them using a toll-free number if in the US. Or, you may use an international phone number if abroad.
The platform’s video tutorials make it simple to get started, even if you are starting with a website.
HostGator Performance
It is essential to find a web hosting company that is fast and has a solid performance record. But how do you access this information?
Speed is the most crucial performance indicator. Your users will appreciate a faster website, which can also help your SEO rankings.
Studies have shown that even a 1% delay in page loading will lead to 7% fewer viewed pages, 11% fewer conversions, and 16% less satisfaction.
HostGator Server Uptime
The content can affect the page load time of your website. Your page load time will increase if you have many images. That could affect your server speed test results.
HostGator has a wide range of hosting options and also offers web hosting for other platforms, such as Joomla! and Magento.
However, their primary offering is shared WordPress Hosting. That is where most users start their journey.
You can try HostGator for 45 days free of charge and find out for yourself. You never know, it might be an excellent choice for you.
Alternatives to HostGator
You’ve probably realized by now that HostGator doesn’t rank the highest in my list of preferred providers. Their performance, especially speed, is not bad. Let me give you a few alternatives that you could use in a variety of situations.
A2 Hosting and DreamHost are reliable, affordable providers. InMotion, SiteGround, and DreamHost offer the best support.
My tests showed that SiteGround and GreenGeeks performed well.
SiteGround is an excellent WordPress shared hosting provider. It has more features than any shared hosting provider: Advanced speed optimization options, caching system, and staging.
The one major difference between many of these hosting platforms is that some are purely for hosting and others offer full training on how to build a website business. For not much more per month, you can get full training, a very friendly and helpful community, and a mentor. Add to that full security, technical support, and encouragement.
If you have always wanted to own your own online business then you can start today for free and see if it will work for you. Click the banner below.
Conclusion
Hostgator offers higher-tier hosting plans to help your business grow. The pricing for dedicated hosting is also very affordable compared to other companies.
HostGator is the number one and most loved hosting company in the world. They offer shared VPS, dedicated servers, managed WordPress hosting plans, and shared hosting.
Reliability: Your site will remain online 24/7/365 with no downtime.
Performance: How fast your website will load on HostGator!
Customer Support: Are you able to rely on their customer service? Do you have the ability to get help if needed quickly?
Pricing: Do they have the best pricing in the industry? HostGator can offer you savings on your hosting costs.
Pros
- HostGator is known for its reliability and 99.9% uptime. If you experience less than that, you will get one month of credit to your account.
- HostGator offers a 45-day money-back guarantee. Web hosting companies don’t usually provide a money-back guarantee longer than 30 days.
- Flexible billing period: You can choose between monthly billing or yearly billing. A more extended billing period will give you the most incredible discount.
- It offers free migration services for all new users. Its team of experts will transfer your website from the previous host at no additional cost within the first 30 calendar days.
- Host up to 3 websites for affordable prices
- For the first year, you get a free domain name
- Free email hosting
- SSL is free
- CodeGuard integrations and SiteLock integrations free of charge
- 24/7 customer service via live chat or telephone
Cons
- Monthly pricing tends to be higher than annual. The annual plans have a 45-day money-back guarantee.
- Aggressive sales: Make sure you review the extra services that you pre-selected when signing up. You can uncheck any assistance that you don’t want and can add these later, if necessary.
- To get the best prices, you need to be committed to at least three years.
- HostGator currently has only Texas and Utah locations for data centers.
I hope that this information has helped you today to understand better what Hostgator can offer in hosting services. Please leave a comment and ask any questions that you have, I will be delighted to help.
Warm Regards,
Lily
Hi Lily. Thank you for your interesting review on HostGator. I never realised they had such economical plans available. I gave several websites and was very interested in the business plan you mentioned. If I read correctly it looks like Hostgater would only cost me about $369 for three years, that’s a lot less then I’m currently being charged. I also liked the idea that U could try it out free for 45 days. I’ll definitely be taking a closer look at Hostgater. Jim
That sounds like a great plan, Jim. It all comes down to how much assistance you need. Hostgator is great if you know what you are doing and just want hosting, but if you need to learn the how of internet building then Wealthy Affiliate is a wonderful place to learn and be supported.
Hi. Thank you very much for your review. I was first considering a dedicated hosting provider. I know it guarantees maximum uptime for my website. However, I am not currently making money on my site. And my traffic is still low. So, shared hosting is a good option for me. And HostGator is my best choice. Thank you for enabling me to make a well-informed choice.
You are very welcome Paolo. It is very important to get the best hosting that you can afford that will help you to stay around long enough to build a profitable business. Hostgator is definitely a contender.
Great thorough review for HostGator, I like the fact that you listed the pros and cons that you’ve identified. From what you enlisted I see that the prices a fair compared to the services they provide, especially for shared hosting which targets usually small businesses/websites, and still the fact that shared hosting comes with no limitation on bandwidth and storage is great.
One thing still puzzles me though is the HostGator Server Uptime, do they have any kind of policy in place for that, like the SLA and up time in %?
Hi Salam, I like that you can see that they are reasonable. I couldn’t find a percentage for uptime but I will contact them and ask. Watch this space.
Hi Lily, HostGator is one of the most famous web hosts in the industry. HostGator might be one of the biggest and oldest web hosting companies in the industry.
HostGator offers a modern hosting service for those looking for unmetered bandwidth and unlimited domain registrations, whether you’re looking for a shared hosting plan or cloud services. When it comes to purchasing domains with HostGator, it has some features such as domain locking, domain renewal, domain privacy protection and easy management.
In my opinion, domain locking feature is the best because it will prevent unauthorised transfer of your domain names by other peoples.
Wow! that is great that you know about the domain locking feature that HostGator has. Of course, we all worry about someone selling our domain name and it can get pretty messy trying to get it back. Sadly, there are bad people out there and the internet is still a bit lawless. HostGator has made it easy to protect your domain name.
Thanks for highlighting this tip.