About HostGator

Category: Hosting
HostGator is a mature web hosting company that has expanded into multiple verticals. 24/7 customer support, generous usage limits, and 99.9% uptime make this a solid choice.

Company: HostGator

With HostGator, a Newfold Company, you can host your website with shared, reseller, VPS, and dedicated hosting solutions. A one-stop shop for hosting needs, HostGator is staffed by web professionals who know more than a thing or two about creating the perfect site.
Hatchling
$2.75
/mo
Baby
$3.50
/mo
Business
$5.25
/mo

In-Depth Analysis

0 Overall
Price 3.5
Ease Of Use 4.5
Features 4.0
Support 5.0

Pros

  • Inexpensive to get started
  • Can install popular website CMS with a single click
  • Native website builder and eCommerce store
  • Unlimited domains and subdomains

Cons

  • Does have many upsells in the backend
  • Doesn’t support staging areas

HostGator Comparisons

VS
VS
VS
Plans & Pricing

It offers many different types of hosting which includes WordPress hosting, VPS hosting, and even dedicated hosting. The pricing below focuses on the shared hosting which has three core plans and a few add-ons.

Taken together, HostGator offers inexpensive hosting plans that’ll support most small business and personal websites. It does increase after the first payment term so keep that in mind when planning your purchase.

Hatchling
$2.75
/mo
Get Started
Baby
$3.50
/mo
Get Started
Business
$5.25
/mo
Get Started

Hatchling

The Hatchling plan is $2.75/m for the first term. It comes with a year of domain registration, support for a single website, HostGator website builder, free site migration, and unmetered bandwidth. Keep in mind that unmetered bandwidth doesn’t mean unlimited.

Baby

The Baby plan costs $3.50/m for the first term. It contains many of the same features as the Hatchling plan such as a free SSL certificate, Google Ads credits, and free email accounts. It also comes with support for unlimited websites.

Business

The business plan costs $5.25/m for the first term. It has all the features from the previous plans, provides support for unlimited websites, upgrades the SSL to a positive SSL, and also comes with a dedicated IP address.

Featured prices can be updated and free offers may include additional terms.
Ease of Use

The HostGator interface is relatively straightforward for both new and veteran webmasters. As mentioned earlier, it’s divided into a native solution created by HostGator and cPanel. The native solution shouldn’t pose any major challenges, cPanel is considerably more difficult to use.
The other features like the website builder has a simple interface that follows what you will see with similar tools. Options are on one side of the screen and separated into categories for easy access.

Customer Support

HostGator provides multiple support channels so you have the option of choosing the one that works best for you. Within the application itself, there are a few support tutorials that’ll guide you through the main features.

Additional customer support:
Community forum
The community forum allows users to communicate with each other and covers all the HostGator products.

Blog
It has a blog that covers digital marketing, web hosting, and its products.

24/7 Help & Support
24/7 Help & Support
24/7 support for various technical issues related to the hosting
Phone Support
Phone Support
Phone support is available for all of its customers
Live Online Chat
Live Online Chat
Live chat is provided 24/7 to all customers
Video Tutorials
Video Tutorials
Multiple video tutorials are provided via the support portal
FAQ
FAQ
FAQ and comprehensive knowledge base on the website
Features & Functionality
General Features

HostGator is a mature hosting company and comes with all the features you’d expect from a company that’s been around so long. Beyond the one-click installation of popular content management systems, webmail, spam protection tools, and unlimited subdomains it brings a lot to the table.

Drag and drop website builder

HostGator provides a free website builder when you sign up for a hosting plan. It’s a true drag and drop editor that allows users to place elements exactly where they want them. You can even layer elements to create unique designs. The editor also supports separate mobile editing to ensure your designs look great on all devices.

Databases and programming

The web host provides databases with PHPMyAdmin access and supports multiple programming languages like CGI, Fast CGI, PHP 7, Perl, Python, and more. It also provides SSH access and the ability to run regular chron jobs.

Popular CMS

Hostgator has tools that allow you to install some of the most popular CMS with just a click. This is done through Softaculous and includes installations for WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and Magento. You can even start a Wiki with MediaWiki.

Reliability

HostGator supports over two million websites and has a stellar reputation for a reason. It guarantees 99.99% uptime to its customers and if it falls below that, the customer is eligible for a one-month credit on their account. For a lightweight website, load times are just over a second on average.

Control Panel

HostGator has two control panels. The first one is seen when a customer logs in. this shows all the services they’ve purchased and lets them control things at an account level. IT’s easy to use and well-designed. The second one is cPanel. This one is more complex than the HostGator admin area but it has the core functionality needed to manage a website like one-click CMS installation, database access, etc.

Features
  • Website Builder
  • Shared Hosting
  • Cloud hosting
  • Reseller Hosting
  • Dedicated Hosting
  • VPS Hosting
  • WordPress Hosting
  • Linux Servers
  • Windows servers
  • Unmetered SSD storage
  • Unlimited Transfers
  • Email Access
  • Control Panel
  • Free SSL Certificate
  • Free Backups
  • 1-Click App Installs
  • Free Domain Registration
  • PCI Compliance
  • GIT
  • SSH Access
  • Site Statistics
  • Log Files
Advanced Features
Features
  • File Manager
  • Custom Cron Jobs
  • Raw Access Logs
  • Script Library
  • Customizable Error Pages
Email
Features
  • Autoresponder
  • Cron Jobs
  • Spam Filters
  • Unlimited Mailboxes
Access
Features
  • Hypertext Access
  • Unlimited FTP Accounts
  • Anonymous FTP
Marketing Tools
Features
  • Advertising credits
  • Mailing lists
  • Search engine Submission
Verdict

HostGator is a hosting service that’s matured into a multi-product company. It provides solid uptime, a clear interface, and 24/7 customer support for all customers. The hosting itself comes with unmetered bandwidth, unlimited websites, access to MSQL databases, and support for code libraries. It also has a simple website builder that you can use in lieu of the popular CMS and it supports eCommerce storefronts.

HostGator has a few drawbacks such as the lack of a staging area and a large number of upsells in the backend. Its main control interface, cPanel, can also be difficult for beginners to use. In the end, HostGator has a solid service that will help you get your website online quickly and without hassle. The support team is knowledgeable and you can expect free site migrations when you sign up for a hosting plan.

Visit HostGator Site
Daniel Ndukwu
Author: Daniel Ndukwu
Daniel is a small business owner at large helping his peers navigate the challenges they experience on a day to day basis. His philosophy is simple, if it isn’t broken you can still make it better.
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Clear Filters

HostGator User Reviews

L
Lynn L
No employees
Used for: Less than 6 months
05 May - 2021

Perfect for newbies

HostGator has proven fantastic. It's immensely user-friendly for beginners.

Pros

Pros for me include: fast and friendly support, an uptime guarantee, reporting, cpanel migration, and good security addons

T
Tim B
02-10 employees
Used for: 1-2 years
01 Apr - 2021

Love HostGator! be aware of fees though

I was looking for a host that could handle everything so I had no worries over hiring other people to design, build, and manage everything. HostGator was that answer!

Pros

I can rest easy knowing my visitors' personal data is safe thanks to the SSL certificate hostgator provides for free.

Cons

There are extra fees for add on features such as malware checks and backups.

F
Freddy O
Consumer Goods, 11-50 employees
Used for: 6-12 months
09 Sep - 2021

Reliable Hosting and Domain Name Services

There is no doubt that HostGator is one of the best hosting providers. Hosting plans are available for both Linux and Windows. The Linux hosting plans come with cPanel and Windows Hosting plans come with the Plesk panel. So users can choose whichever server type they required. Additionally, if you need high performance or if you need to host high traffic websites, then you can view the Cloud Hosting plans provided by Hostgator.

All HostGator User Reviews
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