HostGator offers affordable hosting plans starting at just $2.75 per month where you will get all the necessary features to build a website. A free domain name, free site transfers, unlimited storage space & bandwidth, free SSL, free site builder, and 24/7 customer support, makes HostGator a top pick for shared hosting and novice webmasters. Well, this post is definitely for you where you’ll discover everything related to the HostGator that includes its basic overview, features, plans & pricing, pros, cons, and much more. A domain name and web hosting are two primary things needed to start a blog or website. But finding a reliable web host within budget could be a tedious job for novice webmasters. That’s why we came up with a thought to review HostGator hosting so that you can easily decide whether HostGator is a good pick for you or not? So without much ado, let’s get started.
HostGator Overview
HostGator Overview
Hostgator is one of the most oldest and reliable web hosting companies. It was founded back in 2002 in a dorm room, now became the leading provider of Shared, Reseller, VPS, and Dedicated web hosting with having several international offices throughout the globe. In 2012, HostGator was acquired by Endurance International Group. Their unparalleled speed, reliability, technical support, and customer service made them win several prestigious awards from some big brands like Hosting Advice, PCMAG.COM, and wpbeginner. Whether you are looking for web hosting services for a small business or an established big enterprise, they have got you covered! Their every plan is a fully-featured pack plan which is available at very affordable prices. So now let’s get started knowing about HostGator’s web hosting services in detail.
HostGator Review 2023: An Honest Review of Their Hosting Services
HostGator Review 2023: An Honest Review of Their Hosting Services
Firstly, let’s talk about all the features that you get with HostGator shared hosting.
Features List of HostGator
All these features make HostGator a perfect package for beginners to start a blog or website. Do you want to give it a try? Click on this exclusive link to start your blog on HostGator straight away.
HostGator Pricing Plans (Starts At $2.75/mo)
HostGator shared hosting offers you 3 pricing plans which are listed below.
Hatchling plan Baby plan Business plan
Cloud hosting: Cloud hosting is both affordable and faster which is most suitable if your website gets frequent traffic spikes. Their pricing plans include Hatchling Cloud, Baby Cloud, and Business Cloud and they start at the pricing of $4.95 per month WordPress hosting: This is also another shared hosting plan which is exclusively optimized for WordPress powered websites. It optimizes performance and protects your website from some common WordPress attacks and also performs automatic WordPress updates. The pricing starts at $5.95 per month VPS hosting: Virtual Private Server allows you to manage your virtual resources on a cloud hosting platform and also offers you the fastest website speeds and the pricing plans start at just around $30 per month Dedicated hosting: With dedicated hosting, you get a server solely for hosting your websites and the pricing plans start at around $120 per month
Apart from the above hosting choices, HostGator also offers you reseller hosting, Application hosting, Windows hosting, etc so you can literally host any type of website ranging from a small website to portfolio site to big eCommerce site.
3 Reasons You Might Want to Consider HostGator
If you’re thinking about whether HostGator is a good choice for you or not, then you can consider the following 3 reasons and make a choice.
Unlimited domains (except Hatchling plan) Unmetered bandwidth Unmetered storage Unlimited SSL certificates (this applies automatically to every domain hosted on your account) Unlimited subdomains Unlimited FTP accounts Unlimited MySQL databases Unlimited email accounts
As you can see above, you’ll literally get everything you need to host and manage a website with HostGator shared hosting features. One click installs: HostGator offers you easy to use cPanel along with easy 1-click installs where you can choose from all the best hosting applications including WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, phpBB, Wiki and so on. In case if you’re launching an eCommerce store, you can easily grow your online business by using eCommerce specific platforms such as Magento, PrestaShop, ZenCart, etc. 3. Affordable hosting plans (plus monthly plans) Another reason to consider hosting from HostGator is that it offers you really affordable hosting plans as their basic shared hosting plans start at just $2.75 per month (cheaper than Bluehost and SiteGround). Not only that, HostGator also offers you monthly hosting plans which most of the other web hosts such as Bluehost don’t offer. So if you’re not comfortable paying for 1 or 2 years hosting fee at once, monthly plans from HostGator can come handy for you. Above all, you’ll also get $200 worth of marketing credits for both Bing and Google to display paid ads to promote your website or online business.
$100 Bing Ads Credit $100 Google AdWords
As you can see above, millions of people opt for a web host like HostGator simply because it offers you incredible hosting features at really affordable prices.
1 Reason You May Avoid HostGator
The only drawback of using HostGator hosting is that they do not offer automatic backups with their shared hosting plans. When it comes to choosing the right web host, website security should be given top choice because literally thousands of websites get hacked every single day. Your web hosting plays a key role when it comes to securing your WordPress website from hackers. But HostGator really lacks in providing superior security features to secure your WordPress sites. In fact, you’ll need to pay extra money for a few security features such as;
Site backup SiteLock monitoring etc
Both the above features are premium add-on services in HostGator (as they should be provided for free and that definitely makes HostGator better). If you’re curious here are the details about the above tools. Site backup: This is a premium backup add-on from HostGator powered by CodeGuard which costs you $2 per month (billed annually at $23.95) which helps you with daily automated website backup for all website files and databases with a 1-click restore. SiteLock monitoring: This is a premium add-on from HostGator which costs you $1.67 per month (billed annually at $19.99) which checks your website daily and immediately notifies you if your website has been hacked or injected with malicious code. Read: Top 10 Best WordPress Hosting Providers for High Traffic Websites So there you go. If you still have any doubt or confusion regarding Hostgator, you should look for other hosting alternatives before signing up for HostGator.
Alternatives to HostGator Hosting
If you are searching for other better alternatives to HostGator hosting, here are 3 better web hosting options we’ve for you.
Pros And Cons of HostGator
Let’s now talk about the pros and cons of HostGator hosting so you can easily decide whether it’s a right web host for you or not. Pros: Cons:
What about the speed and uptime?
What about the speed and uptime provided by HostGator? Let’s talk about both these things so you can decide whether or not to use HostGator for hosting purposes. So let’s talk about the uptime and speed offered by HostGator. Let’s start with its uptime first. Although HostGator claims 99.9% uptime guarantee but we’ll find their “true uptime” by visiting the Hrank website as they track millions of websites regularly to check the uptime and response times of over 300 web hosts worldwide. Here’s the uptime of HostGator (data is taken from Hrank) As you can see above, the uptime of HostGator for the last 30 days is over 99.9% (which is higher than what actually is claimed by HostGator). So the overall uptime is great. What about the speed? As you can see above, the response time for the last 30 days is “1173 ms” which is 1.73 seconds. That means, the average speed of websites hosted on HostGator is almost close to 2 seconds. Not too bad considering the affordable pricing plans offered by HostGator. Now, you can decide whether HostGator is great in terms of uptime and speed or not. Then, you can use our HostGator promo code if you’re happy with them. So, this is our unbiased review of Hostgator. For us, Hostgator is one of the best hosting service providers and one can go with it without thinking twice. If you want to start a WordPress site on Hostgator right away, here is a step by step guide for doing the same with ease.
How to Set up a WordPress Blog on HostGator (Step by Step)
How to Set up a WordPress Blog on HostGator (Step by Step)
So let’s now talk about how you can set up a WordPress site on Hostgator. Step 1: Click on this SPECIAL link to visit HostGator website. You’ll be landing on an exclusive page dedicated to the BloggersPassion readers. Here’s how it looks like; Choose any of the hosting plans from the above as you’re provided with 3 plans including;
Hatchling Plan (if you want to host only one website on HostGator) Baby Plan (if you want to host unlimited websites) Business Plan (can host unlimited sites along with free private SSL, Free Dedicated IP etc)
Quick tip: We highly recommend Hatchling Plan to beginners as it is the most affordable plan inlcuded with all the necessary features required to build a site from scratch. Step 2: Choose an easy to remember domain name Once you’ve chosen your preferred hosting plan from HostGator, you’ll be taken to their billing page where you need to register a new domain or you can also enter any domain that you already own. Step 3: Select a Hosting plan and Billing cycle Quick tip: We highly recommend you choose 36 months plan to save maximum. Step 4: Create your Hostgator Account Step 5: Enter your Billing Information Step 6: Remove Additional Services Uncheck all the additional services, as a beginner, you will not require them. Step 7: Enter a Coupon Code This coupon code will be applied automatically. So you don’t need to enter any promo code from your end. Step 8: Review Order Details Review your order details and click on the Checkout Now button. That’s it, you’re done. Upon successful payment, you’ll get a welcome email from HostGator with all the details so you can install WordPress easily. Quick note: In case if you are not happy with HostGator web hosting, you can cancel your account within 45 days of your hosting purchase and you’ll get a full refund!
Hostgator Customer Reviews
Hostgator Customer Reviews
If you are still not satisfied with the features that HostGator offers, have a quick look at the HostGator reviews given by its renowned customers. What Others are Reading:
ChemiCloud Review: Why Are We Recommending Them? InMotion Hosting Review 2023 with Uptime & Speed Test GreenGeeks Review: How is the Performance of This Green Host? Hostinger vs HostGator: Which Web Host is Best in 2023? Cloudways Review 2023: Is It the Best Managed Cloud Host?
Here’s a list of few important questions you might want to know about HostGator and their hosting plans in general.
Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
We have tried our level best to cover each and every aspect of HostGator. At last, after reviewing all the features and pricing of HostGator, we can conclude that it is one of the best web hosts for beginners. If you’re looking for a full-fledged web host that is affordable, HostGator can be a great choice for you. All in all, HostGator is a better hosting choice for those who are running small blogs with limited traffic and looking for affordable hosting plans. Once your site starts growing bigger and it starts generating income, you can consider migrating your site from HostGator to other web hosts such as WPX hosting, WPEngine, etc. So did you find our HostGator review useful? If you have any questions let us know in the comments.
