HostGator Review 2023: Plans and Pricing explained!

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Introduction to our Hostgator Review.

Overall, users have found HostGator to be a mixed bag – with features some find to be excellent and others, needing improvement. Let's have a closer look in this in-depth Hostgator review and determine if this web host is still on top. This review will cover details on HostGator WordPress review, HostGator Baby Plan review, HostGator Business Plan review, and HostGator Hatchling Plan review.

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Overview: Is It Still an Apex Web Hosting Provider?

HostGator is a web hosting company founded in 2002. It offers a variety of web hosting services, including shared hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated server hosting. The company is known for its affordable prices and easy-to-use control panel.

Many web hosts have come and gone, but the very best remain on top of the web hosting pyramid. HostGator is a popular name in the industry, having been in the business for years. It's most remembered for being a pioneer in managed WordPress hosting services and is continually revamping its features to cater to the growing needs of users and organisations.

Visit HostGator.com

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Ease of use:

One of the most important criteria when judging a web host is its ease of use – and we give Hostgator a fair rating on this area. Our Hostgator Review finds a feature-packed service, but not difficult to navigate and customise at all. Of course, if you’re familiar with cPanel and a have a basic knowledge of programming language, you’ll find this web host convenient to use. If you’re not, it could be a bit of a learning curve since its interface is not as intuitive as some platforms.

However, with Hostgator’s 1-click installations, you can heave a sigh of relief because it gets your site up and running in no time. Moreover, if you’re the type gets a kick out of tweaking, this hosting service has a broad array of developer tools and scripting languages such as Perl and Python. You can fine-tune your site’s back-end to your liking.

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Features:

Domain Names:

Hostgator offers top-level domain (TLD) extensions, including .com, .org, .net, .info, .site, .tech, and .co. As of this writing, subscribing to a Cloud, Shared, or Hostgator WordPress hosting plans gets you one (1) domain registration for free.

Email Rating:

HostGator provides unlimited POP3 email accounts with all their shared hosting plans, coupled with unlimited storage. If you subscribe to Hostgator VPS servers, you get unlimited email accounts but with plan-based disk space.

Databases:

Our Hostgator Review finds all HostGator plans feature access to an unlimited number of MySQL databases to let you innovate and configure your backend.

For its Linux hosting plans, HostGator supports unlimited MySQL databases accessible via phpMyAdmin. It also supports CGI, PHP 5, Fast CGI, PHP 7, Perl, Ruby on Rails, and Python.  For Windows hosting plans, it supports unlimited MySQL, ASP, Microsoft SQL and Access Databases, ASP.NET 2.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, Python, PHP, and SSI.

HostGator Review of Applications:

Our Hostgator.com Review finds that HostGator provides support for various applications with 1-click install such as WordPress, Magento, Joomla, Drupal, and other popular apps. However, compared to other web hosts that offer Softaculous for more convenient apps installation, HostGator is mostly WordPress-focused. Therefore, if you’re looking for a provider that allows installations of a greater variety of apps, it’s probably best to search elsewhere.

Hostgator WordPress Review:

Quick and easy WordPress installations are made possible through Softaculous. If you’re uncertain on how to proceed, the site has an extensive knowledge base to find WordPress installation tutorials. There are also tutorials on how to install a WordPress Optimised site.

HostGator also offers Managed WordPress hosting for your WordPress website. The company allows migration free of charge. The company also features an Optimised WordPress hosting package that has pre-installed WordPress 7.2 and above. Get more details on WordPress hosting through our HostGator WordPress hosting review section below..

Site Staging:

Unfortunately, our Hostgator Review finds that site staging is not offered as a feature.

Hostgator Website Builder Review:

HostGator has its own website builder, Gator, that’s easy to use and customisable. Its website builder has an intuitive interface that’s great for beginners. There are over 200 themes and templates to choose from for greater personalisation. Even for the cheapest plan on annual billing, you’re treated to a free domain, an unlimited number of pages, SSL certificate, and unlimited bandwidth and disk space.

HostGator Review of eCommerce and SSL certificate:

eCommerce:

Our Hostgator Review finds that HostGator’s hosting plans are all eCommerce-ready. They offer shopping carts and payment gateways to help you set up your online store in a jiffy.

For those looking to use Magento, HostGator offers Magento shared hosting plans, cloud hosting, reseller hosting, and enterprise hosting. These plans are compatible with version 2.0 while Magento VPS hosting and Magento Dedicated hosting is compatible with version 2.1.

HostGator shared hosting plans have solutions that cater to businesses of all sizes. A HostGator Business Plan entitles you to Positive SSL, free domain, free SEO features, and free dedicated IP address. If your business is growing and receiving more clients, the higher traffic volume requires you to subscribe to a more powerful hosting plan, either a VPS or Dedicated Server.

SSL Certificate:

Every hosting plan gets you a Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate for free. Let's Encrypt may be a new certificate authority (CA) but it works just as well, or even better than paid certificates. You can also purchase premium SSL certificates from the site.

HostGator Review of Security and Backups:

Our Hostgator Hosting Review finds that HostGator safeguards your site from potential DDoS attacks through its security features. The company provides a custom firewall with large mode security protocols. Its data centres provide top-level flood protection. For an added level of security, you can purchase SiteLock to scan your site for security breaches continuously.

Backups with HostGator are underwhelming. There are no guaranteed daily or weekly backups, and the frequency depends on the hosting plan you’re subscribed to. Backups for Shared plans can go each day, week, or month if you have accounts below 10GB with 100,000 inodes. Managed WordPress Hosting accounts, Cloud Hosting, and Reseller accounts run weekly backups if you have accounts below 20GB and 100,000 inodes.

See more HostGator features

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Performance:

HostGator Review of Server Locations:

HostGator has data centres in two sites:

• Ace Data Centers in Provo, Utah, in the USA.
• CyrusOne in Houston, Texas, in the USA.

It’s not possible to select the data centre of your choice for your servers. Also, customers are not granted access to either data centre.

CDN:

Our Hostgator com Reviews find that a CDN is no longer offered. You can, however, opt to purchase Cloudflare as an external app. For Linux hosting plan users, they can buy SiteLock as their CDN.

HostGator Review of Speed Results:

Speed is a big issue with HostGator. Our own speed tests are corroborated by other independent tests to suggest slow speeds consistently plague this web host. Within a 24-month period, page loading speeds average 1191 ms, meaning it takes roughly a second to load light-weight, text-based web pages using HostGator. This does not bode well for pages requiring high-resolution images.

HostGator Review of Average Uptime, Bandwidth, and Webspace limits/Storage:

Our Hostgator Review finds HostGator guarantees a minimum of 99.95% uptime. This means that in any given year, the site is down for 4 hours.

The web host also provides unmetered bandwidth to users as well as unlimited disk space for all hosting plans, although combined, they should not exceed 250,000.

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Support and Resources:

There is inconsistent quality support. Sometimes, support staff are readily available around the clock to answer queries through email, live chat or phone. Other times, the wait times are exceedingly long, and staff not very helpful in resolving issues.

However, this is offset by HostGator’s extensive support portal, which is located inside the dashboard. Its knowledge base is full of articles and video content to address any issue you might encounter.

See more HostGator support features

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HostGator Hosting Price Plans:

Our Hostgator Review finds that HostGator offers a wide selection of hosting pricing plans, including;

1. Shared Web Hosting,
2. Cloud Hosting,
3. WordPress Hosting,
4. Dedicated Server Hosting,
5. VPS Hosting,
6. Reseller Hosting and
7. Windows Hosting.

Shared Web Hosting Plans:

Shared hosting is the perfect plan for starters who are not expecting a large traffic volume. A shared hosting environment allows you to split the bill with other websites hosted on a similar server.

HostGator has three shared hosting plans to choose from. Read below for our HostGator Hatchling Plan review, HostGator Baby Plan Review, and HostGator Business Plan review.

HostGator Hatchling Plan Review:

This Hostgator Hosting price plan is the perfect fit for small business owners who are setting up their website or online store for the first time. The Hatching Plan is the cheapest shared hosting plan offered by the company and includes a free website builder, one free domain and free SSL certificate.

Believe me; it doesn’t get any more economical than this. HostGator offers beginners the opportunity to launch 1 professional-looking and secure website for a very affordable monthly fee. In this HostGator Hatchling plan review, we recommended annual billing instead of monthly for the best bang for your buck.

Also, you can launch your HostGator website at discounted prices if you avail of special HostGator promo codes here.

To get a more in-depth HostGator Hatchling Plan review, check out our article here.

HostGator Baby Plan Review:

The Baby plan is a step up from the Hatchling plan but for just an additional $1 every month. If you opt for annual billing, you will receive a discount.  In this HostGator Baby plan review, we recommend buying this over the Hatchling plan because you can host an unlimited number of domains compared to just the one on Hatchling.

HostGator Business Plan Review:

HostGator business plans are an optimal choice for those who are looking for scalability and customisation. You can choose between Windows-based or Linux-based plans at cheaper rates than rival companies. Paid through annual billing, the rate is only $5.95/month.  What we don't like about this plan, however, is that the pricing structure is primed for long commitments.

Hostgator Cloud Hosting Review:

Our Hostgator Hosting Review discovers those who are managing multiple websites can grab the Hostgator Cloud Sites plans. It promises high availability, superior performance, automatic failover, and fully managed service.

Hostgator Cloud Sites packages are based off shared hosting plan pricing, and also comes in Hatchling, Baby, and Business Plans. Cloud Hatchling starts at the regular price of $12.95 monthly, Cloud Baby at $13.95 monthly, and Cloud Business at $19.95 every month.  Currently, all prices are discounted at 20% off.

HostGator WordPress Hosting Review:

Our Hostgator Review finds that HostGator features managed WordPress hosting services in three plans and can expect the following features:

• Zero charge WordPress migration on any plan;
• 1-Click site restoration and auto backups;
• Free of charge shared SSL certificates; and
• WordPress themes and templates courtesy of the MOJO marketplace.

Reseller Hosting:

A HostGator reseller plan otherwise known as white label hosting, is designed for acquiring your own hosting clients. Perhaps if you're a web designer you can use a reseller web hosting plan to add value for your existing and future customers.

There are some great discounts on the recommended Silver plan at present!

Hostgator VPS Pricing:

To maximise the most advanced features and customisation, VPS hosting is available in three HostGator plans;

1. Snappy 2000,
2. Snappy 4000,
3. and Snappy 8000.

All plans are at discounted prices!

Dedicated Server Hosting Plans:

For those who demand full server access and infrastructure to handle resource-intensive tasks, HostGator Dedicated Server hosting is offered in three plans:

1. Value Server,
2. Power Server,
3. Enterprise Server.

Windows Hosting Plans;

Hostgator also provides Windows hosting for the in need to host an ASP.NET site;

HostGator free trial, refund policy, and money-back guarantee:

The terms of service page offers Hostgator free trial coupons for its new customers and a 45-day money-back guarantee. If a customer is not satisfied with the service, they can request a full refund within the first 45 days.

>> Check for latest HostGator pricing discount plans <<

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Conclusion and Recommendations to our Hostgator Review:

What is it best used for?

Our Hostgator Review concludes HostGator works best for users and small businesses who are looking for hosts that offer unmetered bandwidth and unlimited disk space and are inexpensive to boot. Those who are looking to use programming languages besides PHP such as Python or Perl will be glad to use this provider.

What is it not best used for?

However, given its sluggish speeds and uptime performance can derail SEO initiatives. Also, their stingy backups are worrisome.

Hostgator Alternatives:

Here's a list of the best Hostgator alternatives:

• HostGator vs Hostinger: Hostinger runs cheaper, but definitely has weaker infrastructure than HostGator. HostGator offers more storage and bandwidth options, while Hostinger has a stronger focus on affordability.
• HostGator vs SiteGround: HostGator offers more storage and bandwidth options, while SiteGround has a more robust set of security features and better customer support.
• Hostgator or GoDaddy: GoDaddy is known for its easy setup and domain management, but may have higher prices and less control over server settings.

Hostgator Review Final Word:

For those running on small budgets, HostGator is a keeper.

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FAQ:

Who owns HostGator?

The large conglomerate Endurance International Group (EIG) owns HostGator, along with other hosting companies such as iPage, BlueHost, Dotster, and A Small Orange

I prefer Linux hosting. Can HostGator help me?

Definitely. HostGator caters to users who use Windows and Linux. Windows users get Plesk for their control panel while Linux users get cPanel

Does HostGator have SSH access?

Yes, HostGator grants secure shell (SSH) access, allowing you to access an SSH server-run computer remotely. HostGator SSH access is available in all Linux hosting packages except for the Optimised WordPress Plan.

Does HostGator offer a free domain name?

HostGator does not offer a free domain name with its hosting plans. However, they do offer a discounted price on domain name registration, and they also provide a variety of tools to help you find and purchase a domain name. If a customer already own a domain name, they can easily transfer it to HostGator. The process is simple and can be done through the control panel, and it does not require any technical knowledge.

Does HostGator have a dedicated IP address?

HostGator does offer dedicated IP addresses for its VPS and dedicated server hosting plans. A dedicated IP address is a unique internet address that is assigned to a single hosting account, rather than being shared among multiple accounts. This can be useful for various reasons, such as sending email, SSL certificate, or for the purpose of running a VPN. Dedicated IP addresses can be added as an add-on to VPS and dedicated server hosting plans, and it is not included with shared hosting plans.

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That’s all for now:

Thanks for reading our HostGator Reviews UK and don’t forget to keep an eye out for our ever-growing blog of review and comparison articles. Check out related reliable web hosting, website builder, and eCommerce platform review and comparison articles.

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