HostGator

Posted on March 8th, 2011
A blog post by Peter Jonnes (1 Comment)

Use the coupon code WEBHOSTINGCOM when signing up and get 25% off!

HostGator is a long-standing company that boasts hosting over 4,000,000 websites. They are well respected in the hosting community and regularly rank among the top web hosts on review sites and customer ratings.

HostGator is unique in the personal shared hosting sector because they not only offer multiple hosting plans, they offer business class hosting, as well as VPS and Dedicated Hosting options. This is especially attractive to websites that may need to grow in the future.
In the personal and shared website hosting market they offer two choices, the Hatchling Plan and Baby Plans. Their least expensive option, the Hatchling Plan may be the most basic, but it doesn’t skimp on much. It offers unlimited storage and bandwidth, provides support for all major programming languages, unlimited emails and reporting, scripting and site building tools. Unlimited MySQL Databases are even included which is a very nice feature. It only differs from the Baby plan by limiting you to hosting 1 domain with no additional parked or addon domains. Stepping up to the Baby plan allows for unlimited domains, and the option of adding a Dedicated IP and SSL for an additional monthly fee.

Support

HostGator support is well respected and has a high customer satisfaction rating. They have a US-based 24/7/365 support system offering phone, online live chat and email communications. Wait times for both the phone and live chat are on average less than a minute and representatives have been found to be friendly and knowledgeable. HostGator boast an extensive video tutorial library. These videos are extremely helpful and can guide even the most novice user through hundreds of different processes.

Key Features

HostGator offers a 99.9% up-time guarantee backed by a full refund for that month’s hosting fee if they don’t live up to their guarantee. They also offer month-to-month billing plans, which is a rare option for most webhosts. There are discounted rates for long-term contracts with a 45-day money back guarantee but for many, simply having the option of a monthly billing cycle can be reassuring.

cPanel is the standard with all hosting plans as well as phpMyAdmin for managing MySQL databases. All major Unix/Linux based languages are supported and SSH access and cron jobs.

Going Green

Overlooked and often unmentioned by others; we make it a point to acknowledge when companies make an effort to go green. HostGator purchases certified Renewable Energy Wind Credits generated in their home state of Texas to help offset server emissions. We commend HostGator in their eco-friendly efforts.

Overall Rating

HostGator offers a full range of hosting options which easily compete with other webhosts that only focus on one type of hosting. While it can be difficult to differentiate the plethora of webhosts from one another, HostGator does an excellent job of providing all the services you expect. It separates itself from the pack with good support, reliable up-time, performance and multiple hosting options allow you to easily upgrade when your website expands.

Best Value

– Baby Plan 3-year contract @ $6.36/month