Consistently Solid For Us Since 2008
Introduction
I started using HostGator back in 2008. I wasn’t happy with the hosting provider that I was using at the time, but they were one of the few at the time that offered plans for multiple domains.
So, I was shopping around, and everyone was trying out HostGator because they were one of the first to offer unlimited domains and bandwidth.
I was excited to give them a try based on some online reviews, like you are reading now, and I am still hosting 7 websites on the same account I opened over 10 years ago.
Their servers are well-managed and fast. Their support has always been very useful, and their pricing is awesome.
In this review, I will be using my own experience with HostGator as a long-term customer, as well as the data that we have been capturing for our side-by-side performance testing.
HostGator makes it easy for anyone of any skill level to manage a website on their platform. Especially a WordPress site.
Their plans include a free domain on annual plans, free unlimited bandwidth, free SSL, and a really good one-click installation software.
Their performance is excellent based on our test beacon:
http://hg-openhostingreviews.com
Uptime – 99.97%
Response Time – 1,233 ms
WordPress Render Time – 316 ms
While HostGator is one of the best performing hosting providers on our list, there are a few things you should know about their pricing.
Let’s jump right into our deep-dive analysis of Host Gator.
Quick Overview
July 2019 Thru June 2022
| Average Page Speed | 1,233 ms |
| Average Uptime | 99.97% 60 minutes over 9 outages |
| Average Render Time | 354 ms |
| Average Security Threats | 8 attempts |
| Support | 24/7 Chat - Phone - Email |
| Apps | WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and Magento |
| Features | Unmetered bandwidth and storage, email accounts, free domain 1st year |
| Plans | Shared, Cloud, WordPress, VPS and Dedicated Servers |
| Transfer | Single Free Site Transfer |
| Pricing | Starting at $2.75/mo (renews at $6.95/mo) |
Three Main Considerations
Speed and Reliability
In a perfect world, your website is going to be online 100% of the time. 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. But, we don’t live in a perfect world.
Inside every data center the power goes down, hard drives fail, and servers have to be patched and rebooted.
Since we know we won’t get 100% uptime, the next best thing is the “gold standard” of the hosting world – 99.99%.
Every month we are running a test of HostGator’s speed and reliability (uptime) with a simple WordPress website as a testing beacon.
Here is a link to that testing beacon site:
http://hg-openhostingreviews.com
So far, HostGator has beaten our baseline expectations for uptime and speed. They are also beating out most of the competition. Below you will find a breakdown of their performance by month:
July 2019 average uptime: 99.97% average load speed: 1,048 ms
Aug 2019 average uptime: 99.98% average load speed: 1,069 ms
Sep 2019 average uptime: 100% average load speed: 1,096 ms
Oct 2019 average uptime: 99.98% average load speed: 1,065 ms
Nov 2019 average uptime: 99.99% average load speed: 1,014 ms
Dec 2019 average uptime: 99.99% average load speed: 1,107 ms
Jan 2020 average uptime: 100.00% average load speed: 1,250 ms
Feb 2020 average uptime: 100.00% average load speed: 1,352 ms
Mar 2020 average uptime: 100.00% average load speed: 1,178 ms
Apr 2020 average uptime: 100.00% average load speed: 1,081 ms
May 2020 average uptime: 99.88% average load speed: 1,250 ms
June 2020 average uptime: 99.99% average load speed: 1,299 ms
Aug 2020 average uptime: 99.79% average load speed: 1,363 ms
Sep 2020 average uptime: 99.99% average load speed: 1,310 ms
Oct 2020 average uptime: 100.00% average load speed: 1,344 ms
Nov 2020 average uptime: 100.00% average load speed: 1,212 ms
Dec 2020 average uptime: 100.00% average load speed: 1,179 ms
Jan 2021 average uptime: 99.98% average load speed: 1,193 ms
Feb 2021 average uptime: 99.99% average load speed: 1,288 ms
Mar 2021 average uptime: 100% average load speed: 1,529 ms
Apr 2021 average uptime: 99.97% average load speed: 1,526 ms
May 2021 average uptime: 99.99% average load speed: 1,202 ms
June 2021 average uptime: 100% average load speed: 1,078 ms
Quality of Support
HostGator has several different ways to get in-touch with their support. You can reach them via chat, phone toll-free, or open a support ticket.
They also have a decent Knowledge Base of support articles.
One of the ways I like to gauge the quality of support is to start up a quick chat ask a simple question.
This is a question that any data center operators should know right away:
“What version of RHEL or CentOS is my website running on?”
This is asking them the operating system of their servers. Most shared web hosting plans use Linux, either Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) or CentOS.
I like this question so much because it helps you quickly learn a lot about their operations.
Not only does it show you the competency of their first-level support, but it also lets you know how well they keep things up to date.
Here is a screenshot of my support chat:
Affordability
HostGator has very affordable plans.
To get started is only $2.75 per month for their basic Hatchling package for a single website. To upgrade to their highest package with more features, and unlimited websites, is only $5.95 per month.
This is a great bargain when you consider their uptime/speed, the features included in their packages, the free tools and easy-to-use management tool, and their track record.
Just remember that these prices are the monthly price if you purchase 3 years of service upfront. Prices are a little higher if you buy 12 months in advance. Unfortunately you don’t have the option pay month to month, which I think is sort of a bummer.
Keep in mind these prices are promotional introductory offers and the do offer a 30 day money-back guarantee on all purchases.
Here is a copy of my receipt for purchasing the Bluehost Basic package for 12 months:
Available Plans, Pricing, and Details
Hostgator riffs off their alligator mascot for the names of their plans. It is pretty clever and a small breath of fresh air in an industry that is otherwise pretty sterile and clinical.
Hatchling Plan
The Hatchling Plan from Hostgator starts at $2.75/month. This is the plan you want those launching their very first website. The plan includes all the features required to run a single website.
One thing that I love about Hostgator is that even their basic plans included unmetered bandwidth, unlimited storage, a free SSL certificate, and a free domain.
In the past these were all extras with them. Amazingly, some of Hostgator’s competitors are still charging for these.
Baby Plan
The Baby Plan from Hostgator starts at $3.95/month. This plan comes with all of the features of the Hatchling Plan, but it allows you to run unlimited websites and email with it.
I have a Hostgator account with the Baby Plan with 6 websites running on it. They get a moderate amount of traffic and they all perform well.
Business Plan
The Business Plan from Hostgator starts at $5.95/month. This plan includes everything in the Hatchling and the Baby plans, plus a few extras. The Business Plan also includes a dedicated IP address and a Step-by-Step SEO Plan to help you with a your search engine visibility.
Plan Feature Comparison
Plan Features
- Includes Domain: Yes, free for the first year. Then renews at $16.00-$22.00/year depending on how many years you renew in advance.
- Easy Setup Process: Very simple! All you have to do is fill out a single page form. It is the easiest out of all the hosting companies we reviewed.
- Admin Dashboard Experience: Their control panel is very easy to understand and you can switch between the Billing and Technical side effortlessly. Uses cPanel for site administration.
- 3rd Party Application Support: Includes their custom QuickInstall tool that gives you OneClick installations to over 70 popular scripts such as WordPress, Weebly, Joomla, Drupal, OpenCart, and more.
- Server Information: Linux CentOS 6, PHP 5 and 7, MySQL 5.6, PostgreSQL 10
- Payment Methods: Visa, MasterCard, Discover, Amex, and PayPal.
- Hidden Fees and Clauses: Renewal rates for both domains and hosting increase after Introductory Offer, but is lower than other popular plans.
- Upsells: Some Upsells on the sign-up form, but they disappear with a mouse click or two.
Other Plans
If you have other needs for your website(s), Hostgator offers other types of hosting plans like WordPress Optimized, Cloud, VPS, and Dedicated Servers.
Do We Recommend HostGator?
Yes, we have been recommending Hostgator to clients for years. As a paying customer for web hosting since 2002, Hostgator is the best experience I have had for performance and value.
Hostgator is consistently at the top of our performance testing, and I love that they are the only hosting provider on our list that has an Uptime Guarantee!
Visit HostGator.com