[2023] Comprehensive HostGator Review: Is It the Right Choice for You?

Are you thinking of signing up with HostGator for your website’s hosting services, but you’re a bit sceptical about settling for it? Well, there are a few things no one is telling you about HostGator.

Firstly, HostGator is a leading web hosting company that has been around for over 15 years. Coupled with that, It offers a wide range of web hosting plans and services designed to meet the needs of individuals, small businesses, and large businesses.

With its powerful control panel and reliable uptime, HostGator has earned a reputation as one of the best web hosting companies in the industry.

While all these might sound like common features of most hosting services, I will be taking a deeper look into HostGator review, by checking out their plans and pricing, and the pros and cons of their services before giving my overall opinion on them.

About HostGator

HostGator is a web hosting company founded in 2002 by Brent Oxley. It is one of the leading web hosting companies in the world and provides a wide range of hosting-related products and services while being affordable.

Presently, it is owned by the Endurance International Group (EIG), which also owns many other hosting industry giants like Bluehost, Host monster, etc.

Having said that, let us conduct a HostGator reviews.

HostGator Overview

When compared to other hosting providers, HostGator seems to perform well with WordPress-supported websites, but it also does a pretty decent job handling other types of websites, but then how efficient are we talking about?

Most of the things we will be discussing about are also synonymous with other hosting service, but one of the reasons you are here is to see if HostGator is a great fit for you since most web hosting provider seem to have some sort of Achilles heel which you would love to know about.

Below let’s find that out below by reviewing HostGator

HostGator Reviews: Storage and Bandwidth

Most hosting providers offer a certain amount of bandwidth with a certain amount of storage depending on the plan you choose.

If you get the HostGator hatchling plan, which comes at a starting cost of $3.95, you will get unmetered bandwidth and unlimited storage space (usually capped at 240GB).

While these might sound like the perfect marketing message, one thing you need to be aware of is that the amount of bandwidth and storage you would be using has to be within the company’s limits.

In this aspect, if you are using a VPS bandwidth it is calculated by billing cycle.

HostGator Reviews: Security

When it comes to protecting your website from external hacks or breaches, HostGator provides a decent amount of protection in place.

One of the fundamental services provided by HostGator is a free SSL certificate, which aids in the encryption of data exchanged between your website visitors and your web server to keep your form details safe.

In addition to that, you can decide to obtain a site lock that protects your website from any external danger, but it costs an extra $5.99 per month.

HostGator Review: Site Migration

If you already have a site and want to transfer it to HostGator, you can do it effortlessly because HostGator also offers site migration.

With HostGator, you can transfer things like your domain name, database, or scripts. However, you must do it quickly since you only have 30 days after signing up to have them help you perform a site migration of your former site and that also includes the C-Panel.

However, you can only do a single-site migration for free.

HostGator Review: User Experience

If you’ve previously hosted a website using any other hosting provider, browsing the CPanel should be simple with HostGator. The user interface is easy to understand even as a total newbie.

In addition to that, there are various tutorials on the site that takes you through how to traverse the DNS and data centers.

For novices who want to set up a website without the trouble of hiring others to design, develop, and manage everything, such options are also available.

Furthermore, you can acquire modern and easy-to-customize templates that come with drag-and-drop feutures, making it easier for you to rapidly design exquisite-looking Website.

All these make it easy for a total beginner to understand what they are doing without needing extensive help.

HostGator Review: Guarantee

Most hosting providers give a 30-day money-back guarantee if you are dissatisfied with their plans after signing up with them, but HostGator has gone a step further by adding two more weeks, making it a 45-day money-back guarantee.

This assurance is not restricted to any plan because it includes shared hosting, reseller hosting, and VP hosting packages. However, it does not cover dedicated servers, custom software installation, domain name registration, or administrative costs because money-back guarantees do not apply to them.

However, you should be aware that when you seek a refund, you will only be awarded one if you are registering for a new plan; if this is your second try, you will not receive a refund.

HostGator Review: customer support

A knowledge base, phone, email, and live chat are all available from HostGator, much like other well-known providers like SiteGround and Dreamhost.

The phone number might be a faster way to get through to HostGator, however, HostGator live chat seem to be quite responsive when it comes to responding to your request based on HostGator users.

HostGator Performance: Uptime

One of the guarantees that HostGator provides for uptime is that if it falls below 99.90%, you will receive one month of credit on your HostGator account.

However, their downtime of about 6 hours over the last six months is quite below average. However, the uptime guarantee they provide is a nice start toward remaining competitive with other hosting services.

HostGator Performance: Page Load Time

A slow page speed is one of the few things that can ruin a website’s engagement. Although several elements influence website speed, However, your webcam provider should not make matters worse.

If you use HostGator or are thinking about utilizing his web hosting service, the average load time is 688 mms, which is quite acceptable for a website but that isn’t exceptional speed.

However, you should keep other factors in mind because page load time is only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to minimizing page load time.

HostGator Plans

The pricing of HostGator’s introductory offer is quite affordable, but over time, the time adds up quickly depending on how long you are subscribing to it, However, their plans are quite flexible as you can decide to sign up for a month’s annual or for 3 straight years.

having said, that let’s delve into the cost breakdown of each of these plans before reviewing them.

Hatchling plan:

• $11.95 – For a monthly or six-month commitment
• $3.95 – Monthly for the Annual Plan (renews at $8.95 per month annually)
• $6.95 – Monthly for Three years (renews at $6.95 per month annually)

Baby plan:

• $12.95 – For a monthly or six-month commitment
• $5 – Monthly for the Annual Plan (renews at $11.95 per month annually)
• $3.50 – Monthly for Three years (renews at $9.95 per month annually)

Business plan:

• $17.95 – For a monthly or six-month commitment
• $7.25 – Monthly for the Annual Plan (renews at $16.95 per month annually)
• $5.25 – Monthly for Three years (renews at $14.95 per month annually)

Now that you know the prices of these plans, what features do they have and what makes them different?

The Hatchling plan comes with a single website, a domain and SSL certificate, unmetered bandwidth, WordPress installs, and website migrations between WordPress and cPanel.

The Baby plan, which is the next plan, includes limitless web pages as well as the same capabilities as the Hatchling plan.

The Business plan comes with a free upgrade to Positive SSL, a dedicated IP address, and SEO tools.

Below is an image overview of each plan.

HostGator Pros and Cons

While HostGator remains a competitive web hosting provider, there are a few things that make it more desirable in comparison to the things that make it less desirable. Let’s break down the pros and cons of HostGator.

Pros

• Speed and power above average
• Free SSL certificate
• Free domain name
• Money-Back Guarantee for 45 Days
• responsive customer support
• improved site builder
• Availability of a 1-month standalone plan

Cons

• The renewal rate is through the roof.
• Additional charges for backups; site security lock
• Uptime is below industry standards.

Conclusion

From online reviews, quite a lot of users have complained about HostGator’s services being ineffective. However, a handful of complaints about HostGator services come from migration issues.

While all these reviews can be baked, one thing you have to learn about HostGator is that they are quite cheap, but the service is just a bit above average generally unless you are focused on WordPress.

If you are going to be doing some heavy lifting, such as migrating a website, etc., HostGator might not be your best option.

You can always pay more for other hosting provider.