HostGator Review

HostGator is a robust web hosting service designed for Wordpress. It is popular for offering flexible prices and many functionalities that are targeted at Webmasters. The platform likewise offers shared, virtual private server Web hosting and domain service packages, but it’s the service’s dedicated hosting services that truly sets HostGator apart from the competition.

A giant in the web hosting sector, Hostgator is also ideal for use by entrepreneurs and individuals. It offers a superb dedicated hosting service that provides you with your very own physical server. You can run it on either Windows or Linux platform and the price stays the same, now that’s really cost effective. The service also provides plans that cater to those who run commercial websites, requiring more resources.

Hostgator also offers VPS web hosting, where you share physical hardware with other clients, with your server running as a virtual private machine. This option can give you the functionalities of a dedicated server at a much lower price. For those who use Wordpress as a content management solution, the service will provide everything you’ll ever need to keep your site up and running at all times. It is designed to optimize websites running on WordPress.

Each HostGator plan comes with cool freebies that you will certainly find very useful. These include 4,500 free website templates, free website building tools such as Weebly Site Builder, free site migration and transfer for scripts and MySQL. In addition, it provides free scripts that can be used with a single-click, with shared hosting plans entailing free advertising credits.

HostGator offers a generous 45-day moneyback guarantee. One minus point is it does not provide any email security protection. But its customer support is reliable as the vendor provides 24/7 telephone support and online Web chat.

HostGator rents data center space from The Planet, using four facilities in Texas. The vendor offers power back-ups, fire detection and constant monitoring to keep its 12,000 servers safe and secure. HostGator uses 10 different fiber providers, including hardware from Time Warner and AT&T. It currently offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee and an RSS feed for service status updates.

All accounts (except dedicated servers) are backed up every week. If you need to restore a backup, HostGator charges $15, but if you supply the backup file yourself, it’s free. HostGator hosts more than eight million domains, and has a number of high-profile partners such as Cisco, AT&T and Dell. It does not allow overselling, so the capacity it gives is the capacity you actually get. The exception is on a VPS or dedicated server where you’re free to oversell at your own risk.

Shared Web Hosting Plans:

VPS Hosting Plans:

Dedicated server plans:

HostGator uses cPanel as its control panel. The cPanel comes with a 1-click installer for popular scripts like WordPress, Weebly and Joomla and Weebly. These freebies initially help newbies in setting up their websites without having to deal with any advanced control panel functions. HostGator offers users easy-to-understand video tutorials to make them familiar with how cPanel works. This speeds up the time it takes for users to get associated with the control panel.

Pros

• Plenty of discounts
• Unlimited bandwidth, disk space, and email accounts.
• 99.99% uptime and a fast server
• 45-day full money back guarantee
• Reliable 24/7 customer support
• Easy to install WordPress and configure emails
• Cheap, reliable and easy to use

Cons

• Customer service is a bit erratic
• Only one domain with basic plan
• The shared hosting is overloaded and crammed
• Bill generation system is unfriendly

HostGator’s offers comprehensive support options including 24/7 live chat support, a FAQ, email support or phone support (it offers a toll-free number within the US).

Support and billing is offered through a portal where customers can log in to upgrade their account, access user forums, search the knowledge base and view helpful video tutorials. This account login is separate from the Cpanel login. In addition, transfer requests are handled via a quick online form.