HostGator Review
of 5
Expert Rating
of 5
User Rating
Pros and Cons
Pros
- HostGator is one of the best in the business. Fast Reliable Servers with a wide range of hosting plans.
- Excellent Prices
- Some of the most knowledgeable support in the industry
- Server Environment is perfect for Word Press
- Custom WordPress Installers
Cons
- Will not let you ssh.
- Support has decreased over the past few years
- Many have reported slower server speed
Customer Support
What really makes HostGator stand out is their excellent tech support. They have 100s of US-based support staff available 24 hours a day. First level support is able to answer a surprising number of issues.
Customer support is easy to get in touch with and very knowledgeable. HostGator has a good grasp of what it takes to run WordPress well. While the support staff can be contacted by phone, we typically contact them via chat sessions. HostGator at times will have up to 100 support technicians at a time answering questions.
- Phone Support: Yes (24hrs/day)
- Email Support: Yes (24hr/day)
- Support Ticket System: Yes
- Live Support Chat: Yes (24hrs/day)
- Support Forums: Yes
- FAQ & Knowledge base: Yes
- Video Tutorials: Yes
Hosting Plans & Packages
HostGator has shared, reseller, dedicated and VPS packages available . For WordPress you will most likely use a shared hosting plan.
As your site grows, HostGator has the plans that can grow with you. Whether it is moving from a shared plane to a Virtual Private Server or even up to a dedicated Server. Host Gator will provide the best plan for you.
Standatd Hosting Plans:
Hatching Plan
- Starting at $2.75 per month
- Host 1 website
- One-click Installs
- Unlmetered Bandwidth
- Free SSL Certificate
- Free Domain Name
Baby Plan
All the features of the hatchling plan and adds unlimited domains.
- Starting at $3.95 per month
- Host Unlimited Websites
- One-click Installs
- Unlmetered Bandwidth
- Free SSL Certificate
- Free Domain Name
Business Plan
All the features of the baby plan plus Free Dedicated IP address, Free SEO Tools, Free Upgraded SSL.
- Starting at $5.95 per month
- Host Unlimited Websites
- One-click Installs
- Unlmetered Bandwidth
- Free SSL Certificate
- Free Upgrade to Positive SSL
- Free Dedicated IP Address
- Free SEO Tools
- Free Domain Name
All web hosting plans include 99.99% uptime guarantee, 45-day money-back guarantee, and 24-hour customer support.
Hosting Features
Apart from unlimited bandwidth, disk space and domains in each hosting plan, HostGator offers a variety of other technical features. These include the flexible cPanel control panel, free sitebuilder tools, website templates, unlimited email accounts, support for PHP 5, Ruby on Rails, Perl, Python, SSI, CGI, Fast CGI scripts. $50 Google Adwords Credit, free website transfer, password protection, spam protection and website statistics are also provided.
WordPress Specific Features
You can install WordPress with a few clicks using HostGator’s Fantastico auto-installer. The latest cPanel control panel allows you to create and edit your blog. The hosting plans support PHP 5, MySQL (5.x) and Apache (2.x) module needed for WordPress.
If you start out with one of the shared plans you will be provided with a control panel that gives you everything you need to manage your website. HostGator uses an industry-standard software called cPanel. This is our favorite control panel for WordPress, it is fast, easy to use, file and folder permissions are correctly configured. Essentially it is a no-hassle setup.
One very nice aspect to hosting with an industry-standard is WP plugins and developer support. Just about every WP plugin developer would have tested the plugin on a cPanel server. This means that you are much less likely to have plugin conflicts or technical issues that only a developer will be able to fix. We learned this over time. Our blogs that run at HostGator/cPanel just seemed to have fewer issues than sites that ran on custom control panels and when we did have issues it was much easier for the developer or programmer to fix them. Saving us time and money.
Company Details
Founded in 2002, HostGator has become one of the premier web hosting services. Based in Houston, Texas, the company is now one of the top ten web hosting companies in the world.
HostGator has developed a winning strategy with the excellent US-based tech support, fast reliable servers and reasonable prices. They have become home to hundreds of thousands of WordPress Blogs. Hard to imagine but these guys just are that big. They add about 800 to 1000 new customers per day.
Data Center Details
Refund Policy
HostGator offers a 45-day refund policy and customers have reported it is very easy to get your money back.
A few items to keep in mind, the refund is for first-time customers only, so if you have had another HostGator account you are not eligible for a refund. Additionally the refund is not good for dedicated servers, administrative fees, domain name registrations or custom software installs. If a domain name comes with your hosting package a $15 fee will charged for the registration.
Now that we have all of the reasons for not getting a refund out of the way, you apply for it via the HostGator dashboard. Their policy is 15 days for processing but many reports it happed the same day.
So if you are a new HostGator customer going with a shared plan and are not sure, getting your money back during the first 45 days should not be a concern.
Visit HostGator http://www.hostgator.com
Summary
WordPress Hosting Expert
What you need to know about HostGator:
HostGator is one of the most established names in the hosting industry. Sadly their server speed and support have declined over the years. I hear more and more reports of unhappy customers. This is not to say you will have a bad experience. If you can, I would skip them. SiteGround is a MUCH better option at a similar pricepoint level of service.
4.3 / 5.0
Editor review
1 review
cPanel which is the control panel they use is set up just right for WordPress. HostGator provides several 1-click installers to make it easier than ever to get your next blog up and running.
Server Speed & Uptime
You can expect very good server speed and uptime when using a HostGator Shared plan. The results will only get better when using one of the more robust/expensive plans. Keep in mind that it is shared hosting and one bad site can bring the whole server down. HostGator has nice security measure and monitors to keep this form happening.
Should you decide to go with a 3rd party CDN, just ask support and they can enable rsync which will give you the ability to automatically transfer images and files to the CDN.
Final Thought
It seems that over the years HostGator has been able to refine the art of hosting and especially shared hosting. We are very happy with HostGator and will continue to use them.
As an award winning hosting service provider, HostGator provides top-notch security, management and customer support to its customers through various options.
Reviewer Info
HostGator is one of the best WordPress hosting companies, offering lots of hosting plans. Shared hosting up to dedicated servers, allowing for your site to grow without switching hosts.
Pros and Cons
Well Known
Competitive Price
Tech support quality is not what it was
User reviews
Otherwise you will find out one year later, that their system kept your information and settled the payment method as an automatic and you will be charged for whatever package you were looking for. even though you thought you deleted your information there.
Most importantly, they do not refund? Because they want so. Because they are desperate, hunting for every penny they can steal!
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because it’s server mostly down now… and it iritate my user experience and traffic too…
i hate hostgator now…
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What bugs me about HG is they have Ads in their Cpanel! Really? I mean I am already paying for your hosting service why do you need ads there? Sorry HG I don’t need ads there and I am migrating my websites to another host.
There are plenty of other very good hosting companies that don’t have ads in their Cpanel and offer equal or better technical support, uptime, features, and service.
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HostGator has made my WordPress experience very enjoyable.
It is interesting to see that HostGator is now sponsoring a NASCAR.
