BOTTOM LINE
HostGator is an excellent web hosting service that’s simple to use and offers an array of useful plans for consumers and small businesses. It’s our top pick for shared web hosting and for novice webmasters in general.
Every business needs a website, whether it’s a fully functioning e-commerce setup or a simple blog to post daily updates. Either way, you need a web hosting service. The feature-packed HostGator is a top choice, boasting quality cloud, reseller, virtual private server (VPS), and dedicated server packages, but it’s the company’s shared plans that really stand out from the very crowded web hosting pack. In fact, HostGator’s shared packages are so robust that the service wins our Editors’ Choice rating in that hosting subcategory.
Shared Web Hosting
Shared hosting, if you’re not familiar with the category, is a type of web hosting that sees multiple sites living on a single server. In this setup, sites share the server resources (hence the name), so a large traffic surge on Site A can, unfortunately, impact Site B’s performance in a negative fashion. Shared hosting is a good option if you’re looking for cheap hosting; if you want more server resources devoted to your site, you need to go the VPS or dedicated hosting routes.
HostGator offers month-to-month shared web hosting plans, but pushes hard for you to sign up for longer terms, starting at six months. I don’t like that during the signup process HostGator defaults to a three-year term. Its one thing to encourage users to skip month-to-month service, but pushing them into three years from the start is a bit much.
That said, HostGator offers Linux- or Windows-based shared hosting packages that give small- and medium-size businesses room to grow. The Hatchling plan (starting at $10.95 per month) offers unlimited disk space, monthly data transfers, databases, and email addresses, plus support for one domain and third-party applications such as content management systems and e-commerce platforms. The Baby plan (starting at $11.95 per month) builds on the Hatchling offering by adding unlimited domains. The top-tier Business plan (starting at $16.95 per month) includes highly specialized options, such as a toll-free number for your business and a private SSL (secure socket layer) certificate.
Arvixe matches HostGator closely in the shared hosting game, but HostGator offers slightly more bang for the buck with the inclusion of a private SSL certificate and toll-free VoIP number. Furthermore, Arvixe has been dogged on and off by issues such as slow page load times and support problems over the years we’ve been reviewing it. As a result, HostGator is our Editors’ Choice for shared web hosting services.
VPS Web Hosting
Virtual private server (VPS) hosting is for people who want more server horsepower than what shared hosting offers. VPS hosting also sees multiple sites living on a server, though far fewer in number than what you’ll find on a shared hosting server. You’ll pay more for a VPS server, but you get more server power in return.
HostGator offers Linux-based VPS hosting starting at $19.95 per month. If you need more power, expect high traffic volumes, or have specific compliance requirements that prevent you from using shared servers (but you don’t want to pay dedicated server prices), these are good options to consider.
The most basic VPS plan, Snappy 2000, offers 2GB of RAM, 120GB of disk space, and 1.5TB of monthly data transfers starting at $79.95 per month (or as low as $19.95 per month with a three-year commitment). The mid-tier Snappy 4000 package, starting at $119.95 per month (or as cheap as $29.95 per month with a three-year plan), boasts 4GB of RAM, 165GB of storage, and 2TB of monthly data transfers. The most advanced plan, Snappy 8000, offers 8GB of RAM, 240GB of disk space, and 3TB of monthly data starting at $149.95 per month or $39.95 per month if you sign up for 36 months. The plans are much more flexible than what’s offered by Network Solutions, but not quite as well rounded as Hostwinds, our Editors’ Choice for VPS hosting.
Hostwinds($3.29/Month at HostWinds) has wallet-friendly, well-rounded VPS offerings that start at $16.99 per month for 1GB of RAM, 30GB of disk space, 1TB of monthly data transfers, and unlimited email. Plans scale up to $574 per month for 96GB of RAM, 750GB of disk space, 9TB of monthly data transfers, and unlimited email. Hostwinds’ VPS plans also have a Windows operating system option, which is something that HostGator doesn’t offer.
Dedicated Web Hosting
Dedicated hosting is a powerful form of web hosting that sees your site existing on a server all by itself. As a result, this expensive hosting is also the most powerful. If you expect lots of traffic, it’s what should power your website.
HostGator’s dedicated server packages start at $119 per month, and they offer a fine set of features. HostGator users can customize their servers with up to 1TB of SSD storage, 32GB of RAM, and unlimited monthly data transfers, which bests the bandwidth offerings from many other dedicated server packages.
HostGator’s dedicated servers come in both Linux and Windows flavors, which isn’t as commonplace as you might think; Linux tends to dominate the field. In fact, HostGator is one of the few web hosts we’ve tested that scored well and offers both operating systems. Even DreamHost, one of our favorite hosting services, lacks Windows-based dedicated servers. That said, Hostgator isn’t the Editors’ Choice for dedicated hosting. That title goes to AccuWeb.
AccuWeb has an impressive feature set. Its dedicated hosting packages (starting at $105 per month) can be outfitted with up to 2TB of storage, a whopping 512GB of RAM, and 50TB of monthly data transfers. The servers come in either Linux or Windows flavors, too.
Still, HostGator’s dedicated hosting offerings are nothing to sneeze at. Check them out if you’re in need of dedicated hosting with high-capacity SSD storage.
Cloud Web Hosting
HostGator, like the many other web hosts that PCMag has reviewed over the years, also offers cloud hosting. With cloud hosting, the resources that your site needs to operate are shared across multiple servers. The benefits? You can scale resources in real time, as your site isn’t limited to physical server constraints.
HostGator’s cloud hosting service—unlike that of DreamHost, the category’s co-Editors’ Choice—is only available via the Linux platform; if you want the Windows operating system, you must look elsewhere. Still, HostGator has attractive cloud hosting plans that are worth your consideration.
The $12.95 per month Hatchling Cloud plan comes with 2GB RAM, two CPU cores, a domain, and unlimited data and storage. From there, the $13.95 per month Baby Cloud plan adds unlimited domains, and ups the cores to four and the RAM to 4GB. At the top of the offerings is the $19.95 per month Business Cloud, which boasts six CPU cores, 6GB of RAM, and a dedicated IP address.
1&1 Ionos, the other co-Editors’ Choice for cloud hosting, is designed for enterprise-level businesses. You’ll find 16-core CPUs, servers with 48GB of RAM, and other high-end specs. You can greatly customize your package, too. Please read that review for in-depth details.
WordPress Web Hosting
HostGator lets you install the WordPress content management system (CMS) onto any of its servers, but the web host also offers three tiers of managed WordPress web hosting: Starter, Standard, and Business.
Starter (starting at $14.95 per month) offers 25,000 visits per month, the ability to host just one WordPress site, 50GB of storage, and unlimited email. Standard (starting at $20.95) ups things to two WordPress sites, 200,000 monthly visits, and 150GB of disk space. Business (starting at $27.95 per month) grants three WordPress sites, 300,000 monthly visits, and unlimited storage. All plans come with page caching and an optimized WordPress hosting environment.
A2, our Editors’ Choice for WordPress hosting, tops HostGator and the competition by offering three excellent WordPress hosting tiers—Lite, Swift, Turbo—that feature unlimited storage and monthly data transfers across the board. Its pre-built environment comes with many WordPress-friendly features, including live malware protection and curated plug-ins that are designed to enhance your experience.
WordPress is easy to set up on HostGator even if you don’t go the managed-WordPress route. The customer portal has an option called Quick Links that opens a dedicated interface for installing third-party applications. There’s also a handy shortcut called Get Started With WordPress Today that leads to the Quick Links interface. I set the path to my blog’s installation, entered the username for the WordPress administrator account, and clicked on the install button. As easy as that, my site was up and running. HostGator also automatically installed the WP-Super-Cache WordPress plug-in to help improve blog performance.
In testing, the process of setting up my WordPress site was easy, because the database was already there. There was also a link to the Mojo Marketplace under WordPress services, with premium add-ons and services for my blog. HostGator lacks a blog-import button, but WordPress makes the import process easy enough.
Setting Up a HostGator Hosted Site
It’s a good thing HostGator sends a getting-started email with links to all the resources you’ll need to create a website, because the interface takes a little getting used to. HostGator has a Billing Login link at the top of its site that leads to the customer portal, where all the payment information, details about your plan, and options to purchase add-ons are listed. This page has tabs across the top for account and domain management. The Hosting tab is where you see the actual control panel with site-building tools, applications, website statistics, and more. The introductory email also has a direct link for the control panel, but it looks different from what you’d get through the Hosting tab, making the experience a bit confusing at first.
HostGator has several options for building a website, including HostGator’s own website builder. The drag-and-drop functionality let me quickly build an attractive page complete with slideshows, contact forms, social media links, and more in no time. You can also install WordPress or other CMS platforms such as Drupal, b2evolutions, Joomla, Mambo, and Tiki, to name a few. A File Manager tool lets you manually upload files to the server to create the website that way. The tool is better than a basic FTP client, because you can edit the files directly or use a built-in HTML editor.
HostGator blesses you with a free domain name if you sign up for at least 12 months of cloud, shared, or WordPress hosting—dedicated and VPS hosting do not qualify. That’s not an unusual feature in the web hosting space, but it is a nice touch. There are two caveats, however. The no-cost period lasts for one year, and your desired domain must end in either the .com, .org, or .net extensions. If you already own a domain name ending in one of the aforementioned extensions, HostGator will transfer it to a server free of charge.
Reseller Web Hosting
If you’re looking to get into the web hosting business, but you don’t want to deal with infrastructure matters, check out HostGator’s reseller hosting packages.
The plans, starting at $19.95 per month, boast unlimited email across the board. The shared, dedicated, and VPS packages are of both the Linux and Windows variety, but HostGator doesn’t supply them with unlimited storage and monthly data transfers at each tier, as the reseller Editors’ Choice Hostwinds does with its offerings. On the upside, HostGator lets you apply your own branding to the servers you rent, and it also supplies 24/7 tech support.
E-Commerce Tools on Hand
As mentioned, HostGator offers Mojo Marketplace, which has email marketing tools such as DaDa Mail (starting at $34.95 per year), software that lets you send email newsletters to a subscriber list. Quick Links also has e-commerce packages, including Magento, phpCOIN, SugarCRM, and ZenCart. I installed Magento, which provides a drag-and-drop interface to create an attractive online store. There are tons of design options, which can get a little overwhelming.
Excellent Uptime Results
Website uptime is one of the most important aspects of a hosting service. If your site is down, clients or customers will be unable to find you or access your products or services.
I used a website-monitoring tool to track our HostGator-hosted test site’s uptime over a 14-day period. Every 15 minutes, the tool pings my website and sends me an email if it is unable to contact the site for at least 1 minute. The testing data reveals that HostGator is remarkably stable; in fact, it didn’t go down once in the two-week testing period. You shouldn’t have to worry about your HostGator site going down for extended periods of time.
Quality Customer Service
Like HostMonster, HostGator offers both 24/7 telephone support and online web chat—I tested both help methods.
I dialed up phone tech support on a weekday afternoon to ask how I could import my WordPress.com blog into my HostGator site. I received detailed instructions via email and was quite satisfied.
With HostGator’s online web chat, after typing my question into a form and starting the chat, I was shown my estimated wait time: two minutes. Less than a minute later, a customer service rep appeared and provided easy-to-understand instructions on how to import the blog.
HostGator also has a very deep knowledge base that contains answers to practically every possible question you could have, ranging from basic to very advanced. Overall, HostGator provides excellent customer support.
HostGator does better than most of its competitors here, offering a 45-day guarantee, but Dreamhost, our top pick for advanced users, is even more generous, with an impressive 97-day guarantee.
Dedicated to Hosting
HostGator is an excellent web host that has power and flexibility in multiple hosting categories. HostGator’s generous hosting offerings are enough to win the PCMag Editors’ Choice designation in the shared web hosting subcategory, and it’s an overall top pick for web hosting, too, along with DreamHost, Hostwinds, and the enterprise-friendly LiquidWeb. HostGator is specifically tops when it comes to web hosting for novices.
For more on getting started online, read our tips on how to create a website. You might also want to check out our story on how to register a domain name for your website.
