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HostGator Review
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HostGator is one of the most respected web hosts, due to its reliability and years of presence on the scene.
Despite being one of the oldest hosts, they are constantly working on improving, from uptime to load speed, in order to increase the quality of service.
They have an amazing Customer Service team, reachable via chat and ready to answer each and every question. It is worth noting that their basic shared hosting options come with free domain, unlimited storage, and free SSL certificate.
As always, we are going to present objectives and our personal opinions, in order to paint a clear picture for you.
Here is our HostGator review:
Meet HostGator
HostGator is a web hosting company that was founded in October 2002 by Brent Oxley, with HQ in Boca Raton, Florida. Four years, HostGator passed 200k registered domains.
This growth continued over the next couple of years, where the company expanded its business to Canada and India and moved its HQ from Florida to Houston.
On the 13th of July 2012, the company was sold to the Endurance International Group for $299.8 million. The founder Brent Oxley was excited to announce the news, hoping that Endurance Group can elevate the business to another level.
They sure did.
Advantages of HostGator
1. Reliability
Top of the line, pretty much, with uptime of 99.98% over the past 12 months.
HostGator has a policy that states:
“If a shared or reseller server falls short of the 99.9% uptime guarantee, you may receive one month of credit for that package on your account.”
During the last quarter of 2019, HostGator had an uptime of 100%! Amazing!
2. 45-Day Money-Back Guarantee
HostGator offers an additional 15 days on top of the usual 30-day money-back guarantee in the industry. Meaning, they are confident in the service they offer and are willing to bet that you will stay.
What does that mean for you? Well, you can use their services for a month, and if you don’t like it, you can ask for a refund.
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Of course, as you can see from this snippet from the HostGator website, the refund is not valid for dedicated servers, administrative fees, install fees and domain name purchases.
That means, if you had a free domain name with your plan, $15 will be deducted from your refund in order to cover the costs of domain name registration. Standard procedure, nothing to worry about.
3. Customer Service
As already mentioned, they have an amazing team, with an excellent knowledge base, ready to tackle any problem you have. We have contacted them on many occasions, asked some tricky questions, and got a response every time.
Their Customer Service is reachable via phone, email and live chat.
4. Free Site & cPanel Migrations
If this is not your first website, and you are trying to move it to HostGator, no problem.
During the first 30 days after signing up, you can contact HostGator and let them help you move site databases, files and a domain name for you. And a full cPanel transfer with that.
Every shared hosting plan comes with one free migration.
Disadvantages of HostGator
1. Additional fees for backups, Gmail and malware
When you click on ‘Get started’ on the HostGator homepage, you will be able to see three plans, where the cheapest “Hatchling” starts as low as $2.75 a month.
With this particular hosting plan, you will get a domain name, unlimited storage, free SSL certificate, and the ability to install WordPress via one click. Everything you need to start a website.
However, every additional feature like Gmail access, site backups, and SEO tools, will require an additional fee at the checkout:
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As you can see, Gmail will set you back $60 a year, SiteLock will be another $19.99 per year, and to have a backup of your work in the form of CodeGuard, that will cost you another $23.95.
2. Starting and Renewal prices
Amazing price to start with, especially with the cheapest hosting plan called “Hatchling”, starting at $2.75 per month.
So, that’s pretty low you say. Well, that price is for a three-year deal. For a one-year deal, the price is at $6.25 per month.
And that’s a price for a first-term deal. When your first plan expires, you are looking at a renewal price of nearly $7 per month. Of course, they are relying on the appeal of their initial offer, and that amazing price tag of $2.75 a month.
For us, that 3-year offer looks pretty good, if you are not planning to switch services.
Ease of use
Let’s start with their very user-friendly website, with an amazing knowledge base, full of tutorials and helpful information.
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HostGator also features a cPanel, a control panel that allows you to easily access the data you need. You can add or remove domains, manage files, manage backups and install an SSL certificate with a couple of clicks.
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Pricing plans
There are three shared hosting plan options from HostGator.
Prices presented below are for 3-year plans, so if you want to take a shorter period, rates go up.
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Let’s go over the plans:
– Hatchling plan: For $2.75 per month, you get one domain name, unlimited storage, and free SSL.
– Baby plan: $3.95 per month features unlimited storage, free SSL, and unlimited domains.
– Business plan: The best hosting plan comes at $5.95, with an unlimited number of domains, unlimited storage, bandwidth, dedicated IP, SEO tools and SSL.
Conclusion
Should you go with Hostgator? By all means.
The very low price makes it perfect for beginners, searching for their spot under the www stardom.
It is our #3 ranked web host, and you cannot go wrong with it.
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