Every business needs a website, whether it's a fully functioning e-commerce setup or a simple blog to post daily updates. Either way, web hosting is an essential online service. The stacked HostGator is a top choice, as it includes feature-rich cloud, WordPress, virtual private server (VPS), and dedicated server packages. In addition, HostGator's superb shared hosting plans really set the company apart from the pack and earn it an Editors' Choice award.
If you're not familiar with the category, shared hosting 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, negatively impact Site B's performance. Shared hosting is a good option if you're looking for cheap hosting; if you want more server resources devoted to your site, you must go the VPS or dedicated hosting routes.
HostGator's shared web hosting tiers give small- and medium-sized businesses room to grow. Unfortunately, it no longer offers Windows-based shared packages: It's Linux or bust.
For Linux services, HostGator offers the Hatchling plan (starting at $17.59 per month, or $13.95 per month with an annual plan) that includes 10GB SSD space, unlimited monthly data transfers, and unlimited email addresses. It also features a free SSL (secure socket layer), plus support for one domain and third-party applications, such as content management systems and e-commerce platforms. The Baby plan (starting at $24.19 per month, or $18.69 per month with an annual plan) builds on the Hatchling offering by adding unlimited domains and offering 20GB of SSD storage. The top-tier Business plan (starting at $30.79 per month, or $24.19 per month with an annual plan) includes highly specialized options, such as free dedicated IP, SEO tools for your business, the speedy Cloudflare CDN (content delivery network), and 50GB of SSD storage.
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HostGator offers month-to-month shared web hosting plans, but it pushes you hard to sign up for longer terms (HostGator defaults to a three-year commitment). Admittedly, this practice is common in the web hosting industry, but HostGator obfuscates the pricing of shorter-term subscriptions until you get to the checkout page. This pricing table will help you make an informed decision before signing up.
However, the lack of shared Windows server options is a little disappointing. Check out Ionos for a service with both Linux and Windows plans.
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 three Linux-based VPS hosting tiers. 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 (starting at $59.99 per month, or $44.99 per month with an annual plan), offers 2GB of RAM, 100GB of NVMe storage, and unlimited email and monthly data transfers. The mid-tier Snappy 4000 package (starting at $92.99 per month, or $58.99 per month with an annual plan) builds upon Snappy with 4GB of RAM and 200GB of NVMe storage. The most advanced plan, Snappy 8000 (starting at $141.99 per month, or $89.99 per month with an annual plan), offers 8GB of RAM and 450GB of NVMe storage. Note that cPanel is not included in any of these plans by default. With a cPanel license, the price of Snappy 2000, 4000, and 8000 climbs to $71.99, $104.99, and $153.99, respectively.
The plans are flexible, but not quite as well-rounded as you get with Hostwinds. Hostwinds has wallet-friendly VPS offerings that start at $16.99 per month for 1GB of RAM, 30GB of storage, 1TB of monthly data transfers, and unlimited email. Plans scale up to $574 per month for 96GB of RAM, 750GB of storage, 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 hosting is a powerful (and expensive) option that sees your site exist on a server by itself. It's the tier you should get if you expect lots of site traffic.
HostGator's dedicated server packages begin with the Value tier (starting at $194.47 per month, or $142.79 per month with an annual plan). With Value, you get 32GB of DDR5 RAM, 1TB of NVMe storage, and unlimited email and monthly data transfers. Next up is Power (starting at $285.11 per month, or $226.79 per month with an annual plan), which includes 64GB of RAM and 2TB of NVMe storage. The high-end Enterprise server (starting at $417.11 per month, or $331.79 per month with an annual plan) contains 128GB of RAM and 3TB of NVMe storage
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 I've tested that scored well and offers both operating systems. Even DreamHost, a top hosting service, lacks Windows-based dedicated servers.
AccuWeb has an impressive feature set. Its dedicated hosting packages start at $123 per month, but they scale in price and power depending on your needs. The servers are available in Linux or Windows configurations, too.
Still, HostGator's dedicated hosting offerings are nothing to sneeze at. Check them out if you need dedicated hosting with high-capacity SSD storage.
HostGator no longer offers cloud hosting plans. With cloud hosting, your site's resources are shared across multiple servers. The benefits? Your site isn't limited to physical server constraints, allowing it to scale resources in real time.
For cloud server options, consider either DreamHost or Ionos. DreamHost offers flexible cloud server hosting ideal for smaller businesses, with 4 vCPU servers with 8GB RAM, 80GB SSD storage, and unlimited monthly data transfers for $40 per month. Ionos is designed for enterprise-level businesses, offering up to 16 vCPU servers with 64 GB of RAM and 960 GB of storage for $90 per month.
HostGator lets you install the WordPress content management system (CMS) onto any of its servers, but the web host also offers three tiers of preinstalled, managed WordPress web hosting: Baby, Business, and Pro.
The Baby plan (starting at $24.19 per month, or $18.69 per month with an annual plan) offers unlimited monthly data, support for 20 WordPress sites, and unlimited email. The Business plan (starting at $30.79, or $24.19 per month with an annual plan) bumps you up to 50 WordPress sites, adds daily backups, and adds free domain privacy for one year. Pro (starting at $38.49 per month) grants 100 WordPress sites and enhanced performance. All plans come with page caching and an optimized WordPress hosting environment. That said, Bluehost and WP Engine top HostGator with slightly more robust packages. Please check out those reviews for a deeper dive into their WordPress offerings.
WordPress is easy to set up on HostGator, even if you don't go the managed-WordPress route. The customer dashboard has an option to quickly install WordPress, making the process a cinch. 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 plug-in to help improve blog performance. If you're looking for even more plug-ins to give your site a boost, check out the best WordPress plug-ins.
HostGator lacks a blog-import button, but WordPress makes the import process easy enough.
HostGator has several options for building a website, including HostGator's excellent, simple-to-use Gator 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 b2evolutions, Drupal, 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. If you want to know more about site building, check out the best courses for learning how to build websites and how to create a blog.
HostGator has greatly improved its interface, which was quite clunky and confusing. Now, the dashboard consolidates all important elements into easy-to-read tabs. From here, you can quickly manage SSL certificates, install WordPress, access your databases, and so on. The traditional cPanel is also a mere click away if you prefer working with that interface.
In fact, you must enter the cPanel to set up your email. You can create free, server-based emails through cPanel. Email offered through the dashboard, however, takes you to a purchase page to buy business email service (professional is $19.99 per year, professional pro is $29.99 per year). When signing up, HostGator automatically enrolls you in the Professional email trial, which is free for one month. After this one-month trial, you must pay for the service. This is extremely annoying and underhanded. You cannot unenroll when signing up: Hostgator hitches you with this, no matter what you do. You must go into your renewal settings in the dashboard to cancel auto-renewal, otherwise, you'll get a nasty additional charge at the end of the month.
If you're looking to get into the web hosting business but don't want to deal with infrastructure issues, check out HostGator's reseller hosting packages.
The plans, starting at $43.99 per month, include unlimited email across the board. The Aluminum, Copper, and Silver packages have Linux or Windows operating system options, but HostGator doesn't them unlimited storage and monthly data transfers at each tier, as Hostwinds does with its offerings. On the upside, HostGator lets you apply your own branding to the servers you rent, and supplies 24/7 tech support.
As mentioned, HostGator is partnered with Mojo Marketplace, which offers valuable design tools like graphics, logos, themes, and templates. Quick Links offers e-commerce packages, including Magento, phpCOIN, SugarCRM, and ZenCart. I installed Magento, which provides a drag-and-drop interface for creating an attractive online store.
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Setting up shop with the new tool is straightforward and easy. You select a theme, add products, pricing, and images, and pick your preferred payment and shipping methods. If you plan on using your website to sell products, HostGator offers many excellent options.
HostGator promises 99.9% uptime, and offers 24/7 telephone support and live web chat support. I placed a call on a weekday morning and spoke to a customer service rep less than a minute later. I asked about the different hosting tiers, and experienced excellent customer support. The rep was friendly and knowledgeable. I then connected to their live web chat to inquire about their WordPress services and pricing, and the support agent replied within seconds to explain how each tier was priced and the features included in each.
Like many other web hosts, HostGator has a 30-day money-back guarantee. That said, DreamHost is even more generous with its impressive 97-day guarantee for shared hosting plans.
Final Thoughts
(Credit: Hostgator)
HostGator Web Hosting
- 5.0 - Exemplary: Near perfection, ground-breaking
- 4.5 - Outstanding: Best in class, acts as a benchmark for measuring competitors
- 4.0 - Excellent: A performance, feature, or value leader in its class, with few shortfalls
- 3.5 - Good: Does what the product should do, and does so better than many competitors
- 3.0 - Average: Does what the product should do, and sits in the middle of the pack
- 2.5 - Fair: We have some reservations, buy with caution
- 2.0 - Subpar: We do not recommend, buy with extreme caution
- 1.5 - Poor: Do not buy this product
- 1.0 - Dismal: Don't even think about buying this product
Read Our Editorial Mission Statement and Testing Methodologies.
Featuring numerous hosting types, excellent customer service, terrific uptime, and a lengthy money-back guarantee, HostGator is a terrific web hosting service. With it, you get a suite of tools to launch a personal or business website—provided that a Windows-powered server isn't a top priority. HostGator's shared hosting plans are particularly outstanding, and earn the service our Editors' Choice award for the category. If you need to build atop the Windows Server operating system, AccuWeb (also an Editors' Choice winner) will suit you well.
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