Last Update | May 2022

Monthly Update – May 2022

During May 2022, HostGator:

• HostAdvice Special Deals: Up to 99% off on your hosting with a free domain.
• HostAdvice Special Deals: Save up to 60% off hosting, domain names and free SSL Certificate.
• Offered a 65% discount on all Shared Hosting plans and a free domain.

HostGator has been on the market since 2002, and in those twenty years, it has become one of the most used hosting providers. Since HostGator hosting was launched, their team has worked hard to reach a level of supremacy that will make the customers’ experience easy and enjoyable.

Founded by Brent Oxley (at the time a student at Florida Atlantic University), HostGator became one of the largest hosting providers worldwide. Nowadays, HostGator’s headquarters are located in Texas, and their team consists of more than a thousand employees. Their expert team is accountable for over 10 million globally hosted websites. Later, in 2012, HostGator hosting was sold to Endurance International Group (EIG), which owns many big brand names, such as Bluehost, Hostmonster, Site5, etc. Most of their servers are located in Provo, Utah, and Houston, Texas. What’s more, this web hosting service provides plenty of features, like free domain, free SSL, 24/7/365 support, various hosting plans, excellent uptime (99.98%), and a lot more.

In our HostGator brand review, which is also validated by customer reviews, we will get more in-depth about each of the features HostGator provides, its performance, customer support, and all you need to know about this provider.

Is HostGator the Right Host For You?

HostGator hosting has proved to be a top-quality web hosting service over the years, and there are hundreds of customer reviews, as well as expert reviews, that claim what we’ll provide in this HostGator brand review. When I got the opportunity to do the HostGator brand review, I was very impatient to start and do thorough research about such a popular web hosting provider. This research is an excellent opportunity to see whether the positive things I’ve heard about HostGator hosting are true.

What got to me the most were the outstanding features and hosting plans you can enjoy. It’s not always important to pay loads of money to get decent services. The affordable HostGator provides free site transfers, a free SSL certificate, one-click installs, and many more features (even a website builder) that will make you have a pleasant experience. I also like that HostGator is a very reliable hosting provider with fantastic uptime and above the average load time.

If you are on a budget, you are in the right place. HostGator hosting has something for everyone, and you don’t even have to pay thousands of dollars. Do you still doubt it? By reading my HostGator review, all your doubts will go away!

Here is How We Review:

To have a transparent and reliable review, our expert team has to stick to a few steps for reviewing. Our customers are of great importance, so we don’t want to disappoint anyone who reads our brand reviews. Let’s quickly go through the steps.

1. Our expert review process starts with buying the hosting plan. Because we write more than a hundred reviews, we usually go with the most affordable plan that covers all crucial features of the web hosting provider. We don’t need the most advanced plan to test what the web host we’ve chosen offers.
2. Next, we come to the part where we carefully monitor the hosting provider’s performance. More precisely, we pay a lot of attention to the uptime and the page load time of the web host. Of course, we also explore each of the features in detail.
3. Besides monitoring and testing the performance and the features of the web host, our team also analyzes the pros and the cons, the plans’ pricing, and whether the customer support is both fast and helpful. This step and the previous one are some of the most important in the review process because we want to be sure that the web host provider is worth your time and money.
4. The fourth step is based on publishing the brand review after thoroughly testing every part of the web host.
5. Finally, we take the customer reviews into consideration to have the most reliable expert review and to deliver the best overall score.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

Cons:

HostGator Prices & Plans – 2022

HostGator is in the group with one of the most affordable web hosts. However, this doesn’t mean that HostGator hosting has nothing to offer. In fact, it comes with great features and services for its customers.

HostGator comes with a variety of plans suitable for everyone’s website. Their plans include:

• Shared Hosting ($2.75/month)
• VPS Hosting ($23.95/month)
• Cloud Hosting ($4.95/month)
• Reseller Hosting ($19.95/month)
• Dedicated Hosting ($89.98/month)
• WordPress Hosting ($5.95/month)
• Website Builder Hosting (for other website builders) ($3.84/month)

HostGator Shared Hosting plan is suitable for small to medium websites because its usage is straightforward. This plan comes in three different levels, Hatchling, Baby, and Business. They all come with unlimited storage and unlimited bandwidth. The only difference is in the number of websites you can host. Besides this, they all come with a free SSL certificate, a free domain for a year, and a free website builder.

Starting with the Baby Plan, you get unlimited addon domains. Furthermore, you get a dedicated IP, free SEO tools, and Free Positive SSL upgrade with the Business Plan.

HostGator hosting also provides Website Builder Hosting, which is easy, eCommerce-friendly, and perfect for your new business. This hosting plan also comes in three levels – Express Start, Express Site, and Express Store. The three plan levels come with a free domain and a free SSL certificate, so you shouldn’t worry about that.

The customers can notice a difference in the number of email campaigns per month and some additional features they’ll get with the more advanced level, such as no transaction fees, priority support, etc.

WordPress Hosting plan is best for small to medium websites, and it is optimized so your website can have better performance. It provides free migration, more security, and also a free domain.

One of the best HostGator hosting plans is VPS Hosting. This plan is best for high-traffic websites and online stores that should provide better performance. VPS Hosting also comes with three plan levels.

Did you think we were done? HostGator also delivered a Dedicated Hosting plan, which provides complete customization freedom, and it is the perfect fit for enterprises. The best part is that HostGator’s Dedicated Hosting supports both Linux and Windows OS.

HostGator Reseller Hosting plan is mainly designed for users to earn money. As the term ‘Reseller’ implies, you simply sell our hosting and earn some cash. It’s a hosting solution if you would like to start your own hosting company and host your clients’ websites as a developer/agency. All plans include the essentials: unlimited domain hosting, cPanel, Web Host Manager (WHM), and WHMCS Client Management and Billing software.

Lastly, HostGator comes with one last hosting plan – Cloud Web Hosting. Cloud Web Hosting is 2x faster and has 4x more resources. The best part about this hosting plan is that besides the free SSL and free domain, the most advanced level, Business Cloud, provides even free SEO tools.

Before purchasing any hosting plan, the most crucial part is to determine what kind of website you want to develop. Depending on the type of website, you’ll know what to look for, and the choice will be pretty easier.

Features & Benefits

HostGator provides pretty impressive features for all types of websites, whether you are new to this business or more advanced and want your company to make a breakthrough. Let’s see what HostGator hosting provides that satisfies its customers so much.

1. Useful Tools

As one of the oldest web host providers, HostGator hosting knows what has to be done to remain at the top of the list. One of their main interests is to provide top performance. To succeed in covering each of the websites they host, HostGator provides unmetered bandwidth and storage. To make this clearer, you can use the bandwidth and storage space without limits.

But that’s not all. This well-known host provider comes with phpMyAdmin, MySQL Databases, MySQL Database Wizard, and Remote MySQL. These tools help you develop dynamic and interactive websites. You can also enjoy your journey due to the free SSL, WordPress, and other website builders.

2. Global Presence

Over the years, HostGator has expanded worldwide and now has a presence in several countries. Each division is organized as its own company and offers local support services in each country where that is possible. One benefit of having multiple divisions is that our customers can choose where their support staff and servers are located or what language they prefer to do business in.

The company has servers in North and South America, Asia, Europe, and even Africa. More precisely, they have operators in the USA, India, Brazil, Turkey, Singapore, China, Russia, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Africa, Malaysia, and Indonesia. HostGator’s world expansion provides maximum speed performance and stability.

3. Security

HostGator comes with a few security methods that provide excellent security to achieve top security. Their servers are monitored 24/7/365, looking out for any potential site breaches or hacks, and they immediately let you know when they find them. HostGator includes SSH Access, IP Blocker, SSL/TLS, Manage API Tokens, Hotlink protection, and SSL/TLS Status. They also offer a few extra security features like the ability to add SiteLock monitoring to your site.

4.Regular Backups

In terms of HostGator backups, it mostly depends on the hosting plan you go for. However, the company runs an automatic backup once a week, and each run overwrites any previous backups. The company doesn’t take responsibility for your backups and data, so it would be best if you hire a third-party service for your database.

5. Email

HostGator comes with a professional email hosting service, which takes the collaboration to the next level. The best part is that you will get an unlimited number of email accounts no matter what HostGator plan you choose. The setup process is easy, even for beginners, and it takes only a few minutes.

HostGator uses Horde and RoundCube email clients. They are pretty basic and hosted on the same server as your website. This means that they are suitable for casual mailing but not big volumes of outbound emails.

6. Website Builder

What I personally like the most about the features is that HostGator provides a few website building options, but it also has its own in-house web builder – Gator Builder. Gator Builder is one of the simplest website builders, which allows you to create up to 6 pages for free with your hosting account. All plans come with the same choice of 149 templates. There are modern ones, classic ones, and clean ones. In other words, you have a pretty great choice. However, if you are looking for some more advanced features, such as eCommerce, it would be best to master WordPress.

7. Website Migration

Are you worried about a previous site you have? Don’t worry. HostGator has a solution for that too. If this isn’t your first site, and you’re trying to move an existing one over, you’ll have 30 days after sign-up to get in touch and have the HostGator team of experts help you move any site files, databases, scripts, and even a domain name for you. This process also includes a complete cPanel transfer. So if you happened to have multiple site installs (like subdomains for one large site), you’re all good.

Performance

To be one of the best hosting providers in the industry and to engage page traffic, it is crucial to provide excellent performance and 100% reliability. Among hundreds of web host services on the market, you should choose one that stands out if you tend to have a successful web page. According to many customer reviews and also expert reviews, HostGator has proved to have everything your website needs.

1. Speed – As Long As Long as Your Visitors Are Close By, It’s Pretty Fast

HostGator offers some of the best speeds for your websites that you can get. The quickest load time is expected in the US – with the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) at only 431 ms. This is a pretty fantastic speed, and even the furthest location managed to compile within the set norm.

But what exactly is LCP? LCP is one of the measures used by Google when ranking websites on its search result page. If your page’s LCP is lower than 2.5s, your site has a good chance of ranking higher within the search results, meaning the LCP numbers are the most important ones in terms of speed.

2. Uptime – Extraordinary (99.98% over the last year)

One of the most crucial things for any website is its uptime. Well, you have nothing to worry about if you decide to use HostGator because it provides an uptime of 99.98% over the last 12 months. Keep in mind that over the last 12 months, the total downtime of this web host was less than two hours, which is better than great. What’s even better is that while doing the tests for my HostGator reviews, I found out that they provide an uptime guarantee.

However, the impossible-to-predict hacks aren’t included in the guarantee. To receive the credit, the users have to reach out and ask for it by submitting a support ticket to their billing department within 30 days.

3. Loading Time – Above the Average Load Time

To have a website that loads pretty fast, more precisely, in a couple of seconds, determines the visit of your page. No one wants a page that takes ages to load, so choosing the right web host provider is very important. If your page is constantly slow, you’ll pretty much lose the battle to the fast-loading websites. That’s why I recommend HostGator hosting. HostGator provides an average page loading time of 660 ms. This might not be the best loading speed you’ve seen, but it is still excellent.

Maybe the best thing about HostGator is that they work hard on their quality all the time, so they have improved their page loading time quite a lot.

Level of Support

To bring HostGator’s customer support as close as possible, I decided to include my personal experience in this HostGator review. I usually have a habit of canceling my account and asking for a refund, so I can see how friendly and professional their expert team is. In my case, I had a really pleasant experience. So, let’s get to it.

To start off, you first need to click on ‘Support’ and then on ‘Start a Live Chat.’

After you do that, you’ll be transferred to a screen where you’ll need to select a topic, description, and explain the issue you have.

What I personally like is that HostGator’s support team provides some articles that may solve your issue. However, if they don’t, click on ‘Start Chat.’

Once I got connected to the agent, I was pleasantly surprised. Their team is friendly, professional, and understandable. What else can I ask for?

The live chat started at 12:48 am, and my account was already canceled at 1:08 pm. It took about 20 minutes to get things done, which means their support team is also fast and knowledgeable. With this, HostGator proved that they have a support team available 24/7/365.

Also, don’t forget that HostGator in its plans offers a 45-day money-back guarantee so that you can ask for a refund in the live chat, and you will receive it.

But, there is another side of HostGator that you might not be aware of. You cannot get a refund on things that HostGator does not directly offer, and typically, at the checkout screen, you can select and purchase services offered by a third party. So pay attention carefully because this part is not clearly showcased to the users.

But that’s not all! Like other well-known web hosting companies, such as SiteGround and Dreamhost, HostGator provides other types of support. You can also use their knowledge base, phone, and email. Their knowledge base is extensive and includes video tutorials, which is excellent if you’re a visual learner. Here’s what the ‘Dashboard’ looks like if you want to find the other support types.

All in all, my experience with HostGator’s support team was very pleasant, and they left a really good impression. However, this doesn’t exclude the possibility of some of you having a negative experience. At the end of the day, it is personal.

User Friendly

While doing my HostGator review, I came across many positive features. I highly recommend HostGator hosting because of its ease of use. This web host provider is pretty user-friendly, and that is a benefit you should seriously consider when you choose a web host.

HostGator is developed with a cPanel, which is more or less known among people in this niche. The cPanel is very straightforward to access and navigate through it. When you log in, you can view your customer panel, and from there, you will have easy access to all features and tools HostGator provides.

The primary function of the cPanel is to help you manage all your web files easily, without wasting any time. So, don’t worry. You don’t need to be a professional to use HostGator. Everything is very well categorized and easy to find.

1. Creating an Account with HostGator

Creating an account in any web host provider is the first step you should take because what would you do without an account? Starting your journey has never been easier. The first step is to choose your hosting plan. Next, you’ll be transferred to a screen where you’ll need to register your domain or use one you already have, and after you finish with that step, you’ll proceed to the payment part. You’ll need to enter your email address, password, and security pin, and after that, your billing info. Once you agree to HostGator’s Auto-Renewal Terms, Terms of Service, and Cancellation Policy, you will be good to go! The best thing is that creating a HostGator account doesn’t take much of your time. You’ll be done in less than 15 minutes, which is excellent. Once again, HostGator showed its user-friendly platform with this simple process.

2. Installing WordPress

HostGator put a really hard job on WordPress and the simplicity around it. The WordPress installation is pretty smooth, as it can be done with only one click. Yes, that’s it. You just need to follow the ‘Install WordPress’ link in your ‘Dashboard’ and fill in the required information. There is no need to enter the cPanel, although WordPress can also be installed from it too. If you enter the cPanel, you should click on the WordPress icon in the ‘Software’ section, and you’ll be taken to the one-click install option. Installing WordPress has never been easier!

3. Migrating a Domain

Another option that is proof of HostGator hosting user-friendliness is the possibility to migrate a domain. Many of you already have a domain and don’t want to register a new one, which is totally fine. To help you transfer your domain, HostGator provides two ways: the Customer Portal and Front-of-Site.

If you choose to migrate your domain through the customer portal, first, you’ll need to log in to it. Then, click on ‘Domains,’ and then click on the ‘Transfer a Domain’ button. Afterward, you’ll proceed to a screen where you’ll need to enter the domain you want to transfer, and you’re all done.

The second option to transfer your domain is the front-of-site. To use this type of migration, you’ll need to open the HostGator domain transfer page on the Internet. Then, you’ll enter the domain you wish to transfer, click transfer, and that’s it.

Step by Step Walkthrough – HostGator

As we’re slowly coming to the end of HostGator reviews, I will go more in-depth and explain to you how to get started. We’re in front of a very simple process, so there’s nothing to be worried about.

First, you need to click on the big yellow ‘Get Started’ button.

Before you select your HostGator plan, you can click on the option ‘Learn More,’ which is at the bottom row, and you can see the plans’ prices. To have a reliable HostGator review, I have chosen the cheapest plan available, just to test the web host in general.

By choosing the Hatchling plan, I got:

• Single website
• One-click WordPress installs
• Free WordPress/cPanel
• Unmetered bandwidth
• Free SSL certificate
• Free domain included

Next, you’ll be transferred to a screen where you’ll register a new domain or use a domain you have from before.

If you select the annual plan, you get a free domain for one year.

Then, you are forwarded to choose the plan and the billing cycle. You can choose a 1-month plan, 3 months plan, 6 months plan, 12-month plan, 24-month plan, and 36-month plan.

After that, you’ll be requested to enter your email address, password, and security pin.

Once you do that, you should enter the billing info.

After you fill in that information, you can add additional features, such as SSL Certificate, SiteLock Essentials, Professional Email, Site Backup, and HostGator SEO Tools.

You also get a chance to enter a promo code, which you get by default, although there are countless other codes out there. You’ll have a review of the order details at the very bottom, which showcase exactly how much you’ll need to pay for it.

Once you agree to HostGator’s Auto-Renewal Terms, Terms of Service, and Cancellation Policy, all you have to do is click on ‘Checkout Now!’ and you will be good to go.

After you finish creating your account, you’ll proceed to the screen below, and you can get to set up your account. And you are good to go!

Using and Managing Your Account on HostGator

Once you finish with the quick process, HostGator will greet you with the following screen, where you can tell them more about your goals so you can have a more joyful journey.

However, you can skip this survey if you don’t want to fill it out. Next, we come to the exciting part – setting up your account.

What I found amazing is that you can start with WordPress at the very beginning, use Weebly, use FTP, or Choose different CMS Options for building your account.

For instance, if you choose Weebly, you should just choose the theme you want, and everything is straightforward after that.

On the main ‘Dashboard,’ you’ll have a Weebly icon, as that is the chosen website builder.

Now, let’s explain what you’ll find in the main ‘Dashboard.’

Dashboard

To be more precise, the ‘Dashboard’ provides a look at your website and lets you manage your hosting package more easily, without any issues. Here you will find many sections, such as:

• Hosting
• Marketplace
• Email & Office
• Domains
• Billing
• Support

Hosting

The ‘Hosting’ section provides the hosting plans that you have chosen and are currently available.

Marketplace

Furthermore, by clicking on ‘Marketplace,’ you’ll have the opportunity to buy some additional features to improve your websites, such as CodeGuard, Office 365, Constant Contact, Google Workspace, SEO Tools, and SSL management.

Email and Office

As we mentioned before, HostGator offers a possibility for professional email hosting, which can be accessed in the ‘Email and Office’ section. Also, in this section, the users will have access to professional business tools. You can select between two solutions, one being Microsoft Office 365 and Google Workspace.

Microsoft Office 365 provides:

• Domain-Based Email
• 50 GB Mailbox
• Outlook Web Access
• 24/7 technical support
• 1 TB of OneDrive Storage
• Online Excel, Word, and PowerPoint
• Microsoft Teams

On the other hand, if you choose Google Workspace, you will get:

• Domain-Based Email
• 30 GB Mailbox
• Gmail Web Access
• 24/7 Technical Support
• 30 GB of Google Drive Storage (Shared with Mailbox)
• Google Sheets, Docs, and Slides
• Google Chat and Meet

Domains

Personally, I found this section of great importance. In ‘Domains,’ you can register a new domain or transfer an already existing one. What’s more, HostGator hosting offers an additional option to lock your domain.

Billing

Once you open the ‘Billing’ section, you will see a few subsections – billing history, make payments, Credit Card(s), PayPal, and Credits.

Support

Lastly, in the ‘Support’ section can be found the ways through which you can contact the HostGator’s support team. As we already discussed, this can be done through live chat support, knowledge base, or through a phone number, which is available 24/7.

SSL Management Tab

One feature that stands out from the rest is the ‘SSL Management’ section, which offers the ‘Let’s Encrypt SSL.’

Control Panel Tab

Wow, it looks like my HostGator review will be rich with different features and benefits. Next, I’ll be moving on to the ‘Control Panel.’ There, you have access to:

• Email Accounts
• Webmail
• Databases
• File Manager
• Install WordPress
• Launch cPanel

Now, I’ll take you back to the starting point, where you choose a website builder. Because I’ve already chosen Weebly, let’s switch to WordPress.

When you get to this screen, you should click on ‘Install Now.’ Then, you’ll be forwarded to the following screen, where you should select the version you want, the URL, the site name, site description, admin account, admin password, language, and plugins alongside the theme.

Once you fill in all information, you may go further by clicking on ‘Install’ at the bottom.

After these simple steps, the following screen will appear, and you just have to wait.

Once it finishes, you’ll see this screen, and that’s it. Your WordPress installation is all done.

It looks like we’ve come to one of my favorite parts – launching the cPanel.

Yes, I know. What you see at the moment may seem like a lot, but I will guide you through it step by step. Let’s get down to business.

1. Email

In the ‘Email’ section, you get access to email accounts, forwarders, email routing, autoresponders, mailing lists, global email filters, email filters, email deliverability, address importer, spam filters, encryption, BoxTrapper, calendars and contacts, and email disk usage.

2. Files

The ‘Files’ section offers access to the File Manager, Images, Directory Privacy, Disk Usage, Web Disk, FTP Accounts, FTP Connections, Anonymous FTP, Backup, and Backup Wizard.

Keep in mind that HostGator’s automatic backup service runs once a week on a random day, and each run overwrites any of the previously made backups. In terms of manual backups, you can create them through cPanel up to 10 GB and/or 150.000 inodes or less. However, if your backup surpasses this size, you should contact the support team for assistance.

3. Databases

Here, the users will find phpMyAdmin, MySQL Databases, MySQL Database Wizard, and Remote MySQL.

4. Domains

Next is the ‘Domains’ tab, where you can see domains, addon domains, subdomains, aliases, redirects, zone editor, and dynamic DNS.

5. Metrics

Furthermore, in the cPanel, you will see the ‘Metrics’ tab, which allows access to visitors, errors, bandwidth, raw access, Awstats, Webalizer, Webalizer FTP, and the metrics editor.

6. Security

In the ‘Security’ tab, you can find everything you need for better protection of your websites, such as SSH Access, IP Blocker, SSL/TLS, Manage API Tokens, Hotlink protection, and SSL/TLS Status.

7. Software

cPanel also comes with a ‘Software’ tab. Here, you can find WordPress Manager by Softaculous, PHP PEAR Packages, Perl Modules, Application Manager, MultiPHP Manager, MultiPHP INI Editor, and the Softaculous Apps Installer.

8. Advanced

What a long list! Next is the ‘Advanced’ section, where you can get access to the terminal, cron jobs, track DNS, indexes, error pages, Apache Handlers, and MIME Types.

9. Preferences

As you might guess, HostGator’s ‘Preferences’ tab offers access to password and security, change language, contact information, and user management.

10. Softaculous Apps Installer

Discussing the ‘Softaculous Apps Installer,’ you can view software scripts, including WordPress, Joomla, AbanteCart, phpBB, SMF, WHMCS, Open Real Estate, MyBB, and much more.

With this, I’m finishing the setting up and managing of your HostGator account. I’m aware that this might have looked like a lot, but I assure you that there’s no place for worries. Everything is thoroughly explained, and each process is a piece of cake. You shouldn’t have any problems. However, if you come across an issue, you can contact HostGator’s support team, as they always provide a solution and they are very friendly.

Conclusion: Do We Recommend HostGator?

Yes, we do! How could we not recommend it? HostGator is indeed a top-quality web host provider in any field you can think of. Starting off with its easy-to-navigate platform, its features, its organization, and the knowledgeable and friendly support team, I absolutely loved everything about HostGator.

From my personal experience, I could see that HostGator has a professional expert team, and they pay attention to even the smallest detail so that you can have a pleasant experience. However, I’m not excluding the possibility that this web host provider might not be the best for you. Another positive thing is that a decent percentage of professionals use HostGator, which means that it is really worth it. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be used by professionals. But, HostGator made a balance, and it is also suitable for beginners. Their support section offers different types of help, even a knowledge base with tutorials that are really helpful for beginners.

I’ll wrap up my HostGator review by saying that my experience has been pretty smooth and enjoyable. After I did this review, I understood why HostGator has been on the market since 2002. HostGator is worth your money and time. If our review didn’t convince you that HostGator might be the best choice for you, you can find more customer and expert reviews or even try it yourself. Don’t forget that they offer a 45-day money-back guarantee!

Monthly Updates

During April, HostGator:

• Offered a 65% discount on all Shared Hosting plans and a free domain.

During March, HostGator:

• Offered free one-year Domain Registration on Shared Annual Plans.

During February, HostGator:

• Offered free one-year Domain Registration on Shared Annual Plans.

During January, HostGator:

• No Updates

During December, HostGator:

• HostAdvice Special Deals: Up to 99% off on your hosting with a free domain.
• HostAdvice Special Deals: Save up to 60% off hosting, domain names and free SSL Certificate.

During November, HostGator:

• No Updates

During October, HostGator:

• No updates

During September, HostGator:

• No updates

During August, HostGator:

• No updates

During July, HostGator:

• No updates

During June, HostGator:

• No updates

During May, HostGator:

• Didn’t issue any new features or updates
• Didn’t report any server issues