HostGator Review

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Our Ratings Popularity 10 / 10 Cost 7 / 10 Features 9 / 10 Reliability 8 / 10 Performance 8 / 10 Customer Support 10 / 10 Overall 87% Explanation of our Rating Criteria.

Categories Web Host Belongs Too Linux Web Hosting Shared Hosting Dedicated Hosting United States Web Hosting

Bottom Line Insane Customer Dedication. 30 Day Money Back Guarantee. Over 400,000 Web Sites Hosted.

One of the newer hosting providers we have reviewed, HostGator stood out, because of the sheer volume of web sites they host. HostGator provides service to over 400,000 web sites. With their new, larger location in Houston Texas, HostGator has expanded their data centers to keep on top of their explosive growth. One of the main features HostGator wants people to know about their service is the "Insane Customer Dedication". They even offer an easy test by telling you to call HostGator's Customer Support line to see how fast you are able to talk to a live customer support person.

Current Special Offer: Shared hosting plans as low as $6.95.

Hosting Plans & Features

HostGator offers shared and dedicated hosting on Linux Servers. All plans have a 30 day money back guarantee and a 99.9% uptime guarantee (except for Hatchling which is a 99.5% guarantee).

Here is a table of HostGators hosting plans main feature set.

All plans support unlimited number of MySQL databases. A large number of scripting languages are supported including CGI, PHP 4 < 5, Ruby On Rails (ROR), SSH, Perl, Python, SSI, Cron, Frontpage, Curl, GD and Image Magick. You also receive standard email features including Web Mail, Forwarding, Catch Alls, Auto Responders and SPAM Assassin. cPanel 10 is used as the Control Panel which supports among other things Fantastico which automates the installation of the many web applications available for you (forum, guestbooks, gallery, etc..). All plans also use AWStats with real time updates as there statistics programs. You get access to the raw log files as well.

The last notable thing that all plans offer is some excellent E-Commerce features. This includes shared or Private SSL (depending on plan) to keep your shopping cart secure and encrypted. Free Shopping Carts include to use are Agora Cart, osCommerce, ZenCart and Cube Cart.

There are 4 shared hosting plans. They include Hatchling, Baby, Swamp and Semi Dedicated. For the most part the only differences in the plans deal with the information shown in the table above and the 2 smaller plans do not have Private SSL. The Swamp hosting plan is the only one that contains Chilisoft ASP scripting support.

There are also 4 different dedicated server plans. They are called Basic, Standard, Elite and Pro. Depending on the hosting plan chosen you would receive a server with a Pentium 4 2.8Ghz processor with 1 GB of memory and all the way up to a Dual-Core 3060 Conroe with 4 GB. All dedicated hosting plans have no contracts so you can cancel your account at any time. 5 IP addresses are also included per server.

Other Related Services Offered

HostGator also offers Reseller Hosting Starting at $24.95 for both individuals and businesses which includes both an 99.9% uptime guarantee and a 30 Day Money Back Guarantee.

Cost & Value

Shared hosting is similar in pricing when compared to other web hosting providers but a good thing HostGator lets you do is rent your shared server monthly for a few dollars (when compared to a year contract) which lets you then try out the service for a low price before you commit to a year contract with a lower price.

HostGator's dedicated servers are more money that other providers with similar feature set. What HostGator has and what the others may not is fast and excellent customer service along with a good network and hardware, so if you are new to web hosting scene it may be worth it. I only used a shared hosting plan when I reviewed this service so I can't directly comment on the specifics of a dedicated server plan but all of the sites I visited which had dedicated servers on HostGator had excellent performance.

Reliability & Performance

Most of the large web hosting providers have excellent reliability and performance and even though HostGator is younger than most other providers reviewed on this site (founded in 2002) they are no exception. With an uptime money back guarantee, if HostGator ever falls below 99.9% uptime in a month, you can hold them accountable. HostGator would not be currently hosting over 400,000 domains if they did have uptime problems.

HostGator has all the normal redundancies in place including UPS's, backup generators and 24/7 live on site monitoring. Their list of equipment is very impressive and can be seen on HostGators company page off of their home page .

Customer Support

One of the main things HostGator is known for is a fast and knowledgeable customer service team. Their customer support department has over forty in house support veterans that are ready to assist you 24/7/365 by chat, phone, and a ticket system. I had no issues when I reviewed HostGator's service but I did try out all 3 support options and I received a quick and detailed responses from all support options.

Conclusion

Web Hosting is a very competitive business and HostGator comes out near the top. Their shared hosting plan is an excellent choice especially for indiviuals or businesses just starting out with a web site and looking for good customer.

Last Updated Saturday, September 29 2007 @ 01:48 PM Eastern Daylight Time; 1,277 Hits