hostgator business plan

Web Hosting Pricing & Plans

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• Web Pricing
• Cloud Pricing
• WordPress Pricing
• Compare Plans
• VPS Pricing
• Dedicated Pricing

Web Hosting

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• One Click Installs
• Unlimited Email

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• Unlimited Domains

Business Plan

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• Private SSL
• Dedicated IP
• FREE VoIP Phone Service

All Web Plans Include:

• FREE Migration
• cPanel Control Panel
• Unmetered Bandwidth
• 24/7/365 Support
• Unlimited FTP Users
• 24/7/365 Server Monitoring
• 99.9% Uptime Guarantee
• Unlimited MySQL Databases

Cloud Hosting

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• Shared SSL Certificate

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• 25K Visits Per Month
• 1 GB Backups
• 50 GB Storage

Standard Plan

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• 200K Visits Per Month
• 2 GB Backups
• 150 GB Storage

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• 300K Visits Per Month
• 3 GB Backups
• Unlimited Storage

All WordPress Plans Include:

• Automatic Malware Removal
• Custom Dashboard
• Automatic Backups

Compare & Choose Plans

Find your perfect match, web hosting buy now " > buy now, starting at /mo * " data-key="shared.l1.term.36">$ 2.75 /mo *, control panel cpanel, manage resources & speed 2x faster.

Performance Cloud Infrastructure. Varnish & WordPress Caching For WordPress Hosting Plans

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Automated Compute Failover, 3N Storage Redundancy

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Automated Compute Fallover, 3N Storage Redundancy

Managed WordPress  

We Manage WordPress: App, Plugins, And More

Malware Removal  

Automatic Daily Malware Scans & Removal, Powered By SiteLock

Already a HostGator customer?

Vps hosting, full root access, total customization, snappy 2000, now {{print_current_percent_off}}% off" data-key="vps.l3.term.36"> now 75% off.

• 120 GB Disk Space
• 1.5 TB Bandwidth

Snappy 4000

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• 165 GB Disk Space
• 2 TB Bandwidth

Snappy 8000

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• 240 GB Disk Space
• 3 TB Bandwidth

All VPS Plans Include:

• Weekly Backups
• Full Root Access
• Private Name Servers

Dedicated Hosting

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• 4 Core / 8 Thread Intel Xeon-D CPU
• Linux or Windows OS

Power Server

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• 8 Core / 16 Thread Intel Xeon-D CPU
• 2 TB HDD or 512 GB SSD

Enterprise Server

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• 3 Dedicated IPv4 IPs
• RAID-1 Configuration
• DDOS Protection
• 24/7/365 Live Support
• Unlimited Databases
• Fully Redundant Network

Frequently Asked Questions

How do i choose the right hosting plan for me.

When choosing a web hosting plan, there are several aspects you'll want to consider. Your level of tech-savviness, your budget, and how you expect your site to grow in terms of traffic should all be taken into account. If you're less comfortable with technology, our WordPress or Web Hosting plans are our most popular options, whereas savvier customers expecting high traffic numbers may potentially want to go with a Dedicated Server.

Do I need both a web hosting plan and a domain?

Yes. You need both web hosting and a domain in order for your website to be accessible online. Without a domain name, you would need to direct visitors to a string of numbers known as an IP address. Your web host provides the server that hosts the files for your website. The domain name is the connection between your IP address and the web hosting server. You can register a domain along with any of HostGator's hosting plans, or you can transfer a domain you already own.

What if I already have a website? Can I transfer my existing website to HostGator?

Definitely. You can transfer your site over yourself, or take advantage of our FREE content migrations for all new accounts or upgraded accounts that require a server move. We also offer FREE domain name registry transfers. See https://www.hostgator.com/moving for more information.

Am I stuck in a contract?

No. New customers on our Web, Reseller, VPS, and WordPress hosting plans are eligible for our 45-day money-back guarantee.

Although we never like saying goodbye, we try to make the cancellation process as simple as possible. After you request cancellation, it can take up to 72 hours for us to verify and close your account. Until that time, or unless you request otherwise, your account will be cancelled on your next renewal date and will no longer be accessible. Cancelling your web hosting has no affect on your domain registration.

How long will it take to get set up?

We'll get you set up as quickly as possible, but setup time does depend on your chosen plan. For new Web, Cloud, and WordPress hosting customers with new domains, your server will be set up and ready for you within an hour. If you're transferring a domain over to us, this process can take longer, and for those customers purchasing dedicated servers, it can take up to 24 hours for the provisioning to complete.

Can I switch or upgrade plans?

Absolutely! You can upgrade or downgrade your hosting plan at any time. There is no contract involved and no fee to upgrade.

Is email included?

Unlike many web hosts, we're proud to offer unlimited email addresses for free with all of our plans. Our web-based email clients are designed to make email management and forwarding easy. You can also seamlessly upgrade to Google Apps for as low as $5/mo.

What does "unmetered" mean?

Diskspace and bandwidth are unmetered for all of our plans, which means you are not charged according to how much you use. However, we expect customers to utilize the amount of disk space and bandwidth necessary for the normal operation of a personal or business website. In the very rare case that you come close to exceeding this amount, you will receive an email from us.

When purchasing web hosting, what else do I need to keep my site safe and secure?

Here at HostGator we care about the success and security of your websites so we provide you with the tools and services you need to run a marketable, safe, and secure website. We feature all of the essentials that you need to keep your site safe and secure

Protect Your Site From Hackers (Powered by SiteLock) HackAlert is a monitoring service that checks your website daily and immediately notifies you if your website has been hacked or injected with malicious code.

Backup Your Hard Work (Powered by CodeGuard) Get a time machine for your website! CodeGuard protects your website with a daily automatic backup.

SSL certificates assure your customers and visitors that any data (credit cards, passwords etc) they enter on your site is secure and protected. Earn the trust of your visitors and convert them into customers.

What if I have more questions?

No problem. Our support team is available 24/7/365 to answer your questions via Live Chat or phone.

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HostGator Web Hosting review

Great value and feature-packed hosting for home and business users.

TechRadar Verdict

A likeable web host with responsive support and fast, feature-packed and great value shared hosting plans. We'd like more choice in the VPS and dedicated ranges, but overall HostGator has appealing products for home and business users alike.

Speedy shared hosting plans

Low starter prices

45-day money-back guarantee

Helpful live chat support

Easy-to-use website builder with ecommerce support

Some downtime during the review

Underpowered VPS and dedicated hosting plans

US-only data centers

Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

HostGator is a hugely popular Texas-based web hosting provider who has been helping customers get online since 2002.

These days the company is owned by Newfold Digital (previously Endurance International Group), the hosting giant who also runs Bluehost , iPage, Domain.com , Web.com, SiteBuilder.com and more.

HostGator's cartoon mascot, cheerful website and low headline prices might leave you thinking it's mostly for consumers and hosting newbies, but in reality the service offers a full range of products for all levels of user.

It's a winning recipe which delivers great results. Datanyze' Web Hosting Share report puts HostGator in 5th place with 5.71%, ahead of all but the largest of web names ( GoDaddy , Amazon AWS, Google .)

• Want to try HostGator? Check out the website here

What hosting plans does HostGator offer? 

HostGator's range starts with low-cost shared hosting , simple to manage, but with all the features many sites will ever need.

If you don't have a website already, HostGator's website builder helps you create a starting design in minutes. Editing can be as easy as typing in some text, and dragging and dropping images, contact forms and anything else you need onto the page.

More powerful VPS and dedicated products deliver extra speed and reliability, and are better suited for large or business-critical sites.

There's also a capable managed WordPress range, reseller hosting , domain registration and more.

Next, we'll talk about some of HostGator's most important hosting products, their pros and cons, who they'll suit best and any alternatives you might want to consider.

Shared hosting

Sign up for a shared plan and HostGator places your website on a single server which also hosts many other accounts. With everyone using the same CPU, hard drive and network connection, speeds aren't the best. But they're enough for many sites, and with the cost of the server spread across many users, prices are low.

HostGator's shared hosting starts at just $2.75 a month over three years ($6.95 on renewal). It only supports a single site, but still delivers everything we'd hope to see: free domain, free migration, unmetered storage and bandwidth, one-click WordPress installs (via the excellent Softaculous ), free SSL , the powerful cPanel control panel and 24/7 support via phone, live chat and email, all protected by a generous 45 day money-back guarantee (most hosts only offer 30).

Upgrading to the top-of-the-range plan gets you support for unlimited websites, along with a dedicated IP and a free Positive SSL certificate (a higher grade of SSL which allows you to display a Trustlogo® Site Seal on your website). This could be a smarter choice for businesses, but it's still very reasonably priced from $5.25 a month for the first three years, $14.95 afterwards.

Overall, HostGator's shared hosting is a capable product which has loads of features, but still remains very easy to use.

If price is key, iPage shared hosting starts at only $1.99 a month over three years. But although it more than covers the basics, the service doesn't match HostGator for quality and speed, and it's more expensive on renewal at $7.99.

Hostinger's shared hosting is an interesting HostGator alternative. Its Premium plan is priced similarly to HostGator's starter package, for instance, but it has similar performance, supports up to 100 websites, and adds useful WordPress and other tools.

Power users or anyone with large and advanced sites should look at A2 Hosting, too. Its top shared hosting packages are far more expensive ($12.99 a month over three years, $25.99 on renewal), but they get you more RAM and CPU time, high-speed storage, a faster web server and assorted other performance-boosting tech.

WordPress hosting

WordPress is a powerful and configurable platform which can help you build anything from a simple single-page website, to a personal blog, a professional business site or (with help from add-ons like WooCommerce ) a full-featured web store.

HostGator's shared hosting plans are the most cost-effective way to try WordPress. The bundled Softaculous installs WordPress in seconds, and you can begin building websites right away. That could be the smart choice for simple sites, or if you’re just looking to learn the WordPress basics.

HostGator also offers managed WordPress hosting for more demanding users. Valuable extras include CodeGuard's daily automatic backups and 1-click restores. And SiteLock Fix doesn't just scan for your website files for malware, like most of the competition; it grabs any affected files, removes the threat and uploads a clean version back to your site.

Other benefits are less visible, though also important. Managed WordPress servers are optimized for WordPress, delivering more speed and higher security. And the support team has more WordPress expertise, helping you solve tricky WordPress-specific issues.

Despite these advantages, the managed WordPress plans are only a little more expensive, with prices starting at $5.95 a month over three years ($9.95 on renewal) for a single site account.

This looks like a good deal to us. CodeGuard backups and SiteLock Fix are top-quality, industry-standard tools which are premium extras with most web hosts, and getting them bundled with even the cheapest Managed WordPress plan is a real plus.

Bluehost's managed WordPress range is relatively costly, with a starting price of $17.95 a month, but support for unlimited bandwidth and websites, free domain privacy protection and bonus marketing and other tools could make it a worthwhile alternative for business users.

If you can't decide what level of WordPress support you need, take a look at InMotion Hosting . A huge range of plans from a $3.99 a month standard hosting option to specialist VPS and dedicated WordPress options ensure there's something for every level of user.

VPS hosting 

VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting, like shared hosting, has multiple accounts on the same server. But there aren't as many, and every VPS gets its own resources. If you buy a VPS with two CPU cores and 2GB RAM, for instance, no other account can use them, ensuring your site delivers higher and more consistent speeds. While shared hosting might run into trouble if you have tens of thousands of visitors a month, a good VPS can handle hundreds of thousands.

HostGator has only three VPS plans. The starter product gives you 2GB RAM, 2 CPU cores, 120GB SSD storage, free domain, free SSL and 2 dedicated IPs from $23.95 a month for 12 months, $79.95 on renewal. 

The top-of-the-range plan offers 4 cores, 8GB RAM and 240GB storage for $59.95 a month over 12 months, rising to $149.95 on renewal. 

(cPanel is available, but only as a paid extra: add $10 a month to each of those plans if you'd like a copy.)

These are capable products, all fully managed (which means HostGator offers full support to keep the VPS updated and running smoothly), and should deliver solid and speedy hosting for larger, resource-hungry websites. But other providers typically have a far wider range of plans, and if you're looking for something cheaper, more powerful or configurable, it's well worth checking a few alternatives.

Hostwinds has ten VPS plans rather than three, for instance. It has unmanaged plans (no software support, you run the server yourself) from only $4.99 billed monthly.) The top-of-the-range VPS has far more resources, with 16 CPU cores and 96GB, and all plans are available with Windows as well as Linux . Plus, there are network and power uptime guarantees of 99.9999%, equivalent to 31.56 seconds of down time a year.

Dedicated hosting 

Opt for shared or VPS hosting and you'll share your server with other accounts, limiting your site's speed. Choose dedicated hosting and the server, the CPU, the RAM, the network connection is all yours, ensuring you'll never be affected by other site's behavior.

Another big plus for experienced users is the ability to set up the server just as you'd like. You can choose the hardware specs, the operating system , web server and more, and tweak them to suit your precise needs.

HostGator's dedicated server hosting products (like its VPS range) is limited, with only three server configurations. 

These start with a 4-core, 8GB RAM and 1TB HDD system, priced at $89.98 a month over three years, $189 on renewal. 

The top-of-the-range is an 8-core, 30GB RAM and 1TB SSD system for $139.99 a month over three years, $289 on renewal.

Both systems support Windows as well as Linux, a welcome option you won't see with most web hosts.

These are decent mid-range systems, fully managed with 24/7 support, and good value for what you're getting. But with three plans only, your choice is very limited. If you're looking for something outside of this middle ground, a cheaper or more powerful server, there are many more options available.

IONOS' dedicated server range doesn't have the most powerful hardware, but there's some amazing value. Managed entry-level servers start at $45 a month (billed annually) for the first six months, then $65, and we’ve seen special deals as low as $33 billed monthly.

Alternatively, Hostwinds and A2 Hosting support far more powerful servers, are supremely configurable (you can install up to ten drives in some systems), and allow you to choose your operating system (Hostwinds supports Windows as well as Linux).

Does HostGator have a website builder?

Website builders are just about the easiest way to start a site. Choose from a selection of designs, drag and drop elements like text blocks, photos, maps and video onto the page, then customize the content to make it your own. Even newcomers could have a good-looking site online within hours.

All HostGator's shared hosting products include a free version of the Weebly site builder. This limits sites to six pages and displays a HostGator link in the footer, but it might work for kids or just learning what a website builder can do.

HostGator has a far better option in its stand-alone Gator Website Builder plan. Instead of asking you to choose a template, then drag and drop page blocks, Gator Builder asks you some questions and then automatically builds a site to suit your needs. 

Prices start low at $3.84 a month over two years, $7.68 on renewal, which gets you hosting, a free domain, free SSL, the Gator Builder, and even support for a tiny three-product web store.

The top-of-the-range Gator Builder plan lifts the product limit, helps encourage customers with up to ten email campaigns a month, includes an appointment booking system and allows taking payments with no transaction fees. Those are some valuable e-commerce extras, yet it's still cheap at $9.22 a month over two years, $18.45 on renewal.

Put it all together and Gator Builder is well worth a look, especially for newcomers looking to take their first steps into the web design waters. 

If you're looking for more features, try Wix . It's just as easy to get started, but gives you many more design and website tools, and you can try it out and build your first site for free.

GoDaddy's Website Builder also has a surprisingly capable free option (there's email marketing, an appointments system, even the ability to sell online with GoDaddy Payments), along with some business-friendly paid plans. And Bluehost's WordPress-based website builder has 300+ appealing templates, a custom image library and support for unlimited websites, but starts at only $2.95 a month.

Can I build a web store with HostGator?

HostGator doesn't have the same ecommerce-focused products as the likes of Bluehost and GoDaddy, but as we've discussed above, the Website Builder's Express Store plan is a simple solution for smaller web stores. 

This is an appealing option for ecommerce newbies. Creating your site is easy; there's a free domain and free SSL, and you can add as many products to the store as you like. Many e-commerce hosting products take a share of every sale you make, but not this one: Express Store has no transaction fees. That's great value at only $9.22 a month over two years ($18.45 on renewal).

If you're looking for more power or features, then opting for a specialist WooCommerce hosting plan could make more sense (WooCommerce is one of the best ecommerce platforms around). 

Bluehost's baseline WooCommerce plan includes tools to simplify building your site, take payments and collect customer reviews from only $12.95 a month on the annual plan ($24.95 on renewal). InMotion Hosting gives you even more choice, with optimized OpenCart and Magento software, bonus features and a pile of performance-boosting tweaks.

How fast is HostGator?

We assess web host performance by signing up for a shared hosting package, using a standard WordPress template to create a basic site, then watching how it performs in different situations.

Uptime - the proportion of time a website is available to visitors - is a vital factor in hosting success. We test this by using Uptime.com to try to access our test site every five minutes over 14 days, and logging any failures. HostGator managed 99.63% uptime, and although that sounds like a high figure, it's a little disappointing for a short test (most providers manage 100%.)

We measure website load speeds by using GTmetrix to access our test site, then calculate how long it takes to display the main content (a value known as Largest Contentful Paint, or LCP.) The lower a site's LCP, the faster and more responsive it feels.

This time HostGator trampled all over the competition, with an LCP of 0.551 seconds earning it first place out of our last 15 tests. The lead isn't huge - most providers score between 0.600 and 0.800 seconds - but this is an important stat, and a good result for HostGator.

We're also interested to see how a site performs when it's busy. The service k6 helps us figure this out by unleashing 20 simultaneous visitors on the site and monitoring what happens. This time the results were typical of most providers, with our HostGator site handling a very acceptable average of 15 requests per second.

How easy is HostGator to use?

HostGator's customer portal has a helpful Create Website guide which walks hosting newcomers through their first site-building steps: installing WordPress, choosing another CMS or app, maybe uploading files via FTP. This doesn't do very much, but it's still a welcome touch which could be very handy if you're still finding your way around.

The rest of the portal is little more than lists of links. Click here to open the WordPress dashboard, there to create email accounts, and over there to manage your domains. There's even a Search box to find relevant support documents without opening a separate tab at the HostGator knowledgebase.

This is useful, but HostGator spoils the effect by regularly trying to sell you more stuff. At least eight of the control panel links were mostly about pushing other products. You'll quickly learn which links to avoid, but we don't think that should be necessary.  If you've spent maybe hundreds of dollars on a hosting package, we expect its dashboard to focus on helping you use that, not selling you even more.

Fortunately, once you identify the useful links, they point you to some top-quality hosting tools. HostGator's shared hosting plans all come with cPanel, for instance, a very popular platform which has all the features you need to manage domains, emails, web space, databases and more.

Put aside the over-enthusiastic marketing, then, and HostGator is relatively straightforward to operate, even for newcomers to the hosting world.

How good is HostGator's support?

Run into any issues at HostGator and its web knowledgebase could be the quickest route to an answer. 

Searching for common hosting terms brings a huge number of hits, but that's partly because there are duplicates or not-so-relevant articles in the list. 

When we searched for 'subdomain', the top result was an article called '[Featured] HostGator Datacenter Migration', for instance: not something we'd expect to come first. And the next three articles were titled 'What is a subdomain name and how to create one', 'Please read before creating a subdomain' and 'How to create a subdomain' (a blog post.) What we really want is a single comprehensive page, but here we'd probably open and read all three.

The various articles mostly have a lot of helpful content, and they can also be filtered according to their category. If you're only interested in cPanel guides, say, or video tutorials, you can view those results only with a click.

When you finally reach your chosen article, there's usually a lot of helpful content, but we found this wasn't always well maintained. The How To Create a Subdomain piece has broken image link icons where its screenshots used to be, for instance, making it less than useful as a tutorial.

If you can't find what you need, there's real live help available 24/7 via telephone, live chat and email.

Our experience with HostGator support has been excellent over the years, and it was broadly positive in this review. Email queries received speedy and accurate replies, and although we waited a lengthy 19 minutes to get a response on one live chat session, once the agent arrived he did a good job of identifying our fictional test problem and pointing us to the best and easiest solution.

Final verdict

HostGator has some of the best shared hosting plans around, speedy, great value, with a pile of features and responsive support on tap when you need it. Its high-end VPS and dedicated plans can't match the power of the best of the competition, but there's still a huge amount to like here for both home and big business users.

HostGator FAQs

What payment types does HostGator accept?

HostGator accepts payment via card or PayPal.

Does HostGator offer refunds?

HostGator offers a better-than-most 45-day money-back guarantee for managed shared, VPS and reseller accounts (most providers only give you 30 days.)

It's not all good news. The guarantee doesn't apply to dedicated servers, or monthly-billed hosting plans, which are covered by some hosts.

There are other exclusions, but they're more typical. For example, domains, setup fees and third-party products and services aren't protected by the guarantee, much the same as we see with other providers.

Does HostGator have an uptime guarantee?

HostGator's shared and reseller hosting servers have a 99.9% uptime guarantee, much the same as the rest of the shared hosting competition.

The company also says you could receive a credit of one month's fees if this target isn't hit. How might this work? The small print simply says if the service falls short of the 99.9% figure, you 'may' receive one month of credit. But you also may not, presumably. All you can do is talk to the Billing department and ask.

That's better than nothing, but we prefer a guarantee to spell out how this works. Scala Hosting, for instance, says you get 0% credit for downtime of 0.1% or less; 10% if downtime is up to 0.2%; 20% if downtime is up to 0.3%, and so on. The company still gets to define what 'downtime' means, but it's still doing a better job of defining your rights.

Dedicated servers are covered by a separate guarantee where you're credited depending on the amount of time your server is down, a simpler and more straightforward scheme.

Where are HostGator's data centers?

HostGator has two main data centers in Provo, Utah, and Houston, Texas. The company says there are 'some [servers] residing in other locations.'

We like to see hosts provide more data centers, ideally spread around the world. GoDaddy, for example, can host your website in North America, India, Singapore or Europe. This means customers have a better chance of finding a data center close to their audience, giving their site an immediate speed boost.

What is my HostGator IP address?

Sign into HostGator's customer portal (portal.hostgator.com).

Find your hosting package in the list, and click its Launch cPanel button.

The IP address for the server hosting your IP address is displayed as 'Shared IP Address' in the right-hand General Information box.

What are HostGator's nameservers?

If your website domain isn't managed by HostGator, you may need to set it to use HostGator's nameservers to connect the domain to your new web space.

Unlike some providers, there aren't fixed values such as 'ns1.hostgator.com' and 'n2.hostgator.com' which you can use everywhere. The names you need, and how to find them, vary depending on your product and where it's hosted.

To find the details you need, log into HostGator's customer portal (portal.hostgator.com).

Click Hosting in the left-hand sidebar.

Click Manage for your website domain, then the Settings link.

Your nameservers are displayed in the 'Server Info & Settings' box.

How do I cancel a HostGator product?

To cancel a HostGator product, first log into the company's portal (portal.hostgator.com.)

Find your hosting package in the list, and click Manage Package.

Click Billing, scroll down and click Cancel Package.

Read and follow the instructions carefully to cancel your HostGator plan.

Check out the latest Hostgator coupon codes to get discounts this month.

Mike is a lead security reviewer at Future, where he stress-tests VPNs , antivirus and more to find out which services are sure to keep you safe, and which are best avoided. Mike began his career as a lead software developer in the engineering world, where his creations were used by big-name companies from Rolls Royce to British Nuclear Fuels and British Aerospace. The early PC viruses caught Mike's attention, and he developed an interest in analyzing malware, and learning the low-level technical details of how Windows and network security work under the hood.

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Most Popular

HostGator web hosting review

Great on the surface but average underneath.

Tom's Guide Verdict

Despite being one of the most popular web hosting providers in the world, HostGator’s services are just too basic for us to be able to recommend them.

Excellent website builder

Competitive introductory prices

Terrible security features

Deceptive price structure

Why you can trust Tom's Guide Our writers and editors spend hours analyzing and reviewing products, services, and apps to help find what's best for you. Find out more about how we test, analyze, and rate.

The best web hosting services for your needs will likely be very different for someone else. This can make the search for a hosting provider quite complicated, especially if it’s not an industry you know a lot about. 

In our HostGator review, we take a close look at every aspect of this popular web hosting provider. With a range of hosting options, one of the best website builders , and competitive prices, there’s a lot to like on the surface. But let’s see what a deeper analysis reveals.

HostGator: Plans and pricing

At first glance, HostGator’s range of hosting options appears to offer excellent value for money. However, not everything is as it appears here. With the shared hosting plans , for example, you will have to pay for 36 months upfront to access the advertised prices. You will also pay significantly more when the time comes to renew your plan. 

The cheapest Hatchling shared hosting plan starts at $2.75 a month for a three-year subscription ( $10.95 with monthly payments). It supports one website, with unmetered bandwidth, unlimited storage, a free SSL certificate, and a free domain name for the first year. 

Upgrading to the Baby plan (from $3.50 a month for a three-year plan) unlocks unlimited website connections. A high-end Business subscription (from $5.25 a month for a three-year plan) includes a free dedicated IP address, free SEO tools, and an advanced Positive SSL certificate for extra security. 

Basic WordPress hosting starts at $5.95 a month for a Starter plan, which supports a single site with 100,000 monthly visits and 1GB data backup. More advanced VPS plans start from $19.95 a month , and dedicated server hosting costs from $89.98 a month . 

Reseller hosting is also available, with the $19.95 a month Aluminum plan getting you 60GB storage, 600GB bandwidth, and support for unlimited websites. Or, you can harness the power of the Gator Builder website builder for just $3.84 a month .

HostGator: Features

HostGator offers a very basic hosting service with few advanced features. We’ve outlined some of the most noteworthy inclusions below. 

For one, HostGator’s Gator Builder website builder is excellent. It offers similar design flexibility to industry leaders such as Wix , is backed by a suite of advanced tools and a decent template library, and costs from just $3.84 a month . 

All shared hosting plans come with $150 worth of Google Ads and $100 of Microsoft advertising credit. These provide an excellent way for those new to digital marketing to get their foot in the door and begin to figure things out. 

On the surface, HostGator’s unlimited everything shared hosting appears to be excellent. In short, it offers unmetered bandwidth and storage. However, in reality, you will be asked to upgrade to a more advanced subscription if your website starts using too many server resources.

HostGator: Interface and in use

The HostGator checkout process is smooth, but there are a few things to watch out for. For one, you’ll need to pay attention to the length of your subscription. Shorter plans are much more expensive. You’ll also need to look closely at the hosting add-ons, as the chances are that some will be pre-selected for you. 

Meanwhile, the main dashboard provides a neat interface for managing everything from your domains and hosting to your email accounts and ongoing billing. When it comes to looking after your hosting, you’ll benefit from the powerful cPanel control panel, which is beginner-friendly and packed full of advanced tools. 

HostGator: Support

If you need technical support from the HostGator team, you can reach out via phone or live chat. The support agents tend to be friendly and knowledgeable, which is a major plus. There’s also a decent knowledge base that contains a suite of guides, tutorials, and other self-help resources. 

HostGator: Security

Unfortunately, HostGator’s security features are average at best. You will benefit from DDoS attack protection, a decent firewall, and a free SSL certificate, but that’s about all. Malware detection and removal is completely absent, there’s no multi-factor authentication option, and you’ll be encouraged to purchase a SiteLock security subscription to unlock more advanced tools. 

Alternatives to HostGator

•  Bluehost vs HostGator

•  HostGator vs IONOS vs GoDaddy

•  Bluehost vs GoDaddy

•  GoDaddy vs Wix

HostGator offers a decent hosting service but there are plenty of better options out there. One of our favorites is Hostinger , which offers high-quality shared hosting from just $0.99 a month . This is backed by a great selection of advanced features, along with leading security tools.

Another powerful choice is InMotion Hosting . With prices starting at $5.99 a month , it is a little more expensive than HostGator but it offers premium service across the board. All plans are built on modern hardware, with excellent security and a knowledgeable support team.

HostGator: Final verdict

All things considered, HostGator really isn’t as good as it might appear. Sure, its advertised prices are very competitive, but they are misleading at best. The checkout process is deceptive, security tools are almost entirely absent, and there really aren’t any advanced features to speak of. 

On the plus side, the user interface is tidy and easy to navigate, and the customer service is excellent. Unfortunately, though, this just isn’t enough for us to be able to recommend HostGator. 

The bottom line is, if you need high-quality, reliable hosting, look elsewhere.

Further reading on web hosting

To learn more about HostGator, read our comparison feature pitting Bluehost vs HostGator , and to see where HostGator ranks across different hosting types, read our guides outlining the best VPS hosting , the best Linux web hosting , the best WordPress hosting , the best unlimited hosting , and the best cloud hosting services.

Daniel is a freelance copywriter with over six years experience writing for publications such as TechRadar, Tom’s Guide, and Hosting Review. He specializes in tech and finance, with a particular focus on website building, web hosting, and related fields. 

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Home » Web Hosting Services » HostGator Pricing | 10 Things to Know Before Signing Up

HostGator Pricing | 10 Things to Know Before Signing Up

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Cheapest Hosting Plan

Most expensive hosting plan, overall rating.

5 out of 5 stars

Written and researched by:

Should you snap up hostgator’s plans.

HostGator is a popular hosting provider that aims to make hosting easy and affordable for its users.

We put it through our rigorous research process to see how well it lived up to its reputation, and it’s safe to say HostGator wowed us, coming in as the second best hosting provider in our rankings with an overall score of 4.7 out of 5, just behind Bluehost.

But, did HostGator’s prices manage to impress us as well? The short answer is yes! HostGator scores 3.5 out of 5 overall for value, making it the fourth-best value provider we’ve tested.

HostGator offers six different types of hosting, and each hosting type provides three different price plans. That’s a lot to choose from – with so many plans, prices, discounts, features, and hosting types on offer, how are you meant to know which one is really best for you?

HostGator Pricing: Quick Overview

HostGator plans start at just $3.95 per month for shared hosting – it also offers VPS, WordPress, cloud, reseller, and dedicated hosting plans. Dedicated hosting is the most expensive, starting at $109.97 per month. These are discounted prices for an annual plan, so look out for renewal costs, plus any additional charges such as domains, CodeGuard backups, and other extras.

We’re here to help. This article will break down each of HostGator’s hosting plans and prices, take a good hard look at any extra costs you can expect, plus lay out exactly how it measures up next to its competitors.

To start off, here’s a quick summary breakdown of HostGator’s pricing plans, based on its 12 month contracts:

HostGator's Pricing Plans

• Shared hosting – $3.95 to $7.25 per month
• Cloud hosting – $7.95 to $11.95 per month
• WordPress hosting – $7.95 to $11.95 per month
• Reseller hosting – $24.95 to $29.95 per month
• VPS Hosting – $23.95 to $59.95 per month
• Dedicated hosting – $109.97 to $159.98 per month

Why do we show 12 month prices?

For example, the Hatchling Shared plan by HostGator is offered at:

1 month – $11.95 per month

6 months – $11.95 per month

12 months – $3.95 per month

36 months – $2.75 per month

If you’re happy to “lock in” for a long time, then you save the most money by choosing a longer billing cycle – monthly plans may sound appealing because they’re less of a commitment, but they’re also more expensive in the long run.

The HostGator site shows the 36-month cycle by default on the site . Why?  Because it works out the cheapest, but you’re also locked into quite a commitment.

We think the 12-month plan offers the best idea of what you get for the price you pay without committing too much.

At Website Builder Expert, we’ll always do our best to make it clear exactly how much you can expect to pay at each stage of hosting.

Further Information

• Read our HostGator Review for a full look at HostGator’s performance in our research, from features to customer support
• Compare the Best Web Hosting Providers in our in-depth review
• Compare over 50 plans in our in-depth review of the Cheapest Web Hosting Providers

How Much Do HostGator Plans Cost?

HostGator’s pricing plans start with its shared hosting Hatchling plan , which costs just $3.95 per month for your first term, and renews at $9.99 per month after that. After that, prices increase as you work your way up through the plans and different hosting types.

Check out the table below for a full breakdown across three plan tiers:

3.8 out of 5 stars

4.1 out of 5 stars

3.5 out of 5 stars

This is a summary overview of each hosting package, to give you an idea of how much each one costs. These prices reflect discounted plans for new users – we’ll cover that in more detail next, then dive into the details of HostGator’s different hosting types and their costs below.

Not sure which type of hosting you need? Here’s a quick breakdown to help you choose:

• Shared hosting: best for small, basic sites with low traffic, such as single page blogs.
• Cloud hosting: best for sites that experience hikes and dips in traffic, such as stores running online sales.
• WordPress hosting: best for WordPress websites of all sizes.
• Reseller hosting: best for those starting their own hosting business.
• VPS hosting: best choice for most standard websites – it’s an encouraged upgrade from shared hosting.
• Dedicated hosting: best for very large websites and online stores that need advanced customization and security.

Did You Spot a Price You Liked?

How hostgator pricing works.

You’ll have noticed that HostGator’s prices are pretty affordable. Wow! Just $3.95 per month for hosting, you might be thinking, that’s amazing! What else do I need to know when it’s that cheap?!

Well, there is one important thing to know – HostGator, like most hosting providers, offers discounts for new users. These discount prices are the ones displayed on HostGator’s website, because it’s a great way of getting started with your plan.

This discount lasts for your first term. That means if you sign up for a 12 month plan, you get the first year at the discounted price; if you sign up for a two-year plan, you get the first two years at a discount. It’s also worth knowing you pay the total sum upfront when you first sign up.

So, what happens once your first term is over? Well, your plan will renew at the regular rate – this is how much the plan usually costs without the discount. For example, HostGator’s Hatchling plan costs $3.95, to begin with, but renews at $9.99 once your first term is over.

This is common practice among web hosts, and can really work in your favor by giving you a great deal on your first hosting plan. However, it means you need to keep both eyes open and always check the regular price before jumping feet – or rather, credit-card – first into a plan.

This will help you avoid sky-high renewal prices later down the line!

HostGator Shared Hosting Cost

Shared hosting is the most basic form of hosting – it’s very limited, but this also makes it extremely affordable. The main benefit of shared hosting is how cheap it is – your site shares a server with other sites, meaning resources are spread between all of you.

If other sites are using up too many of those shared resources, then your site suffers – for example, it could crash if another site gets a spike in traffic. This makes shared hosting best for very small, simple websites with low traffic.

In our research, HostGator topped the table as our king of shared hosting with an impressive score of 4.7 out of 5 in our research with solid scores across all our testing categories, including value for money where it scored a 3.6 out of 5 .

HostGator’s Shared Hosting Plans

HostGator has three shared hosting plans , ranging from $3.95 to $7.25 per month (for a 12-month billing cycle and with the initial discount). Plans start at:

• Hatchling plan: $3.95, renews at $9.99 per month
• Baby plan: $5.00, renews at $14.99 per month
• Business plan: $7.25, renews at $18.99 per month

Here’s a closer look at how their features stack up – we’ll go into more detail underneath the table:

Looking at the features available, you might be wondering what the difference is between unmetered and unlimited . Let’s take a quick look to clear up any confusion.

Unmetered means you’re not charged for the amount of resources you use – but there is still a limit on how much you can use. It’s very unlikely that your site will approach these limits, however, HostGator will email you if it looks like you might exceed their limits.

Unlimited really does mean there’s no limit – so you can have as many domains as you like!

Another feature you’ll see a lot is SSL (Secure Sockets Layer). This encrypts information passing between your visitors and your website , protecting data from hackers or leaks. Google warns visitors when they’re entering an unsecured site, so having SSL really is an essential feature.

HostGator earns a 4 out of 5 for shared hosting features in our research, which is actually a decline from our previous valuation of it pre-2021 which was 4.4 out of 5 . So why the change? Well, while unlimited bandwidth and storage were big sellers back in the day, they’ve become almost standard in recent years.

We only recommend the Hatchling plan for very small websites – as the name suggests, its features are best for sites that are just getting started online. You can only host one domain, and you can’t upgrade your SSL certificate for added protection.

The Baby plan is a good middle-ground for $5.00 per month – you can host an unlimited number of domains, and if you want to upgrade to private SSL then you can. This makes it a better choice for value for money if you’re running more than one website or need better security.

The Business plan has the most advanced features, giving your site more room to grow. It’s also the best plan if you’re running a small online store . You get a free upgrade to a Positive SSL (which offers a higher level of security than the basic version) and SEO tools to help people find your site online.

So, which plan should you choose? If you need to host more than one domain, the Baby plan is your best choice. If you want to run a small online store then you’ll need the Business plan. For simply hosting a single site that’s just getting started, the Hatchling plan will get you on your feet.

In our shared hosting research, HostGator got 3.6 out of 5 for value for money, which puts it comfortably in fourth position. If you need a shared hosting provider who will give you constant performance, HostGator is the one.

Is Shared Hosting Right For You?

• Looking for cheap shared hosting? Your search ends here with our in-depth review of the 6 Best Cheap Shared Hosting Providers
• Read our review of the 8 Best Shared Hosting Services to find the best quality shared hosting on the market

HostGator Cloud Web Hosting Cost

Cloud hosting is where your website’s data is stored across multiple virtual servers, instead of physical servers like normal shared hosting uses. This means that if one server fails, your site won’t go down because another server will automatically take over. Cloud hosting very scalable, reliable, and versatile. 

If you need extremely flexible hosting to handle surges in traffic, then cloud hosting is a great choice – it’s usually favored by online stores that experience large traffic spikes as a result of sales and seasonal trends.

HostGator’s Cloud Hosting Plans

HostGator has three cloud hosting plans ranging from $7.95 to $11.95 per month:

• Hatchling plan: $7.95, renews at $10.95 per month. You get a free domain name and SSL certificate, unmetered bandwidth, and can host one site.
• Baby plan: $9.95, renews at $13.95 per month. You get the same features as the Hatchling plan, but can host unlimited sites.
• Business plan: $11.95, renews at $19.95 per month. You get the same features as the Baby plan, plus SEO tools and a better SSL certificate.

The biggest limitation of the cheapest Hatchling plan is that you can only host one website, and it has a small memory allowance. HostGator recommends its $9.95 per month Baby plan instead, which gives you more space for growth while keeping the price pretty reasonable.

HostGator’s cloud web hosting plans promise better speeds, reliability, and resources than its normal shared hosting. But what do you actually get for your money? The table below breaks down each plan’s features:

You’ll notice a similarity between the features here and those provided on the shared hosting plan. So why the increase in price? Well, cloud hosting gives you better performance because you have access to multiple servers.

It’s worth knowing that resources are still shared out rather than being dedicated to your account – but, you’re much more in control of your resources and how much you’re using, making it easier to manage.

The main difference here is the addition of memory and CPU cores. The more memory you have, the better your site will perform in times of high traffic – we recommend the Baby plan to be safe, unless your site is really small.

CPU stands for central processing unit, and is the part of a computer that performs most of the important actions to keep things running smoothly.

Luckily, you don’t need to worry too much about what a CPU core is. You just need to know that the more CPU cores you have, the more data your system can handle, and the better performance your site will receive. Simply: the more cores you have, the better!

For most websites, between two and four CPU cores should be fine – you’ll only need more than that if you’re running complex programs (like advanced gaming) through your website.

Overall, the Hatchling plan is fine for newbie sites with low traffic, but the $9.95 per month Baby plan is definitely worth paying for. It provides the tools to handle more traffic, giving your site room to grow. Most people won’t need the extras that come with the Business plan, unless you’re running a complex website.

Do You Need Flexible Hosting?

• Are you after the best of the best? Read our review of the Best Cloud Hosting Providers to make sure you get a first-class service

HostGator WordPress Hosting Cost

Are there any WordPress fans out there? Chances are, you’ve used – or at least heard of – WordPress, seeing as it powers 43% of the internet ! And what do all those WordPress sites need? You got it – they need hosting.

WordPress hosting caters to the specific needs that come with running a WordPress website. For example, it usually includes better security and protection, migration services, and updates to keep your WordPress site safe and running smoothly.

HostGator comes in fourth overall for WordPress hosting with 4.2 out of 5 in our WordPress hosting research – a drop from second in our old scores, though it is now 4th overall for value of money. Let’s take a look at the analysis and see if we can sniff out why.

HostGator’s WordPress Hosting Plans

HostGator has three WordPress hosting plans – the cheapest starts at $7.95 per month, while the most expensive comes in at $12.95 per month:

• Starter plan: $7.95, renews at $12.95 per month. Host one site, with free SSL and domain name included. Supports up to 100k visits per month.
• Standard plan: $9.95, renews at $17.95 per month. Host up to two sites, with free SSL and domain name included. Supports up to 200k visits per month.
• Business plan: $11.95, renews at $24.95 per month. Host up to three sites, with free SSL and domain name included. Supports up to 500k visits per month.

The plan you choose largely depends on the number of websites you have – for example, if you have more than one site then you’ll need at least the $9.95 per month Standard plan . Take a look at the table below to help you decide:

So while HostGator’s overall WordPress score may be lower than for shared hosting, HostGator actually scores better in value for money for WordPress hosting with 3.7 out of 5.  This is due to the increased amount of features you get with the plans. While they may be more expensive, you actually get more for your money comparatively, hence the increase in scores.

For example, all plans also include a free migration service for any users who need to transfer their existing WordPress site over to HostGator’s servers.

If you only have one WordPress website, then the $7.95 per month Starter plan has all the essential features you’ll need to succeed. Free backups up to 1GB, a free domain name, and automatic updates are all included to make your life as easy as possible.

If your site gets more than 100,000 visits on average per month, or you have multiple sites to host, you’ll need a more advanced plan. HostGator scored a 4 out of 5 for performance in our WordPress hosting research, meaning it’s one of the best, so don’t stress too much about going over the limit constantly.

The main benefits of the Standard plan are that it can handle twice the amount of traffic than the Starter plan, and doubles your backup storage as well. It’s a well-rounded plan that suits most regular WordPress sites, whether you’re scaling up or just ticking along steadily. You can host up to two websites on this plan – a good choice if you’re running multiple projects!

The Business plan sees a big jump in the number of visitors it can handle per month – up to 500,000 ! This makes it best if you’re really gunning for big-time growth and need your plan to support large amounts of traffic.

HostGator includes all the most important features for all its users to enjoy, so your choice really comes down to two main things:

• The number of sites you need to host
• How much traffic do those sites generate per month 

Base your decision on these factors, and you should end up with the perfect WordPress hosting plan for you!

Do You Need WordPress Hosting?

• Wondering if you can get a better deal somewhere else? Check out our review of the Best Cheap WordPress Hosting  to find out!
• Read our comparison of the 8 Best Managed WordPress Hosting Providers if you’re after a really professional service

HostGator Reseller Hosting Cost

If you’re looking to set up your own hosting business, you’ll need reseller hosting. This is where you pay for hosting, and then resell it to your own clients to make money. It’s a great way of starting a hosting business, because you don’t have to pay for overheads such as server maintenance.

HostGator provides you with the power and technology, and you provide your clients with hosting, services, support, and more. It’s a popular option with web designers, freelancers, and budding web hosts – reseller hosting is how a lot of big names in the hosting industry started out!

HostGator’s Reseller Hosting Plans

HostGator has three reseller hosting plans , ranging from $24.95 to $29.95 per month:

• Aluminum plan: $24.95, renews at $34.95 per month. You get 60GB disk space and 600GB bandwidth.
• Copper plan: $29.95, renews at $48.95 per month. You get 90GB disk space and 900GB bandwidth.
• Silver plan: $29.95, renews at $69.95 per month. You get 140GB disk space and 1400GB bandwidth.

These are a lot more expensive than the plans we’ve looked at so far because they include a lot more features. This is a case where you need to look carefully at renewal costs – the discount prices mean you can get the Silver plan for the same price as the Copper plan, but their renewal prices reflect their usual value.

Reseller hosting comes with pretty technical features – it goes without saying that if you just need hosting for your personal website, then this type of hosting isn’t for you.

The main difference between the plans is the amount of storage and bandwidth you get with each one – this is the easiest way to decide which plan is best for you.

The cheapest Aluminum plan is best for those just starting out, or freelancers selling to a small number of clients. It can also be a good fit for those who need multiple servers, as it can work out cheaper and more manageable than buying several web hosting packages.

For a standard-sized business selling to a larger handful of clients, the Copper plan should be a comfortable fit. It has more storage and bandwidth, leaving you room to grow your business.

For even more resources, the Silver plan is the obvious choice – however, it can get pretty expensive once the discount period is over, so make sure your business really needs the extra features before upgrading.

The most important factor to keep in mind when becoming a hosting reseller is uptime. There’s no use reselling if the servers will be constantly down and the user’s sites won’t be live. HostGator promises an uptime of 99.9%, and in our own research, HostGator scored an overall score of 4 out of 5 for uptime performance. HostGator has an  official guarantee  in place if it can’t hit this target, offering all users and resellers one month of credit if it’s caught slipping.

And in case you’re in the dark about a few of those technical features, here’s a quick overview:

• WHMCS is a client management software that helps you manage your billing process
• cPanel is a popular control panel where you manage your site and system settings – this is what your clients will be using to run the hosting you’ve sold them.
• WHM (Web Hosting Manager) control panel lets you create cPanels for each of your clients. This is what you use to manage all your clients’ accounts.
• MySQL is a database management system that makes it easy for you to add and manage content

The Aluminum plan is a good place to start if you’re unsure how many resources you need – although you may not want to lock into a long-term plan to start with. HostGator makes it free and easy to upgrade, so you can start out with the lowest amount of storage and bandwidth and grow from there.

Starting Your Own Hosting Business?

• Make sure you choose the best host for the job with our review of the 5 Best Reseller Hosting Services.

HostGator VPS Hosting Cost

Usually, once you’ve outgrown shared hosting, the next step up is VPS hosting. This is a type of hosting where sites still share a server, but you share with fewer sites so that each one has its own set of resources. It’s a faster, safer, and more reliable type of hosting that delivers better performance than shared hosting. 

This is best for regular or medium-sized sites that need more consistent hosting than shared plans can provide. If you’re running a business website, for example, then VPS hosting is a smart choice. HostGator comes in at joint first place with an overall score of 4.6 out of 5 for VPS hosting in our research.

HostGator’s VPS Hosting Plans

HostGator has three VPS hosting plans to choose from, ranging from $29.95 to $49.95 per month:

• Snappy 2000 plan: $23.95, renews at $79.95 per month. You get 2GB of RAM, 120GB disk space, and unmetered bandwidth.
• Snappy 4000 plan: $34.95, renews at $119.95 per month. You get 4GB of RAM, 165GB disk space, and unmetered bandwidth.
• Snappy 8000 plan: $59.95, renews at $149.95 per month. You get 8GB of RAM, 240GB disk space, unmetered bandwidth, plus an extra 2 CPU cores.

HostGator’s prices used to be really expensive compared to other providers on the market – the Snappy 2000 plan used to be $29.95 per month!

But while the price may have lowered, its value for money sadly can’t compete with other providers. Whereas hosts like Bluehost have plans that remain at the discounted price even after the period has ended, HostGator’s renewal costs are higher. This is why we had to give it a lower value score of 3.1 out of 5 in our research – the lowest pricing score across all of HostGator’s hosting types.

Why does HostGator charge so much for its VPS plans? Let’s take a look at the features you get to see if it’s worth your hard earned cash:

HostGator gives you everything you’d need to successfully run your site, such as unlimited domains and backups. In fact, HostGator has the best VPS features out of all of our VPS hosting research, with a features score of 4.3 out of 5 . The only place it falls down here is value for money.

Luckily, the cheapest plan is a great starting point – you get a huge amount of bandwidth to allow for traffic spikes, plus a decent amount of memory and storage space to keep your site’s performance smooth.

The main reason for upgrading to the Snappy 4000 plan would be a need for more storage space , as the rest stays pretty much the same. Bandwidth nudges up to 2TB, but you’ll only feel the benefit of that if you were really bursting out of your bandwidth on the cheapest plan.

As for the Snappy 8000 plan, it’s hard to recommend it knowing it costs $49.95 per month with a discount . Still, if you’re loving the reliability and power that comes with HostGator’s features and don’t mind shelling out, you’ll enjoy a massive 3TB bandwidth – that should handle as much traffic as you can throw at your site!

All plans come with full root access , which gives you access to your site’s server. This means you have total control over your site’s settings – you can customize your server to suit your specific needs.

Did You Spot a VPS Plan You Liked?

• Read our review of the Best VPS Hosting Providers  to see if HostGator makes the list
• HostGator’s VPS plans aren’t the cheapest – for more affordable prices, read our review of the Best Cheap VPS Hosting Providers

HostGator Dedicated Hosting Cost

Dedicated hosting is the most advanced type of hosting – and the most expensive! This is where your site gets a whole server to itself, giving you the ultimate level of performance, speed, and security.

Most sites don’t need this extreme level of hosting, but it’s definitely appropriate if you’re running a huge online store, a site with eye-popping levels of traffic, or have very sensitive security requirements.

HostGator comes in third for overall dedicated hosting with a score of 4.4 out of 5 , with a very generous 45-day money-back guarantee and fantastic help and support. In fact, HostGator consistently scores excellently for help and support across all its categories, earning a 4.9 out of 5 in most cases. But what about its prices?

HostGator’s Dedicated Hosting Plans

HostGator came out as the best provider for dedicated hosting in our research. It has three dedicated hosting plans , ranging from $109.97 to $139.99 per month:

• Value Server plan: $109.97, renews at $199.99 per month. You get 4 CPU cores and 8GB RAM.
• Power Server plan: $139.99, renews at $269.99 per month. You get 8 CPU cores and 16GB RAM.
• Enterprise Server plan: $159.98, renews at $299.99 per month. You get 8 CPU cores and 30GB RAM.

As you can see, this is big hosting, designed for big websites with big budgets!

If you don’t have much technical knowledge, you could struggle to make the most of dedicated hosting – its features are advanced, and you’ll need some experience to get to grips with them. We recommend the managed hosting solution as it makes life much easier!

The $109.97 per month Value Server plan is a great starting point – it doesn’t swamp you with features, making it a manageable choice. 8GB RAM is plenty of memory, and four CPU cores should be enough to keep your site running smoothly.

The only downside of the cheapest plan is that it uses HDD (Hard Disk Drive) storage. This isn’t bad , but it won’t be as fast as the newer SSD (Solid State Drive) storage that comes with more advanced plans.

HostGator recommends the Power Server plan , and if you’ve got the budget to stretch to $139.99 per month, it’s a solid choice. You get to choose between HDD and SSD storage for one thing, meaning you can choose the faster option if you want to.

Most users won’t need the Enterprise Server plan, and definitely not right away – this plan is something to work towards . Eight cores and 1TB SSD storage would be wasted on “normal” websites. At the Enterprise Server plan level, you are just paying for the extra resources as unless you’re a really, really big store , you won’t be utilizing it fully which makes this plan a little excessive.

HostGator’s value for money score for dedicated is 3.6 out of 5 , similar to its score for shared hosting in our research. Make sure you’re getting value for your money by picking the plan that’ll work hardest for you!

Do You Have a Super-Sized Site?

• Take a look at the Best Dedicated Server Hosting in our in-depth review of the top providers
• Dedicated hosting is the most expensive type, but you can still get great value for money – we reveal the Best Cheap Dedicated Server Hosting in our detailed review

HostGator Hosting Plans vs Competitor Hosting Plans

We’ve looked at each of HostGator’s hosting plans in detail, so you should have a pretty good idea of which one you would choose for your own site. But before doing that, you probably want to know if you could get a better deal elsewhere, right?

HostGator’s prices match up pretty well on the whole with its main competitors, InMotion and Bluehost. It’s not the cheapest, but overall it puts some appealing deals on the table. Across all hosting plans, here’s how these three top competitors range in price:

• HostGator’s prices range from $3.95 to $299.99 per month
• Bluehost’s prices range from $2.95 to $209.99 per month
• InMotion’s prices range from $3.49 to $839 per month

HostGator sits fairly close to Bluehost in its overall pricing range, and you can clearly see it offers much cheaper pricing than InMotion when it comes to its top-priced plans. But how do they compare on a plan-by-plan basis? Let’s take a look (all prices shown in the table are discount prices only):

While HostGator may not offer the cheapest prices on the market, it does tend to have a more affordable upper limit on its price plans.

Overall, HostGator offers better value for money than InMotion, with a 3.5 out of 5 overall score versus InMotion’s 2.9 out of 5 . But Bluehost’s overal value score of 4.7 means that it offers better value than HostGator.

However, when you dig deeper into specific hosting types, it’s clear that the best value option depends on the type of plan you need. HostGator’s shared plans give you better value than Bluehost’s, with 3.6 out of 5 for value for money against Bluehost’s 3.1 out of 5 .

While HostGator isn’t the best value choice for VPS hosting, apart from that its plans are pretty well-matched with its competitors and its scores in our research tell us it’s an amazingly solid and reliable provider.

Additionally, we mentioned it before but it bears repeating: no one beats HostGator for help and support across all types of hosting. It scores 4.9 out of 5 in nearly all rankings and has every available help and support channel open for you. Knowledge base? Check. 24/7 phone and live chat? Check. Email support and community center where you query other users and professionals? Checkamundo. 

If you’re really unsure and are a total newbie when it comes to hosting, HostGator’s help and support should be able to put that mind at ease.

Has HostGator Won You Over?

• Did InMotion’s price catch your eye? If so, read our full InMotion Hosting Review to learn more about this top provider
• Bluehost is famous for its WordPress hosting – find out why in our Bluehost Review
• Bluehost offers pretty competitive prices – check out its plans in our Bluehost Pricing Review
• HostGator and Bluehost are top rivals – see who wins in our Bluehost vs HostGator comparison

Other Costs to Think About

When you sign up for hosting, you’ll find there’s a whole range of other things you either should, could, or definitely must get. Some extras are even automatically selected when you get to checkout – let’s take a look at what other costs you can expect from HostGator if you sign up.

1. Domain Names

Some of HostGator’s plans – its WordPress hosting, for instance – include a free domain name. This is a great bonus, but not all plans include a domain for free. Luckily, you can buy your domain name directly from HostGator – but how much does it cost?

HostGator’s domain prices work in a similar way to its hosting costs – in this case the first year is discounted, and you then pay the regular price afterwards. Here’s a look at some of its prices:

• .com: $12.95 per year, renews at $17.99
• .org: $12.95 per year, renews at $17.99
• .website: $9.95 per year, renews at $15
• .net: $12.95 per year, renews at $17.99
• .me: $15 per year, renews at $19.95

These are pretty high renewal prices, but it does come with the benefit of having your hosting and domain name all in one place!

2. SSL Certificates

HostGator includes a free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate on all its hosting plans. This gives you basic protection, but if you want a more advanced level of security then you can buy premium SSL certificates through HostGator.

There are three SSLs to choose from:

• Positive SSL: $3.33 per month (renews at $39.99 per year)
• Multi-Domain SSL: $79.99 per year
• Extended Validation SSL: $269.99 per year

You don’t have to buy one of these – it’s mostly for sites that need an extra level of trust and security, such as online stores.

3. CodeGuard

CodeGuard is a backup and security software that gives you protection against things going wrong. It runs daily, automatic backups for your site, lets you know of any unauthorized changes, and lets you restore your site to a previous version should anything not go to plan.

Pricing starts at $2 per month for your first term, then renews at $23.95 per year. You can add this as an extra at checkout when you sign up for a hosting plan. Heads up – it often comes already selected, so if you don’t want these features you’d better make sure this box isn’t ticked.

4. SiteLock Monitoring

This is a helpful feature that monitors your website daily and alerts you if your site gets hacked or injected with malicious code. Pretty scary stuff, right? That’s why HostGator lists it as a “highly recommended” add-on at checkout.

SiteLock monitoring costs $2.99 per month – billed annually at $35.88 and renews at $83.88. This is added to your hosting plan and comes pre-selected by HostGator. Double-check to make sure whether it’s ticked or not to avoid any surprises at payment.

5. Other Extras

Other extras you might find at checkout include a professional email address, which costs $6 per month , and HostGator SEO Tools, which cost $35.40 per year . These don’t usually come automatically selected, so if you want them as add-ons simply tick the ones you want!

HostGator Pricing: Recap

We’ve covered the ins and outs of HostGator’s pricing plans, from the cheapest to the most expensive packages, how it compares with its top competitors, and flagged the extra costs you should look out for.

By now you should know whether HostGator’s hosting plans are right for you – and which one you want to take a closer look at. We’ve talked about a lot of different plans, though, so let’s have a quick recap of HostGator’s plans…

HostGator Pricing Summary

• Shared hosting : $3.95 – $7.25 per month.
• Cloud hosting : $7.95 – $11.95 per month.
• WordPress hosting : $7.95 – $11.95 per month.
• Reseller hosting : $24.95 – $29.95 per month.
• VPS hosting : $23.95 – $59.95 per month.
• Dedicated hosting : $109.97 – $159.98 per month.

Shared, WordPress, and VPS hosting are the most commonly chosen hosting types , but it really depends on your individual needs – and your budget!

Remember that the initial discount won’t last forever, so always check the renewal prices before signing up . Watch out for additional costs at checkout, too – HostGator offers tons of optional extras that you can pick and choose, such as domain names, backup services, and SEO tools – so be careful to review your plan before completing your purchase.

Our final verdict of HostGator’s pricing is a positive one. With an overall score of 4.7 out of 5, a value for money score of 3.5,  and our #1 ranked provider for shared hosting, it’s an extremely strong hosting provider, so although its plans aren’t always the cheapest, you know you’re getting a great quality service for your money.

Are You Ready to Pick Your HostGator Plan?

Does hostgator offer any free trials, can you cancel your hostgator account at any time, do you get a free domain with hostgator.

We take great care to ensure the information we publish is reliable and accurate. However, WBE takes no responsibility for any inaccuracy in information supplied to us by users, research participants, or other entities.

Please note the insight contained within this article is for general information purposes only. We’re glad to answer any questions you may have about this article and its supporting research. For further information, please contact Website Builder Expert directly via email at [email protected].

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HostGator Web Hosting Review and Prices

HostGator Is Recommended For:

Its range of web hosting options for small and medium businesses

24/7 live-chat support

45-day money-back guarantee

HostGator Isn’t Recommended For:

Those looking for WooCommerce-specific hosting plans

Those seeking the cheapest possible hosting

HostGator Web Hosting

Table of Contents

• What Is HostGator?
• HostGator Review
• HostGator Cost

What Is HostGator Web Hosting?

You’ll find a full range of hosting options offered by HostGator, including plans for shared hosting, WordPress, virtual private server (VPS) hosting, dedicated servers, cloud hosting, and reseller packages. The company offers 24/7 live chat and telephone support from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. EST and a 45-day money-back guarantee, rather than the 30-day guarantee available from most of its competitors.

All shared hosting and cloud hosting HostGator plans include the basic version of the service’s Website Builder, which is also available in fee-based versions. HostGator’s prices for WordPress sites and other hosting plans are slightly higher than many of its competitors’ fees. Still, the combination of features, support, and performance place HostGator’s hosting services at the top of our ratings in a three-way tie with Bluehost and SiteGround.

HostGator Web Hosting Review

#1 in Best Web Hosting Services of 2024 (tie) #1 in Best Web Hosting Services for Small Businesses of 2024 (tie)

No matter your small or midsize business’s hosting needs, HostGator has a plan that can suit businesses of many sizes. Some of HostGator’s most notable features include:

• Affordable shared hosting that includes a free domain name for one year with one to three-year contracts
• WordPress hosting with one-click installs and free site migration
• VPS hosting plans that scale easily as your resource needs change
• Dedicated hosting that gives you full control over your site’s server
• Cloud hosting packages featuring up to 6 CPU cores and unlimited domains
• Reseller hosting plans that come with free client and billing management software

Most of HostGator’s plans can be purchased by the month or in increments of 1, 3, 6, 12, 24, or 36 months. Shared hosting packages cost from $11.95 a month to $17.95 a month, while dedicated hosting plans are priced from $159.99 a month to $249.98 a month. VPS hosting plans start at $29.95 a month and run to $119.99 a month, and reseller packages range from $29.95 a month to $59.95 a month.

While the company doesn’t offer any WooCommerce-specific packages, HostGator’s Website Builder plans will meet most e-commerce needs. You can create online stores with 3, 10, or an unlimited number of products depending on the package, and with 3, 5, or 10 email campaigns each month. The company offers a free domain name for a year with any one-year to three-year shared, WordPress, or cloud hosting plan. Some plans also offer a free SSL certificate.

Some of HostGator’s higher-end plans include a free upgrade to Positive SSL, which provides a higher level of domain validation than a standard SSL certificate. Other security features of HostGator plans are CodeGuard backups, discounts on SiteLock malware scans, and DDoS protection via Scrub Center for dedicated hosting. Some of these security features require additional fees.

HostGator’s domain services let you register a domain name in 15 different top-level domains (TLD), including .online, .tech, .site, .me, .info, .biz, and .us in addition to the popular .com, .org, and .net TLDs. First-year prices for domain registrations are as low as $0.95, although most are priced initially at $9.95 to $12.95. Renewals cost from $15 to $45 a year, but renewals are priced at $18.99 for the most popular TLDs.

The company’s customer support starts with 24/7 live chat and telephone support via toll-free, local, and international numbers from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. EST. You can also contact the company via email or search its knowledge base for information on getting started, troubleshooting, DNS and domains, security, and site optimization. Several YouTube-hosted video tutorials demonstrate how to use the cPanel control panel, how to ensure your site is accessible to everyone, and dozens of other topics.

HostGator serves as a one-stop shop for all your web hosting needs, with the exception of WooCommerce hosting. The company’s wide variety of hosting plan options, its inclusion of a free domain for one year for certain plans, and its 45-day money-back guarantee help small businesses make the most of their hosting budget. Other features that make HostGator a good choice are its site builder, its stellar support, and its search engine optimization (SEO) tools, which are included with its shared hosting Business plan.

Popular Web Hosting Services

Bluehost Web Hosting  »

Hostinger Web Hosting  »

A2 Hosting  »

How Much Does HostGator Web Hosting Cost?

HostGator’s hosting prices are generally in the mid to upper range of our four top-rated services. Its prices are slightly below Bluehost’s rates for comparable packages, and above the cost of similar plans from SiteGround and Hostinger.

Shared Hosting

• Hatchling: Costs $11.95 a month and includes one website, a domain for one year on one to three-year contracts, email, MySQL transfer and script transfer, one-click WordPress installs, and the HostGator Website Builder. 
• Baby: Costs $12.95 a month and comes with all of the above plus unlimited sites. 
• Business: Costs $17.95 a month and adds dedicated IP and Positive SSL.

Website Builder

• Express Start: Costs $9.98 a month and comes with a free domain for a year with one to three-year contracts, a content delivery network (CDN) to speed page loads, a 3-product store, and 3 email campaigns per month.
• Express Site: Costs $12.98 a month and adds appointment booking, stores with up to 10 products, and as many as 5 email campaigns per month. You also qualify for priority support.
• Express Store: Costs $24.98 a month and allows an unlimited number of products and up to 10 email campaigns each month. It also waives sales transaction fees. 

WordPress Hosting

• Starter: Costs $14.95 a month and includes one site, 100,000 visits per month, one free site migration, and 1GB backups. 
• Standard (2 sites): Costs $20.95 a month and allows two sites, 200,000 visits per month, and two free site migrations. 
• Business (3 sites): Costs $27.95 a month and supports three sites, 500,000 visits per month, and three free site migrations. 

Dedicated Hosting

• Value Server: Costs $159.99 a month and features a 4 core/8 thread CPU, 8 GB of RAM, and 1 TB of hard disk drive (HDD) storage. 
• Power Server: Costs $209.98 per month and has an 8 core/16 thread CPU, 16 GB of RAM, and 2 TB HDD. 
• Enterprise Server: Costs $249.98 per month and includes 30 GB of RAM and 1 TB SSD. 

VPS Hosting

• Snappy 2000: Costs $29.95 a month and comes with a 2 core CPU, 2 GB of RAM, 120 GB SSD, and two dedicated IP addresses. 
• Snappy 4000: Costs $59.95 a month and includes 4 GB of RAM and 165 GB SSD. 
• Snappy 8000: Costs $119.99 a month and has a 4-core CPU, 8 GB of RAM, and 240 GB SSD.

Cloud Hosting

• Hatchling Cloud: Costs $12.95 a month and provides one website, a domain name for a year with one to three-year contracts, 2 GB of RAM, a 2 core CPU, and local caching.
• Baby Cloud: Costs $13.95 a month and allows unlimited websites. It comes with a 4-core CPU and 4 GB of RAM. 
• Business Cloud: Costs $19.95 a month and includes a 6-core CPU, 6 GB of RAM, free dedicated IP, and free SEO tools. 

Reseller Hosting

• Aluminum: Costs $29.95 a month and comes with 60 GB of disk space, 600 GB bandwidth, and unlimited sites. 
• Copper: Costs $41.95 a month and has 90 GB of disk space and 900 GB of bandwidth.
• Silver: Costs $59.95 a month and includes 140 GB of disk space and 1,400 GB of bandwidth. 

HostGator offers introductory discounts on most of its hosting plans that reduce the cost of its services purchased for one or more years, depending on the plan. The discounts are similar to those offered by HostGator’s competitors. Overall, HostGator’s fees are slightly higher than the average for our top-rated hosting services, falling in the same general range as services offered by Bluehost and above the prices charged by SiteGround and Hostinger.

HostGator Web Hosting vs. the Competition

Bluehost web hosting ».

Bluehost Is Recommended For:

Those wanting full-featured, easy-to-use WordPress hosting

Businesses that value a range of design, marketing, and support services

Those interested in domain registration that features dozens of top-level domains

Bluehost Isn’t Recommended For:

Those in search of cloud or reseller hosting, neither of which the company offers

Those not ready to make a long-term plan commitment

HostGator vs. Bluehost

Bluehost’s lineup of hosting services mirrors that offered by HostGator, except that Bluehost sells WooCommerce hosting plans, which aren’t available from HostGator, and HostGator offers cloud hosting plans, which Bluehost does not. While Bluehost no longer sells its own reseller hosting packages, it partners with Reseller Club for these services. Bluehost’s least expensive shared hosting plan, Basic, costs $9.99 a month, and its Pro plan costs $28.99 a month.

One way Bluehost and HostGator shared hosting plans differ is the inclusion of optimized CPU performance in Bluehost’s high-end Pro plan, which the company recommends for high-traffic sites and complex use cases. HostGator has no equivalent way to boost a shared-hosting site’s performance. Other notable comparison points between these two hosting services include:

• Bluehost offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, compared to HostGator’s 45-day guarantee. 
• Bluehost offers 24/7 live chat and toll-free telephone support, while HostGator offers 24/7 live chat and limited toll-free telephone support. 
• A version of HostGator’s Website Builder tool is included with all of its shared hosting plans except those for WordPress, while Bluehost’s website builder is bundled with all of its shared hosting packages except the two WooCommerce plans.

Bluehost sells a range of professional services that include website design consultation, SEO consulting, pay-per-click services, and website migration, which is available for free with most of the company’s plans and as a standalone service. HostGator provides free website migration but has no equivalents to Bluehost’s other add-on services.

For more information check out our full Bluehost review .

SiteGround Web Hosting »

SiteGround Is Recommended For:

Those who want access to 24/7 live chat and telephone support

Those without a lot of experience with web technology

SiteGround Isn’t Recommended For:

Businesses wanting dedicated or VPS web hosting

Those who want a free domain included with hosting packages

HostGator vs. SiteGround

The biggest difference between the hosting services offered by SiteGround and HostGator is the former’s lack of dedicated hosting packages. SiteGround promotes the speed of its hosting servers and Google cloud infrastructure, which the company claims deliver up to 500% faster sites. SiteGround locates its servers in several different countries around the world, which allows its customers to choose the facility that’s closest.

SiteGround’s shared hosting plans start at $14.99 a month for the StartUp package, which includes one website and 10 GB of storage. Plans extend to $39.99 a month for the top-of-the-line GoGeek plan that supports an unlimited number of websites, and includes 40 GB of storage. HostGator has no equivalent of SiteGround’s hosting plans for WooCommerce, which come with WordPress and WooCommerce pre-installed.

Daily automatic backups are included with all of SiteGround’s shared hosting plans. However, they are available only for an extra monthly fee for the CodeGuard backup tool with HostGator’s packages. You can also create a manual backup of your HostGator site via the cPanel control panel. On-demand backups are available with SiteGround’s GrowBig and GoGeek shared hosting packages, but not with its least-expensive StartUp plan.

SiteGround offers four cloud hosting packages. The Jump Start plan costs $100 a month and includes 4 CPU cores and 8 GB of memory. The Super Power package costs $400 a month and has 16 CPU cores and 20 GB of memory. By comparison, HostGator’s three cloud offerings start at $12.95 a month for Hatchling Cloud, which includes a 2-core CPU and 2 GB of memory, and run to $19.95 a month for Business Cloud, which uses a 6-core CPU and 6 GB of memory.

In addition to its standard cloud hosting plans, SiteGround sells a Reseller Cloud package that costs $100 a month and lets you customize client roles and hosting packages. SiteGround’s two other reseller plans are GrowBig, which costs $24.99 a month and includes 20 GB of storage, and GoGeek, which is priced at $39.99 a month and has 40 GB of storage. HostGator’s reseller hosting plans are priced from $29.95 a month for the Aluminum plan with 60 GB of disk space and 600 GB of bandwidth, to $59.95 a month for the Silver plan that includes 140 GB of disk space and 1,400 GB of bandwidth.

For more information check out our full SiteGround review .

Similar Web Hosting Services

GreenGeeks Web Hosting  »

SiteGround Web Hosting  »

HostGator FAQ

What hosting types does hostgator offer.

HostGator sells three types of shared hosting plans, WordPress packages, and Website Builder plans. It also offers three levels of dedicated server hosting, VPS hosting, cloud hosting, and reseller hosting.

Shared Hosting: HostGator’s least-expensive plan is the Hatchling, which is for a single website and includes one year of domain registration, the Website Builder tool, an SSL certificate, and unmetered bandwidth and disk space (limited to normal business use). The Baby plan allows an unlimited number of websites, and the Business plan includes the Cloudflare CDN, Positive SSL, dedicated IP, and SEO tools.

WordPress Hosting: The lowest-price WordPress hosting plan from HostGator is Starter, which is for one site and features 1 GB backups and up to 100,000 site visits a month. The Standard plan is for two sites; it supports backups as large as 2 GB and up to 200,000 site visits each month. The Business plan is for three sites and up to 500,000 site visits a month and allows backups to 3 GB.

Website Builder: The Express Start plan includes three email campaigns a month and an online store with up to three products. Express Site allows up to five email campaigns each month and a 10-product online store. It also supports appointment scheduling and comes with priority support. Express Store lets you send up to 10 email campaigns a month, add any number of products to your online store, and it waives credit card transaction fees.

Dedicated Hosting: The Value Server plan comes with a 4 core/8 thread processor, 8 GB of RAM, and 1 TB of hard disk storage. Power Server has an 8 core/16 thread processor, 16 GB of RAM, 2 TB of hard disk storage, and 512 GB of solid-state disk (SSD) storage. Enterprise Server includes 30 GB of RAM, and 1 TB of solid-state disk storage.

VPS Hosting: HostGator’s Snappy 2000 plan has 2 GB of RAM, a 2-core CPU, and a 120 GB SSD. Snappy 4000 comes with 4 GB of RAM and 165 GB SSD. Snappy 8000 includes a 4-core CPU, 8 GB of RAM, and 240 GB SSD.

Cloud Hosting: The Hatchling plan is for a single domain and has a 2-core CPU and 2 GB of memory. Baby Cloud supports unlimited domains and includes a 4-core CPU and 4 GB of RAM. Business Cloud has 6 GB of RAM and a 6-core CPU. It comes with Positive SSL, dedicated IP, and SEO tools.

Reseller Hosting: The Aluminum plan features 60 GB of disk space, 600 GB of bandwidth, and unlimited bandwidth. The Copper plan has 90 GB of disk space and 900 GB of bandwidth. The Silver plan comes with 140 GB of disk space and 1,400 GB of bandwidth.

Does HostGator require a contract?

You can purchase HostGator hosting services month-to-month and for other durations to 36 months. The company offers a 45-day money-back guarantee for shared, reseller, and VPS hosting. The refund doesn’t apply to dedicated hosting or to administrative fees, setup fees, and any domain names you buy. The SiteLock service and some other add-on services also don’t qualify for refunds.

How do you get set up with HostGator?

If you’re not sure which hosting plan is the best for your needs, HostGator provides guides that explain shared hosting, WordPress, VPS hosting, dedicated servers, reseller hosting, and Windows hosting. The company’s getting started page has a manual for the cPanel interface for managing your site.

Once you’ve decided on a hosting plan, you select the Buy Now button and create an account if you haven’t done so already. You can either choose a domain for your site or enter the domain you wish to transfer. After selecting the package type (such as Hatchling, Baby, or Business for shared hosting), you opt for a billing cycle: 1 month, 6 months, 12 months, or 36 months. Enter your billing information and select any of the five add-on services HostGator offers:

• Positive SSL (which is included with the Business plan)
• SiteLock security software
• Professional email
• CodeGuard backups
• HostGator SEO tools

How do I build my website with HostGator?

HostGator’s three Website Builder packages take a different approach to creating websites than most drag-and-drop creation tools. Instead of starting by choosing one of dozens or hundreds of templates, Gator Builder starts with a single layout in an industry-specific design that is automatically optimized for your content. The layout supports blogs, e-commerce, and other common site features.

HostGator breaks the site-building process into six steps:

• Choose one of the three Website Builder plans , each of which includes free hosting.
• Sign up for a domain or transfer your existing domain name.
• Set up your HostGator account , which entails choosing your billing cycle and entering payment information.
• Select one of the many customizable templates , which are arranged in categories such as music, online store, professional services, and portfolio.
• Add your content to the pages that have been generated automatically, or create new pages for the content.
• Preview your site to ensure that all of its elements are in order (including your online store), and publish your site. 

What are HostGator’s domain options?

Domain services available from HostGator let you register or transfer a domain name in any of 15 top-level domains (TLD). When you sign up for one of the company’s shared hosting plans on a 12-month or longer contract, you get a free domain name for one year and a free domain transfer.

Introductory prices for registering a domain name separately range from $0.95 for .site, .website, and .space domains (renewals are $15 a year) to $12.95 for .com, .net., .org, .info, and .biz (renewals cost $18.99 a year). Other supported TLDs include the following:

• .tech : $3.95 for the first year, $30 a year thereafter
• .me : $15 for the first year, $18.99 a year subsequently
• .us $5.95 for the first year and $18.99 a year for renewals

HostGator’s domain services include automatic renewals to avoid losing the domain, domain locking to prevent unauthorized transfers, DNS management, and email forwarding. For an added fee, the company will protect the personal information recorded in your site’s WHOIS database listing.

What add-on services does HostGator offer?

HostGator lets you add the Google Workspace team management system to your site for prices that start at $6 a month. Google Workspace apps include Google Docs, Drive, Gmail, Calendar, Chat, Meet, Sheets, Forms, and Slides. Starter plans provide 30 GB of space per user, while higher-end plans offer unlimited storage.

You can add an extra level of protection to your HostGator site by signing up for the CodeGuard backup service that monitors the site for potential threats and lets you restore your site in the event of a failure. The daily automatic backups created by CodeGuard are accessible at any time, and you can view file changes via a dashboard. The system sends an email alert if it identifies any potentially damaging activity.

HostGator’s search engine optimization (SEO) services promise to optimize your site’s content and structure to improve its ranking in search results. The services include keyword research to identify the terms your customers are most likely to search for, traffic monitoring to determine the effectiveness of your SEO efforts, and metrics for measuring relevant traffic and conversion rates.

Does HostGator support e-commerce?

All three of HostGator’s shared, cloud, and dedicated hosting plans let you create and manage an e-commerce site. The HostGator cPanel includes the Softaculous automatic script installer that lets you load several eCommerce applications with a single click, including the AbanteCart and PrestaShop open-source shopping cart programs.

The company’s three Website Builder packages support email marketing campaigns and online stores:

• Express Start lets you create three email campaigns per month and an online store with up to three items.
• Express Site allows five email campaigns each month and a 10-item online store.
• Express Store includes 10 email campaigns per month and an online store with an unlimited number of products.

Both Express Site and Express Store include appointment booking and priority support. Express Store doesn’t charge transaction fees. HostGator provides a multi-step wizard that makes creating an online store quick and easy, including connections to PayPal and other payment services, calculating and charging taxes, and changing your product lineup. You can also calculate shipping costs, arrange product pickups, and track checkout conversion rates.

What are HostGator’s security standards for its sites?

An SSL certificate is included with every HostGator shared hosting site; the Business Plan comes with Positive SSL, which is a domain-validation certificate that typically costs $39.99. HostGator’s WordPress hosting packages feature the CodeGuard automatic backup software and SiteLock FIx malware detection system.

Dedicated hosting sites are protected from DDoS attacks with Scrub Center. You can manually back up sites on dedicated servers and create a schedule for backups. HostGator’s VPS hosting packages include centralized DDoS protection, manual and scheduled backups, and weekly offsite backups.

HostGator partners with SiteLock to offer discounts on three malware detection and prevention packages offered by SiteLock:

• Essentials scans one site daily and responds within 12 hours.
• Prevent responds within 6 hours and adds a web application firewall, DDoS protection, and database scanning.
• Prevent Plus scans a site continuously, responds within 4 hours, and includes application patching and PCI compliance reports.

Essentials costs $5.99 a month, Prevent costs $14.99 a month, and Prevent Plus costs $24.99 a month.

Does HostGator have customer support? 

HostGator provides 24/7 live chat support and toll-free telephone support that is available from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. EST, in addition to a support email address. The company’s searchable knowledge base explains how to use its website builder and how to get started with the service. Other topics covered include troubleshooting, domains, DNS, optimization, and partnership programs. Among the video tutorials on HostGator’s support site are ones on using Google Ads, migrating HostGator email to Outlook, and getting started with VPS.

For more information about web hosting services, see the following guides:

• Best Web Hosting Services of 2024
• Best Web Hosting Services for Small Business of 2024
• Bluehost vs. HostGator
• Bluehost vs. GoDaddy
• Dreamhost vs. Bluehost
• What Is Web Hosting?

Web Hosting Services

• GreenGeeks Web Hosting
• InMotion Hosting

Other Ratings from 360 Reviews

In addition to our ratings of web hosting services, you may be interested in these guides to other business services:

• Best Credit Card Processing Companies of 2024
• Best Business Phone Systems of 2024
• Best CRM Software of 2024
• Best Payroll Software of 2024
• Best Point-of-Sale (POS) Systems of 2024
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• Best Password Managers of 2024

Why You Can Trust Us: 21 Web Hosting Services Researched

U.S. News 360 Reviews takes an unbiased approach to our recommendations. When you use our links to buy products, we may earn a commission but that in no way affects our editorial independence.

HostGator Review

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Company: Hostgator Inc.

Background: Hostgator Inc. was founded by Brent Oxley in his college dorm back in 2002. The web company grew from a one-person operation to one with hundreds of employees over the years. In 2012, Brent sold the company to Endurance International Group (EIG) for an unofficial figure of $225 million. EIG today holds the largest number of web hosting brands under its corporate umbrella. These brands include BlueHost, iPage, FatCow, HostMonster, Pow Web, Easy CGI, Arvixe, eHost, A Small Orange, and more.

Starting Price: $2.75/mo

Currency: USD

Visit Online: https://www.hostgator.com/

Review Summary & Ratings

In short Hostgator is a great hosting solution. In particularly Hostgator Cloud Hosting Plans are highly recommended for its reasonable pricing and newbies-friendly setup. Their strong server performance and cheap signup fees make them particular right for bloggers who want a simple web host.

My 12 Years Experience with HostGator

WHSR (the site you are reading) was once hosted at HostGator. Since then, I’ve moved on for various reasons, but I retain hosting plans here and at many other service providers. My latest account at HostGator is one of their Cloud Hosting Plans, acquired in March 2017, which I use to host some side projects.

Who Should Host with Hostgator?

Given their all-round hosting choices and excellent business track record, Hostgator is a “stable choice” for both big and small businesses. The one dark spot I see is somewhat spotty support, but they make up for this with excellent access to their various support channels.

Hostgator Pros & Cons

• Reliable service with 99.9% uptime guarantee
• Fast server response time
• Free website migration services
• Multiple support channels
• 45-day money-back guarantee
• Strong customer testimonials
• “Unlimited” resources come with terms and conditions
• Occasionally slow live chat response times
• Prices increase after initial term

Hostgator Service Overview

Pros: what i love about hostgator, 1. hostgator is a reliable service provider.

Uptime is the lifeblood of a website. If your web service goes down, nobody can access your website. Not only does that potentially anger visitors, but if Google notices, you may get penalised on your search rankings.

Thankfully, HostGator does offer an uptime guarantee. The company c server uptime and will refund your money should the uptime fall short:

If your shared or reseller server has a physical downtime that falls short of the 99.9% uptime guarantee, you may receive one (1) month of credit on your account. This uptime guarantee does not apply to planned maintenance. Approval of any credit is at the sole discretion of HostGator and may be dependent upon the justification provided […] To request a credit, please visit http://support.hostgator.com to create a support ticket to our Billing department with justification. HostGatorTerms of Service ( clause 16 ) 

2. HostGator Servers are Very Fast (Response Time < 200ms)

I ran multiple speed tests on my test website at Hostgator using the Bitcatcha speed test utility. Their servers show remarkable performance with a response speed of well within 200ms. That’s excellent performance even by Google standards.

The only location that offered a slightly longer response was from Mumbai. However, you can expect incredible speeds from both the East and West coasts within the US. Here, response times dropped to an average of 45ms.

3. Free Site Migration for All New Customers

Hostgator offers to help new customers migrate one website to their service. This free migration is helpful if you’re moving here from another hosting service. While some hosts do offer free migration, it isn’t a universal standard. I’ve seen hosting companies try to charge hundreds of dollars for a single migration!

4. Good Support via Multiple Channels

Support from HostGator comes via multiple channels and includes 24×7 live chat, telephone, forums, ticketing system, and Twitter. Today, not many companies are willing to go the extra mile to help their customers.

The company also hosts a comprehensive customer support knowledge base for those who hate to wait and like to solve the problem in their own hands. These support channels combined make HostGator support have massive potential.

Do note, however, that not everyone is happy with their after-sales service. That isn’t surprising given that EIG took over, but at least the options remain.

5. 45-day Money-back Guarantee

Many hosting companies offer customers a standard 30-day money-back guarantee. At HostGator, they’ll give you a little extra time to assess the quality of service. You get 45-days to decide if you want to continue using Hostgator. 

Having an extended money-back guarantee is a good sign that the service provider is confident in what they offer. If the service isn’t excellent, they stand to lose a lot. This 45-day guarantee applies to most of their hosting products, including shared, reseller, and VPS hosting .

6. HostGator Has Solid Customer Testimonials

All web hosting companies will have good and bad customer testimonials. The key to understanding their real quality is knowing which to believe. That means choosing seasoned website owners who know what they’re doing.

In this sense, Host gator has its fair share of solid testimonials. Here are two examples of what two expert users have said:

Enstine Muki, EnstineMuki.com Been with them [Hostgator] since 2008 and have not had any major issues. The Live support has become the worst thing on Hostgator. It’s becoming more and more difficult to get help either by mail or live chat. Looks like it’s the worst in the industry at the moment. Credit: Enstine Muki

Abrar Mohi Shafee, Blogging Spell (Blog Sold) People might’ve noticed HostGator has gotten very slow in live support. Previously, it was 2-3 minutes, but now it is taking 30 minutes or longer. Just to clarify, I think, this is the consequence of data center transfer as off the owner has changed. Though I should let you know, HostGator was the company who provided the fastest live support ever. The existing customers are thinking to move from it where the new customers think they will be trapped by getting themselves in. But I think, we should give them a chance as they are gradually overcoming. The company was the gem of web hosting in last few years. There has to be a tough reason for all these difficulties. But that never means they are a bad host

Cons: What I Didn’t Like About HostGator

While there are lots to love at HostGator, it is far from perfect. Yet many of its flaws are superficial and can be ignored unless you can’t stand them. So here’s what I disliked about the brand, but read between the lines since they’re mostly my pet peeves.

1. HostGator “Unlimited' Hosting is Limited

When anyone states “unlimited” I expect it to be as such. You don’t purchase an “unlimited” plan expecting to work within terms and conditions. It’s an outright lie. While I understand they need some limitations, it feels too much like false advertising.

To be fair, all unlimited hosting offers are limited in some ways. This reality is put in place against malicious users. However, I feel that the terms and conditions make it unfeasible for these plans to be sold as “unlimited.”

For regular users, don’t worry about the terms, though. As long as you’re using the plan and not abusing it, you won’t get cut off unreasonably.

2. Live Chat Sometimes Takes Long to Respond

In 2017, I did a live chat support experiment . I reached out to 28 hosting companies’ live chat support and recorded my experience in a spreadsheet. The Hostgator live chat support performance met my expectation in that case study. The average wait time was 4 minutes, but they resolved my issues efficiently.

However, there was a time when I needed to wait 15 – 20 minutes to reach their live chat support – which I find somewhat dissatisfying. Customers who are big on live chat support might want to check out others.

Given that EIG now owns HostGator, I am not optimistic about potential improvements in this area. 

3. Pricing Increase After First Term

Like many other hosting companies, HostGator offers promotions and special discounts to customers during signup. These special offers are limited to new customers and are valid for the initial term only. To demonstrate, below are the signup and renewal pricings (monthly) for Hostgator Shared Hosting Plans.

• Hatchling Plan: Signup $2.75, Renewal $6.95
• Baby Plan: Signup $3.50, Renewal $9.95
• Business Plan: Signup $5.25, Renewal $14.95

HostGator Plans and Pricing

HostGator sells a massive range of hosting services but mainly focuses on a few key areas. These include shared hosting (they also offer WordPress-specific hosting) and VPS plans. If you need something specific, though, dig deeper, and you’ll find it.

HostGator Shared Hosting

Shared Hosting at HostGator is impressive despite the simplicity of their plans. The lower-cost options are mainly segregated by how many websites you can host on each plan. They have a plan geared to businesses, including a better quality SSL certificate – very reasonable indeed.

HostGator VPS Hosting

VPS plans at HostGator are all unmanaged services. That means you need to handle the technicalities on your own. However, the prices are low, and you get a lot of power for the amount paid.

Alternatives to HostGator

Compare hostgator vs bluehost.

Both HostGator and Bluehost are big names in the web hosting business. They run head to head in close competition at the lower end of the spectrum. However, it should be worth noting that Bluehost is pretty well-known for its WordPress hosting, as acknowledged by WordPress themselves.

Compare HostGator vs DreamHost

Again, HostGator is a close match to DreamHost in their shared hosting plans. Yet my feeling is that DreamHost makes too much fuss over the details. One glaring example is the exclusion of email services, which Hostgator provides for free with all plans.

Frequently Asked Questions on HostGator

HostGator offers web hosting and domain name services. Their product range includes the full spectrum of hosting – from shared hosting to dedicated servers. These packages come at reasonable prices and offer good performance.

HostGator’s cheapest plan starts at $2.75/mo. For that price, you’ll get a shared hosting plan suitable for one small website. They also offer more professional, heavy-duty plans at higher prices. For example, their VPS range starts at $23.95/mo.

Yes, HostGator shared hosting plans are excellent for beginners. Their shared hosting plans include application installation tools, lots of freebies, and even a website builder. However, beginners to VPS should be aware that HostGator VPS are, by default, unmanaged plans.

You can get in touch with HostGator in many ways. Most directly would be via the live chat feature on their website. If you’d like to speak more directly to someone, you can call their phone line at (866) 96-GATOR.

Hostgator is a trusted hosting brand. The company has been in the web hosting business for many years. Many of their assurances are spelt out in terms of service documents, ensuring transparency of service.

Final Thoughts: Should You Pay Hostgator to Host Your Sites?

HostGator is a solid all-round choice regardless of what services you need. They have just the right range of products to fit requirements without overwhelming you with choices. Even better, what they do offer performs well. The one dark spot I see is somewhat spotty support, but they make up for this with excellent access to their various support channels.

Article by Jerry Low

Hostgator review.

• "Unlimited" resources come with terms and conditions

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HostGator Baby vs Business Plan: Which To Choose?

• X (Twitter)

If you’re about to buy web hosting from HostGator , then you need to decide which plan to choose. In this article, I’m reviewing the HostGator Baby vs Business plan. And giving you recommendations based on my own personal experience.

One thing before moving forward: You may be wondering why I didn’t mention about the HostGator Hatchling plan. For me, the hatchling plan is great for just one small website . This means you will need to buy an additional account for each website you would like to launch in the future!

HostGator baby vs Business plans allow you to host unlimited add-on domains on the same account. It will be one account for as many domains you own. You won’t need to buy additional accounts . Thus, It’s becoming more cost-effective and great value for money.

For this feature, I summed up the comparison as HostGator Baby vs Business. Let’s get on this and see what it all about. And which plan would work better for you.

HostGator Coupon

If you’ve already  bought web hosting from HostGator , you can skip this step and proceed. If you’ve not yet purchased web hosting, then let’s do it with a  47% exclusive discount   (for a limited time) .

HostGator Baby vs Business Plan

Both HostGator web hosting plans are offering unlimited features. This means that you can enjoy unlimited account resources and use it for as many domains as you can handle.

Here is a sum up for features included:

• Unlimited Disk Space.
• Unlimited Monthly Transfer (Bandwidth).
• Unlimited Email Accounts.
• Unlimited Addon Domains.
• Unlimited Sub Domains.
• Unlimited Parked Domains.
• Unlimited FTP Accounts.
• Unlimited MySQL Databases.

All the above features are available on both HostGator baby vs business plans. You can manage and use all these features using the HostGator cPanel dashboard (Your website hosting back-end).

Check HostGator Sale Pricing

HostGator has been around for a long while offering high-quality web hosting services. HostGator is now being owned by EIG – Endurance International Group . This is the same major company that owns and operates multiple other strong web hosting brands such as; BlueHost , iPage , and FatCow.

HostGator Business Plan Review

So overall, HostGator baby vs Business is almost offering the same features. But there are three additional features that are ONLY being served with the Business plan . They’re as follows:

• FREE Positive SSL (worth $150/year)
• FREE Dedicated IP (worth $4/month)
• FREE VoIP Phone Service  (worth $10/month)

For me, I would choose the business plan if I’m up to running an eCommerce website with listing products & processing online sales. There, I would benefit a lot from having the Included SSL Certificate , Dedicated IP and the Toll-Free US Phone Number .

• How To Point NameCheap Domain To HostGator (Quick)

Otherwise, I would just prefer to choose the HostGator baby plan . It’s almost having everything I may need to run a successful online empire . Furthermore, It allows me to host unlimited add-on domains.

HostGator Baby Plan Review

The baby plan is almost identical to the business plan! But without the extra business features. HostGator baby plan allows you to host unlimited domains on the same hosting account too.

It also supports a free SSL certificate (Authenticated by Lets Encrypt). The baby plan will give you unlimited disk space along with unlimited bandwidth for your website.

• HostGator Free Web Hosting Trial (No Credit Card)
• How To Buy Web Hosting From HostGator? (Save 47%)

Unlike the Business plan, the Baby plan doesn’t offer the following: Comodo Positive SSL, Dedicated IP, or VOIP call service. You can certainly live without these features as they’re dedicated the most to eCommerce and large-scale businesses.

The bottom line, HostGator baby plan is your very affordable multi-domain hosting plan from HostGator. You can rely on it for building your websites and rest assured you’re on the right track!

Uptime & Performance

HostGator Hatchling vs Baby vs Business plans is all shared hosting plans. This means that you won’t get any significant difference in the hosting performance. They’re all served on the same server with just different features as mentioned above.

The company is having a reported 99.9% uptime guarantee for all the three plans. And based on my own personal experience, I’ve used to receive almost 100% uptime in a given three month period.

Furthermore, HostGator is offering courtesies in case anything affected the uptime. So if you’ve got this guaranteed uptime altered or your website went down, you will receive a one month credit as compensation.

HostGator Website Builder

Another great feature from HostGator to offer their clients. With both HostGator baby vs Business plans, you will get access to a high-end website builder. This will allow you to build a great looking website in a few minutes!

The HostGator website builder is being served through SohoLaunch . You can access it directory on your web hosting cPanel dashboard. It almost has everything you might need to build any kind of website based on reputable high-quality templates.

Some of the main features of SohoLaunch include Email Marketing Tools, eCommerce integration and Social Media Tools. In addition, You can use the drag-and-drop editing tools to make it even easier to build a strong website without any prior coding skills required.

HostGator Email Hosting

In both Baby and Business plans, you can create unlimited custom email accounts. The email servers being used here will give you one of the best values in the industry to send and receive emails easily.

Furthermore, You’ll get access to additional perks:

• Unlimited Auto Responders.
• Unlimited Mailing Lists.
• Unlimited Email Forwarders.
• Spam Assassin.

HostGator Free Hosting ($0.01 Trial)

Yes, This is so True! HostGator is offering a free one-month trial period for just $0.01. This way you can test-drive the HostGator hosting plan and get a hands-on experience without making the purchase.

While it’s a free trial, you still need to pay $0.01 for that one month. This very little fee helps HostGator to eliminate spamming orders. Their target goal here is to attract potential customers and those who might find it useful and proceed with an actual purchase.

Get HostGator Business Plan Trial

For me, I would prefer to go with HostGator baby plan . This way I can host unlimited domain names on the same account without additional unnecessary charges. You can try the one-month free trial to test the HostGator business plan.

• Sign Up with HostGator & Get Exclusive 47% OFF

The Business plan is only advisable if you’re up to hosting a large-scale eCommerce website where you may need the Private SSL, IP and the Phone Number.

• How To Buy Web Hosting From HostGator? (Holiday Promo)
• BlueHost Vs HostGator Vs DreamHost [Honest Review]

I made sure to make this comparison as short and quick as possible. Please let me know in the comments below for any further questions or concerns you might have. Also, don’t forget to share this article with everyone on social media.

About The Author

Karim Toulba

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5 thoughts on “hostgator baby vs business plan: which to choose”.

Very nice post thanks for sharing keep it up we supported you.

Oh Great job awesome article. Keep sharing

oh! wow. I also want to host my sites.

Wow, I am planning to buy a hosting plan and very confused to choose a proper site to get it cheaply. So will it be good for start up?

Thanks for your comment. I would recommend going with HostGator Baby Plan . It should be a perfect web hosting plan for your business startup. And you can follow this guide: How to buy web hosting from HostGator (+47% Discount) .

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HostGator Pricing – How Much Does HostGator Hosting Cost?

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Hostgator hosting plans begin from as little as $2.75 per month , but can scale up into the hundreds of dollars for dedicated hosting tiers. In this guide, we’ll explain which plan may be best for your needs, and how to get the best HostGator deal.

The tiers vary in cost, with a higher price tag netting you more storage, website domains, features, or support options.

Discounts and deals are available , as well, though you should check the fine print to ensure you know how much you’ll be paying when you renew your plan: HostGator regularly sells its plans at 40-50% off for the first 12-36 months, which can make for a big surprise when you renew at their original prices.

We’ve included the best deals in our table below, which covers all the plans, tiers, and non-discounted pricing options available from HostGator.

In this review:

Which HostGator Plan Is Best?

• Shared Hosting
• VPS Hosting
• Dedicated Hosting
• Cloud Hosting
• WordPress Hosting

Frequently Asked Questions

• Verdict – Should You Use HostGator Hosting?

There are a variety of types of hosting plans, all aimed at those with differing needs. HostGator offers all five of the major hosting plans, and each plan comes with multiple tiers.

The plan differences are mostly defined by your website’s relationship with the physical server that hosts it. If you shared the server with other sites, you’re using  shared hosting ; If you have a server all to yourself, you’re using  dedicated hosting ; if you get a defined section of the server for your site, you’re using VPS hosting. You can also shared multiple servers under a  cloud hosting plan. Finally, there’s a  WordPress hosting plan, which is a little different from the rest: It’s essentially just cloud hosting, but with additional help from the popular WordPress website creation software, which provides ready-made templates and plugins.

You don’t really need to remember all that, however. Here’s what’s really relevant:

• Shared Hosting  – cheapest, but the least powerful; best for small websites
• VPS Hosting  – good for medium-sized or growing business websites
• Dedicated Hosting  – most powerful and most expensive; best for bigger website
• Cloud Hosting – relatively inexpensive but dependable option for mid-size websites
• WordPress Hosting  – the hands-off option, best for website newbies

If you’re eager to learn more about the ins and outs of web hosting prices (as well as take a look at HostGator’s competition), feel free to check out Tech.co’s full guide to web hosting costs .

HostGator Shared Hosting

Shared hosting plans mean you’ll save the most money, but since you’ll be shared the physical server your site is hosted on, your site might occasionally run slowly or even stop functioning entirely. However, HostGator proved to have the most up time in Tech.co’s tests, meaning that its shared hosting plans are more likely to keep your website continuously functioning than its competitors’ plans. It’s tough to argue with those results.

All three HostGator shared hosting plans come with a free SSL certificate and unmetered bandwidth, but none of them include free domains or free site backups. For a detailed look at the differences between shared hosting tiers, check out the graph below.

HostGator VPS Hosting

Medium-sized businesses that hope to grow their online presence can’t rely entirely on the less-dependable shared hosting, but shouldn’t pay through the nose for dedicated hosting: VPS hosting is the best option for them.

Here are the three HostGator VPS plan tiers, the benefits they offer, and the prices they’ll cost you. Free backups and two IP addresses are available at all tiers.

HostGator Dedicated Hosting

Dedicated hosting: Sure, it’ll cost more, but it’s definitely the most cost-effective route for a huge company with a lot of online data and a lot of traffic.

HostGator offers two server locations for their dedicated hosting plans, both of which are U.S.-based, and it supports both Linux and Windows OS. Here are the features and costs that each tier comes with.

HostGator Cloud Hosting

Unlike some cloud hosting providers, HostGator won’t give you the option to tailor the server cluster to your exact RAM, CPU, or storage needs. You’ll pay a fixed rate rather than an hourly one, as well. In other words, the three tiers you see are all that you can get.

Here are the three HostGator cloud hosting plan tiers, with a little more data about the benefits and costs of each.

HostGator WordPress Hosting

If you don’t have a lot of experience with web hosting, coding, or running any IT programs, never fear: WordPress hosting is probably for you. The plans will host your website on a cloud-based server cluster and deliver your website through the WordPress software, which lets you pick your favorite front-end template out from thousands of options, making your site easy to access and update.

Take a look at each of HostGator’s three WordPress hosting plans here to get a good idea of what each of them offers at which price point.

HostGator Review Summary

Founded in (where else?) Florida in 2002, HostGator is one of a handful of well-known and respected web hosting brands operating today. It has a strong reputation for good reason: Its offers great service and a high quality across the board.

In our testing, we found that HostGator performed better than any other top brands when it came to up time (the amount of time that websites hosted on HostGator stayed online and functional). HostGator’s 99.99% up time makes them the most dependable hosting service on the market today. Their range of plans and their storage space are also highlights.

We have a few quibbles, as a few additional features could be included in a few plans, and the pricing can be a little higher than it needs to be, but HostGator is definitely a strong contender in web hosting. Here’s our full review, which details their five different plans, their features, and how much it all costs. Also, don’t forget to check out the special HostGator deals so you can get a great price right off the bat.

HostGator provides a good service for plenty of reasons, but the biggest one is worth highlighting: They're dependable, keeping their hosted websites available and functional online more consistently than their competitors, according to Tech.co's tests. Their range of plans and tiers, their strong support team, and their good storage options all make HostGator a recommended web hosting service, even if its pricing and feature set leave a little to be desired.

Verdict – Should You Use HostGator?

Yes, HostGator is a strong contender in the web hosting world. It offers great storage options, a solid 24/7 support team, and a wide range of plans and tiers. Best of all, their website up time is 99.99%, meaning your website will stay functional and working almost all the time. They’re not perfect (features are a little limited, and they’re a bit pricier than a few of their competitors), but they’ll definitely serve you well .

If you’re interested in checking out HostGator for yourself, make sure to take advantage of the regular HostGator deals so you can get the best price on a web hosting provider that works for you.

Is HostGator reliable?

Does hostgator charge monthly, is hostgator good for wordpress, which is better, hostgator or godaddy, is bluehost better than hostgator.

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HostGator Pricing Plans Explained

May 8, 2024

in Web Hosting

Our content is reader-supported . If you click on our links, we may earn a commission.  How we review .

In this article, I will guide you through the different web hosting services that HostGator offers, and help you find the best web hosting and the best HostGator pricing plan for your business.

If you have read my HostGator review then might be ready to pull out your credit card and get started with HostGator. But before you do, I’m going to show you how the HostGator pricing structure works so you can pick the plan that’s best for you and your budget.

Quick Summary

Hostgator offers six different types of web hosting services.

• Shared web hosting ⇣ : $3.75/month – $6.25/month.
• Cloud hosting ⇣ : $4.95 – $9.95 per month.
• WordPress hosting ⇣ : $5.95 – $9.95 per month.
• Reseller hosting ⇣ : $19.95 – $24.95 per month.
• VPS hosting ⇣ : $29.95 – $49.95 per month.
• Dedicated server hosting ⇣ : $118.99 – $148.98 per month.

Plans & Pricing

Hostgator is a web hosting provider that is trusted by thousands of businesses around the world. Whether you are a startup or a thriving small business, Hostgator has a web hosting solution for you.

They offer many different services to make it easy for businesses to scale their operations. Although Hostgator’s pricing is one of the cheapest on the market, it can be a little confusing.

Shared Hosting

Hostgator offers cheap, affordable shared web hosting plans that scale with your business:

WordPress Hosting

Hostgator offers web hosting optimized for WordPress at affordable prices. If you want to start a WordPress blog or website, this is one of the best deals you can get.

Cloud Hosting

Hostgator’s cloud hosting offers more control over your business website at affordable prices.

Not to mention, it comes with a lot more server resources, which can give your website a speed boost.

VPS Hosting

Hostgator makes VPS hosting affordable and scalable for small businesses. Their VPS hosting plans are one of the cheapest on the market.

Reseller Hosting

Hostgator’s Reseller Hosting makes it easy and affordable for anyone to start their own web hosting business:

Dedicated Hosting

Dedicated Hosting gives you full control over a real server, not just a virtual one. Hostgator only offers 3 simple Dedicated Hosting plans :

Which Type of Hosting is Right For You?

Hostgator offers six different types of web hosting services . They are all designed and suitable for different types of businesses. If you want to pick the right one for your business, here are some things you need to consider:

Is Shared Hosting Right For You?

HostGator’s shared web hosting is great for anyone who is just starting out or is launching a small website. If you are a small business or if this is your first website, shared web hosting is more than enough for your use case.

Shared web hosting can handle a lot of visitors. You won’t need to upgrade your hosting plan for a long time if your website is just starting out. It’s a great way to save money because your website probably won’t get a lot of visitors in the first couple of months.

Which Hostgator Shared Hosting Plan Is Right For You?

Hostgator’s shared hosting plans are very simple. Unlike other web hosts like Bluehost , HostGator wants to make it easy for you to make a choice.

Their shared hosting plans only differ in one or two small features. All three plans include unlimited bandwidth and storage space, and a free SSL certificate and CDN.

• The Hatchling plan is for you if you are a beginner who only needs one website. The biggest difference between the three plans is that the Hatchling plan, which is the cheapest of the three, only allows one website whereas the other two allow unlimited websites.
• The Baby plan is for you if you want to launch more than one website. The only difference between the Baby and the Hatchling plan is that the former allows unlimited websites.
• The Business plan is for you if you want a Free Dedicated IP and a free upgrade to Positive SSL. It also comes with anonymous FTP.

Is WordPress Hosting Right For You?

If you want to start a WordPress blog , it isn’t a good idea to use any other type of web hosting if this is your first website.

Hostgator’s WordPress Web Hosting service is optimized for WordPress websites. If you are moving your website from some other web host to Hostgator, you will see a visible boost in your website’s speed.

Another great reason to opt for WordPress hosting rather than Shared Hosting is that it comes with a free domain name and free website migration service.

Which Hostgator WordPress Hosting Plan Is Right For You?

The Starter WordPress Hosting plan is right for you if:

• You are a beginner: If this is your first website, any other plan will be an overkill. It will take time before your website starts gaining some traction. This plan can handle up to 100k visitors a month, which is more than enough for a starter site.
• You only have one website: This plan only allows one website.
• You don’t get a lot of traffic: If your website doesn’t get a lot of traffic, and you aren’t planning on running ads anytime soon, this is the plan for you. It allows more visitors than most websites need.

The Standard WordPress Hosting plan is right for you if:

• You own two websites: The Starter plan only allows one website. If you own multiple brand names or businesses, you will need this plan. It allows up to two websites.
• Your website is growing fast: If your website gets more than 100k visitors every month or is on the verge, this is the plan for you. It allows up to 200k visitors every month, which is enough for a growing business.

The Business WordPress Hosting plan is right for you if:

• You own three websites: If you own up to three brand names or websites, this plan allows you to create up to 3 WordPress websites.
• Your website is growing crazy fast: If your website is getting more than 200k visitors every month, you need this plan. It allows up to 500k visitors a month and comes with 5 times relative compute power.

Is Cloud Hosting Right For You?

HostGator’s cloud Hosting gives you a lot more control over how your website behaves. It also packs a lot more power than Shared Web Hosting.

If you want your website to load fast or if you are building a custom web application, you need Cloud Hosting or VPS Hosting. Cloud Hosting is cheaper than VPS Hosting.

Which Hostgator Cloud Hosting Plan Is Right For You?

The Hatchling Cloud plan is right for you if:

• You only own one domain: if you own more than one domain, this plan isn’t for you. It only allows one domain.
• You don’t need a lot of computing power: if your website is a simple blog or if it isn’t a custom web application, this is the best plan for you. It comes with 2 GB RAM and 2 Cores.

The Baby Cloud plan is right for you if:

• You get a lot of traffic: If your website gets a lot of traffic, you need more RAM and cores. This plan comes with 4 GB RAM and 4 Cores.
• You own more than one website: This plan allows unlimited domains.

The Business Cloud plan is right for you if:

• You get a TON of traffic: This plan comes with 6 GB RAM and 6 CPU Cores. It can handle thousands of visitors every day.

Is VPS Hosting Right For You?

HostGator’s Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting lets you run your website on a small virtualized server. It gives your website a lot more resources than Shared web hosting and offers a lot more control over the server. If your website gets a lot of traffic, you need a VPS.

Which Hostgator VPS Hosting Plan Is Right For You?

Hostgator’s VPS plans scale with your business. Their plans are designed to be as simple as they can be. Their VPS plans only differ in RAM, Cores, and Storage.

• If you are a small business, start with the Snappy 2000 plan. It comes with 2 GB RAM, 2 Cores, and 120 GB storage, which is enough resources for a small business.
• As your business grows and you start getting more traffic, you can upgrade to a higher plan to get more server resources. It doesn’t take any time and can be done in a couple of clicks.

Is Reseller Hosting Right For You?

Ever wanted to start your own web hosting business? Now’s your chance to do it with Reseller Hosting. As the name suggests, it lets you resell Hostgator’s web hosting services to your customers. It is completely white-label meaning your customers will never see Hostgator branding. They will only see your business’s name.

Reseller Hosting is great for anyone who deals with web design or development clients. If you are a freelancer or an agency, you can offer managed web hosting to your clients at a premium price and have control over all of their websites.

Which Hostgator Reseller Hosting Plan Is Right For You?

• The only difference between the three Reseller Hosting plans is storage and bandwidth. As you get more customers and more clients, you will need more storage space and more bandwidth. To get more resources, all you have to do is upgrade your plan, which can be done from your account settings.
• The Aluminum plan, which is the cheapest of the three, comes with 60 GB disk space and 600 GB bandwidth. The Copper plan, which comes after it, offers 90 GB disk space and 900 GB bandwidth. The Silver plan comes with 140 GB storage and 1400 GB bandwidth.

Is Dedicated Hosting Right For You?

HostGator’s Dedicated Server Hosting gives you direct access to a live server. Unlike other types of hosting, this one gives you complete control over the server.

Which Hostgator Dedicated Hosting Plan Is Right For You?

• The Value plan is right for you if: Your website gets a lot of traffic but doesn’t need a lot of resources. If your website gets anything less than 200k visitors a month, this is the plan for you.
• The Power plan is right for you if: Your website gets a lot of visitors or if you are running a custom web application such as a Software-as-a-Service business. This plan can easily handle up to 500k visitors a month.
• The Enterprise plan is right for you if: Your website needs a lot of computing resources or if it gets over a million visitors a month.

Questions & Answers

How much does hostgator cost.

Hostgator offers six types of web hosting services. Their shared hosting plans start from $3.75/month . Their WordPress hosting plans start from $5.95 per month. Their Cloud Hosting plans start at $4.95 per month. Their VPS hosting plans start from $19.95 per month. Their Reseller hosting plans start from $19.95 per month. And their Dedicated hosting plans start from $89.98 per month.

Does Hostgator offer a free domain name?

Hostgator offers a free domain name for one year when you subscribe to an annual plan of Shared Web Hosting, WordPress Web Hosting, or Cloud Web Hosting. Before you sign up, be sure to check the pricing page to see if the type of web hosting you chose comes with a free domain name.

Is there a free trial for Hostgator?

Like any other web hosting company, Hostgator doesn’t offer a free trial. But they do offer a 45-day money-back guarantee with almost all their products. If you are unsatisfied with the product you purchase, you can ask for a refund within the first 45 days. Be sure to check the relevant product pricing page for more details.

Recent Improvements & Updates

HostGator constantly improves its hosting services with additional features. HostGator has introduced several updates and improvements to its services and hosting products recently (last checked May 2024):

• Easier Customer Portal : They’ve redesigned their customer portal to make it easier for you to handle your account. Now, you can quickly change your contact details or how you want to handle your billing.
• Faster Website Loading : HostGator has teamed up with Cloudflare CDN, which means your website can load faster for visitors around the world. This is because Cloudflare has servers globally that keep a copy of your site, so it loads quickly no matter where someone is accessing it from.
• Website Builder : The Gator Website Builder from HostGator uses AI to assist users in creating websites, making the process simpler, especially for those with limited technical skills. This tool allows for easy setup of blogs or e-commerce stores as part of the site.
• User Interface and Experience : HostGator uses the popular cPanel for its control panel, known for its ease of use, making it a good choice for both beginners and experienced users. The user interface is intuitive, simplifying tasks like managing files, databases, and email accounts.
• Security Features : HostGator’s hosting services include various security features such as free SSL certificates, automatic backups, malware scanning and removal, and DDoS protection. These features enhance the security and reliability of websites hosted on their platform.

Reviewing HostGator: Our Methodology

When we review web hosts, our testing and evaluation are based on these criteria:

• Value for Money : What types of web hosting plans are on offer, and are they good value for money?
• User Friendliness : How user-friendly is the signup process, the onboarding, the dashboard? and so on.
• Customer Support : When we need help, how quickly can we get it, and is the support effective and helpful?
• Hosting Features : What unique features does the web host provide, and how do they stack up against competitors?
• Security : Are essential security measures like SSL certificates, DDoS protection, backup services, and malware/virus scans included?
• Speed and Uptime : Is the hosting service fast and reliable? What types of servers do they use, and how do they perform in tests?

For more details on our review process,  click here .

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About Author

Matt Ahlgren

Mathias Ahlgren is the CEO and founder of Website Rating, steering a global team of editors and writers. He holds a master's in information science and management. His career pivoted to SEO after early web development experiences during university. With over 15 years in SEO, digital marketing, and web developmens. His focus also includes website security, evidenced by a certificate in Cyber Security. This diverse expertise underpins his leadership at Website Rating.

The "WSR Team" is the collective group of expert editors and writers specializing in technology, internet security, digital marketing, and web development. Passionate about the digital realm, they produce well-researched, insightful, and accessible content. Their commitment to accuracy and clarity makes Website Rating a trusted resource for staying informed in the dynamic digital world.

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