Overview
Brent Oxley was a student in Florida and always wanted to get into internet ventures. On October 22nd, 2002 he registered the domain hostgator.com, giving birth to HostGator.
As of now, HostGator has two data centers with world-class equipment including infrastructure redundancy, fire protection, and other safety features. The company has offices in Canada, Brazil, and Texas, with over 500 employees.
Features
HostGator Website Builder
Their own custom-built website builder allows you to use the standard drag-and-drop method to create a site. It comes with over 100 responsive templates.
This website builder also comes bundled with their web hosting, but can also be purchased as a stand-alone product.
Free SSL
Websites now get flagged as insecure if they don’t have an SSL certificate. HostGator offers free SSL certificates for every website hosted on their platform.
cPanel
HostGator uses one of the most common hosting control panels – the cPanel. It offers easy access to all the necessary features you need. And because it’s so widely used, it’s easy to find support and tutorials for its use.
When you log into the cPanel, you’ll see all the expected features like:
- The File Manager.
- Website Statistics.
- IP Blacklist.
- Hotlink Protection.
- URL Redirection.
Domain Registration
HostGator offers domain registration for a fairly affordable price – depending on the domain extension.
The prices start at $0.95 per year and go up to $45 per year for certain domain extensions.
The good thing is that you can get a domain for free if you purchase Shared, Cloud or WordPress hosting and opt for a 12, 24, or 36 month plan.
Application Hosting
With HostGator, it’s easy to install any application you need from a list of more than 75 open-source scripts with a click of your mouse – these include WordPress, Joomla, Magento, MediaWiki and more.
Email Hosting
HostGator makes it easy to create and manage your business emails by offering unlimited email hosting with its web hosting plans.
You can access your emails using two applications:
- Horde.
- Roundcube.
The emails come with POP3 and IMAP support so you can receive and send email from your mobile device.
Advertising Offers
As we all know by now, digital marketing is what helps online success happen. That’s why HostGator is offering $100 of Google and Bing Ad credit along with its web hosting.
While the Bing Ad credit comes with no hooks, you will only receive your $100 of Google Ad credit after spending $25 on the platform.
Plans and Prices
Here’s a quick rundown of what HostGator offers:
Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is the most inexpensive hosting option and is perfect for websites that don’t require a lot of resources and technical knowledge to manage.
- Hatchling $2.75/month: 1 Website, Unmetered Disk Space and Bandwidth, Unlimited MySQL Databases, Unlimited Emails, Unlimited FTP accounts, Website Builder, cPanel.
- Baby $3.95/month: Unlimited Websites, Unmetered Disk Space and Bandwidth, Unlimited MySQL Databases, Unlimited Emails, Unlimited FTP accounts, Website Builder, cPanel.
- Business $5.95/month: Unlimited Websites, Unmetered Disk Space and Bandwidth, Unlimited MySQL Databases, Unlimited Emails, Unlimited FTP accounts, Website Builder, Free PositiveSSL, Dedicated IP, Anonymous FTP, cPanel.
Website Builder
The Website Builder plans are designed with ease of use in mind and are perfect for new businesses. The Gator Builder also allows you to create ecommerce sites.
- Starter $3.84/month: Hosting, Included Domain, Drag-and-Drop Builder, Included Templates, Website Analytics, Free SSL, all-day support.
- Premium $5.99/month: Hosting, Included Domain, Drag-and-Drop Builder, Included Templates, Website Analytics, Free SSL, Priority Support.
- eCommerce $9.22/month: Hosting, Included Domain, Drag-and-Drop Builder, Included Templates, Website Analytics, Free SSL, Priority Support, eCommerce features.
WordPress Hosting
Optimized to be as fast as possible while running WordPress – this is the solution for people who create their websites with the WordPress platform.
- Starter $5.95/month: 1 Website, 100k visits/month, Unmetered Disk Space, 1GB Backups, 2X Compute Power, Specialized Control Panel.
- Standard $7.95/month: 2 Websites, 200k visits/month, Unmetered Disk Space, 2GB Backups, 2X Compute Power, Specialized Control Panel.
- Business 9.95/month: 3 Websites, 500k visits/month, Unmetered Disk Space, 3GB Backups, 5X Compute Power, Specialized Control Panel.
VPS Hosting
VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting is for more technically-advanced users who need a lot more power, but can also manage their own backend. With this type of hosting, you get resources dedicated specifically to you and root access to your virtual server.
- Snappy 2000 $29.95/month: 2GB RAM, 2 CPU Cores, 120GB Disk Space, 1.5TB Bandwidth, 2 IP Addresses, DDOS Protection, Gigabit Uplink with Guaranteed 20Mbit connection
- Snappy 4000 $39.95/month: 4GB RAM, 2 CPU Cores, 165GB Disk Space, 2TB Bandwidth, 2 IP Addresses, DDOS Protection, Gigabit Uplink with Guaranteed 20Mbit connection.
- Snappy 8000 $49.95/month: 8GB RAM, 4 CPU Cores, 240GB Disk Space, 3TB Bandwidth, 2 IP Addresses, DDOS Protection, Gigabit Uplink with Guaranteed 20Mbit connection.
Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated hosting gives you the most resources. You’ll have a full server to work with. This type of hosting requires the most technical knowledge but is also the most powerful option available.
- Value $119/month: 4 Cores / 8 Threads Xeon-D CPU, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD, Unmetered Bandwidth, Linux or Windows OS, 3 Dedicated IP Addresses, DDOS Protection.
- Power $139/month: 8 Cores / 16 Threads Xeon-D CPU, 16GB RAM, 2TB HDD or 512GB SSD, Unmetered Bandwidth, Linux or Windows OS, 3 Dedicated IP Addresses, DDOS Protection.
- Enterprise $149/month: 8 Cores / 16 Threads Xeon-D CPU, 30GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Unmetered Bandwidth, Linux or Windows OS, 3 Dedicated IP Addresses, DDOS Protection.
Windows Hosting
HostGator offers two Windows hosting options. Both use ASP.NET and the Plesk Control panel for improved ease of use, along with a dedicated customer support team for Windows hosting users. The two plans are:
- Personal $4.76/month: You get unlimited bandwidth and disk space, and get to host a single domain. You can opt for a dedicated IP address for an additional $2/month.
- Enterprise $14.36/month: With this plan, you’ll receive unlimited bandwidth and disk space as well, but get to host a total of five domains, receive a Positive SSL certificate, and a dedicated IP at no extra charge.
Reseller Hosting
If you provide web development services and want to host your clients, reseller hosting might be the solution for you. HostGator offers unlimited domains, a 45-day money-back guarantee, cPanel and the WHM control panel for management. Additionally, you’ll be able to resell domains and get access to reseller customer support that is available 24/7/365 via phone and live chat.
The three reseller hosting plans are:
- Aluminium $19.95/month: With this plan, you’ll get 60 GB of disk space and 600 GB of bandwidth.
- Copper $24.95/month: You get to use 90 GB of disk space and 900 GB of bandwidth.
- Silver $24/95/month: You can use 140 GB of disk space and 1400 GB of bandwidth.
Customer Support
HostGator’s support team is available to help you 24/7, every day of the year. You can ask for help through their live chat or contact them on the phone.
Knowledge Base
HostGator’s knowledge base features answers to the most common questions related to their services. If you have time to search, you can most likely find an answer to your issue in the knowledge base. It’s neatly organized into 19 categories, ranging from simple to advanced issues.
Tutorials
HostGator support doesn’t stop with their knowledge base. With a huge array of video tutorials, HostGator aims to teach its customers how to use all of their tools and hosting plans.
Conclusion
HostGator offers web hosting for different users in different price ranges, with flexible resource options. It offers good shared hosting for beginners, but also great options for intermediate users with lots of free features like SSL certificates.
Feel free to explore their website and hosting plans in order to make the right decision! Even though you learned a lot here, you can learn a lot more by exploring their website and knowledge base to get answers to any further questions.
