Features
When it comes to features, HostGator has all the general ones you look for in a web hosting service. They provide a site builder, one-click installations of website applications and CMS platforms and shopping carts for e-commerce. The basic plan is ideal for hosting a WordPress blog. Each plan has robust email features and allows the user to create an unlimited number of POP3 accounts. Other email features include auto responders, catch-all, mailing lists, email aliases, and mail forwarding. HostGator utilizes Spam Assassin in all the web hosting packages to protect users from spam in the inbox.
Reliability
While there might be some people complaining about HostGator’s uptime on blogs and forums, they are a minority compared to the silent majority who are happy with the web hosting provider’s 99.9 percent uptime. Downtimes might be experienced, but they are rare times and would only last a couple of minutes. The web hosting service is confident about its uptime that they will give a free month of credit if a website’s uptime drops below the 99.9 percent uptime guarantee. That means if a website is down for more than 43 minutes in a month, the user will get a month’s worth of free hosting.
Price / Value
HostGator has three shared hosting plans, and all of them have unlimited features, except for the basic Hatchling Plan that allows only a single domain registration. It starts at $3.96 a month. If you need to have unlimited domains, then get the Baby Plan, which starts at $6.36 a month. It is ideal for a website that gets less than 100,000 monthly unique visitors. Its Business Plan starts at $10.36 a month and comes with free private IP, private SSL, and a toll free number.
The web hosting service also offers Virtual Private Server and Dedicated Server plans. They provide five VPS Hosting packages with the most basic being the Snappy 500 at $9.98 for the first month and renewal of $19.95 a month. It comes with a 0.5 CPU core, 512 MB of RAM, 25 GB disk space, and 500 GB bandwidth. The most expensive VPS Hosting package is the Snappy 8000 that costs $79.98 for the first month and renewal of $159.95 each month. It has 4 CPU cores, 8 GB of RAM, 240 GB of disk space, and 3 TB of bandwidth.
If you need more processing power, then get a HostGator Dedicated Server plan. They offer Linux and Windows dedicated servers. The Basic Linux Dedicated Server costs $174 a month and utilizes an Intel Xeon Dual Core CPU, 100 Mbps uplink, 4 GB high-performance RAM, 50 GB RAID-1 drives, 10TB bandwidth, and 2 dedicated IPs. The Basic Windows Dedicated Server costs $174 as well and comes with the same hardware specifications as the Linux server.
Performance
HostGator.com uses high-quality hardware for its shared hosting plans. The 32 Core AMD Opteron is rarely used processor due to its high price. Its data center in Houston, Texas has redundant systems with UPS battery backups, power distribution units, generators, and diesel fuel tanks.
Customer Support
Customer service of HostGator.com will be glad to help you solve your problems when it comes to your web hosting. HostGator will not get tired of helping you even if you constantly bug them for support. The web hosting service provides several channels of support that includes phone support available 24/7, chat support, email support, and ticketing system. Some customers had a bad experience with their chat support in the past, but the company has made several changes since then. Phone support is the most reliable method if you need support for technical problems as well as expert advice on issues. The only trouble with their phone support is that you need to wait a long time before you can speak with a customer support representative.