Hostgator is popular web hosting company that’s based in Houston, Texas. Hostgator is founded by Brent Oxley in 2002. Hostgator received a number of awards and recognitions from several web hosting industry publications and review sites. The company claims that by the end of 2010, they have been hosting about 4.9 million domains and counting.

Tabel Of Contents: - Introduction - Hostgator Rating - Awards - Hostgator Pros - Hostgator Cons - Customer Support - Coupons - Packages - Customer Reviews - Uptime - Conclusion

Hostgator.com Overall Rating Features : Support : Uptime : Reliability : Hosting Cost : $3.96/mo* Overall Rating : *Highly Recommended Save Cash – Use a Coupon

Awards

Good service should be expected and truly good service should be praised!
For quite some time now, I’ve been having chronic problems with regards to our website. As an Internet businessman I simply can’t afford for this problems to persist so I contacted HostGator and was accommodated by GatorJoshL. He was very helpful and calmly listened to my problems until he understood it and skillfully tackled the problems until they were resolved. Customer care is indeed excellent at Hostgator.

The Pros of Hostgator

FREE Web Site Builder

FREE 100$ Adwords voucher

CPanel Hosting (demo)

4500 Free Website Templates

• 24/7 excellent customer support with 300+ employees
• Top-notch online chat support
• Overall uptime: 99.905 %
• Beginner friendly cPanel Based Hosting
• 4.9+ million hosted domains
• Affordable shared hosting packages
• Unlimited web hosting
• Unlimited disk space and bandwidth
• Support for a large variety of scripts
• Flexible mode of payment (you can play monthly, every 6 months, yearly and so on)
• WHOIS Privacy Support
• 45 Day Money Back Guarantee
• Unlimited Sub-domains, MYSQL Databases, POP3 Accounts and FTP Accounts
• Unlimited Domains (Baby and Business Plan)
• Award winning web hosting solution
• Amazing amount of pre-packaged addons and scripts
• No hidden fees / charges
• Excellent server specs considering its asking price

One of the best strengths of Hostgator is their top notch customer service staff . Each and every one of them are very helpful and friendly which is perfect for newbies to web hosting. The support staff will not only patiently listen to your problem but they are also knowledgeable enough to understand them come up with an effective solution to your problem.

Another impressive fact about HostGator is their overall uptime, it is hard to beat that 99% uptime percentage. And if there was a downtime, you will hardly notice it because the servers are back already once you do. Whether you are a web developer or an online entrepreneur, you’ll appreciate the reliability that HostGator offers.

Another plus point for me is the impressive amount of prepackaged addons, tools and software. When you sign up with HostGator, you will have access to website building tools such as SiteBuilder and SiteStudio, thousands of free web templates, $100 free credits for Google Adwords, Automated Billing Systems for Reseller accounts, cPanel Hosting, Plesk and the list of prepackaged goodies just goes on and on.

Hostgator has a variety of plans that suits many different web hosting needs. From entry level Shared hosting to advanced Dedicated hosting, HostGator has got you covered. Another great thing is the flexible mode of payment and the savings that you can avail as you purchase yearly rates. And of course, if you want to avail of more savings, you can easily find a coupon codes on this page which can avail you of great discounts.

If you want to give HostGator a try, then by all means, please don’t hesitate to do so. With its 45 day money-back guarantee, you can give HostGator a try absolutely risk free.

The Cons of Hostgator

There is very little to complain about Hostgator but the most notable one is the somewhat expensive registration for the domains. Another thing that may be source of concern is that some users may find the rates of Hostgator to be a bit too pricey but this becomes a non-issue since you can easily find a coupon code online which provides you with a discount as much as 25%. So unless you are in a very tight budget, this by no means a major concern. And if you keep into account the excellent features and web hosting service that you will be getting, then it is definitely more than your money’s worth.

Customer Support:

Support is one of the most important aspects when choosing the right web hosting company for your hosting needs. As you see below, Hostgator’s Sales & Support is Top-Notch!

(02:12:46 PM) System: There are currently 1 people in front of you and 192 chat technicians assisting customers.
(02:13:28 PM) Chad Sc: Welcome to Hostgator live chat, my name is Chad.
(02:14:51 PM) Patrick: Hello, Chad. I want to transfer my website to hostgator and had some questions.
(02:15:17 PM) Chad Sc: Ok, what can I do?
(02:16:43 PM) Patrick: If i buy a shared or VPS package from you can you migrate my current website to your servers?
(02:17:23 PM) Chad Sc: Yes, we can. We offer free content transfer, also.
(02:17:57 PM) Chad Sc: I meant, its free for us to do that.
(02:18:23 PM) Patrick: Very nice, i’ve heard that HostGator limits you from editing the php.ini file on shared hosting is that the case?
(02:19:03 PM) Chad Sc: There are some things that we don’t allow to be changed. They are listed here. http://support.hostgator.com/articles/cpanel/php-settings-that-cannot-be-changed
(02:20:59 PM) Patrick: Ok great There is no long term contract on these packages right?
(02:21:17 PM) Chad Sc: Correct. You can cancel your hosting at any time.
(02:21:43 PM) Chad Sc: I have had issues myself with previous hosts that will keep your money if you pay for a year, and cancel early.
(02:21:49 PM) Chad Sc: That is NOT that case with us.
(02:22:40 PM) Patrick: Ahh, so that means that if i pay for the 12 months package and cancel after couple of months the rest of the money will be refunded?
(02:23:14 PM) Chad Sc: Yes, we will do that.
(02:24:12 PM) Patrick: Very nice, one final question what kind of payment options do you allow?
(02:26:06 PM) Chad Sc: We accept credit cards and paypal, as well as, if circumstances dictate, check, money order, Cash (never recommended!), Western Union, and bank wire. http://support.hostgator.com/articles/pre-sales-policies/payment-fees/what-forms-of-payment-do-you-accept
(02:27:53 PM) Patrick: Ok, great! Thanks for your time Chad.
(02:28:12 PM) Chad Sc: Is there anything else I can help you out with?
(02:28:18 PM) Patrick: No thank you
(02:28:21 PM) Patrick: Bye for now.
(02:30:38 PM) Chad Sc: Thank you for using HostGator Live Chat. If you could take a minute to rate your experience with HostGator as well as my overall performance, that would help us to improve our customer service. To do that, just click the button that says Rate and Exit in the upper right hand corner. The survey takes less than a minute to fill out. If you’d like to express additional comments or exceptional support, please email feedback@hostgator.com

Hostgator Coupons

Hosting Package Details

Shared Hosting Plans

Reseller Hosting Plans

VPS Server Hosting Packages

Dedicated Server Packages

Customer Reviews

3 Years + and counting…
” I have been using this web hosting service for about three years. And during those three years, I didn’t experience a single problem that was not resolved in a matter of minutes. This is because of the excellent 27/7 customer support. Hostgator boasts an uptime percentage of 99.9%, and guess what? It’s the truth. I’ve never experienced where my websites were down because of a server outage. I’ve used about 15 different web hosting services and I can say that Hostgator is the best.” – runemusic
Overall Rating : 4.1 out of 5

HostGator rocks!
“Hostgator has been so good to me eversince I’ve decided to use their service. It is just sad and I wish that I had found Hostgator back in 2006 when I first had my website. If that’s the case, I would’ve had not suffered 2 years with Yahoo!. For me, there is no other professional web hosting solution that can compete with Hostgator.” – John Wolf
Overall Rating : 5 out of 5

My favorite host, can’t recommend HostGator enough!
“I have been using Hostgator for about 5 years now. That alone should be an indication of my satisfaction with this particular web hosting service. I started with shared web hosting and as I had more confidence with their service I eventually upgrade to dedicated server hosting. What makes Hostgator standout is the outstanding support that I constantly receive from them. Uptime has been great to both my shared and dedicated packages. I really have nothing but praises for this superb web hosting service.” – TheSickBoy
Overall Rating : 4 out of 5

Hostgator Uptime Monitored since: January 2009 Total days of monitoring: 850 Total Outages: 168 Overall uptime: 99.905 %
Hostgator Uptime Chart Year Outages Approx. Downtime Average Uptime 2009 13 1.36 hours 99.984% 2010 12 1.25 hours 99.986% 2011 143 14.92 hours 99.599%

Conclusion:

Based on what you can see, HostGator definitely receives our highest recommendation. If you are looking for an affordable but reliable and feature packed web hosting solution, then HostGator will definitely deliver. From the excellent customer support to the 99.9% and everything in between, there is simply so much to love about HostGator.

Tagged as: Hostgator, hostgator cpanel, hostgator hosting, hostgator support, hostgator uptime, hostgator webhosting