Every single business requires a website, and for that you will need a web hosting provider. It doesn't make a difference if it's a fully performing e-commerce setup or a simple page with small more than your contact info. The feature-packed HostGator offers budget-friendly price ranges, and it offers a lot of tools to website owners. HostGator has high quality dedicated and virtual private server (VPS) server plans, but its shared plans are one of the factors why the company stands out from the very populated web hosting package. In fact, HostGator's shared plans are so powerful that PCMag named the web host our best pick in that subgroup. The service is also really easy to use, so we've crowned it our Editors' Selection for amateur website owners.
Pros
A range of featured-packed hosting options. Helpful site-building application. Good customer support. Excellent uptime.
Cons
No Windows-based VPS hosting.
Bottom line
HostGator is a dependable Web hosting service that's easy to use and provides an variety of helpful plans for customers and small companies. It's our top pick for beginner website owners.
Shared Web Hosting
HostGator provides month-to-month shared web hosting options, but forces hard for you to sign up for lengthier terms, beginning at six months. I don't like that in the course of the signup procedure HostGator defaults to a three-year phrase. It's one thing to encourage users to skip month-to-month service, but pressing them into three years through the start is a bit very much.
That stated, HostGator provides Linux- or Windows-centered shared hosting plans that provide small- and moderate-size companies room to expand. The Hatchling plan (starting at $10.95 per month) provides unlimited disk space, bandwidth, databases, and email addresses, in addition support for one domain and third-party programs such as content management systems as well as e-commerce systems. The Baby plan (starting at $11.95 per month) develops on the Hatchling providing by including unlimited domain names. The top-tier Business plan (beginning at $16.95 per month) contains highly customized options, such as a toll-free number for your business and a private SSL (secure socket layer) certification.
Arvixe fits HostGator tightly in the shared web hosting game, but HostGator provides slightly a lot more bang for the buck with the addition of a private SSL certification and toll-free VoIP number. As a outcome, HostGator is the Editors' Choice for shared web hosting solutions.
VPS Web Hosting
HostGator provides Linux-based VPS web hosting starting at $19.95 per month. If you need much more power, expect high site visitors volumes, or have certain compliance specifications that prevent you from utilizing shared servers (but you don't want to pay dedicated web server prices), these are good choices to think about.
The most fundamental VPS plan, Snappy 2000, provides 2GB of RAM, 120GB of disk space, and 1.5TB of month-to-month data transfers beginning at $79.95 per month (or as low as $19.95 per month along with a three-year dedication). The mid-tier Snappy 4000 package, beginning at $119.95 per month (or as inexpensive as $29.95 per month along with a three-year plan), offers 4GB of RAM, 165GB of storage space, and 2TB of monthly data transfers. The most advanced plan, Snappy 8000, offers 8GB of RAM, 240GB of disk space, and 3TB of month-to-month data beginning at $149.95 per month or $39.95 per month if you sign up for 36 months. The plans are a lot more versatile than what's provided by Network Solutions, however not quite as well rounded as Hostwinds, our Editors' Choice for VPS web hosting.
Hostwinds has budget-friendly, well-rounded VPS choices that begin at $7.50 per month for 1GB of RAM, 25GB of disk space, unlimited month-to-month data transfers, and unlimited email. Plans range up to $129 per month for 18.5GB of RAM, 130GB of disk space, unlimited month-to-month data transfers, and unlimited email. Hostwinds' VPS plans additionally have a Windows operating system choice, which is some thing that HostGator does not provide.
Dedicated Web Hosting
HostGator's dedicated server plans start at $119 per month, as well as they provide a good set of functions. HostGator users can customize their servers with up to 1TB of SSD storage, 32GB of RAM, and unlimited month-to-month data transfers, which bests the bandwidth offerings from numerous some other dedicated server plans.
HostGator's dedicated hosts come in equally Linux and Windows flavors, that isn't as commonplace as you may believe; Linux seems to dominate the industry. In fact, HostGator is one of the couple of web hosts we've analyzed that rated well and provides both operating systems. Even Dreamhost, one of our favorite web hosting services, does not have Windows-based dedicated servers. That stated, Hostgator isn't the Editors' Choice for dedicated web hosting. That title will go to Hostwinds.
Hostwinds has an amazing function set. Its dedicated hosting plans (starting at $99) can be equipped with up to 3TB of storage space, 128GB of RAM, and present unlimited month-to-month data transfers. The servers appear in either Linux or Windows flavors, as well.
Nevertheless, HostGator's dedicated hosting choices are nothing to sneeze at. Check them out if you're in require of dedicated web hosting with high-capacity SSD storage space.
Setting Up a HostGator Hosted Site
It's a great thing HostGator delivers a getting-started e-mail with links to all the sources you'll need to produce a website, simply because the user interface takes a little getting used to. HostGator has a Invoicing Login link at the top of its website that leads to the client portal, where all the payment info, information about your plan, and choices to buy add-ons are stated. This web page has tabs throughout the top for account and domain administration. The Hosting tab is where you see the actual control panel along with site-building tools, programs, web site stats, and more. The initial email also has a direct url for the control panel, but it looks distinct from what you'd get through the Hosting tab, making the encounter a bit confusing at very first.
HostGator has a number of choices for creating a web site, including HostGator's very own website builder. The drag-and-drop features let me rapidly build an appealing page full with slideshows, contact forms, social media links, and much more in no time. You can furthermore install WordPress or various other CMS platforms such as Drupal, b2evolutions, Joomla, Mambo, and Tiki, to name a couple of. A File Manager tool lets you manually upload files to the web server to create the web site that way. The tool is much better than a basic FTP client, simply because you can edit the files straight or use a built-in HTML editor.
WordPress Web Hosting
HostGator allows you install the WordPress content management system (CMS) on to any of its above mentioned servers, but the web host furthermore offers three tiers of maintained WordPress web hosting: Starter, Standard, and Business.
Starter (beginning at $14.95 per month) offers 25,000 visits per month, the ability to host just one WordPress site, 50GB of storage, and unlimited email. Standard (starting at $20.95) ups things to two WordPress sites, 200,000 month-to-month visits, and 150GB of disk space. Business (starting at $27.95 per month) grants three WordPress sites, 300,000 monthly visits, and unlimited storage space. All plans arrive with page caching and an optimized WordPress hosting setting.
That stated, 1&1, our Editors' Choice for WordPress hosting, tops HostGator and the levels of competition by offering unlimited storage, domains, visitors, and email with its high-end Unlimited plan ($14.99 per month). You also get automated malware detection as well as removal.
WordPress is simple to set up on HostGator actually if you don't go the managed-WordPress route. The client portal has an choice called Quick Links that opens a dedicated interface for installing third-party applications. There's also a useful shortcut named Get Started With WordPress Today that leads to the Quick Links user interface. I set the path to my blog's installation, entered the username for the WordPress administrator account, and clicked on the install option. As simple as that, my site was up and running. HostGator also instantly installed the WP-Super-Cache WordPress plug-in to help enhance blog overall performance.
In testing, the procedure of setting up my WordPress site was simple, simply because the database was already there. There was additionally a link to the Mojo Market place under WordPress solutions, with high quality add-ons and solutions for my blog. HostGator does not have a blog import switch, but WordPress makes the import procedure simple enough.
Reseller Web Hosting
If you're searching to get in to the web hosting business, however you don't want to deal with infrastructure issues, check out HostGator's reseller web hosting plans. The plans, starting at $19.95 per month, include unlimited email throughout the board. The shared, dedicated, and VPS plans are of both the Linux and Windows variety, but HostGator does not provide them with unlimited storge and month-to-month data exchanges at each tier, as the Editors' Chocie Hostwind really does with its offerings. On the upside, HostGator lets you utilize your own branding to the servers you rent, and also it also supplies 24/7 tech support.
E-Commerce Tools on Hand
As pointed out, HostGator provides Mojo Marketplace, which has email marketing resources such as DaDa Mail (starting at $34.95 per year), software that lets you send email news letters to a subscriber list. Fast Links also has e-commerce packages, such as Magento, phpCOIN, SugarCRM, and ZenCart. I installed Magento, which offers a drag-and-drop user interface to create an appealing online store. There are tons of design choices, which can get a little mind-boggling.
Excellent Uptime Results
Website uptime is one of the most essential elements of a hosting service. If your site is down, customers or clients will be unable to discover you or access your goods or services.
I used a website-monitoring application to track our HostGator-hosted test site's uptime through a 14-day time period. Every 15 minutes, the tool pings my website and transmits me an email if it is unable to contact the site for at the very least 1 minute. The testing data shows that HostGator is remarkably steady, so you don't have to worry about your website going down for expanded periods of time.
Quality Customer Service
Like HostMonster, HostGator provides both 24/7 telephone assistance and online web chat—I tried both help methods.
I called up phone tech support on a weekday evening to ask how I could import my WordPress.com blog into my HostGator site. I received in depth guidelines via email and was very pleased.
With HostGator's online web chat, after typing my query into a form and beginning the chat, I was shown my approximated wait time: two minutes. Less than a minute later, a customer service rep came out and provided easy-to-understand instructions on how to transfer the blog.
HostGator also has a very deep knowledgebase that consists of answers to practically each and every possible question you could have, varying from simple to very advanced. Overall, HostGator provides outstanding customer support.
Money-Back Guarantee
HostGator really does better than most of its rivals here, offering a 45-day assurance, but Dreamhost, our top pick for advanced users, is even much more generous, with an impressive 97-day assurance.
Dedicated to Hosting
HostGator is an outstanding web host that tends to make setting up a site or WordPress blog a piece of cake. You don't get one-click installs or imports, but its Quick Link user interface is mostly uncomplicated and much more strong than most of the choices out there. HostGator's nice hosting products are enough to win the PCMag Editors' Choice status in the shared web hosting subcategory, and it's the general top pick for web hosting, too, along with DreamHost and Hostwinds.
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