The Most Comprehensive Review of HostGator
When business owners learn about the benefits of going digital, the first step is searching for a great hosting provider. If such entrepreneurs, investors, or individuals are tech savvy, the selected hosting provider can even help them design winning sites. One of the leading web hosting service providers is HostGator. In this review, we take a deep review of this service provider to determine the effectiveness of its services, the main features and assist you in deciding on whether it is the right one for your site.
What exactly is HostGator?
HostGator is one of the leading web hosting companies in the globe today. The company was started in 2002 by a student at Florida Atlantic University. By 2008, its unique operation model and features had attracted a lot of clients and was voted the fastest growing firms in the US by the Inc Magazine.
Since 2002 when the company was founded, it has grown to become one of the most popular hosting companies in the niche. Today, it hosts over 8 million domains that put it ahead of other top brands in the market. It boasts of up to 99.9% uptime, great customer support, and diverse hosting plans to accommodate every client.
The HostGator performance
To know about the effectiveness of a hosting service provider, the first step is looking at the performance. Since its formation, HostGator has progressively improved its services to emerge one of the best hosting providers in the market.
Like the company promises in its home page, the uptime is very high. At a rate of 99.9%, HostGator guarantees your site will always be available when clients make enquiries. What makes this even more enthralling is that they monitor all clients websites on a 24/7 basis and rectify issues promptly. This means that if you are away and not able to note when the site is down, the chances are that the technical staff will have picked and rectified it.
Your selected hosting provider should also be very fast in serving client’s request. To help site owners maintain a high ranking on search engines, HostGator has an average speed of 1,023ms which is about 13% faster than the industry average. Though many clients are satisfied with this speed, we strongly feel that HostGator can do better to enhance the speed of the server.
The HostGator security
One notable thing about HostGator is its commitment to total security for clients’ sites and data. The hosting services provider uses multiple security measures to protect the servers and keep clients’ accounts from getting compromised.
HostGator uses the extensive firewall rule as well as large mod_security rule-sets to protect all servers from various forms of attacks. In case of heavy server flooding, the HostGator system activates auto-flood protection system.
The company uses SiteLocker that helps to protect both the website and clients’ businesses. The SiteLocker is very helpful in preventing SQL injection and cross-site scripting. This is a great way to protect business info from attacks.
Even with these advanced security protection for your site and data, HostGator appreciates that threats could still find their way through. Therefore, it runs daily security scans to identify vulnerabilities and provide specific security. Remember that you also need to play your part well to remain safer in the HostGator hosting system. It is advisable to ensure that the website, the antivirus, and other platforms are always updated to prevent attacks.
The main plans and features offered at HostGator
HostGator provides its clients with a number of hosting plans to cater for more of their needs. The plans include Shared Hosting, VPS hosting, Dedicated servers, Cloud hosting, and WordPress hosting. Let us take a closer look at each of them.
(a) The Shared hosting. This is the cheapest plan offered by HostGator. It is ideal for small businesses, startups, individual sites, and posts with subtle traffic. It is branched into Hatching, Baby, and Business plans to help clients pick what fits them well depending on individual needs.
(b) The VPS hosting. This is an advanced hosting plan that allows users to manage their resources on the company’s cloud hosting program. It is tagged $19.95/month and is a great option for businesses that are growing rapidly.
(c) Dedicated server. This plan provides users with servers that are solely designated for them. This is the most expensive plan priced at $79/month.
(d) The WordPress hosting. This among the shared plans that come with advanced features such as optimization for WordPress. The plan costs $5.95/month.
(e) Cloud hosting. Unlike the shared hosting that limits users to a single server, the cloud option uses multiple servers. The cost of the plan is $4.95/month.
The customer support
At HostGator, the customer is the most valued asset. The management insists that their current high customer base is as a result of good customer support. To ensure that every client can reach the company and have his problems addressed, HostGator maintains several lines of customer support.
You can reach the company through their support phone line, online web-chat or send them an inquiry on the email. Tests done to evaluate the effectiveness of the support demonstrated that the support staff is very knowledgeable and willing to assist every client.
For clients who want to learn more about the company or hosting-related information, HostGator has a very detailed knowledge database. Its blog, FAQ page, and large community will ensure that every question is expounded for you. Join the community to learn more and also share your experiences.
Pros of using HostGator
They offer a lengthy 45-day money back guarantee period.
Provides multiple feature based plans.
Every plan comes with site-building software.
They great customer support services in the industry.
The hosting provider uses clean energy.
Users get regular discounts and offers on the platform.
The cons of using HostGator services
They do not have window based VPS hosting.
HostGator does not offer free domain.
It uses very aggressive upselling tactics. Users are required to review more services during signup process and uncheck them
The final take
The HostGator has demonstrated its commitment to offering top-notch services to clients with enterprises at various levels of growth. Whether it is a small business or a big company, HostGator is there to guarantee unique and highly secure services.
