HostGator has maintained an average uptime rate of 99.98 percent over the past year despite being one of the oldest web hosting companies available. They continue to have an impressive track record as an excellent web host provider.
This article covers everything you need to know about HostGator.
Watch the below video on HostGator:
HostGator hasn’t made headlines for their uptime performance over the last several years despite tracking for almost 18 months now.
Quick and friendly service was provided; they helped me switch my site over for free! Beginners will also appreciate all of the options which are clear and straightforward to understand.
There are a lot of good things about using HostGator shared servers.
Now, HostGator’s uptime performance hasn’t been a big deal in the past few years. Even though we’ve been tracking for a year and a half now.
It was also quick and friendly. They will help you move your site to their service for free. Beginners will also like a lot of the options that are simple and easy to understand.
These are the main points:
1. 99.98 percent of the time, the system was up and running.
HostGator has had an outstanding year so far: their uptime rate stands at 99.98% with less than two hours of downtime totalling less than 10% of time!
As another positive attribute of their service, the company offers an uptime promise: If they fall below 99.90% of time, you can receive one month of credit on your account.
This guarantee doesn’t cover things such as planned maintenance or unanticipated hacks; as long as these incidents happen within 30 days of purchase, however, they’ll refund your money.
We’ve recently noted an uptick in web host companies offering uptime guarantees, to the benefit of all their customers. Competition setting this standard raises it further for all players involved – when one promises something, all others must match or risk falling behind in terms of uptime service delivery.
December 2021 had an overall satisfaction rate of 99.94%, November 2021 was 99.99 percent and October 2021 99.99 percent; September 2021 was 99.97% while August 2021 saw 99.99%; while July 2021 saw 99.98% while June and May both reached 100% in May 2021.
2. It took 660 ms to load.
Over the last year, HostGator’s servers provided seamless hosting service, keeping our website online without issue.
But, what about their server speeds?
HostGator averaged about 660 milliseconds to load a page over the past year.
HostGator may not offer the fastest speed we’ve experienced, but their page loading time has made significant strides forward compared to its past experience – previously taking more than a second for our website to load completely before. Now everything loads considerably more rapidly.
Why does fast page load time matter, though?
Slow page load times have a direct influence on visitor experience and, consequently, on your bottom line.
There are ways you can speed up your site without switching web hosts, but if your current host is slow it’s likely you will always lose out.
3. Helpful People
Like its major competitors SiteGround and Dreamhost, HostGator also features an extensive knowledge base, phone support, email correspondence and live chat service for its customers.
We tested their live chat feature.
Within two minutes, we submitted our inquiry about their shared hosting plans. A customer service rep promptly answered, providing accurate answers quickly and clearly written down.
4.there is a 45-day money back guarantee.
HostGator believes in their service: To demonstrate this sentiment, they extended the industry-average 30 day money back guarantee by two weeks to 45 days.
So you can use them for up to a month and still receive your money back should there be issues.
All shared, reseller, and VPS hosting plans include a 45-day money-back guarantee.
HostGator charges no fees for its dedicated servers, administrative services and custom software installations – however this disclaimer applies to other fees as is common within the hosting industry.
Assuming your plan includes a free domain name, they’ll deduct the standard registration fee of $15.00 from any refund money to cover this expense. That is how it works.
HostGator may take up to 90 days to refund you, unless your payment was made via check, money order, Western Union payment, or bank wire transfer – in which case they will not.
Consumers who sign up for new plans or accounts do not qualify for refunds, so if you already signed up and you wish to cancel their renewal or second trial attempt, nothing will be awarded in return.
Foreign currency refunds are issued based on the U.S. Dollar exchange rate – simple!
5. Site Security Features You Can Use.
HostGator’s shared hosting plans may not seem impressive at first glance; you should receive enough for one website without much extra.
It’s good that they offer extra safety features, like SiteLock monitoring of your website. This service runs daily to search for breaches or hacks on the site and notify you as soon as they discover one.
Spam Assassin, included with their email plans, can assist in keeping spam from reaching your inbox in the first place.
SiteLock may incur some extra cost; its monthly subscription fees of $1.99 total to an annual billing of $23.88 will be detailed further in our Pros & Cons section.
Shared hosting plans have some drawbacks.
HostGator was quite impressive with their consistently high uptime. Additionally, their guarantee that their website would always be available is an added benefit.
These services also boast beginner-friendly user experiences and superior customer support, making it hard to beat what they provide.
As we tested them out, we ran into some issues. Here’s what we discovered:
1. There are a lot of extra fees for “True” backups, Gmail, and malware.
There are additional fees associated with “True” backups, Gmail accounts, and malware protection services.
HostGator’s shared hosting plans are priced competitively, starting from just $2.75 a month (for 36 months).
Hatchling is their entry-level plan and features one domain name, one-click installations of popular apps such as WordPress or Joomla with unlimited bandwidth and a complimentary SSL certificate – everything needed to build a full website!
As far as their default plans go, all they offer are basic solutions; any extras such as site backups, Gmail accounts, SiteLock Monitoring services or SEO tools will cost extra.
When browsing websites, words like “available” give the illusion that all the features are present and available. Many of the top web hosts we reviewed offer these extras free of charge – something many free hosting plans cannot match.
As soon as you’re at the end of the process and must enter your billing information, you’ll realize that all these extra features cost extra money.
Gmail typically costs $5 a month or $60 annually per user, as per its standard pricing structure. They also charge additional fees such as CodeGuard to back up and secure websites, SiteLock for security measures, or older versions if there are issues on a given domain name that need fixing.
Though initially it might appear less expensive, in the long run it often ends up costing significantly more.
2. Price “Tricks” that are used in the industry.
If you want to pay more for your web hosting, HostGator does two things that are common in the business.
The first is advertising a low rate like $2.75 a month, only for you to find out that you’ll have to pay for three years in order to get it. It would cost $10.95 per month if you wanted to use the service for a whole month at once.
That’s just the start, though. Because on top of that, HostGator’s renewal prices go up a lot after your first plan ends.
Suppose you decide to keep that low rate for three years. You’ll be getting a good deal, for sure.
Having to renew your plan in three years is when things start to go wrong for you You’ll pay $6.95 a month for the same service at that point, which is more than double what you paid before.
Do we think HostGator is good?
Does that seem plausible? Not entirely.
HostGator’s shared hosting does have many great qualities to recommend it, from uptime and speed performance, as well as easy use with many beginner-friendly options available to users.
Still, due to additional price hikes, we find it too costly for us to give it our full endorsement.
A few quick facts
- Is This Domain the First Year Domain?
There was a simple registration procedure.
- Money-Back: There is a 45-day money-back promise in place.
Example: If you purchase a long-term plan, your initial price won’t hold true over time; many will need to pay much more in order to stay in their homes, as well as incur additional costs associated with backup and malware monitoring services.
Upsells: They can be found everywhere and oftentimes appear unexpectedly.
- Account Activation: It can take between 24 to 48 hours for your account to be activated.
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