Best Ultimate HostGator Review 2020: Should You Trust the Friendly Reptile?

HostGator has been around for so long we've all gotten completely used to the friendly blue crocodile with a wide toothy grin. But is it really safe to be friends with him? Let's find out! In this in-depth review, we'll take a deep dive into HostGator, look at their background, offers, pricing, support, and find an answer to the following question: should I choose HostGator over other hosting providers? Over the course of our journey, you'll find out what your Snappy pet used to look like in 2D, as well as other (possibly more relevant) things you need to know about HostGator: 

👥 WHO OWNERS HOSTGATOR and why is that important?

🧭 WHICH HOUSING PLAN should I choose, if any? 

🧭 IS HOSTGATOR BETTER than other big providers? 

💵 CAN YOU SAVE MONEY on your HostGator order?

Regarding the latter, near the end of this review, we provide an exclusive discount code that can be used to lower your bill for certain HostGator products, should you decide to give it a try. A little note before we start - if you were searching for keywords like gator host or gator host and came across this review, this is indeed the same company so you are in the right place.

                            See plans & pricing    Visit Hostinger

With that out of the way, let's examine our specimen carefully, from head to tip of tail - grab a magnifying glass and a ruler, and don't forget to keep your hands off your jaws even when you're sedated, just in case! 

The Head: What is HostGator? As the name suggests, HostGator is a web hosting company. This means that it provides services that allow you to create and manage websites. Here's a fun fact: According to W3Techs, almost 2% of the websites in the world use HostGator as their hosting provider (out of W3T's sample of the top 10 million websites). 

There are many websites! In fact, the data above places HostGator firmly in the top 10 of the global hosting industry. However, any large company must start with a single customer; And for 'Gator that happened in 2002, when a Florida college student named Brent Oxley decided he wanted to become an internet entrepreneur.

The main difference between the cheapest plan and the mid-price plan is the ability to set up more than 1 domain, so if you are looking to create a single website, you should choose the cheapest option. You can always update later if you decide to expand your empire online 👑 The more expensive plans don't really offer much value compared to the intermediate plan, meaning you end up paying 50% to 90% more for a couple of extra features that aren't really worth it unless you don't. they are budget conscious and prefer the best things every time they shop. This means that in most cases, for those who need multiple websites, the intermediate plan is the optimal option. 

While the difference to the top plan seems small when expressed on a monthly basis, it can compound into many additional costs over the years. Here are some of the things we appreciated about HostGator's web hosting plans, as well as some of the things we didn't particularly like: Frequent discounts and special offers make HostGator's shared hosting one of the most affordable on the web, especially if you pay 2-3 years in advance. The ability to use a coupon during the checkout process is something that is only found on a few web servers.

In the case of HostGator, you can refer to the last part of our review for that code; It's not a big deal in terms of the size of the discount, but if you end up choosing "Gator as your provider, it's good to know that there is a chance to save some extra money." Free SSL certificate included by default; having a secure connection (and an https: // in your web address instead of Http: //) is considered an absolute necessity nowadays; Among other things, SSL affects the ranking of your site using the Google search algorithm. 

Free domain for 1 year if you choose any of the annual billing cycles. This is just a nice touch that allows you to save a little more during the purchase. However, keep in mind that anything you buy at a discount will be renewed at the normal price. About it: Renewal prices are higher than initial prices, so your next term's hosting bill will be up to 60% higher. 

At least HostGator has the decency to communicate these standard fees clearly on its checkout page, unlike other less scrupulous hosting providers. Pre-selected extras during the checkout process (in some regions) are a bit of a hassle technique that forces you to pay close attention not to accidentally pay for something you don't really need, like a "hacker protection" plugin (WordPress has great free security plugins). What is that? Oh right, we promised to explain why we skipped other HostGator products! These include various advanced types of hosting, as well as a site builder, both of which can be better understood through the context of  HostGator's status as part of the Endurance Group.

In addition to shared hosting, the 'Gator offers cloud, managed WordPress, VPS, dedicated, and even Windows-based hosting packages. However, they all have one thing in common: - none of them is HostGator's main focus area or experience. The vast majority of their clients have shared hosting, and that's what HostGator was doing from the very beginning, long before it was integrated into Endurance. Here is a simple rule that you can follow: If you are not sure what type of hosting you need, you probably need to be shared hosting and HostGator is a good candidate. 

The Body: Products and Plans

If you're sure you need more than shared hosting, you probably don't want to use HostGator. E.g. if you need a cloud, try Digital Ocean or a similar specialized provider. As for the "Gator Website Builder", it's just a renamed version of another tool in the Endurance portfolio (the creatively named site builder). They use a smart system of variable pricing and discounts to make it look even more different, but if you do the math, both tools will cost you exactly the same in the end. 

This means that if you subscribe to the Gator Website Builder, you are essentially buying from a completely different brand. Which isn't "bad" in and of itself, but deserves a separate review at the very least (spoiler: there are far better site-building tools than Site Builder, for example, Weebly). To sum up… Products: HostGator is a smart choice if you want to create one or more websites and do not have special requirements (such as a dedicated server or cloud infrastructure);