HostGator Review: Affordable Hosting with Exceptional Features! (July 2025)
So you are thinking about starting or switching to HostGator. It’s certainly a very popular hosting provider – 46% of the people we surveyed knew about HostGator. You really can’t go wrong with this hosting provider, but we’ll tell you the good and the bad so you can make the most informed decision.
For starters, here’s HostGator at a glance:
Table of Contents
HostGator Review: Affordable Hosting with Exceptional Features!
HostGator’s overall score is 4.7/5 stars in our research, giving it a very close second place, just behind Bluehost, so you’ll definitely be in good hands. Read on to weigh the positives and negatives of HostGator and decide if it’s the best provider for you.
Who Is HostGator Best For?
HostGator offers the best shared plans, which is when you share a server to keep costs lower. This makes HostGator ideal for beginner websites and small businesses, as it handles low traffic but really well. HostGator’s great performance and unlimited storage and bandwidth also make it ideal if you want to create a blog. It scored 3.8 out of 5 for performance when we tested its blog hosting capabilities, the highest performance score of all the blog hosts we tested.
In addition, HostGator received a shared hosting score of 4.7 out of 5, and second place went to Bluehost with a shared score of 4.5/5.
Already Interested In HostGator?
Work with a top-notch hosting provider and rest assured that your website is in good hands.
Pros & Cons
HostGator In Brief
HostGator had its humble beginnings in a dorm room at Florida Atlantic University in 2002 (which explains the “Gator,” in case you were wondering). Since then, the company has opened offices around the world and hosts more than 8 million domains.
| Overall Rank | #2 out of 12 hosting providers |
| Pricing | Starting at $2.75/month (renews at $6.95/month) |
| Hosting Plans | Shared, WordPress, VPS, Dedicated, and Cloud |
| Help & Support | 24/7 live chat, phone, and email |
| Features | SSL certificate, unlimited bandwidth, email marketing software |
| Uptime | 99.99% guarantee |
Uptime
HostGator offers a pretty solid 99.90% uptime guarantee, which means that your site will experience 8h 41m 38s of downtime per year. If it’s reliability you’re looking for, HostGator is the best of the best – this kind of consistency is good for any site, but if you’re looking to set up an e-commerce store, it can be a big loss. After all, time is money!
In shared plans there is also DreamHost, which beats HostGator’s uptime with a staggering 100% uptime. And in VPS plans Liquid Web which also has a staggering 100% uptime. Otherwise, HostGator stands firmly in the middle with its uptime guarantee.
What HostGator’s uptime means is that if your shared or reseller server goes down for more than nine hours a year, you’ll get a month’s credit for the plan you’ve chosen.
Do You Want Great Uptime?
While not the best uptime on the market, HostGator will provide you with excellent uptime that will keep your website running smoothly, with only one day per year of downtime.
Features
HostGator offers five different types of hosting: Shared, Managed WordPress, VPS, Dedicated and Cloud. HostGator takes the cake with an overall score of 4.7 out of 5 for shared plans, for their good prices, 45-day money back guarantee, their joint highest score for performance, with unlimited storage space and bandwidth.
The VPS plans are top along with Bluehost, and offer the best help and support of all the providers we tested. While the dedicated plan offers unlimited bandwidth, HostGator ranks third with a dedicated hosting score of 4.4 out of 5.
Here’s a closer look at each type of hosting HostGator provides:
HostGator has the best score for photo hosting, getting 4.3/5. Comparatively, their score for shared hosting was 4/5, ranking 8th out of 12 providers.
Each HostGator plan comes with a free SSL certificate and unlimited bandwidth. You also get a free domain for the first year (after that, you’ll have to pay to renew your domain name). These features are not uncommon, but HostGator is notable for also offering unlimited email accounts, subdomains, and file transfer protocol (FTP) accounts (which allow you to transfer files from a computer to a network). HostGator also includes unlimited storage in its shared hosting plans, something most providers don’t offer until you move up to more advanced hosting.
HostGator gives you the option of using its own drag-and-drop website builder to create your site. The builder offers a large number of templates across 20 categories, including photography, restaurants and personal portfolios. However, while these templates are customizable, they’re not very easy to navigate – so if you’d rather not commit your time, you don’t have to use HostGator’s own website builder!
If you are planning to create a website with a CMS system, you will be pleased to know that HostGator’s WordPress hosting option includes a convenient one-click installation. It also offers support for Joomla and Drupal, and the Magento e-commerce platform.
The standout feature of HostGator’s basic plan is the free email marketing software it provides through Constant Contact. This feature is incredibly valuable, as it allows you to build an audience through consistent newsletters and automated email campaigns. Like uptime, email marketing is an asset for any site, but it is particularly useful for e-commerce sites.
Build Your Site With HostGator’s Features
HostGator is our #2 hosting provider and offers a 45-day money back guarantee.
Pricing
You can sign up for a HostGator plan with terms ranging from one month to three years. The longer you commit upfront, the cheaper your equivalent monthly price will be. For example, let’s take a look at HostGator’s most basic shared plan:
| Time Frame | Cost |
| One month | $10.95/month |
| Three months | $10.95/month |
| Six months | $10.95/month |
| One year | $5.95/month |
| Two years | $3.58/month |
| Three years | $2.75/month |
We believe that three years is a huge commitment, so we recommend the annual billing option: you’ll save money, but you won’t be committed for too long. You will have to pay for the full twelve months upfront at the beginning, and most hosting providers arrange their payment plans this way.
In the table below, we have summarized both the promotional prices and the renewal prices billed annually for each of HostGator’s plans, so that you can compare:
| Hosting Type | Promotional Price Range | Renewal Price, Billed Annually |
|---|---|---|
| Shared | $3.75/month | $6.95-8.95/month |
| Managed WordPress | $5.95/month | $7.95-11.95/month |
| VPS | $23.95/month | $49.95-69.95/month |
| Dedicated | $89.98/month | $189-289/month |
| Cloud | $4.95/month | $7.95-11.95/month |
HostGator scores 3.7/5 in our value for money research, for its WordPress hosting plans, which puts it in the middle of the pack (6th place out of 12, to be exact). While its VPS plans score 3.1/5, which puts it in 6th place along with GreenGeeks (out of 11 providers). HostGator’s introductory price range is similar to competitors like Bluehost and A2 Hosting, ranging from $2.95 to $119.99/month and $1.98 to $141.09/month, respectively.
Overall, HostGator offers pretty good value for money, with an overall rating of 3.5 out of 5. However, it really depends on the type of hosting and plan you choose. For example, for its WordPress hosting plans HostGator scores 3.7 out of 5, which puts it in the middle of the pack compared to the other hosts we tested (6th out of 12, to be exact).
While its VPS plans get a value score of 3.1/5, which puts it in 6th place along with GreenGeeks (out of 11 providers). Many people also tend to value features more than money: among respondents who wanted to switch hosting providers, the most important factor was “hosting features” at 32%. Price” is the second priority, at 27%.
This shows that people who are already experienced in website hosting have discovered that you often “get what you pay for,” and that it’s worth spending a little extra for the right plan and support.
HostGator also offers a 45-day money-back guarantee, which goes beyond the industry standard of one month. The usual fine print applies, however: the refund does not apply to dedicated server plans, and plans paid by check, money order, or wire transfer are also ineligible.
Does HostGator Suit Your Budget?
HostGator has quite competitive prices for hosting your website, so if it suits your needs, give it a try!
Security
In addition to the free SSL certificate that comes with every plan, HostGator also protects against distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, which occur when a large volume of bogus traffic floods a web server and overwhelms its resources so that regular visitors cannot access the site. HostGator’s data centers can enable flood protection to prevent DDoS attacks. The provider also promises that its own data centers (i.e., where the physical servers are housed) are very secure facilities with restricted access.
If you want to make sure your site is extra secure, HostGator offers a SiteLock security add-on starting at $1.94/month. SiteLock is a tool that scans your site for potential threats and vulnerabilities, and can also fix many of the security issues it detects. When a SiteLock scan finds something suspicious on your site, you will be alerted by email and in your HostGator control panel.
There is no doubt that SiteLock is a great tool to have in your arsenal. But be warned: promotional pricing still applies here. That $1.94/month only applies when you buy a three-year package, while the cheapest SiteLock plan you can buy through HostGator costs $2.08/month for one year. The most expensive plan costs $41.67/month for one year, though most smaller websites won’t need to worry about spending that much on protection.
Want HostGator To Keep Your Site Secure?
HostGator offers a free SSL on all plans, and plenty of additional security features to keep your website secure.
Support & Ease of Use
HostGator has a perfect score for help and support in 5 of the 8 categories we tested. HostGator scored 4.8/5 for help and support in shared and WordPress hosting, 4.9/5 in dedicated, and another 4.9 in photo hosting.
The provider offers 24/7 live chat, phone service (free), email, a knowledge base and a community center. Which in principle is very good. But we wanted to know what HostGator support is really like when you need real answers to real questions. So we put it to the test!
We put HostGator’s live chat and knowledge base to the test, and overall HostGator did excellent – in fact, it exceeded our expectations by 10% (up from 3% previously). It may not sound too impressive, but it was one of only two hosts that exceeded our expectations. It outperformed both InMotion and Bluehost in the same support test.
Where HostGator surprised us the most was with its extensive Knowledge Base, which puts you just a few clicks away from all the information you need. It’s a virtual treasure trove, and you won’t need to bother with dial tones or call transfers to access it. When we tested it ourselves, HostGator’s Knowledge Base exceeded our expectations!
The searchable knowledge base covers everything from domains to design, and also offers forums where you can hear directly from other HostGator users.
So how did HostGator’s live chat work in our tests? Honestly, in the past, HostGator live chat didn’t live up to our expectations. In 2022, one user said:
“My agent did not seem to have a thorough knowledge of HostGator’s products. For some questions I never got a straight answer, and sometimes even questioned the information I was being given.”
“My agent did not seem to have a thorough knowledge of HostGator’s products. For some questions I never got a straight answer, and sometimes even questioned the information I was being given.”
But now, in 2025, HostGator has improved their live chat. We contacted the live support to get SEO information. On the first question about what SEO guidance HostGator offers they responded in less than a minute with a lot of information.
However, when the questions became more specific it wasn’t as helpful. For example, then we asked exactly what SEO tools they offer, such as SEMrush, the answer was a bit slower and only “their own tools”. Therefore, we recommend going to their knowledge base or community center to get the more specific answers.
HostGator’s impressive Knowledge Base was really helpful, and overall HostGator’s support ended up exceeding our expectations by 10%. When we tested the Knowledge Base, we found that it had a lot of valuable information and even some useful extras – like video tutorials, searchable suggestions for common questions, and helpful categories on the side.
We delved into HostGator’s support, but what about its ease of use? Well, when it comes to ease of use, HostGator’s design has improved since last time. It used to look clunky, with very outdated features; but now that HostGator has improved its design, it’s much easier to use!
Moving on to the customer portal, one thing to keep in mind when using HostGator is that, like most hosting providers, HostGator can automatically include certain add-ons in your shopping cart. This means that if you are purchasing, for example, the “Hatchling” shared plan for a year, then non-essential add-ons such as SiteLock protection and CodeGuard backups could be added to your cart. This is easy to undo – all you have to do is uncheck those boxes – and HostGator includes these items, as they are great add-ons to any hosting plan. But be on the lookout to make sure you don’t pay any extras unknowingly.
Get The Support You Need With HostGator
HostGator offers one of the best help and support for every type of hosting.
Conclusion
HostGator is the number one choice for shared hosting, thanks to its impressive help and support, really great performance, and generous 45-day money back guarantee. On top of that, a ton of features (even on shared plans) makes HostGator a choice we’d recommend to anyone.
So, you can’t go wrong with HostGator, but it’s not the only way to get it right. If you’re especially concerned about WordPress integration, Bluehost may be your best option. If you know you’re ready to skip shared plans and go straight to VPS, then Bluehost also outperforms HostGator for VPS plans, so it’s worth a look. We wish you the best website hosting experience and leave a comment below and let us know about the website you’re creating!
FAQs
Is HostGator good for beginners?
HostGator has some of the best shared plans on the market, which are often the best type of plan for beginners. It also has amazing help and support to guide you along the way!
Can I change the hosting plan that I originally selected?
Yes, you can upgrade your HostGator plan to any type at any time by filling out a simple upgrade form on the site. The only cost would be the price difference between plans. This easy upgrade system is a great reason to start with a cheaper shared plan.
What type of website is HostGator best for?
You can create any type of website with HostGator, it’s best for small business, small websites; including a blog, a photo gallery, a portfolio, small e-commerce store, and much more. HostGator is equipped to store and power anything you can think of!
Which is better HostGator or GoDaddy?
HostGator is overall better than GoDaddy, in our overall rankings HostGator came in second place, while GoDaddy came in sixth place, compared to all the providers we tested. But to be specific, HostGator is really tailored for small businesses and beginner websites, while GoDaddy Hosting is known for its fast website builder.
Can you use WordPress with HostGator?
Although there are other hosts, such as Bluehost, that are better for hosting WordPress, you can use WordPress with HostGator!
What is the difference between shared hosting and cloud hosting?
In a cloud hosting plan, the website files exist on several shared servers instead of just one. The main difference is reliability: if one server hosted in the cloud goes down, the other servers ensure that the website remains available.
Henry Sprung is an e-commerce tech blogger with several years of experience in online retail. Alex’s blog focuses on topics such as online marketplaces, payment processing, and digital marketing for e-commerce businesses. Henry’s expertise in e-commerce provides valuable insights into the latest trends in online retail and how businesses can use these platforms to grow their sales. He is a valuable resource for online retailers and entrepreneurs looking to start their own e-commerce businesses.
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