Trusted WordPress tutorials, when you need them most.
Beginner’s Guide to WordPress
WPB Cup
25 Million+
Websites using our plugins
16+
Years of WordPress experience
3000+
WordPress tutorials
by experts
HostGator hosts over 10 million domains and is one of the most popular web hosts in the industry. With 1-click WordPress installation, 99.9% up time guarantee, and 24/7 support, it's a smart choice for every website owner. We consider them one of the best web hosting for businesses. They're offering our readers an exclusive 62% off discount, a free domain name, and free SSL certificate.

Pros:

  • Reliable Web Hosting
  • Free Domain Name and SSL
  • Free Business Email Address
  • 1-click WordPress install
  • 30-Day Money Back Guarantee

Cons:

  • Higher monthly Pricing
  • Aggressive Upselling

WPBeginner users get an exclusive 62% off discount and free Domain!

Visit HostGator

(this discount will be applied automatically)

HostGator Review from Our Experts

Editorial Note: We earn a commission from partner links on WPBeginner. Commissions do not affect our editors' opinions or evaluations. Learn more about Editorial Process.

HostGator is one of the largest and most popular hosting companies in the world. They offer shared hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated servers, and managed WordPress hosting plans.

Read our detailed HostGator review to find out if HostGator is the right choice for you.

HostGator complete analysis of hosting performance and speed

In this detailed HostGator review, we will put their promises through our testing process. Following are the areas we will look into:

  • Reliability: Will your website be available 24/7/365 without any downtime?
  • Performance: How fast will your website load on HostGator? We will run our own performance tests to analyze this.
  • Customer Support: Can you count on their customer support? Will you be able to easily get help when needed?
  • Features: Do their features help you easily create and manage your website?
  • Pricing: Do they offer the best pricing in the industry? Are there any HostGator deals that can save you money?

If you don’t want to go through all the details, then the following is a quick summary of our HostGator review score with our conclusion below it.

HostGator Review Summary
Performance gradeA+
Average load time1.03 s
Average response time143.4 ms
Free domainYes
Free SSLYes
1-click WordPressYes
SupportPhone / Live Chat / Knowledge base
Start with HostGator

Bottom line: Want to skip the details? To summarize, we found HostGator to be a reliable and customer-friendly hosting service. Their 24/7 customer support is among the best.

That’s why we’ve added HostGator as one of the best WordPress hosting companies.

Let’s jump to the more detail-oriented parts of our HostGator hosting review. This will help you figure out if HostGator is right for your website.

About HostGator

HostGator was founded in 2002 and grew quickly to become one of the biggest hosting companies in the world. You can credit the monstrous growth to their great shared hosting plans, reliable web hosting, and quality customer service.

Today it is headquartered in Houston, Texas, and hosts over 2.5 million websites. They have 850+ employees that offer around-the-clock support and serve businesses of all sizes.

It is a subsidiary of Newfold Digital (formerly Endurance International Group) and offers a wide range of web hosting solutions to a massive global customer base.

HostGator website

Pros and Cons of HostGator

Like every other product and service, each hosting company has its pros and cons. Here are the pros and cons of HostGator that we learned.

Pros

  • Reliable hosting: HostGator guarantees an uptime of 99.99%. If you experience downtime below that, then you will get back one month’s credit on your account.
  • Generous money-back guarantee: HostGator offers 30-day money-back guarantee.
  • Flexible billing periods: You can choose between monthly and yearly billing periods. Longer billing periods will get you the most discount.
  • Free migration: HostGator offers a free migration service with all new accounts. Their expert team will transfer your website from your previous host at no extra cost during the first 30 days of signing up.

Cons

  • Higher monthly pricing: Monthly pricing is relatively higher than annual plans. You can avail of lower HostGator pricing by choosing the annual plans, as they do offer a 30-day money-back guarantee.
  • Aggressive upselling: You may see additional services like automated backups and advanced functionality. Make sure they are unchecked if you don’t need them right away. You can always add them later when needed.

HostGator Performance

What would you do if you sign up for a host and find that your website is painfully slow and often disappears? You’d have to switch providers, and this will cost you more money and headaches.

That’s why you want to choose a web hosting provider that is reliably fast with stable performance records all around. But how would you get this information?

We decided to check HostGator’s performance by running our own tests. Let’s find out how well it performed.

HostGator Speed Test Results

The most important performance indicator is speed. A faster website is good for your users, and it also helps your SEO rankings.

In fact, studies suggest that 1 second delay in page load will cost you 7% fewer conversions, 11% fewer page views, and a 16% decrease in user satisfaction.

Strangeloop performance case study

For our detailed HostGator review, we created a test site to find out how fast HostGator really is.

Our test site was powered by WordPress using the default theme. We also imported dummy content for theme development, including images.

After that, we used the Pingdom website speed testing tool to run the tests. Here are the results:

HostGator speed test result

As you can see, our test site loaded in 1.01 seconds, which is great.

However, this is a new website with no traffic at all, so a speed test alone is not the best way to judge its performance. We wanted to see how it would perform under peak traffic.

To test this, we used a tool called K6 by Grafana Labs. We used it to send virtual users to a website and gradually increased the number of users on the site up to 50 at once.

You can see the result in the chart below:

HostGator stress testing result

The light blue line in the chart is page response time, and the purple line shows the number of users on the site. As you can see, our test site performed really well throughout the test, with an average response time of 132 milliseconds.

These results are particularly good for a shared hosting account.

HostGator Uptime Test

Another remarkable thing to be noticed is that our test site didn’t go down during the test.

HostGator uptime test results

HostGator Server Response Time

The content of your website significantly affects the page load time. For example, if your website has many images, then it will increase the page load time.

This affects your server’s speed test results. We wanted to see how fast the HostGator server responds.

To test this, we used a tool called Bitcatcha. It works differently than other website speed testing tools. Instead of loading the content, it only tests the response time of the server.

Here is how HostGator performed in these tests:

HostGator response time test

Our HostGator review site performed really well. The server response time remained less than a second. In the United States, it was merely 26 ms.

Overall, this result indicates that your site will load quickly around the world.

HostGator Hosting Plans and Features

HostGator offers a variety of hosting plans. Their plans include shared hosting, VPS hosting, cloud hosting, reseller hosting, and dedicated hosting. They also offer hosting for other website builders and app platforms like Joomla and Magento.

However, their main offering is shared WordPress hosting, and this is where most users begin their journey.

Let’s take a look at these plans offered by HostGator.

Breakdown of HostGators’s Shared Hosting Plans

HostGator’s shared hosting plans come in three different levels. All plans include unlimited storage and unlimited bandwidth under their terms of use. The main difference is the number of websites you can host.

  • Hatchling: The Hatchling plan allows you to host only one website. It includes a one-click WordPress installer and comes with a standard set of features.
  • Baby: The Baby plan allows you to host unlimited domains and subdomains. It includes all the features of the Hatchling plan, and you can also use addons such as private SSL.
  • E-commerce / Business: Suitable for starter online stores and small business websites. This plan includes unlimited websites, unlimited email, dedicated IP address, SEO tools, and is suitable for starting an eCommerce website.

Apart from shared web hosting services, they also offer Gator website builder, a fully hosted website builder. Other services provided include VPS hosting and dedicated hosting with Linux and Windows servers.

Their VPS plans offer great value for the money, and their shared cloud hosting plan is overpriced for what you get.

HostGator Hosting Plan Features

Another thing you would want to look at is the features that you’ll get with each hosting plan. Here is what’s included in each hosting plan offered by HostGator.

  • Install WordPress with 1-Click Installer
  • Free SSL Certificate
  • Easy to use control panel cPanel dashboard to manage hosting services
  • Free email accounts
  • 24/7 customer support
  • 99.9% uptime guarantee

With Baby and Business hosting options, you can host multiple websites and domain names under the same hosting account.

As for security features, you can activate the free Cloudflare CDN caching to protect your WordPress site against malware and attacks. The Cloudflare free website CDN also gives you an additional performance boost.

During checkout, you would also be offered to purchase CodeGuard and SiteLock addons. Most beginners don’t need them right away, so you can skip them and add them later if needed.

HostGator Support and Customer Service

HostGator offers one of the best customer services in the industry. Customers can contact the support team 24/7 via phone, live chat support, and ticket-based email support.

HostGator support

Inside your hosting dashboard, you will find their support portal. This portal helps you find quick answers from a knowledge base of hundreds of articles and video tutorials.

Most HostGator customers are satisfied with the quality of support they receive. We have a few of our smaller websites hosted on HostGator and have found their support satisfactory.

Conclusion: Is HostGator the Right Choice for You?

Now that you have read our detailed HostGator review, you are probably wondering if HostGator is suitable for you.

HostGator offers a variety of hosting plans that fit all budgets and requirements. They offer all the user-friendly tools you will need to build a website.

Over 2 million customers have already trusted HostGator. Whether you are a seasoned Internet pro or just starting out with your first website, you’ll find every necessary tool to bring your website to the next level.

Ready to get started with HostGator? Click here to select your HostGator plan today.

HostGator Coupon

WPBeginner users get an exclusive 60% OFF with our HostGator coupon code.

All you have to do is click on this link to purchase. The discount will be applied automatically.

FAQs About HostGator Hosting

We have been answering user questions about WordPress hosting for over a decade now. Here are some of the most frequently asked questions about HostGator that we have heard from our users.

1. Is HostGator good for WordPress?

Yes, HostGator is good for WordPress and highly recommended for anyone who wants to start a WordPress website.

It offers 1-click WordPress installation, which even lets you pick essential plugins and templates during setup. Plus, you get 24/7 tech support, which comes in handy for most beginners.

2. Which is better, HostGator or Bluehost?

HostGator and Bluehost are both our recommended hosting companies. In terms of Bluehost vs HostGator, they’re pretty similar when it comes to CPU resources, unmetered bandwidth, disk space, MySQL databases, pricing, and more.

We find Bluehost’s user experience to be slightly better as they’ve invested heavily in their WordPress platform.

Bluehost has an advantage in overall performance, SSD storage, security, and value for money. HostGator tries to beat that with slightly cheaper hosting plans, a 30-day money-back guarantee, and faster support.

3. How does HostGator compare with SiteGround and GoDaddy?

HostGator is better than GoDaddy regarding support, ease of use, and overall user experience.

The major difference between HostGator and SiteGround is pricing. SiteGround plans start at $3.99 and don’t include a free domain name. This makes HostGator a better option for users on a tight budget.

However, if you’re looking for faster performance, then SiteGround is a better option since its servers are hosted on Google Cloud and offer faster speed. See the SiteGround review for more details.

Before you ask for a comparison of HostGator with other hosts, it’s pretty much on par with Hostinger, Dreamhost, InMotion hosting, and most other shared hosting providers.

3. Where are HostGator servers located?

HostGator servers are primarily located in Provo, Utah, and Houston, Texas. However, they also use data centers in other locations.

4. Does HostGator have cPanel dashboard?

Yes, HostGator has cPanel dashboard integrated into its own custom dashboard. You will find the link to cPanel under your website hosting package. Your hosting dashboard also includes an FTP-like file manager so you can easily upload files or edit them if needed.

5. Is HostGator good for eCommerce?

Yes, HostGator is good for running an online store using WooCommerce or other eCommerce platforms. However, as your business grows in terms of traffic, then you may need to upgrade from a business plan to a virtual private server (VPS hosting plan).

6. Which HostGator plan do I need?

If you only want to start a single website or blog, then you can start with their Hatchling plan. However, we recommend starting with the baby plan as it offers multiple install support. You can always upgrade your hosting plan later if needed. Click here to select your HostGator hosting plan.

WPBeginner users get an exclusive 62% off discount and free Domain!

Reader Interactions

189 HostGator User ReviewsLeave a Review

  1. Syed Balkhi says

    Hey WPBeginner readers,
    Did you know you can win exciting prizes by commenting on WPBeginner?
    Every month, our top blog commenters will win HUGE rewards, including premium WordPress plugin licenses and cash prizes.
    You can get more details about the contest from here.
    Start sharing your thoughts below to stand a chance to win!

    • Erinn says

      Hi Brian,

      We pride ourselves on our uptime and we’re glad that’s what you’re experiencing. Thanks for the great review.

      Erinn
      Customer Advocate at HostGator

  2. Bashar Mal says

    Great service. I will soon buy hosting and domain for my other website as well from HostGator.

    • Erinn says

      Hi Bashar,

      Welcome aboard! We’re so glad you’re here. Thanks for the great review.

      Erinn
      Customer Advocate at HostGator

  3. Juquoyah Drayton says

    So far I am enjoying the hosting and do not have any problems with it. it is easy to switch your old domain to this hosting and HostGator has better benefits Free webpress!

    • Erinn says

      Hi Juquoyah,

      We’re glad to hear that domain transfer process was smooth and that things are going well. Thanks for the great review.

      Erinn
      Customer Advocate at HostGator

    • Erinn says

      Hi Eugen,

      Our support teams are amazing right? Thanks so much for the great review.

      Erinn
      Cusotmer Advocate at HostGator

  4. Siska ZEE says

    My website is live and it has no problem so far.
    hostgator is best hosting provider. I have been using hostgator for years

    • Erinn says

      Hi Siska,

      We love hearing from our loyal long term customers! We’re so happy that you’re happy. Thanks for the great review.

      Erinn
      Customer Advocate at HostGator

    • Erinn says

      Hi Raul,

      Thanks so much for the great review! We’re so happy that you’re happy.

      Erinn
      Customer Advocate at HostGator

  5. Kaleem says

    I am a website developer and SEO expert having more than 8 years of experience. I have used many hosting companies and found Hostgator as the best hosting and support is also very very cooperative and I have recommended my clients (and the good thing is they have purchased and using Hostgator hosting)
    I hope Hostgator will be the best among all if the focus on customer satisfaction not on their sales.

    • Erinn says

      Hi Kaleem,

      Awe, thanks! Our support teams really are the best, aren’t they/ Thank you for being the best part of the HostGator family.

      Erinn
      Customer Advocate at HostGator

  6. Peter Sharpe says

    setting up my site took some time, sorting out changes required with my domain hos. However, the Hostgator help was always available and helped me sort it all out

    • Erinn says

      Hi Peter,

      We’re glad we were able to get you all straightened out! Thank you for the kind review.

      Erinn
      Customer Advocate at HostGator

    • Erinn says

      Hi Tommy,

      Woo! Our support team is really great, right? Thanks for the great review.

      Erinn
      Customer Advocate at HostGator

  7. Rudy Timmerman says

    The entire process of getting my domain name and hosting plan went without a hitch, and my site was up and running in a very short time. Had I been able to spent more time creating the site, it could have been up the same day. Any delay was due to me being too busy to work on it. Happy customer.

    • Erinn says

      Hi Rudy,

      Fantastic! We’re so glad to hear things went smoothly for you. Thanks for the great review.

      Erinn
      Customer Advocate at HostGator

  8. Mathew McAllister-Jones says

    I’ve been with host gator for about 6 weeks and so far I have no complaints, My website is currently private until I have more content to present to my readers.

    • Erinn says

      Hi Mathew,

      Thanks so much for the great review. We can’t wait to see the site once you get it put up!

      Erinn
      Customer Advocate at HostGator

    • Erinn says

      Hi Bill,

      Yea! Our support teams really are great aren’t they? Thanks for the great review.

      Erinn
      Customer Advocate at HostGator

  9. Julie Holmes says

    My site is up and running. Awesome support when moving from my previous hosting service to this one. Thank you!

    • Erinn says

      Hi Julie,

      Yea! We’re so glad your migration went smoothly and that you’re happy. Thanks so much for the great review.

      Erinn
      Customer Advocate at HostGator

    • Erinn says

      Hi Bradhyl,

      Our support teams really are amazing, right? Thanks for the great review.

      Erinn
      Customer Advocate at HostGator

  10. Penny says

    I have been using Hostgator for many years now. I’m very happy with your service and have never had a problem that couldn’t be quickly fixed. I recently had to use help articles, and I solved the issue almost immediately thanks to a help video you provided which was very easy to follow. Thank you! I regularly recommend you.

    • Erinn says

      Hi Penny,

      Woohoo! We are thrilled to hear that things are going so well for you. Thank you for taking advantage of all the awesome resources we offer. We really appreciate this great review.

      Erinn
      Customer Advocate at HostGator

    • Erinn says

      Hi Chloe,

      Yea! We’re so happy that you’re happy. Thanks for the lovely review.

      Erinn
      Customer Advocate at HostGator

    • Erinn says

      Hi Greg,

      You’re so very welcome. Thank YOU for the great review.

      Erinn
      Customer Advocate at HostGator

  11. Kemiso says

    The web designing part is just taking a bit longer than expected but we are on it! Thank you hostgator!

    • Erinn says

      Hi Kemiso,

      You are so very welcome. Thanks for your kind words.

      Erinn
      Customer Advocate at HostGator

  12. Sudhir Kumar Pantagani says

    Good, my first website. Without any prior knowledge in handling everything myself. Sometimes hostgator support team help me to clear some.doubts and sometimes YouTube helps me,.

    Overall I’m happy

    • Erinn says

      Hi Sudhir,

      Yea! We’re so pleased that you found the site easy to use. Our support teams and YouTube videos are great aren’t they? Thanks for the great review.

      Erinn
      Customer Advocate at HostGator

    • Erinn says

      Hi Arnold,

      We are so happy that you’re happy! Thank you for the kind review.

      Erinn
      Customer Advocate at HostGator

  13. Brendan Kelly says

    When setting up my website, I went on the chat line several times. On almost every occasion I received excellent help. I am continuing to gather resources to put on my website, but I have not abandoned it and will have it up and going within a month or so.

    • Erinn says

      Hi Brendan,

      Keep up the great work. We can’t wait to see the finished product. Thanks so much for your kind words about our support teams. They really are great, huh? Thanks.

      Erinn
      Customer Advocate at HostGator

  14. Gurusamy Mani says

    My site is live and very happy with the technical support team. They are very helpful and informative too.

    • Erinn says

      Hi Gurusamy,

      Our support teams really are great aren’t they? Thanks so much for the kind review.

      Erinn
      Customer Advocate at HostGator

  15. Isaac A says

    Host gator is the best hosting site I’ve ever used. I was able to design my webpage with WordPress and have my site published within a week. I’m happy with my overall experience, and if you’re wondering if this is the right hosting site for you, then I suggest you give it a try.

    • Erinn says

      Hi Isaac,

      Fantastic! We are so happy that you’re happy. Thanks for the great review.

      Erinn
      Customer Advocate at HostGator

    • Erinn says

      Hi Genevieve,

      We’re so happy that you’re happy! We’re here to help you out should need us. Thank you for the great review.

      Erinn
      Customer Advocate at HostGator

    • Erinn says

      Hi Veerapan,

      We pride ourselves on being easy for everyone to use, from newbies to web-pros. Thanks so much for the great review!

      Erinn
      Customer Advocate at HostGator

  16. Roderick Wright says

    Site is live and I love the purchase. Will be hosting my other domains this weekend on hostgator.

    • Erinn says

      Hi Roderick,

      Yea! We’re so very happy that you’re happy. Welcome to the HostGator family, we’re so glad you’re here. Thanks for the great review.

      Erinn
      Customer Advocate at HostGator

  17. Anne Ready says

    Am so happy my tech recommended Hostgator!

    First Ms. Kirby then Ralph M have been delightful with whom to work. They answered quickly, knowledgeably and patiently with my lack of expertise in these areas.

    Thank you and please keep them!

    Anne

  18. Onome Ekama Onome says

    My site is live and am so glad to have a working site which I could call my own without consulting someone else to help me build one a d still have it to my taste. Thank God and thank you.

    • Erinn says

      Hi Onome,

      We’re so happy that you’re happy. Thank you for the great review.

      Erinn
      Customer Advocate at HostGator

  19. John Solaroli says

    Hostgator is about half the price that we were paying to host our sight. Its working great!

  20. Christine Johnson says

    Hostgator has always been responsive to my phone calls which is not too often. Any issue I may have had is always corrected pretty much right away. I don’t really have any complaints. Hope this helps people.

  21. Monica Bartha says

    I use HostGator for 2 years and no problem with the services. I am working with different hosting providers and I found HostGator among the best.

  22. Victor says

    I have found customer service at Hostgator knowledgeable and courteous. Helped me get up and running, held my hand through the process, in no time.
    Thanks

  23. John Bradley says

    Live and living it so far.

    I will soon move all my sites to HostGator bc it’s simple and user friendly.

  24. Manuel Gil says

    I use hostgator for a long time for several domains and email purposes.
    Recently I hosted my first site and the process is easy and efficient.
    For several times used the helpdesk and have been extremely satisfied. Their support is solid when they solved my problems. They are great.

  25. Cynthya A. says

    I am a starter on making web pages. So my first experience doing it is with Hostgator services. It’s been so good and so well that I had almost not to think about my hosting.
    There is much I have to learn but this has been a great start.

  26. chakri says

    Yes, this goes back to the point of “unlimited resources”. There is no such thing. The smaller tier plans work great for smaller sites, but once you start getting too much traffic, they will ask you to upgrade.

  27. Avinash Mittal says

    I have been using hosting services from Hostgator for past many years and have found them excellent on every count. First, it allowed me to reduce my initial costs significantly; second I got prompt services as and when required.

    Just take a look at the pricing offered by them, and you will realize that it is within your budget. And I am not the only customer who is happy about up-time and tech support.

    Finally, if you are going with Hostgator, you are with the best web-hosting.

  28. Narmail Singh says

    I am hosting my website and two others on hostgator from last one year. In starting my wordpress email not going to customers. but soon they start.Also there support takes much time to help otherwise it is good overall

Leave a Reply to Adam Dewe Cancel reply

Thanks for choosing to leave a comment. Please keep in mind that all comments are moderated according to our comment policy, and your email address will NOT be published. Please Do NOT use keywords in the name field. Let's have a personal and meaningful conversation.

WPBeginner Assistant
How can I help you?

By chatting, you consent to this chat being stored according to our privacy policy and your email will be added to receive weekly WordPress tutorials from WPBeginner.