HostGator is a web hosting service provider for small businesses. We compiled HostGator reviews from our website and around the web to determine what customers think about the company. We also compared the most common pricing options for small business owners.
For an in-depth comparison of three top hosting sites for small businesses, read our web hosting buyer’s guide.
HostGator Customer Reviews
Overall experience: Good
Ease of use: Great
Customer service: Great
Pricing: Low
Summary of HostGator Customer Reviews
We scoured available reviews online and found that HostGator has generally positive ratings. Here’s what we found:
What HostGator does well:
Users who recommend HostGator said that they liked the service’s affordability and ease of use. Users also cited helpful customer support whenever they encountered problems with their website.
What HostGator does not do well:
Users who left negative reviews mentioned that pricing tends to significantly increase after the initial contract expires. Additionally, while some users raved about HostGator’s customer support, a lot of users shared that they experienced the exact opposite. They said that it’s hard to get a hold of an actual agent and that they were redirected to raising a ticket instead and waited for a long time before an agent was assigned to them.
Most Helpful Positive Review
I haven’t had many tech support issues, but when I have, things got taken care of. I had an emergency situation once as one of my sites didn’t react well to a WP update (apparently a plug-in decided to knock the site offline). For expediency’s sake, I decided to phone tech support and got someone after maybe a brief hold time. She took care of the problem promptly and all is well again. I haven’t had any negative experiences with HostGator and have been with them for several years now.
— Mitzi Szereto
Most Helpful Negative Review
We’re transferring all of our websites out of HostGator. Their customer support is bad – we currently have 20 open tickets. We have been having all kinds of issues and all their reps do is tell you to open a new ticket. If you open a chat, their responses have up to 25 minutes of lapses between them and when the rep comes back they ask you the same question you just answered! I asked to speak to a supervisor on the phone and was put on hold for 36 minutes and she wasn’t helpful at all. Her attitude and tone was completely unprofessional. I would not recommend Hostgator to anyone.
— Cintia Miranda
HostGator Reviews From Users Around the Web
Here are a few other resources for finding helpful HostGator reviews from customers. We rated the review sites on a scale from poor to excellent based on how trustworthy and useful the reviews seemed.
| *Average rating as of date article was written: June 26, 2017 | |||
HostGator Pricing
HostGator has three shared hosting subscription options ranging from $2.78 to $16.95 per month and can be purchased on a per-month basis or plans with 1, 2, or 3-year duration. The longer a business subscribes for, the lower the fees will be.
All three plans include unmetered bandwidth and 24/7 phone, email and livechat support. The main differences between the three plans are the number of websites you can host, and the inclusion of a private SSL and dedicated IP.
| Pricing for 1-month, 3-month and 6-month contracts | |||
| Pricing for a 12-month contract | |||
| Pricing for a 24-month contract | |||
| Pricing for a 36-month contract | |||
| Bandwidth | |||
| Number of Websites | |||
| Customer Support | |||
| Private SSL | |||
| Dedicated IP | |||
Best Pricing For Small Businesses
Out of the three plans, we recommend the Hatchling Plan as it seems to give the most value for the price. However, if you want to host more than one website, then you should opt for the Baby Plan.
If you’re planning to create a website and host it using HostGator, we recommend getting a long-term contract as prices will increase after the initial contract expires.
Small Business Web Hosting Buyer’s Guide
Not sure if HostGator is the right small business web hosting site for you? Check out our in-depth comparison of three top hosting sites for small businesses in our buyer’s guide.
Leave a Review
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Zach Bell
Verified Review
This reviewer provided a screenshot to verify they are an active user of the product.
Review SourceFitSmallBusiness invited user to leave a review and offered a nominal gift card as a thank you.
Pricing was good when I started. Has increased but I’m thinking everyone’s has. Easy to use interface.
Only recently talked to support about a ton of downtime events on my wordpress website that Jetpack plugin has been reporting to me. Gave me short answer of you need to optimize on your end. While partially true, I came away feeling like they could have helped me navigate if there was something I can change or reconfigure on their end. Abrupt conversation so they could get on to the next call.
See above.
Verified Review
This reviewer provided a screenshot to verify they are an active user of the product.
Review SourceFitSmallBusiness invited user to leave a review and offered a nominal gift card as a thank you.
Jim Reamer
Review SourceOrganic
Customer support is typically top notch, and they adjust their plan offerings for your specific needs. If you ever find out versions of platforms aren’t most current, which is typically the case if they feel the newest version isn’t stable enough, they will still push your account forward if you need it.
I didn’t have any issues which weren’t quickly resolved. I had a maintenance outage which I wasn’t notified for in advance, but it was brief (20 minutes). It only impacted a site with a forum, as the others held up due to caching.
Nothing negative.
Review SourceOrganic
charly paz
Review SourceOrganic
Good attention to their clients, i start know how internet works just a few years ago, i think schools should teach that more precisly, im now a advanced user i create my own blog using this free host https://www.zz.com.ve and wordpress, even i code myself a few things to create sliders when i want to upgrade my blog i choose hostgator.
high cost
more explain to how domain works for new users…
Review SourceOrganic
Kimberly Floor
Review SourceOrganic
Good link to WordPress
Small business owners FYI
You might want to know when doing business with Hostgator, they have a slimy business policy that informs you that your annual billing is coming up for renewal in 5 days….but when they send this out, they have already billed your card! AND it takes 7 days to get a refund! (Apparently it is in the fine print)
Amazingly dishonest for a huge international company!
Taking my business to GoDaddy!
READ THE FINE PRINT! dO NOT LEAVE YOUR CARD ON FILE WITH THEM!
Review SourceOrganic
Steve
Review SourceFitSmallBusiness invited user to leave a review and offered a nominal gift card as a thank you.
HostGator always had excellent uptime when I used them; after close to 7 years of using their service for my various personal and business websites, I can’t think of any time where downtime occurred long enough to ever be noticed. This in comparison to some other hosting providers I was using for other sites during that same period which had frequent, or long duration, downtime periodically.
HostGator also had great support, though being a larger company their support wasn’t necessarily as fast or white glove as smaller providers, but they were always extremely helpful and I always got someone on-shore who could communicate effectively with me.
I left them when they raised their prices quite significantly. I only had personal websites left at that time and couldn’t justify the new pricing. I found somewhere cheaper.
I can’t say I ever had any surprises!
Review SourceFitSmallBusiness invited user to leave a review and offered a nominal gift card as a thank you.