Hostgator Review SUMMARY
Website: Hostgator.Com
Price: From $3.96 per month
Discount Coupon codes: Yes [Save 25% off with LESS25DISCOUNT on any hosting plan OR use NOW1CENTHOSTING to pay only 1 Penny on your first month of hosting].
Hostgator Overview And The Ordeal Of Finding The Best Cheap Small Business Hosting
HostGator is an award winning and leading web host provider, with the most affordable hosting packages that come with large disk spaces, huge bandwidth, zero downtime and a responsive customer and tech support staff. Over 7 million websites are currently hosted on Hostgator, and that includes small businesses and Fortune 500 companies. As a matter of fact, this blog you’re reading is a WordPress site, hosted on Hostgator Baby plan and it has never experienced downtime due to web server maitenance.
When shopping for a good web hosting company, the first thing is to establish that the company is one of the top providers. Next is to run through a simple checklist to ensure that the web hosting company satisfies all the requirements.
Failure to do that can cause you to lose the trust of your potential and existing customers, and sales – that’s because a poor quality web host will cause you uncountable days of website down-time. Can you risk that? You need to have your small business website up and running every single day if you want to attract sales daily.
In this Hostgator review, I’ll tell you the many reasons (beyond price) why Hostgator is the best domain hosting service for your small business site. This review is based on my (and my clients and friend’s’) experiences with hosting on Hostgator.
Ok, let’s dive in.
Detailed Hostgator Review: 7 Reasons Why Over 7 Million Website Owners Can’t Be Wrong
1. Reputation: Hostgator ranks in the top 10 largest web hosting companies in the World, hosting over 7 million websites (and still counting), including Fortune 500 companies and small businesses alike.
2. Very affordable hosting plans if you’re on budget: You can get your website hosted for as low as $3.96 per month. In fact, you can even start your first month for close to free (only 1 cent) and see for yourself – use this discount code to get your first month hosting for 1 cent “NOW1CENTHOSTING”.
3. FREE $100 Advertising Credit: Every Hostgator customer gets a bonus Free $100 Adwords credit, that you can use to advertise your small business on the internet.
4. Easy to use interface: HostGator’s cPanel is easy to use for beginners, as well as experienced website owners. The Fantastico feature is a blessing to non-techies – you’ll only need one mouse click to install a fresh new blog. Hostgator has one of the easiest, one click install to setup WordPress sites. Without the Fantastico, you’ll need to be a techie to successfully install your WordPress site on your web host.
5. Fast to Assist Customers Setup or Transfer From Another Web Host: Help if you’re moving from another web host: Hostgator’s helpful customer support team will help you move your website. Not many web hosts do this for customers.
6. Experienced and Responsive Technical Support: Hostgator’s over 700 technical support staff provide round the clock (24/7) technical support to customers. You decide whether you want to contact them by live chat, email or phone. They are always fast to respond, even to the most seemingly stupid questions. I am most grateful to the support team because they always helped me fix the techy things on my website (as I’m not tech savvy).
- I cannot remember the number of times that I contacted Hostgator support and got quick response plus solution to my problems – usually I accidentally shut my site when I tried to tweak some blog features using codes I got from tutorials around the web. Hostgator support always bailed me out and got my site back up fast.
7. No Downtime for Any Reason (99.9% Uptime Guarantee): Unlike a few webmasters, I’ve never had my site go down due to maintenance or upgrade at Hostgator. Also, I’ve never had a case of my website being hacked by malicious codes or viruses – that’s because the Hostgator team fully maintains their servers, arming them with strong firewalls and antivirus solutions.
You can get even lower hosting price by using any of these coupon codes at Hostgator website:
- Save 25% off with LESS25DISCOUNT on any hosting plan – use this code if you’re getting 1year+ hosting in advance, which is cheaper than buying monthly hosting;
- OR use NOW1CENTHOSTING to pay only 1 Penny on your first month of hosting
How Much Hosting Do You Really Need For Your Small Business Website or Personal Blog?
Let’s start by looking at the different Hostgator hosting packages and their features, to see which one has the right amount of disk space and bandwidth to accommodate your growing business needs and increasing traffic.
1.) Hatchling Plan: This one is for people who have only one website and have no plans of adding more websites soon.
Features:
- Single Domain
- UNLIMITED Disk Space
- UNLIMITED Bandwidth
- Shared SSL Certificate
- PRICE: $7.16 if you pay month by month; $5.56 monthly if you pay 1 year upfront; $4.76 if you pay 2 years upfront; $3.96 is you pay for 3 years hosting upfront.
Be sure to use the special Hostgator discount coupons provided in this post, that will get you additional savings.
2.) Baby Plan: This is a huge cost saver if you have from 2 websites and above or starting a first blog/ site and likely to build more websites soon. Imagine paying for only one account and being able to host as many number of websites as you like? That’s the cheapest hosting plan.
Features:
- UNLIMITED Domains
- UNLIMITED Disk Space
- UNLIMITED Bandwidth
- Shared SSL Certificate
- PRICE: $7.96 if you pay monthly or 1 year upfront; $7.16 if you pay for 2 years hosting upfront’; $6.36 every month if you pay for 3 years upfront.
Be sure to use the special Hostgator coupon codes provided in this post, that will get you additional savings.
Can You Upgrade From One Hostgator Hosting Plan To Another?
Yes, you can upgrade to a higher plan whenever your needs get bigger – maybe you add more sites to your first website OR maybe your website contents get really large that you need a bigger disk space and bandwidth.
HINT: If you think, you’ll add more websites soon, it’s advisable to start with the Hostgator Baby plan which allows you to host as many website domains as you like. That’s where you really get the bang for your buck – one cheap web hosting account hosting dozens of your websites and blogs.
Which Hostgator Hosting Plan Do I Recommend For Start-ups and Why?
If you’re really looking for the biggest money saving hosting plan, I highly recommend against your starting with the Hatchling because that plan only allows you to host one single website. From my personal experience, website owners (including me) usually want to add more domains (websites) a few months after their first blog site.
It’s cheaper to start with the Hostgator Baby plan which will allow you to add as many websites (domains) as you like.
However, if you are sure you’d not be creating another website in the next couple of months or you’re really low on budget, then by all means go for the Hatchling hosting plan, which has awesomely low discounts for hosting only one website.
What about the Business Plan and Reseller Web Hosting Plans?
The truth is that you don’t need either of those. The Hostgator baby plan is more than enough for your small business web hosting needs – in terms of disk space, bandwidth and offers the cheapest cost (1 Baby Plan account can host unlimited number of websites). That’s my candid advice.
Hostgator provides one of the best user experience, and they manage the Baby plan well enough that your small business website will never experience downtime.
All a small business website needs is a reliable and good quality hosting service company, and a fairly large size of web server disk space. Beware, most bad hosts will use “unlimited disk space and unlimited bandwidth” as a catch BUT there’s more than size for you to look out for. After all, a gazillion number of web hosts all offer “unlimited server space and bandwidth”.
[Hint Hint] Here’s the secret to get your web hosting really, really cheap:
- If you prefer to pay every month, you’ll get the best possible hostgator discount, use LESS994DISCOUNT and you’ll only pay a cent on your first invoice;
- If you decide to pay for a year upfront or longer, to get the massive savings on hosting, use LESS25DISCOUNT to save 25% off your first invoice. There’s a lot more savings from paying for longer term – after all, you are not planning to put your website up only for a few months. I personally like to pay one year upfront. Apart from the huge savings, it frees me from the risk of forgetting to renew my hosting.
Summary and Next Steps to Get Cheapest Hostgator Coupons
I’ve got two special Hostgator coupon codes for you. Use them to get additional discount off your purchase of web hosting for your small business.
Here you go:
- Hostgator Coupon Code #1: “NOW1CENTHOSTING” – Use this to coupon to get your first month hosting down to only $.001 (1 cent). That’s almost free. You’ll be saving $9.94.
- Hostgator Coupon Code #2: “LESS25DISCOUNT” – Use this coupon code to get 25% off your first invoice (huge savings especially if you pay over long term).
- Again, here’s the You can also use this special offer link to go to Hostgator.Com.
NOTE: You’ll see from the Hostgator site that they offer every new customers a 20% discount but you will get a 25% (NOT 20%) discount from any plan you choose, if you enter the above coupon code.
Finally…
I hope you now know the many reasons why Hostgator is preferred web hosting by small businesses and personal blogs. Be sure to use the special web hosting discount codes to get your Hostgator hosting really cheap.
Be sure to share your won web hosting experiences and also read comments from other readers (below) who switched to Hostgator.
Thanks for reading and I look forward to your enjoying hosting with Hostgator.
Stella
34 replies on “7 Reasons Why Hostgator is the Best Cheap Hosting Service For Small Businesses”
Even i use hostgator, I’m in baby plan, i have hosted already 3 websites in that plan, and it works great, in my opnion hostgator is the best service for hosting.
Good to know that you’re happy hosting with Hostgator, Balu.
Hostgator is the best one ..I am using it for three years and have no problem at all..
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Hi Stella, I think you are right to recommend Hostgator. I have used Justhost before and had many problems (downtime, security, poor support). Since I have moved all my sites to Hostgator I have not run into any issues. I’m now about to sign up for their VPS Hosting solution, which is great when business is growing.
Hi Anne – welcome, and happy new year to you:)
Thanks for your feedback on this post. You know, just like you made a ‘mistake’ with using an unreliable web host, many small business owners can easily land in the hands of bad hosting companies, if not well-informed. I hoped that this post will help a few people make the best decision regarding choosing a good web hosting service provider.
You’re so right, about scaling up the plan once the business starts growing. I like that Hostgator even provides various plans that make it more cost effective to consolidate multiple sites in one account. I started with Hostgator’s least plan (Hatchling plan) and have now moved to the Baby plan, which cost effective for me at this moment when I will be creating more (niche) sites.
Thanks for sharing your hosting story with us here.
I wish you your best year ever, in 2012:)
Great tis Stella. Keep it up.
You’re welcome, Simphiwe. Compliments of the season to you.
my blog also powered by hostgator.really host gator is most useful service for webmasters . i always prefer to choose the hostgator 🙂
Great, Sai. It’s a good idea that you chose the best hosting service for your blog.
thanks for responding to comments 🙂
You’re welcome, Sai.
It’s my pleasure. Thanks for coming around again.
Ya good article. Can you tell me which is better?
hostgator or Netfirms?
Hi Priya. I don’t know about NetFirms. However, Hostgator has some of the most satisfied customers and users of other web hosts usually move to Hostgator, after a bad experience.
I use Hostgator and I’m getting a great service.
Host-gator is one of the best web hosting companies that are available. Apart from being reliable it also has some of the cheapest offers. I would recommend it for all the people starting up websites and blogs.
Definitely, Hostgator has been gleaming as a hosting service and the prices are reasonable. They’re immediate to take action and don’t leave the customer with no clarification.
I agree, Kate. Hostgator has some of the best prices in the market PLUS the most reliable service and customer experience.
Hostgator is by the far THE best webhost out there. I went through two or three others before settling down with Hostgator, and I will never look back.
Second to none service, reliable servers, etc.
Agreed, Jonathan. Hostgator rocks, especially for beginners and people without any technical skills or support staff – because Hostgator simply helps you to do a lot of the techie things, mostly for free.
Like you, I’ve heard a couple of bloggers and webmasters migrate to Hostgator, after an unsatisfactroy experience with the other web hosting services.
Looks like you’re back to blogging some more:) Good to see you around and I’ll be sure to visit to see what’s cooking over at your blog.
I totally agree! I love HostGator. I’ve been using them for years. I run two business websites on HostGator. People often forget that they provide VPS hosting as well.
I’ve been hosting podcasts on HostGator for a long time. I haven’t had any problems.
Great content by the way, Stella. I just stumble on your blog via twitter and I was surprised by it. There’s a lot of poor content out there these days. So when I run into something good I pass it along. Thanks.
I’m going to mention your website on my podcast tomorrow morning. Online Business Hour
I’ll have to have you on as a guest some time!
Thanks again,
Adam
Hostgator rocks, Adam – they provide great user experience and quality service delivery. What else could have kept you on the same web host for years, if not that the web hosting company delivers on promise?
I’m glad ro hear about your positive experience with Hostgator.
Thanks for the compliment, on my blog contents. It means much to me, coming from an experienced online marketer like you. Much appreciated, Adam. I’m glad you’re pleased by what you saw here. I hope to keep it up:)
Send me a link to the podcast page when you do mention my blog, and I’ll be sure to promote it.
By the way, you’ve got really good stuff there.
I mentioned your website on one of my previous shows. I don’t remember which one now. Maybe you could come on the show and talk about something you’ve been thinking about lately. I’m moving the show towards interviews with online business owners, marketers, etc.
Okay Adam – then I will contact you via Twitter DM, so we can arrange a schedule suitable to both of us:)
Great topic! I didn’t know about Hostgator until I read about it here! I’ll go check their site! Thank you for spreading the word about Hostgator! Keep up the very good work!
Thanks @sandraw2580. I hope you’ll consider using Hostgator, if you are into blogging. They give the best value for money, and cheap too.
What make Gator the best web hosting service is because of its fast action and good customer satisfaction. Even if they have a large number of client they really take some time to assist each one that need their help.
You’re right – their customer service response time is second to none. PLUS they help out with some of the techie things, for free. PLUS their servers don’t go down when being maintained.
Thanks for your comment, Evelyn:)
I went switched to Hostgator at the beginning of the year. It was simple and painless. They helped me out with the transition and I’ve been really happy with their service since. Also, I like that they are a partner with Cloudflaare, a free CDN service, which speeds up your websites load speed and adds additional security.
You did the best thing for your business, Richard. I bet you’re seeing why Hostgator trumps the rest. It’s like most people who finally come to Hostgator, from other not-good web hosts.
Yes, I also like the Cloudfare integration. It made it easy for me to get cloudfare working on my blog, by clicking right from my Hostgator dashboard.
Thanks for sharing your Hostgator user experience with us.
I’ve had a dedicated server for several years through Hostgator. Over the summer I upgraded to bigger server and they made it totally painless and seamless. I’ve never had a problem with Hostgator sales or service.
That’s the thing I love about Hostgator – their customer support are always available to help customers get the best web hosting experience. I too, have never had a single issue with them. They seem to understand that helping customers out with the “dreaded” techie side of things is the secret to winning new sales.
Thanks for taking the time to share your Hostgator experience. Much appreciated.
True, Hostgator has been brilliant as a hosting service and the packages are affordable. In addition to the great plans it introduces I appreciate more their customer service. They’re quick to respond and doesn’t exit the chat session without offering a solution.
Hey Gary:
Good to see you around. How’s your day?
Sure, Hostgator’s customer service is the best. As a new website owner, I literally contacted them so many times a day, that I sometimes felt guilty, even though I needed assistance. Those guys are so full of passion and never get tired or pissed off. Good to know that you’re also a happy Hostgator customer, like me.